Please find below Brett Harris' notes from the Mid-service comments this past Sunday. Meditate on these texts and the prayer below focusing on our foolish pride being broken to submit to God's wisdom, boasting in Him and not ourselves.  

I've mentioned before that I really like 1 Corinthians. Last week's passage is one of my favorites - primarily because it reminds me of who I am and what I need to do.

I see me - not many wise, not many powerful, not many noble. God chose what is foolish, what is weak, what is low and despised.

There's nothing in me that caused God to save me. Nothing that made God think 'oh, I could use that.'

In fact, in Galatians 2 Paul says that he has been crucified with Christ so that it is no longer he who lives, but Christ who lives in him.

God does what he does at salvation 'so that no human being might boast' in his presence. For Christ has become for us wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification. God is changing us day-by-day to be more like his son.

My pride regularly tries to tell me otherwise. It tries to tell me that I am more important, my wants/desires more important than what God desires for me. So in my pride, I'm regularly fighting against what God is doing.

I think my pride makes sanctification harder than it needs to be.

So my focus in salvation has to be on God and what he has done in salvation through Christ.

I need to focus on God's word, so that I get to know him better, to fight sin better, to learn to have peace with what he is doing.

And the better I know God's word, the better Christ's love should fill me and should overflow to others.

And the better I know God's word, the more I think like him, the more I will do what Jesus did - one of those things being frequently pointing others to, boasting about, God.

Pray

Lord you are wise in all you do. You are holy, worthy of any and all praise, king over all.

In our greatest strength, we cannot attain to your weakness. Our wisest moments are nothing compared to your foolishness.

In your wisdom, you chose to save us through the foolishness of the message of the cross. We can't find you through our own efforts. We can only find you because you have made yourself known, particularly through Jesus' death on the cross, where he pays the penalty that we cannot pay.

Father, let your word be alive to us this morning. Open our eyes, soften our hearts, help us to rejoice in what we know about you.

Let your peace rule our hearts, your love guide our steps.

Kill the pride that rages within us, humbling us to be more like Christ.

Amen