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.

Temples of the Holy Spirit 1 Corinthians 6:12-20

Temples of the Holy Spirit 1 Corinthians 6:12-20

Sex, food, drugs, money, possessions, violence, and power, our world is addicted. Paul singles out sexual immorality because this sin includes our whole being. God sees sex not as a temporary physical connection but as a permanent spiritual connection. The passage that is sited is from Genesis 2:24 which established marriage.

So, to put it clearly, you are married to everyone you have had sex with. Yet sexual sin has been dismissed to the point that people stop thinking of it as sin. The idea that any sex outside of your marriage is sinful is made out to be archaic and prudish. It is so easy to let it pass unchallenged, especially since it seems to be a sin we have to fight so often.

God gives us four principles that pertain not only to sexual sin but to all sin.

1.      All things are lawful but not all things are helpful.

This means that all sinful actions are forgiven and the judgement of the law has been paid. We will not pay the price for our immorality, greed, lies, and whatever else, for Jesus paid that price on the cross. But these things are not helpful. Our sinfulness is a lead weight dragging us down. Stealing our joy and peace.

 

There also is a physical price to pay. There are more than 20 named sexually transmitted diseases. Which affect over 19 million people in the US each year. Retirees being one of the biggest groups affected. Then there are the psychological prices to pay. 1 in 5 women have been the victim of sexual assault, 1 in 6 of men. These victims carry that assault with them every day for the rest of their lives. It affects their friendships, marriages, their parenting, self-image, even their relationship with God.

 

Though Jesus paid the price for our sin in an eternal way, there is still a price to pay in an earthly way.

 

2.      Our bodies are members of Christ.

We are part of the body of Christ, each one of us. When we sin, we include Jesus in the sin we are committing. When we cheat, and steal we are using Jesus’ hand to reach in someone else’s pocket. When we gossip, we use Jesus’ mouth to speak.

 

We also include the whole church in our actions. People who know of your sin, and people do know, see not only you but all other Christians. It is not just your reputation that suffers but the whole church suffers. How can the church win people to Jesus when it has a bad reputation? How can we preach transformation if we are not transformed?

 

3.      Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit

Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit; God lives in you. When you sin you not only include Jesus but you also include the Holy Spirit. There is a lot of sin we would never do if someone was watching. The Holy Spirit not only is watching; the Holy Spirit becomes included.

 

4.      You do not belong to you.

The final consideration is that we are not our own. Our life is not ours to do with as we please. Jesus bought us on the cross, redeemed us. Our lives are a debt we owe to God. When we let sin go unchallenged we insult what God has done for us. We dishonor Jesus’ death on the cross.

 

Will we challenge our sinful actions and thoughts? Will we not only seek Gods’ forgiveness but also His transformation? You are His body, His temple, His possession, and we need to act like it. Alexander the Great, change your conduct or change your name.

Matthew 6:16-18 “Learning to Fast”

Matthew 6:16-18  “Learning to Fast”

When you fast, Jesus expected people to fast.

Not a show of spiritualness

There is a reward for it

What is it?

The abstaining from food for a given period of time to develop your focus on God.

Fasting unto your blood test, work, my car or project.

Spiritual Fasting relates to the same reasons you pray.

Fasting is a sacrifice.

An opportunity to show your heart to God.

Fasting from things other than food.

Some people should not fast.

Queen Ester

Weeping, lamenting and fasting. Over the king’s decree.

Ester ask the people to pray and fast 4:16

2 Chr 7:14 If My people

Many Christian leaders are calling people to fast before the presidential election

Not for any candidate or party

God places people in power for blessing and for judgement

Between now and election day choose a time to fast and spend that time in prayer.

Repentance as a nation (that you do not agree with the wickedness of many people in our nation)

Intercession for our national leaders that they would seek God’s will and not their own.

Praying that answers would be found for the things that are tearing us apart as a nation

For revival in our land (That people would come to faith in Jesus)

Us this fast for our country as an opportunity to venture into new ground spiritually.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 “The Limits of Forgiveness”

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 “The Limits of Forgiveness”

What defines us? Quilter, computer person, runner, fisher person, artist, talker? As you think of words that would define you, I will do a little overview. Paul was talking about law suits between church members. Why were there law suits? Because of the things we read here in vs 9-11

Who are we? What are we? When we look at other people in the church, what do we see? Here is a good list but not exhaustive of the unrighteous. These people cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.  

Now the most important part. “And as such were some of you. But you were washed” You were that but now you are this. This fact is so important for us in relating to God, ourselves, and to each other.

First, is a warning to not let these sins define our character. We may slip from time to time and sin, but we should work on being transformed so these things do not define us. There needs to be push back against our sinful nature. Romans 7:14-25 Paul has a Holy Struggle within himself, and so do we. We must strive to not let these things define us.

Second is that we need to see ourselves as washed, sanctified, and Justified. We are forgiven. This is who you are, what you are. The first three words to tell someone who you are is, forgiven, transformed, righteous before God. Focus your identity on what Jesus has done and is doing in your life and not your sin. Let these things define you. Who are you? You are the forgiven. What are you? A person being transformed.

The eyes of the accuser (Satan) or the Redeemer (Jesus).

Pealing the onion. Layer by layer.

Third is that we need to change the way we look at others. When we know of the sinful things others do we start to define them by their sin. They become greedy, drunkards, liars, swindlers, gossips and immoral. We know that our brothers in Christ will be in a holy struggle just like we are. They will fail just as we do. But we are not to define them by their failure but define them by God’s grace.

Who are they? They are the forgiven. What are they? They are people God is transforming. We should not define them by their unrighteousness but by Gods’ forgiveness and Holy Spirit.

When the game stands tall: We do not expect perfect performance, just perfect effort.
People rise to your expectations. Define them by their sin, they sin. Define them by God’s grace and they will find victory.

The danger of defining children:

Are you in a struggle for Holiness? Have you been defining yourself by your defeats or your victories? Whose eyes do you see your life through? The accuser or the redeemer?
Have you been defining a brother or sister in Christ by their failure or by their victories?
Whose eyes do you see their life through? The accuser or the redeemer?
Whose eyes do you see life through? The accuser or the redeemer?

“Working Things Out” 1 Corinthians 6:1-8

“Working Things Out”  1 Corinthians 6:1-8

Last week we saw that the church was to confront sin within the church. Now we continue on that same line with dealing with disputes. Christian brothers in civil court against each other. Why is this a shameful thing as it says in vs 5.

1.       The difference between the worlds values and standard of conduct, and God’s standard.

a.       1 cor 2:14, The non-Christian cannot even understand the values God has.

b.       The court system does not have a forgiveness factor.

2.       It trades the authority of God for the authority of man.

a.       People willing to accept the ruling of a civil judge but not God’s.

b.       Trade God’s standards of conduct for those of the world.

3.       You humiliate God, and each other, before the world.

a.       You deny God’s power in the world and your life.

b.       You deny the transforming power in your life.

c.       Fail to use the work of the Holy Spirit in the church.

4.       How far to take it?

a.       A brother should not defraud a brother in Christ.

b.       Rather be defrauded than bring shame on the church and on God.

c.       The lunch table.

d.       Matthew 5:23-26

e.       Matthew 18:15-20

Will we be different than the world? Will the world see a difference between who we are and what we do, and themselves? Are our core values based on God’s word or on civil law? All we do reflects on God whom we claim to follow. All we do tells the world if we really believe in forgiveness, grace, and the authority of God.