1. "If you love your spouse or your friend or your child merely despite their weakness, your love will be colder than it should, and it will create fertile ground for the seeds of bitterness, envy, and self-righteousness."

2. "Since when is God dependent on your arguments to save?"

3. "A faith that depends upon clever reasoning may be demolished by a more acute argument, but the faith which is produced by the power of God can never be overthrown."

4. "You can be manipulated into saying there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet. You can be coerced into joining a Hindu sect. But becoming a Christian depends not on your actions, but what you believe. And there is no external coercive force that can ever accomplish that."

5. "You fear you're not good enough. You fear you don't deserve God. And Paul's answer is, you're right. Your worst fears are realized, and yet, God chose you. And having fallen back on that bedrock, you can build a life, not based on pretense and performance, but based on the unshakable love of God."

6. "Your boasting of status must feel to God like one ant boasting of his superior height to another one."

7. "Christianity is a boast-proof religion. That's a good test for real Christianity. If it's not boast-proof, it's not real Christianity."

8. "God's overriding purpose in all that he does is not to do but to show. Until you understand that, Christianity will be obsessed with the things you do for God rather than with God himself."

9. "By yourself you are not worthy, but in Christ you are wealthy. The emphasis of this verse is not that we are worthy, at least not in the way that we normally think of it, but that we are wealthy."

10. "If your goal in life is to be someone, to do something, even the Christianized version, then weakness will never be more than a constraint to be minimized. But if your goal, like God's goal, is to show someone, to boast in him, well then your weakness becomes a powerful tool in his hand."

Observation Questions

1. According to 1 Corinthians 2:1-2, what did Paul deliberately decide to focus on when he came to Corinth, and what did he avoid in his presentation?

2. In 1 Corinthians 2:3-4, how does Paul describe his own condition and manner of speaking when he was among the Corinthians?

3. What reason does Paul give in 1 Corinthians 2:5 for why he came in weakness rather than with impressive rhetoric?

4. According to 1 Corinthians 1:26-28, what three categories does Paul use to describe what most of the Corinthians were not, and what contrasting categories does he say God chose instead?

5. In 1 Corinthians 1:29, what ultimate purpose does Paul identify for God's pattern of choosing the weak and lowly?

6. According to 1 Corinthians 1:30-31, what four things has Christ become for believers, and what should be the result in terms of where believers place their boasting?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why would Paul's weakness, fear, and trembling actually strengthen the Corinthians' faith rather than undermine it? How does this connect to the distinction Paul makes between "wisdom of men" and "power of God" in verse 5?

2. What does it mean that God chose the foolish, weak, and lowly things "to shame" the wise and strong (1 Corinthians 1:27-28)? What does this reveal about God's priorities and purposes in salvation?

3. How does Paul's statement that "no human being might boast in the presence of God" (1 Corinthians 1:29) relate to the nature of salvation by grace? Why is Christianity described in the sermon as a "boast-proof religion"?

4. In 1 Corinthians 1:30, Paul says believers are "in Christ Jesus." How does this phrase capture the nature of the believer's relationship to Christ, and why is this significant for understanding our source of righteousness, sanctification, and redemption?

5. How does the sermon's claim that "God's overriding purpose in all that he does is not to do but to show" help explain why God consistently works through weakness rather than human strength throughout Scripture?

Application Questions

1. The sermon suggests that some Christians feel pressure to appear as though they have it all together when sharing their faith. In what specific relationships or contexts are you tempted to hide your struggles or doubts, and how might honestly sharing your weakness actually demonstrate God's power to those around you?

2. Paul deliberately avoided building his ministry on impressive rhetoric so that faith would rest on God's power. What are you currently tempted to rely on—your arguments, your achievements, your image—that might actually be competing with trust in God's power? What would it look like to let go of that this week?

3. The sermon addresses our culture's pursuit of self-esteem and the desire to feel worthy. Where do you currently seek validation or a sense of worth apart from Christ? How does the truth that you are "not inherently worthy but in Christ you are wealthy" change how you approach that area?

