Isaiah 9:1-7 “Into Your Darkness”

Isaiah 9:1-7 “Into Your Darkness”

Christmas lights, December 21 the shortest day of the year, the darkest day of the year. Somehow the world senses the it’s need for light. Long before Jesus came, Isaiah told us that light would come into the darkness, as a child from heaven born on earth.

1.       Jesus left the peace, purity, holiness, and light.

A.      The light of heaven

B.      The darkness of the world

C.      Your darkness

D.      The light has come

2.       Not afraid of the darkness

A.      Afraid of the dark

B.      Jesus is not frightened by our darkness

C.      Do not be frightened by His light

3.       Jesus is

A.      Wonderful Counselor

B.      Mighty God

C.      Everlasting Father

D.      Prince of Peace

E.       Vs 7

Christmas lights are pretty,
Christmas lights are bright,
but only the light of Jesus
can take away our night.
Into the cold and darkness
the true light has come.
The light for you and I,
the light for everyone.

1 Corinthians 7:17-24 Living the life given you

1 Corinthians 7:17-24  Living the life given you

Vs 27 “In view of the present distress” Whatever is going on in their world people are thinking “what should I do”? Bomb shelters, the year 2000. Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The church is under attack.

1.       Slave or free

a.       Not an endorsement of slavery vs 23 and 21

b.       Outward physical sign or situation

c.       Keeping the commandments vs19 and remain with God vs24

d.       Not your physical condition or social situation

2.       Life of the unsatisfied

a.       Bigger, faster, newer.

b.       Advertising ridden life.

c.       Failing to live for Jesus today

3.       How do I live for Jesus where I am?

a.       Living for Christ is not a one day some day

b.       Now is the time

c.       Joseph in the prison

d.       Daniel in slavery

e.       Ruth in a foreign land

f.        Ester in the harem of the king

g.       The key to Joy Phil 4:12-13

h.       Phil 3:14 Press on

i.         Cool running

Don’t wait for one day, some day to live for Jesus, do it not. Don’t wait for your situation to change, find God working in your situation. Fulfilment and joy are a now thing, don’t put it off.

Unequal Yokes 1 Cor 7:10-16

Unequal Yokes 1 Cor 7:10-16

The people in Corinth had many questions about marriage which we have the answer but not the question, like the game show “Jeopardy”. These questions are based on what is spiritually correct.

1.    Question one: should Two Christians who are married divorce.

a.    Remain married

b.    Not I but the Lord

c.    Matthew 19:3-9 Marriage is a permanent bond

d.    Infidelity by the spouse breaks the bond

2.    Question two: should a Christian divorce their unbelieving spouse

a.    Remain married if..

b.    I not the Lord (Jesus never addressed this question)

c.    If your spouse chooses to live with you

Let’s you live your faith

Biblically correct marriage

2 Corinthians 6:14

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?   ¹⁵What accord has Christ with Belial?  Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?   ¹⁶What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God

3.    Question 3: is marriage to an unbeliever valid before God.

a.    Your Christian life style and your spouse chooses to live in it.

b.    Makes your marriage Holy (Godly)

c.    Makes your children Holy (Godly)

d.    Because they choose to live in a Christian way.

e.    You may save their soul

How should married Christians live? Live first for God. Be devoted first to God. Live as a witness to God forgiveness and grace to your spouse and your children. Through you their lives will be better, blessed, transformed. And through your faithfulness to God they may come to put their trust in Jesus as Lord and savior.

Sex and Marriage 1 Corinthians 7:1-9

Sex and Marriage 1 Corinthians 7:1-9

“Present Distress” 7:26  “The present form of this world is passing away” 7:31

A little context is needed here. Christians are being persecuted under Nero, they have suffered limited persecution under Caligula and Claudius. But now the Roman political world is headed for civil war which occurs around 65 AD. If we place the writing of 1 Corinthians around 55 AD. We can understand why Paul is saying the time is short, and the world as they know it is passing away.

Corinth also is a place of sexual immorality. The people in Corinth have written a letter to Paul with questions they were dealing with. Vs 1&6 gives us a clue to what was going on. It appears that some people were promoting celibacy as more spiritual than marriage. In the present situation Paul concedes that singleness has some plus sides, it also has its dangers.

Let’s look at marriage in the Bible. First is that God made woman to complete man. Together they form a complete unit. God also gave the desire to have this completion to our mind and heart. Genesis 2:20-25. Sex is part of that desire for completion. In people’s heart, they want not only sex but the emotional and psychological relationship that goes with it. In Matthew 19:3-8 Jesus presents marriage as a life time situation.

Paul’s answer to the marriage question is simple. If God made you able to be single and celibate, then you can be fully devoted to the Lord. If God did not create you this way, then you should marry. Sex belongs in the context of marriage. In 6:19&20 Paul says “you are not your own, you belong to God.” Here in our passage he say “You are not your own you belong to your spouse.”

Because of this God given desire and to keep it in the context God designed it to be in couples are to serve their spouses needs for intimacy. The church has often taken one of two ideas about sex. First is that it is not talked about at all. The other is that of being too casual about it.

It is ironic that in a world that treats both marriage and sex in casual ways, people are making more noise about sexual misconduct and divorces are messy and damaging things. People wield sex and marriage like a child playing with a gun, with no idea of the lasting damage that results.

Sex outside of marriage effects the way you experience it within marriage. The intimacy and trust needed to build a strong marriage is not there. A relationship you are meant to count on for your life becomes a conditional relationship. This relationship is there to help you deal with temptation and to give you place of strength and safety in your life. The whole relationship is to bring joy and peace to our lives.

This in turn effects children, they look to their parents’ marriage as a stable place in the midst of a changing and confusing time in life. It gives them stability in the chaos around them. If the marriage of the parents is not something they can count on, they lose their reference point for life.

Yes, some are given the ability to be single and celibate, but to the rest of us God has given us a person who is to complete us, without whom we can never be whole. Sex and marriage are meant to be part of our lives and when neglected they give temptation more power than it should have. Within marriage we should find the joy, peace and stability for life that intimacy is supposed to bring.