When Winning Is Losing - [1 Corinthians 6:1-8]

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Well, it is great to be back to Bethlehem Bible Church I usually go a week maybe without preaching, but it has been about 20 days since I preach a sermon
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So buckle up Thank you for your prayers and encouragements and cards in the last couple weeks as you know
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Kim's grandmother Really her mother in all practical purposes Died and went to be with the
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Lord and we went to celebrate Her home going and I thought when I was back home at both of the different services
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How important it is to believe the Bible the truth about God God's faithful word.
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What if we had no rudder? What if we had no truth and you look at the body of the in the casket and you have memories, but that's it but to look at grandma and to see her and to think by the
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Promises of God by the Redemption found in Christ Jesus one day that body is going to get up again
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And I will see those hands and I will see that face and I will see that Smile her spirit, of course with the
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Lord now, but one day that body will be in heaven and I'll see that woman again
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How do unbelievers make it? Thinking about Ron and Cheryl in the next week remembering
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Lily and Tori as many years ago They died and what would we do without the faithful word of God?
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How do we get through the day without the truth and the Scriptural Verities that comfort our hearts and so thank you for praying
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It was a good week to be back and I almost said good week to be back home But this is my home too.
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So I have three homes here, California and my eternal home Many have asked how
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I've been feeling I feel good enough to preach 1st Corinthians. So let's turn our Bibles Let's turn our
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Bibles of 1st Corinthians, I'm probably 30 % better. Thanks for praying I Was thinking when
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Pradeep was reading Mark chapter 5 This lady suffered much under many physicians spent all she had and was no better, but rather grew worse
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I have not spent all my money. I'm getting a little bit better. But probably in the last three weeks
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I've been to see the chiropractor five times the osteopath about three the acupuncturist once Regular doctors tomorrow
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ENT and the list goes on. So even though at times I get discouraged I am resolved to preach the gospel and try to minister with the strength that God has given me and if that Strength is with one wing clipped.
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Then I'm just going to keep on preaching until you bury me. So First Corinthians, it's been a while We'll pick up Revelation 21 and 22 another time part 2 there that will be soon enough
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But we're in the book of 1st Corinthians and we've taken a detour because of the holidays and because of my health I want to get back into this passage
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In this very book 1st Corinthians and before we get to chapter 6 for our passage today Turn with me if you would back to chapter 1 because I'd like to Set the stage for this book.
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This is a book that Basically wants the Church of Corinth to live up to its name
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That is to say they've been bought with the price. They've been redeemed Christ has purchased them with his own blood and when that happens
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There should be a change in your life and you should attempt by the Spirit's power to live up to who you are in Christ I could ask it another way if Jesus Christ has saved you and made you born again
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Should it make a difference or should you just carry on the way that you used to live?
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And we know the answer to that if you continue to carry on the way you used to live you ought to ask yourself the question
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How could I be saved and continue to live like I used to live? and so Corinth was dealing with all kinds of worldly issues and the world was spilling over into the church more than the
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Sanctifying process of the Spirit of God in Corinth was spilling over into the world
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And so Paul writes this long letter very long letter to deal with questions and issues so Christ might be
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Magnified in them and so you don't think that it's some kind of list of do's and don'ts and moralisms
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Paul sprinkles throughout this book Christ Jesus's work so he'll say regarding marriage and divorce and And fidelity in marriage that you've been bought with the price
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Christ Jesus he'll say in chapter 6 when it comes to fidelity with your own body and Holiness he'll say you've been bought with the price
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He'll say when it comes to church discipline in chapter 5 Remember the Passover lamb and so it's fine to exhort.
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It's fine to rebuke It's fine to ask questions, but Paul does not forget that this is a gospel centered book you could call this book the gospel and Problems in the local church and everywhere you go the solution to the problem is found in the gospel
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Paul just doesn't try to say stop it. He says stop it and remember who you are in Christ Jesus So we turn to first Corinthians chapter 1 and ask ourself
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What's the first thing that's dealt with and you remember that Paul gives the first reproof for reproofs?