4. Consider the question the sermon poses: "What about yourself are you dying to boast about?" Identify one area where you are tempted to boast in yourself, and discuss how you might redirect that impulse toward boasting in the Lord instead.

5. The sermon challenges parents and caregivers who often live in a "praise desert" to find their satisfaction in making much of God rather than receiving recognition. What is one practical way you can reorient your service to others—whether at home, work, or church—so that it flows from boasting in God rather than seeking appreciation from people?

Additional Bible Reading

1. 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 — This passage shows Paul's personal experience of asking God to remove his weakness and receiving the answer that God's power is made perfect in weakness.

2. Jeremiah 9:23-24 — The Old Testament foundation for Paul's argument, commanding that boasting be placed not in wisdom, might, or riches, but in knowing the Lord.

3. Deuteronomy 7:6-11 — This passage explains that God chose Israel not because of their greatness but because of His love, reinforcing the theme that God's choice is rooted in His grace, not human merit.

4. Matthew 11:25-30 — Jesus thanks the Father for hiding truth from the wise and revealing it to little children, illustrating the same pattern of God's preference for the humble that Paul describes.

5. Acts 18:1-11 — The historical account of Paul's ministry in Corinth, including God's command not to be afraid, providing the context for Paul's description of his weakness, fear, and trembling.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Problem of Weakness and God's Purpose in It

II. God Uses Weak Preachers That His Children Might Trust in Him (1 Corinthians 2:1-5)

III. God Chooses Weak People That His Children Might Boast in Him (1 Corinthians 1:26-31)

IV. Embracing Weakness to Display God's Strength

---

Detailed Sermon Outline

I'd like to talk to you this morning about weakness.

I think it's a universally negative word. We rage against weakness. We go to gyms and therapists, read books, and make resolutions, pray to God, and attend church services all to exterminate weakness, which is not a bad thing. When the Apostle Paul encountered his own weakness in 2 Corinthians 12, he prayed repeatedly that God would remove it, good stewardship, God often strives against weakness, and yet, in God's providence, striving is not always successful. Sometimes weakness proves immovable.

Sometimes it gets worse. Why would a sovereign God allow that? I could serve him so much better if I didn't have this deficit or that struggle or had that hardship in my past. So what do we do? We learn to be content with weakness.

We learn to live with the weakness of a spouse or a child, with a church's weakness, with a chronic illness, a broken relationship. We make peace with a limp, so to speak, relationally or physically.

Yet Scripture would raise the bar. Not raging against weakness, certainly, not merely though not merely moving forward despite weakness either. The Bible's call is to trust God for weakness. If you love your spouse or your friend or your child merely despite their weakness, your love will be colder than it should, and it will create fertile ground for the seeds of bitterness, envy, and self-righteousness. So, what is God doing in our weakness?

That's what brings us back to 1 Corinthians, which you'll find on page 952 of your Pew Bibles. As you recall from two weeks ago when we started through this section of Paul's letter, the presenting problem that Paul encountered in the Corinthian church was division, with some boasting in him, others in Apollos, others in Peter, and so forth. But the underlying problem was that the Corinthians were behaving like the world around them, boasting in a kind of the kind of one-upmanship of their heroes who in Corinth would have been distinguished by their rhetorical abilities and then conforming into competing factions as a result. And so Paul rebukes them. You want to compete based on worldly power and wisdom?

Don't you see that Christianity is folly to the world, that it's a message of weakness? And so he gives them three examples of how Christianity is weakness to the world. So they might see the foolishness of arguing over power. We covered the first of those three examples two weeks ago when we considered the folly of the cross, which is the weakness of the message of God. The second example is in chapter 1 verse 26 as Paul turns to the weakness of God's people, the Corinthians themselves.

And then third, his own weakness is God's preacher. So what is God doing in our weakness? We can learn that from these remaining two examples. We're going to start with the of Paul's three examples and then go back to the second since I think the high point of his argument is the middle of his argument. We'll begin with chapter 2, verses 1 through 5, where we see that God uses weak preachers that his children might trust in him.

