The Woes of Nothing

I recently listened to a message by an amazing guy and a great friend Jake Gamble. I was minding my own business and figured I would listen to a podcast while just sitting in my room studying for a grueling finals week but that would soon come to a halt. Jake preached out of 1 Corinthians 3:5-9. Jake has a way of captivating anyone who listens to him whether that be in a non-sense conversation or through the exposition of scripture when you here him you can’t help but give your undivided attention to what he is saying, that is what happened as I set aside my studies to listen to his podcast. 

 He did an amazing job, as always, but after the podcast had ended there was one point  from his message that I just could not escape, that is Who I am vs. What I am. See in this passage Paul addresses the Corinthian church and their issues with choosing sides and leaders to follow which are split between himself and Apollos. In verse 5-7 of this passage Paul says, 

“What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I (Paul) planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth .”

Jake begins by explaining the difference between who we are and what we are. See Paul in verse 5 does not say “Who then is Apollos? Who is Paul?” that is an obvious answer. Who we are can be explained by our actions and our looks and personality but Paul uses the word “What” rather than “Who” when describing themselves. We have all heard someone in some facet or another say “Do you know who I am?” while suggesting that they are someone great or worth respecting because of their name or abilities or reputation. But here Paul then goes on to explain in verse 7 “What” both him and Apollos are “neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything”  He says neither of them are anything which means they are NOTHING. Why? because of verse 7b God who is sovereign is EVERYTHING.

Jake shows that we are not to live our lives for Christ in a way to show who we are because who we are is incomplete, sinful, perverse, depraved humans God does not change the reality of the fall and if we live our lives trying to portray this good, perfect person with no problems so that everyone will notice us as Christians we will fail. So how then can we display and reflect Christ in a depraved world? by showing What we are, and that is NOTHING!! If we show that we are nothing in comparison to the almighty, Holy, Majestic God and lead a life of humility and servanthood while taking none of the credit but giving it to God not only will our lives change but the lives of those around us will be impacted.

So after contemplating this message from scripture and reflecting on my life I would say I live my life as nothing. My one passion and goal is to always make Christ look great, though it has not always been that way, and my self look as little as possible so I then ask myself the question “Why do I not feel like I am making christ look like everything and myself as nothing?” I do not think it is because I still try and live Who I am rather than What I am but it is due to my intentions on being Nothing!!

See to often I aim to make Christ look great, because my affection and desire for him wants that to reign true in every circumstance in my life, but that is not all. Rooted in my desire to look like nothing is my desire to be noticed, not in the same facet as living under “Who I am” but rather it is to make myself look humble or more spiritual than others. My INTENTIONS are what is off!! I think most mature Christians do not fall into the problem of trying to live perfect, because any mature Christian who has truly been growing and grounded in the Word of God would understand this, but they do fall into the trap of selfish and underlying intentions when trying to make Christ look like Everything.

When i realized this was something that has been going on inside of me it shed light on a lot of other problems that I have been dealing with because they all stemmed from this base. 

My cry and my prayer is that In making much of Christ I would not try and receive any of the credit, but more than that my intentions would not be to please others or to make myself feel good or better, but to would whole heartedly seek to be rooted in God’s Word and truth and would ultimately make Him EVERYTHING and myself nothing without any stipulations, achievements, goals, or self exaltations in mind.

Privileged and Unworthy

As many of you know I am a second year student at Zion Bible College in Massachusetts and I am in a program called "Catalyst" it is a two year program which marries the idea of hands on ministry with classroom study. This program, only a few years old, has given me an opportunity to connect and grow close to a group of about 10 individuals that I am honored to be in this program with. Seeing how it is a small group we have gotten to know each other and grow together over these past few years but I cannot convey to you the glorification of God that takes part inside of our relationships with one another! WOW!


Now that you can see my heart for this group you may be able to more fully understand where I am coming from in this Blogg. This year God has been doing a work in me much greater than I can ever covey and that I could ever deserve and he has done a lot of this in my life through the very people who are in this program. This semester we all took a class together called Homiletics it is the "Art and Craft of Biblical Preaching." In this class we have an opportunity to throughout the semester present and speak 3 different messages in class, and man were they good.


