with purity
Series: Breaking the Chains
Speaker: Steve Jeffrey
Date: 25th May 2014
Passage: 1 Corinthians 5:1-6:20
00:00:00 --> 00:00:06 Adam Sandler's 1995 movie, Billy Madison, pretty much echoes the church at Corinth.
00:00:07 --> 00:00:08 I don't know if you've seen the movie.
00:00:08 --> 00:00:10 It's nearly 20 years old.
00:00:11 --> 00:00:14 Billy Madison is a spoiled rich kid who never grew up.
00:00:15 --> 00:00:18 He's a 28-year-old man, behaves like a child.
00:00:18 --> 00:00:26 His father, a fairly wealthy hotelier, loves him, but he's constantly embarrassed by his
00:00:26 --> 00:00:28 son's antics and lifestyle choices.
00:00:28 --> 00:00:36 It's cringeworthy, pretty much describes Billy Madison's selfish, immature behaviour and
00:00:36 --> 00:00:37 the movie, generally.
00:00:39 --> 00:00:42 But that's the picture of Corinth that we've been getting over the last few weeks.
00:00:43 --> 00:00:45 Immature, you need to grow up.
00:00:45 --> 00:00:46 It's what we saw in chapter 3.
00:00:46 --> 00:00:46 You're babes.
00:00:47 --> 00:00:50 You're just near, mere infants in Jesus.
00:00:51 --> 00:00:53 Chapter 6, verse 12.
00:00:54 --> 00:00:55 Paul quotes back to them twice.
00:00:55 --> 00:00:57 One of their favourite sayings.
00:00:57 --> 00:01:03 Most likely, it's a saying that was in Corinth, the city itself, that the church used themselves.
00:01:03 --> 00:01:06 It goes, everything is permissible for me.
00:01:07 --> 00:01:12 Literally, it is everything for me is allowable.
00:01:12 --> 00:01:18 And the words for me are the centre of the sentence that everything else builds around.
00:01:18 --> 00:01:21 Their attitude was fundamentally self-centred.
00:01:21 --> 00:01:26 We saw that from chapter 3, didn't we?
00:01:26 --> 00:01:30 Mere babies in Jesus.
00:01:30 --> 00:01:32 Everything revolving around them.
00:01:33 --> 00:01:34 Immaturity.
00:01:34 --> 00:01:38 The problem with this church, though, is that they rated themselves really highly.
00:01:38 --> 00:01:43 They actually thought themselves as spiritual giants, as wise and mature and knowledgeable
00:01:43 --> 00:01:43 and spiritual.
00:01:45 --> 00:01:53 And so, as we move into these middle sections of 1 Corinthians, it's easy to miss something
00:01:53 --> 00:01:55 that is so important.
00:01:55 --> 00:02:04 Ten times in 1 Corinthians, and only once outside of 1 Corinthians, Paul uses a very simple question.
00:02:05 --> 00:02:08 They are all in the same grammatical form.
00:02:08 --> 00:02:10 They all have the same tone.
00:02:11 --> 00:02:12 The first is in chapter 5, verse 6.
00:02:12 --> 00:02:15 The last of them in chapter 9, verse 24.
00:02:15 --> 00:02:16 And the question is this.
00:02:17 --> 00:02:19 Do you not know?
00:02:19 --> 00:02:21 And it's a rebuke.
00:02:23 --> 00:02:28 It's like, this is so basic, you should know this already.
00:02:29 --> 00:02:31 Grow up, Corinthian church.
00:02:31 --> 00:02:32 You should know this.
00:02:34 --> 00:02:39 And of the ten occurrences in 1 Corinthians, seven of them are here in these two chapters.
00:02:40 --> 00:02:45 This should be basic knowledge stuff for this church.
00:02:45 --> 00:02:51 You see, their assessment of themselves was so off.
00:02:52 --> 00:02:56 While they were the church in Corinth, too much of the city of Corinth was in the church.
00:02:57 --> 00:03:04 And there are three broad issues that Paul wants them to go back to basics on and to learn
00:03:04 --> 00:03:06 stuff on in these two chapters.
00:03:07 --> 00:03:12 And the Christian's perspective on each of these things has to be controlled by the cross
00:03:12 --> 00:03:16 of Christ and not by the prevailing view of the culture.
00:03:17 --> 00:03:23 And the first issue he picks up is sin and church discipline at the beginning of chapter 5.
00:03:24 --> 00:03:28 You see, here again, they've been controlled by their statement, everything is permissible
00:03:28 --> 00:03:32 for me and not the cross.
00:03:33 --> 00:03:38 Paul sees discipline here within the church as indispensable to the health of the church.
00:03:38 --> 00:03:42 That's because he wants us to take sin seriously.
00:03:44 --> 00:03:50 In verse 1, we can see that he's having a go at a guy who has a sexual relationship with
00:03:50 --> 00:03:55 his stepmother, something that even their culture considered taboo.
00:03:56 --> 00:04:00 In fact, in the Roman Empire, it was an illegal sexual activity.
00:04:01 --> 00:04:05 It seems from verse 2, however, that the church at Corinth were proud of it.
00:04:05 --> 00:04:09 Now, we need to understand that a little bit.
00:04:11 --> 00:04:19 To be proud of an illegal relationship would be like a group of people boasting about their
00:04:19 --> 00:04:20 drug lab on Facebook.
00:04:20 --> 00:04:22 It doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
00:04:23 --> 00:04:26 The authorities would be down on you like a ton of bricks real quick.
00:04:27 --> 00:04:32 So it's probably better to understand it as the church being proud of who this particular
00:04:32 --> 00:04:35 person was, proud of who he is in society.
00:04:35 --> 00:04:40 They're proud of, remember, we've seen already, they're proud of things like status and influence
00:04:40 --> 00:04:45 and the gifted speakers and the knowledgeable and the celebrities and the powerful and the rich.
00:04:46 --> 00:04:52 And so they're proud of this particular individual because he encapsulates the things that they
00:04:52 --> 00:04:53 admire.
00:04:53 --> 00:04:57 And at the same time, they're overlooking his sin.
00:04:58 --> 00:05:02 Focusing instead of all the good things that this person's done, the social status he has
00:05:02 --> 00:05:04 and the prestige that he's brought to them.
00:05:05 --> 00:05:10 Glossing over the sin because they value who he is and what he brings to them.
00:05:11 --> 00:05:13 Instead, they should have been filled with grief.
00:05:13 --> 00:05:14 They should have come clean.
00:05:14 --> 00:05:17 They should have dealt with the sin transparently in an appropriate way.
00:05:17 --> 00:05:21 Two things to bear in mind about discipline here.
00:05:23 --> 00:05:28 First, it's not just sexual immorality that he's having a shot at because if you go down
00:05:28 --> 00:05:31 to verse 11, he throws in a bunch of other sins there.
00:05:31 --> 00:05:34 The greedy, the idolaters, the slanderers, the drunks, the swindlers.
00:05:35 --> 00:05:37 So it's not just sexual immorality he's picking on.