That's point one, weak preachers, which is why I'm more suited to preach the sermon than to say, Chad Pritchard. In 2:1:26-31, God chooses weak people that his children might boast in him. God chooses weak people that his children might boast in him. So we'll get started there in 1 Corinthians 2: God chooses weak preachers that his people might trust in him. I'll start reading in verse 1.

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom, For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling. And my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. Paul offers himself as an example of weakness, calling to mind his first visit to Corinth, which Luke records in Acts chapter 18. Unlike the rhetoricians of that day that Corinth loved, Paul didn't come with lofty speech or wisdom verse 1.

That word lofty conveys some idea of superiority, which I think we should hear with a little bit of mocking in Paul's voice, kind of like Foghorn Leghorn, Elmer Fudd's fame, saying that he's mocking highfalutin speech.

How are we prone to depend wrongly on highfalutin speech or wisdom in our evangelism? I think some of us, maybe those who are more apologetically minded, might be in danger of investing too much confidence in the honing of our arguments. But I suspect that for most of us, our danger is less overconfidence and more intimidation. You know, if I was Mark Dever, I could handle that conversation, but not me. So we say nothing.

I think it's true we could all grow in our ability to articulate the hope we have in Christ, like 1 Peter says. But since when is God dependent on your arguments to save? In this approach of Paul's was deliberate. He decided, verse 2, to know nothing among them except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Which is the content of that testimony of verse 1.

But what's more, verse 3, it says, He came in weakness, in fear, much trembling, referring, it seems, to what we read of in Acts 18. It's actually not clear what the source of Paul's fear was. Plenty of options. It could have been the opposition he faced in Corinth that we read of in Acts 18 that eventually crescendoed into a riot, maybe the strong call of God on him to preach in Corinth, But whatever the reason, Paul's fear was such that God himself intervened, telling him in Acts 18:9, not to be afraid but to keep on speaking.

And Paul sees purpose in that weakness. Verse 5, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. Paul's not against excellence in speaking. It's interesting, the word he uses for what he's not doing here in verse 4, not in plausible words of wisdom, is the exact same word Luke uses in Acts 18 to describe what Paul was doing, seeking to persuade. So Paul's not trying to avoid persuasion, what he's trying to avoid is a ministry that was typical in Corinth based on style and delivery alone.

Why? Because he did not want the Corinthians' faith dependent on how well he managed to explain things. As one scholar said, A faith that depends upon clever reasoning may be demolished by a more acute argument, but the faith which is produced by the power of God can never be overthrown.

If you're here as someone who's not a Christian, this is why you need never fear that Christianity will try to manipulate you into its ranks. I'm afraid that some Christians, probably some real, some hypocritical, have attempted to do that, but you see here that biblical Christianity can't work that way.

You can be manipulated into saying there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet. You can be coerced into joining a Hindu sect. But becoming a Christian depends not on your actions, but what you believe. And there is no external coercive force that can ever accomplish that. True Christian conversion cannot come by the wisdom of men, verse five, but only by the power of God.

So, what is that power of God? And the first thing that comes to our minds, certainly as modern people, is we think about miraculous signs and wonders. But it's notable in Acts 18 that there is no record of Paul ever having done that kind of work in Corinth. Instead, we see Acts 18:9 that Paul's ministry was a ministry of words. After all, we saw two weeks ago in chapter 1 Paul contrasting his ministry with Jewish demands for miraculous signs.

So the power of God seems to be the conversion of the Corinthians themselves. As Paul wrote later, you, yourselves are our letters of recommendation. You yourselves show our ministry was real. I think back to my own experience. I don't know when exactly I became a Christian, but when I was 13, after many aborted attempts to read the Bible regularly, it's like it suddenly came alive to me.

And when I was 14, as a very introverted teenager, I started sharing the gospel with my friends even though it terrified me. I cannot explain either of those except for the power of God's Spirit in my life. And that was Paul's mindset. I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

That is the pulsating muscular core of the gospel, isn't it? All Paul said, all Paul did, focused on the very simple message that Jesus came to die for sinners so that faith would be rooted in the power of God. Verse 5. There's all kinds of ways we can follow Paul's example here. I think most directly, though, is in the context of ministry.

