Sermon Tone Analysis

Well, the past several weeks have been rather heavy, minus the break y’all got when I was out of town.

That was a nice breathing space.

Today, finally, we get a uplifting part of Corinthians.

Paul takes a break from confronting the Corinthians to encouraging them on who they really are.

While it is necessary to confront sin in our lives and in the lives of those around us, it is also necessary to smile and remember what God has done in our lives and what we want him to do in the lives of those around us.

Let’s read the whole text.

We will be focusing on the last few verses.

I love that last verse!

Pray

Paul is holding a mirror up to the Corinthians.

The first part of this passage is a mirror, showing the Corinthians who they are in their sin.

The last few verses are a mirror showing the Corinthians who they are in Christ.

Let’s explore our identity.

Who are we in Christ?

Who we were

Well, before we can appreciate who we are in Christ.

We have to remember who we were.

Wrongdoers

Paul says that we were wrongdoers.

Paul gives clear examples of what it means that we are wrongdoers.

The word refers to someone who lives contrary to what is right.

God has a standard of what is right.

He is that standard.

Humanity took that standard, crumbled it up in a ball, spit on it, and threw it back in God’s face.

We say: yes, we acknowledge that you have a specific standard.

But, we know better, and we are going to live according to what we know as better.

Whatever we feel is right, we will do.

So, the one who likes to get drunk will toast his health and drink himself to oblivion.

The one who is not content with what they have will want more and more stuff, to the point of stealing and swindling.

The verbally abusive will destroy home after home.

And everyone will fill their sexual appetite, no matter the consequences.

God has a standard.

And we refused to follow it.

Not only did we refuse to follow it, but we glory in those sins, as well as so many others.

Paul talks about those without Christ, and unfortunately, so many of us.

There are churches today who exult sins.

The United Methodist Church is going through a horrible split.

Our Methodist church is actually leaving the denomination, because the UMC denomination is exulting sin.

Some of us might look at some of the sins of the Bible and wonder what is so wrong with them.

Some people even go so far as to say: God made me this way, so why should I not live as I am made.

Every single one of us has a rutted path in life, a sin that is so easy for us to dive back into, whether it is drunkeness, polygamy, homosexuality, lying, gossip, pride, etc.

We each have a path that we can so easily go on.

We are this way because of the brokenness of the world, because of the Fall in Genesis 3. When we follow that sinful path, we are living according to the Fall, not according to how we are created.

God, the creator, has clearly stated what is right and what is wrong.

We find it in the Bible.

There are some people who want to add to or subtract from that list.

God has given us his word so that we can study it for ourselves and know what he has revealed to us.

He has made clear what brings blessing and what brings destruction.

So, why do we refuse to believe the standard that he calls us to.

Even in that, we are wrongdoers, because we have the pride to say we know better than God.

We were wrongdoers.

Doomed to an eternity apart from God

Paul gives us the result of our wrongdoing.

And it is pretty clear.

We are doomed to an eternity apart from God.

Why should we plead with those who do these actions to stop: because they bring destruction.

Those who live in a way that is contrary to what is right will not inherit the kingdom of God.

John clearly heard Jesus say in Revelation 22 14-15

More graphically, John reports:

When we say that our way is the best, and that we know better than the righteous standards of the holy creator of the universe.

We will reap the result of our action.

God has given so many warnings signs on the highway of life.

If we refuse to heed those warnings, we will fall off the ledge to destruction.

And that was our fate, an eternity in the Lake of Fire, where we will be separated from God forever.

That is the meaning of death.

Physical death is a separation in ourselves, where our spirit is separated from our body.

Spiritual death is a separation from God, which is even worse.

The terror, the hopelessness, the utter lonesomeness, the lack of love, lack of peace, an eternity of anxiety, terror, and constant pain.

That is who we were: wrongdoers, doomed to an eternity apart from God.

Who we are

Okay, now who are we.

Paul says simply:

The Corinthians had people in their church that were sexually immoral, they were idolators, they were adulterers, they were homosexuals, they were thieves, they were greedy, they were drunkards, they were verbally abusive, they were swindlers.

But that is what they were, not what they are now.

God took their wrongdoing and changed them.

Paul said it this way

When God comes into our life, we are changed.

We are not defined by it.

We don’t have to continue in it.

We are a new creation.

In our text, Paul uses three descriptions of that change, each unique, and each important.

Washed

He says that we are washed.

My goal is to get you to memorize this verse by the end.

Washed.

This is your normal ordinary word for washing something.

Every evening, I gather the mountain of dishes in the sink, and I place them carefully into the dishwasher.

I add soap.

I press a button, and the dishwasher washes the dishes.

Except when it doesn’t.

Our dishwasher is getting finicky.

Sometimes it is it’s fault.

Sometimes, it is my fault.

Sometimes it is the dishes fault.

Have you ever put spaghetti in a white plastic dish.

And now, that white is orange.

It has been stained, and no matter what you do, unless you have a miracle option that I don’t, that stain isn’t coming off.

The Bible says that our lives are stained by sin.

I like the NET translation here:

Have you ever done something and you felt filthy afterwards.