May Singles Sermon Notes

1 Cor 5?

vv.6-8

1 Corinthians 5:6–8 (ESV)

Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed

Let us THEREFORE celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

OR…

1 Corinthians 6:9–11 (ESV)

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: 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. 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 Spirit of our God.

1) Who you were: vv.9-10

2) Who you are: vv.11

Washed

Sanctified

Justified

3) How it happened:

in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ

by the Spirit of God

++++

Other thoughts:

Friendship/hospitality…

How the singles, in order to flourish, need GODLY friendships… need to be PART of a family, the family of God.

Jesus words and promises about those who leave family for the sake of the gospel promised much more!…

but for them, many of them don’t fit in this category of leaving family for Christ, but suffering and sinning and dealing with the consequences of their own brokenness.

+++

Mark 10:28–31 ESV

Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

Thinking of someone like Mark, struggling to feel like the Cn life is really working.

like Elijah after Mt Carmel. Weary. Depressed. Even despairing.

The household of God.

What the family of God should be.

++++

One Holy Family - Sermon

1 Corinthians 16 (ESV)

I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, for I intend to pass through Macedonia, and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter, so that you may help me on my journey, wherever I go. [mutual help] For I do not want to see you now just in passing. I hope to spend some time with you, [friendship takes TIME, “NOT just in passing”, not just “in and out”…] if the Lord permits. But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.

When Timothy comes, see that you put him at ease among you, for he is doing the work of the Lord, as I am. So let no one despise him. Help him on his way in peace, that he may return to me, for I am expecting him with the brothers.

Now concerning our brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to visit you with the other brothers, but it was not at all his will to come now. He will come when he has opportunity.

Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.

Now I urge you, brothers—you know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints— be subject to such as these, and to every fellow worker and laborer. I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have made up for your absence, for they refreshed my spirit as well as yours. Give recognition to such people.

The churches of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord. All the brothers send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss.

I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Two ways the Corinthians and Christians are described here:

Saints v.1, 15

Brothers (+Sisters) vv11-12, 15, 20

Same in chapter 1:2 “to those sanctified, called to be saints…” v.10 “I appeal to you adelphoi [meaning either brothers or BOTH brothers and sisters]…that all of you AGREE, and that there be NO divisions among you, but that you be UNITED in the same mind and the same judgment.” (as opposed to quarreling, strife, and factionalism… on a smaller scale the cliques that form and judge the other…)

Paul is described as the spiritual MOTHER and FATHER of the Corinthians

Mother 3:1-2

Father 4:14 “to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless [10 thousand] guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 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.”

ONE HOLY FAMILY.