What kind of evangelist will you be? What kind of church will we be? I wonder what role weakness plays in your evangelism.

Maybe you feel that because you're a Christian, you're supposed to be the person who has it all together. You never struggle with anxiety, with fear, with doubt, with sin. Well, to whatever extent that thought has entered your mind, you need a healthy dose of what Paul has on offer here. Just glance for a moment into the future you pray for for your unconverted friend. Do you want your now converted friend's faith to rest on an unrealistically rosy perception of the Christian life?

No, on the real power of God. As your relationships with non-Christian friends and family prove close enough, talk about your doubt so they can see the power of God overcome it. Talk about your struggle so they can see the power of God carry you through it. You don't need to hedge your bets for God. He's a God who uses weakness.

And Paul's single-minded commitment here also, I think, has relevance for our church. It's a reminder of how easy it is to build a church that seems to work regardless of what God's Spirit does in converting sinners. Music, children's programs, service opportunities, small groups, even counseling can attract a crowd and build a church, no matter whether it's centered on Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Most churches that lose that focus eventually die, but not all do. Just consider the fate of the different churches in this area that no longer believe the Bible is true.

You don't need the gospel to have an apparently successful ministry.

So Capitol Hill Baptist Church, as we seek to build this church, as we seek to make this church attractive to the world around us, which is a good and godly goal, let us always build on Jesus Christ and him crucified. We want a ministry that would fail the moment God's Spirit stopped his work.

And we haven't always done that. In 1903, John Compton Ball was installed as our pastor. It was under his leadership that this building was constructed. And for his first sermon, he preached this text, To know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And in many ways, that did represent his ministry.

And yet by his retirement, he was advocating for his successor, a man who had an impressive ministry, who was well respected, and yet who was not committed to the truth of scripture. Who thankfully was turned down by this congregation. I don't want to speak too negatively about Dr. Ball's ministry. He was faithful in many respects, and yet what began with a focus on Jesus Christ and him crucified ended with a dangerous desire for respectability. Well, in 1944 we hired Dr. K. Owen White against Dr. Ball's wishes, who proved to be a remarkably faithful pastor who preached his first sermon on that same verse and I think lived it out.

I wonder what pressure you face in your life to make your Christianity more respectable. Where do you go with the gospel that has you in fear and trembling? Verse 3. Some of you, maybe especially those who live in this neighborhood, might be embarrassed by how conservative this church is. Others of you, maybe especially those who work in conservative politics, might be embarrassed by how not conservative this church is.

So I am sure we all have room to grow in contextualizing the gospel in our culture, but consider The fear and trembling you feel because of the unrespectability of the cross with all its ethical implications, consider your desire to escape that fear and trembling. Trust me, I'm speaking to myself as well as to you. Consider that your weakness might be God's means to show off his power. Remember, it is the cross of Jesus Christ and all its apparent folly to this world that is the power of God. Which brings us there to verse 5.

Because what does the preaching of the cross in weakness do? It proves the power of God's Spirit. Proves it. That's the sense of that word demonstration in verse 4. By converting sinners.

Because my friends, there is power in the name of Christ. Wonder-working power, as that old song says. Sometimes that power takes effect immediately. When I first came to Christ, as I mentioned before, the cobwebs clogging the pages of my Bible just blew away all at once. Sometimes that power takes root only over time.

My struggle with perfectionism, for example. Sometimes God's power acts quickly, which glorifies His strength. Other times His power acts slowly, which glorifies His goodness.

His decision By decision in faith we choose him over the temptations of the world.

To whatever extent the Corinthians wrongly trusted what seemed impressive, Paul wants to puncture and deflate that idea of impressiveness because he didn't come with impressive strength, he came in weakness. And it was his weakness that gave them assurance. Because he knew nothing but Christ and him crucified, their faith rested not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Paul did not apologize for his weakness. He did not preach despite his weakness.

