Jeff Miller

February 1, 2026

Get Unified, Unified and Purified

Don't Excuse Sin

Jeff Miller

February 1, 2026

Get Unified, Unified and Purified

Introduction:

4 Things to Say To Yourself When You're Tempted: (1 Corinthians 6:12-20)

I can't EXCUSE sin. (1 Cor 6:12-14)
I am ONE with Christ. (1 Cor 6:15-17)
God says to RUN from sexual sin. (1 Cor 6:18)
My body BELONGS to God. (1 Cor 6:19-20)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:43-00:45
What kind of a church is this?
00:46-00:48
We are a church that sits on four pillars.
00:50-00:53
We proclaim the authority of God's Word without apology.
00:55-00:58
We lift high the name of Jesus in worship.
00:59-01:01
We believe firmly in the power of prayer.
01:02-01:05
And we share the good news of Jesus with boldness.
01:09-01:19
Speaking of that first pillar, we're going through a series here Corinthians, and we go where the text takes us.
01:21-01:23
And today we're going to talk about sexual immorality.
01:26-01:28
I'm going to be direct but not explicit.
01:28-01:33
The question comes up, "Should my child listen to this?" But parental discretion advised.
01:33-01:36
Again, direct but not explicit.
01:37-01:44
I would encourage you parents, whether you're sitting here or whether you're streaming somebody's going to be talking to your kids about this.
01:44-01:54
You should be, but they're going to be hearing a lot of different opinions regarding matters of marriage and sexuality.
01:54-01:56
I think it might do them good to hear God's opinion of it.
01:58-02:10
So I'm just going to ask you would please pray for me to be faithful to communicate God's word clearly, and I will pray for you to have your heart open to receive what He wants to tell us today.
02:17-02:30
Father in heaven, let this not just be another sermon sat through, but let Your Word transform our hearts and minds.
02:30-02:36
Father, give us the faith to believe and act upon what You have already pronounced to be true.
02:39-02:41
Let this be the day of repentance.
02:42-02:52
Let this be a day of joy and celebration and truly embracing Your gifts.
02:53-02:55
Your Word says every good and perfect gift comes from above.
02:56-02:57
Father, we believe that.
03:01-03:04
And I thank You, Father, ahead of time for the work that You're going to do.
03:05-03:12
We pray in Jesus' name and all of God's people said, "Amen." Amen.
03:12-03:33
1 Corinthians chapter 6, we're in a series through 1 Corinthians called "Unified and Purified." Unified, that's the first four chapters, unified, where Paul says, "Church, collectively, get it together." Right?
03:34-03:53
In this next section that we're in, the church purified, Paul says, "Each of you, be who Jesus saved you to be." And today we are going to be talking about sexual immorality.
03:54-04:14
And those of you who have been going through this series with us might be saying at this point, "Oh, Pastor Jeff, maybe the cold is affecting your brain, but didn't we talk about that guy two weeks ago?" Oh, you think there was just one person in that church struggling with it.
04:16-04:18
Did you hurt your head when you fell off the turnip truck?
04:19-04:19
No.
04:20-04:32
There wasn't just one person at that church dealing with it, and I guarantee you there's There's not just one person in this church dealing with it.
04:32-04:34
Look down to verse 18.
04:34-04:36
This is the sermon.
04:38-05:10
Verse 18, Paul says, "Flee from sexual immorality." "Flee from sexual immorality." See, in Corinth, they were famous for their temple to Aphrodite, And their priestesses were actually prostitutes, and they would by those means help men worship according to their religion.
05:12-05:14
That was their context.
05:16-05:20
But the principles in this passage aren't limited to that.
05:20-05:22
And you have to get that.
05:23-05:37
You know, we don't want guys sitting here going, "Well, I'm doing pretty good because I've never been with a prostitute." Flea, sexual immorality, that word sexual immorality covers it all.
05:38-05:54
Whether it's an affair, or pornography, or one of these apps that allow you to meet up with people, it's anything outside of God's design for marriage and sexuality.
05:55-05:59
And look, there is nothing new under the sun.
06:00-06:06
The problem that this church had is the same problem that the church has today.
06:06-06:07
We touched on this a couple of weeks ago.
06:08-06:08
Here's the problem.
06:09-06:13
It's not viewing sex as sacred.
06:14-06:14
That's the problem.
06:17-06:24
We've turned this gift from God into some gross form of self-gratification.
06:27-06:30
So what is the purpose of sex?
06:31-06:32
What is it?
06:33-06:38
Well, what is the purpose of everything that God created?
06:41-06:44
The purpose of everything that God created is to glorify Him.
06:46-06:48
So what is the purpose of marital intimacy?
06:50-06:51
You're like, "Really?
06:51-06:53
To glorify God?" Yeah.
06:54-06:54
Yeah.
06:55-07:01
Need I remind you that the whole idea of marital intimacy was God's idea.
07:01-07:08
The whole idea that this was to be a pleasure shared between a married couple, that was God's plan.
07:10-07:12
He designed that, right?
07:12-07:15
Genesis tells us male and female, He created them.
07:16-07:19
The two shall become one flesh, Genesis 2.24.
07:20-07:30
That's the purpose of intimacy, but what's the objective of sex?
07:30-07:33
What's the objective of sexual relations?
07:34-07:45
Well, some would say, "Well, the objective is procreation, that's it." That's not the primary objective.
07:47-07:55
And for some, they would say, "It's pleasure." There's that, but that's not the primary objective of sex.
07:56-07:59
The primary objective is intimacy.
08:03-08:05
And you need to learn this statement from God's Word.
08:08-08:10
Intimacy is for those in the covenant.
08:13-08:15
Intimacy is for those in the covenant.
08:18-08:26
See under the new covenant, God desires the closest relationship possible that He can have with His people.
08:26-08:27
So what does He do?
08:28-08:31
He lives inside the heart of a believer.
08:34-08:40
And the Bible tells us that marriage and sex is a picture of the gospel.
08:41-08:45
The man representing Jesus, the woman representing the church.
08:45-08:47
Ephesians 5, you can read that later.
08:48-08:49
Same point though.
08:51-08:54
God's relationship with man, man's relationship with his wife.
08:55-08:58
Intimacy is for the covenant.
09:01-09:05
And sex is the physical manifestation.
09:05-09:08
It's the illustration of such intimacy.
09:13-09:19
Because in the covenant of marriage, the man representing Jesus is initiating a love relationship.
09:20-09:28
And the woman representing the church is receiving an intimacy that the two exclusively enjoy.
09:29-09:39
And the fact right now that people would hear something like that and start to snicker and start to giggle shows you the problem.
09:41-09:43
That the whole idea of sex has been perverted.
09:45-09:47
Like obviously, right?
09:48-09:49
Like how did that happen?
09:52-09:56
Well the Bible tells us when Adam and Eve sinned, they immediately noticed what?
09:58-09:59
They noticed that they were naked.
10:00-10:01
Isn't that strange?
10:02-10:06
Because up until that point, they only ever saw each other naked.
10:07-10:15
Now all of a sudden that sin is in the world, now they cast a whole new light on this.
10:18-10:22
But all of the sudden they had to cover themselves up.
10:28-10:33
There is a shame associated with sexuality because of sin.
10:37-10:46
God's wedding gift to men and women has been misused and abused and perverted.
10:48-10:58
And like the Corinthians, the world's profane, disgusting view of sex has been brought into the church.
11:02-11:10
And like them, there are many people here that are indulging in some form of sexual sin.
11:15-11:18
So what's it going to take to get you to break free?
11:18-11:18
What is it?
11:21-11:23
I've been doing this a long time.
11:23-11:24
I know how sermons work.
11:24-11:27
This is the part of the sermon where you get the stats, right?
11:28-11:36
You get the statistics on pornography and usage in the church and out the church.
11:37-11:39
That doesn't make a difference to people.
11:41-11:49
Or this is the part of the sermon where I can tell you the effect that pornography will have on your marriage and your relationships.
11:49-12:05
And I can get, you know, line graphs up there or quotes from brilliant scientists talking about the effect that it has on your marriage and the effect that it has on your brain, and that's not going to move anybody.
12:07-12:11
We could talk about the risk of sexually transmitted diseases.
12:15-12:24
I don't really think any of those things are very effective to get people on track with God's design for marital intimacy.
12:25-12:27
What we need is the power of the Holy Spirit.
12:28-12:31
What we need is the wisdom that comes from the Word of God.
12:33-12:37
So on your outline, that's what we're going after today.
12:38-12:50
That when you find yourself in a place of temptation, through this passage you're going to see, there's four things that you need to say to yourself when temptation shows up.
12:52-12:52
Alright?
12:52-12:55
Number one, break this down, I can't excuse sin.
12:56-12:59
I just can't excuse sin.
13:04-13:12
You see, the Corinthians, in their culture, they had some popular sayings that they used to excuse sin.
13:12-13:14
Look at your Bible, here's two of them.
13:14-13:26
Verse 12, "All things are lawful for me." Verse 13, "Food is meant for the stomach, and the stomach for food." Stop there.
13:26-13:32
Those were two of the sayings of the culture, two of the, you know, secular proverbs, so to speak.
13:33-13:39
But when they wanted to excuse and justify their sexual sin, they would say one of those statements.
13:39-13:44
And what we have here in 1 Corinthians 6 is Paul systematically breaking them down.
13:44-13:51
He's like, "Your reasoning is really messed up here." So let's look at it.
13:51-13:58
First of all, verse 12, he says, "All things are lawful for me." Stop there.
14:00-14:01
Is that true?
14:05-14:20
Look, if you are a born-again believer in Christ, if you are truly regenerate, if you are truly saved, you have freedom in Christ.
14:21-14:25
Yes, nothing can separate you from the love of God.
14:25-14:30
No sin that you commit will disqualify you from being a child of God.
14:30-14:31
That is true.
14:31-14:32
All right?
14:34-14:35
But let's look at what Paul says.
14:35-14:48
He says, "All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful." Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.
14:48-14:49
This is Paul's first argument.
14:51-14:54
Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.
14:57-15:01
Can I have gummy bears and cream soda for breakfast?
15:04-15:07
Aaron, can I have gummy bears and cream soda for breakfast?
15:09-15:11
Yes, I can.
15:12-15:15
And you were all witness that she nodded her head yes.
15:16-15:19
Look, God's not going to condemn me for that.
15:22-15:23
Is it very helpful though?
15:24-15:26
What about, can I play the lottery?
15:27-15:29
Can I play the...oh, Aaron says no on that one.
15:31-15:35
For purposes of illustration, can I play the lottery?
15:37-15:38
Sure I can.
15:40-15:44
God's not going to send me to hell if I buy a scratchy ticket, right?
15:45-15:49
If I buy a scratchy lottery, Pastor Taylor, God's not going to send me to hell for that.
15:53-15:54
But does that make it a good idea?
15:57-15:58
It's not helpful, is it?
15:59-16:00
It's not wise.
16:00-16:03
The lottery is just a tax on people who are bad at math.
16:06-16:11
Okay, now how about sleeping with someone you're not married to?
16:12-16:17
If you're a true Christian, that is not going to send you to hell.
16:21-16:29
Saying that it is not helpful is one of the biggest understatements of all time.
16:32-16:33
I think that's Paul's point.
16:35-16:35
It's not helpful.
16:37-16:39
Sleeping with someone you're not married to is not helpful.
16:40-16:44
It can result in an unwanted pregnancy.
16:47-16:50
If she's married, you're going to deal with an angry husband when he finds out.
16:52-16:56
You're going to deal with shame in your workplace, in your church, in your community.
16:59-17:03
Your testimony, if you're a Christian, certainly not going to help that.
17:04-17:10
Oh, and if she's married, now you've destroyed two families, yours and hers.
17:11-17:15
And if you're not married, you've done damage to future spouses, yours and hers.
17:18-17:19
There's consequences.
17:20-17:21
So that's where Paul starts.
17:21-17:25
He's like, "All things are lawful for me." He's like, "Bag that excuse.
17:26-17:30
Not all things are helpful." Let's look at the next one.
17:31-18:12
Back in verse 12, he says, "All things are lawful for me, but I will not be enslaved anything. Some translations, "I will not be dominated by anything." He goes, "Why would I mess around with something that could enslave me? Why would I do that?" It's just, it's foolishness, right? And sexual sin is addictive, right? Talk to the guy who struggled with looking at things on his computer that he shouldn't be looking at.
18:13-18:14
It's addictive.
18:15-18:21
Talk to the girl who's in that wrong relationship that she just keeps going back to.
18:21-18:22
It's addictive.
18:25-18:31
I mean, with any sin, one and done is bad enough.
18:32-18:43
But when you have a sin that just keeps drawing you back in, Paul says, "You really want to mess around with something that's going to consume your life?
18:44-18:53
I'm not going to be dominated by anything." He's like, "You can bag that excuse too." But there's another one.
18:53-18:54
Look at verse 13.
18:55-18:59
He says, "Food is meant for the stomach, and the stomach for food.
19:01-19:15
And God, this is Paul's commentary on that saying, he goes, "And God will destroy both one and the other." The body's not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
19:19-19:21
See that was the other excuse for sexual sin.
19:21-19:24
Food is meant for the stomach, and the stomach's for food.
19:24-19:25
You see that argument?
19:26-19:37
The argument is this, look, the act of physical intimacy, it's just biological, right?
19:37-19:39
It's just a biological thing.
19:39-19:43
I mean, you guys are a little too uptight about that.
19:43-19:46
It's just a biological function.
19:47-19:49
I mean, let me break it down for you.
19:49-20:00
and my tummy is hungry, and I see food, I'm like, well, I see a connection here.
20:00-20:02
You two were sort of made for each other.
20:03-20:04
Let's get this together, right?
20:05-20:07
It's obvious what needs to happen here.
20:08-20:10
The food needs to go in my tummy.
20:15-20:18
He applied that same logic to sex.
20:20-20:28
It's like, "Look, I have body parts and there is a woman, so it's obvious what needs to happen here.
20:28-20:36
These two were made for each other." You see, Paul shoots that one down, foolish thinking.
20:36-20:40
He goes, "Yeah, food and stomach, that's an appropriate match.
20:41-20:46
body doesn't match with sexual sin.
20:48-20:52
What body matches with is the Lord.
20:53-20:58
So your little analogy is fundamentally faulty.
21:00-21:04
And Paul says further, "More food for the stomach." That's a temporary thing.
21:08-21:10
That's just a temporary thing.
21:10-21:12
But your body is the Lord's.
21:14-21:15
That's an eternal thing.
21:16-21:26
In other words, Paul says your analogy breaks down because while digestion, yes, is a biological function, sex is not just a biological function.
21:26-21:28
It's not just a physical act.
21:28-21:28
It's not.
21:31-21:34
By the way, your body is not going to be destroyed.
21:35-21:36
It's going to be glorified.
21:36-21:52
14, Paul says, "And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by His power." Paul is saying, "Your body has a glorious destiny.
21:54-22:01
Don't use it for lust." Paul is like, "Bag that excuse.
22:01-22:03
It's just a biological function.
22:04-22:06
You are not a dog, okay?
22:08-22:15
This act of intimacy is more than just some biological function like eating or drinking.
22:19-22:23