00:05:38 --> 00:05:45 Secondly, disciplinary action is for those inside the church, not those outside the church.
00:05:45 --> 00:05:49 That's his point in verses 9 to the first half of verse 13.
00:05:50 --> 00:05:57 You see, to hold the non-Christian accountable for Christian standards would be like someone
00:05:57 --> 00:06:03 trying to hold me accountable for not adhering to the clearly defined rules of the Knitters
00:06:03 --> 00:06:05 Guild of New South Wales.
00:06:05 --> 00:06:23 Church discipline is for those within the church.
00:06:23 --> 00:06:29 And yet, how often do we look down our nose in a judgmental attitude to those outside the church
00:06:29 --> 00:06:35 and the decaying moral standards of the society in which we lig and go tut, tut, tut, tut, tut.
00:06:40 --> 00:06:44 And at the same time, playing light and loose with our own sinful attitudes.
00:06:44 --> 00:06:51 Now, Paul doesn't give a manual here for how we should deal with all discipline issues,
00:06:52 --> 00:06:55 but he does give us some reasons why he says this is really important,
00:06:56 --> 00:07:00 both for the individual who sinned and for the church body as a whole.
00:07:01 --> 00:07:06 In the refrain in verse 13, Paul is drawing upon an Old Testament image
00:07:06 --> 00:07:09 of the people of Israel in Deuteronomy.
00:07:09 --> 00:07:14 While Israel was in the wilderness, those that were clean and part of the people of God
00:07:14 --> 00:07:19 were physically located with inside the boundaries of Israel's camp.
00:07:19 --> 00:07:26 Those who had committed a wrongdoing, a sin, or declared to be unclean were sent outside the camp,
00:07:26 --> 00:07:29 some of them for a short period of time, some of them permanently.
00:07:30 --> 00:07:36 And Paul uses this image here to call the church to put the offender outside the camp.
00:07:36 --> 00:07:41 Hand him over to Satan is what he says.
00:07:42 --> 00:07:45 Now, that sounds pretty grim, being handed over to Satan.
00:07:45 --> 00:07:48 I won't even assume to imagine what that exactly means completely.
00:07:49 --> 00:07:49 I fully understand that.
00:07:50 --> 00:07:56 It seems to me that at the very least, this person needs to be handed over
00:07:56 --> 00:08:01 and judged by the worldly authorities for his criminal activity.
00:08:01 --> 00:08:03 Don't protect someone like this.
00:08:04 --> 00:08:08 Hand them over and let the courts do their work on this person.
00:08:08 --> 00:08:14 And in that situation, the person will find no mercy, no kindness, no grace.
00:08:14 --> 00:08:17 They will be punished for it.
00:08:19 --> 00:08:24 But what is clear is the end point that Paul wants for this person.
00:08:25 --> 00:08:28 He wants them to be saved in the end.
00:08:28 --> 00:08:34 He hopes they will realise their sin, repent of their attitude and their actions,
00:08:34 --> 00:08:38 and ultimately have their salvation assured.
00:08:38 --> 00:08:40 That's what he wants.
00:08:40 --> 00:08:41 That's the end goal here.
00:08:43 --> 00:08:46 And so how we deal with any sort of discipline in the church
00:08:46 --> 00:08:50 must always be guided by the end goal.
00:08:51 --> 00:08:53 And that is ultimately restoration.
00:08:53 --> 00:08:59 And so that means that whatever discipline we partake in,
00:08:59 --> 00:09:01 it will never be unloving, it will never be vindictive,
00:09:01 --> 00:09:02 it will never be vengeful,
00:09:03 --> 00:09:08 and it will never ultimately, God willing, from our perspective, be permanent.
00:09:08 --> 00:09:10 God is the judge, the final judge.
00:09:13 --> 00:09:19 The discipline is ultimately meant to be for the good of this individual here who sinned,
00:09:19 --> 00:09:21 but also for the good of the church.
00:09:21 --> 00:09:26 Verse 6, Paul's worried about sin working its way through the whole congregation,
00:09:26 --> 00:09:29 like yeast works through dough.
00:09:29 --> 00:09:33 And again, he draws on another Old Testament image, this time from Exodus chapter 12.
00:09:34 --> 00:09:36 At the time of the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Breads,
00:09:36 --> 00:09:42 the Israelites were supposed to get rid of all yeast that was in their house,
00:09:42 --> 00:09:45 get rid of all yeast out of the house, because it was a sign of uncleanliness.
00:09:45 --> 00:09:49 And if they were found to have yeast in their house,
00:09:50 --> 00:09:52 they were cut off from Israel,
00:09:52 --> 00:09:56 and the only way to come back to be part of the people of God
00:09:56 --> 00:10:01 was through the blood of the Passover lamb that was sacrificed.
00:10:02 --> 00:10:06 And it was a ceremony that they carried out year after year after year
00:10:06 --> 00:10:09 to remind them how they were rescued from sin,
00:10:09 --> 00:10:13 who they now are in God,
00:10:14 --> 00:10:15 and how they were to live.
00:10:16 --> 00:10:21 And Christians, unlike those who practice the festival of unleavened bread,
00:10:23 --> 00:10:27 for the Christian, life is an ongoing festival of unleavened bread.
00:10:28 --> 00:10:30 Not just a once a year thing of cleaning out the yeast,
00:10:30 --> 00:10:33 it is an ongoing process for us.
00:10:33 --> 00:10:38 Because Jesus fulfilled the promise of the festival,
00:10:39 --> 00:10:42 we don't need annual sacrifices to deal with our sin,
00:10:42 --> 00:10:45 because Jesus was sacrificed once for all.
00:10:45 --> 00:10:47 And notice, it says there,
00:10:47 --> 00:10:52 that because of Jesus, we are the unleavened bread.
00:10:52 --> 00:10:57 We have been made pure through Jesus' death on the cross.
00:10:57 --> 00:11:01 And Paul calls us here in this verse to behave as we are.
00:11:01 --> 00:11:04 You are the unleavened bread.
00:11:05 --> 00:11:06 So get rid of all the leaven.
00:11:07 --> 00:11:08 Clear it out.
00:11:11 --> 00:11:14 Those in Christ, those bought with the blood of the Passover lamb,
00:11:15 --> 00:11:19 he says, live out who you are with sincerity and truth.
00:11:19 --> 00:11:22 And so what he says here is, in this whole section,
00:11:22 --> 00:11:24 is take sin seriously.
00:11:26 --> 00:11:28 Avoid it and deal with it.
00:11:28 --> 00:11:29 Both those things.
00:11:30 --> 00:11:31 Deal with sin.
00:11:31 --> 00:11:32 Don't sweep it under the carpet.
00:11:33 --> 00:11:34 Don't call it by other names.
00:11:34 --> 00:11:35 Don't make it less.
00:11:36 --> 00:11:37 Don't excuse it.
00:11:38 --> 00:11:39 Deal with it.
00:11:39 --> 00:11:40 It is essential,
00:11:41 --> 00:11:45 both for the person who's perpetrating and for the church.
