July 14, 2025 • 36 mins
What do Will Smith's infamous Oscar slap and the ancient Corinthian church have in common? Both reveal profound truths about integrity, boundaries, and love within communities. Through a fascinating study of 1 Corinthians 5, we discover how maintaining purity within God's family isn't about punishment but about aligning our actions with our true identity in Christ.
For weeks, we've been building a foundation of understanding who we are in Christ—beloved, holy, righteous. Now we see how that identity plays out in community. When someone persistently acts in ways that harm others without remorse, the church faces a difficult but necessary decision. Like a hospital that welcomes the sick seeking healing but prevents the spread of disease, the church must sometimes establish boundaries for those who refuse to acknowledge how their actions affect others.
The difference between "I made a mistake and I'm sorry" and "I'll do whatever I want regardless of who it hurts" is the difference between humility and pride. And pride, as Paul warns, spreads like leaven through the entire community. By establishing loving boundaries, the church isn't rejecting people but protecting both its witness to the world and the individual's opportunity to recognize their disconnect from their true identity in Christ.
This teaching challenges us to see church discipline not as punishment but as restoration—creating space for natural consequences to lead someone back to alignment with who they already are in Christ. Whether you're struggling with your own failures or wondering how to respond to others', this message reminds us that we don't create holiness through our efforts; we simply live out the holiness Christ has already placed within us.
Have you ever wondered how to balance grace and accountability in your spiritual community? This message offers practical wisdom for navigating those waters with both truth and love.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
So today we're going to be studying 1 Corinthians,
chapter 5.
We're going to pray and thenwe're going to get started.
The title of today's sermon isDon't Slap Like Will Smith.
Are you guys ready?
All right, jesus, we thank youfor your grace and mercy in our
lives.
We thank you for all the 10weeks we've had of building up
(00:25):
our identity, and now we'retransitioning into seeing what
that identity looks liketogether, working it out
together, and how precious it isand how precious you view your
family.
And so, jesus, I pray that eachperson in here would really
know that they are part of yourfamily and if they are not
confident in that, that, theywould consider whether they have
(00:48):
been born again into yourfamily and they would consider
what is going on and why arethey here and what are you doing
in our lives today.
Jesus, I thank you so much forpursuing us when we don't want
to be pursued, when we want torun away.
Jesus, you always come after usand you're so full of love in
(01:10):
that way.
Thank you for making usuncomfortable sometimes, because
it's there.
We find that we're alwayswelcomed and accepted in you.
Jesus, father, we pray that yougive us a spirit of
understanding and wisdomrevealed to us, your heart this
morning, more than anything else.
(01:30):
In Jesus' name, we pray amen,all right.
So it was the slap heard aroundthe world.
You guys remember the?
It was the 94th Academy Awards.
It's I can remember it like itwas 1,204 days ago because it
was.
So, you guys, was anyonewatching it?
(01:52):
Anyone still watch the AcademyAwards, okay?
So yeah, it's like they'reannouncing something and Chris
Rock is making fun of WillSmith's wife, and so Will Smith
walks up there and says somethings and slaps him across the
face and everyone was so shockedthat they didn't know what to
do.
It was pretty crazy.
(02:13):
So, following that, so followingthat backlash, you know, smith
issued a formal apology onInstagram and Facebook.
It was the biggest news in theentire world, this slap and he
referred to his own behavior asunacceptable, inexcusable.
And then he directly talked toChris Rock after that and he
(02:36):
said I would like to publiclyapologize to you, chris.
I was out of line and I waswrong.
I am embarrassed by my actions.
They were not indicative of theman I want to be.
There is no place for violencein a world of love and kindness.
That's a pretty good apology,right, but the damage was done.
Okay, so this was not a storyin his life about mercy and
(03:00):
grace, but about consequences.
Okay, because our world reallydoes believe in punishment, it
seems like.
So what happened?
Smith resigned from the academy, from his membership, and
because he was facing possiblesuspension and expulsion for
(03:21):
life.
Like everyone was really madbecause he had embarrassed them
and he ended up getting bannedfrom all Hollywood Academy of
Arts things for 10 years.
So that's what he's under rightnow he's in a 10-year ban.
More detail this is important,you'll see.
(03:42):
Okay.
So the academy More detail thisis important, you'll see.
Okay.
So the academy they disciplinedhim.
They said this.
They said for violations of theacademy's standards of conduct,
including inappropriatephysical contact, abusive or
threatening behavior andcompromising the integrity of
(04:03):
the academy.
They said while we would liketo clarify that Mr Smith was
asked to leave the ceremony andrefuse, we also recognize we
could have handled the situationdifferently.
So they tried to handle this byasking him to leave and they
(04:25):
eventually had to suspend him.
And this is a real-life parallelto what we're going to be
studying today in the Bible.
You had no idea that Will Smithwould be your illustration for
Bible teaching today, but it isbecause we're going to be
talking about purity orintegrity in God's family, the
(04:46):
church, okay, and how tomaintain it the right way, but
we're going to see it throughgrace glasses.
Everything that we've beenstudying for the past 10 weeks,
the 10 sermons that I've donewith you guys so far, we've been
just building this foundationof our identity, identity,
identity.
It's been over and over again.
We've been talking about whoyou are in Christ, what is true
(05:09):
about you, and now we're seeingthat, since we are children of
God, since we've been made holy,then our lives should reflect
that.
It should have a practicaltransformation on how we
actually live our lives.
Because, yes, god's name issupposed to be honored, we're
supposed to honor our Father.
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He has born us into His family,he's given us life, he's shared
His very heart with us, hisfamily, and invited us into His
family, and we've been learninghow we've been adopted into that
family and so now we representthat family to the world.
We're representing his gospel,his good news.
So, as a part of his family,his thoughts are our thoughts.
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His the things he cares aboutare the things we care about.
We have his very spirit insideus and if you're talking about
God, all of his ways are love.
That is all of his ways, soeverything we do has to reflect
that.
(06:14):
So we're going to see today howwe can be the most loving to
each other, what is the mostloving thing we can do in each
situation, and that love isgoing to be revealed through our
relationships.
Sorry, I'm having a hard timewith my ear thingy today, my bad
, okay, thanks.
(06:39):
So our love is revealed throughour relationships.
How you treat one anotherreveals how much you think God
loves you.
If you think God loves you justa little, you're going to share
just a little of that love.
If you are understanding youridentity in Christ and how much
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God loves you, that love isgoing to be pouring out through
your life.
We're going to see that, as wehonor and respect people in love
, that we're sharing God's lovewith them.
And if we don't honor andrespect these relationships that
(07:23):
God gives us, we confuse thelove of God with something that
stings like a slap Pew.
It can sting when we don't loveBecause it brings hurt instead
of the healing, encouraging love.