That saying, "All things are lawful for me," boy, that one didn't go away, did it?
22:24-23:18
I think we all know people that are like the ultra-grace people that are like, "Hey, because Christ died for me, I can do whatever I want. I have freedom in Christ to do whatever I want." That mindset overtook the Corinthians, and so many Christians today have such a skewed view of God's Word. Look, liberty is not license. All right? Liberty is not license. And I want to say this with as much love and compassion as I can muster here, but you are either unregenerate or you're a toddler Christian if you think freedom in Christ is a green light for anything and everything that you want to do." Those were their sayings.
23:20-23:25
Boy, we could spend a lot of time talking about some of the sayings that we threw around in our day, right?
23:26-23:30
We have other popular sayings that we use to excuse sin.
23:31-23:32
I've heard them all.
23:34-23:40
Here's a big one, you've heard this one, when people want to excuse their sexual sin, they're like, "Everyone does it." You heard that one?
23:40-23:41
Everyone does it.
23:41-23:45
Oh, okay, that's the measure of what's appropriate, right?
23:45-23:47
As long as everybody's doing it, then it must be okay.
23:50-23:52
You can bag that excuse.
23:54-23:55
Here's one that I hate.
23:56-24:08
I've heard so many times people say, "Well, you wouldn't buy a car without test driving it, huh?" A problem with that analogy, we're talking about a human being, not a car.
24:08-24:17
If I go to a lot and test drive a car and decide not to buy it, that car isn't going to carry emotional damage with it for the rest of its life.
24:21-24:22
You use cars.
24:23-24:24
You don't use people.
24:25-24:27
Beg that excuse.
24:28-24:37
You hear people say, "Well, you know, come on, a man has needs." Yeah, yeah, a man does have needs.
24:37-24:38
A man needs Christ.
24:39-24:41
Let's focus on that need.
24:41-24:43
That's the most important need.
24:43-24:44
Let's go after that one.
24:45-24:46
Or how about this one?
24:48-24:49
"Oh, you don't understand.
24:49-25:01
We love each other." Okay, well if you love her that much, then you should enter into a covenant with her and honor the Lord with it.
25:02-25:10
But if you don't love her enough to enter the covenant with her in marriage, then you shouldn't be physical with her.
25:12-25:13
Beg that excuse.
25:15-25:18
Paul says, "Your body's not meant for sexual sin.
25:18-25:20
It's not meant for self-gratification.
25:20-25:21
It's meant for the Lord.
25:21-25:22
It has a glorious destiny.
25:22-25:31
And here's the bottom line, church, you are never going to repent if you're always looking for an excuse to sin.
25:36-25:43
So next time you are tempted, you need to stop and say, "I can't excuse sin.
25:44-25:45
I can't excuse this.
25:47-25:51
There's nothing I can say before God that would make this sin okay.
25:53-25:54
I can't excuse sin.
25:56-25:56
All right?
25:56-26:05
Number two, when you're tempted, you need to learn to stop and say this, "I am one with Christ.
26:07-26:09
I am one with Christ." Look at verses 15 through 17.
26:11-26:18
Paul goes on, he says, "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?
26:22-26:28
Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?
26:28-26:29
Never!
26:32-26:39
Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her?
26:41-26:45
Or, as it is written, the two will become one flesh.
26:48-26:54
But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.
26:55-26:57
I am one with Christ.
26:57-27:05
You see, Paul was talking to the Corinthians who were worshipping with the temple prostitutes.
27:06-27:16
Like you're taking a body, your body, the personal property of Jesus, and using it to gratify yourself in a relationship with a godless woman.
27:19-27:25
And this is equivalent to dragging Christ Himself into prostitution.
27:26-27:29
That is an absolutely horrible thought, but that's what He says.
27:31-27:32
Think about that.
27:33-27:38
Think about how repulsive and appalling this is.
27:38-27:39
Think about it.
27:42-27:46
I mean, would you call Pastor Taylor up and say, "Hey, a bunch of us are going down to the strip club.
27:46-27:48
You want to go with us?" Would you do that?
27:52-27:54
Not in a million years would I do that.
27:58-28:05
Or would you call up Pastor Rich and say, "Hey, we're going to go downtown and see if we can pick up some women.
28:05-28:10
You want to come with us?" You would never do that.
28:14-28:18
But see, the reality, according to God's Word, is far worse.
28:20-28:29
Because the Bible says we are one with Christ, and engaging in sexual immorality is joining Christ Himself in the act.
28:33-28:36
Be like asking Jesus to go pick up prostitutes with you.
28:40-28:41
Absolutely foul.
28:43-28:50
But you know, it's the same principle, men, when you're looking at things on your computer that you shouldn't be looking at.
28:51-28:52
It's the same principle.
28:52-29:15
It would be like calling Jesus up and saying, "Hey, why don't you come over and surf the net with me. Let's look at some stuff together. Would you do that? It's the same principle when you're sneaking around with a co-worker. "Hey Jesus, we're going to call my wife and say we're working late, but we're really going to meet up with so-and-so." Would you do that?
29:17-29:21
Or when you use an app to meet up with people for a physical relationship.
29:24-29:28
Look, if you're a Christian, the very thought of that's repulsive.
29:28-29:30
There's nothing funny about that at all.
29:32-29:36
So the next time you're tempted, you need to stop and say, "What am I doing?
29:36-29:39
I am one Spirit with Christ.
29:39-29:44
Why in the world would I drag the Lord into engaging in this garbage?
29:48-29:56
I'm one with Christ." Number three, four things to say to yourself when you're tempted.
29:56-30:00
Number three, God says to run from sexual sin.
30:02-30:11
Here it is, verse 18, "Flee from sexual immorality." Flee.
30:12-30:13
Get away.
30:18-30:19
This is how you win.
30:25-30:26
I grew up in the '80s.
30:28-30:38
And I, you know I never, I don't like bragging.
30:40-30:44
But I'm going to, for a couple of minutes if you'll indulge me.
30:47-30:52
But I grew up in the '80s, and one of my favorite things about the '80s was Mike Tyson.
30:54-31:00
Now some of you might remember, or might know of Mike Tyson, rather, seeing him in movies, or cartoons, or whatever.
31:01-31:02
That's not the Mike Tyson that I knew growing up.
31:03-31:05
Growing up, I could not wait.
31:06-31:23
HBO would show his fights, he'd come out with the ripped towel over his head, he had the coin laced in his boot, and he would just come out, and it would be like, "Ding, blaka blaka!" Like, "Ouch!" Look it up on the YouTubes if you don't believe me.
31:23-31:28
It was, he was an absolute monster.
31:32-31:39
You know, always the highlight, you know, to watch the usually 90-second fight or whatever.
31:41-31:44
But okay, I don't, but listen, like I said, I don't want to brag.
31:47-31:52
But I have never lost a fight to Mike Tyson.
31:56-31:58
And I know what some of you are thinking.
31:59-32:10
Some of you are thinking, "Yeah, Pastor Jeff, well, Mike Tyson probably didn't fight ten-year-olds." And I would say, "Look, my record speaks for itself.
32:12-32:19
I have never lost to Mike Tyson. Not one time. Do you know why I've never lost to Mike Tyson?
32:20-32:26
Because I wasn't stupid enough to show up to fight him. That's the principle here.
32:29-32:37
Look, it's the same thing with sexual sin. If you stay and try to fight, you will lose.
32:39-33:04
That's why you don't fight it. The Bible says you run from it. You run from it. And I got to tell you guys, that's why many of you are losing the battle with pornography today. You've isolated yourself again. You're on your computer or your phone again, and you lost again because you showed up.
33:08-33:22
That's why some of you continue to go too far physically with that person that you're not married to, because you ended up alone with her again, and you gave in to desire with her again.
33:22-33:26
You showed up again, and you lost again.
33:30-33:34
You will give in every time you show up.
33:35-33:37
That's why God says to run.
33:38-33:38
Run!
33:42-33:42
Why?
33:42-33:44
What's the urgency here?
33:44-33:45
Look at the rest of verse 18.
33:47-33:49
This is about as serious as it gets.
33:49-33:59
He says, "Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.
34:00-34:01
Please hear me.
34:01-34:09
Sexual sin is not the worst sin, but it is unique in its consequences.
34:10-34:15
The Bible says when you sin sexually, you are actually sinning against your own body.
34:18-34:23
Other sins don't affect you the same way that sexual sin does.
34:27-34:28
Other sins affect outwardly.
34:29-34:33
There's something different about sexual sin, it affects you inwardly.
34:39-34:40
Why is that?
34:40-34:41
Listen closely, please.
34:42-34:55
No other physical act that you commit in your body carries the spiritual weight that sexual intimacy does.
34:55-35:02
So no other sin is going to bring the impact that sexual sin brings.
35:07-35:10
It consumes, it destroys like no other sin.
35:13-35:21
You know, over the years I've seen a lot of preachers who have disqualified themselves for ministry because of sin.
35:22-35:24
Do you know what the most common reason is?
35:27-35:28
You could probably guess, huh?
35:31-35:32
I do a lot of counseling.
35:33-35:38
Do you know what's the most common area we find where people need help?
35:43-35:44
You probably guess.
35:46-35:53
We've lost ministry, we've hurt our families, we're doing damage control all because we didn't flee.
35:54-35:59
We showed up, we thought we could handle it this time, and we lost again.
36:02-36:04
Nobody's surprised but you.
36:06-36:20
So the next time you're tempted, stop, stop, and say, "This is so serious that God says I should run from it." All right?
36:21-36:25
And finally, number four, four things to say when you're tempted.
36:25-36:28
Number four, "My body belongs to God.
36:31-36:35
My body belongs to God." Look at verse 19.
36:37-36:51
He says, "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?" Humans have a unique capacity.
36:54-37:00
are the only thing in creation that have the ability to be indwelt by God Himself.
37:01-37:03
No other creature can say that.
37:05-37:10
God lives inside you if you're a follower of Christ, if you're a believer.
37:11-37:13
You know, you are the temple of God.
37:13-37:31
In the Old Testament, the temple of God was a building, and when Jesus walked the earth, The temple, the tabernacle of God was in one man, Jesus Christ, but now under the new covenant, God's temple is in the heart of every believer of Christ.
37:35-37:35
You're the temple.
37:38-37:38
What would you think?
37:40-37:54
What would you think of someone who, during sermon time today, they were looking at explicit of the opposite sex on their phone during the sermon, what would you think about that?
37:55-37:57
Wouldn't you just sort of be appalled?
38:00-38:04
Like, I can't believe during the preaching of the Bible somebody was looking at that.
38:04-38:05
Wouldn't that be appalling?
38:06-38:17
Or what would you think if there was someone in this church that was having an affair, and they decided that this room was a perfect private place?
38:17-38:22
Some night through the week when nobody's here, they sneak in here and have an affair right in this room.
38:22-38:23
What would you think about that?
38:24-38:28
Wouldn't you be like, "What is the matter with you?
38:28-38:39
You did that in church?" I don't want to burst any bubbles, but this room, this room is really nothing special.
38:40-38:41
This is an office building.
38:47-38:49
That was a rumpus room before we moved in here.
38:51-38:53
And who knows what they'll do with it when we're gone.
38:54-38:56
This room is nothing special at all.
38:59-39:02
You are the temple of God.
39:02-39:04
You are holy property.
39:04-39:15
God says, "You are where I live." So every time you commit sexual sin, no matter where you do it, you're doing it in God's living room.
39:19-39:35
He goes on, look at verse 19, he says, "You are not your own, for you were bought with a price to glorify God in your body." You have a holy obligation to Jesus.
39:35-39:36
You are not your own.
39:37-39:40
Listen, you have no right to yourself.
39:44-39:53
You have no right to yourself, because you were bought with a price.
39:55-39:56
What did it cost to buy you?
39:58-40:00
It cost the blood of Jesus Christ.
40:08-40:10
You know, everybody is so concerned about their rights.
40:12-40:14
"I have rights!
40:15-40:16
I'm going to stand up for my rights!
40:17-40:24
I know my rights!" You know, as Christians, we have no rights.
40:25-40:26
Did you know that?
40:30-40:34
As a Christian, all I can say is, I'm not my own.
40:36-40:37
I don't even belong to myself.
40:40-40:44
This body belongs to Jesus.
40:45-40:47
This body was heading to hell.
40:48-40:56
This body was going to be separated from God forever, and Jesus Christ bought this back with His own death.
40:57-40:59
So this belongs to Jesus.
40:59-41:00
He paid for it.
41:04-41:13
So, you know the saying that was so popular, and there's still remnants of it, people walking around going, "My body, my choice." That's not biblical.
41:15-41:34
You want to make it biblical, you say it this way, "Christ's body, Christ's choice." So, he says, "So, glorify God in your body." We are a wholly motivated church.
41:34-41:36
We are wholly motivated.
41:36-41:38
Our highest priority is to glorify God.
41:40-41:51
Physical intimacy in the covenant of marriage, the purpose for which God designed intimacy, When that act occurs, that glorifies God.
41:52-42:00
And refusing to allow your passions to control you, when you flee from sexual immorality, you glorify God.
42:03-42:07
So next time you're tempted, you need to stop and say, "No, no, no.
42:09-42:19
This belongs to God." You know, the church is called the Bride of Christ.
42:22-42:35
Jesus desires intimacy with His bride, so He entered a covenant with His bride, and He keeps His covenant because He is faithful to His bride.
42:35-42:39
And that is exactly what we are called to emulate as children of God.
42:40-42:49
I keep my covenant to my bride because that's what my Lord does." Her worship team would make their way back up front.
42:53-42:58
Look, when you leave here today, at some point you're going to be tempted.
43:00-43:09
You're going to be tempted to think of something you shouldn't, to look at something you shouldn't, to do something that you shouldn't.
43:09-43:34
going to be tempted. Some of you, it might be tomorrow or Wednesday. Some of you, it might be on your way to the car from church. I want to encourage you, if that's a struggle for you, keep this outline and make it a steady habit in your devotions to read and review These principles from God's Word.
43:36-43:45
If you're unmarried and you keep finding yourself tempted, sit down and read these together with your boyfriend or girlfriend.
43:48-43:53
How about you make these four statements the lock screen on your phone?
43:55-43:59
I can't excuse sin because there is no excuse.
44:00-44:03
Number two, I am one with Christ.
44:06-44:09
God says to run from sexual sin.
44:11-44:14
And my body belongs to God.
44:16-44:16
Let's pray.
44:20-44:32
Our Father in heaven, I pray, Father, again by the power of your Holy Spirit, by the wisdom of your Word that today would be the day of repentance.
44:34-44:46
That some people for too long have just made excuses or shrugged their shoulders or have just given up any thought that this is a sin that can be avoided.
44:47-45:07
I pray today, Father, that we reexamine the purpose of it and that we would be a people You are truly wholly motivated to enjoy this gift in the way which you told us to enjoy.
45:09-45:22
Thank you, Father, for this glorious picture that you've given us of Christ faithful to His bride.
45:25-45:26
Give us the faith to imitate that.
45:26-45:28
We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read 1 Corinthians 6:12-20