00:11:45 --> 00:11:47 And we need to do it gently.
00:11:47 --> 00:11:48 We need to do it lovingly.
00:11:49 --> 00:11:50 But we also need to do it firmly.
00:11:51 --> 00:11:52 That's his first point.
00:11:53 --> 00:11:55 The great irony in Corinth
00:11:55 --> 00:11:58 is that they've actually got it doubly wrong.
00:11:59 --> 00:12:05 They're tolerating what is clearly an illegal sexual relationship in the church.
00:12:05 --> 00:12:10 And in chapter six,
00:12:10 --> 00:12:14 they're taking each other to court over trivial matters.
00:12:14 --> 00:12:17 This issue should have been dealt with the courts,
00:12:17 --> 00:12:19 and these issues shouldn't be dealt with the courts.
00:12:19 --> 00:12:21 They've got it doubly wrong.
00:12:21 --> 00:12:24 And so the second issue he picks up here is handling disputes.
00:12:24 --> 00:12:28 Again, they aren't being controlled by...
00:12:28 --> 00:12:33 Sorry, they're being controlled by the Corinthian mandate of everything is permissible for me.
00:12:33 --> 00:12:36 That's the attitude, rather than the cross.
00:12:37 --> 00:12:39 Now, I guess it's not hard to imagine we live in an age of litigation,
00:12:40 --> 00:12:41 same as it was in Corinth.
00:12:41 --> 00:12:44 The public courts in Corinth were a spectacle.
00:12:45 --> 00:12:50 If you were rich, you wouldn't hesitate to take even the most minor grievance to court.
00:12:51 --> 00:12:54 And Paul here is talking about minor grievances.
00:12:56 --> 00:13:01 The word he uses in verse one means pragmatic dispute, a small matter.
00:13:01 --> 00:13:04 In verse two, he calls them trivial cases.
00:13:04 --> 00:13:09 In verses three and four, he uses a word which means the small things of life.
00:13:10 --> 00:13:11 Trivia.
00:13:13 --> 00:13:17 Instead of sorting it out amongst each other,
00:13:18 --> 00:13:19 verse six, he says,
00:13:19 --> 00:13:22 one brother goes to law against another and this,
00:13:22 --> 00:13:23 and here's the real sting,
00:13:24 --> 00:13:26 in front of unbelievers.
00:13:27 --> 00:13:27 Here's a church,
00:13:27 --> 00:13:31 one person backs their car into another person's car in the car park,
00:13:31 --> 00:13:32 and they hop out and they say,
00:13:32 --> 00:13:33 we'll see you in court.
00:13:36 --> 00:13:38 And they've just walked out of corporate worship,
00:13:39 --> 00:13:41 where sitting in the front row
00:13:41 --> 00:13:42 is a bloke
00:13:42 --> 00:13:45 with his stepmother.
00:13:46 --> 00:13:46 That's all right.
00:13:51 --> 00:13:53 Paul says in verse seven,
00:13:53 --> 00:13:57 the very fact that you have lawsuits among you means that you've been completely defeated already.
00:13:59 --> 00:13:59 In other words,
00:13:59 --> 00:14:03 you've absolutely failed in what you've called to be,
00:14:03 --> 00:14:05 being called to be as the people of God.
00:14:07 --> 00:14:09 Your relationships are all topsy-turvy.
00:14:09 --> 00:14:13 And Paul goes on to speak here to both the person being wronged
00:14:13 --> 00:14:15 and the person doing the wrong.
00:14:16 --> 00:14:16 He says,
00:14:17 --> 00:14:17 first of all,
00:14:17 --> 00:14:19 to the one who's being wronged,
00:14:19 --> 00:14:22 and I think these are the hardest words in this passage for us to hear.
00:14:22 --> 00:14:24 He says in verse seven,
00:14:24 --> 00:14:26 why not rather be wronged?
00:14:28 --> 00:14:30 Why not rather be cheated?
00:14:31 --> 00:14:31 Basically,
00:14:31 --> 00:14:32 he said,
00:14:32 --> 00:14:35 someone might have done you wrong in a business deal,
00:14:35 --> 00:14:37 or they haven't paid back a loan,
00:14:37 --> 00:14:39 or they're trot on your foot and not apologised.
00:14:40 --> 00:14:40 He said,
00:14:40 --> 00:14:42 you might be legally entitled to go to court,
00:14:42 --> 00:14:44 you might have been aggrieved,
00:14:45 --> 00:14:48 but surely the honour of the Lord Jesus
00:14:48 --> 00:14:50 and his church in the eyes of the world
00:14:50 --> 00:14:52 is far more important.
00:14:52 --> 00:14:53 Why not say,
00:14:54 --> 00:14:57 I'd rather be wronged and cheated a thousand times
00:14:57 --> 00:15:00 than to see the name of Jesus disgraced
00:15:00 --> 00:15:03 because of the activity of Christian people.
00:15:05 --> 00:15:06 My friends,
00:15:06 --> 00:15:09 there's no better visual aid of the innocent Christ
00:15:09 --> 00:15:11 who died for sinners
00:15:11 --> 00:15:14 than an innocent party who's being wronged,
00:15:14 --> 00:15:16 letting it go gracefully.
00:15:16 --> 00:15:19 It's at the very heart of what it means
00:15:19 --> 00:15:22 to be different as Christians.
00:15:23 --> 00:15:25 I heard a wonderful testimony of this recently.
00:15:26 --> 00:15:29 A young graduate working in their first job
00:15:29 --> 00:15:30 at a TV station
00:15:30 --> 00:15:32 made a major blunder
00:15:32 --> 00:15:37 that cost the network an awful lot of money.
00:15:38 --> 00:15:40 And she feared, naturally,
00:15:40 --> 00:15:42 that she was about to lose her job over this,
00:15:42 --> 00:15:45 but nothing ever happened
00:15:45 --> 00:15:47 to her great surprise.
00:15:49 --> 00:15:50 And after some time on the grapevine
00:15:50 --> 00:15:52 around the network,
00:15:53 --> 00:15:54 it turns out
00:15:54 --> 00:15:57 that her boss,
00:15:57 --> 00:15:59 her immediate supervisor,
00:15:59 --> 00:16:01 went to his bosses
00:16:01 --> 00:16:04 and took the blame for it.
00:16:05 --> 00:16:08 While she perpetrated it in this mistake,
00:16:08 --> 00:16:13 he said he clearly didn't take enough care
00:16:13 --> 00:16:15 in her development and overseeing her.
00:16:15 --> 00:16:17 And don't punish her for it.
00:16:18 --> 00:16:19 It's my responsibility.
00:16:20 --> 00:16:22 Now, he himself didn't get the sack.
00:16:22 --> 00:16:23 He thought he might.
00:16:25 --> 00:16:29 But his bosses were pretty unhappy with him.
