LATEST SERMON STUDY MATERIAL
SERMON TEXT • 1 CORINTHIANS 2:1-12
1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written,
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him”—
10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.
SUMMARY & KEY POINTS
Theme: "Nothing Except Jesus Christ"
Summary
Pastor Pett's sermon from the Fifth Sunday After the Epiphany explores the Apostle Paul's approach to preaching, emphasizing that the power of the Gospel rests not in human wisdom or eloquence, but in the Holy Spirit's work through God's Word.
Pastor Pett reflects on his own journey from reading sermon manuscripts to allowing the Spirit to work freely, illustrating how God uses human voices to deliver His message with intended meaning. The sermon emphasizes starting with the foundational truth of "Jesus Christ and Him crucified" before building to deeper spiritual understanding.
Like moving from basic arithmetic to complex equations, or feeding infants milk before solid food, the Holy Spirit reveals God's wisdom progressively as believers mature in faith. The ultimate message is that God has prepared magnificent things beyond human imagination for those who love Him, revealed through the Spirit's work in Scripture.
He addresses contemporary divisions in society and the church, calling believers to use the gospel to open the eyes of unbelievers rather than allowing worldly politics and philosophies to divide God's people.
Key Points
Summary
Pastor Pett's sermon from the Fifth Sunday After the Epiphany explores the Apostle Paul's approach to preaching, emphasizing that the power of the Gospel rests not in human wisdom or eloquence, but in the Holy Spirit's work through God's Word.
Pastor Pett reflects on his own journey from reading sermon manuscripts to allowing the Spirit to work freely, illustrating how God uses human voices to deliver His message with intended meaning. The sermon emphasizes starting with the foundational truth of "Jesus Christ and Him crucified" before building to deeper spiritual understanding.
Like moving from basic arithmetic to complex equations, or feeding infants milk before solid food, the Holy Spirit reveals God's wisdom progressively as believers mature in faith. The ultimate message is that God has prepared magnificent things beyond human imagination for those who love Him, revealed through the Spirit's work in Scripture.
He addresses contemporary divisions in society and the church, calling believers to use the gospel to open the eyes of unbelievers rather than allowing worldly politics and philosophies to divide God's people.
Key Points
- The Apostle Paul approached preaching with weakness, fear, and trembling because he was delivering God's Word, not his own wisdom
- The authority and power of the message comes from God who sent it, not from the messenger who delivers it
- Pastors serve as instruments through which the Holy Spirit works, not as the source of spiritual power themselves
- The foundational message is always "Jesus Christ and Him crucified" - this is the spiritual "milk" or basics of faith
- The Holy Spirit builds upon this foundation, revealing deeper wisdom as believers mature in their faith
- God uses human voices to deliver His message so it can be understood in the way He intended
- Believers often experience new insights from familiar Scripture passages as the Spirit reveals deeper understanding
- "Jesus Christ and Him crucified" serves as comfort food for the soul during times of spiritual sickness or difficulty
- What God has prepared for those who love Him exceeds anything the human mind can imagine
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
Primary Sermon Text:
Our Epistle Reading for the Fifth Sunday After the Epiphany, 1 Corinthians 2:1-12, was the text for the sermon.
Other Explicitly Mentioned Scripture:
1 Corinthians 3:1-2 -Referenced regarding spiritual maturity
Relevant Scripture Themes Discussed:
Hebrews 5:12-14 - Regarding milk vs. solid food for spiritual maturity
2 Corinthians 4:7 - Theme of God's power through human weakness
1 Corinthians 1:23-25 - "We preach Christ crucified" (central theme of the sermon)
John 16:13 - The Spirit guiding into all truth (theme of Holy Spirit revelation)
2 Timothy 3:16-17 - The power and authority of God's Word
Romans 10:17 - Faith comes by hearing the Word of God
QUOTES FROM PASTOR PETT
When I began as a preacher, I was so intimidated by the fact that I was delivering God's Word that I approached it with weakness, fear, and much trembling. I didn't want to make any mistakes.
That your faith might not rest in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God. Anything I say to you is meant that the power of God might reach your hearts, might reach your souls, might reach your minds.
For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's what's most important. That's what each and every one of us needs to hear and believe before anything else.
Why does God use me to deliver his message? He wants you to hear it in a human voice. For Christ is human. And as he wants you to hear it, he wants you to understand it in the way he intended it.
Every once in a while, I'll come upon something in my preparation, and I've preached it for years, and all of a sudden, light bulb. Oh, I never saw it that way before.
What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him. Beyond our imagination. Beyond anything we can assemble in our heads.
