What Do You Have That You Did Not Receive?

In one paragraph

Pastor Ray preached through 1 Corinthians 4, covering all 21 verses in three sections: judging, sarcasm, and fatherly warning. He traced a single thread through all three, that pride and the elevation of human personalities pulls people away from the message of the cross, which is the center everything else has to return to. Paul opens by describing himself and Apollos as servants and stewards,...

Read together

1. 1 Corinthians 4:1-21 the main text of the sermon, read and expounded in three sections covering judgment, sarcasm, and fatherly advice
2. 1 Corinthians 4:5 cited by verse reference to support the point about judging nothing before the time until the Lord comes

Talk about it

1. Pastor Ray talked about how our consciences can be seared to the point that we don't have a clear picture of our own behavior, and he quoted Paul saying 'my conscience is clear, but that doesn't make me innocent.' Can you think of a time when you looked back on something you said or did and realized you were wrong even though it felt fine at the time?
2. Paul used himself and Apollos as examples to warn the Corinthians about elevating one teacher over another. Where do you see that same tendency showing up today, and what does it cost a church when it happens?
3. Pastor Ray asked, 'What do you have that you did not receive?' How does that question sit with you when you think about the abilities, opportunities or resources you tend to feel most proud of?
4. Paul described himself and the other apostles as the last in the victory procession, the scum of the earth, while sarcastically calling the Corinthians already full, already rich, already reigning as kings. What does that picture say about what a faithful Christian life might actually look like from the outside?
5. At the end of the sermon Pastor Ray said there is no room for pride in the Christian life, and that pride causes division. Where do you think pride most quietly creeps into a church, and what does Paul's fatherly advice in this chapter suggest about how to deal with it?