00:16:30 --> 00:16:31 The graduate,
00:16:32 --> 00:16:34 having found out what had happened,
00:16:35 --> 00:16:36 went to her boss
00:16:36 --> 00:16:37 and asked him,
00:16:37 --> 00:16:39 why did you do that?
00:16:42 --> 00:16:44 And it took several attempts
00:16:44 --> 00:16:46 for her to extract the answer from him,
00:16:46 --> 00:16:47 but this was his answer.
00:16:48 --> 00:16:49 I'm a Christian.
00:16:50 --> 00:16:52 I follow the Lord Jesus
00:16:52 --> 00:16:53 who died on a cross
00:16:53 --> 00:16:55 and absorbed all of my deep failings,
00:16:55 --> 00:16:56 faults and sin
00:16:56 --> 00:16:57 so that I can be forgiven.
00:16:59 --> 00:17:01 Because of what Jesus has done for me,
00:17:01 --> 00:17:03 I want to live a life in such a way
00:17:03 --> 00:17:06 where I absorb more pain on people
00:17:06 --> 00:17:08 than inflict it.
00:17:10 --> 00:17:11 There is someone
00:17:11 --> 00:17:13 shaped by the cross.
00:17:16 --> 00:17:18 And that graduate said to him,
00:17:18 --> 00:17:20 so what church do you go to?
00:17:23 --> 00:17:24 She wanted to be part of a church
00:17:24 --> 00:17:26 where people live like that.
00:17:26 --> 00:17:32 Paul's next word here
00:17:32 --> 00:17:33 is to the person doing the wrong.
00:17:35 --> 00:17:36 Verse 8 and 9.
00:17:36 --> 00:17:38 Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong
00:17:38 --> 00:17:40 and you do this to your brothers.
00:17:40 --> 00:17:41 Do you not know
00:17:41 --> 00:17:42 that the wicked will not inherit
00:17:42 --> 00:17:43 the kingdom of God?
00:17:44 --> 00:17:44 He says,
00:17:45 --> 00:17:46 you might make a few bucks
00:17:46 --> 00:17:47 out of your brother's expense,
00:17:48 --> 00:17:50 but if things don't change,
00:17:51 --> 00:17:53 it will cost you your eternity.
00:17:53 --> 00:17:56 There is no way
00:17:56 --> 00:17:58 that I could smooth over that.
00:17:59 --> 00:18:01 There's no way I could say it lesser.
00:18:02 --> 00:18:03 Make it sound easier.
00:18:05 --> 00:18:07 You continue this sort of behaviour
00:18:07 --> 00:18:09 and it will cost you your eternity.
00:18:10 --> 00:18:10 That's pretty serious.
00:18:11 --> 00:18:13 And the exclusion list from the kingdom
00:18:13 --> 00:18:14 doesn't stop at sexual immorality.
00:18:14 --> 00:18:16 It's there in verse 9,
00:18:16 --> 00:18:17 but it's...
00:18:17 --> 00:18:18 Look at verse 10.
00:18:19 --> 00:18:20 You've got more socially acceptable
00:18:20 --> 00:18:21 white-collar kind of stuff.
00:18:23 --> 00:18:25 Thieves, drunks, slanderers and swindlers.
00:18:28 --> 00:18:29 Running people down.
00:18:31 --> 00:18:32 Slandering their name.
00:18:35 --> 00:18:36 In verse 11 he says,
00:18:36 --> 00:18:38 and this is what some of you were.
00:18:38 --> 00:18:39 He's saying here,
00:18:39 --> 00:18:41 this is the life that you used to have.
00:18:41 --> 00:18:42 This is the people you used to be.
00:18:44 --> 00:18:45 But now it's different.
00:18:45 --> 00:18:46 Verse 11.
00:18:46 --> 00:18:47 But you were washed.
00:18:47 --> 00:18:48 You were sanctified.
00:18:48 --> 00:18:49 You were set apart by God
00:18:49 --> 00:18:51 through Christ on the cross
00:18:51 --> 00:18:51 to be different.
00:18:51 --> 00:18:53 You were justified.
00:18:53 --> 00:18:54 That is, you were put right.
00:18:54 --> 00:18:57 You were made righteous by Christ on the cross
00:18:57 --> 00:18:58 in the name of the Lord Jesus
00:18:58 --> 00:19:00 and by the Spirit of God.
00:19:00 --> 00:19:02 You have to be shaped by the cross.
00:19:03 --> 00:19:05 When you start following Jesus,
00:19:05 --> 00:19:07 the old life is meant to be left behind.
00:19:08 --> 00:19:10 And so as a church family,
00:19:10 --> 00:19:11 let us resolve to live
00:19:11 --> 00:19:14 as who we are in Jesus.
00:19:14 --> 00:19:18 Let's resolve that we won't be wronged.
00:19:18 --> 00:19:21 Sorry, let us resolve we'd rather be wronged
00:19:21 --> 00:19:23 than to dispute with one another.
00:19:25 --> 00:19:26 Let's make sure as a church family
00:19:26 --> 00:19:28 that we never let things get to the point
00:19:28 --> 00:19:30 where the need to win
00:19:30 --> 00:19:33 outweighs the ultimate prize itself.
00:19:33 --> 00:19:38 The third issue that Paul picks up here
00:19:38 --> 00:19:39 is at the end of chapter 6
00:19:39 --> 00:19:42 and it's sex.
00:19:43 --> 00:19:44 Again, they're being shaped by the
00:19:44 --> 00:19:46 everything is permissible,
00:19:46 --> 00:19:48 for me, motto and attitude of Corinth
00:19:48 --> 00:19:50 and not the cross.
00:19:51 --> 00:19:52 What Paul has already said
00:19:52 --> 00:19:55 in the two previous issues
00:19:55 --> 00:19:56 is countercultural,
00:19:56 --> 00:19:58 designed for a life of purity,
00:19:58 --> 00:20:00 integrity before God and before people.
00:20:00 --> 00:20:04 And this section from Paul is revolutionary.
00:20:05 --> 00:20:07 Christianity has given the world
00:20:07 --> 00:20:10 a revolutionary view of sex.
00:20:11 --> 00:20:15 In the same way that our Christian hope
00:20:15 --> 00:20:17 and understanding of the future
00:20:17 --> 00:20:22 radically transforms our relationships now,
00:20:22 --> 00:20:24 as we've seen in the first two sections,
00:20:24 --> 00:20:27 so it radically revolutionises our view of sex.
00:20:27 --> 00:20:30 And Paul here quotes another one
00:20:30 --> 00:20:31 of these Corinthian sayings,
00:20:32 --> 00:20:33 another one of their mottos,
00:20:33 --> 00:20:35 in verse 13.
00:20:35 --> 00:20:37 Food for the body and the body for food,
00:20:37 --> 00:20:39 but God will destroy them both.
00:20:40 --> 00:20:43 Now, they're not just talking about food here.
00:20:43 --> 00:20:44 Here's the logic.
00:20:44 --> 00:20:46 Here's the logic of how they're thinking.
00:20:46 --> 00:20:48 If your stomach is rumbling,
00:20:48 --> 00:20:49 you eat some food.
