Saintly Singles: One Holy Family (New Manuscript)
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Have violin ready to go, and Bibles distributed at tables.
7:13pm OFFICIAL WELCOME
WELCOME, so glad you have joined us this evening for our last official Orchard Singles event for the ministry year.
My name is Tim, and its been my privilege nd JOY to lead this ministry this past year.
I’ve got more I will share in a bit, but for now would you join me in prayer to ask God’s favor on our night?
OPENING PRAYER.
Transition to violin
7:15pm 3 SONGS.
Give a blessing to Robert and Candy after last song, since they will be heading out…
7:30
1) Summary of Year
Title and Theme (1 Cor holiness)
6 recaps of messages:
Ch. 1 The Foolish, the Weak, the Insignificant
Ch. 3 How to be IN, but not OF the world
Grow up in maturity of faith, leaving behind spiritual babyhood (local church!)
Don’t Exalt Leaders
Build with things that last
Know who you are
c. Ch. 4 Judging rightly
not judging as a hypocrite
but judging rightly as one discerning and weighing what is right,
especially as it pertains to church discipline
5. ch. 15 How Death Stings because of sin
Sin dominates because of the law
But how we-saints--conquer because Jesus rose again, and so will we
6. ch. 6 The pervasiveness of Christian identity amnesia
We were reminded that we are:
1) One spirit with the Lord jesus
2) Temples of the Holy Spirit
3) Heirs of the Father’s Kingdom
7. ch. 7 Last month,
we discussed the PRIVILEGES of your singleness:
How you are
1) Free from various worldly anxieties bound up in married life
2) Free FOR heavenly priorities
personal devotion
personal ministry
2) Thanksgiving
-To Service Team and all the attenders!
3) Closing Message:
Turn to 1 Cor 16. Read whole chapter.
Opening prayer:
Work holiness in us
Banish loneliness from among us, pride and arrogance from among us,
a harboring of sin or evil within our hearts
Let the SPOTLIGHT of you Word shine into the deepest crevices of our hearts, exposing all in the shadows, and BRING us to whole surrender, daily repentance, and loving submission to all your holy will.
Through Christ our Lord...
Intro…
hook…
Funny story about singleness… ? about family…
your personal family?
my dad as one of ten?
dysfunctional family…?
spiritual family…?
Story of Muslim leaving Islam and finding family in Christ - Ahmed!
A unique challenge of singleness—from my conversations with you and my reading— is loneliness and disconnectedness.
It is EASIER to to be disconnected and isolated
from family and family friends
as a single than as a married person.
But I want to argue this evening, that this unique challenge of singleness,
produces a unique opportunity for you as singles,
for you to be the BEST spiritual mother,
spiritual father,
spiritual brother, sister, and child
and if God wills, in the process, find a complementary spouse, who shares with you a profound holiness of life.
Holiness happens TOGETHER.
Holiness increases when we are TOGETHER.
HOLINESS increases when we remember who we are, and BE who we are.
We have seen that in this letter, the apostle Paul addresses the church in Corinth as saints:
To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:
They are “those sanctified”
set apart as holy
“Called to be saints”; or, “saints by calling”
God has savingly called them out of their sins and INTO a life of godliness
In ch. 6, the apostle says this about the Corinthian believers,
something that is true of YOU, Christian believer
1 Corinthians 6:11 (ESV)
And such were some of you [sinners of every stripe]. 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.
You were SANCTIFIED.
the verbal form of SAINT;
you were MADE HOLY; set apart for God
And Paul uses this title twice again in chapter 16.
1 Corinthians 16:1 (ESV)
Now concerning the collection for the saints…
Here used to refer not to Corinthian believers,
but to the believers in Jerusalem,
whom the believers in Galatia and Corinth were helping financially
1 Corinthians 16:15 (ESV)
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—
An important man in Corinth named Stephanas—whose household was first to come to saving faith in Christ and now seems to have had a few members serving as church leaders, elders
this family was devoting themselves to the service of the saints
The holy ones.
That is, the members of their church
Those who call on the name of the Lord and follow the footsteps of Jesus in loving obedience
If you are in Christ—if you trust in Christ for your salvation this evening—this describes you:
YOU are a SAINT.
A holy one.
Someone who has been SET APART (what holiness means) from something, by someone, and FOR something:
set apart FROM the world with sin and the devil
set apart BY the Lord God
and set apart FOR increasing conformity to God in practical holiness.
The title of SAINTS is one of the main descriptors of believers in Jesus in this letter of Paul and in ALL of the NT.
Those who are in Christ are HOLY ONES.
But there is another, I think even MORE significant descriptor of Christian people in this letter and in all of the Bible.
You know it:
brothers and sisters!
family!