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Explain the expressions the Corinthians used to justify sexual sin (1 Cor 6:12-13)?
What expressions do people use today? How do you refute those?
How exactly is sexual sin different from other sins (1 Cor 6:18)?
How would you respond to a Christian that justifies their sin by saying, “I have freedom in
Christ to live how I want!”? (See 1 Cor 6:19-20)

Breakout

Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

January 25, 2026

Get Unified, Unified and Purified

Deal with Disputes

Jeff Miller

January 25, 2026

Get Unified, Unified and Purified

Introduction:

In a church dispute? Remember your Relationship… (1 Corinthians 6:1-11)

To OTHER BELIEVERS: we RECONCILE. (1 Cor 6:1-5)

1 Corinthians 5:12 – For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?
To THE WORLD: we REPRESENT. (1 Cor 6:6-8)
To SIN: we RENOUNCE. (1 Cor 6:9-10)

Genesis 2:16–17 – And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Titus 2:11–12 – For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,
To JESUS CHRIST: we are RENEWED. (1 Cor 6:11)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:43-00:47
Well, good morning, wherever you are today.
00:47-00:47
Welcome.
00:48-00:49
My name is Justin.
00:49-00:51
I'm one of the elders here at Harvest.
00:52-01:03
And as we get started, I would just like to ask that you would pray for me to faithfully and clearly communicate God's word, and I will pray for you to have hearts to receive it.
01:05-01:05
Amen.
01:06-01:14
Well, today we're going to be talking about dealing with disputes, disagreements, beef, as the kids say.
01:15-01:17
Do the kids still say beef, Pastor Jeff?
01:17-01:19
Okay, confirmed.
01:20-01:28
I too was young once, but as a college student, one thing my roommates and I never had beef over was where to order pizza.
01:29-01:32
Listen, four guys in an apartment, that's a big decision.
01:33-01:34
But we found our place.
01:35-01:42
Piazza's Pizza, home to the largest pizza that I've ever seen, the Big Piazza.
01:43-01:46
It was the best price-to-food ratio in the city.
01:48-01:51
The box was so big, it didn't even fit through the door.
01:51-01:54
You had to tilt it just to get it inside.
01:56-01:58
It would feed all of us for a whole weekend.
01:59-02:05
And actually, one of those weekends, a few of my friends from home came up to visit.
02:05-02:10
And so, of course, we wanted to treat them to a big piazza.
02:11-02:12
But there was a dispute.
02:14-02:33
My roommates and I tried to explain to them how enormous this pizza was, but my friends kept insisting, "Look, we need to order two." And we're like, "Guys, you haven't seen this pizza." And they're like, "Guys, you don't know how hungry we are.
02:33-02:35
We need at least two.
02:36-02:37
Okay?
02:38-02:42
So eventually, we gave up, and we ordered two big piazzas.
02:44-02:50
And, you know, after dinner, I couldn't believe it, but we actually finished half of one.
02:52-03:06
And that's when the real dispute started, because we tried to tell them we just needed one, but the problem is, according to them, we didn't eat our share, because they insisted we needed to.
03:07-03:14
So then wild claims started flying around both sides about how many slices each side ate.
03:15-03:21
And this morning, I'd actually like to present you with some evidence so you can draw your own conclusions.
03:22-03:26
Exhibit A, this is the big piazza.
03:27-03:30
And even that, I tell you, the photo doesn't do it justice.
03:31-03:43
But I added some analysis to this photo because one member of the opposition has repeatedly stated that he alone consumed 25 slices.
03:45-03:47
Exhibit B, this is his claim.
03:49-03:51
And I'm telling you, I was there that night.
03:51-03:57
If he ate that much pizza in one sitting, we were going to spend the night in Rochester General Hospital.
03:58-03:58
Okay?
03:59-03:59
Church.
04:00-04:00
It was crazy.
04:01-04:09
Now, we are close to the 20th anniversary of that meal, and the battle is still raging on.
04:10-04:22
As far as I'm aware, this is the longest-running dispute I've ever been a part of, debating it, step-by-step, recounting what happened, and of course, laughter.
04:24-04:29
Because this dispute, though still being disputed, It didn't threaten our friendships.
04:30-04:42
It's a silly dispute, but I share it with you because the way that we handle disputes, that often depends on our relationship to the other side, true or false.
04:44-04:53
When we are in a dispute, our relationship to the person or our relationship to the situation, that determines our response.
04:54-05:00
Best friends can accuse each other of pizza malpractice for decades and be totally fine.
05:02-05:05
But for real disputes, think about it.
05:06-05:08
Which ones are the hardest to resolve?
05:09-05:15
The ones within a family, or with a close friend, or someone you looked up to.
05:17-05:23
It's far more difficult to deal with offense from someone that you know deeply than from someone that you don't know at all.
05:24-05:30
An argument that escalates, a disagreement grows into something much more.
05:31-05:32
Most of us have been there.
05:33-05:37
And that can even happen here, within the church family.
05:38-05:41
How do we deal with those disputes?
05:43-05:48
Well, if you have your Bibles, you can open them to 1 Corinthians 6, where we're going to dig into that.
05:50-05:54
We deal with disputes because we're going after a church unified and purified.
05:55-05:55
Amen?
05:56-06:02
And last week, Pastor Jeff taught how to get purified when there's sin in the church.
06:02-06:10
When someone claims Christ, yet is living in unrepentant sin, and they refuse help, they want their sin to be accepted.
06:11-06:13
What do you do with that person?
06:15-06:25
The Bible says, "Let him who has done this be removed from among you." And you might think, harsh, that doesn't sound like a thing a church should do.
06:26-06:31
Well, if you missed it, read 1 Corinthians 5 and listen to the sermon online.
06:32-06:35
You'll find out that's what the church must do.
06:36-06:50
Now this week, we read Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, discussing disputes within the church and just like arguments about pizza, we have to remember the relationships involved.
06:51-06:58
So on your outline today, in a church dispute, remember your relationship.
06:59-07:03
Number one, to other believers, we reconcile.
07:05-07:07
So 1 Corinthians 6, are you there?
07:09-07:10
Let's read the first verse.
07:12-07:28
It says, "When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?" So Paul is calling out the Corinthians for dragging their disputes out into the court system.
07:29-07:43
He says, "Church, why are you going before unrighteous, corrupt courts for this?" But please understand in this passage, Paul is talking about civil cases, not criminal cases.
07:44-07:49
This is not about someone breaking the law and being charged with a crime, OK?
07:50-07:57
This is about a private dispute between two parties, and they just can't figure it out.
07:58-08:01
So they end up taking each other to court over something trivial.
08:03-08:06
Now, we see trivial lawsuits today, don't we?
08:08-08:13
Have you ever seen those courtroom shows where they give you the rundown up front?
08:14-08:18
He's here suing for a $67 cell phone bill.
08:20-08:25
You hired a lawyer and got on a plane to Los Angeles over $67.
08:27-08:29
You're going to take someone to court over that.
08:30-08:31
Same idea.
08:32-08:35
You'll see the trivial part as we pick up in verse two.
08:37-08:40
It says, "Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world?
08:41-08:47
And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases?
08:48-08:50
Do you not know that we are to judge angels?
08:51-08:54
How much more then matters pertaining to this life?
08:54-09:00
So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church?
09:01-09:02
I say this to your shame.
09:03-09:09
Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers?
09:10-09:11
We'll pause there for a moment.
09:13-09:17
Paul is saying we should be able to resolve these disputes internally.
09:19-09:21
He's saying we are called to judge.
09:22-09:32
If that sounds familiar, we saw it in 1 Corinthians 5, where verse 12 says, "For what have I to do with judging outsiders?
09:33-10:09
"Is it not those inside the church are to judge. Not judging motives, because we can't see the heart, but we are required to judge actions. We judge the fruit. Now, what does Paul mean with this "saints," meaning believers? What does he mean with this "judging the world and angels" business? Well, he's referring to the concept of the children of God reigning with Jesus Christ in his victory. True. But we're not even going to get into all that, because Paul is using it for irony.
10:09-10:20
Like, "Oh, you who will judge the world, you who will judge angels, why are you taking all your disputes to small-claims court?" That's what they were doing.
10:21-10:23
And actually, it was even worse than that.
10:25-10:31
Because history tells us that in Paul's day, civil courts were completely corrupt.
10:32-10:37
You couldn't even bring a case against someone who had a higher social standing than you.
10:38-10:49
And when a case did make it to the courts, judges and juries would expect a kickback for a verdict in your favor, either a payment or something to help them with their standing.
10:50-11:01
So the church in Corinth was not only suing each other, they were using the legal system to abuse or shake down fellow Christians of lower status.
11:02-11:03
It's childish.
11:04-11:12
And parents know, you train young children to resolve their disputes themselves, but it takes a lot of training.
11:13-11:16
Use your words, talk it out.
11:17-11:19
How would you feel if she said that to you?
11:21-11:25
But until they mature, what's most often the outcome?
11:26-11:28
Running to mom or dad to make a ruling.
11:29-11:39
And sure, parents do need to step in sometimes, But more often than not, it's a dispute that could have been resolved with a conversation and some humility.
11:40-11:41
But they're kids.
11:42-11:45
They don't have the required patience or wisdom just yet.
11:47-11:55
Paul is saying the church should be mature enough to use wisdom to resolve things internally instead of using lawsuits.
11:56-12:02
But even if we avoid the courthouse, we can still struggle with disputes as a church.
12:04-12:12
If a church member offends you, intentionally or unintentionally, you don't sue them, but how do you react?
12:13-12:14
Do you let it go?
12:15-12:20
Or if it's just too much to let it go, do you talk to them about it?
12:21-12:22
Or do you just avoid them?
12:24-12:36
Or how many churches have gone through gigantic disputes over decisions like the carpet color or chairs versus pews or the volume level during worship.
12:37-12:41
Is stuff like that worth disunity with your brothers and sisters?
12:44-12:53
Now, 1 Corinthians 6 doesn't outline practical steps that we should follow instead, but we know them from other places in scripture.
12:54-13:05
Matthew 18, for example, tells us to go first the person directly, and if they don't listen, bring some others, and if they still don't listen, bring it before the church.
13:06-13:11
That's the general path things should run, and some situations point us to other scripture too.
13:13-13:17
But the charge in these verses is to judge wisely.
13:18-13:27
But these Matthew 18 conversations or conversations going to someone for counsel, they cannot be about gossip.
13:28-13:30
That's just as destructive as a lawsuit.
13:32-13:37
These conversations must be done with one goal in mind, reconciliation.
13:38-13:44
As believers, we ask for forgiveness and forgive each other in order to be reconciled.
13:45-13:46
That's who we are.
13:47-13:48
That's what God's family does.
13:50-13:56
By His grace, some of us grew up in God-fearing homes that demonstrated that's how a family works.
13:58-14:13
But many of us either grew up in, or we've seen, family situations where that's not the case, where there is no repentance, no forgiveness, no reconciliation.
14:15-14:35
might think, "Yeah, I've seen bitterness and I've seen grudges in a family, but reconciliation, forgiving one another? I've never seen a family like that." And that's why, as a church, we must show the world that in Christ, we are different.
14:36-14:40
We have to show them what God's family is like.
14:41-15:04
which is why, number two on your outline, in a church dispute, remember your relationship, number two, to the world we represent. So as believers, what does our relationship to the world have to do with our disputes? Well, rewind to the end of verse five.
15:06-15:26
It says, "Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers? But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers?" Before unbelievers. That's similar to what we saw back in verse 1, before the unrighteous.
15:28-15:32
We talked about the Corinthians lacking godly wisdom, but there's another problem.
15:33-15:38
taking all these disputes out into the world, what does that do to our witness?
15:41-16:02
If the city of Corinth always saw the church in scandal or suing each other, what did that communicate to them about the gospel message? We have to remember that part of our relationship to the world is that Jesus called us to represent him to the world, re-present Jesus to the world.
16:03-16:14
Now, listen, I'm not saying we should be concerned about image in the sense that we are "marketing" church and reality is another thing.
16:15-16:15
No.
16:16-16:19
Our concern is authentically following Jesus.
16:20-16:28
We want people to see what it looks like to be transformed by Christ and living in a Christ-centered community.
16:29-16:31
It's not about projecting some image.
16:32-16:33
It's about our identity.
16:34-16:38
Our witness is being like Jesus and telling people about him.
16:39-16:46
So infighting, legal battles, manipulation, that's what everybody else does.
16:47-16:49
God's people are called to be different.
16:50-16:54
If we act like the world, we've already lost.
16:55-17:08
like it says in verse 7. It says, "To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?
17:08-17:30
But you yourselves wrong and defraud, even your own brothers." Now again, let me emphasize that we are not talking about criminal cases. But Paul is saying it it would be better to just lose your money in the dispute than sue your church brother over these petty issues.
17:32-17:38
Or again, maybe you're not actually going to court, but you still might need to suffer wrong.
17:39-17:39
What do I mean?
17:41-17:47
Have you ever been in a dispute where maybe you're 10 percent wrong and the other person is 90 percent wrong?
17:48-17:54
Sometimes we still want to justify ourselves and bang the table about how less wrong we were.
17:56-17:57
What about humbling yourself?
17:58-18:02
What about taking the hit and saying, "You know, you're right.
18:03-18:04
"I was wrong.
18:04-18:15
"Will you please forgive me?" Our natural reaction is, "Why should I humble myself when they're wrong too?" Because of who we represent.
18:17-18:23
Jesus is our example of humility, and we are that example to those around us.
18:24-18:31
So to claim Christ and act like Paul describes here is a failure in our job as representatives.
18:34-18:39
And you know, I talked a little bit about pizza earlier, but you know what else I like?
18:40-18:41
Frozen bananas.
18:43-18:48
Well, I should be specific, chocolate-covered frozen bananas, delicious.
18:50-18:57
One time, I went into an ice cream shop where I had gotten one before, but I didn't see any in the case in the front.
18:58-19:18
So I thought, "Oh, they might have some in the back in the freezer." So I asked the woman working, "Do you have any frozen bananas?" And my friends who were there still quote her answer to me because she said, "Does it look like we have any frozen bananas?" Okay.
19:19-19:23
I said, "Thank you." And I walked out without any dessert.
19:24-19:30
Now, do you think the owner of the ice cream shop felt like she represented the store well that day?
19:32-19:32
No.
19:33-19:40
Just like employees represent their workplace, as a body of believers, we represent Christ.
19:41-19:46
If you claim Christ, you are his representative, period.
19:47-20:07
In a world where everyone's flying off the handle at every disagreement, screaming or storming out of every issue, imagine the witness of a church that works through things together in love, using the highest authority of our life, God's word, to untangle the issue.
20:08-20:14
No, it's not always easy, but the world will look and say, "What's going on over there?
20:14-20:28
"I wanna be a part of that." But we have to step back and review for a moment, because I don't want anyone to walk away with the wrong idea.
20:29-20:39
So far, we've talked about resolving disputes in-house, not dragging disagreements to the court, and how we are presenting ourselves to the world.
20:40-21:08
Those concepts could be sinfully twisted into an excuse to cover up sin. Now, we don't need to review all the sickening things that have been covered up by churches all over the world. Sinful men have tried to hide their sin, tried to hide abuse by saying things like, "Let's keep this in house." No, they are wrong.
21:10-21:15
This passage is not about covering things up or ignoring sin.
21:16-21:20
Abuse, in court or otherwise, is sin.
21:21-21:23
Covering up sin is sin.
21:24-21:29
A forced reconciliation is a false reconciliation.
21:31-21:36
Ignoring sin for the sake of the church's witness is a false witness.
21:37-21:44
If someone's sinful act is a criminal act, then the correct response is to hand them over to the authorities.
21:45-21:47
And that's God's idea, not mine.
21:47-21:48
See Romans 13.
21:50-21:51
I just want to be crystal clear.
21:53-21:58
Paul, just like in chapter 5, is calling for the opposite of a cover-up.
21:58-22:04
He's calling us to recognize and remove flagrant, unrepentant sin.
22:06-22:09
And that distinction is important because we all sin.
22:10-22:19
It's not like, "Oh, I was coveting my friend's car yesterday, and last week, last week, I had a lustful thought.
22:20-22:34
Guess I have to leave Harvest Bible Chapel." No, of course all of us struggle with sin, but we commit that as a family, we're here to walk with each other in becoming purified by our Lord.
22:35-23:03
We need each other's support and encouragement as each one of us turns away from our sin daily to become more like Jesus Christ. In fact, in him, we must renounce any relationship that we have to sin. Point number three on your outline today. In a church dispute, remember your relationship, Number three, to sin.
23:04-23:05
We renounce.
23:07-23:09
Let's pick up in verse nine.
23:11-23:16
It says, "Or do you not know that the unrighteous "will not inherit the kingdom of God?
23:16-23:18
"Do not be deceived.
23:18-25:16
"Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, "nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, "nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." Now, reading this after the previous section can seem jarring. Paul is talking about disputes, the courts, and then he drops into this list of sins for which someone will not enter heaven. Now, understand that Paul is talking about a lifestyle of unrepentant, continual sin. Committing one of these sins, or any sin in isolation, does not automatically banish a person from heaven if that person repents of their sin and believes in the work of Jesus for their forgiveness. But what is the connection here to verses one to eight? Well, two things. First, verse one asked if believers dare take their case before the unrighteous. And then here it says, "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?" Paul is saying, Church, you should resolve your disputes instead of bringing them before people who are living in reckless sin for them to decide. You're like, "Don't worry, I keep beef out of the legal system." Okay, well, do you bring your church disputes before unbelieving friends or family? Do you complain about the church or people in the church at work or on social media, that is bringing your case before the unrighteous for them to judge.
25:18-25:24
Now, as for the second connection, recall the underhanded dealings of these civil courts.
25:25-26:23
People in the church were using their influence and status to manipulate other Christians via lawsuits to take advantage of their own brothers for their gain. That sin belongs in this list too. See, this isn't a random list of sinfulness. This list is about not being content and reaching out of bounds to get more. And really, that goes all the way back to the first sin, doesn't it? Back in Genesis, God told Adam, "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.'" But Adam and Eve ultimately were not content with that.
26:25-26:28
And so they reached outside the bounds that God created.
26:30-26:33
That's the same root as every sin in this list.
26:34-26:41
God says that sexual intimacy is between one man and one woman within the covenant of marriage.
26:41-27:03
But people say, "I'm not content with that." be it adultery, homosexuality, or any form of sexual immorality, instead of receiving God's gift as He intended, they reach outside God's design to take something else or idolatry.
27:04-27:39
God says we should worship Him and only Him, but people say, "I'm not content with that." They worship money, success, celebrity. They reach outside of what they know in their heart to worship anything but God. What about drunkards or revilers, people who abuse alcohol or verbally abuse others? God set a boundary around drunkenness and a boundary on our speech, but they say, "I'm not content with that.
27:41-27:51
I will drink how I want and I'll say what I want." Or thieves, the greedy, swindlers, whatever they have, they say, "I'm not content with that.
27:52-28:08
I want more, and I'm willing to reach out and take it, even if it means stealing from my own family." And that's where the Corinthian church was, reaching out of bounds to take from their brothers and sisters.
28:10-28:13
Paul says their sin is the same as these.
28:14-28:23
And if you live a life of unrepentant, habitual sin, a life reaching out of bounds, you will not inherit the kingdom of God.
28:27-28:33
So, church, we have to ask ourselves, What should our relationship be to sin?
28:35-28:59
Titus 2.11 says, "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age." We must renounce sin.
29:00-30:25
That's our relationship. Not embracing it, not excusing it, but rejecting it, turning away, running away. How do we do that? Well, praise the Lord, we are about to read some of the most incredible words in scripture on that topic. Our last point today. You must remember your relationship, number four, to Jesus Christ. We are renewed. 1st Corinthians chapter 6 verse 11, it says, "And such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the the Spirit of our God. And such were some of you." Some translations say, "And this is what some of you used to be." Paul is saying, "You used to do these things, but God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to take the punishment for your sin upon himself. He bore that sin in his death on the cross, and then conquering death, rose And this verse applies to anyone who will repent and believe in him as their savior.
30:27-30:32
Now, you might think that stuff that you used to do is too much to overcome.
30:33-30:36
You're afraid Jesus knows who you were.
30:37-30:43
Well, Jesus knows your whole story and he still invites you into a relationship with him.
30:44-30:49
He wants to release you from your sin and bring you true contentment.
30:50-30:52
So repent and believe.
30:53-30:57
As it says here, if you believe, you were washed clean.
30:58-31:03
Sin from your past, present, and future has been washed away in the name of Jesus.
31:05-31:10
You were sanctified, meaning you were set apart as holy, and you are being made holy.
31:11-31:14
God is shaping you into what he already calls you.
31:16-31:20
and you were justified, meaning the charges of sin against you have been dropped.
31:20-31:21
You're innocent.
31:22-31:26
That lifestyle of unrepentant sin, that's who you used to be.
31:27-31:28
You are made new.
31:30-31:38
In a dispute, you must remember your relationship with Jesus Christ because that relationship determines all other relationships.
31:40-31:48
But some might think, if I have that relationship with Christ, And if I'm made new, why do I still sin?
31:49-31:53
Why do we still have disputes and disagreements and fights?
31:56-31:57
I read one scholar put it this way.
31:59-32:04
Imagine, I know this is gonna be hard to believe, that you were caught in a snowstorm.
32:06-32:06
Shouldn't be too hard.
32:08-32:14
You're covered in snow, totally freezing, and you feel like you might not make it.
32:15-32:22
But somehow, you crawl and you make it back to your house, and you get inside.
32:23-32:25
The room is warm.
32:26-32:27
Maybe a fireplace is going.
32:28-32:29
You're saved!
32:31-32:39
But even though you're safe, standing in the warmth, it's going to take some time for the ice in your pockets to thaw out.
32:41-32:42
You see the picture.
32:43-32:49
You are secure in Christ, but not all of your sin has melted away yet.
32:50-32:53
That won't be totally complete until we reach heaven.
32:54-33:06
Until then, through our relationship with Christ, we are safe indoors being justified, and we're thawing out being sanctified at the same time.
33:08-33:15
So as we close, I hope you see how and why the church must deal with disputes in a godly way.
33:17-33:20
We should be able to handle that stuff through Jesus.
33:21-33:29
Next time you're in a dispute, step back and remember, this is my brother or sister in Christ.
33:29-33:32
My goal is to be reconciled with them.
33:33-33:36
Remember that we are representing Christ to the world.
33:37-33:42
The way that we interact should reflect our Lord, showing the world that Jesus works.
33:44-33:49
Remember that we've renounced sin, and we lovingly help each other do that.
33:50-33:52
We don't manipulate others.
33:52-33:55
We don't reach out of bounds, grabbing for more.
33:56-33:57
That's not who we are.
33:58-33:59
Because who are we?
34:01-35:00
that in Jesus we are a people renewed. We don't serve sin or our selfish desires anymore. Together, unified and purified, we serve our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let's pray together. Lord God, I thank you for your word. God, I thank you for the church, and I pray God that when we face disputes, we would face with godly wisdom and character, love and patience, God, that we may be reconciled, that we may be a light into the world around us. We pray and ask for your mercy, God, upon us now and we ask for you to guide us in these matters. Let us be a church unified and purified for your glory, Lord God. In Jesus' name, Amen.
35:00-35:00
Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read 1 Corinthians 6:1-11

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
How should disputes within the church family be resolved? How does that process differ for disputes with unbelievers?
How and why must the church faithfully guard its witness to the world?
Paul says those listed in 1 Cor. 6:9-10 will not inherit the kingdom of God. What does he mean by that?
If we are made new in Jesus Christ, why do we still struggle with sin? How can we come alongside each other as believers in that struggle?

Breakout

Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

January 18, 2026

Get Unified, Unified and Purified

Deal with Sinners

Jeff Miller

January 18, 2026

Get Unified, Unified and Purified

Introduction:

Get Purified: When There's Sin in the Church... (1 Corinthians 5:1-13)

RECOGNIZE sin. (1 Cor 5:1-2)

Ephesians 5:3 - But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.
REMOVE the sinner. (1 Cor 5:3-5)

Proverbs 22:10 - Drive out a scoffer, and strife will go out, and quarreling and abuse will cease.

Titus 3:10 - As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him...

What do we hope to accomplish by throwing him out?
1. In His heart: We hope He's ASHAMED.
  