00:20:50 --> 00:20:52 And so, if you're feeling aroused,
00:20:53 --> 00:20:54 you have sex.
00:20:54 --> 00:20:56 Sex is just another bodily appetite.
00:20:56 --> 00:21:00 The little addition at the end of this saying,
00:21:00 --> 00:21:02 but God will destroy them both,
00:21:03 --> 00:21:08 is a view that arises out of the Greek understanding
00:21:08 --> 00:21:10 of the divide between the spiritual world
00:21:10 --> 00:21:11 and the physical world.
00:21:12 --> 00:21:14 This is Greek philosophy stuff.
00:21:15 --> 00:21:18 They viewed the physical world as temporary
00:21:18 --> 00:21:20 and not that important.
00:21:21 --> 00:21:23 And what you do with your body, therefore,
00:21:23 --> 00:21:25 doesn't matter a whole much, really.
00:21:25 --> 00:21:31 So, it's really ultimately what you do with your soul
00:21:31 --> 00:21:32 that matters the most.
00:21:33 --> 00:21:35 Body not important, soul matters.
00:21:35 --> 00:21:39 And so, for some, it led to a cheap view of sex.
00:21:39 --> 00:21:41 For instance, at upper class banquets,
00:21:42 --> 00:21:44 you know, dinner parties in Corinth,
00:21:45 --> 00:21:47 instead of an after dinner mint with coffee,
00:21:47 --> 00:21:49 you are offered after dinner sex with coffee.
00:21:49 --> 00:21:56 Prostitutes were brought in by the host of the dinner party
00:21:56 --> 00:21:59 as part of the entertainment.
00:22:00 --> 00:22:01 And it was completely normal.
00:22:02 --> 00:22:04 No one would blink an eye at it.
00:22:05 --> 00:22:07 Mind you, the same Greek philosophical position
00:22:08 --> 00:22:10 also led some people to conclude
00:22:10 --> 00:22:14 that because the physical was so unimportant
00:22:14 --> 00:22:19 and so down the line
00:22:19 --> 00:22:22 that it was, in fact, wrong to indulge it in any way.
00:22:23 --> 00:22:24 And so, for them,
00:22:24 --> 00:22:27 sex, rather than being something that you indulge in,
00:22:28 --> 00:22:29 wasn't something that was actually bad
00:22:29 --> 00:22:31 and dirty and defiling.
00:22:31 --> 00:22:32 And so, you don't do sex at all.
00:22:33 --> 00:22:35 And so, you see that at the beginning of chapter 7
00:22:35 --> 00:22:36 where it says,
00:22:36 --> 00:22:39 it is good for a man not to touch a woman.
00:22:41 --> 00:22:43 And Chris will deal with chapter 7 next week.
00:22:43 --> 00:22:44 So, come back for that one.
00:22:46 --> 00:22:49 The key to understanding Paul's revolutionary view of sex
00:22:49 --> 00:22:50 is in verse 16.
00:22:52 --> 00:22:56 Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute
00:22:56 --> 00:22:58 is one with her in body?
00:22:58 --> 00:22:59 For it is said,
00:23:00 --> 00:23:02 the two will become one flesh.
00:23:02 --> 00:23:06 Now, when we read that,
00:23:06 --> 00:23:11 we automatically think that one flesh means physical union.
00:23:13 --> 00:23:14 And if that was the case,
00:23:14 --> 00:23:18 if it was just physical body, physical union,
00:23:18 --> 00:23:22 then his argument would be,
00:23:23 --> 00:23:26 don't you know that when you have physical union with someone,
00:23:26 --> 00:23:27 you have physical union with someone?
00:23:29 --> 00:23:31 Now, that wouldn't be worth saying.
00:23:31 --> 00:23:32 I'm surprised they even wrote it.
00:23:34 --> 00:23:37 So, he's not just talking about physical union here.
00:23:38 --> 00:23:41 The term flesh, more often than not, in the Bible,
00:23:41 --> 00:23:43 doesn't just mean physical tissue.
00:23:44 --> 00:23:46 It means more than that,
00:23:46 --> 00:23:48 and it certainly means more than that here.
00:23:49 --> 00:23:50 And if it didn't,
00:23:51 --> 00:23:53 if it was just physical tissue,
00:23:53 --> 00:23:55 then when Paul says it would be wrong
00:23:55 --> 00:23:58 to have sex
00:23:58 --> 00:24:01 because it is the only sin
00:24:01 --> 00:24:02 that would be committed against your body,
00:24:03 --> 00:24:04 he, in fact, would be wrong at that point
00:24:04 --> 00:24:07 if it was just physical tissue
00:24:07 --> 00:24:09 because suicide would be sin against the body
00:24:09 --> 00:24:13 and drug addiction would be sin against the body as well.
00:24:14 --> 00:24:17 You see, one flesh here is more than physical tissue.
00:24:17 --> 00:24:21 It means embodied personhood.
00:24:23 --> 00:24:25 To becoming one flesh
00:24:25 --> 00:24:27 is another way of saying
00:24:27 --> 00:24:32 that personal transformation is going on in the sex act.
00:24:32 --> 00:24:35 And that's quite astounding.
00:24:36 --> 00:24:38 This is revolutionary.
00:24:39 --> 00:24:41 Paul is not devaluing sex here.
00:24:42 --> 00:24:44 He's, in fact, doing the very opposite.
00:24:44 --> 00:24:46 He's sending it sky high.
00:24:47 --> 00:24:49 Greek philosophy never knew of any of this sort of an idea.
00:24:51 --> 00:24:52 The two becoming one flesh
00:24:52 --> 00:24:54 is another way of saying
00:24:54 --> 00:24:57 that personal transformation is going on.
00:24:57 --> 00:24:59 He sees the sexual act
00:24:59 --> 00:25:01 as one of self-commitment
00:25:01 --> 00:25:05 which deeply involves the entire person.
00:25:07 --> 00:25:09 Not just body parts.
00:25:10 --> 00:25:15 Sex is the full giving of one's entire self to another.
00:25:16 --> 00:25:21 It is a matter of self-giving and self-disclosure.
00:25:22 --> 00:25:25 So God did not invent sex for self-gratification
00:25:25 --> 00:25:28 or even for self-expression.
00:25:29 --> 00:25:31 God didn't even make sex
00:25:31 --> 00:25:34 as a dirty but necessary bodily function for reproduction.
00:25:36 --> 00:25:39 He rejects, in other words, both views.
00:25:42 --> 00:25:43 Paul says here
00:25:43 --> 00:25:45 that sex was designed by God
00:25:45 --> 00:25:50 as a way to do radical self-donation.
00:25:50 --> 00:25:55 Sex is God's invented way
00:25:55 --> 00:25:57 for us to give ourselves to someone else
00:25:57 --> 00:25:59 so deeply
00:25:59 --> 00:26:01 that it results
00:26:01 --> 00:26:03 in personal transformation and completion.
