Updated: 4/14/2026

Sermon Prep

This message holds a special spot in my heart simply because of the season of life I was in as a new Dad. I was fresh off of my paternity leave, which ended on January 5th and I returned to work the next day. The prep for this sermon also began on January 6th and I chipped away at it slowly for two weeks. If I remember right I was nervous coming back and spent extra time prepping this message. Not because I was nervous about the content like my last message on Bathsheba and Uriah, but I was nervous about being rusty preaching-wise.

Everything was flipped upside down in a good way with becoming a Dad, so it felt like the teaching muscles were tight from inactivity. Learning how to be a parent with my Glory those first few months up in the doorless loft of her parent’s house was a special time. We had our own little nook to figure out how to raise our little girl. As per usual, I put aside any spare time at work or at home to write this message.

At work, the excuse was my infamous office hour, which really meant that because I was the best person in the department I had the freedom to do what I wanted with that final hour of the day. It was a luxury that really only my peer Simon who sat next to me knew about, but a freedom I earned with a lot of hardwork and grit to be at the top of the department. With all that said, my sermon notes are below and the sermon on YouTube here.

Sermon Notes

Opening Line

• Bo Eason former NFL QB and CA family celebrity connections sharing worldly wisdom.

Intro

• Jumping off of Andrew’s message last week, we’re going to learn about what unites us.

Main Point

• Now there’s worldly wisdom, but Christians are united by true wisdom.
• The cross of Christ is true wisdom in a world filled with fools.

Fool’s Talk | 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 (NRSVue)

“[18] For the message about the cross is foolishness 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 scholar? 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, God decided, through the foolishness of the proclamation, to save those who believe. [22] For Jews ask for signs and Greeks desire wisdom, [23] but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to gentiles, [24] but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. [25] For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. [26] Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human 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, things that are not, to abolish things that are, [29] so that no one might boast in the presence of God. [30] In contrast, God is why you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, [31] in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

• Paul was in his ministry prime as this letter was 20 years after his conversion.
• God is beyond time so we’re saved, being saved, and will be saved (1 Corinthians 1:18).
  • “It is a mark of them that perish not to recognize the things which lead to salvation.” – St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on First Corinthians
• Paul paraphrases Isaiah 29:14 (1 Corinthians 1:19).
  • Corinth was known as a melting pot and often called a mother to many cultures.
  • Aelius Aristides once said that on every street in Corinth one met a so-called wise man, who had his own solution to humanity’s problems.
• Scholar = expert in Mosaic law; debater of this age = Greek Sophists (1 Corinthians 1:20).
• “To those that request a sign, the Church offers one: the Cross! The Cross is to be adored, for wherever the sign may be, there Jesus will be” (1 Corinthians 1:22).
• “[Jews] expected a triumphant, political Messiah [;Greeks/Romans believed] “it was unthinkable that [a crucified] criminal could be the world’s Savior” (1 Corinthians 1:23).
• Calling is used here as God the Spirit guiding us to trust him (1 Corinthians 1:24-26).
  • “εὐγενής (eugenēs) refers to… being born into nobility, wealth, or power with an emphasis on the privileges and benefits [of] that position” (1 Corinthians 1:26).
• “Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom; do not let the mighty boast in their might; do not let the wealthy boast in their wealth; but let those who boast boast in this, that they understand and know me, that I am the Lord; I act with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the Lord.” (Jeremiah 9:23b-24 NRSVue)
  • See 1 Samuel 2:1-10, and Luke 1:46-55. “Jeremiah calls upon the wise, the strong, and the wealthy not to trust in their resources but in their knowledge of the true God-and so to boast in the Lord. Paul addresses the same three areas of human pride.” (1 Corinthians 1:26-31).
  • See 1 Corinthians 2:14-16. The Greek words psychikos (ψυχικὸς) and pneumatikos (πνευματικῶς) Paul uses to contrast the natural and the spiritual.
  • God the Spirit is often associated with power and wisdom. The Gospel can only be revealed by the Spirit himself.

Why It Matters

• The word fool is mentioned 6 times; wise is mentioned 13 times (1 Corinthians 1:18-31).
• As Os Guinness lays out in his book, Fool’s Talk, that there’s 3 types of fools in the world:
  • Fool King -> Jesus (Isaiah 53)
  • Fools for Christ -> The Foolish (1 Corinthians 4:10)
  • Fool of Proverbs -> The Wise (Psalm 14:1)
• Corinth needed to hear that in complete humility, Christ was crucified and resurrected.
• In a world full of wisdom, it’s us fools for Christ that know God’s free grace saves us from our sins.
• By humility and faith we can accept this free grace.

Power Text

• We need to trust in God’s resurrection power.
  • EX: family, marriage, politics; work.
• Human wisdom isolates others, yet the wisdom of the cross unifies all people.
  • Death is the great equalizer, yet so too is the cross of Christ.
• Unity brings belonging, yet division brings loneliness.
  • “I’ve discovered the more spiritual a person becomes, the less denominational that person becomes. The less divisive that person becomes.” – Skip Heitzig

Outro

• Only God’s power can stop the woes of the world and bring us together.
  • “There is a loneliness that only God can fill… and the cross is the answer.” – Billy Graham, 1974
• Just like it was 50 years ago, life is lonely without the living God.
  • EX: Julie loving Heidi.
• You can either cling to Christ trusting him or tell him to piss off out of your own wisdom. Those are the choices.

Final Thoughts

This new year literally brought a new me and that bled into changing my sermon studying and sermon structure. First off, I utilized a lot of quotes from the NET Bible Full Notes Edition and the Orthodox Study Bible to round out this message. I would’ve used quotes from the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, but someone stole it from my porch when it got delivered. I was pretty salty about that, but of all the things to steal I hope at least they read that Bible.

Too many quotes to be fair if I’m being objective about my sermon notes, but I think what I did quote was quality stuff. My coloring scheme I used here stuck with the rest of my sermons moving forward. I to this day still use blue for quotes outside of the Bible and green for quotes within the Bible. Anything from me isn’t highlighted.

Looking back at it over a year later with my 18 month-old sleeping upstairs as I write this blogpost, in my mind this message aged really well. I jotted down feedback as I like to after each message to improve my craft and this one was received strongly by Reunion Church. The ending given Heidi and Julie were having another medical episode at this time was quite emotional and as you can see above compared to my outline, I spoke from the heart.

For context, Julie’s daughter Heidi had been battling one thing after another due to complications from her cerebral palsy and that month was no different. I used Heidi and Julie as my Gospel analogy, which everyone at church really resonated with once we gathered for Table Talks. Heidi might be home now as she passed away later on in 2025, but here at Reunion Church she was apart of our home. With that, Godspeed and Jesus bless.