He embraced his weakness, knowing that weakness highlighted the power of God.

But not only was the preacher weak, the ones he preached to were also weak, which brings us to our second point, chapter 1, verses 26 to 31. God chooses weak people that his children might boast in him. Reading in verse 26, For consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful.

Not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that as it is written, Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.

For consider your calling, Paul says. We often think about calling vocationally, as in my calling in life, which is sometimes present in 1 Corinthians, but what Paul has in mind here is the state of the Corinthians when God called them to himself. So this isn't about your job. This is about the moment God calls a Christian from death to life. Thus the verb Paul chooses in verse 27, God chose.

God chose not the cream of the crop, but the nothings of society, verse 28. And then verse 30 to 31, In Christ, God gave them everything. So as the paragraph finishes, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord. You can really divide this section into two pieces, verses 26 to 29, God chose the nothings, and then verses 30 to 31, God gave them everything. So in the second point, we'll just take each of those in turn.

First, God chose the nothings, verses 26 to 29, that they might not boast in themselves. Verse 26 says that not many were wise, powerful, of noble birth, that could also be translated are, right? You weren't anything special before you were called and you're nothing special now. Like God told his Old Testament people in Deuteronomy 7, he said, It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples.

But it is because the Lord loves you. So why did God love them? Because he loved them. Just like Jesus' ministry in the Gospels, when he pursued not the wise and powerful, but prostitutes, fishermen, sinners.

Paul here is offering, I think, a very surprising answer to our insecurities. You fear you're not good enough. You fear you don't deserve God. And Paul's answer is, you,'re right. Your worst fears are realized, and yet, God chose you.

And having fallen back on that bedrock, you can build a life, not based on pretense and performance, but based on the unshakable love of God.

The Corinthians took pride in status, and Paul chides them. Not only does God not generally choose those with status, you yourselves didn't have that.

These verses have their roots in the passage from Jeremiah 9 that Mark read to us earlier. Paul said, okay, so you want a boasting status? Well, what does the Bible say about boasting? Let's think about what Jeremiah says. And what did we read?

Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his strength, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these I delight, declares the Lord. That's what you should be boasting about, not your status. Why Paul changes from riches in Jeremiah 9 to noble birth in 1 Corinthians isn't clear. It might be because as we find out later in 1 Corinthians, there actually were a number of wealthy people in this Corinthian church. But as you recall from two weeks ago, this was a city of the nouveau riche, and there even wealthy Corinthians weren't the kind of aristocratic rich that Jeremiah 9 would have had in mind.

And as we saw in Jeremiah 9, God rebukes the wisdom and strength of his people because it led them away from him. Real wisdom in Jeremiah and in 1 Corinthians is wisdom that leads us to God. As Jeremiah says a chapter earlier, They have rejected the word of the Lord, so what wisdom is in them? I wonder, moms and dads, whether the family culture you are building more celebrates wisdom and strength or knowing God. Quoting Charles Hodge, the things that elevate man in the world are not the things which lead to God.

So in Jeremiah, human wisdom led away from God. Here in 1 Corinthians, God has brought them back by his sovereign choice. But when God chooses, he does not choose what the world would choose. By and large, he chooses the dregs, not the shiny happy people. In the 18th century, the Countess of Huntington funded much of the Methodist revival in England and Wales.

And being of noble birth, she famously observed that she was saved by an M, as in the difference in verse 26 between many and any. It may be that there are some among God's people who are wise, wealthy, and powerful, but they are the exception, not the rule. As Jesus said in Matthew 11, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and have revealed them to little children.

Why does Jesus thank God for hiding these things from the wise? The answer is here in 1 Corinthians. I hope this destroys any sense of pride you might have in being a Christian. Did you bring anything to the table? No, it was God, all God, all His choice.

And I hope these verses help give you some perspective on any ministry that's seeking to reach the powerful for Christ. It is true, the powerful need Jesus as much or maybe more than anyone else. But if we think we will save society by saving the powerful, the powerful, we need to reread these verses, we need to reconsider what Jesus was doing in his earthly ministry. Now, in a room of this size, I assume there are some of you who are insanely smart, powerful, maybe even of noble birth. What do you do with this?