It can hurt us.
(07:44):
Now you have to understand onething about the Greek culture
that was the culture of theworld at this time.
They were very sexuallypromiscuous, which means they
had no morals.
Well, this was a description oftheir morals, which means they
had no morals.
Well, this was a description oftheir morals.
Mistresses we keep, for thesake of pleasure, concubines for
the daily care of the body, butwives to bear us legitimate
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children.
That was their opinion of whatrelationships looked like,
especially with men and womenand the church and Jesus.
When the church came, it changedall of this.
Jesus says that is not loving.
It's not loving to treat peoplethat way.
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Each person is supposed to belifted high in honor and respect
and that whole thing does nothonor the individual person.
So Jesus says it's not lovingand it doesn't communicate God's
faithful love to the women ofthe world.
That's what he says, or the menhe says.
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So the integrity of the churchis important to God because he
is holy and he's loving andwe're supposed to be the ones
that are showing how holy andhow loving he is to the world.
We are his body, we are hiskind of a mirror that shows what
he's like to the world.
So there has to be a way ofdiscipline in the church.
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God says, if someone who is abeliever refuses to agree with
the whole family plan that Godhas established, the church has
to represent the head of thechurch.
Who's the head of the church?
Jesus, and so the church.
We're supposed to represent himand what he thinks about things
.
And so what we're going tolearn about today is how to help
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that be purely communicated tothe world.
It's not about punishment.
None of this is aboutpunishment.
The church is not supposed tobe out there punishing people,
but about helping an individualrealize the gravity of their sin
and hopefully leading them torepentance or to change their
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decision making, and the goal isto protect the church's witness
and encourage the sinner toreturn to a life that is
consistent with their identity.
Okay, so I know we've talkedabout a lot of like, just like
it seems like school stuff sofar, but here's the whole point
your identity, we've alreadytold you, is that you're a
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beloved child of God, you havehis spirit in you, you are
righteous, you are holy, but ifyou don't act that way, there's
this disconnect with your lifeand your witness, or your
identity and how you're actingor presenting yourself to the
world, and we want those twothings to line up.
(10:40):
So we're going to see these twolessons today.
First, this passage highlightsthe importance of maintaining a
community that reflects theholiness and love of Jesus, and
then, secondly, while we're alsoextending grace and seeking
restoration for those who havefallen into sin.
All right, so with all thatsaid, you kind of have the whole
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layout of what we're going tostudy today and what it means.
We're going to read the chapter, we're going to dive into what
it means, and you have to havecourage to read a chapter like
this.
You have to have courage toteach a chapter like this.
What we do at church is we teachthrough the Bible, verse by
verse.
So most pastors would not teachthrough this chapter, because
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if they're choosing what theywant to teach, you're going to
teach the things that are funand that are exciting and that
are easy most of the time, butif you're teaching through the
Bible verse by verse, you don't.
You have to deal with somedifficult things, and so that's
what we've come to at.
This portion of scripture islike some crazy stuff.
So let's see what it says.
It is actually reported thatthere is sexual immorality among
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you, such sexual immorality asis not even named among the
Gentiles that a man has hisfather's wife.
So remember our last study lastweek?
We studied that pride was theroot of the problem, the pride.
Paul laid this foundation, thatpride was going to be the thing
that caused all their trip ups.
And here it's the exact samething.
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Paul brings up this onespecific area where pride has
led to a sin, and sin is justsomething that misrepresents and
dishonors God.
So this guy was a believer, hewas part of the church and he
was choosing not to honor Godwith his life by believing in
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his new identity in Christ.
But he was doing whatever hewanted that's the problem here
With no regard for who it hurt.
He didn't care who it hurt.
Is that love?
I'm going to do whatever I wantwithout worrying about who I
hurt?
No, that's not love.
You think about it.
(12:47):
This guy hurt his father, thisguy hurt his mother, this guy
hurt his entire family and hedisregards all these people for
what he wants.
That's a very self-centeredviewpoint.
He focuses only on himselfInstead of seeing how he hurts
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people.
He's not focusing on love.
Self-love is not love.
In the Bible, true love isalways self-sacrificial.
That's the difference betweenChrist's love and the love, we
think, is love, jesus' love isalways sacrificing myself for
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the good of other people.
And Paul makes the connectionwith pride.
Look what he says.
He says are you puffed up andhave not rather mourned that he
who has done this deed might betaken away from among you?
So, puffed up in pride is theopposite of humility and faith.
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And so the church is choosing.
What they've been doing isthey've been choosing the path
of pride instead of humility andmourning.
They celebrated this maninstead of grieving.
It would be like the Academygiving Will Smith an award right
after slapping the snot out oftheir host.
Bro, that's actually what theydid.
(14:12):
The next thing that happenedafter the slap is Will Smith got
Best Actor Award.
Isn't that crazy?
It's weird.
Okay.
So Paul says there's a simpleway that we should do things in
the church, and it's calledhumility and faith.
Humility and faith and pride isalways the opposite of that and
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it's always the unloving thingto do.
If you do something unlovingand refuse to repent or agree
with God and make it right, thenthe church has to ask you to
leave.
That's what's happening here.
We cannot be part of thisunloving behavior.
He says we can only representlove as far as the church goes,
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as far as the whole thing goes.
Look what he says.
For I, indeed, as absent in thebody but present in spirit,
have already judged, as though Iwere present, him who has so
done this deed In the name ofour Lord Jesus Christ.
When you gather together, alongwith my spirit and the power of
our Lord Jesus Christ, deliversuch a one to Satan for the
destruction of the flesh, thathis spirit may be saved in the
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day of the Lord Jesus.
So this is where it gets reallyintense here, because didn't
Jesus say don't judge?
Did Jesus say don't judge?
Well, he actually said don'tmake unjust judgments or don't
judge stupidly.
He said to judge accurately oruse the right judge.
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He said don't be an idiot whenyou're judging, don't be mean
when you're judging, butunderstand.
And Paul says this guy clearlyhas a problem.
If Paul has heard about thisguy's life all the way from Rome
, where he was, from, where hewas this is like across an
entire continent then this guyis absolutely not embarrassed by
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his choices in his life, he'sflaunting it.
And so Paul says what happens?
Is this guy needs to bedelivered to Satan?
Well, that's really intense,right Because we think, oh my
gosh, he needs to like tell usSatan, here you go.
What does this mean?
Well, this basically means thatthe church is protected from a
whole lot of what Satan istrying to do in the world.
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That's how you should see thechurch.
The church is seen as a safeplace.
It's supposed to be a safeplace.
Satan is trying to ruineveryone's life, and so in the
church, we're hearing God's wordand God's truth that will
protect you from Satan ruiningyour life.
