Tag: Leviticus 26:11-12

Updated: 4/16/2026

Sermon Prep

A few weeks had passed since my first sermon back from paternity leave and I was right back into the swing of things. Work was dragging and my drive to be the best was start to wane a bit given I desperately wanted to get out of sales. I actually ended my paternity leave early, so that I could apply for a role in the Customer Success team.

But I didn’t get the job, so I was frustrated by that fact too. What bothered me even more was that there were other people who got the promotion onto that team before me in my department and were either decent in their roles or flat out bottom tier sales reps. Since I made President’s Club and was the best person in the department, that did get under my skin because I just assumed they’d pick me.

Yet that’s just part of the corporate game. It’s not a meritocracy, it’s a networkocracy where instead of what you know it’s who you know that gets you ahead in life. Can’t hate the player, but you can hate the corporate game. In this season, I really hated the game. Anyways, here’s the notes from that sermon below.

Sermon Notes

Opening Line

• Story of going to gym again post-paternity leave.

Intro

• Building off of Andrew’s message, Paul is putting the Corinthians in their place.

Main Point

• Paul’s reminding them that they’re not the big picture, but a part of the big picture.
• By God’s grand design, the church is built different than the world.

Temple Talk | 1 Corinthians 3:16-23 (NRSVue)

“[16] Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? [17] If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. [18] Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise. [19] For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” [20] and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” [21] So let no one boast about people. For all things are yours, [22] whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, [23] and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.”

• Verses 16 thru 17 is a plural you, but verses 18 thru 23 is singular.
• The ANE had a different idea of idols than the Greeks/Romans (1 Corinthians 3:16-17).
  • Read Genesis 2:7-8, 15 (NRSVue)
• “[7] then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. [8] And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed… [15] The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.”
  • Read Leviticus 26:11-12 (NRSVue)
    • “[11] I will place my dwelling in your midst, and I shall not abhor you. [12] I will be your God, and you shall be my people.”
  • “[It was] common in the world of Mesopotamia that when you created an idol you would have this opening of the mouth ceremony where the god would then infuse the idol with his spirit, so that the idol could function as a proper representation of the god… Not just a symbol. A living entity that represented the god that was in the idol… We are living, breathing representations of God… Humans were intended to carry his Spirit in everything that they do. To represent him faithfully as temples of his Spirit.” – Dr. Brittany Kim
  • Read Ephesians 2:19-22 (NRSVue)
    • “[19] So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, [20] built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone; [21] in him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord, [22] in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.”
  • This is Paul’s 4th analogy within the context of ch. 3 (milk, dirt; foundation).
    • “The Church is an organic whole… One who would break this unity would desecrate a sacred place.” – Orthodox Study Bible
  • Referring to Corinthians as a temple was also in response to the prominent temples of the city like the Temple cult of Aphrodite atop the Acrocorinth.
• Verse 18 can be cross-referenced with 1 Corinthians 1:18 (1 Corinthians 3:18, 21).
  • Unclear who’s addressed here, but Paul is warning them to be responsible.
• Paul is quoting Job 5:13 and Psalm 94:11 back-to-back (1 Corinthians 3:19-20)
• What does “all things are yours” mean (1 Corinthians 3:21-23)?
  • “[Christians] are heirs of all things-heirs of the ministries of all those who faithfully promote the gospel, and also of everything over which God and Christ hold sovereign rule, namely, all those things that the philosophers of this world claim to have mastered by their wisdom.” –  NIV Study Bible
• Apollos, Cephas, and Paul are co-workers working towards a common purpose as they collaborate with God (1 Corinthians 3:22).
  • Cephas is generally believed to be the Apostle Peter (1 Corinthians 3:22).

Why It Matters

• The church is the sum of many opposing parts put together for the same purpose.
• God is building his temple to dwell among us and we, God’s people, are that temple.

Power Text

• Avoid conformity and division, so that above all you can build unity as fellow workers.
• “God is building his temple through the people of God. He causes the growth, but the community of Jesus’ followers participates with God in that work.” – Andrew Morrison

Outro

• Our aim is to co-labor with God in the earthly and remain with God in the eternal.
  • Mature Christians answer God’s call, humbly submit to his way, and exercise faith knowing that God will do what he said he would do.

Final Thoughts

I think this message was good and more teaching, than preaching. For me, I’ve always felt like a teacher more than a preacher and all of my messages I’ve done seem to reflect that. Leaning into the context and culture, more than the emotions and heart of a message.

What also is a thought that has burrowed in my mind lately is and probably began around the time I was on paternity leave was if I was actually a pastor. I’m not ordained, I just volunteered to help and teaching was one of the areas to help. This church I teach at is a non-denominational church, so it has more in common with corporate America than traditional liturgical Christianity.

That thought began to bother me in this season of reflection and continues to bother me today. Do I need someone to ordain me and say I’m a pastor? Do I just need to step up where there’s a need? To this day I still avoid the pastor title because I don’t really believe it myself. It’s sort of like calling yourself a professional athlete without being apart of a professional team and instead playing sports on the local level. Is that legit? I still don’t know. With that, Godspeed and Jesus bless.