Well, first and foremost, if you do come to Christ, you need to understand you come despite those supposed assets, not because of them. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God, and that should make you tremble. What worth is power if it keeps you from God? It did she recognize that these things that seem to give you status only give you status if you treat as load-bearing what the Bible says is a mist and a vapor. You're boasting of status must feel to God like one ant boasting of his superior height to another one.

As John Owen said, what a bauble is human greatness.

And more hopefully, remember that though the Father has hidden the way of salvation from the wise, you reveal it to little children, even the wise and powerful can turn and receive Christ like children. You might benefit from reading the opening verses of Matthew 18 this afternoon where Jesus offers just such an invitation to humility. Matthew 18. And why this shunning of power? Because verse 27, God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.

God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. That phrase, presence of God, brings to mind that last day when we all stand in his presence and all is finally disclosed. No boasting then. God's choice, you see, is the precondition for grace.

If you come to him out of your wisdom or your virtue or your insight, even if he ends up doing most of the work, you have at least some reason to boast before him.

You have at least some salvation by works. But my friends, Christianity is a boast-proof religion. That's a good test for real Christianity. If it's not boast-proof, it's not real Christianity. Paul's really clear about that in Romans chapter 3.

You bring nothing to the table whatsoever, which means the only explanation of Christ's love for you is his choice of you.

As in Deuteronomy, his choice, his alone. God's choice, that doctrine of election, as our statement of faith describes it, may be off-putting for many because from a human standpoint it feels arbitrary. And it feels wrong for matters of heaven and hell to ever be arbitrary. But if you cast off that idea that salvation depends on God's choice alone, you also cast off salvation by grace alone. Alone and you are left with a salvation that at least in some way you can boast about, which is no salvation at all.

Which brings us to, I think, maybe the most surprising aspect of this verse, that use of the word shame.

God does not merely choose the foolish, he does so in order to shame the wise. He does not merely choose the weak, he wants to shame the strong so that no one might boast before him. So that in verse 29 isn't incidental, it's essential. God doesn't merely say God uses weakness. He says he does so in order that we might not boast in ourselves, but that we might boast in him.

Why? Why is Christianity a boast proof religion? Why this focus on shame?

Because God's overriding purpose in all that he does is not to do but to show. Like when God saved Old Testament Israel from Egypt, the problem he was solving for wasn't mainly their slavery, it was their ignorance. Ignorance of him, the world's ignorance of him. He saved a people for himself in order to show them himself, which remains true today.

Until you understand that, Christianity will be obsessed with the things you do for God rather than with God Himself. God's overriding purpose and all that He does is not to do but to show. To show that He alone can satisfy, that He alone brings joy, that He alone is good. After all, the most loving thing God could ever do is to show us Himself.

To point us to himself, to give us himself. That means the great dividing line in the universe comes down to this question: Whom do you boast in? Whom do you worship? Because everybody boasts in something. God has constructed his church, the weakness of his church, so that we would not boast in what comes most naturally to ourselves, that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

I wonder, what about yourself are you dying to boast about?

That would make a good humility-strengthening conversation over lunch, I think. Be careful of what you boast in. For some of you, and I'm speaking to a room that has lots of young people in it, that affects what career you choose. Because self-promotion is core to many careers today. You are the brand.

Politics, the arts, consulting, academia, even ministry come to mind. You are the brand, which means there is inherent tension between building your career and boasting in God. Some of us can manage that cognitive dissonance. Some of us can't. And my friends who are not Christians, I hope this dissuades you from a perfectly sensible but very wrong-headed motivation to become a Christian, that you might become a better person.

Coming to Christ will make you a better person, but not in the way that you likely wanted to. Because Christianity isn't about making more of you even of your virtue, it's about making more of Christ, that no human being might boast in the presence of God. So then, God chose the wealthy, the powerful? No, he chose the nothings. That's the negative view of the second point.

