author: Ryan Hayden Take your Bibles with me and turn to 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. I'm excited to be starting a new series with you through this book. When I first became your pastor, about 13 and a half years ago, I started preaching right away through the book of Matthew on Sunday morning and 1 Corinthians on Sunday night. As I went through 1 Corinthians with you - studying it week in and week out - it changed my mind about so many things and I have been itching to do it again. So here we are. Let's go ahead and read our text this afternoon, which will be 1 Corinthians 1:1-9.

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 1:1-9 - KJV

1. Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,
2. Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:
3. Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
4. I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;
5. That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge;
6. Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:
7. So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:
8. Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9. God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

This book, maybe more than any other book in the New Testament is a book about problems. The church at Corinth was a problem church. It's almost unbelievable how messed up they were:

• In the first four chapters you find out that they are a fighting church. They have broken into these cliques and they are proud and they are fighting amongst each other.
• Then you find out that there is deep sexual immorality in this church - both people who are visiting prostitutes and a man in the church who everyone knows is having an inappropriate relationship with his stepmother.
• You find out that the church is really struggling with idolatry and what to do with it. And they are tearing each other apart over there differing views.
• Then you keep reading and you find out that there are people in this church who are getting drunk during the Lord's Supper and the rich people are despising the poor people and visa versa.
• Then you learn that their worship services are a mess. They have a wrong idea about the gift of tongues and they have let their worship service turn into a chaotic freak show where everyone is trying to get attention.
• Then you learn that they are struggling to believe in the resurrection - one of the most basic doctrines of the faith.

And all of that in one local church. All of that in one congregation.

Now, I don't know about you, but if you moved to a new area and you visited a church where everyone was fighting, people were sleeping around, people were getting drunk during the Lord's supper, people were speaking in crazy tongues during the service and on and on - would you come back? What would you say about that church? You would probably wipe your hands of it and walk away and never visit it again. I know I would.

Which is why this introduction we read this evening is so surprising and has so much to teach us. Because even though Paul is going to deal with these very real problems and issues. He does it with charity. He does it like the Corinthian church is valuable. He does it with hope that they are going to work out their issues and be ok.

Listen to how Paul speaks to this troubled church in verses 5-8 again:

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 1:5-8 - KJV 5. That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge; 6. Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: 7. So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: 8. Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

If you know what the rest of the book is about - this bit almost doesn't fit. And that is what I want to talk to you about this afternoon.

If I was going to summarize my message for you today, it would be this: no matter our human failings, if God is working in His people, those people have a settled position and a glorious future. In other words, they have hope.

We are going to see six reasons why Christians can have hope despite our failings. Before we unpack these six reasons, let’s pause and ask God to open our hearts to the hope He offers. [Brief prayer]. Now, let’s look at this introduction again…

author: Ryan Hayden

Why can we as Christians have hope, despite our human failings? I'm going to give you six answers to that question from these verses, but before I do - I want to give you the simplest answer.

Why can we as Christians have hope, despite our human failings?

There is a one word answer - it is Christ. If you look at these verses, the name of Jesus is used 9 different times in 9 verses.

So if you want to close your Bibles right now and get nothing else from this message, then get this, our hope is in Jesus. The reason why we can hope in a group of God's people is because Christ is at work in them.

I want you to imagine being a missionary on the mission field with me in Africa. You pray and you labor and you witness, and God does a work and you see a group of people get saved and establish a church. You teach them the word of God. You pour your heart into them. Then you raise up a leader and move on to start another church.

But you hear word that there are problems in that church. Maybe some of the Christians there are starting to backslide. Maybe they are doing things in the church that they shouldn't do. Maybe their worship is getting to be a bit too vocal and emotional and even has elements of the animism they came out of.

Would you still have reason to have hope for those people? Would you still have reason to think their future is bright? Absolutely - because if they are truly saved - then Christ is doing a work in them. You didn't save them. They didn't save themselves. They are Christ's project and He is mightily working in them. So you can hope - not because of them, but because of Christ.

And the same is true of us - the greatest thing about us is not our talents or our discipline or our standards or whatever - the greatest thing we have going for us as Christians is this - Christ is at work in us. As long as that is true - then we have hope that He will continue His work.