And so being delivered to Satanmeans if you're not coming to
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church, then you're not hearingand receiving this guidance for
your life, and so you aremisguidance for your life, and
so you are gosh in the placewhere Satan is ruining people's
lives, and so that's probablygoing to be something that you
feel and experience in your life.
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So that's what he says.
Outside the church, you dowhatever your flesh tells you to
do, so you're going to facethese natural consequences of
those choices, whichconsequences of sin are always
destruction, and it just happensover and over again.
So the church isn't punishingpeople like when you hear of.
You ever heard of the SpanishInquisition Okay, it's a
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horrific thing where people whosaid they were part of the
church but really weren't.
They were going around and theywould kill people if they
didn't agree with how they sawthings and didn't say what they
wanted them to say.
So they would.
And they would say they wouldquote this verse and say we
deliver you to Satan for thedestruction of your flesh, as
they killed them and it washorrific.
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It's not at all what this means.
Okay, the church isn't supposedto be punishing people.
The purpose of casting thisunrepentant sinner out was so
that they realized that the lifethat they've chosen to live
inspires people towards Satan,not towards Jesus.
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Okay, and there's no lifeoutside of following Jesus.
Jesus said I am the way, thetruth and the life.
So we know, we've discoveredthat there is only life in
following Jesus.
That's what the church is.
We follow Jesus, we share inHis life.
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Why is this important for thechurch?
Paul says your glorying is notgood.
Do you not know that a littleleaven leavens the whole lump?
Therefore, purge out the oldleaven, that you may be a new
lump, since you truly areunleavened.
Since you truly are unleavened,highlight that in your Bible,
underline that that's Paulreminding you of your identity.
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For indeed, christ, ourPassover was sacrificed for us.
Therefore, let us keep the fast, not with old leaven, nor with
the leaven of malice andwickedness, but of the
unleavened bread of sincerityand truth.
So why is all this important forthat church and for our church?
Because they didn't care aboutthe integrity of the church.
They were prideful, they werethinking they were already the
best church.
They thought that that's howyou can tell you're in a messed
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up church when you think you'rethe best church.
I love being a part of a churchthat has humility and says we
are a bunch of broken, messed uppeople who are struggling with
our sin.
We have one thing in common weknow Jesus has loved us, jesus
has forgiven us, jesus has savedus.
That's our identity.
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That's all we are hoping for.
That's all our identity is whenyou think you're the best
church.
That's not good.
Because they were not concernedabout love in one place, that
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attitude spread to the entirechurch.
They were prideful and boastBecause they had pride in one
area.
It spread all through the churchand that's what leaven does.
So leaven is this little thingyou put in bread and then it
spreads.
You put just a little bit inbread and it spreads through the
whole thing as it bakes, andit's always an illustration of
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how sin works and how prideworks.
And so the same exact thinghappens to us in a church when
you have pride in one area, itspreads to the whole thing.
So that's why we have to askourselves why we do everything
we do in our church and as achurch.
Why do we do the Laguna Heightsoutreach?
Why do we do worship the waythat we do it?
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Why do we communicate God'slove the way that we do?
Why do we have food in the back?
Why do we have greeting stuff?
We're going to ask thosequestions and hopefully the
answer is because of humility wewant to be humble and faith.
We want to put our trust inJesus alone, and if we have
those two things as our identity, we're going to be doing all
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right as a church.
And then he says since you aretruly unleavened do you see
those words in there that Pauljust sneaks in, that perfect
description of what a Christianis?
You are already pure andrighteous.
He's reminding them that theywere pure and they want to be
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loving in their identity.
But they were in their identity, but they were allowing this
unloving thing in.
So then that's going to confuseeveryone about what their
identity really is.
So, because they let this onething in, they're going to be
asking are we really pure?
Are we a pure group of people?
Are we a pure family, or do wemix with sin?
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What is going on here?
He says for, indeed, christ,our Passover, was sacrificed for
us.
Therefore, let us keep thefeast, not with old leaven, nor
with the leaven of malice andwickedness, but with unleavened
bread of sincerity and truth.
What is Paul doing here?
He's saying you guys have thisissue.
You're super prideful, you'vemessed up.
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What's the solution?
Get your eyes back on Jesus.
What does he do?
He reminds them.
He's like look at what Jesusdid.
He was sacrificed for you.
And then he uses theillustration of the Passover.
He says Jesus was the Passoverlamb, and all these people know
what the Passover was.
It was this celebration wherethey killed the lamb and they
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put the blood on their doorpostsand everyone who had the blood
on the doorposts was saved.
And that's the illustrationthat he's using here.
He's saying get your eyes backon Jesus, remember his sacrifice
, remember his love, and thenkeep the feast.
That means celebrate his life,celebrate him.
It's not about you and yourbehavior and what you got going
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on and what you want.
It's about his life.
That's why we gather together,that's why we are the church and
we're the church Monday,tuesday, wednesday, thursday and
Friday and Saturday, and thenon Sunday we gather together,
but we're still the church allthose other days and our focus
is 100% on his life, not our own.
That's what the church is allabout.
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And he says don't celebrate hislife with malice and wickedness.
That's a description ofself-pleasure.
He's like that's not how youcelebrate his pure and holy life
.
That doesn't work at all.
But with purity, sincerity andtruth is what he says.
That's how we celebrate hislife.
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Remember that I am pure in myheart and I act pure because I
am pure inside.
That's faith.
When I'm walking in faith, Iwill act purely because of his
identity inside me.
So he says I wrote to you in myepistle not to keep company with
sexual immoral people.
Yet I certainly did not meanwith the sexual immoral people
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of this world, or with thecovetous, or with the
extortioners or idolaters, sincethen you would need to go out
of the world.
But now I have written to younot to keep company with anyone
who is named a brother, who issexually immoral or covetous or
idolater or reviler or drunkardor extortioner, not even to eat
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with such a person.
Okay, so in that day and inmany cultures today, eating with
someone was an expression offriendship and partnership.
So in some cultures, if a maneats at your table, you are
bound to regard him as a friendand a partner for the rest of
your life.
And Paul warns the CorinthianChristians that they cannot
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continue in real, deepfellowship with a notorious
sinner who calls himself aChristian, who everyone knows is
a believer, a sinner who callshimself a Christian, who
everyone knows is a believer.
He says this for what do I havewith judging those who are
outside God?
Do you not know that?
Do not judge, sorry, do you notjudge those who are inside, but
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those who are outside Godjudges.
Therefore, put away fromyourselves the evil person.
So he says listen, the world issupposed to act.
Crazy.
The world, that's okay, that'swhat they're supposed to do.
We're not supposed to tell theworld how to act.
It's kind of crazy to put theTen Commandments like all over
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the place and thinking that'sgoing to transform the world.
You're trying to tell the worldhow to act when they're not
going to act that way.
That's okay.
They're not supposed to, theycan't.