But then in verse 30, Paul flips the script to the positive: and God gave them everything that they might boast in him. And because of him, verse 30 says, that is God, you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.

Because of him, Christian, you are in Christ Jesus, which I think is just an amazing description of our relationship with Christ. Not associated with him, not near him, not with him, but in him. Is there another preposition that conveys such security, such union, such identity, such intimacy? You are in Christ Jesus. Praise God.

And verse 30 says, He became for us wisdom from God. Remember that true wisdom, both here and in Jeremiah, is defined directionally. It's defined in relation to God. So those three nouns then, they're just double clicking on that word wisdom. Righteousness, sanctification, redemption.

In Christ who is wisdom from God, we are made just, we are made clean, we are set free. That's forensic language, temple language, language from the slave market, three images to describe what we have in Christ, all in the past tense, all positional descriptions. Sometimes that word sanctification in Scripture refers to an ongoing process of growing in holiness, but here it's in the past tense. It's referring to our status as holy before God because Christ is holy, just like it does earlier in chapter 1.

So my friend, I don't know what you are looking for in life. Identity, meaning, companionship, power. But what Paul describes here is what you need in life, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. And this is what he gives us. God chose the nothings.

He gave us everything. Why? Verse 31, that they might boast in the Lord. You see, boasting is good. You just have to aim it carefully, just like any other powerful tool.

And knowledge of our weakness is what safeguards our use of that tool, that we might boast only in the Lord.

Notice the message of these verses is not that God chose the nobodies and made them into somebodies. It's that God chose the nothings and gave them everything. The emphasis of this verse is not that we are worthy, at least not in the way that we normally think of it, but that we are wealthy. Not the material wealth that some of the Corinthians have, but real, lasting spiritual wealth. By yourself you are not worthy, but in Christ you are wealthy because in Christ God gave you everything.

I mentioned earlier how verses 26 to 29 are a surprising answer to the problem of insecurity. In a similar way, these two verses are the Bible's answer to our modern culture's quest for self-esteem. Teenagers, I especially have you in mind here, though I'll let you in a little secret, we all need to hear this. I remember as a teenager struggling for what this world told me would solve my problems, self-esteem. I wanted to be enough.

I wanted to be worthy. I wanted to feel good about myself. Some of you might want to see that happen on the athletic field or in your appearance in the classroom, in the arts.

Maybe you feel that if that girl or that guy liked you, then you'd finally feel whole. But these verses in 1 Corinthians are devastating for such a quest. Like the book of Ecclesiastes in a single paragraph. You are not worthy. Paul says, you, are weak.

And the sooner you tear away the trappings of your posturing, the sooner the truth can set you free. Because if you're a Christian, you are in Christ Jesus, verse 30, and in him you have everything. Your value, my friend, is not inherent to you. It's not core to you. Instead, it's derived.

It comes from God. We see that at the very beginning of Scripture. You were made in the image of God. The history of human society is a history of identity through rivalry. I'm okay because I'm better than you.

We're okay because we're better to them. Why? Because we thirst to be valuable in and of ourselves, which is why this world is so messed up. But true human value is not inherent, it is derived. Like the moon reflects the sun, our value flows from the one we reflect.

You want self-esteem. Why do you want it?

For motivation, happiness, wholeness, purpose. Do you see that you have all those things if you are in Christ? Don't seek those things by looking for some inherent worthiness in yourself. Self-esteem talks a big game, delivers very little, because your value is not inherent. You have value as a Christian.

It's derived. In Christ, you have everything. I appreciate how John Piper has written about this. He says, We are all starved for the glory of God, not self. No one goes to the Grand Canyon to increase self-esteem.

Why do we go? Because there is greater healing for the soul in beholding splendor than there is a beholding self. Thoughts about you and this world cause so much grief. We think the solution is, if I could just feel better about me, better about the way I look, better about my height, my weight, my complexion, my hair, my mathematical ability, if I could just feel better about me, I'd be healed. You wouldn't.