So that is the one word answer. But there are many more things we can see as we look at this text. So let's consider six specific reasons why we as Christians can have hope despite our failings.

The first reason we see is..

1. We can have hope despite our failings because we are God's chosen people - the church.

Look again at verse 2:

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 1:2 - KJV 2. Unto the church of God which is at Corinth...

Stop there. Whatever this group was. Whatever their failings. They were still "the church of God." They were still God's called out assembly - they were God's special people in that city - in Corinth.

I like how the commentary writer Danny Akin put it:

Where the word of God is preached, the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's supper administered, regenerate church membership is honored, church discipline is practiced, and the great commandments and great commission are pursued, there exists the Lord's church regardless of what may be going wrong otherwise.

Corinth might have been a messed up church - there may have been a lot wrong with them that Paul needed to correct - but they were still the church of God. They were still God's called out people.

And I want to tell you - we may have our own problems. We may be far from perfect - but if we are believers uniting together to worship God - we are His church. We are His people. His assembly.

Matt talked this morning about the book of Ezra in Sunday School - what do we see in Ezra? God is refusing to throw away His people. Yes, they have been disobedient and gone into captivity - but they are still His people and He will have compassion on them.

And the same is true of you Christian. If you are truly a Christian - then you are a part of God's people - and that is a reason to have hope, because God continues to work in His people.

That's just one reason, let's keep reading the verse...

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 1:2 - KJV 2. Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:

2. We can have hope despite our failings because we are sanctified.

Now, you might hear that word and think "sanctified." Doesn't that talk about how we are going to become more and more holy. More and more Christlike.

Pastor, with all you have told me about this church at Corinth, with all the problems they had, how can we call them sanctified?

Well, you are right in one sense. In a practical sense - they were not sanctified. They were worldly and sinful. But in a positional sense - they were sanctified.

You see, in the eyes of God, all believers are sanctified. We have been washed in the blood of Jesus. We have Jesus' holiness on us. Despite how we may feel - we are saints. Our position is secure.

Now, what should happen is that we match our settled position more and more - but it is our position - we are sanctified. It is our identity in Christ. We are His sanctified, set apart people.

That's why I love the words to that song we sung this morning:

Though I falter in this war with sin
I set my hope on Jesus
When I fail the fight and sink within
I set my hope on Jesus
Though the shame would drown me in its sea
And I dread the waves of justice
I will cast my life on calvary
I set my hope on Jesus

You might not feel sanctified. You might not feel to saintly - but we can have hope because our hope is set on Jesus.

1. We can have hope despite our failings because we are God's chosen people - the church.
2. We can have hope despite our failings because we are sanctified.

3. We can have hope despite our failings because we have been given the grace of Christ.

Look at verses 3-4 again:

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 1:3-4 - KJV 3. Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. 4. I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;

If you've read your Bible much - you know that Paul almost always starts his letters like this - by saying "grace and peace be with you."

And if you aren't careful, you can skip over that and not think about it.

What is grace? Grace is unmerited favor. Grace means that God has decided to look down at us and smile - despite our sin, despite our frailty. He has decided that He is going to do us good. He is going to bless us.

We have His grace. Imagine at your job you mess up. Maybe you miscount a till. Maybe you call in last minute. You do something you shouldn't do and you know it.

But imagine the owner or the CEO of the company knows you and likes you and has decided he wants to be a blessing to you. You have His grace. That grace is going to smooth over a lot of your failings.

We have the grace of someone far more powerful than the CEO of a company - we have the grace of the God of the universe. He has decided to smile at us. To bless us. To do good to us - even though we do not deserve it.

And what is more - that grace has been bought. It's free to us, but it wasn't free, because it came at the cost of Jesus Christ. As the text says God's grace is *"given you by Jesus Christ"..

Now, what does that mean for us in practice? It means that when we would feel disqualified. When we feel like we have messed up - we can have hope in the knowledge that the only one with the right to judge has determined to show grace to us.

1. We can have hope despite our failings because we are God's chosen people - the church.
2. We can have hope despite our failings because we are sanctified.
3. We can have hope despite our failings because we have been given the grace of Christ.

Let's keep going. There is fourth reason why we can have hope despite our failings...