We are the family of God; who share one heavenly Father; and Jesus is called our elder Brother.
Looking just in this chapter we see this family metaphor very clearly:
1 Corinthians 16:11 (ESV)
… I am expecting [Timothy] with the brothers.
1 Corinthians 16:12 (ESV)
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…
1 Corinthians 16:15 (ESV)
Now I urge you, brothers…
Now you may know that the word translated "brothers” could also mean “brothers and sisters”
Women—you are not excluded here
Most often when the Bible uses the masculine “brothers”, “sisters” are assumed and included
1 Cor 16:20 Paul concludes with his final greetings, saying, “All the brothers [of the churches in Asia] send you greetings.”
In the NT we Christians are described as SAINTS
and as brothers,
as HOLY,
and as FAMILY.
In sum, we are ONE holy family!
This is who we are,
and as I have repeated over the past year,
one of the biggest problems we face in our Christian lives, is identity amnesia.
We FORGET who we are,
so we fail to BE who we are.
And our old sinful selves—our sinful flesh—the “body of death” as Scripture calls it, LOVES to rear its ugly head, and take over our lives once we FORGET our position,
and forget our heritage in Christ.
So the question we are asking this evening of this text, is,
If we are a HOLY family,
Holy brothers and sisters,
a SAINTLY household of God—
how then shall we live?
Many of you do not come from HOLY personal families;
a blood family with faithful, godly parents
who disciplined us and taught us the ways of God
in humility, love, and commitment.
ALL of us—regardless of our family heritage—have experienced DYSFUNCTION in our natural families, by virtue of all being sinners
And ALL of us, have experienced some form of dysfunction and unholiness at church, too.
But God’s Word this evening shows us the IDEAL, for how God’s family—God’s family of saints—ought to behave, ought to LIVE OUT their lives.
I want to highlight 2 such ways tonight.
2 ways to LIVE as a holy family member:
1) Intentionally Prioritize Your Siblings
2) Submit to Your Parents
Intentionally Prioritize Your Siblings
In this chapter we see 4 ways God calls us to intentionally prioritize one another in the family of God.
Finances
Look with me at vv.1-4
v.1 “Now concerning the collection for the saints…”
Describe what it was
Paul gives the Corinthians an intentional PLAN for meeting the needs of these poor brothers and sisters:
Every Sunday (first day of the week), everybody contribute something within their means, for the offering to the Jerusalem church
Corporately SAVING up for the gift over time
There is an intentional PLAN.
There is saving little by little—rather than a one time LUMP sum
and the contribution is FOR a materially needy church
Siblings prioritize each other financially, and SUPPORT each other when the other is down.
Not toxic charity
Not enabling laziness or foolish spending
But genuine, shrewd, material support when emergencies arise, when special occasions call for it
We see this principle played out in Paul’s rule for biological families in 1 Tim 5:3-8: 1 Tim 5:4
But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
In the SAME way, this financial HELP and generosity OUGHT to play ought in the spiritual family of God.
Paid off electricity bill in the church
Tell story from Dave Ramsey: older couple talking to younger couple in distress with little kids; can’t afford their electricity;
the woman talks to them and prays with them for provision
hands slip to her husband when he comes and he goes during praise and calls the company and pays it ahead for the year ahead!
2. Friendship
3. Hospitality
4. Discipleship
Look with me at vv.1-3
2. Submit to Your Parents
Look with me at vv.15-18.
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.
Christian leaders, elders (in a local church)
—> Paul describes himself earlier as spiritual father to them in 1 Cor 4:14-15
I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
Now Stephanas’ household functioning as the “parents” of the Corinthian church.
Be subject.
What does this look like?
1) Recognition
respecting, honoring, acknowledging, thanking
Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.
2) Imitation
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.
3) Obedience
Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.
4) Provision
1 Corinthians 9:9–12 (ESV)
For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.”… It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop.
If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more?
In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.
Thus, Gal 6:6
Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.
Intentionally Prioritize Your Siblings
Submit to Your Parents
The Lord Jesus Christ is your elder brother
He intentionally prioritized us, leaving heaven’s glory to take on our flesh, become POOR so that we could become spiritually rich
He left immediate fellowship with God, so that He could take sinners estranged and hostile to God, and reconcile us to Him as friends and children
He spent QUALITY time with us: dwelling 33 YEARS with us — not just a quick, in and out salvation
He made DISCIPLES like none other, having them follow him, live alongside him, and show them how to LIVE (not isolated teachings…); a whole WAY of LIFE (which Paul also sought to emulatE)
He WELCOMED us into the Father’s household.
So how could we NOT
give outrageously
LOVE the local church and seek to host and spend quality time with others…
make disciples… sharing life
being fathers and mothers and children…
and HOST others in his name!!!