You wouldn't be healed. You'd have a low level, low grade, non-satisfied measure of contentment. You were made to see God, love God, delight in God, and be stunned by God.

By yourself you are not worthy, but in Christ you are wealthy.

Maybe you're here this morning and you are not a Christian. And there's something about this passage that just rings true. The idea of finding meaning by looking within does begin to feel like a fool's errand. So what do you do? Well, you need to begin by seeing that the way you have been living is not neutral before God.

It is evil. That's a hard thing to swallow. But if you were created to make much of God, then every single decision you have made in your life to this point without him in view has defamed him, which is why I call it evil. The greatest of evil is the profaning of the greatest of good. And that's God.

That's what the Bible calls sin, and that's why every sin deserves judgment. But the good news is that God is in fact good. Good in his justice, which as sinners is rightly our terror, but also good in his mercy. And in his mercy he sent Jesus, God become man, to be the wisdom of God to us, our passage says, to die in our place, taking the punishment we deserved, to rise from the dead, proving he to ascend to heaven where he stands there offering us forgiveness from sin if we would repent of our sin, turn from it, and in faith turn toward him, trusting him to make us right with God. That's the Christian gospel, my friend, and that is hope for all of us who have worshiped self instead of God.

Because we were made to worship him. We were made to boast in him, as our pastor says. What does it mean to boast in God? It means devoting your life to making much of Him, telling about Him, resting in Him, finding joy in Him, which begins with a delighted embrace of our weakness because in our weakness we can see the strength of His grace.

For the moms among us, consider how this applies to you, at least those with children still at home. In so many ways you live in a praise desert. You read in Proverbs 31 of that woman's children rising up to call her blessed. It says she is praised. And you think, I'd settle for a thank you now and then.

Too often your children treat you as a commodity and there is never enough of you to go around. So yes, if your kids were sinless, they would love you better, they should love you better, but this is who they are, so how do you cope? Not by combating their thoughtlessness with an inflated view of yourself, not boasting in yourself, if even only to yourself, but verse 31, by boasting in the Lord. Spend your life to make much of Him and see your love for your children as a big piece of that. As Jesus came not to be served but to serve so with you, Because though you and yourself are not worthy in Christ, you are wealthy.

He has given you everything so you can now spend your life to show that he is everything, including through the faithful care of your kids. And we all need to hear that. My friend, you were made to boast. So boast in the one who remade you. And with that, we should conclude.

In the Bible, God seems to have a special love of weakness. Moses thought he was something else, tried to use his privilege in Pharaoh's court to rescue God's people, but God only really used him once 40 years in exile had finally convinced him that he was weak. As Martin Luther said, God created the world out of nothing, and so long as we are nothing, he can make something out of us. Isn't that just how our God works? Gideon's too large army, Jesse's youngest son, Jesus' fishermen disciples, as Zechariah says, not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.

If your goal is to be someone, to do something, even with Christian goals attached, then weakness will never be more than a constraint to be minimized. We'll say that again. If your goal in life is to be someone, to do something, even the Christianized version, then weakness will never be more than a constraint to be minimized. But if your goal, like God's goal, is to show someone to boast in him, well then your weakness becomes a powerful tool in his hand, which is what the apostle Paul discovered in 2 Corinthians 12. Three times he asked Jesus to take his weakness away, and Jesus said, no.

Because, Jesus says, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. And so Paul concludes, I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. So my friends, stop denying your weakness. Stop hiding your weakness. Stop fearing your weakness.

Stop condemning your weakness. Instead, boast in your weakness because you're boasting in his God. May we exult in being a weak church with weak preachers because we serve a strong Savior. Let us make our boast to be in Him. Let's pray.

Father, these words are so counter to everything our culture tells us, everything the city cares about, everything that we have been steeped in from birth because our culture is about making a name for itself, not about you. So Father, we pray that we would be different. We pray that we would be the people who love the glory of Jesus Christ and think about nothing than that. Father, we pray that we as a result would be those who aren't just comfortable with our weakness, we boast in our weakness. Because we see how our weakness is what shows off your strength.

And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.