00:26:04 --> 00:26:05 To put it another way,
00:26:05 --> 00:26:06 God says
00:26:06 --> 00:26:08 you must never give,
00:26:08 --> 00:26:10 you must never get physically naked
00:26:10 --> 00:26:11 and vulnerable
00:26:11 --> 00:26:13 with someone
00:26:13 --> 00:26:15 without becoming vulnerable
00:26:15 --> 00:26:17 in your entire life.
00:26:17 --> 00:26:20 all of life.
00:26:20 --> 00:26:22 You must not become physically vulnerable
00:26:22 --> 00:26:24 and hold on to your independence.
00:26:25 --> 00:26:27 You must become legally,
00:26:28 --> 00:26:28 economically,
00:26:28 --> 00:26:29 socially,
00:26:29 --> 00:26:29 emotionally,
00:26:30 --> 00:26:31 in every way
00:26:31 --> 00:26:32 committed.
00:26:35 --> 00:26:36 You must give up your independence.
00:26:38 --> 00:26:39 Physical oneness
00:26:39 --> 00:26:41 is, in fact,
00:26:41 --> 00:26:43 to be a confirmation
00:26:43 --> 00:26:47 of whole-of-life oneness.
00:26:48 --> 00:26:49 And if you do that,
00:26:51 --> 00:26:53 if whole-body giving
00:26:53 --> 00:26:55 is done in the context
00:26:55 --> 00:26:57 of whole-of-life giving,
00:26:57 --> 00:26:58 it will result
00:26:58 --> 00:27:00 in deep soul connection
00:27:00 --> 00:27:00 and nurture
00:27:00 --> 00:27:03 and in deep personal transformation.
00:27:05 --> 00:27:07 Now, let me be frank here.
00:27:07 --> 00:27:07 I've been involved
00:27:07 --> 00:27:08 in this one flesh thing
00:27:08 --> 00:27:10 for about 15 years
00:27:10 --> 00:27:12 with my wife.
00:27:13 --> 00:27:14 Let's clarify that.
00:27:15 --> 00:27:16 And as a result,
00:27:18 --> 00:27:19 Natalie's mind
00:27:19 --> 00:27:20 and heart
00:27:20 --> 00:27:21 is so present with me
00:27:21 --> 00:27:23 that when I get into
00:27:23 --> 00:27:24 any situation
00:27:24 --> 00:27:25 in a split second,
00:27:25 --> 00:27:26 I not only have
00:27:26 --> 00:27:28 my instinctive way
00:27:28 --> 00:27:29 to act
00:27:29 --> 00:27:29 and to think
00:27:29 --> 00:27:30 and to speak,
00:27:30 --> 00:27:31 but I also know
00:27:31 --> 00:27:33 what Natalie would say
00:27:33 --> 00:27:34 and how she would act
00:27:34 --> 00:27:35 and how she thinks.
00:27:35 --> 00:27:37 Now,
00:27:38 --> 00:27:39 don't say I'm
00:27:39 --> 00:27:40 in all affection.
00:27:40 --> 00:27:42 What I'm saying there is,
00:27:42 --> 00:27:43 it's not that I've lost
00:27:43 --> 00:27:43 who I am,
00:27:44 --> 00:27:44 but I've been
00:27:44 --> 00:27:46 radically supplemented.
00:27:50 --> 00:27:50 Natalie
00:27:50 --> 00:27:52 has been shaping me
00:27:52 --> 00:27:53 over 15 years
00:27:53 --> 00:27:55 and I've been shaping her
00:27:55 --> 00:27:56 over 15 years.
00:27:56 --> 00:27:57 We have given
00:27:57 --> 00:27:58 each other to ourselves
00:27:58 --> 00:28:00 in all of life.
00:28:02 --> 00:28:03 In all of life.
00:28:03 --> 00:28:05 And because Natalie
00:28:05 --> 00:28:06 is someone
00:28:06 --> 00:28:06 who loves
00:28:06 --> 00:28:07 and knows
00:28:07 --> 00:28:08 and serves
00:28:08 --> 00:28:09 the Lord Jesus
00:28:09 --> 00:28:09 and desires
00:28:09 --> 00:28:10 to keep growing
00:28:10 --> 00:28:11 in that,
00:28:11 --> 00:28:12 her supplement
00:28:12 --> 00:28:13 to me
00:28:13 --> 00:28:14 is cross-shaped
00:28:14 --> 00:28:15 supplement.
00:28:17 --> 00:28:19 She's being transformed
00:28:19 --> 00:28:20 in the image of Jesus,
00:28:20 --> 00:28:21 I'm being transformed
00:28:21 --> 00:28:22 in the image of Jesus,
00:28:22 --> 00:28:23 and that supplements
00:28:23 --> 00:28:24 each other
00:28:24 --> 00:28:25 and shapes each other.
00:28:25 --> 00:28:27 I think that's partly
00:28:27 --> 00:28:29 why Paul says,
00:28:30 --> 00:28:30 if you're a Christian,
00:28:31 --> 00:28:31 marry a Christian
00:28:31 --> 00:28:33 in 1 Corinthians 7.
00:28:35 --> 00:28:35 The question is,
00:28:35 --> 00:28:36 who's shaping you?
00:28:36 --> 00:28:43 In our society,
00:28:43 --> 00:28:44 it's normal to give
00:28:44 --> 00:28:44 your body
00:28:44 --> 00:28:45 without giving yourself.
00:28:46 --> 00:28:46 Have sex
00:28:46 --> 00:28:47 and to hold on
00:28:47 --> 00:28:48 to your independence.
00:28:49 --> 00:28:50 Keep your individual control.
00:28:51 --> 00:28:51 And Paul says
00:28:51 --> 00:28:52 that when you do,
00:28:53 --> 00:28:54 you are destroying
00:28:54 --> 00:28:55 a beautiful
00:28:55 --> 00:28:57 person-shaping commitment.
00:28:59 --> 00:29:00 You're destroying
00:29:00 --> 00:29:01 deep soul nurture
00:29:01 --> 00:29:02 and personal transformation.
00:29:02 --> 00:29:06 I think
00:29:06 --> 00:29:08 the total load
00:29:08 --> 00:29:11 of emotional issues
00:29:11 --> 00:29:13 associated with sex
00:29:13 --> 00:29:14 in this world
00:29:14 --> 00:29:16 would be just incalculable
00:29:16 --> 00:29:18 because of the abuse
00:29:18 --> 00:29:19 of this thing
00:29:19 --> 00:29:19 that God has given
00:29:19 --> 00:29:20 as a good gift.
00:29:21 --> 00:29:23 When you give your body
00:29:23 --> 00:29:23 without giving
00:29:23 --> 00:29:25 your whole self,
00:29:26 --> 00:29:27 you are in fact
00:29:27 --> 00:29:27 destroying
00:29:27 --> 00:29:29 your commitment mechanism.
00:29:32 --> 00:29:34 The Corinthians
00:29:34 --> 00:29:35 had not thought
00:29:35 --> 00:29:37 through the implications
00:29:37 --> 00:29:38 of everything
00:29:38 --> 00:29:39 is permissible for me.