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Seven questions, that's the book He gives the introduction in chapter 1 and then he gives the first reproof and that is stop being divided
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You guys are divided because you worship the world's wisdom and because you worship leaders the wrong way
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You worship them at all is something wrong. He says but you're just Not unified then he goes to chapter 5 and he says here's problem number 2 after spending four long chapters on Factiousness he moves to immorality that's tolerated in the church
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There will always be sin in the church sin tolerated as a problem and here we have a horrible kind of immorality tolerated in the church chapter 5 1 to 13 and Then we have the next problem
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So we've got lack of unity immorality and now we move to the third of four problems found in chapter 6 verses 1 through 8
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And that problem is when Christians sue other Christians, but it's a bigger problem than that It's when the family of God stops acting like a family some of you might say well
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I'm never gonna sue another Christian. I don't even know a good lawyer There's a bigger issue The bigger issue is this if you've been saved by God forgiven of every one of your sins
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Every one of those sins has been placed on Christ and he bore them on his body on the tree for you out of kind Love and he's adopted you into his family and now we the
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Christians here are brothers and sisters Shouldn't we treat each other like family? I'll never forget when my mom died five years ago
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Is it four years ago, and I sat down with my brother who's a pastor my sister who just attends church regularly?
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I don't think she would consider herself born again, and we sat down We said this the estates not that big
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But if the estates $1 or a million dollars Let's get along and divide it up properly
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Let's act like brothers and sisters. Let's act like family and let's do it because we want to honor
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Mom how shameful would be if we're fighting Greedily over the money that she has left us
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Let's act like a family and so similarly if we know that as brothers and sisters in Christ We have been bought with a price.
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We're in the family of God and we have problems by the way Will we have conflicts in the church? as long as I'm your pastor we will
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Yes, we will have conflict so solve them like family That's the issue.
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How does a family solve problems so that our father is honored? We want to honor him in everything we do whether we eat or whether we drink we do all of the glory of God including solving problems in the church, and so Paul is going to say
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Corinth you're not acting like a family and He uses this illustration of their unfamily like behavior to address this problem and by the end of today
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I want you to remember that Jesus Christ has bought you So you must live in light of that and treat each other like your family
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I could probably push a little bit and say this the family here that is blood -bought by Christ is more
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Important to you or should be more important to you than your own Family, this is a higher level kind of family.
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This is an eternal Family, this is a family that will last and last because it's blood -bought and so we want to make sure we honor
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God in our Family and so today. Let's look at chapter 6 verses 1 through 8
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Although the section is really 1 through 11 So let me read you this section 1st Corinthians 6 1 to 11
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And I want you to look for themes as I read it, and I'll try to use some emphasis with my voice
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So you pick up the themes. I'd like you to find questions. How often does
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Paul ask a question? I'd like you to look for this little phrase this little refrain.
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Do you not know? I'd also like you to look for the word brother our brothers
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Family Paul's going to be asking questions They should know this because he's been there for 18 months in the past teaching them these truths and listen to the family language brothers
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And sisters you mean you're going to sue your own brother I'm gonna sue my own brother Pat Abendroth another pastor because he got my mother's
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China reminds me Strife in the family of God reflects
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Poorly upon the father We want to make him look good. Don't you want to make
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God look good? That's your life goal. God. I want you to look good in my life
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I want you to show other people with a Jim Elliot kind of mindset You know there is an advantage a very practical certainly eternal, but a very practical advantage to have
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Jesus as your Lord So Paul writes in 1st Corinthians 6 1 to 11
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Last thing I want you to look for is is there something to do with Christ's loving atonement to solve the problem
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Verse 1 when one of you has a grievance against another Does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the
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Saints? Or do you not know that the Saints will judge the world and if the world is to be judged by you
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Are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know?
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We are to judge angels How much more than matters pertaining to this life?
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So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church?
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I? Say this to your shame Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between their the brothers?
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But brother goes to law against brother and that before unbelievers
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To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you Why not rather suffer wrong?