So how do we impact the world?
Well, we share with them thegospel, which is the love of
Jesus, that he is theirsacrifice, that he was broken
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and crucified for them on thecross.
Then, when they believe, thatthey're born again, and then
their heart already has the lawof God written on their heart,
and that's how thetransformation happens in this
world.
That's the design of how it'ssupposed to happen.
So he says you're supposed to goout to the bars and talk with
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people.
You're supposed to go into theworld.
You're supposed to receive themand talk with people.
You're supposed to go into theworld.
You're supposed to receive themand talk with them.
Do not be afraid of sinners.
Don't ever be afraid of sinners.
Go out to them, put your armsaround them, love them, care
about them.
Once they become a believer,then we help them know their
identity.
Once they know their identity,they will realize that they're
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free from sin.
So does this mean, does all ofthis that we're saying today
means, if you mess up once,you're out of the church for 10
years, like Will Smith?
Absolutely not.
We are not talking aboutmistakes.
We're not talking about falling.
Okay, there's a massivedifference between I screwed up
and I'm sorry and I shouldn'thave done that.
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I want to do better, versusscrew you.
I'm going to do whatever I wantand I'm going to call myself a
Christian and I'm going to showup.
There's a massive differencebetween those two things.
One has humility, the other haspride, the other has pride.
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And pride, the bible says, is aleaven that will spread through
the whole church like cancer,and we don't want that to be a
part of the community, theidentity of the people.
Do we want people who makemistakes and fail and then run
back to jesus?
Yes, that's like a hospital,and think of the church like a
hospital.
Where do do you go?
When you're sick, when you makea mistake, when you screw up?
You go to the hospital.
When you screw up in life, yourun to church, not away from it.
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But you don't go to thehospital and spread diseases
like here have some of mydisease.
No, you go there to get healing.
That's how this is working here.
So we don't have any role intelling the outside world how to
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behave.
We tell them about the love ofChrist and the gospel.
There are some practicalexamples I want to give you guys
of things that we would thinkare really really bad, that we
would be like there needs to bea separation.
So if someone is abusingchildren, they're not going to
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be welcome in this situation.
Because we're going to beprotecting the kids, we're going
to make sure that that's not asituation right, because we're
going to be protecting the kidsright, we're going to make sure
that that's not a situation.
So if we ever have like achildren's ministry, there'll
always be like background checksdone and make sure that that's
not part of their history, partof their past, part of a
temptation in their life.
You know, sexual abuse andmisconduct is something that can
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hurt people, and so we want tomake sure that the church is
free from that type of problems.
So I just want to summarizeeverything so that we understand
it's important to take thechurch seriously.
Sometimes we have to ask peoplenot to be part of meetings
because of a repeateddemonstrated.
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They don't care about hurtingpeople because they don't.
They're not operating in love,and that's a situation that
sometimes has to happen in thechurch.
I've seen it really rarely In25 years.
I've probably seen five peoplein thousands and thousands of
thousands that were literallyasked and said you can't come
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until you change your opinion,until you change your lifestyle
in this area or that area.
But most people it doesn't riseto that because they're not
standing in it saying this is mychoice and I'm never going to
change.
I don't care about any of you.
Most people aren't living thattype of life.
(30:08):
So there's.
I just want to summarize it bysaying there's three key factors
that we will always use thatare described in this chapter of
how we how this happens.
Okay, first, unrepentant sin.
So if the individual is openlyengaging in sinful behavior
without any remorse or desire tochange, and it's not about
they're seeking help or nothinglike that, it's just they will
not, they don't care, they arenot going to change, they don't
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care.
That's kind of level.
Number one we have to considerthat.
Number two, it's theseriousness of the sin.
So if the sin is such a naturethat it could damage the
reputation of the church or thepeople, actually hurt people,
that's very serious and thatneeds to be taken care of.
That needs to be thought about.
And number three the impact onthe community.
(30:52):
If the person poses a risk tohurting people by their actions.
We don't want that to happeneither.
All right, by their actions, wedon't want that to happen
either, all right.
So all of that is what 1Corinthians, chapter 5, is about
.
Okay, what are we about?
We're about the love of God andhis identity.
(31:14):
In us, we are pure, and I hopethat this actually encourages
you, and I hope that thisactually encourages you to
understand and know how lovedyou are and how amazing it is to
be a part of God's family.
So, instead of thinking that wehave to create this culture of
(31:35):
a holy family, it's about usbuilding this church.
It has nothing to do with us.
God has already made you allpure, but we just gather
together and we are all a partof his family, and so this is
the way a family naturally worksis we're all going after the
same goal, which is to honor God, to praise him and to worship
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him.
You know the academy.
They kicked Will Smith out for10 years.
What gives them the right to dothat?
Well, they've formed a littleorganization and they care about
how they're viewed, they careabout integrity, they care about
their place in the world, theywant to represent a certain
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standard and the church.
You can kind of look at it thesame way.
We represent a holy God andthat holiness is already inside
us and we don't want it to bepoisoned that message of
righteousness and holiness.
We don't want it to be poisonedby our actions.
So it's really good for ustoday to just thank God that he
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has cleansed us, that he hassaved us, that he has made us
holy.
And if you don't know that youare holy today, if all of this
is like, wow, this all soundslike weird, but you believe that
you need to be holy, you senseGod pulling at your heart,
saying he wants to offer youholiness, he wants to offer you
(33:06):
his righteousness, and thathappens very simply by believing
in Jesus.
What does that mean?
It means you believe Jesus diedon the cross and it was for you
.
You believe he rose from thedead and that was for you, and
that once you believe in him,you are fused with him, you
become one with him and he comesto live inside you and he gives
you a new heart and a newspirit.
(33:27):
So we're all going to close oureyes now and we're just going
to have a moment to respond togod and to his word.
Today, father, we, we pause andand ask your spirit to just
speak to us.
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If there's anyone in here who isunsure on whether they've been
given the gift of eternal life,the gift of holiness and the
gift of righteousness, all theirsins being forgiven, I pray
that anyone in here would callout to you and say Jesus,
forgive me, jesus, save me.
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And for the majority in herewho know you, god, we rejoice
and we celebrate you.
We celebrate your death on thecross that cleansed us from all
sin.
We celebrate that you havefilled us with a new heart.
We celebrate you put a newspirit inside us.
(34:32):
We celebrate you, jesus.
We celebrate that you liveinside us.
Live inside us.
We celebrate that you make usuncomfortable when we choose
self instead of love.
(34:53):
Thank you for the convictionthat we feel in the Spirit when
we're not walking according tothe heart of our Father.
Walking according to the heartof our Father, jesus, we want to
honor you, glorify you, lift upyour name on high, for no one
has ever died for us, no one hasever loved us the way that you
(35:17):
have loved us.