00:29:41 --> 00:29:42 Casual sex,
00:29:42 --> 00:29:42 as it turns out,
00:29:42 --> 00:29:43 is not so casual.
00:29:45 --> 00:29:45 It is,
00:29:45 --> 00:29:46 for the Christian,
00:29:46 --> 00:29:47 an act of desecration.
00:29:47 --> 00:29:48 Verse 19,
00:29:49 --> 00:29:49 do you not know
00:29:49 --> 00:29:50 that your body
00:29:50 --> 00:29:50 is a temple
00:29:50 --> 00:29:51 of the Holy Spirit
00:29:51 --> 00:29:52 who is in you,
00:29:53 --> 00:29:54 whom you have received
00:29:54 --> 00:29:54 from God?
00:29:54 --> 00:29:55 You are not your own.
00:29:56 --> 00:29:56 You were bought
00:29:56 --> 00:29:57 at a price.
00:29:57 --> 00:29:58 You see,
00:29:58 --> 00:29:58 at the cross,
00:29:59 --> 00:29:59 Jesus paid the price
00:29:59 --> 00:30:00 for our redemption.
00:30:01 --> 00:30:02 He paid the price
00:30:02 --> 00:30:03 to set us free
00:30:03 --> 00:30:03 from our slavery
00:30:03 --> 00:30:04 to sin
00:30:04 --> 00:30:05 and to death
00:30:05 --> 00:30:05 and immorality.
00:30:06 --> 00:30:06 And the Corinthians
00:30:06 --> 00:30:07 thought this means,
00:30:07 --> 00:30:08 whoopee,
00:30:08 --> 00:30:09 everything is permissible
00:30:09 --> 00:30:10 for me.
00:30:10 --> 00:30:11 I can do whatever I like
00:30:11 --> 00:30:12 and Jesus will just
00:30:12 --> 00:30:12 forgive me.
00:30:14 --> 00:30:15 And Paul corrects
00:30:15 --> 00:30:15 that error.
00:30:15 --> 00:30:16 You're not free.
00:30:17 --> 00:30:18 You're not free
00:30:18 --> 00:30:19 for yourself.
00:30:19 --> 00:30:20 You're not free for,
00:30:20 --> 00:30:21 you are free
00:30:21 --> 00:30:22 purely for Christ
00:30:22 --> 00:30:23 because you've been
00:30:23 --> 00:30:24 bought by Christ.
00:30:25 --> 00:30:26 And in actual fact,
00:30:26 --> 00:30:27 the word that he says
00:30:27 --> 00:30:28 in verse 16,
00:30:29 --> 00:30:29 how could you unite
00:30:29 --> 00:30:31 yourself to a prostitute,
00:30:31 --> 00:30:32 is the exact same word
00:30:32 --> 00:30:33 where he says
00:30:33 --> 00:30:34 you've been united
00:30:34 --> 00:30:34 to Christ.
00:30:38 --> 00:30:39 How could you
00:30:39 --> 00:30:40 possibly say
00:30:40 --> 00:30:42 that you follow
00:30:42 --> 00:30:42 Christ,
00:30:43 --> 00:30:44 you're united
00:30:44 --> 00:30:45 with Christ,
00:30:45 --> 00:30:46 one body with him
00:30:46 --> 00:30:47 in spirit
00:30:47 --> 00:30:48 and then go
00:30:48 --> 00:30:49 and take that body
00:30:49 --> 00:30:50 and unite it
00:30:50 --> 00:30:51 to someone
00:30:51 --> 00:30:52 who's not in Christ.
00:30:55 --> 00:30:55 And that's why
00:30:55 --> 00:30:56 he says in verse 18,
00:30:58 --> 00:30:59 flee sexual immorality.
00:31:01 --> 00:31:02 He doesn't
00:31:02 --> 00:31:04 want us to negotiate
00:31:04 --> 00:31:05 with it.
00:31:06 --> 00:31:08 He wants us to flee it.
00:31:09 --> 00:31:10 Flee the old life.
00:31:11 --> 00:31:11 Flee.
00:31:13 --> 00:31:14 The word here
00:31:14 --> 00:31:15 to flee is
00:31:15 --> 00:31:15 porneia.
00:31:15 --> 00:31:16 The Greek word
00:31:16 --> 00:31:17 porneia means
00:31:17 --> 00:31:18 any kind of sex
00:31:18 --> 00:31:19 outside of marriage,
00:31:19 --> 00:31:20 whether you are married
00:31:20 --> 00:31:20 or not.
00:31:20 --> 00:31:21 And he's saying
00:31:21 --> 00:31:23 have nothing
00:31:23 --> 00:31:24 to do
00:31:24 --> 00:31:25 with sexual activity
00:31:25 --> 00:31:26 outside the covenant
00:31:26 --> 00:31:27 of marriage
00:31:27 --> 00:31:28 because it's the only
00:31:28 --> 00:31:29 sin you commit
00:31:29 --> 00:31:31 against your body.
00:31:31 --> 00:31:31 He's saying
00:31:31 --> 00:31:32 and the effects
00:31:32 --> 00:31:33 of it will be deep
00:31:33 --> 00:31:35 and they'll be painful
00:31:35 --> 00:31:36 and they will be
00:31:36 --> 00:31:36 enduring.
00:31:38 --> 00:31:39 He says
00:31:39 --> 00:31:40 maybe you've
00:31:40 --> 00:31:41 experienced it,
00:31:41 --> 00:31:42 you've carried
00:31:42 --> 00:31:43 the damage,
00:31:44 --> 00:31:45 maybe you've been
00:31:45 --> 00:31:46 damaged by someone else
00:31:46 --> 00:31:47 and a passage like this
00:31:47 --> 00:31:48 can open up
00:31:48 --> 00:31:49 those old wounds.
00:31:49 --> 00:31:49 I'm very mindful
00:31:49 --> 00:31:50 of that.
00:31:50 --> 00:31:51 But these wounds
00:31:51 --> 00:31:51 can heal.
00:31:51 --> 00:31:52 Remember verse 11?
00:31:53 --> 00:31:54 That's what some
00:31:54 --> 00:31:54 of you were
00:31:54 --> 00:31:55 but you were washed.
00:31:56 --> 00:31:56 That is
00:31:56 --> 00:31:58 you might feel dirty
00:31:58 --> 00:31:59 but you're not
00:31:59 --> 00:31:59 in Jesus.
00:32:00 --> 00:32:01 You've been washed clean.
00:32:01 --> 00:32:03 You were sanctified.
00:32:03 --> 00:32:03 That is
00:32:03 --> 00:32:03 you've been made
00:32:03 --> 00:32:04 a saint.
00:32:05 --> 00:32:05 Your purity
00:32:05 --> 00:32:06 has been restored
00:32:06 --> 00:32:07 in Jesus
00:32:07 --> 00:32:08 no matter what
00:32:08 --> 00:32:09 you were.