  2 Thessalonians 3:14 - If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed.
2. In His head: We hope He LEARNS.
  
  1 Timothy 1:20 - Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.
3. In His body: We hope He SUFFERS.
4. In His Spirit: We hope He REPENTS.
REMEMBER the purpose. (1 Cor 5:6-8)
RESTRICT discipline to believers. (1 Cor 5:9-13)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:45-00:46
Open up those Bibles.
00:47-00:49
The book of 1 Corinthians 5.
00:51-00:54
1 Corinthians 5.
00:59-00:59
Imagine a scenario with me.
01:00-01:10
You go to the doctor because you have a suspicious looking spot on your skin, and the doctor gives you the news you don't want to hear.
01:11-02:00
have skin cancer. So for the good of the body, for the health of the body, what needs to happen with that spot? You have to remove it, right? Right? You have to remove it. Or if you go to a doctor and they find out that you have cancer in your kidney, for the health of the body, what do you have to do? You have to remove it, right? If it's on your skin, for the health of the body you remove it. If it's on your kidney, for the health of the body you remove it. And what if there's cancer in the church? All of a sudden the Brakes got pumped a little bit, didn't they?
02:03-02:04
Same principle.
02:06-02:13
For the health of the body, it has to be removed.
02:16-02:18
We're getting back into 1 Corinthians.
02:18-02:23
Remember the first four chapters, one message really.
02:23-02:24
It was get unified.
02:27-02:32
Paul pointed out the Corinthians had a lot of problems with pride and boasting and factions.
02:33-02:34
Get unified.
02:34-02:35
Knock it off.
02:36-02:37
Alright, next subject.
02:38-02:40
Takes us to our next section here.
02:41-02:42
Get purified.
02:44-02:48
There was another problem in the church.
02:49-02:56
There was someone who claimed to be a Christian but was living in flagrant, unrepentant sin.
03:00-03:01
What do you do with that guy?
03:03-03:04
Let's just pause for a moment.
03:04-03:06
I'm going to ask you to please pray for me.
03:08-03:14
To be faithful to communicate what God's Word says, I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive it.
03:15-03:16
Let's pray.
03:19-03:20
Father, be glorified.
03:23-03:25
Be glorified as we spend this time in Your Word.
03:25-03:38
glorified in the hearts of every one of us, that we would be very quick to disregard our opinions and have a heart to embrace Your truth.
03:43-03:45
We thank You ahead of time, Father, for what You're going to do.
03:46-03:50
Whatever that looks like to us, I guess doesn't really matter.
03:53-04:21
what you do, Father. We pray in Jesus' name. And all of God's people said, "Amen." So what do you do? What do you do when there's someone in the church who claims to be a believer, but they're living in obvious, flagrant, unrepentant sin? What do you do with that person? We're going to get right into it on your outline. Get purified. When there's sin in the church, What do you do?
04:23-04:27
First of all, number one, write this down, recognize sin.
04:28-04:29
How about we start there?
04:31-04:32
Look at verse 1 in chapter 5.
04:35-04:46
Paul says, "It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you." Stop right there for a second.
04:49-04:50
What is sexual immorality?
04:52-04:53
What is that?
04:57-04:58
I know what the words mean.
05:00-05:07
I don't need a definition, but in our day, can somebody give me an example of what is sexual immorality?
05:10-05:13
Because it seems like we live in a day that anything goes.
05:15-05:19
So how can we say anything is immoral if everything is okay?
05:23-05:24
What even is that?
05:28-05:29
Well, he goes on.
05:30-05:31
Look at the rest of verse 1.
05:34-05:42
He says, "It's reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is is not tolerated even among pagans.
05:45-05:58
For a man has his father's wife." Okay, now, I'm not going to bore you with the homework, but according to the Greek text, here's what's going on.
05:59-06:05
There was a man who married, had a kid, and his wife dies.
06:06-06:16
and he remarries, probably a much younger woman, and his son has the hots for his stepmother.
06:18-06:20
And they start a relationship.
06:21-06:31
And the man ends up divorcing the wife, the stepmom, because the Bible doesn't say they committed adultery, it says they committed fornication.
06:31-06:42
So the man divorced his second wife, but his son continued an ongoing sexual relationship with his stepmother.
06:47-06:49
Pretty shocking sin, isn't it?
06:51-06:54
But not as shocking as the church's reaction.
06:57-07:07
Paul's like, "What are you doing? What are you doing?" Even pagans would look at this and be like, "You're sick, bro! What are you doing?
07:07-07:17
You're sleeping with your stepmother?" Paul's like, "Pagans are gagging at this thought.
07:18-07:21
Church, what are you doing?
07:21-07:29
You're just allowing this to happen?" You know, the church today is just like Corinth.
07:31-07:34
We church, we live right in the middle of Sodom.
07:36-07:53
And sin in general, and sexual sin specifically, we have - I don't need to sell anybody on this - we have very quickly moved from tolerating it, which is bad enough to applauding sexual sin.
07:57-07:58
What do you think about that, Paul?
07:59-08:00
Look at verse 2.
08:01-08:03
He says, "And you are arrogant.
08:03-08:06
Ought you not rather to mourn?
08:07-08:15
Let him who has done this be removed from among you." Paul's like, "What are you doing?
08:15-08:17
This should grieve you as a church.
08:17-08:21
Having one of your members be in sexual sin.
08:21-08:24
You should be sad about this.
08:25-08:27
He goes, "You're so arrogant.
08:27-08:31
You're so full of yourselves." That's what he was talking about in chapters 1-4.
08:35-08:38
Constantly spraining their arms, patting themselves on the back.
08:43-08:46
See, so sick.
08:46-09:05
In Corinth, we saw this in the first four chapters, they made a big deal out of who the best preacher was, and then they make a very little deal out of flagrant, unrepentant sexual sin.
09:09-09:10
Not much has changed there.
09:10-09:12
The church is great at that, aren't we?
09:12-09:13
We're great at that.
09:14-09:16
We will make a big deal out of nonsense.
09:16-09:21
Oh no, we'll fight about little points of doctrine that will never get figured out.
09:21-09:22
We'll fight about that.
09:22-09:30
But one of our members can be living a destructive, sinful lifestyle and we're like, "Oh, what can you do?" And we'll ignore that.
09:34-09:44
Just like Corinth, Paul tells them and us how to deal with the sinner.
09:44-09:58
But I think first we've got to make sure that we recognize what sin is, because I think in the landscape of the church today we've forgotten that such a thing even exists.
10:02-10:03
Do we recognize sin?
10:06-10:19
See, in Corinth, we're going to talk more about this here in a couple weeks, but the Greeks saw sex as a merely biological function.
10:20-10:21
That's all it was.
10:22-10:23
Sex was just a biological function.
10:24-10:25
It's like this.
10:26-10:28
You're hungry, you eat, right?
10:28-10:29
That's just natural.
10:30-10:32
and you're thirsty, you drink.
10:33-10:34
That's just natural.
10:34-10:44
And you have those urges, you just do it because it's just natural to do that.
10:47-10:51
You know what the problem was in Corinth and in our church today?
10:51-10:52
Same problem.
10:53-11:01
We have lost the idea that marriage and sexuality are sacred things.
11:02-11:03
We've lost that.
11:03-11:05
We have completely lost that concept.
11:08-11:17
There is no idea around this is a holy and sacred and precious thing that needs to be protected.
11:18-11:20
We become a bunch of dogs.
11:24-11:26
You study God's Word.
11:26-11:30
Do you know how sacred marriage and sexuality is?
11:30-11:31
I mean, this is God's picture.
11:32-11:35
God says, "I have this." And this is all the way from creation.
11:35-11:36
God says, "I have this design.
11:37-11:47
I'm gonna take a man and a woman, and these two are going to enter a lifelong covenant with each other." They're gonna make this lifelong commitment, this covenant.
11:48-11:54
They're gonna have a relationship with each other that's unlike the relationship they have with anybody else on the earth.
11:55-11:58
and two will become one.
11:59-12:06
And the physical manifestation of two becoming one is the act of intimacy.
12:08-12:16
They're going to know each other in a way that no one else knows either of them.
12:16-12:18
They know each other that way.
12:18-12:20
This is a sacred thing.
12:20-12:25
We find out in the New Testament It's a picture of the gospel.
12:28-12:34
God enters a covenant with His people and has an intimate relationship with His people.
12:34-12:35
It's a picture.
12:36-12:37
And it's sacred.
12:39-12:47
The church, when we abandon God's design, we disregard the sacredness.
12:49-12:50
And we've abandoned all purity.
12:52-12:58
And it is the church's job, yes, it is still the church's job to promote and pursue purity.
13:00-13:05
To the extent - quick callback - Pastor Taylor just read Ephesians 5.
13:05-13:07
Again, verse 3.
13:08-13:24
"But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper among saints." We, church, have to deal with people that are in sin.
13:27-13:34
But that requires recognizing when people are in unrepentant sin.
13:35-13:36
Can we recognize that?
13:39-13:41
What do you do?
13:41-13:42
What do you do with the guy?
13:43-13:44
Well, look at verse 2 again.
13:44-13:45
Last part.
13:46-13:53
"Let him who has done this removed from among you." You see that?
13:54-14:01
The Bible says when someone who claims to be a believer is living in unrepentant sin, remove him.
14:01-14:02
Get him out of the church.
14:03-14:08
You're like, "Is that really what it says, or is that just kind of like your interpretation?" No, that's what it says.
14:09-14:13
Actually, you're going to see this six times in the passage.
14:14-14:18
In verse 2, verse 5, verse 7, verse 9, and twice in verse 11.
14:22-14:25
In this case, you remove them.
14:26-14:33
Paul says you grab them by the scruff of the neck and the seat of the pants, and you find a stained glass window and you throw him out.
14:36-14:37
Remove him.
14:38-14:42
We're going to ask you to step down from your position of leadership.
14:45-14:48
Not, you can still come here but I need you to sit in the back.
14:52-15:00
Not, alright, alright listen, you can come to church here but I'm going to ask that you not say anything, just keep your mouth shut.
15:02-15:03
No.
15:04-15:04
Out.
15:05-15:06
You're not welcome here.
15:11-15:12
You've got to recognize sin.
15:12-15:13
And that leads us to number two.
15:14-15:19
Paul touches on it, and I'm sure maybe the Corinthians were as shocked as some of you are now.
15:20-15:21
So he elaborates.
15:21-15:22
Number two, write this down.
15:22-15:23
Remove the sinner.
15:24-15:24
What do we do?
15:24-15:25
We've got to recognize sin.
15:27-15:29
God give us vision for that.
15:29-15:31
And when we do, we've got to remove the sinner.
15:32-15:32
Look at verse 3.
15:34-15:52
Paul elaborates, "For though absent in body, I am present in spirit, and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing." Paul's like, "Guys, I'm not even there, and I know what needs to happen.
15:52-16:33
How are you not seeing this?" Verse 4, he says, "When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus, and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord." He says, verse 4, "This is according to the authority of Jesus in His name, and this must be done in the power of Jesus." What do we do with him, Paul?
16:33-16:44
He says, "Deliver this man to Satan." He says, "Throw him out into the world." Like, "Oh, you want to live like the world?
16:45-16:45
Is that it?
16:46-16:47
You want to live like the world?
16:47-16:49
Okay, go live like the world.
16:50-16:51
You're not doing that in here.
16:52-16:56
Because in here, we don't pattern our behavior after the world.
16:56-17:00
So if you are, then you can go into the world and do that.
17:04-17:05
Get 'em out.
17:07-17:07
Get 'em out.
17:08-17:14
And somebody's like, yeah, but you know, a guy like that, he needs church.
17:15-17:17
That's true, but the church doesn't need him.
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The Bible is clear on this.
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The Bible is so clear on this.
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Proverbs 22, look what Proverbs 22 says, verse 10, "Drive out a scoffer and strife will go out, and quarreling and abuse will cease." Again, Titus 3:10, "As for a person who stirs up division," again, this isn't just about sexual sin, we're going to see that here in 1 Corinthians 5, it's other unrepentant sin But as for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him.
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Like, look, we've talked about this, and we've talked about this, and you're still causing problems.
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I'm ignoring you. We're all ignoring you.
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We're having nothing to do with you. Go.
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Like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
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You're like, time out. Why?
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Like, what good is it to throw the guy out of church?
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Like, don't we love people here? Absolutely we do.
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Well then, if we really love people, why, when somebody is stuck in sin, what good would it be to have them go out of church?
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Well, there's four things.
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Write this down on your outline.
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What do we hope to accomplish by throwing him out?
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Look, this is an act of love.
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You have to understand that.
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The most loving thing we can do is show them the door.
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What do you hope to accomplish?
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Well, there's four things you have to accomplish.
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And you're going to see here, you're going to hit him everywhere.
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Four things you hope to accomplish.
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First of all, letter A, in his heart, We hope he's ashamed.
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That's one of the things you hope to accomplish.
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We hope he's ashamed.
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2 Thessalonians 3:14.
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Paul says, "If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person." Here it is again.
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"And have nothing to do with him." Why would we do that, Paul?
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Look, that he may be ashamed.
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You're trying to shame someone?
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We are, actually.
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Shame for that person to be out in the world, maybe with friends and family, like, "Hey, don't you go to that church?" Like, "Ah, yeah, they kind of threw me out." "You got thrown out of church?
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That's embarrassing." "Yeah, that's real embarrassing.
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My conduct is so bad, the church doesn't want me there." What are we driving at?
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We want the person to stop and be like, what am I doing?
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Right?
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We hope he's ashamed.
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Letter B, so that's getting to the heart.
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Now we're going to the head, letter B in his head.
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We hope he learns.
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We hope he learns.
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See what Paul told Timothy, 1 Timothy 1.20, "Hymenius and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan," same terminology here in 1 Corinthians 5, right?
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whom I have handed over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme." You see that?
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And it says, "We hope he learns." Like, talking to him didn't register.
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So go.
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Go think about your choices.
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Again, same principle.
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We want the person out of the church going, "What am I doing?
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What am I doing that these people who love and care for me, consider my behavior so bad that I have to be kicked out in the hall like an unruly fourth grader.
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What am I doing?
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So we're hitting him in the heart.
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We're hitting him in the head.
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In his body. We hope he suffers.
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We hope he suffers.
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Back in 1 Corinthians 5, says, "Deliver him to Satan." Whoa, why? He says, "For the destruction of the flesh." You know, Satan can touch your body, but he can't touch your soul. He can touch your body, but he can't touch your soul. And sin always, eventually, leads to suffering every time.
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You continue an unrepentant, flagrant, disobedient sin, eventually you are going to suffer.
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Disease.
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Depression.
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Addiction.
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Throw him out. Why?
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You've got to let him reap the consequences of his sin.
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You want to live like that? Go live like that.
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Let me know how that works out for you.
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Spoiler alert, it's going to wreck him eventually.
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We want the person to get out there living in his sin, if that's what he chooses to do, to get to the point where he's suffering in one of these ways, and he's like, "What am I doing?
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I wasn't suffering like this while I was actively seeking the Lord.
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What am I doing?" You're like, "Wow.
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Seriously, Pastor Jeff, you're saying you're hoping when they're thrown out, you're hoping they're ashamed, they learn a lesson and they suffer.
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Is that what you're hoping for?" "A hundred percent." "Why?" Well, look back at 1 Corinthians 5.
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Look at verse 5 again.
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He says, "Deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh." Here's the end goal.
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"So that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord." So that's letter D.
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In his spirit, we hope he repents.
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Listen, this is the hard reality.
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This is the tough love.
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But when somebody is in flagrance and refuses to repent, and they are shown the door, not trying to punish them. Like, "I hate you, I hope you suffer." No, no, no. It's, "I love you, and I hope that this suffering brings you back." You know who the poster boy is for this? It's the prodigal son. Luke 15, Jesus told the story. Now, maybe you're familiar with the story, but this, "Dad, give me my share of the inheritance." And the kid takes and he goes and he spends it all, and he's broke, and now he's feeding the pigs, and he's so hungry, he wishes he could eat the garbage that he's feeding the pigs.
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Now, remember the story.
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He had to get to the place where he was so broken that he says, "What am I doing?" So let me ask you, what would have happened?
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I know it's a made-up story, but let's get in it.
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What would have happened if dad would have run in to rescue him?
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What would have happened?
24:50-24:52
Kids like him out of money and dad picks him up.
24:52-24:55
"All right, son, come on home." Would the kid have learned anything?
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Would he?
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No!
24:59-25:01
He wouldn't have learned a thing and he'd do it again.
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So dad, hard as it was, had to let him suffer the consequences of his own stupid choices.
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And that's what Paul is saying here.
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When someone continues to thumb their nose at God, despite your appeals, despite your tears, despite your pleading with them, despite your praying with them, and they still persist in sin, Paul's like, "The most loving thing you can do is show them the door." Because that's always the objection, anytime you talk about something like this. "It is so unloving, it is so unloving to kick somebody out of church." No, it is not. Unloving is allowing someone to dishonor the Lord. Unloving is allowing someone to think that sin has no consequences. Unloving is keeping someone from the joy of repenting and walking with the Lord. And he's never going to repent from his sin if the church just accepts it.
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So what good is it to throw him out? Well, the hope is eventually it benefits him by leading to repentance. But you know, that's only one of the benefits. Actually that's kind of secondary, believe it or not. Number three, write this down. When there's sin in the church and you've got to remove the sinner, number three, remember the purpose. Yes, it's about ultimately restoring Him, but there's a bigger purpose in mind than even restoring the sinner. I want you to see this in your Bibles. Look at verses 6-8. Paul says, "Your boasting is not good.
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Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the with the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened.
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For Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed.
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Let us therefore celebrate the festival not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the leavened bread of sincerity and truth." gives an illustration here, and it's an illustration from Passover, Exodus chapter 12. And it's an illustration also about bread. When you made bread, there would be a giant lump of unleavened dough, and you would have to take old leaven from a previous loaf, and you would have to put it in the new dough so that that leaven would permeate the whole loaf.
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Okay, now dial in here because this is such a beautiful and genius and multi-layered illustration.
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It's so profound.
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But see leaven in this illustration, it's a picture of sin.
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Verse 8, he says it's malice and evil.