But this last week i had the privilege to speak first in the long series of sermons in class that would be our final sermons conveyed to the class. This was an honor! so as I began to find my passage (2 Corinthians 4:1-6) and to study it God began to do something in my life that I have never experienced.


I began to write the sermon the night before (due to finding out i was preaching the day before) and I was so burdened by the spirit it was unbelievable. In this passage of scripture Paul himself is writing to the Corinthian church and is in a way defending his ministry and calling the Corinthian church to not focus on an "experiential" or "attractive" Gospel message, as they were so prone to do, but to speak, live, and attract Truth!! This Truth may not look like we would think or like it to look it may be filled with suffering, endurance, unpleasant remarks and attacks from others but Truth still must be taught. But the main point I emphasized in this message was that we cannot as ministers of the Gospel, whether vocationally or not, Water down or de emphasize the Gospel for the sake of pleasing people and winning soles!Why? you may ask. Well because we DO NOT win soles Christ does !!


See the Corinthian church and the people whom the Corinthian church was praising for their ministries (the heretics) were accusing Paul of doing this very thing, that is watering down the gospel. Why would they say this? well because they were not seeing the outbursts of tongues and the shaking of bodies and the "experiential" sermons and responses that these other men were showing when they came to speak (Sound familiar?)


So they are accusing Paul of being Un-Legit when in fact the very people they were praising were Un-Legit because they were crafting and forming these experiences by their own doings so that they could receive praise not so God could be praised! These men were pleasing people by preaching a false Gospel and it was only to feed their own pride!!!


This was my main point and I was so burdened by this point myself when grappling with this text because I could see the possibility of that happening in my own life!! I WAS TERRIFIED!! My pride is my biggest struggle and I know that even in the happenings of my expositions and presentations of my sermons in the class in the past that my pride was fed!! Why? not because I thought I was better than anyone else but because I knew that I excelled in speaking. I knew that my personality would not allow me to exposit a text for a class that had to be under a mere 7 min and get up there and just give a weak, typical, topical message. Not to include the fact that my classmates were giving me praise!


So comes Thursday morning and it is time for me to present my plea from scripture to my classmates to not become like these people the Corinthian church so flippantly followed. I step up in confidence and all of a sudden i become nervous beyond belief!! This has never happened! I do NOT get nervous in front of crowds in fact it is probably where I shine the most! So I struggle through my sermon never making eye contact and shacking the whole time while gripping the sides of the pulpit.


Finally I look up after I finish stumbling over my words as my bottom lip was quivering due to nerves and I see some people crying and other speechless when asked to give feedback. I then begin to question why this is happening because I know I SUCKED!!


I left class racking my brain on how this could happen? I understood how the message could hit them but not why I became so nervous. And then it hit me in the middle of my drive to the other side of campus. It was as if the Holy Spirit opened my understanding to why this all occurred. I realized that these very people the the Corinthian church exalted i was at risk of becoming possibly sooner than I thought. I realized that that message was a reality check for me that I cannot rely on my own gifts and talents and that the very idea of me even having the opportunity to speak that message I am unworthy of. It was as if God himself said "See Chase I do not need your talent or abilities that i have given you to allow my work to be done" I could see that he moved aside from my horrific effort in class and he touched lives through his word. Then again he spoke (not for real but through his spirit in me) and said "Trust me I will use these talents and Gifts for my Glory but you better believe the second Pride gets in my way those are going out the window" and I responded "Ok".


Though I knew all of these things before I went through this experience and that this had not been my first encounter with this struggle it happened at a pivotal point in my life. As I have been growing and deepening in my relationship and understanding of Christ I could have easily become arrogant, prideful, and self-sufficient. I could have relied on my own understanding and gifts and not on the all powerful, all knowing, sovereign God. This was key for me to learn and experience before I step out off of this training ground at school into some type of ministry.


I leave you with these words Spoken by Jonathan Edwards, May we apply it and shine it in and through our lives.


"He that has doctrinal knowledge only, without affection, has no business in True Religion"