00:32:10 --> 00:32:11 Friends,
00:32:11 --> 00:32:11 what we've been seeing
00:32:11 --> 00:32:12 through this series
00:32:12 --> 00:32:14 is that genuine maturity
00:32:14 --> 00:32:15 is not so much
00:32:15 --> 00:32:16 seen in what you know
00:32:16 --> 00:32:18 but in how you
00:32:18 --> 00:32:18 live out
00:32:18 --> 00:32:19 what you know.
00:32:20 --> 00:32:21 That's Christian
00:32:21 --> 00:32:22 maturity.
00:32:22 --> 00:32:23 and Paul
00:32:23 --> 00:32:24 wants us to grow up.
00:32:26 --> 00:32:27 He wants us to take
00:32:27 --> 00:32:29 our sin seriously.
00:32:32 --> 00:32:33 What we've seen here
00:32:33 --> 00:32:34 is that God
00:32:34 --> 00:32:35 will never let us
00:32:35 --> 00:32:36 keep our relationship
00:32:36 --> 00:32:37 with him in a box
00:32:37 --> 00:32:38 marked Sunday
00:32:38 --> 00:32:41 or marked
00:32:41 --> 00:32:42 religion
00:32:42 --> 00:32:44 or just for the soul.
00:32:45 --> 00:32:46 He's interested
00:32:46 --> 00:32:48 in every day of the week
00:32:48 --> 00:32:48 and he's interested
00:32:48 --> 00:32:49 in your whole life
00:32:49 --> 00:32:50 and he's interested
00:32:50 --> 00:32:51 as it turns out
00:32:51 --> 00:32:52 in every part of your
00:32:52 --> 00:32:52 body.
00:32:54 --> 00:32:55 True spirituality
00:32:55 --> 00:32:56 and maturity
00:32:56 --> 00:32:57 is not just seen
00:32:57 --> 00:32:58 in how fervently
00:32:58 --> 00:32:59 we sing at church
00:32:59 --> 00:33:00 or how eloquent
00:33:00 --> 00:33:01 our prayers
00:33:01 --> 00:33:02 or how big
00:33:02 --> 00:33:02 our Christian library
00:33:02 --> 00:33:03 is.
00:33:03 --> 00:33:04 True maturity
00:33:04 --> 00:33:05 is seen
00:33:05 --> 00:33:06 in the details
00:33:06 --> 00:33:08 of our lives
00:33:08 --> 00:33:09 as we,
00:33:09 --> 00:33:09 according to Romans
00:33:09 --> 00:33:10 chapter 12,
00:33:11 --> 00:33:12 offer our bodies
00:33:12 --> 00:33:14 as a living sacrifice,
00:33:14 --> 00:33:15 holy and pleasing
00:33:15 --> 00:33:16 to God.
00:33:16 --> 00:33:16 God.
00:33:16 --> 00:33:17 And that means
00:33:17 --> 00:33:17 at home,
00:33:17 --> 00:33:18 it means at school,
00:33:18 --> 00:33:18 uni,
00:33:18 --> 00:33:19 it means on Facebook,
00:33:19 --> 00:33:20 on the phone,
00:33:21 --> 00:33:22 at the club,
00:33:22 --> 00:33:23 in our retirement
00:33:23 --> 00:33:24 village,
00:33:24 --> 00:33:25 in our bedrooms.
00:33:28 --> 00:33:29 True maturity
00:33:29 --> 00:33:29 is seen
00:33:29 --> 00:33:30 in a life of purity.
00:33:30 --> 00:33:32 And that will require us
00:33:32 --> 00:33:33 not just to avoid sin,
00:33:33 --> 00:33:34 to flee from sexual
00:33:34 --> 00:33:36 immorality,
00:33:36 --> 00:33:37 but strive to honour
00:33:37 --> 00:33:38 God in all that we do
00:33:38 --> 00:33:40 to make sure the yeast
00:33:40 --> 00:33:42 doesn't permeate the dough,
00:33:43 --> 00:33:44 to cut it back.
00:33:44 --> 00:33:46 So I think it's really good
00:33:46 --> 00:33:47 for us right now
00:33:47 --> 00:33:48 just to take a moment.
00:33:48 --> 00:33:49 We're going to enter
00:33:49 --> 00:33:50 into the Lord's Supper again,
00:33:51 --> 00:33:52 remember Christ crucified
00:33:52 --> 00:33:53 on the cross
00:33:53 --> 00:33:54 as we do this
00:33:54 --> 00:33:55 and just reaffirm
00:33:55 --> 00:33:55 our commitment
00:33:55 --> 00:33:56 to follow him
00:33:56 --> 00:33:58 for the cross
00:33:58 --> 00:33:59 to shape our lives.
00:34:00 --> 00:34:01 His priorities
00:34:01 --> 00:34:02 become our priorities.
00:34:03 --> 00:34:04 So that's what this does.
00:34:04 --> 00:34:05 It takes us back
00:34:05 --> 00:34:06 to the cross.
00:34:06 --> 00:34:07 It'll take us to remember
00:34:07 --> 00:34:08 it's all that we have
00:34:08 --> 00:34:08 in Christ
00:34:08 --> 00:34:09 and reaffirm
00:34:09 --> 00:34:10 our commitment
00:34:10 --> 00:34:12 to take up our cross
00:34:12 --> 00:34:12 and to follow him.
00:34:12 --> 00:34:14 I was really delighted,
00:34:14 --> 00:34:15 can I say this week,
00:34:15 --> 00:34:16 last Sunday
00:34:16 --> 00:34:17 Debbie stood up here
00:34:17 --> 00:34:17 and said,
00:34:17 --> 00:34:18 we're going to have
00:34:18 --> 00:34:19 communion this week
00:34:19 --> 00:34:20 and if you're out
00:34:20 --> 00:34:21 of fellowship with someone
00:34:21 --> 00:34:22 you need to sort it out
00:34:22 --> 00:34:23 in the course of the week.
00:34:23 --> 00:34:25 I was absolutely delighted
00:34:25 --> 00:34:26 to hear at least one person
00:34:26 --> 00:34:27 took that seriously
00:34:27 --> 00:34:31 and went and sought out
00:34:31 --> 00:34:31 a relationship
00:34:31 --> 00:34:32 with another person
00:34:32 --> 00:34:33 throughout the course
00:34:33 --> 00:34:34 of this week.
00:34:34 --> 00:34:35 And I want to say
00:34:35 --> 00:34:35 well done to that.
00:34:36 --> 00:34:36 Good on you.
00:34:37 --> 00:34:38 May you know
00:34:38 --> 00:34:38 complete freedom
00:34:38 --> 00:34:39 and forgiveness
00:34:39 --> 00:34:41 and restoration
00:34:41 --> 00:34:42 of that relationship
00:34:42 --> 00:34:42 as we come
00:34:42 --> 00:34:43 and we join
00:34:43 --> 00:34:44 in this together.
00:34:44 --> 00:34:44 Thank you.
00:34:44 --> 00:34:44 Thank you.