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Paul here is saying the reason that you remove the sinner from church is the same reason you wouldn't put leaven in an unleavened loaf, because when you allow it in, it affects everything.
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You see that?
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It's about permeation.
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That's what Paul is saying here.
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Remember the purpose.
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Throw him out.
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Why?
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Remember the purpose?
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If he's here, if he's in the church, his sin, like the leaven in the lump, his sin is going to ultimately affect everyone.
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You're like, "Well, what's the deal with Passover?
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What's the illustration there?" Again, it's just crazy brilliant.
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But in the Passover, remember the last plague, death of the firstborn, Israel was to put the blood of a spotless lamb on their doorposts.
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And when they did that, that was the defining moment.
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That was its separation time.
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We are out of Egypt now.
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Separating from Egypt.
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We are called not to separate from Egypt.
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We are called to separate from the world and the ways of the world.
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That's why Paul says in verse 7 that the death of Christ is our moment of separation.
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Just for the Jews, blood on the door meant separation from Egypt.
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For us, the blood of Jesus means separation from the ways of the world.
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Do you see that?
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And with the Passover, and the leaven and the bread, here's how it all comes together.
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When they left Egypt, They were to take no leaven with them.
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Why?
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It was a picture of you're leaving that behind.
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You're not taking Egypt with you.
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You're separating now.
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So here's what Paul's saying.
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Church, Christ died to make you holy.
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Separate yourselves from the world, the ways of the world.
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Don't allow leaven - Why?
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Because the purity of the church is at stake.
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That's why.
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Because like leaven, sin spreads.
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Sin's infectious.
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So, verse 7, here it is again, "Cleanse out the old leaven." What's he saying?
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Get the unrepentant sinner out because He's going to affect everyone.
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Because as people, you are more tempted to excuse and ignore your own sin if you're in a community where we excuse and ignore sin.
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You are more tempted to excuse and ignore your own sin if you're in a community that excuses and ignores other people's sin.
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Don't believe me?
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If you teach in Harvest Academy, what happens if you have one kid in the class?
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One kid just had too much espresso that morning or something.
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Put a little too much saccharine on the old Count Chocula.
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And he comes in, and he is kicking people, and he is jumping up and down on the table, and he is screaming, and you don't address it at all.
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What eventually happens?
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None of you worked with kids?
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Oh, come on.
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It eventually happens.
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Oh, you have worked with kids, right?
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All of a sudden, little Joey's jumping on the table.
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What's little Billy doing?
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Apparently this is what we're doing, right?
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Little Joey's screaming.
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Now all of a sudden, little Betsy's like, it looks like we're screaming.
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And if you don't address it, what are you going to have in about two minutes?
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You're going to have an entire room full of kids all acting like little Joey.
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And little Joey's number needs to be up on that little screen right there.
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It says, "Come get little Joey." Why? He needs to be removed.
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Why?
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Not because we hate little Joey.
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But because little Joey's affecting whole class, you see?
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You know that same principle is true for adults, isn't it?
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If we tolerate or condone, God help us, applaud sin, what we do, church, is we create a culture where people are comfortable to sin.
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And it's not long before rainbow flags are hanging on the church.
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We're called to be different, aren't we?
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Aren't we called to be different than the ways of the world?
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Aren't we called to pursue the ways of God?
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Aren't we called to represent the kingdom of Jesus Christ here on earth?
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And you're like, "Oh, so what are you saying, Pastor Jeff?
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You have to be perfect to come here?" "Oh, no, no, no, not at all.
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No, we're not saying that at all." That leads us to Paul's last point here.
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Write this one down.
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Number four, restrict discipline to believers.
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Restrict discipline to believers.
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Look at verse 9.
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He says, "I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people." You're like, "What letter?" Well, there was another letter.
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He wrote them a letter before 1 Corinthians.
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And we don't have that letter.
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Do you think if God wanted us to have it, we would have it?
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For sure.
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For some reason, God didn't want us to have it.
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But we have some clues, right, about what was going on there.
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Part of that letter was He told the Corinthians you need to avoid immoral people.
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And now He's saying, "Look, that's what I told you before.
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It's true, but I need to clarify some things here, right?
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Because apparently you're not getting it." Verse 10, "Not at all." Meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters.
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Since then, you would need to go out of the world.
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He says, "Look, when we say avoid sinners, He goes, "I'm not talking about avoiding non-Christians." He goes, "That's impossible.
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That is impossible.
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As long as you are living on this earth, you are going to interact with non-Christians." So this whole remove, separate yourself, he says, "I'm not talking about non-Christians at all.
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Yes, we should be loving and reaching out and sharing the gospel and inviting the church to non-Christians, absolutely.
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Paul's like, "I am so not talking about that." What are you talking about, Paul?
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Look at verse 11, here it is.
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But now I'm writing to you, not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother.
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Did you see that?
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if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler, not even to eat with such a one." Paul's making it very clear here.
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He's not saying we just avoid sinners, we avoid non-Christians. No, no, no.
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He says, "I'm talking about people who claim to be born-again believers but are unrepentant, flagrantly, proudly living in sin.
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By the way, not just limited to sexual sin.
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I think you saw that.
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Sometimes that's the only sin the church wants to pick on because they sin differently than us.
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It's not the only sin.
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But you have to see the difference.
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You have a Christian in sin.
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This happens all the time.
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All the time.
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You have the Christian in sin that's like, "Look, I am struggling. I need help.
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What I'm doing is wrong.
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I need help." And you have a different guy that is like, "Look, nobody tells me what to do.
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Who are you to judge me?
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What I'm doing is not wrong.
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Who do you think you are telling me I can't be with this person or do this.
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You don't tell me what to do.
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Nobody tells me what to do.
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You see the difference?
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There's a huge difference in attitude, and there's a huge difference in our response.
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Please hear me.
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If you call yourself a Christian and you come to me or one of our pastors, one of our elders, and you come to us and you say, "Pastor Jeff, I'm stuck in sin.
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Please help me.
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I realize this is wrong, and I want to honor Christ.
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I will do whatever it takes to get you on track in your walk with the Lord.
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I will work with you.
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I will spend as much time as we need.
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I will get whoever needs to be involved to get you on track in seeking the Lord the way you should.
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I will do anything in the world for you.
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You have to know that, and there are some people in this room that know that firsthand.
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On the other hand, someone who calls himself a Christian, but they're in sin, and they're lovingly confronted, "Hey, what you're doing isn't right.
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This is dishonoring the Lord." And they refuse to repent.
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"Who do you think you are?
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You don't tell me what to do." He's out.
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He's out.
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But listen, This is an austere passage for sure.
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And I sure hope to heaven that none of you think that anybody is reveling in the thought of evicting somebody from church.
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This is a horribly sad and painful thing.
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No one is happy when this has to happen.
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And this isn't meant to be harsh.
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You see, it's confronting people in a spirit of love.
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It's a plea to repent.
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Because of the Gospel, because of the Kingdom, because of our testimony, because purity matters.
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That's the point.
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If there's flagrant, obvious sin and there's an absolute refusal to repent, then they're out.
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And we can sit here today, church, and we can look at the text on the page, and we can agree with the concepts, but I'm going to tell you for a fact, It gets real hard when it actually happens to one of us.
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I mean, we can agree to the concept, but when there's a face and a name, then it gets real hard.
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This happened a handful of times over my ministry.
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I could tell you stories.
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I could tell you stories of a man who was sneaking off and having a relationship with one of the girls in the youth group.
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This was at a previous church.
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Confronted.
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Chip on his shoulder.
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"You don't understand." The man's 38. She was like 14.
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Confronted. He's like, "You don't understand.
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She's very mature. We have a special relationship." The law was involved, by the way.
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and he went to where he needed to go.
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But in that conversation with him, I said, "You are not welcome here." He said, "Where am I supposed to go?" And I said, "That's not my problem, but not here." Closing time.
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You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here.
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We had another situation with a man who asked for help in saving his marriage, He seemed real repentant until somebody from church caught him on a date with another woman out at a restaurant holding hands while they were at a table.
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He was confronted with that.
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There's the door.
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And look, I could tell you several more.
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I'm not going to.
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But I can tell you this, every single time in my ministry that's happened, those have been some of the most painful seasons of ministry that I've experienced.
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It's not fun.
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It's not fun to sit down with a brother or a sister and say, "You are dishonoring the Lord in your conduct, and we are begging you to turn this around." The hope when someone is removed, the hope is always that they repent and we will joyfully restore them, and then we all move on.
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It's in the rear view mirror.
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We're done.
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You repented.
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Okay, we're not going to talk about it.
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We're not going to bring it up.
43:17-43:17
We're done.
43:18-43:19
That's the hope.
43:20-43:21
But you know what usually happens in our culture?
43:24-43:26
Somebody's confronted with their sin.
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They get upset.
43:28-43:29
Then what do they do?
43:32-43:33
Off to Orchard Hill.
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I don't need to sit here and listen to this.
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Off to Northway.
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Off to anywhere but here.
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Hope they don't throw me out for sinning.
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I'm like, "I kind of hope they do." Yeah, that's typically what happens.
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People are disciplined and they just, they just, you know, pack up their Bible and they go to another church.
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And you're like, "Well, so discipline didn't do them any good." Well, maybe not, but it did the church good because tolerating sin will destroy the church.
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Look at verse 12.
44:16-44:20
Paul says, "For what have I to do with judging outsiders?
44:21-44:28
Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?" Paul's like, "Outsiders?
44:29-44:29
Not my business.
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Members, my business." He talks about judging here.
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I'd encourage you to underline that verse in your Bible.
44:39-44:43
Next time somebody says, "Don't judge me." Listen, we talked about this in the Sermon on the Mount.
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We are forbidden to judge motives.
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But look, here, we are commanded to judge actions.
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We are commanded to judge the actions of those in church, those who call themselves believers.
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We are commanded.
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We have a responsibility to the person, we have a responsibility to the church, and we have a responsibility to God.
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You're like, "Well, okay, what about the sin of the outsiders?
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What about them?
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What about their sin?
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What about the sin of the unbelievers?
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Well, verse 13, "God judges those outside.
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Purge the evil person from among you." Yeah, you know, the non-believers in sin, don't worry about them.
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God will take care of them.
45:26-45:36
You love them, you share the gospel with them, you help them know and receive and believe in Jesus Christ, but as far as their sin goes, God will take care of that.
45:37-45:38
That's His job.
45:38-45:48
Your job, last phrase, "Purge the evil person from among you." Maybe your Bible has that in quotes because that's not a new concept.
45:49-45:50
That's an Old Testament quote.
45:50-45:58
You're like, "From where?" From Deuteronomy 13, Deuteronomy 17, Deuteronomy 19, Deuteronomy 21, Deuteronomy 22, Deuteronomy 24.
45:58-46:02
There was a principle for ancient Israel that is for the church.
46:04-46:04
Get them out.
46:07-46:07
and get them out.
46:09-46:11
At this point, you're like, what am I supposed to do?
46:11-46:13
What am I supposed to do with this information, Pastor Jeff?
46:14-46:20
And I can tell you, it is my sincere hope that you never have to do anything with this information.
46:25-46:34
But, if you see a brother or sister in sin, you have a responsibility to encourage them to repent.
46:37-46:39
Matthew 18 gives principles for the process.
46:39-46:44
And I know Matthew 18 is if somebody sins against you directly, I think the principle still stands.
46:44-46:46
Go by yourself. Get the whole story.
46:46-46:47
Sit down with them.
46:48-46:50
It's what I think I'm seeing, actually what I'm seeing.
46:51-46:54
And if they refuse to repent, get some people from your small group.
46:55-46:59
Like, "Hey, it looks like you're making some really bad choices right now.
46:59-47:00
We love you and we care about you.
47:01-47:10
We want you to get on track." If they refuse to listen to that, then you need to come and talk to me and we'll take care of it from there.
47:12-47:13
But church, we are not headhunting.
47:15-47:18
We are not looking for reasons to eject people.
47:18-47:23
We are not making a federal case out of something minor.
47:23-47:24
Okay?
47:25-47:28
I saw Billy smoking a cigar at a wedding.
47:28-47:29
Church discipline!
47:29-47:30
No.
47:33-47:39
"Slow down there, deputy dog." And we are certainly not assuming or judging character.
47:39-47:42
The only thing we can judge is action.
47:43-47:44
This is what I see you doing.
47:45-47:47
And this is where God says that is wrong.
47:48-47:53
We're talking about flagrant, obvious, verified, unrepentant sin.
47:53-48:01
And we won't be a pure church if we refuse to deal with sinners.
48:02-48:03
Let's pray.
48:04-48:09
Father in Heaven, it's a lot easier to preach Psalm 23.
48:12-48:16
But we are committed to preaching the whole counsel of God.
48:16-48:38
And Father, as uncomfortable as this might be and as offensive as this might be, Father, give us the wisdom and give us the understanding that this is actually the most loving thing we can do is to allow someone to be shown the door if they refuse to repent.
48:40-48:41
Father, You know our hearts.
48:42-48:45
In every case, it's our hope that there is repentance and restoration.
48:47-48:50
Father, You care so much about the purity of this church.
48:52-49:04
And I'm asking, Father, that You would give us compassion and love, and at the same time, boldness and obedience to handle things in a way that glorify and honor You.
49:06-49:09
We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read 1 Corinthians 5

