Living For Christ

In our scriptures this morning, Paul is really ripping them up one side and down the other or so it seems. He wants to know why they fill pressed to air their dirty laundry out in front of everyone, especially the nonbelievers. He brings to our minds this morning the impact that we have as Christians, the importance of our roles in and for the future, and the promises of the rewards for those who except God’s love through Jesus Christ. He doesn’t seem to understand nor overlook the rut the church has gotten into.

In chapter 5, Paul lays not only the foundation of church discipline, but the executive order for church discipline. And here in chapter 6 he is questioning why no one has a problem with the behavior of the churches conduct. Have any of you noticed the rut that we have gotten into for worship here at Harmony? Am I the only one who has noticed that out of the past 12 weeks we have sang basically the same songs at least 8 times? Or you say, well Michael what is the big deal we don’t know any others, or you may blame the girls for the picking the songs, but they only pick the ones that this church has taught them. So why does it matter? I hope that you see that it points to a bigger issue than being limited to knowledge of a few songs. If we are complacent in this rut of our worship service, then friend you are complacent with where your relationship is in Christ. When we become complacent we know longer fill the need to continue to grow. Without growth we do not live the difference that we are called to live through the infilling of the Holy Spirit.

Paul says in verses 9-11that none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. I don’t care who you are this morning at one time in your life, all of us have been one of these titles u until we were justified and sanctified by the blood of the Lamb. But even though we accept this truth, there is another truth and that is our zeal for God and this old run down building has lost some of it vigor. If one of us was to email the apostle Paul today about our membership, our community, our uncertainty about being active in ministry, what kind of letter we would get in return? After he reaffirmed us as saints and children of God, where we he rip us up one side and down the other or so it might seem?

Our chapter is covered in great truths pertaining to the New Testament church and reaffirms that we should always give God glory, but particularly in 3 areas: we should glorify God in our disputes, we should glorify God in our liberty, and we should glorify God with our bodies.

When we truly understand our true identity in Christ, this is when we see that we are able to glorify Him in all three of these aspects of our individual and corporate lives as brothers and sisters of Christ. Do you think that we as a church have this understanding of our identity? If you do then we ought to be able to work out and through the short comings of this church. But if we don’t then we may be like the church at Corinth in lacking to see our abilities due to things like; poor understanding of our place in Christ, or our compliancy in being lukewarm through forgetting of our first love, or our lack of application of our place in Christ. Church, we are children of God, who loves us the same now as He did when we were lost. If that same God loves us that much, then why do we doubt what we could do or should in ministry? If He loved us enough to send Jesus to die for us while we were yet still sinners, why wouldn’t He love us enough to bless any and all our efforts to glorify Him by bringing about influence and growth of His kingdom? Brothers and sisters, we have the same tremendous resources that Paul is telling the church at Corinth about and likewise the church in Rome. Through our resources we have supernatural understanding of truth, justice, love, kindness, and grace. If you believe that you don’t have those and you are a Christian then you are being deceived by the devil himself. But if we refuse to exercise theses supernatural resources of the Holy Spirit then that tells me, and hopefully you, that there is an issue of lack of trust. You see the church at Corinth didn’t trust each other or God, that’s why they took their problems to nonbelievers for resolutions.