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Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud even your own brothers
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Or do you not know that the righteous unrighteous rather will not inherit the kingdom of God do not be deceived
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Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who practice homosexuality
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Nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor revilers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God And such were some of you, but you were washed
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You were sanctified You were justified in the name of the
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Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God Let's pray together
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Father in heaven, would you help us understand these truths so we can think more properly about you as Your spirit assists us to love you more with all our heart soul mind and strength
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Father, we are very very thankful that we are washed people that we are wholly set apart and sanctified people
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That you justified us by Christ's great work Father we'd like to live in light of that We'd like to love one another here in the church
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Would you prevent this church from any kind of lawsuit any kind of lack of love that stems from greed or?
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Some kind of defending our ourselves wanting to keep our name Although we want you to be glorified
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Help us to act with sanctified minds help us to be Selfless help us to be spiritual help us to be
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Holy Spirit driven Left to ourselves we'd be a mess and so God help us today and teach us this morning to love our neighbor as Ourselves in Jesus name we pray
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Amen Let me give you a few contextual things. I would love to have a
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Bible that had no chapters or verses You know those were added and so the original
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Bible said no chapters or no verses now the bad news would be if I said Please turn your
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Bibles to 1st Corinthians 611 it'd be harder for me to locate that spot and for you to locate that spot
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So I like them But they split chapters in such a way that sometimes
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I forget that one chapter is connected to the previous chapter For instance in Galatians chapter 5
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How is it connected in chapter 6 and with the chapter breaks it gives me a mental break?
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Maybe you don't do it, but I do it so here's my question. How is 5 connected to 6?
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Because you need to know that as Paul just picking things out of the sky how is chapter 5 about immorality in the church
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Incest of all things it's not dealt with how is that tied into chapter 6 well?
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Let me give you three thoughts three contextual bridges So you can get the context and get the flow and therefore you can understand it better I want you to understand this text so you can understand the mind of God so that you can honor him and praise him
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Remember at this church and at every church you don't want just the pastor to understand the passage you wouldn't understand it, right?
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I want you to understand it you are the ministry of Bethlehem Bible Church And so the first contextual bridge is this
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Both chapter 5 and chapter 6 stem from false evil desires of greed
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The one is sexual lust desiring more and desiring something. That's not yours
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Here too in chapter 6. It's the same thing except. It's not sex. It's money. It's property.
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It's things Both stem from a false desire for pleasure
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And so it's natural for Paul to say listen There's this problem with covetousness in chapter 5 coveting a woman and in chapter 6.
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It's coveting something else It's an issue of property our money our things Second contextual bridge look at verse 12 and 13 of chapter 5
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Chapter 5 verse 12 and 13 for what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those who those inside the church whom you are to judge?
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God judges those outside Purge the evil person from among you Paul says
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Corinth Paul says believers. You're not to judge the unsaved Then in chapter 6 he says the opposite So believer, why would you then be judged by the unsaved?
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Chapter 5 don't judge the unsaved people chapter 6 don't let the unsaved people judge you And then the third contextual tie -in is this
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Chapter 5 deals with a criminal offense incest
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Chapter 6 deals with a civil issue a civil matter both are dealing with legal things
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And so you can imagine here's incest which is a legal crime And here is a property manner a matter a financial matter and so how do
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Christians think about that? What do we do with regards to those issues? And so I think those three things help you see that Paul is just flowing logically and naturally through this passage
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Statement of the day for this passage is Christians are different because of Jesus Christ They are family members so act in light of that Let me give you for the outline this morning five questions to drive that home five questions
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Why about why are they questions because everything in chapter 6 is question like so I might as well continue the theme with my outline
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Five questions that should help remind you you should never take a
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Christian to court That's the specific, but I can make it broader that you should treat people in this church as family members question number one found in the text
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Would you dare to sue a family member Would you ever dare to sue a family member?
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Maybe Lindsay Lohan's father would sue a family member or she would sue a family member, but Paul uses this language
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Would you dare sue somebody in your own family? Would you sue your wife
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I sue you Sounds weird. It's your own family.