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Why do you think people have a hard time with a church removing an unrepentant sinner, when the Bible clearly commands it?
What is the motivation behind removing someone from church? What does it do for the church?
Explain 1 Cor 5:5 in your own words.
How would you coach someone on “How exactly do I confront a brother in Christ who is clearly in unrepentant sin?”

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

December 7, 2025

Get Unified, Unified and Purified

Be Worth Imitating

Jeff Miller

December 7, 2025

Get Unified, Unified and Purified

Introduction:

Are You Worth Imitating? 4 Areas to Evaluate (1 Corinthians 4:14–21)

Your LOVE for PEOPLE: Worth Imitating. (1 Cor 4:14)

2 Corinthians 12:15 – I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls.
Your HEART for EVANGELISM: Worth Imitating. (1 Cor 4:15)
Your CONSISTENCY of FAITH: Worth Imitating. (1 Cor 4:17)
Your HANDLING of SINNERS: Worth Imitating. (1 Cor 4:14, 18–21)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:41-00:45
Open up those Bibles to 1 Corinthians 4.
00:48-00:49
What kind of a church is this?
00:51-00:55
We are a church that proclaims the authority of God's word without apology.
00:56-00:58
What kind of a church is this?
00:58-01:02
We are a church that lifts high the name of Jesus in worship.
01:04-01:05
What kind of a church is this?
01:06-01:10
This is a church that believes firmly in the power of prayer.
01:12-01:17
This is a church that shares the good news of Jesus with boldness.
01:19-01:33
So let's bow our heads and I'm going to ask that you would please pray for me to be faithful to communicate God's Word, and I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive what it is that the Lord wants to teach us today.
01:34-01:36
Alright? Let's just take a moment and pray.
01:39-01:48
Father in heaven, as we turn to Your Word, we ask that You would speak to us through this.
01:51-01:54
Your Word even calls this the foolishness of preaching.
01:57-02:04
But somehow, Your Spirit is at work with Your Word when it is proclaimed, and we believe that.
02:05-02:11
And that's why we don't shrink away from anything that Your Word says, but we go after it.
02:11-02:18
Father, we want to know You, and You have revealed Your character through Your Word.
02:19-02:22
So Father, I pray for all of us today.
02:25-02:27
This would be a day of self-examination.
02:27-02:34
this would be a day where your spirit grabs us in a fresh way.
02:37-02:39
Thank you ahead of time for everything you're going to do.
02:41-02:42
We pray in Jesus' name.
02:43-02:47
And all of God's people said, "Amen." Amen.
02:48-02:57
We've had at Harvest Bible Chapel over the years, we've had some pretty spectacular guest speakers and other pastors come and preach.
02:57-03:00
And, but by far, this one's my favorite here.
03:01-03:02
This is a Pastor Bob Huber.
03:02-03:17
This is back when we were meeting in Marshall Middle School, actually, but Pastor Bob Huber was my pastor and he is in heaven now, or as he would have said, he graduated and he's having a good day.
03:20-03:23
You know, I moved to Chicago for a while to learn how to plan a church.
03:28-03:30
But it was this man who taught me how to be a pastor.
03:34-03:36
And I had the privilege of working with him for many years.
03:39-03:44
But probably the profoundest lesson I ever learned from him was in year one.
03:47-03:52
I was helping with a day camp up in Slippery Rock at Deep Valley Camp.
03:55-04:03
I'm gonna tell you this story, and I know some of you, it's gonna hit you, and some of you are gonna be like, "What in the world is he talking about?" But that's just the way these things go sometimes.
04:03-04:13
But we were at day camp, and this was year one of like, I just became a Christian, and just started serving Christ, and was learning.
04:14-04:17
And we were walking across the campus, free time for the kids.
04:17-04:18
They were just running around, kind of doing their thing.
04:19-04:20
Second graders, all right?
04:21-04:27
So Pastor Bob and I were walking by and there was this little boy just sitting and just playing in the dirt.
04:29-04:43
And as we walked by, Pastor Bob stopped and he said to the little boy, "Hey, get up, you're getting all dirty." So the little kid got up and kind of brushed himself off and just kind of stood there and Pastor Bob and I kept walking.
04:44-04:48
And all of a sudden, Pastor Bob stopped.
04:51-05:03
And he turned around and he went back to the little boy and he said, "Get back down in the dirt." There was so much I learned from that whole thing.
05:05-05:10
So much that I learned about ministry.
05:12-05:15
And I could spend hours just talking about the lessons I learned from that little thing.
05:16-05:17
Here's the big one.
05:19-05:20
Kids gotta be kids.
05:21-05:21
Right?
05:22-05:29
That's why at Harvest we say it all the time, we don't care if your kids are running around or making messes or making noise.
05:29-05:31
Like, kids are going to be kids.
05:33-05:42
But you know, in that incident at camp, and I saw that attitude from Pastor Bob, I said, you know, that's worth imitating.
05:44-05:46
That attitude towards kids, that's worth imitating.
05:48-05:58
And you know, we're going through 1 Corinthians here, and Paul has used many images to talk about his connection with them.
05:59-06:03
He talked about being a farmer, being a builder, being a servant, being a steward.
06:04-06:09
And in this passage we're looking at today, here's the image on the table.
06:11-06:11
A father.
06:15-06:19
In 1 Corinthians, Paul's addressing Christians who weren't acting like Christians.
06:20-06:23
That's been this whole stretch, the whole first four chapters.
06:24-06:25
There was division.
06:26-06:32
There were little teams being made and there was disdain for people that weren't on your team.
06:32-06:34
Like, "I follow Paul.
06:34-06:35
Oh, you're one of those apologized people?
06:37-06:39
Lame." And there was so much division in the church.
06:41-06:42
Christians who weren't acting like Christians.
06:43-06:46
And Paul was pretty direct with them.
06:47-06:49
I think we saw that especially last week.
06:50-06:53
He was pretty direct in the way that he addressed them.
06:53-07:00
And you know, if you're going to be that direct with someone you better have a good relationship with them.
07:04-07:09
Look at verse, where are we at?
07:09-07:09
14?
07:11-07:12
Yeah, let's pick up in verse 14.
07:12-07:23
Paul says, "I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children.
07:27-07:31
For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers.
07:32-07:35
For I have become your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
07:37-07:54
I urge you then, be imitators of me." That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ as I teach them everywhere in every church.
07:57-08:09
Some are arrogant as though I were not coming to you, but I will come to you soon if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of those arrogant people, but their power.
08:10-08:13
For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk, but in power.
08:14-08:15
What do you wish?
08:16-08:31
Shall I come to you with rod or with love and a spirit of gentleness?" In that chunk of text, did you pick up a dad tone in there?
08:36-08:50
This is why Paul was so stern with them, because he saw himself as their father, their spiritual dad.
08:52-09:02
And parenthood, whether it's having kids of your own or adopting kids or having spiritual children, listen, parenthood is about two things, really.
09:03-09:05
It's about love and it's about responsibility.
09:08-09:19
So this passage here is for everyone who is a spiritual parent.
09:23-09:27
Everyone who leads someone spiritually.
09:27-09:28
Everyone who is making disciples.
09:29-09:45
and whether you're a small group leader, or you're leading the youth group or Harvest Academy, you're teaching precepts, you're involved in our ministry team or serving as an elder, if you're one of our conference speakers, some of you are involved in addiction recovery ministry.
09:45-09:45
This is for you.
09:46-09:48
Some of you are leading Bible studies at work.
09:48-09:49
This is for you.
09:50-09:57
Some of you, your primary discipleship opportunity is the children in your home.
10:00-10:02
That's who this passage is for.
10:03-10:07
Those of you who are making disciples.
10:10-10:14
Look at verse 16 again, because this is the verse that really jumped out to me.
10:19-10:31
Paul says, "I urge you then, be imitators of me." That verse leads me to two questions.
10:32-10:39
And the first question is, have I been faithful to follow my spiritual parent?
10:39-10:41
I mean, I talked about Pastor Bob.
10:41-10:46
I'm not 1% of the pastor that he was, all right?
10:46-10:49
but am I being faithful to follow my spiritual Father?
10:49-10:50
How about you?
10:51-10:58
Are you being faithful to follow your spiritual parent?
11:00-11:06
That's a question that I wrestled with this past week, but not as much as another question.
11:09-11:11
Here's the second question.
11:11-11:12
This is the one that really hit me.
11:16-11:17
Am I worth imitating?
11:20-11:21
What about me?
11:21-11:26
Am I worth imitating?
11:32-11:32
What about you?
11:36-11:39
Do you consider yourself worth imitating?
11:39-11:40
Could you say what Paul said here?
11:41-11:42
Hey, hey, follow my example.
11:43-11:43
Could you say that?
11:48-12:03
If the people that you disciple, if the people that look up to you as their spiritual father, their spiritual parents, if the people that look up to you act like you, would they be effective for the kingdom of Jesus Christ?
12:04-12:10
If the people that looked up to you, imitated you, would they be honoring God and His Word?
12:10-12:16
Would you want people to imitate you?
12:18-12:29
Or would there just be too many areas of your life where you would just end up saying, "Yeah, don't do what I do"?
12:32-12:33
Are you worth imitating?
12:36-12:41
I want you to consider this sustained illustration through the rest of the message.
12:43-12:48
But I want you to imagine that I brought you a brand new Christian, okay?
12:49-12:53
Imagine that this young man came to Christ.
12:53-12:58
He just came to Christ yesterday, and we brought him to church, and he was baptized today.
12:59-13:15
And I brought him to you, and I said, "Okay, this young man is going to live with you for a month so that he can learn what it looks like to follow Jesus Christ." How would that go for the next month?
13:17-13:26
I mean, assuming that you weren't gonna put on a show, assuming that you were just going to be your authentic self for the month, okay?
13:26-13:27
We're assuming that.
13:29-13:29
How's that gonna go?
13:31-13:41
Would you find yourself over the course of the month with this brand new Christian, would you find yourself constantly saying, yeah, don't do that, right?
13:41-13:52
You use some salty non-sermony language, and then you turn to this young man looking at you, and you're like, yeah, don't talk like that.
13:54-14:03
Or you tell some perverted anatomy joke, and you're like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, and you turn to Him and you think, you know what, you shouldn't tell jokes like that.
14:04-14:05
You shouldn't talk like that.
14:05-14:06
You shouldn't think like that.
14:10-14:15
This new Christian that's following you around for the month sees you losing your temper.
14:15-14:21
You're kicking the lamp, you're kicking the dog, and then you turn to Him and you say, yeah, don't do that.
14:21-14:22
You shouldn't lose your temper like that.
14:25-14:26
You're neglecting time in God's Word.
14:26-14:28
You're neglecting time in prayer.
14:28-14:29
And you're like, "Yeah, you know what?
14:30-14:36
"I'm really busy and don't have the time "to spend in God's Word and in prayer, "but you shouldn't be like me.
14:36-14:43
"You really should make time for that." Would it be a rough month for you?
14:48-15:03
Or, after that month, this new Christian comes back to me and says, You know, I am really growing with the Lord following that person's example.
15:04-15:11
This past month has been huge for me watching how the life of Christ is manifest in a person's life throughout the week.
15:11-15:11
Is that what they'd say?
15:15-15:16
So this is the sermon.
15:19-15:21
And we all have to take a hard look at ourselves.
15:24-15:27
I mean, let's be honest with ourselves.
15:31-15:32
Are you worth imitating?
15:40-15:47
There are probably hundreds of categories we could get into.
15:49-15:52
Let's just stick to this particular text here.
15:53-15:54
Four areas to evaluate.
15:54-15:55
Are you worth imitating?
15:56-16:00
Here's four areas to evaluate that we see from the apostle Paul.
16:00-16:01
Number one, write this down.
16:02-16:03
Your love for people.
16:04-16:05
Your love for people.
16:05-16:06
Worth imitating?
16:09-16:10
Look at verse 14 again.
16:11-16:39
He says, "I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as," look at this, "My beloved children." "My beloved children." I love that so much because if you've been with us through 1 Corinthians and this journey, you can see that Paul would have a lot of reasons to call them something else.
16:39-16:40
Let's put it that way.
16:42-16:44
But this is how he viewed them.
16:44-16:48
"Your beloved children." You're not commodities to be used.
16:48-16:55
you're not customers to satisfy, you're not annoyances that are draining the life out of me.
16:55-16:59
He says, you're spiritual children that I love.
17:04-17:09
Love, that's what parents are wired to do, is to love.
17:13-17:21
It's meeting needs, yes, it's helping when there's hurt, it's protecting, ultimately, love is sacrifice.
17:24-17:28
You know, you go to 2 Corinthians 12, this is what Paul addresses the same church.
17:29-17:31
I love this verse because this is the heart of a parent.
17:33-17:47
Paul says, "I will most gladly spend "and be spent for your souls." That's the heart of a parent.
17:48-17:50
Parents sacrifice for their children.
17:50-17:52
Parents give of themselves.
17:55-18:01
And when you genuinely love people, you're going to do the same.
18:06-18:10
Easier said than done, because I don't know if you noticed, but some people are hard to love.
18:11-18:12
Have you noticed that?
18:15-18:16
I mean, we already talked about these Corinthians.
18:17-18:19
They had so many problems.
18:23-18:25
You're like, man, how do you love unlikable people?
18:27-18:31
How do I conjure up the love to love unlikable people?
18:32-18:36
And you don't have to turn there, but just jot down John 21.
18:36-18:39
It's one of my favorite scenes in the Bible.
18:43-18:47
But in John chapter 21, we see the resurrected Jesus restoring Peter.
18:48-18:52
Do you remember the question that Jesus asked Peter three times?
18:52-18:52
You remember?
18:53-18:55
He says, "Peter, do you love sheep?
18:57-18:58
Then feed them." Is that what he said?
19:00-19:01
No?
19:02-19:04
Botched that one, didn't I?
19:04-19:05
What did he say?
19:06-19:21
He says, "Do you love me?" Do you love me?" And when Peter answered Jesus, oh, then he talked about the sheep, right?
19:21-19:25
"Feed my sheep." "Do you love me?
19:25-19:27
Feed my sheep." He didn't ask Peter if he loves sheep.
19:28-19:39
He asked Peter, "Peter, do you love me?" Because when you love someone, you love what they love.
19:41-19:41
Right?
19:43-19:50
See, if I put all of my effort into just loving you and not the Lord, it's going to fizzle out.
19:53-19:59
But when the effort is in loving Jesus Christ, He changes my heart to love the things that He loves.
19:59-20:02
I love you because Jesus loves you.
20:04-20:09
You have value to me because you have value to Jesus, you see.
20:11-20:13
Jesus loves the church.
20:13-20:14
You know, he died for you.
20:15-20:18
He's preparing a place in heaven for you.
20:18-20:21
And he does his work on earth through you.
20:21-20:29
And if Jesus so loves you, and he knows you a lot better than I do, how could I not love you?
20:32-20:37
So think of that new believer following you around for a month.
20:40-20:42
Would he see a love for people that's worth imitating?
20:47-20:53
Second area we need to evaluate, your heart for evangelism.
20:54-20:55
Is it worth imitating?
20:56-20:58
Look at verse 15 again.
21:01-21:07
He says, "For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers.
21:07-21:14
"For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel." Countless guides.
21:14-21:16
What's a guide?
21:16-21:19
Well, in the Greek, it's pedagogos.
21:20-21:28
Now wealthy families in those days would have a pedagogos, a guide, a, some translations, tutor.
21:29-21:47
It was a slave whose job it was to take boys back and forth to school and to help them mature, or as the kids would say today, they would help them learn how to adult.
21:49-21:52
That's what a pedagogos did, preparation for adulting.
21:54-21:55
That's what they did.
21:55-22:04
And Paul here says, "You have," literally in the Greek, it's, "You will always constantly have countless people teaching you.
22:05-22:08
And that is more true now than it's ever been.
22:11-22:20
You're constantly going to have countless people giving you information on TV, radio, podcasts.
22:23-22:30
Bible teaching is out there, but there is no one who has the relationship with you like You're like the one who led you to Christ.
22:32-22:33
The one who discipled you.
22:36-22:38