Only God can reveal this to you. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.
Comfort food when we are soul sick, comfort food when we are heart sick is Jesus Christ and him crucified. Not only is it the basics, but it's the ultimate comfort food for the soul.
SERMON-BASED 5-DAY DEVOTIONAL
SERMON TEXT • 1 CORINTHIANS 1:18-31
18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
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. 27 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; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
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. 27 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; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
SUMMARY & KEY POINTS
Theme: "The Word of the Cross"
Summary
Pastor Pett's sermon from the Fourth Sunday After the Epiphany explores the paradox of the cross as understood by the world versus believers. While the world views Jesus' death as failure and foolishness, believers recognize it as the ultimate victory and power of God.
Pastor Pett emphasizes that salvation is entirely God's work through Christ's crucifixion and resurrection, not something humans can achieve or add to through their own efforts. The message challenges the worldly wisdom that equates death with failure and confronts the tendency to take credit for what God has accomplished.
Christians are called first and foremost to faith, recognizing that Christ is the source of our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. The sermon concludes with the exhortation that we should boast only in the Lord, giving Him all credit for our perfect salvation.
Key Points
Summary
Pastor Pett's sermon from the Fourth Sunday After the Epiphany explores the paradox of the cross as understood by the world versus believers. While the world views Jesus' death as failure and foolishness, believers recognize it as the ultimate victory and power of God.
Pastor Pett emphasizes that salvation is entirely God's work through Christ's crucifixion and resurrection, not something humans can achieve or add to through their own efforts. The message challenges the worldly wisdom that equates death with failure and confronts the tendency to take credit for what God has accomplished.
Christians are called first and foremost to faith, recognizing that Christ is the source of our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. The sermon concludes with the exhortation that we should boast only in the Lord, giving Him all credit for our perfect salvation.
Key Points
- The world views the cross as foolishness and failure, but to believers it represents the power of God and ultimate victory
- Death is not failure for Christians; it is the ultimate healing and victory through Christ
- Salvation depends entirely on what Jesus accomplished, not on what we do or don't do
- Many diminish the power of the cross by adding human requirements to salvation ("You're not a Christian unless...")
- God chose what the world considers foolish, weak, and despised (including Jesus Himself) to shame the wise and powerful
- Our first and foremost calling as believers is faith in Jesus Christ
- Jesus is described as our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption
- No human being can boast in God's presence because salvation is entirely His work
- We should boast only in the Lord and give Him credit for our salvation
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
Primary Sermon Text:
Our Epistle Reading for the Fourth Sunday After the Epiphany, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, was the sermon text.
Related Scripture:
Romans 3:23-24 - All have sinned and fall short; justified freely by grace
Ephesians 2:8-9 - Salvation by grace through faith, not by works
Colossians 2:13-15 - Christ's victory over sin and death on the cross
Hebrews 12:2 - Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith
Philippians 2:8 - Jesus humbled himself, obedient to death on a cross
2 Corinthians 5:21 - Christ became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God
QUOTES FROM PASTOR PETT
The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.
When we look at a cross as believers, we see victory. We don't see failure. We don't see death. We see hope. We see forgiveness. We see life. We see rescue.
If somebody dies, it's failure in the eyes of the world. But the power of the cross does something much different. They just got the ultimate victory, the ultimate healing.
Before anything else, as a believer in Jesus Christ, faith is our first and foremost calling. We are called to faith.
If you want it done right, call a professional. There's only one professional savior. We call His name.
Salvation is not something we can do. Salvation is not something we can work. Salvation is not something we can achieve.
Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord because He did it all. He did it all perfectly.
As we live in a world that wants to take credit for things that other people are doing, let us boast in the Lord. Let us give Him credit for the things that He has done, especially our perfect salvation as a gift from Him.
When we look at a cross as believers, we see victory. We don't see failure. We don't see death. We see hope. We see forgiveness. We see life. We see rescue.
If somebody dies, it's failure in the eyes of the world. But the power of the cross does something much different. They just got the ultimate victory, the ultimate healing.
Before anything else, as a believer in Jesus Christ, faith is our first and foremost calling. We are called to faith.
If you want it done right, call a professional. There's only one professional savior. We call His name.
Salvation is not something we can do. Salvation is not something we can work. Salvation is not something we can achieve.
Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord because He did it all. He did it all perfectly.
As we live in a world that wants to take credit for things that other people are doing, let us boast in the Lord. Let us give Him credit for the things that He has done, especially our perfect salvation as a gift from Him.
SERMON-BASED 5-DAY DEVOTIONAL