4. We can have hope despite our failings because we are enriched with Christ’s gifts

Most people around my age remember playing a computer game in school called "Oregon Trail." It was super popular and a great way to learn about the pioneers. In the game, you start off in St. Louis or Kansas City and the first thing you have to do is to equip your wagon. You have to worry - do I have enough flour, enough wagon parts, enough bullets, enough medicine to get across the trail to Oregon?

And most of the time - you don't. You fail to make it. You die of dysentery or something - because you didn't get the equipment right.

But imagine a version where the wagon is fully stocked with everything you need—flour, bullets, medicine, all guaranteed by the trail master. That’s what Christ does for us.

Look at verses 5-7 with me here:

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 1:5-7 - KJV 5. That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge; 6. Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: 7. So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:

What is Paul saying here? I think he's saying that he can have hope in the Corinthians because they are well equipped. They have been enriched by Him in all things. They have been given every necessary spiritual gift that they need to make it.

And church, listen to me, God has given you every gift you need. You have the word of God. You have the local church - where others have whatever spiritual gift that you lack. You have pastors and teachers. Most of all you have the Holy Spirit. You are well equipped.

Isn't that awesome? Doesn't that give you hope? You might think "How am I ever going to make it? I'm not cut out for this?" But God knows and God has given you everything you need.

So we can have hope despite our failings because we are enriched with Christ’s gifts.

Let's look at verse 8:

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 1:8 - KJV 8. Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Why can we have hope despite our human failings?

5. We can have hope despite our failings because Christ will confirm us.

I did a little word study on that word "confirm you" and I found that about half the time, the word is translated "established" or "stablish you." Either way, you get the idea don't you. Jesus is going to make sure you are completely established, He is taking you as His responsibility.

Imagine a parent dropping their kid off at college for the first time out of state. They are going to be worried about their kid. They are going to ask time and again "do you have everything you need?" I can even imagine a parent getting a hotel room for a few nights to make sure their child is established.

This verse is a promise that Jesus is taking us as His responsibility - and He will confirm us. He will establish us.

That alone is a reason for hope. Lets say I have this old sixties mustang that doesn't run. And I drop it off at the world's best mechanic and he promises me he's going to get it set up for me. I might not have any confidence in that car - but I can put my hope in the mechanic who has made it his special project.

And what this verse is saying is that we are Christ's special project and He is going to finish what He started.

Now, there is one more point here - one more reason why we can have hope despite our human failings and it is right at the beginning of verse number 9.

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 1:9 - KJV 9. God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

6. We can have hope despite our failings because God is faithful.

God is faithful. God is trustworthy. God can be relied on. And He is doing this work.

I don't make a lot of personal illustrations but I want to close by sharing one with you.

When I first got saved, I was a teenager and I had a lot of doubts about how I was going to make it. I looked around at other people and thought "I don't have what they have." I looked at myself and got very discouraged, because it felt like I was on a roller coaster, up and down, up and down. I'd make a step and have a setback. Make a step and have a setback.

And around that time, I read Philippians 1:6.

[!bible] Philippians 1:6 - KJV 6. Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

That was huge for me. It still is. It reminded me that I’m God’s project, and He’ll finish the job He started. Maybe you feel like I did—up and down, discouraged by setbacks. But God’s faithfulness is for you too.

When you’re tempted to give up, remember: God’s faithfulness never wavers. He’s committed to you. That’s the ultimate reason we have hope. God’s faithfulness is our ultimate hope.

author: Ryan Hayden

Conclusion

So, how could Paul have such hope for a messed-up church like Corinth? How can we have hope despite our human failings? The key to all six reasons I’ve shared is this: God is the actor, and we’re along for His story. He’s the subject; we’re the predicate. God made us His church, set us apart as holy, poured out His grace, enriched us with gifts, promised to confirm us, and remains faithful. Our hope rests in what He does, not what we fail to do.

Church, you’re not a failure—you’re God’s masterpiece in progress, and He never abandons His work. This week, when you stumble, don’t despair. Pause and pray, “Lord, thank You for Your grace, Your gifts, and Your faithfulness. Help me trust You.” Then keep going—worship with this church, use your gifts, and cling to Jesus. He’s still working in us, just like He did in Corinth.

Let’s pray.