Your spiritual father.
22:38-22:39
Your spiritual parent.
22:39-22:42
Nobody has that relationship like that one.
22:45-22:47
This is a tough sell right here.
22:50-22:52
Because some Christians aren't spiritual parents.
22:55-22:57
Because you've never led anyone to Christ.
22:59-23:01
You've never discipled a new believer.
23:02-23:06
Because if you have, you know that it's a unique relationship.
23:06-23:10
There's a special kind of love and responsibility that comes.
23:12-23:16
And the sad thing is too many people in the church miss out on the blessing.
23:19-23:25
Because honestly, sharing the Gospel is just never a thought share the gospel with anyone.
23:31-23:39
You know, there's a pastor that I listen to, speaking of countless teachers, there's a pastor that I listen to often, Ron Dunn.
23:41-23:45
He used this illustration one time, and I really had to chew on it for a while.
23:47-23:54
But he said, "The gospel of Jesus Christ is a train that runs on two tracks.
23:58-24:05
And one rail of the track is the work of Jesus Christ, His death on the cross and His resurrection.
24:07-24:13
But the other rail of the track is someone to deliver that message.
24:15-24:17
And he used this illustration.
24:17-24:25
He said, "Imagine there's a man on death row about to be executed and the governor pardons him.
24:27-24:35
And the governor has the pardon in paper form and gives it to a courier and says, here's the pardon.
24:35-24:41
I need you to deliver this to the prison where the man is about to be executed.
24:41-24:42
Here, take this pardon.
24:45-24:51
You realize it does that man on death row no good if that courier doesn't deliver the pardon.
24:52-24:53
I mean, could you imagine?
24:54-25:00
Could you imagine the governor saying, "Look, this is going to save this man's life.
25:00-25:08
Make sure the prison gets it and the courier forgets." Or he just doesn't think it's that important.
25:12-25:12
Right?
25:14-25:17
If the courier doesn't deliver, the pardon's not gonna take effect.
25:19-25:23
And do you understand you are God's courier.
25:24-25:32
In Jesus Christ, God has pardoned sin and the people you know who don't know the Lord are on death row.
25:35-25:41
And God has given you the pardon to say, deliver this, tell them that they don't have to die.
25:42-25:45
And so often we're just like, eh, not that important.
25:50-26:05
You're the courier. Are you getting the message out? You see, that's so amazing to me that God has the ability to do whatever He wants to do. And what He wants to do is use you to reach people with the gospel.
26:08-26:12
He wants you to disciple the lost.
26:15-26:20
So how often during the course of your week do you engage people in spiritual conversations?
26:21-26:25
At work, at the barbershop, with your unsaved family?
26:25-26:32
How often do you say to someone, "Hey, can I pray for you?" How often do you invite somebody to church?
26:36-26:40
So think of that new believer that's following you around for a month.
26:41-26:42
What would they see from you?
26:45-26:48
Would they see a heart for evangelism that's worth imitating?
26:52-26:55
Number three, are you worth imitating?
26:56-26:57
How about your love for people?
26:57-26:58
How about your heart for evangelism?
26:58-26:59
Worth imitating?
26:59-27:01
Let's read quickly.
27:02-27:03
What about your consistency of faith?
27:06-27:07
Consistency of faith.
27:07-27:08
Is it worth imitating?
27:11-27:12
Look at verse 17 again.
27:14-27:28
He says, "That is why I sent you, Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, I teach them everywhere in every church.
27:32-27:37
He says, "That is why I sent you Timothy." Like, wait, wait, wait, wait.
27:38-27:39
What is why you sent me Timothy?
27:41-27:46
Verse 16, he said, "You're gonna get the flow here." He goes, "Hey, be imitators of me.
27:47-27:50
"That's why I sent you Timothy." You see his point?
27:51-27:52
You see his point?
27:53-27:55
Timothy is the perfect example of discipleship.
27:56-27:59
Timothy is what you want in a spiritual child.
28:00-28:06
Paul's like, "Hey, him coming is as good as me coming." That's what you want.
28:06-28:15
That's when you know that you have discipled someone, when you can send them and they can perfectly represent you and you have no worries.
28:16-28:17
I have that with Pastor Taylor.
28:18-28:26
Whether it's going somewhere to speak or dealing with a crisis or counseling someone, I know that if he's going, it's just the same as if I go.
28:27-28:28
I know he's gonna handle it.
28:29-28:30
And I know he's gonna honor Jesus doing it.
28:37-28:40
Paul says Tim's gonna represent Tim.
28:40-28:42
I called him Tim, we went to high school together.
28:43-28:46
Tim will represent, he'll do what I do.
28:49-28:50
What do you do, Paul?
28:51-28:54
He says, "Teach the same thing everywhere." Right, you see that?
28:55-28:56
Teach the same thing everywhere.
28:56-28:57
Teach what?
28:59-29:00
My ways in Christ.
29:03-29:04
My ways in Christ.
29:05-29:09
Listen, consistency is not about like the lesson of Bible principles.
29:11-29:12
That's not what he's saying here.
29:13-29:21
Not like I printed out a workbook So we made a million copies and we're passing it out.
29:21-29:24
That's not what he's saying.
29:25-29:29
The consistency is in my ways in Christ.
29:30-29:33
It's the way that I live out these principles.
29:33-29:34
My ways everywhere.
29:35-29:36
Do you see that?
29:38-29:42
What Paul's talking about here is integrity.
29:50-29:56
By the way, men, you want to sign up for the men's conference, Brian Behe gives a message on integrity.
29:57-30:06
We were working through rehearsals and such, and he gave his rehearsal recently, and every man that was in the room was just like crushed.
30:07-30:07
Right, Justin?
30:08-30:09
Like integrity.
30:12-30:13
That's what he's talking about here.
30:16-30:43
Integrity. I'm the same follower of Jesus everywhere. Not just Sunday, not just at church, not just a small group. It's integrity. Because nothing dishonors the Lord or kills your witness like hypocrisy. You have any areas of hypocrisy in your life that you need to repent. Right?
30:44-30:50
If a new believer followed you around, would they see a consistency of faith worth imitating?
30:52-31:00
And then finally, number four, your handling of sinners, worth imitating?
31:03-31:11
I want you to notice the different tones that Paul uses here, because he's addressing really two different groups in this passage.
31:11-31:12
Did you notice that?
31:13-31:15
Look at verse 14 again.
31:16-31:28
He says, "I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children." Admonish means to lovingly confront in order to change.
31:31-31:42
There's a gentleness in admonishing because spiritual children are a lot like regular children.
31:45-31:55
They mature slowly. They mess up a lot. They frustrate you like crazy, right?
31:58-32:06
And that's why Paul is... Paul says, "I'm not trying to make you feel bad." Right?
32:07-32:18
All this stuff that we've been talking about, Paul's like, "I'm not just trying to bust your chops. I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to kick you when you're down. I'm not trying to hurt your feelings. He said, here's my endgame. Do better.
32:20-32:21
That's all I'm saying. Do better.
32:27-32:34
Sometimes, you know, I get a little emotional and fired up, whether it's in preaching or counseling. Why?
32:36-32:41
Because look, my job up here is not to just give you Bible information.
32:43-32:44
Like here, here's what the Bible says.
32:45-32:46
You should do this.
32:48-32:49
If you don't, doesn't matter to me.
32:50-32:53
It matters to me that you embrace this.
32:54-33:00
It matters to me that you are taking God's word and reflecting its truths in your life.
33:00-33:03
It matters to me that you get it.
33:06-33:11
And that's why there's times that we have to admonish our spiritual kids when they sin.
33:12-33:14
We have an obligation to do that, by the way.
33:16-33:17
We have an obligation.
33:19-33:20
That's part of parenting.
33:23-33:24
So that's one group.
33:24-33:25
Look at the other group.
33:25-33:28
Look at verses 18 through 21 again.
33:30-33:33
He says, "Some are arrogant as though they were not coming to you.
33:35-33:41
But I will come to you soon if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people, but their power.
33:41-33:44
For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk, but in power.
33:46-33:46
What do you wish?
33:47-33:54
Shall I come to you with a rod or with love and a spirit of gentleness?" You notice the change of tone?
33:55-34:00
Some people need a little loving admonishment, like, "Hey, hey, we're going to do better, all right?
34:00-34:08
better. Other people need a rebuke. Like, "Hey, you need to knock down a peg." Okay?
34:12-34:30
He's addressing the arrogant. Do you notice that? Some of you are arrogant. They're like kids when mom and dad aren't there. "I don't care what they say." That's what these arrogant Corinthians, they were like, "I don't care what Paul says, he's not here.
34:31-34:32
What's he going to do about it?
34:32-34:33
Oh, he's going to come?
34:33-34:35
Paul's not going to come, that's why he sent Timothy.
34:36-34:37
He's afraid to come here.
34:37-34:40
Paul ain't going to do nothing." All right?
34:40-34:42
I don't know why you guys are so concerned about Paul.
34:42-34:44
He ain't here and he ain't coming.
34:44-34:45
So arrogant.
34:46-35:00
And I love that Paul's like, "Oh, I'm coming." He says, "If the Lord wills." And Paul says, "Then we'll find out." We'll find out who's all talk and no game.
35:01-35:02
We'll find out when I get there.
35:03-35:04
Put your helmet on.
35:08-35:13
Years ago in prison ministry, we had an elderly man who went in.
35:13-35:13
His name was Joe.
35:16-35:25
Sometimes in prison ministry, you would get guys come to Bible study, not because they wanted to learn the Scriptures, but because they wanted to cause problems.
35:25-35:26
We get that a lot.
35:26-35:28
to come just to pick fights.
35:28-35:38
And this one guy in particular, this one night, everything that was said, it was just like, "Oh, you're telling me that." And he was just like, he was protesting everything.
35:38-35:40
He was mocking everybody.
35:40-35:45
Just, he would not shut up the entire time and just obnoxious.
35:47-35:50
And finally Joe spoke up.
35:51-36:00
And Joe said to the man, he goes, Have you ever seen a semi truck driving down the road?
36:02-36:20
And the guy's like, "Yeah?" And Joe goes, "Well, you know, "it's the empty trucks that make the most noise." Guy didn't say much after that.
36:22-36:24
And that's kind of what Paul's saying here.
36:24-36:39
He goes, "Some of you people are just talk." He goes, "We'll find out when I get there." Because the kingdom of heaven is not just like talking, the kingdom of heaven is the power of the Holy Spirit in your life.
36:45-36:47
So Paul says in verse 21, "You make the choice.
36:48-36:49
You make the choice.
36:50-36:54
Do you want me to come with the rod?" They're with gentleness, right?
36:54-36:58
How many parents have said something like that to their kids?
36:59-37:00
I know I have.
37:00-37:04
Like, "Hey, look, this can go one of two ways.
37:08-37:09
Make a better choice.
37:11-37:19
It's up to you." So love disciplines.
37:19-37:50
Look, you're going to deal with sinning people, but even in this one passage here, we see that you can't deal with all sinning people the same way. Because the people in verse 14, they were caught up in the divisiveness and yeah, they needed corrected, but the arrogant, Verse 18, "The arrogant needed knocked down." That's why we see two different tones in the same passage.
37:50-37:53
And parents, you need to get this.
37:54-38:18
Parents, when your kids are sinning, spiritual parents, when those you're discipling are sinning, you have to ask yourself, is this a matter of immaturity or is this a matter of rebellion, because immaturity or rebellion, I need to figure that out because that determines my response to the kids.
38:20-38:22
I've seen this a thousand times.
38:22-38:38
Some parents completely freak out when their kid drops a dish, but then that same kid will be flagrantly disobedient and the parent's just like, "Eh, well, what can you do?" Like, no, no, that's where you gotta lay the hammer down, on the rebellion.
38:40-38:41
Paul got that.
38:42-38:43
That's why you see the different tones.
38:46-38:51
So you gotta model this, you have to address sin, and sin has to be addressed appropriately.
38:51-38:55
Is this a situation where I admonish, or is this a situation where I rebuke?
38:55-38:58
Am I dealing with immaturity, or am I dealing with rebellion?
39:00-39:05
So what about that Christian that's, that baby Christian that's following you around all month?
39:08-39:13
Would they see the way you handle sinners to be worth imitating?
39:19-39:24
I talked about ministry year one, kind of a defining moment.
39:25-39:27
Let me talk about marriage year one.
39:33-39:36
First year of our marriage, I was on the phone.
39:39-39:47
I was on the phone, it wasn't this nice, it was an old school, we've been married a long time, so it was a bigger, clunkier phone, but it was a cell phone.
39:47-39:52
And I was just as technologically stupid then as I am now.
39:53-40:01
But I was on the phone with someone and hung up the phone and set the phone down on the kitchen table when Aaron and I were sitting at the kitchen table.
40:02-40:05
And we started talking and reminiscing.
40:05-40:08
We both went to Shakura Elementary School.
40:09-40:09
Go Gremlins.
40:10-40:16
And we started talking about the music class.
40:16-40:20
The music teacher would come in once a week wheeling in the keyboard on the cart.
40:21-40:23
and we would sing these ridiculous songs.
40:24-40:30
Aaron and I were reminiscing, and we started singing the songs together.
40:31-40:34
I asked her if she would come up today and join me for a duet.
40:37-40:38
She's leaning towards no.
40:41-40:44
But we were like, "Oh, do you remember that song?
40:45-40:49
"The song about, 'This is a story about Sammy.'" You guys remember this one?
40:49-40:53
♪ His father sent him out to buy bread ♪ So Aaron and I are belting it out.
40:53-41:00
♪ But Sammy didn't feel like walking ♪ ♪ He wished he could fly instead ♪ And we're like belting it out and we're laughing.
41:01-41:04
And then it's like, oh, do you remember, do you remember Little Tommy Tinker?
41:07-41:09
Do you remember, no, I didn't go to school with him.
41:09-41:10
That was one of the songs.
41:12-41:13
Anybody remember Little Tommy Tinker?
41:15-41:17
Nobody, nobody at all.
41:17-41:28
Little Tommy Tinker, we were singing it, we were just, "Little Tommy Tinker sat on a clinker and he began to cry, 'Mama, mama,' poor little innocent guy." But it's a round.
41:30-41:36
So when I say, "He began to cry," then you would come in at the beginning, I keep going, and it's a round.
41:37-41:39
And it was a real hoot.
41:40-41:45
So Aaron and I are sitting there like, "Little Tommy Tinker," and we were like, "We did the round," and it was awesome.
41:47-41:53
And I'm like, do you remember, another song that I liked was the Jelly Bean Jump.
41:53-41:55
Jump to the jelly bean, jump, jump, jump.
41:55-41:56
So we started singing that one.
41:56-41:57
Jump to the jelly bean, jump, jump, jump.
42:00-42:04
Folks in Mexico City, big, small, andy-to-bitty, all join in this pretty jitty, jump the merry way.
42:05-42:06
Nobody.
42:08-42:17
Well, Aaron remembered, and we sat there for what, 30, 45 minutes, belting out these songs and laughing hysterically.
42:19-42:31
Well, I, I accidentally did not hang up the phone.
42:32-42:33
(audience laughing)
42:35-42:40
And in a way that I still don't understand, the whole thing got recorded.
42:45-42:53
and it was re-listened to, and we were reminded of it for a very long time.
42:56-42:58
You're like, why did you tell us that horrible story?
43:01-43:07
Well, one reason is I wanted to float those songs as options for coming onto the worship set.
43:10-43:11
But the other one is this.
43:13-43:15
I learned a very valuable lesson that day.
43:16-43:20
Whether you realize it or not, someone's always listening to you.
43:23-43:29
Whether you realize it or not, somebody's watching you.
43:30-43:31
And oh, it's over.
43:32-43:38
Much more serious matters than the songs that we sang in elementary school.
43:40-43:43
Somebody is watching how you follow Jesus Christ.
43:47-43:51
So the question is, are you worth imitating?
43:54-43:54
Let's pray.
43:56-44:13
Our Father in heaven, this is a passage that kind of hits us all between the eyes because we are all well aware of the gap between who we are and who we should be sometimes.
44:15-44:17
Father, we thank you for your grace.
44:19-44:26
Father, we thank you that our salvation isn't performance-based by us, it's based on the performance of Jesus.
44:28-44:33
But at the same time, Father, you have called us to be worth imitating.
44:35-44:49
You've called us to take the doctrine from the pages of your Word and show people what that looks like applied in the life of a dad, of a mom, of a friend, of a worker.
44:51-44:52
We are to be an example.
44:53-45:11
I just pray, Father, by the power of your Spirit, that we can, in a sense, sort of stand beside Paul and encourage others to follow our example in seeking You.
45:13-45:16
We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read 1 Corinthians 4:14-21