We worship you, god, with ourhearts, with our words and with
our very lives and again foranyone who is choosing right now
to believe.
Lord, we celebrate that youhave moved in hearts today, that
your word does not return toyou void, but it accomplishes
(35:38):
that for which you sent it out.
Jesus, you love us more than wecould ever imagine and I pray
that you'd help that love totransform us and give us the
grace that you have promised us.
In Jesus' name, we pray.
Amen.
Let's all stand and sing.
So today we're going to be studying 1 Corinthians,
chapter 5.
We're going to pray and thenwe're going to get started.
The title of today's sermon isDon't Slap Like Will Smith.
Are you guys ready?
All right, jesus, we thank youfor your grace and mercy in our
lives.
We thank you for all the 10weeks we've had of building up
(00:25):
our identity, and now we'retransitioning into seeing what
that identity looks liketogether, working it out
together, and how precious it isand how precious you view your
family.
And so, jesus, I pray that eachperson in here would really
know that they are part of yourfamily and if they are not
confident in that, that, theywould consider whether they have
(00:48):
been born again into yourfamily and they would consider
what is going on and why arethey here and what are you doing
in our lives today.
Jesus, I thank you so much forpursuing us when we don't want
to be pursued, when we want torun away.
Jesus, you always come after usand you're so full of love in
(01:10):
that way.
Thank you for making usuncomfortable sometimes, because
it's there.
We find that we're alwayswelcomed and accepted in you.
Jesus, father, we pray that yougive us a spirit of
understanding and wisdomrevealed to us, your heart this
morning, more than anything else.
(01:30):
In Jesus' name, we pray amen,all right.
So it was the slap heard aroundthe world.
You guys remember the?
It was the 94th Academy Awards.
It's I can remember it like itwas 1,204 days ago because it
was.
So, you guys, was anyonewatching it?
(01:52):
Anyone still watch the AcademyAwards, okay?
So yeah, it's like they'reannouncing something and Chris
Rock is making fun of WillSmith's wife, and so Will Smith
walks up there and says somethings and slaps him across the
face and everyone was so shockedthat they didn't know what to
do.
It was pretty crazy.
(02:13):
So, following that, so followingthat backlash, you know, smith
issued a formal apology onInstagram and Facebook.
It was the biggest news in theentire world, this slap and he
referred to his own behavior asunacceptable, inexcusable.
And then he directly talked toChris Rock after that and he
(02:36):
said I would like to publiclyapologize to you, chris.
I was out of line and I waswrong.
I am embarrassed by my actions.
They were not indicative of theman I want to be.
There is no place for violencein a world of love and kindness.
That's a pretty good apology,right, but the damage was done.
Okay, so this was not a storyin his life about mercy and
(03:00):
grace, but about consequences.
Okay, because our world reallydoes believe in punishment, it
seems like.
So what happened?
Smith resigned from the academy, from his membership, and
because he was facing possiblesuspension and expulsion for
(03:21):
life.
Like everyone was really madbecause he had embarrassed them
and he ended up getting bannedfrom all Hollywood Academy of
Arts things for 10 years.
So that's what he's under rightnow he's in a 10-year ban.
More detail this is important,you'll see.
(03:42):
Okay.
So the academy More detail thisis important, you'll see.
Okay.
So the academy they disciplinedhim.
They said this.
They said for violations of theacademy's standards of conduct,
including inappropriatephysical contact, abusive or
threatening behavior andcompromising the integrity of
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the academy.
They said while we would liketo clarify that Mr Smith was
asked to leave the ceremony andrefuse, we also recognize we
could have handled the situationdifferently.
So they tried to handle this byasking him to leave and they
(04:25):
eventually had to suspend him.
And this is a real-life parallelto what we're going to be
studying today in the Bible.
You had no idea that Will Smithwould be your illustration for
Bible teaching today, but it isbecause we're going to be
talking about purity orintegrity in God's family, the
(04:46):
church, okay, and how tomaintain it the right way, but
we're going to see it throughgrace glasses.
Everything that we've beenstudying for the past 10 weeks,
the 10 sermons that I've donewith you guys so far, we've been
just building this foundationof our identity, identity,
identity.
It's been over and over again.
We've been talking about whoyou are in Christ, what is true
(05:09):
about you, and now we're seeingthat, since we are children of
God, since we've been made holy,then our lives should reflect
that.
It should have a practicaltransformation on how we
actually live our lives.
Because, yes, god's name issupposed to be honored, we're
supposed to honor our Father.
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He has born us into His family,he's given us life, he's shared
His very heart with us, hisfamily, and invited us into His
family, and we've been learninghow we've been adopted into that
family and so now we representthat family to the world.
We're representing his gospel,his good news.
So, as a part of his family,his thoughts are our thoughts.
(05:53):
His the things he cares aboutare the things we care about.
We have his very spirit insideus and if you're talking about
God, all of his ways are love.
That is all of his ways, soeverything we do has to reflect
that.
(06:14):
So we're going to see today howwe can be the most loving to
each other, what is the mostloving thing we can do in each
situation, and that love isgoing to be revealed through our
relationships.
Sorry, I'm having a hard timewith my ear thingy today, my bad
, okay, thanks.
(06:39):
So our love is revealed throughour relationships.
How you treat one anotherreveals how much you think God
loves you.
If you think God loves you justa little, you're going to share
just a little of that love.
If you are understanding youridentity in Christ and how much
(07:01):
God loves you, that love isgoing to be pouring out through
your life.
We're going to see that, as wehonor and respect people in love
, that we're sharing God's lovewith them.
And if we don't honor andrespect these relationships that
(07:23):
God gives us, we confuse thelove of God with something that
stings like a slap Pew.
It can sting when we don't loveBecause it brings hurt instead
of the healing, encouraging love.
It can hurt us.
(07:44):
Now you have to understand onething about the Greek culture
that was the culture of theworld at this time.
They were very sexuallypromiscuous, which means they
had no morals.
Well, this was a description oftheir morals, which means they
had no morals.
Well, this was a description oftheir morals.
Mistresses we keep, for thesake of pleasure, concubines for
the daily care of the body, butwives to bear us legitimate
(08:06):
children.
That was their opinion of whatrelationships looked like,
especially with men and womenand the church and Jesus.
When the church came, it changedall of this.
Jesus says that is not loving.
It's not loving to treat peoplethat way.
(08:28):
Each person is supposed to belifted high in honor and respect
and that whole thing does nothonor the individual person.
So Jesus says it's not lovingand it doesn't communicate God's
faithful love to the women ofthe world.
That's what he says, or the menhe says.
(08:50):
So the integrity of the churchis important to God because he
is holy and he's loving andwe're supposed to be the ones
that are showing how holy andhow loving he is to the world.
We are his body, we are hiskind of a mirror that shows what
he's like to the world.
So there has to be a way ofdiscipline in the church.
(09:16):
God says, if someone who is abeliever refuses to agree with
the whole family plan that Godhas established, the church has
to represent the head of thechurch.
Who's the head of the church?
Jesus, and so the church.
We're supposed to represent himand what he thinks about things
.
And so what we're going tolearn about today is how to help
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that be purely communicated tothe world.
It's not about punishment.
None of this is aboutpunishment.
The church is not supposed tobe out there punishing people,
but about helping an individualrealize the gravity of their sin
and hopefully leading them torepentance or to change their
(09:59):
decision making, and the goal isto protect the church's witness
and encourage the sinner toreturn to a life that is
consistent with their identity.
Okay, so I know we've talkedabout a lot of like, just like
it seems like school stuff sofar, but here's the whole point
your identity, we've alreadytold you, is that you're a
(10:19):
beloved child of God, you havehis spirit in you, you are
righteous, you are holy, but ifyou don't act that way, there's
this disconnect with your lifeand your witness, or your
identity and how you're actingor presenting yourself to the
world, and we want those twothings to line up.
(10:40):
So we're going to see these twolessons today.
First, this passage highlightsthe importance of maintaining a
community that reflects theholiness and love of Jesus, and
then, secondly, while we're alsoextending grace and seeking
restoration for those who havefallen into sin.
All right, so with all thatsaid, you kind of have the whole
(11:01):
layout of what we're going tostudy today and what it means.
We're going to read the chapter, we're going to dive into what
it means, and you have to havecourage to read a chapter like
this.
You have to have courage toteach a chapter like this.
What we do at church is we teachthrough the Bible, verse by
verse.
So most pastors would not teachthrough this chapter, because
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if they're choosing what theywant to teach, you're going to
teach the things that are funand that are exciting and that
are easy most of the time, butif you're teaching through the
Bible verse by verse, you don't.
You have to deal with somedifficult things, and so that's
what we've come to at.
This portion of scripture islike some crazy stuff.
So let's see what it says.
It is actually reported thatthere is sexual immorality among
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you, such sexual immorality asis not even named among the
Gentiles that a man has hisfather's wife.
So remember our last study lastweek?
We studied that pride was theroot of the problem, the pride.
Paul laid this foundation, thatpride was going to be the thing
that caused all their trip ups.
And here it's the exact samething.
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Paul brings up this onespecific area where pride has
led to a sin, and sin is justsomething that misrepresents and
dishonors God.
So this guy was a believer, hewas part of the church and he
was choosing not to honor Godwith his life by believing in
(12:27):
his new identity in Christ.
But he was doing whatever hewanted that's the problem here
With no regard for who it hurt.
He didn't care who it hurt.
Is that love?
I'm going to do whatever I wantwithout worrying about who I
hurt?
No, that's not love.
You think about it.
(12:47):
This guy hurt his father, thisguy hurt his mother, this guy
hurt his entire family and hedisregards all these people for
what he wants.
That's a very self-centeredviewpoint.
He focuses only on himselfInstead of seeing how he hurts
(13:08):
people.
He's not focusing on love.
Self-love is not love.
In the Bible, true love isalways self-sacrificial.
That's the difference betweenChrist's love and the love, we
think, is love, jesus' love isalways sacrificing myself for
(13:28):
the good of other people.
And Paul makes the connectionwith pride.
Look what he says.
He says are you puffed up andhave not rather mourned that he
who has done this deed might betaken away from among you?
So, puffed up in pride is theopposite of humility and faith.
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And so the church is choosing.
What they've been doing isthey've been choosing the path
of pride instead of humility andmourning.
They celebrated this maninstead of grieving.
It would be like the Academygiving Will Smith an award right
after slapping the snot out oftheir host.
Bro, that's actually what theydid.
(14:12):
The next thing that happenedafter the slap is Will Smith got
Best Actor Award.
Isn't that crazy?
It's weird.
Okay.
So Paul says there's a simpleway that we should do things in
the church, and it's calledhumility and faith.
Humility and faith and pride isalways the opposite of that and
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it's always the unloving thingto do.
If you do something unlovingand refuse to repent or agree
with God and make it right, thenthe church has to ask you to
leave.
That's what's happening here.
We cannot be part of thisunloving behavior.
He says we can only representlove as far as the church goes,
(14:55):
as far as the whole thing goes.
Look what he says.
For I, indeed, as absent in thebody but present in spirit,
have already judged, as though Iwere present, him who has so
done this deed In the name ofour Lord Jesus Christ.
When you gather together, alongwith my spirit and the power of
our Lord Jesus Christ, deliversuch a one to Satan for the
destruction of the flesh, thathis spirit may be saved in the
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day of the Lord Jesus.
So this is where it gets reallyintense here, because didn't
Jesus say don't judge?
Did Jesus say don't judge?
Well, he actually said don'tmake unjust judgments or don't
judge stupidly.
He said to judge accurately oruse the right judge.
(15:45):
He said don't be an idiot whenyou're judging, don't be mean
when you're judging, butunderstand.
And Paul says this guy clearlyhas a problem.
If Paul has heard about thisguy's life all the way from Rome
, where he was, from, where hewas this is like across an
entire continent then this guyis absolutely not embarrassed by
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his choices in his life, he'sflaunting it.
And so Paul says what happens?
Is this guy needs to bedelivered to Satan?
Well, that's really intense,right Because we think, oh my
gosh, he needs to like tell usSatan, here you go.
What does this mean?
Well, this basically means thatthe church is protected from a
whole lot of what Satan istrying to do in the world.
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That's how you should see thechurch.
The church is seen as a safeplace.
It's supposed to be a safeplace.
Satan is trying to ruineveryone's life, and so in the
church, we're hearing God's wordand God's truth that will
protect you from Satan ruiningyour life.
And so being delivered to Satanmeans if you're not coming to
(16:50):
church, then you're not hearingand receiving this guidance for
your life, and so you aremisguidance for your life, and
so you are gosh in the placewhere Satan is ruining people's
lives, and so that's probablygoing to be something that you
feel and experience in your life.
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So that's what he says.
Outside the church, you dowhatever your flesh tells you to
do, so you're going to facethese natural consequences of
those choices, whichconsequences of sin are always
destruction, and it just happensover and over again.
So the church isn't punishingpeople like when you hear of.
You ever heard of the SpanishInquisition Okay, it's a
(17:32):
horrific thing where people whosaid they were part of the
church but really weren't.
They were going around and theywould kill people if they
didn't agree with how they sawthings and didn't say what they
wanted them to say.
So they would.
And they would say they wouldquote this verse and say we
deliver you to Satan for thedestruction of your flesh, as
they killed them and it washorrific.
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It's not at all what this means.
Okay, the church isn't supposedto be punishing people.
The purpose of casting thisunrepentant sinner out was so
that they realized that the lifethat they've chosen to live
inspires people towards Satan,not towards Jesus.
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Okay, and there's no lifeoutside of following Jesus.
Jesus said I am the way, thetruth and the life.
So we know, we've discoveredthat there is only life in
following Jesus.
That's what the church is.
We follow Jesus, we share inHis life.
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Why is this important for thechurch?
Paul says your glorying is notgood.
Do you not know that a littleleaven leavens the whole lump?
Therefore, purge out the oldleaven, that you may be a new
lump, since you truly areunleavened.
Since you truly are unleavened,highlight that in your Bible,
underline that that's Paulreminding you of your identity.
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For indeed, christ, ourPassover was sacrificed for us.
Therefore, let us keep the fast, not with old leaven, nor with
the leaven of malice andwickedness, but of the
unleavened bread of sincerityand truth.
So why is all this important forthat church and for our church?
Because they didn't care aboutthe integrity of the church.
They were prideful, they werethinking they were already the
best church.
They thought that that's howyou can tell you're in a messed
(19:32):
up church when you think you'rethe best church.
I love being a part of a churchthat has humility and says we
are a bunch of broken, messed uppeople who are struggling with
our sin.
We have one thing in common weknow Jesus has loved us, jesus
has forgiven us, jesus has savedus.
That's our identity.
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That's all we are hoping for.
That's all our identity is whenyou think you're the best
church.
That's not good.
Because they were not concernedabout love in one place, that
(20:14):
attitude spread to the entirechurch.
They were prideful and boastBecause they had pride in one
area.
It spread all through the churchand that's what leaven does.
So leaven is this little thingyou put in bread and then it
spreads.
You put just a little bit inbread and it spreads through the
whole thing as it bakes, andit's always an illustration of
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how sin works and how prideworks.
And so the same exact thinghappens to us in a church when
you have pride in one area, itspreads to the whole thing.
So that's why we have to askourselves why we do everything
we do in our church and as achurch.
Why do we do the Laguna Heightsoutreach?
Why do we do worship the waythat we do it?
(20:55):
Why do we communicate God'slove the way that we do?
Why do we have food in the back?
Why do we have greeting stuff?
We're going to ask thosequestions and hopefully the
answer is because of humility wewant to be humble and faith.
We want to put our trust inJesus alone, and if we have
those two things as our identity, we're going to be doing all
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right as a church.
And then he says since you aretruly unleavened do you see
those words in there that Pauljust sneaks in, that perfect
description of what a Christianis?
You are already pure andrighteous.
He's reminding them that theywere pure and they want to be
(21:38):
loving in their identity.
But they were in their identity, but they were allowing this
unloving thing in.
So then that's going to confuseeveryone about what their
identity really is.
So, because they let this onething in, they're going to be
asking are we really pure?
Are we a pure group of people?
Are we a pure family, or do wemix with sin?
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What is going on here?
He says for, indeed, christ,our Passover, was sacrificed for
us.
Therefore, let us keep thefeast, not with old leaven, nor
with the leaven of malice andwickedness, but with unleavened
bread of sincerity and truth.
What is Paul doing here?
He's saying you guys have thisissue.
You're super prideful, you'vemessed up.
(22:20):
What's the solution?
Get your eyes back on Jesus.
What does he do?
He reminds them.
He's like look at what Jesusdid.
He was sacrificed for you.
And then he uses theillustration of the Passover.
He says Jesus was the Passoverlamb, and all these people know
what the Passover was.
It was this celebration wherethey killed the lamb and they
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put the blood on their doorpostsand everyone who had the blood
on the doorposts was saved.
And that's the illustrationthat he's using here.
He's saying get your eyes backon Jesus, remember his sacrifice
, remember his love, and thenkeep the feast.
That means celebrate his life,celebrate him.
It's not about you and yourbehavior and what you got going
(23:02):
on and what you want.
It's about his life.
That's why we gather together,that's why we are the church and
we're the church Monday,tuesday, wednesday, thursday and
Friday and Saturday, and thenon Sunday we gather together,
but we're still the church allthose other days and our focus
is 100% on his life, not our own.
That's what the church is allabout.
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And he says don't celebrate hislife with malice and wickedness.
That's a description ofself-pleasure.
He's like that's not how youcelebrate his pure and holy life
.
That doesn't work at all.
But with purity, sincerity andtruth is what he says.
That's how we celebrate hislife.
(23:46):
Remember that I am pure in myheart and I act pure because I
am pure inside.
That's faith.
When I'm walking in faith, Iwill act purely because of his
identity inside me.
So he says I wrote to you in myepistle not to keep company with
sexual immoral people.
Yet I certainly did not meanwith the sexual immoral people
(24:08):
of this world, or with thecovetous, or with the
extortioners or idolaters, sincethen you would need to go out
of the world.
But now I have written to younot to keep company with anyone
who is named a brother, who issexually immoral or covetous or
idolater or reviler or drunkardor extortioner, not even to eat
(24:29):
with such a person.
Okay, so in that day and inmany cultures today, eating with
someone was an expression offriendship and partnership.
So in some cultures, if a maneats at your table, you are
bound to regard him as a friendand a partner for the rest of
your life.
And Paul warns the CorinthianChristians that they cannot
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continue in real, deepfellowship with a notorious
sinner who calls himself aChristian, who everyone knows is
a believer, a sinner who callshimself a Christian, who
everyone knows is a believer.
He says this for what do I havewith judging those who are
outside God?
Do you not know that?
Do not judge, sorry, do you notjudge those who are inside, but
(25:18):
those who are outside Godjudges.
Therefore, put away fromyourselves the evil person.
So he says listen, the world issupposed to act.
Crazy.
The world, that's okay, that'swhat they're supposed to do.
We're not supposed to tell theworld how to act.
It's kind of crazy to put theTen Commandments like all over
(25:39):
the place and thinking that'sgoing to transform the world.
You're trying to tell the worldhow to act when they're not
going to act that way.
That's okay.
They're not supposed to, theycan't.
So how do we impact the world?
Well, we share with them thegospel, which is the love of
Jesus, that he is theirsacrifice, that he was broken
(25:59):
and crucified for them on thecross.
Then, when they believe, thatthey're born again, and then
their heart already has the lawof God written on their heart,
and that's how thetransformation happens in this
world.
That's the design of how it'ssupposed to happen.
So he says you're supposed to goout to the bars and talk with
(26:20):
people.
You're supposed to go into theworld.
You're supposed to receive themand talk with people.
You're supposed to go into theworld.
You're supposed to receive themand talk with them.
Do not be afraid of sinners.
Don't ever be afraid of sinners.
Go out to them, put your armsaround them, love them, care
about them.
Once they become a believer,then we help them know their
identity.
Once they know their identity,they will realize that they're
(26:43):
free from sin.
So does this mean, does all ofthis that we're saying today
means, if you mess up once,you're out of the church for 10
years, like Will Smith?
Absolutely not.
We are not talking aboutmistakes.
We're not talking about falling.
Okay, there's a massivedifference between I screwed up
and I'm sorry and I shouldn'thave done that.
(27:04):
I want to do better, versusscrew you.
I'm going to do whatever I wantand I'm going to call myself a
Christian and I'm going to showup.
There's a massive differencebetween those two things.
One has humility, the other haspride, the other has pride.
(27:27):
And pride, the bible says, is aleaven that will spread through
the whole church like cancer,and we don't want that to be a
part of the community, theidentity of the people.
Do we want people who makemistakes and fail and then run
back to jesus?
Yes, that's like a hospital,and think of the church like a
hospital.
Where do do you go?
When you're sick, when you makea mistake, when you screw up?
You go to the hospital.
When you screw up in life, yourun to church, not away from it.
(27:50):
But you don't go to thehospital and spread diseases
like here have some of mydisease.
No, you go there to get healing.
That's how this is working here.
So we don't have any role intelling the outside world how to
(28:12):
behave.
We tell them about the love ofChrist and the gospel.
There are some practicalexamples I want to give you guys
of things that we would thinkare really really bad, that we
would be like there needs to bea separation.
So if someone is abusingchildren, they're not going to
(28:35):
be welcome in this situation.
Because we're going to beprotecting the kids, we're going
to make sure that that's not asituation right, because we're
going to be protecting the kidsright, we're going to make sure
that that's not a situation.
So if we ever have like achildren's ministry, there'll
always be like background checksdone and make sure that that's
not part of their history, partof their past, part of a
temptation in their life.
You know, sexual abuse andmisconduct is something that can
(28:59):
hurt people, and so we want tomake sure that the church is
free from that type of problems.
So I just want to summarizeeverything so that we understand
it's important to take thechurch seriously.
Sometimes we have to ask peoplenot to be part of meetings
because of a repeateddemonstrated.
(29:21):
They don't care about hurtingpeople because they don't.
They're not operating in love,and that's a situation that
sometimes has to happen in thechurch.
I've seen it really rarely In25 years.
I've probably seen five peoplein thousands and thousands of
thousands that were literallyasked and said you can't come
(29:48):
until you change your opinion,until you change your lifestyle
in this area or that area.
But most people it doesn't riseto that because they're not
standing in it saying this is mychoice and I'm never going to
change.
I don't care about any of you.
Most people aren't living thattype of life.
(30:08):
So there's.
I just want to summarize it bysaying there's three key factors
that we will always use thatare described in this chapter of
how we how this happens.
Okay, first, unrepentant sin.
So if the individual is openlyengaging in sinful behavior
without any remorse or desire tochange, and it's not about
they're seeking help or nothinglike that, it's just they will
not, they don't care, they arenot going to change, they don't
(30:31):
care.
That's kind of level.
Number one we have to considerthat.
Number two, it's theseriousness of the sin.
So if the sin is such a naturethat it could damage the
reputation of the church or thepeople, actually hurt people,
that's very serious and thatneeds to be taken care of.
That needs to be thought about.
And number three the impact onthe community.
(30:52):
If the person poses a risk tohurting people by their actions.
We don't want that to happeneither.
All right, by their actions, wedon't want that to happen
either, all right.
So all of that is what 1Corinthians, chapter 5, is about
.
Okay, what are we about?
We're about the love of God andhis identity.
(31:14):
In us, we are pure, and I hopethat this actually encourages
you, and I hope that thisactually encourages you to
understand and know how lovedyou are and how amazing it is to
be a part of God's family.
So, instead of thinking that wehave to create this culture of
(31:35):
a holy family, it's about usbuilding this church.
It has nothing to do with us.
God has already made you allpure, but we just gather
together and we are all a partof his family, and so this is
the way a family naturally worksis we're all going after the
same goal, which is to honor God, to praise him and to worship
(31:58):
him.
You know the academy.
They kicked Will Smith out for10 years.
What gives them the right to dothat?
Well, they've formed a littleorganization and they care about
how they're viewed, they careabout integrity, they care about
their place in the world, theywant to represent a certain
(32:22):
standard and the church.
You can kind of look at it thesame way.
We represent a holy God andthat holiness is already inside
us and we don't want it to bepoisoned that message of
righteousness and holiness.
We don't want it to be poisonedby our actions.
So it's really good for ustoday to just thank God that he
(32:46):
has cleansed us, that he hassaved us, that he has made us
holy.
And if you don't know that youare holy today, if all of this
is like, wow, this all soundslike weird, but you believe that
you need to be holy, you senseGod pulling at your heart,
saying he wants to offer youholiness, he wants to offer you
(33:06):
his righteousness, and thathappens very simply by believing
in Jesus.
What does that mean?
It means you believe Jesus diedon the cross and it was for you
.
You believe he rose from thedead and that was for you, and
that once you believe in him,you are fused with him, you
become one with him and he comesto live inside you and he gives
you a new heart and a newspirit.
(33:27):
So we're all going to close oureyes now and we're just going
to have a moment to respond togod and to his word.
Today, father, we, we pause andand ask your spirit to just
speak to us.
(33:49):
If there's anyone in here who isunsure on whether they've been
given the gift of eternal life,the gift of holiness and the
gift of righteousness, all theirsins being forgiven, I pray
that anyone in here would callout to you and say Jesus,
forgive me, jesus, save me.
(34:10):
And for the majority in herewho know you, god, we rejoice
and we celebrate you.
We celebrate your death on thecross that cleansed us from all
sin.
We celebrate that you havefilled us with a new heart.
We celebrate you put a newspirit inside us.
(34:32):
We celebrate you, jesus.
We celebrate that you liveinside us.
Live inside us.
We celebrate that you make usuncomfortable when we choose
self instead of love.
(34:53):
Thank you for the convictionthat we feel in the Spirit when
we're not walking according tothe heart of our Father.
Walking according to the heartof our Father, jesus, we want to
honor you, glorify you, lift upyour name on high, for no one
has ever died for us, no one hasever loved us the way that you
(35:17):
have loved us.
We worship you, god, with ourhearts, with our words and with
our very lives and again foranyone who is choosing right now
to believe.
Lord, we celebrate that youhave moved in hearts today, that
your word does not return toyou void, but it accomplishes
(35:38):
that for which you sent it out.
Jesus, you love us more than wecould ever imagine and I pray
that you'd help that love totransform us and give us the
grace that you have promised us.
In Jesus' name, we pray.
Amen.
Let's all stand and sing.
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