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It's like husbands. You are loving yourselves if you love your wife Same kind of principle if you want to sue your own family member you're suing yourself
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Who would dare to do that? So look at the language by the way When we look at this language here, it's more intense in chapter 5
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I Can go back to when I preach chapter 5 in the middle of a church discipline case here I had a headache then just trying to preach it because the passage was so intense chapter 5
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There's no language in all the Bible seemingly like chapter 5 except. Do you know what in chapter 6?
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It's more intense the language of chapter 6 is much more extreme than chapter 5
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How can I put this in our society We don't use shame anymore to motivate people
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In the old days I can hear my mother say shame on you
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That brings shame to you and shame to the family shame on you That's exactly how
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Paul is gonna motivate them the shame that you would sue your own wife your own brother your own family member
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Good he says in verse 1 when one of you has a grievance against another and of course It's a fallen world and we all do
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Does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the Saints Paul says how dare you
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If you ever sue another Christian in this church and the elders call you in to the office Then the first thing
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I'm gonna say is this How dare you? Because it's a big thing because it it says something about Jesus and what he's done it defames him it denigrates him
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It just ignores him Paul says don't do that. And here's the thing about Corinth There is no reality
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TV in Corinth. So what do you do for fun? There were no THX movies?
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No, adobe sound no internet. What do you do for fun? You know what the Corinthians did for fun? Besides the temple prostitutes besides gorging themselves on food.
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You know what they did for fun They went to court. It's like the people's court
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It was like judge Wapner for the day judge Judy or whatever else they love to go to court and It was entertainment for them and it was part of their life.
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They just broke they would breathe in the breath of Litigation because it was interesting and they were called up for jury duty often one writer said every
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Athenian was a lawyer and Right down the road is Corinth and probably every
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Corinthian was a lawyer as well the fabric of their life was lawsuits and if you were a
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Corinthian and you had a Problem with someone else a civil matter then you would try to deal with it one -on -one if you couldn't then you'd get an arbitrator
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They'd get an arbitrator and then the arbitrators would try to meet if that didn't work There was another step you'd have an arbitrator who also had behind him about 40 people
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You'd have 40 people in your kind of little jury pool or that didn't work You'd go to the next step and there could be thousands of jurors one writer said to arbitrate such a case
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And if you had money you were sure to win the rich people dominated the poor people got stepped on and Paul says now you're a family and you're gonna go before the unbelievers to somehow get justice and The problem for Paul is this they didn't need to Why?
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The Jews had it set up in such a way that they always settled their matters within the
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Jewish system the rabbis Would settle matters matters if you had a problem and you would go and you'd say rabbis
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Could you please settle this and what you say goes and Paul is saying? Why would you have to go to have some unbelievers judge the case when you have your own elders?
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The only elders of your church can deal with it You don't have to go you like the Jews have your own
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People who are wise and by the way Corinthians aren't you the ones who keep saying how wise you are
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We are wise you're fools. You think you really have wisdom Well, then you don't have enough wisdom to take this court case yourself
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They didn't need to they could handle their disputes within house But probably what was going through their mind was this you can see the flow.
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Let's see. I've got a problem with this person He's got his property line across mine. I try to deal with it.
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He says no If I go to those elders occur at Corinth, they're gonna side with him
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So maybe we can go to the public arena and then I can get after him And by the way, when you brought it before the public arena, how do you win the case?
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defamation slander Ad hominem attacks. I don't think
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I can get my case solved with Christians. So let's go elsewhere That's probably what was happening
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Paul says it's shameful. You're gonna lose your testimony. You can't find one person who can figure this out
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Of course, there'll be disputes but settle your own disputes notice verse 1
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Any one of you when one of you? There probably was a specific case going on but he makes it broader so everyone can learn
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Don't take people to court The gospel is Jesus gives his life
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The gospel is for God so loved the world he gave the gospel is Christ freely gave his own life
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The gospel is give give give and now you want to go to court to what? Get get get
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This doesn't make any sense Calvin studied law at two French universities and he said this about legal matters
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Indeed wherever lawsuits occur frequently or the parties are Obstinate in joining issue with each other with the utmost rigor of the law
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It is perfectly obvious that their minds are inflamed far too much by wrongful greedy desires and That they are not prepared for calmness of mind and endurance of wrongs according to the commandment of Christ If you've been wronged by a
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Christian What do you do? Jesus said in Luke 6
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But I say to you who hear love your enemies do good to those who hate you bless those who curse you pray for those
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Who abuse you? Jesus doesn't say take your dirty laundry and air it before unbelievers
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And so here's what Paul says he's got all kinds of different ways to talk to the Church of Corinth But here he just says the goal the audacity the the
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Pompous attitude that you would go to an unbelieving court. How dare you and that dare is in the present tense a
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Continuing thing it's happening probably at the moment. How dare you do that this very second? You've got righteous leaders, by the way, if you don't think your elders are righteous
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Then what are you doing learning about heaven and hell and having you teach their teacher children on how to go to heaven if you've
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Got righteous elders qualified by first Timothy 3 and Titus chapter 1 you can go to them
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By the way, lest I forget if you have a case against someone here at the church and there's money involved our
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Property or those kind of things a civil case Then we would love to talk to you and we would love to help you and the elders with Unbiasedness, let's see.
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Is that a word with without bias? We will help settle the case and you will move on and what's the worst thing that can happen?
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The lion said that Do the text does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the
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Saints He could have said on outsiders, but he says the unjust that's what he calls them
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Unrighteous Saints believers unbelievers. Look at that parallelism exact opposite those people there
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They don't know the wisdom of God you brag, you know the wisdom of God and you should He says to the
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Church of Corinth Those lawyers are unjust unrighteous
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Doesn't mean that every lawyers as bad as he could be Cicero said the courts will never convict any man.
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However guilty if he has money Apulia said that judges are gowned vultures and all judges nowadays sell their judgments for money
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We've had quite a few lawyer jokes over the years Some of those probably have truth to them, especially back in this day summary for Bethlehem Bible Church Love people
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Don't sue them It's bad for the church's character It's bad for Christ's character
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Question number two the second question designed you to remember that we're a family and we don't want to sue other
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Christians It's found in verses two and three Don't you know that you're competent to judge?
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Don't you know that you're competent to judge as a church with leaders? Christians are able to judge for themselves.
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Let me read you verses two and three The point here is superior competence of the church judging
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First Corinthians six two and three or do you not know that the Saints will judge the world?
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And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? You see the argument from the greater to the lesser.
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Here's the question again Do you not know that we are to judge angels how much more than matters pertaining to this life?
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Now some people want to get bogged down in the fine points. Where are we to judge the world? When do we get a judge angels, where's that in the
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Old Testament? Where's that in the New Testament? You can probably find some answers to those questions, but I don't think that's
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Paul's concern Paul's concern is just a big picture You're able to judge the Bible says you will be co -heirs with Christ and you'll have this greater judgment
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Why can't you do the lesser and six times right here in this chapter?
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Do you not know do you not know do you not know do you not know do you not know do you not know?
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They should have known these are rhetorical questions remember 18 months at Corinth he taught them
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Don't sue other people. Why because you have competency in yourself now several look to Daniel chapter 7 don't go there
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I'll just read you the two verses Daniel 7 where the Jewish people got their hope And how they were tied into Judging the world with Christ as I look this horn made war with the
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Saints and prevailed over them until the Ancient of Days came and judgment was given for the
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Saints of the Most High and The time came when the Saints possessed the kingdom
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The Saints will judge the world maybe that's in the Millennial Kingdom, but again the details are not fine certain
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Eschatological nuances here the main point is this the real point is this you have competency within Your own church body to deal with these cases
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They're supposed to know what to do Other passages that make some allusion to judging the nations
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Jesus said to them truly I say to you in the new world when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne You have followed me will sit on twelve thrones
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Judging the twelve tribes of Israel Or maybe it's from Luke 22 You are those who have stayed with me in my trials
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And I assigned to you as my father assigned to me a kingdom That you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel Here you're going to be involved either directly or indirectly as Christ co -heir in Judgment of the nations and judgment of the angels and these huge national
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Worldlike events, but you can't judge that property line in the back That's his point
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And he continues verse 3 do you not know that we are able to judge angels he ups the ante
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Highest created thing we're able to judge angels how much more than things pertaining to this life
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To the here and now just sit and think about it. That's his question again reasoning from the greatest to the smallest
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By the way the text is to judge angels no article What does angels with no article mean it means not specific group of angels like bad angels are good angels?
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It means this this category of being that's at the top of the created ladder Angels you get to judge angels the highest created class of beings question three question three
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Why would you ever settle for second best? Why would you ever settle for second best so question number one?
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How dare you go to Take a Christian into a civil court aren't you competent to judge question two question three?
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Why would you ever settle for second best? Why would you ever settle for second best if you have a doctor you want the worst doctor or the best doctor?
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Whenever I hear of somebody having surgery. They'll say I had the best cardiovascular surgeon in all of New England I mean somebody else and they'll see
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I had heart surgery I had the very best one and I'd say well is it the same one no, but everybody has to think
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I got the best specialist in Boston You go for the best so when it comes to a lawsuit you think
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I? Think let's see let's use medical again. I've got a headache
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I'm gonna go down the street to that Wiccan who's gonna put chicken blood on my chest
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Or I'll go over here to this ENT specialist And the chicken blood is cold,
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I'm telling you So let's go to the unbelievers who don't have the mind of God who don't know right and wrong who have no
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Propositional truth who are bribed by other people who render judgments that aren't for the glory of God.
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Let's go to them It's chicken blood Paul says don't you want to go for the best who knows the mind of God who knows truth who knows systematic theology?
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Who's been taught the scriptures the church does with her leaders? William Shakespeare said the first thing we do let's kill all the lawyers
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Clarence Darrow said the trouble with law as lawyers Benjamin Benjamin Franklin God works wonders now and then behold a lawyer and an honest man and John Keats said
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I think we may class the lawyer in The natural history of monsters
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That might not be true today and there are certainly Christians who are good lawyers and we want Christians to be good lawyers, right?
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And if elders are smart and they were trying to figure out a lot some potential Lawsuit in the church where brothers and sisters couldn't get along Might it be a good idea for them to even say we've got a lawyer in our midst.
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Let's bring him along Let's bring her along. Of course But as these lawyer jokes today have some truth in them
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What was certainly true back in those days is you couldn't trust these people So Paul says go for the best look at verse 4.
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So if you have such cases It's a general principle. Why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church?
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Now it could be translated lots of ways You're appointing those indicative you're appointing those
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Exclamation or it could be questioned. I think in the middle of all the questions. That's exactly what it is. You're appointing these people
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You're doing this you're going outside Don't do that.
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You don't need to If you could pick if you've got a problem with another Christian in this church
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And you could pick either the elder board of the Bethlehem Bible Church To my knowledge.
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None of us have any law practice Law education you can either pick the elders of Bethlehem Bible Church, or you could hire who your favorite lawyers.
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I Don't know. Let's think of somebody from Harvard Harvard trained Alan Dershowitz Who should you pick?
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Well, if you think you can win better with Dershowitz That's probably the problem at hand.
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That's what Paul is after we're after the glory of Christ and Dershowitz is not going to say for the sake of the kingdom of the glory of Jesus Christ and His name this is the decision
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Neither of you are going to like it, but here's what we have to do The elders are going to say we're concerned about the glory of Christ We're concerned about the unity of the body.
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We're concerned about the testimony to the world And he keeps asking questions.
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I keep asking questions question number four question number four Isn't it shameful to air dirty laundry?
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Isn't it shameful to air dirty laundry verses five and six Paul thinks so One of my pet peeves in all of my life is when
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I hear spouses say bad things about their spouses in front of other people Now everybody's if you're married you're married to a sinful person and You would know the most about that spouse to reveal all kinds of things
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But it's shameful Kim has probably Encyclopedias of things she could say about me, but I don't think you have ever heard her say
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One negative thing about me why because I'm not sinful No, because it's shameful to talk like that It's shameful
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You don't air dirty laundry So Paul says same thing in a church
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We're gonna say we can't figure this out We've got everything else figured out because God has told us how to live righteous lives.
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How do you get to heaven? What about justification? What about redemption? What about reconciliation? What about propitiation? What about conflict resolution?
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But we can't figure it out. So please unbelievers help us And again, he's not saying something about a criminal case if there's a criminal case then
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Romans 13 applies Right if there's child abuse, then we go to the courts
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Romans 13 and it is exacted But here for these civil things over money over property
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By the way, what's gonna happen all that when we die anyway? Look at the language
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This is this is pretty tough stuff here by Paul Because he's he's concerned about the testimony.
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I Say this to your shame Can it be that there's no one among you wise enough to settle dispute between your brothers between the brothers?
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But brother goes to law against brother and that before unbelievers Look back in chapter 4 verse 14 when it comes to thinking about leadership properly
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He says in chapter 4 verse 14. I do not write these things to make you ashamed but to admonish you as my beloved children
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But when it comes to suing other blood -brought Christians shame on you Paul says
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The factiousness that it's going to involve. Can you imagine if our church was involved in a big lawsuit? You know people do
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I'll tell you what people do. We like to take sides People say well, you know what?
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I'm rooting for the Packers. I Always root for the winner I'm gonna be on this person's side then the gossip then the discussion then the sides and all that and he's just already labored for chapters stay together
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Paul says it's shameful. You pride yourself in wisdom Church then be wise
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There's got to be some wise person in your community who can render a decision The word brother in first Corinthians use 10 times or less 11 to 20 times are 21 to 30 or 31 and over a
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B C or D. What's your guess? 39 times they always go with the greater So for us as Christians, we want to love other
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Christians And if you've got a problem with another Christian either let it go Remember Matthew 18 that you've sinned a billion sins against Jesus.
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He's forgiven you you forgive them and if you can't let it go then you Go with that Christian come to the old board say we need help.
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Could you settle the case for us? I? If it was me and I was rewriting the
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Constitution right now, I will put in the Constitution as A member of this local church are a faithful attender.
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I agree to never sue another Christian at this church. I Give up all my rights of suing another
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Christian civilly. I Will never prosecute a
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Christian in this church because it defames Jesus and his royal law Remember the royal law of Jesus found in James 2 you shall love your neighbor as your self and finally question number five
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What would a wise Christian do? What would a wise Christian do? found in verses 7 and 8 a
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Wise Christian would do this if you're sued or you're about to be sued You say I don't want it to go before the unbelieving court.
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You can have it. I'll suffer I'll give it up. I'll settle you can have it
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I'd rather be wronged than have the testimony of Jesus defamed Because the second you walk into that court you've both lost
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That's why when you win in that case, it's really a loss look at verses 7 and 8 To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you when you walk in there before Judge Judy You're up.
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You've already lost Why not rather suffer wrong, what's the answer you should
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I might as well just suffer wrong But when it's all about yourself and all about what you have and all about what you want and all about protecting
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Then you don't have the Christian thought. Anyway, here's the Christian thought God Everything I own
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My houses my cars My money my stocks my 401k 401k every one of those you've given to me by your direct good
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It's all your money and if there's a Situation that's come up and we can't figure it out and we don't even really need to go to the elders because you know what?
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It's not mine. Anyway, it's all of God's and so I'm after God's glory I was a sinner and a rebel and a defier long enough and now
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I've been born again I've been washed sanctified justified. So, you know what you can have it because that's God's anyway
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Here Why not rather be defrauded?
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Verse eight, but you yourselves wrong and defraud even your own brothers Let it go
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So it's a loss It's a good test of your Christian character. You really believe what you say
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Money does that to people it'll really bring out what they're what they really love the wisdom of the world
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Take grab hoard hold on to the wisdom of the cross. It's all free willing to suffer wrong
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You know, we have a lot of rights in this world. I read a booklet the other day know your rights Well, it's a very short booklet for the
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Christian because if another Christian is suing you you have no rights You want to not sue another Christian?
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Tell me if this is a true statement or not. If someone wants to sue you and take your tunic Let him have your cloak as well.
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I Hope you say yes, because that is Jesus Christ Matthew 540
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God's sovereign. He knows he'll reward you in heaven. You can't take things to heaven anyway so pursue love that lasts
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Why would you sue your brother? I asked earlier. Why would you sue your wife?
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I asked earlier and now this is the real question Would you ever sue yourself? It sounds stupid
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I'm gonna sue myself That's exactly what this is. I'm going to sue myself
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Wow, you're smart. Somebody walked into my study and said, you know pastor Mike. I'd like to have some some some of your time
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Could you please tell me ahead of time what it is that I can gauge where to put you See pastor early now and we have enough people that somebody says can
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I meet with you? I usually say could you please tell me why just so I know if it's an emergency fine But I just need to figure out how it all fits.
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If it's not emergency Maybe we can wait a little bit. And so do you think you could please tell me what we're talking about? I'd rather not
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Please it would be very helpful for my schedule and it would be loving me if you would know I'd rather not why?
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Because I'd like to get together with you and I'm gonna talk about suing myself And you might win
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But it would be a loss And I'm not chastening you for this
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But if this red letter was read out loud to the Church of Corinth, I don't think anybody was laughing right there
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Cuz they knew what was going on They knew how stupid it sounded Sometimes I say to myself if I do something wrong,
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I just preach to myself and I say Mike you're an idiot You're sinful you're selfish what are you doing?
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The kids are laughing you should see the kids now smiling All right. I'll magnify it
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Mike. You're stupid And so the good news is when we acknowledge you confess and agree and Repent God gives us mercy
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You can be in the middle of a lawsuit suing yourself and you go. I'm so sinful. I'm so wrong
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I'm not thinking about the glory of Jesus Christ. I'm thinking about myself. God, please forgive me. I stop it right now
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And what do you think God's attitude is? better late than never God's attitude is as a child is
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Getting the smile from his father so to God the father says wonderful It's never too late to repent commentator prior said once a group of Christian Becomes obsessed with its rights instead of its responsibilities.
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There will be untold trouble until they find a way to true repentance We don't render evil for evil
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We forgive as Christ has forgiven us We forbear We keep no record of wrongs all verses from the
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Bible, and we're going to learn next time
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That if you lose it all Verses 9 through 11 say there's a better inheritance waiting for you
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So as a Christian You ever want to sue someone say that was an easy one.
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I don't ever want to sue myself That was easy, I'm in it for the glory of Christ Jesus That was easy if I've got troubles with other
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Christians I'll follow the Bible first go privately then take two or you know one or two then go to the elders
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And we'll just work through this in a biblical fashion Because I will do what God has said because he has given me the mind to follow
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Christ Jesus and his spirit And I'll walk by faith our
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Heavenly Father When I think of Jesus when we think of Jesus I Never think of someone who is greedy
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Never think of someone lustful Never think of an idolater
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Never think of someone who is wanting his own best But Lord the exact opposite we think of someone who demonstrates his love and kindness towards us that he would so lay down his life
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Selflessly And father he is our master and our captain and our King and we would like to be good subjects in that kingdom
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So father help us to reflect and imitate Christ Jesus I pray Lord for the history of Bethlehem Bible Church for whatever how many years it's been 25 or 30 no lawsuits yet And I pray until we close our doors for the last day there'd never be a church lawsuit here against other
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Christians And father then in general would you help us to love each other more here Wanting what's best for other people and being glad to serve others like Jesus was glad in his name.