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Who has been a “spiritual father” to you? What do you imitate about them?
Who have you tried to be a “spiritual father” to (led to Christ, discipled)?
What kind of change, specifically, do you think Paul was hoping for from the “arrogant” (1 Cor 4:18-21)?
How do you know when to admonish someone (v14), and when to rebuke them (1 Cor 4:19)?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

December 1, 2025

Get Unified, Unified and Purified

See Yourself as a Servant

Jeff Miller

December 1, 2025

Get Unified, Unified and Purified

Introduction:

Humble Yourself: 4 Truths to Help You (1 Corinthians 4:1–13)

Only GOD'S OPINION of me matters. (1 Cor 4:3–5)
I've RECEIVED all that I HAVE. (1 Cor 4:6–8)
God wants to SHOW everyone how I SUFFER. (1 Cor 4:9–13a)

John 15:20 – Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you...

1 Peter 2:21–23 – For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
The WORLD thinks I'm SCUM. (1 Cor 4:13b)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:41-00:42
Good morning.
00:43-00:46
My name is Jeff, and let me tell you a little bit about myself.
00:48-00:49
That's such an interesting thing, isn't it?
00:49-00:51
Like, let me tell you a little bit about myself.
00:52-01:04
Or when you ask somebody, "Hey, tell me about yourself." It's an interesting thing because the first thing that comes out of their mouths is the thing that they want to be known as, right?
01:04-01:05
Or known for.
01:06-01:08
let me tell you a little bit about myself.
01:11-01:16
Do you know where, you see this a lot, game shows, right?
01:16-01:24
Let me tell you a little bit about myself, or if you've ever watched Jeopardy, it is such a cringey moment.
01:25-01:31
You know, they come back from commercial break, and some of us remember Alex Trebek, who's the guy now?
01:32-01:37
Ken Jennings, okay, like, All right, we're gonna meet our contestants and tell me a little bit about yourself.
01:38-01:42
I'm always so fascinated with the way they identify themselves, right?
01:43-01:49
It's so fascinating because, yeah, like some are cool, but some are just really, really weird.
01:49-01:59
And I'm like, you're on TV and this is gonna go to syndication and this is gonna be seen by millions and this is what you came up with.
01:59-02:00
You know what I'm talking about?
02:01-02:04
But like, you know, this is our challenger, Bill.
02:04-02:05
Tell us about yourself.
02:06-02:29
And Bill's like, "Yeah, one time I showed up to work and I had my pants on backwards." "Oh, what'd you do?" "Well, I just kind of stepped into the bathroom and turned them around." I was like, "Okay, all right, let's meet Glenda." And I'm like, "What was that?" Let me tell you a little bit about myself.
02:29-02:31
How do you want to be known?
02:34-03:00
Well, I was thinking about that a lot this past week as we get to 1 Corinthians 4, because if the apostle Paul was on Jeopardy and the host says, "All right, well, tell us a little bit about yourself, Paul." I think we know exactly what he'd say Because it's here in 1 Corinthians 4.
03:03-03:04
Look at the first couple of verses.
03:04-03:18
He says, "This is how one should regard us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
03:19-03:45
Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy "Tell us a little bit about yourself, Paul." He goes, "Okay, I'm a slave of Jesus Christ." Actually this word for servant in the Greek is the lowest slave, like bottom rank slave.
03:46-03:47
And then he says stewards.
03:47-03:48
What's a steward?
03:48-03:54
Well, in those days, wealthy people would have someone who was like their sort of house manager.
03:55-03:59
in charge of distribution and spending and inventory.
03:59-04:00
And you know who got that job?
04:01-04:04
It was one of the slaves, still a slave.
04:06-04:08
So why is he saying this?
04:10-04:18
Well, we've seen throughout 1 Corinthians, the issue was all of this exalting leaders, right?
04:18-04:23
Putting Paul and Apollos and Cephas up on pedestals and all these factions.
04:24-04:30
And Paul here in 1 Corinthians is saying, "Look, look, look, you're regarding us as world changers.
04:30-04:33
You're regarding us as these elite Christians.
04:33-04:44
You're regarding us as celebrity church planners." And Paul here is like, "Eh, here is how you should regard us." I'm a slave.
04:45-04:46
That's it.
04:47-04:48
I'm a slave.
04:51-04:58
They had this terrible problem exalting the ministers, and it resulted in them exalting themselves.
04:58-04:59
We've seen that.
05:00-05:05
The pride with their alignment, like, "Yeah, I'm one of Paul's guys." "Oh yeah, that's nothing.
05:05-05:22
I'm one of Apollos' guys." And they were proud of their alignment, and they had disdain towards others, like, "Oh, you must be one of those Paul people." And Paul here is saying, "Why are you making so much of us?
05:24-05:25
We're just slaves.
05:26-05:28
All we're trying to do is be trustworthy.
05:28-05:37
That's it." We saw back in chapter, I'm sorry, in verse 18 rather, in chapter 3.
05:40-05:48
Look back there, Paul says, "Let no one deceive himself." We are so self-deceived.
05:48-05:51
And Paul's like, "Oh, Corinthians, you think you're so wise.
05:51-05:52
You think you have it all figured out.
05:53-05:55
You think you're on the right team.
05:56-06:00
You're so full of pride." Again, that's the issue.
06:00-06:02
Look down at verse 21 in chapter 3.
06:02-06:03
Pastor Taylor covered this last week.
06:04-06:10
He says, "So let no one boast in men." That shouldn't be happening.
06:10-06:18
Not Paul, not Apollos, not Jeff, not Taylor, not your favorite podcast or YouTube's preacher.
06:19-06:20
We shouldn't be exalting anyone.
06:22-06:27
And when we get to this section here in chapter 4, here's what we're going to see.
06:28-06:36
Paul is giving a true biblical assessment of himself.
06:40-06:51
And he tells the Corinthians, "Look, you have to take an honest assessment of who we are." And, Corinthians, you have to take an honest assessment of yourselves.
06:56-07:03
So here in this passage, Paul's going to be serving up some humble pie, all right?
07:04-07:05
So strap on your helmet.
07:07-07:14
This isn't going to be a very comfortable message because Paul's like, "Hey, stop with the pride.
07:14-07:16
Stop exalting people.
07:16-07:17
Stop exalting yourselves.
07:17-07:19
Here's a reality check and harvest.
07:20-07:28
We need a reality check." Because it's real easy for us to point to the Corinthians and be like, "Wow, look at all the pride they have.
07:28-07:34
Look at all the problems they have." Pride isn't every one of us' problem, you realize that.
07:35-07:47
Every single human has a problem with pride, has a problem with self-exaltation, and it's real easy to do that in a church identity.
07:48-07:53
it was for the Corinthians, and it's easy for Harvest Bible Chapel to begin to exalt ourselves.
07:57-08:10
We can look at some of the nonsense that's happening around us, and other churches or organizations that call themselves churches, and it'd be real easy for us to say, well, we're the only ones that are faithful.
08:11-08:13
We are more mature than the other Christians.
08:15-08:19
I don't know what their problem is, but I follow this guy or I listen to this guy.
08:19-08:20
That means I'm one of the smart ones.
08:20-08:22
I'm one of the enlightened ones.
08:22-08:27
And it's real easy to go down the path of pride.
08:30-08:32
That's what we're gonna see in this passage.
08:32-08:34
The Bible's telling us to humble ourselves.
08:35-08:37
Like, hey, hey, knock it off.
08:39-08:41
Stop thinking so much of yourself.
08:44-08:45
You gotta humble yourself.
08:47-09:01
You know, so much in God's Word, we see things that the Holy Spirit does in us and through us, yes, but from what I've studied in God's Word, the command to humble yourself, that's on you.
09:03-09:15
And that would be a whole other sermon series, but you and I are commanded, we are commanded to humble ourselves, so we don't get carried away in our pride.
09:19-09:22
Because humility is the number one characteristic that God's looking for in people.
09:22-09:24
You're not going to come to Jesus unless you're humble.
09:25-09:28
You're not going to live a victorious Christian life unless you're humble.
09:29-09:32
You're not going to have a fruitful ministry unless you're humble.
09:32-09:34
If you're going to be humble, it's on you.
09:39-09:41
So on your outline, I want you to jot some things down.
09:43-09:44
Humble yourself.
09:46-09:52
You're like, "Well, how do I do that?" Paul's like, "Well, here's four things "that'll help you do that." All right?
09:55-10:01
So I hope you had a good Thanksgiving and I hope you're not too full because you're about to have four slices of humble pie.
10:03-10:06
And I don't feel bad at all because I've had to eat this all week, all right?
10:08-10:10
So pray for me and I'll pray for you, all right?
10:10-10:13
Just pause for a second, please pray for me as I pray for you.
10:15-10:22
Father in heaven, as we come to your word, let us not be deceiving ourselves.
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Every single one of us have this drive to put the spotlight on us, to make much of us, to think too much of ourselves.
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And Father, this passage is certainly going to to give us the attitude that You've called us to have.
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Father, I pray through the wisdom of Your Word, by the power of Your Holy Spirit, that You would give us the faith to make the choices that we need to make, to humble ourselves so we can see the greatness of Jesus Christ manifest in our lives.
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We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
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yourself here's four truths that will help you these are four statements that Paul made about himself and that we would commend to you to make about yourself number one only God's opinion of me matters only God's opinion of me matters look at verse 3 Paul says but with me it is a very small thing that I by you or by any human court.
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In fact, I do not even judge myself.
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Now quick review, when we talk about judge, that's like everybody's favorite verse in the Bible.
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Don't judge, don't judge.
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It's everybody's favorite because they don't understand it.
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Judging does not mean like, hey, don't call me out on sin or you're judging me.
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That's not what that means.
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Judging doesn't mean that like I can be a jerk and I can't care what other people think of me jerkiness, don't call me out. That's not what judging means at all. Actually, this word for judge in the Greek could be translated cross-examined. He's talking about people judging your walk with Christ. That's what he's talking about. Judging your, as he mentioned in verse 2, judging your trustworthiness. Some Bibles say faithful or faithfulness.
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That's what he's talking about.
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People judging your faithfulness, your trustworthiness.
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And well, what does that mean to you, Paul?
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He says, "Well, that's a very small thing." And in the Greek, do you know what that means?
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That means the smallest.
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Your opinion of my spiritual walk does not matter for bad or for good.
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It doesn't.
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Here's what I mean.
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After service, if I was at guest reception and you walk by and you're like, "Jeff, I think you're a bad pastor." Like, "Well, sorry you feel that way, but your opinion doesn't matter." Right now there's some of you that are like, "Yes, I can get on board with that." Your opinion doesn't matter.
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That's not really my main concern though.
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You know what the bigger danger is?
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Is the guy that walks your guest reception and says, "Jeff, I think you're a great pastor." That's the bigger danger because then that stuff can start going to your head.
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You can start to think, "You know what?
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Yeah, they're right.
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I am pretty awesome.
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They nailed it.
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Come back, tell me more.
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But the reality is for bad or for good, the opinion doesn't matter.
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That's where there's a danger.
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I've been talking about this with our ministry team and our conference speakers, we have conferences coming up.
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Yet, a people's opinion of your trustworthiness, your faithfulness doesn't matter, good or bad.
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Watch out for the compliments because they're much harder to dismiss because they're much easier to go to my head.
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All right, look at verse 4.
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Paul says, "For I'm not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted.
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It is the Lord who judges me." See, Paul says, "What other people think of me doesn't really matter, neither does what I even think of myself." Doesn't matter either, right?
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You need to have the funeral.
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I realize I'm probably not as great as my grandma thinks I am.
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And I'm probably not as horrible as my critics think I am.
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Either way, it doesn't matter because a slave only cares about one thing, that's pleasing his master.
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Look at verse 5, he goes on, he goes, "Therefore, do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness, and will disclose the purposes of the heart.
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Then each one will receive his commendation from God." Okay, here's what he's driving at.
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At the end of the day, there's only one opinion that matters.
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Whose is it?
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God's, right?
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That's it.
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All that matters is what God thinks of me.
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He's going to make the final judgments on your heart.
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Now listen, this verse should knock every single one of us down a peg.
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Because you see what God's Word is telling us.
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God sees what you do.
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Yes, yes He does, but much deeper than that.
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God sees why you do what you do.
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Your motives, your thoughts, what no one else knows, everything that you do in the dark, God is going to drag it to the light.
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Understand that with God, there are no secrets.
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You might have secrets from your family.
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You might have secrets from your spouse.
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You might have secrets from your boss.
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You might have secrets from your parents, but you do not have any secrets from God.
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So are you pretending?
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Are you pretending in your walk with Christ?
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You might fool me.
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But it doesn't matter.
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You're an open book to God and He's going to judge.
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Are you sincere?
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Like, look, I'm not perfect, but I'm sincere.
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I am sincerely seeking to know and honor the Lord.
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Jeff, I really am seeking to know the Lord." That's great because the Bible says someday you're going to receive your commendation.
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But as far as humbling yourself, my friends, you will never humble yourself until you get to the place where only God's opinion of you matters.
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You've got to get there.
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Number two, not only do I need to reckon with only God's opinion, he matters.
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Number two, write this one down.
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I've received all that I have.
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I've received all that I have.
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6. He says, "I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that "None of you may be puffed up "in favor of one against another." There is a lot going on in that verse, all right?
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Let's break it down here because this is so crucial in so many ways.
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First of all, he says, "I've applied all these things to me "and Apollos for your benefit." You're like, "Applied what things?" "Everything so far that he's been saying "about pride and humility, all of this stuff." He goes, "I'm applying all of this "to Apollos and I for you." In other words, look, all this stuff that he's talking about, this isn't just a preacher thing, and it's not just a church member thing.
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This stuff about pride and humility, this is an all of us thing.
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You get that?
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And he says, Excuse me, we all need to learn not to go beyond what is written.
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What does that mean?
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Listen, this is a principle that carries over in everything.
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You need to learn that you must not, excuse me, you must not go beyond what the Bible says.
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You must not go beyond what the Bible says.
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Well, what's he talking about?
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Here's his point.
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He's telling the Corinthians, and he's telling us Harvest, because they were exalting others and they had disdain for others.
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And Paul's like, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no." You need to view people only the way the Bible describes people.
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That's what he's saying.
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You need to view people only as the Bible describes.
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That's it.
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How does the Bible describe people?
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Every single one of us were born with a sin nature.
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We inherited that from Adam.
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The Bible says Adam brought sin into the world and he passed it on to his kids, he passed onto his kids and pass it on to us.
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We were born with a sin nature.
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We are rebellious against God by birth and by choice, and we deserve hell.
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That's what the Bible says about people.
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But Jesus came, God in the flesh came.
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He died on the cross to take away our sins.
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He rose from the dead to give us the promise of eternal life, and he has commanded us to turn from our sin to believe in Him.
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And when we do, the Bible says that you are born again.
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When you do, the Holy Spirit, God's Spirit Himself comes and empowers you to be who God called you to be.
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And every single person who is saved is saved that way.
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Spoiler alert, if you're going to heaven, You're going to hear the same testimony a lot.
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Like, "How'd you get here?" "Jesus." "How'd you get here?" "Jesus." "I'm gonna go ask this lady, how'd you get here?" "Jesus." You're gonna hear that, not a lot.
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You're gonna hear that exclusively.
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Paul's point here is, look, you guys are all messed up about exalting people.
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Look, you need to have a biblical perspective of who we are.
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Don't go beyond that.
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Or, did you see that at the end of the verse?
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If you do, you will start exalting yourself, right?
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He says, "You may be puffed up in favor of one against another." Go beyond what the Bible says, you're going to start having pride.
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You're going to start to think that you're better than others.
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And then Paul gives them the Dutch uncle.
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Look at verse 7.
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He says, he has three questions.
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Paul says, "For who sees anything different in you?" Like we're all the same.
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The Bible describes this is who man is.
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And he goes, "Who sees anything different in you?" Like what, you're something different?
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You're something special?
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You're a little snowflake?
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Like, oh, you're like, "I know what the Bible says, "but I'm different.
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"I'm special, Grandma thinks I'm special." He said, "Who sees anything different in you?" Like what makes you think you're so special, right?
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Next question, "What do you have that you did not receive?" Get back to that in a second.
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Let that question marinate.
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What is it that you're in possession of that wasn't like given to you?
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All right?
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Then he drives it home with this third question.
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He goes, "If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?" Paul's like, "Why are you so full of yourselves?
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Everything and everything about you, you received that.
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I mean, think about that.
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Just think about that for a minute.
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That's true physically, right?
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about you physically, you received that genetically from your parents.
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You know, occasionally I'll meet somebody or whatever and they're like, "How old are you?" I'm like, "Well, I'm 50." And people say, "Well, you look young for your age." And I say, "Have you been to the eye doctor lately?" "No, I don't say that.
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I don't say that." "I just, I smile and say thank you." Or like, "I got good genes from my mom." But you know what I'm thinking when people say that?
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Like, "That's very nice of you to say, "but I contributed nothing to that." Like, "This is what I got.
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"That's just what I got.
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"I received this." You're like, "I'm sorry." Well, I received this.
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This is what I got.
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This is what was given to me.
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You're like, "Well, doesn't that upset you?" It doesn't matter how I feel about it, this is what I got.
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This is the shade of my skin.
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This is as tall as I'm going to get.
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But that's true for you.
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Everything you have was given to you.
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But I don't really think that's Paul's main point here.
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I think mainly he was talking spiritually, right?
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Everything that I have spiritually has been given to me.
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Salvation, that was a gift from God.
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God gave me that.
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What about spiritual giftedness?
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Where did I get that?
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The Holy Spirit, God gave me a spiritual gift.
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He gave you a spiritual gift.
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It was given, that's why it's called a spiritual gift.
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He gave it to you, right?
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Oh, by the way, your talents, you know the Bible says those are given to you by God, your natural, what we call natural talents.
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The Bible says those were given to you by God.
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Look that up, it's in Exodus.
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Everything about you has been given to you from God directly or from God through your parents.
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And you're like, "Not me.
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I work hard." Why?
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Who gave you the ability to work hard?
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You see, why are you acting like you earned anything?
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And then Paul gets sarcastic with them.
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Look at verse eight.
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Obviously dripping with sarcasm here.
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He is, "Already you have all you want.
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Already you become rich without us.
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You would have become kings.
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Would that you did reign so that we might share the rule with you.
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Do you see the sarcasm?
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He's condemning their pride.
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He's like, oh, oh, I'm so sorry.
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I didn't realize that you were these spiritually elite and wise people.
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I didn't realize that you attained a level of spirituality all by yourselves.
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You didn't need us, Madam President.
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Oh, I beg your pardon for thinking different.
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What Paul's doing here is he's pulling them back down to earth.
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He's like, you guys think you're so superior with your pride.
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Knock it off.
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Get off of your high horse.
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Stop it.
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Because everything you have has been given to you.
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How in the world can you boast about that?
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You know, just imagine this scenario.
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Imagine that five of our kids from Harvest Academy, imagine I gave them each a quarter.
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Like, no, don't spend it all in one place.
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But I gave five kids a quarter.
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And as you're walking out church, you see the five of those kids, those five kids are sitting at a table up here by Harvest Academy.
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And you stop and listen for a second and they're all bragging.
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And one kid's like, "I got a quarter.
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"I got a quarter.
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"Look how awesome I am.
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"I have a quarter." And then the little girl beside him is like, "I got a quarter.
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"You think you're great?
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"I got a quarter.
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"I'm awesome, I got a quarter." And then the next kid's like, "I got a quarter." And wouldn't you be like, "What are you guys bragging about?
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"Jeff just gave you all a quarter.
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"How does that, why are you so boastful?" And that's what Paul's saying here to the Corinthians.
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You're like a bunch of kids bragging because somebody gave each a quarter.
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Knock it off, we're all equal in God's eyes.
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And equal does not mean the same, But equal does mean equal.
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You're never gonna humble yourself until you get to the place where you recognize every single thing that you have was given to you.
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All right?
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Humble yourself.
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And here's four truths that'll help you.
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Number three.
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This is a hard truth.
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All right?
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Number three is God wants to show everyone how I suffer.
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God wants to show everyone how I suffer.
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Pick up in verse nine.
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Paul says, "For I think that God has exhibited us apostles of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men." Paul says, "God put us on display." He says, "We're like the lowest people on the earth." See the picture there?
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Paul says, "You know what we're like? We're like men on death row, being escorted to the electric chair while TV cameras all around recording us for the entire world to turn on the TV and watch us." Like, "Hey, look, there they go, off to be killed. Look at them. Everybody watch." Watch.
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That's how God put us on display.
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You see in v. 10, Paul gets back into some more sarcasm.
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He says, "We are fools for Christ's sake.
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But you are wise in Christ.
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We are weak, but you are strong.
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You are held in honor, we and disrepute." What's he talking about here?
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It's more sarcasm.
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See what Paul's saying?
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Paul's like, "We're out here suffering, serving the Lord.
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We're out here actually suffering, and you're sitting in your little pews patting yourselves on the back.
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What's going on?" Like, "Well, suffering how?
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How are you suffering, Paul?
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Well, he tells us, "To the present hour, we hunger and thirst.
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We are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands." What is there to brag about again?
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Paul's reminding them that following Christ means suffering.
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I don't really care what the health and wealth church down the street says about that, and I don't really care what the prosperity preacher on TV says about that.
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All I care is what the Bible says about that, and do you know what the Bible says?
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The Bible says if you follow Christ, you are going to suffer.
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Jesus himself said this, John 15, 20.
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Jesus said, "Remember the word that I said to you, "'A servant is not greater than his master.'" Jesus said that a bunch.
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"A servant is not greater than his master." What are you saying, Lord?
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If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you." See what Jesus is saying?
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God allowed His only begotten Son to suffer.
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So you think as an adopted child of God that you're exempt from that?
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You think that because you're adopted, that you get a pass on suffering?
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Listen, God doesn't keep you from suffering.
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He puts you on display in suffering.
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You're like, "Why would He do that?
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Why in the world would God do that?
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Are you telling me that God is allowing me to suffer so everybody can watch me suffer?" That's what He said.
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Like, "Why would He do that?" He tells us.
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We continue in verse 12 here.
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He says, "When reviled, we bless.
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When persecuted, we endure.
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When slandered, we entreat." So why in the world would God lead us to suffering?
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So God can show everyone who's watching How? How we suffer.
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So he talks here about being reviled and persecuted and slandered.
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Have you ever seen worldly people react to those things?
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All the time, right?
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What does the world do when they're reviled or persecuted or slandered?
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The world reactions, they're on display everywhere.
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It's retaliation, it's temper tantrums.
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I'll get even with you, you can't do this to me.
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It's pity parties and oh, woe is me.
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And that's how the world reacts.
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Listen, God wants you to walk through the same kinds of suffering so that you can exhibit the life of Christ.
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Do you realize how awesome this is?
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That God is going to allow you to suffer so the world can watch, so God can point to you and say, "Look at how my people suffer.
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"Oh, you see how the world suffers "and how they retaliate and how they're bitter "and how they're angry.
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"And look at my people.
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"When they suffer, "they reflect the character of my son.
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"Look at my people.
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When they're reviled, they turn around and they look for ways to bless the people that hate them.
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Do you see my people do that?
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God says, "Look at my people.
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When they're persecuted, they don't pack it up.
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They don't boo-hoo.
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I quit.
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I can't take it anymore.
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Look at my people.
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When my people are persecuted, they endure.
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They are not going to give up." God says, "Look at my people when they're slandered.
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They don't slander back.
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They don't hate the people that speak negatively about them." God says, "Look at what my people do.
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They entreat.
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They're trying to reach the people that hate them with the gospel of my Son.
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Look at my people." This guy sounds familiar, doesn't it?
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Probably because Peter said something almost identical.
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Look at 1 Peter 2, verse 21.
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Look at this.
38:33-38:35
Same thing, exact same truth.
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For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps." Here's the example.
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Jesus committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.
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When he was reviled, he did not revile in return.
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When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly." You're going to suffer. The only real question is, "How are you going to suffer?" Meaning, what is going to be your attitude during your suffering? You're going to lash because your pride was hurt, you're gonna humble yourself and show them the example that Jesus gave you.
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But you'll never humble yourself until you understand that you are called to respond to suffering like Jesus.
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One more slice of humble pie, are you full?
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You're like, you know what, Pastor Jeff, I think I'm just the right amount of humble.
40:01-40:02
Can we sing and get out of here?
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There's one more.
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Number four, something to tell yourself when you start to think that you're so important.
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Number four, the world thinks I'm scum.
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Look at the last part of verse 13.
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We have become and are still like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.
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Yeah, we're scum.
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We're garbage, you know that.
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We are garbage people.
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To the lost, they think our message is foolishness.
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You realize that?
40:53-41:14
You realize that to the lost, they would come in here and hear what we're doing, see what we're doing, and they would say, literally, "What a bunch of morons." Look, if you're here for a little ego boost, I'd just like to remind you what the Bible says, you're trash.
41:15-41:18
We're all just trash in the world's eyes.
41:23-41:32
You know, when I was a kid, my dad used to say that, he had this little saying that he said all the time, and as a kid, I never understood what it meant.
41:36-42:06
It was this, anytime somebody was acting untowardly, somebody was acting like a hog or insulting you or being cruel towards you or speaking perversely, or anytime somebody was acting like that, my dad would just say, "Oh, you gotta consider the source." I never knew what that meant until I became an adult.
42:06-42:09
Now I'm, oh.
42:12-42:14
I get what he's saying now.
42:17-42:21
And I think that little saying of dad's That certainly applies here.
42:23-42:26
It's like, hey, you know, the world thinks you're scum.
42:28-42:29
Well, consider the source.
42:31-42:35
The brilliant world crucified Jesus Christ.
42:38-42:48
This world, who was giving their opinion of me, took God in the flesh and publicly executed Him most humiliating and painful way.
42:51-42:52
Oh, they think I'm scum, huh?
42:52-42:57
Well, I guess I should just consider the source.
42:58-43:00
Oh, you're never gonna be popular with the world.
43:00-43:05
If you follow Christ, you are never going to be popular with the world, it's not going to happen.
43:06-43:07
They think you're scum.
43:10-43:14
And the truth is I'm actually much worse than they think I am.
43:18-43:19
I am.
43:22-43:28
My sin is so bad it took the blood of the spotless Son of God to wash my sin away.
43:29-43:30
That must mean my sin was pretty bad.
43:34-43:37
So it takes us back to point one, right?
43:38-43:40
God's opinion is really the only one that matters anyways.
43:41-43:53
that you're never going to humble yourself until you're okay with the world regarding you as scum.
43:55-43:55
All right?
43:56-44:07
So if our worship team would make their way back to the platform, just wanna leave you with this.
44:09-44:35
If you're ever a contestant on Jeopardy, not likely for most of us, or you start to think that you're pretty important, which is actually very likely for all of us, I'm I'm gonna give you your speech.
44:38-44:48
When someone says, "So, tell me a little bit about yourself." If you wanna be biblical, here's your speech.
44:48-44:54
Like, "My name is, I'm only here to please God.
44:56-44:58
Everything I have has been given to me.
45:00-45:08
God wants me to suffer so that the world can see Jesus and the world thinks I'm scum.
45:09-45:10
Tell me a little bit about yourself.
45:12-45:12
Let's pray.
45:14-45:22
Father in heaven, I just ask again that you would use your word to humble all of us.
45:25-45:40
Our sin is so self-exalting and we start to think that we have things figured out or we reached a level that other people should aspire to when your word says that we should humble ourselves.
45:43-46:01
Father, remind us of these truths that someday we're gonna stand before you and on that day, We will learn the truth that it is only your opinion that means anything.
46:03-46:05
Increase our faith, Father.
46:07-46:12
Give us the drive to humble ourselves.
46:12-46:15
We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read 1 Corinthians 4:1-13

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Paul is once again admonishing them on their divisiveness over “who is the best minister”. Why do you think there is so much content on this subject in 1 Corinthians?
How would you define humility? Why does the Bible say that you must “humble yourself”, i.e., that job is on you to do?
In 1 Cor 4:6, Paul tells them not to “go beyond what is written”? What specifically does he mean by that? How does this principle apply to Bible study in general?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Don't Excuse Sin

Introduction:

4 Things to Say To Yourself When You're Tempted: (1 Corinthians 6:12-20)

Deal with Disputes

Introduction:

In a church dispute? Remember your Relationship… (1 Corinthians 6:1-11)

Deal with Sinners

Introduction:

Get Purified: When There's Sin in the Church... (1 Corinthians 5:1-13)

What do we hope to accomplish by throwing him out?

Be Worth Imitating

Introduction:

Are You Worth Imitating? 4 Areas to Evaluate (1 Corinthians 4:14–21)

See Yourself as a Servant

Introduction:

Humble Yourself: 4 Truths to Help You (1 Corinthians 4:1–13)

Upcoming Small Group Questions CLICK HERE

How much of the Bible have we covered since 2011?

Introduction:

4 Things to Say To Yourself When You're Tempted: (1 Corinthians 6:12-20)

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Introduction:

In a church dispute? Remember your Relationship… (1 Corinthians 6:1-11)

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Introduction:

Get Purified: When There's Sin in the Church... (1 Corinthians 5:1-13)

What do we hope to accomplish by throwing him out?

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Introduction:

Are You Worth Imitating? 4 Areas to Evaluate (1 Corinthians 4:14–21)

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Introduction:

Humble Yourself: 4 Truths to Help You (1 Corinthians 4:1–13)

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT