Read the text – 1 Corinthians 12:12-31
This Bible talk is about how the church is like a body – it has many parts with different gifts that all act to serve each other, where a missing part affects every other part. As a church in unity under Christ, do not let our selfishness exclude others and bring division. Instead let us all care for one another, suffer together, and rejoice together.
Read the text – 1 Corinthians 11:17-34
In the letter of 1 Corinthians the Apostle Paul has been addressing numerous matters to help the Christians in Corinth consider how they live for Christ – both before the world, and within the church family.
In this talk Ken Noakes looks at the rebuke that is written to the church of Corinth because of their selfishness has hurt their fellowship. He focuses on the way that they share in the Lord’s Supper. There are lessons for the church today. The Lord’s Supper should humble us as we remember Christ’s death and proclaim his coming again. When you remember Christ’s death, and where he is taking us, there is no room for a pecking order, or being concerned with social status, or competing with each other. As a result, we must examine ourselves (11:28) and wait for one another (11:34).
This talk will also help us thing about how we deal with division within the church family.
Read the text – 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 & 1 Corinthians 10:23-11:1
As a society we have never had more freedom, yet we often use that freedom to serve ourselves. The Corinthian Church know they are free in Christ, but they use this freedom to love themselves and not others. How will we, who are free in Christ, use our freedom? Will we follow our society and the Corinthian Church by loving ourselves? Or will we use our freedom to build up the church in love?
In this Bible Talk, Nick Lindeback looks at the how some actions are permissible for the Christian person and not not inherently sinful, but in exercising that action may cause others to stumble (thus sin) in their faith. The point: consider whether your actions are loving to other fellow Christians before doing them.
Love, Truth and Obedience are three Christian values that together define Christian Love. Christian love, is love where truth is valued. Christian truth tells us how to obey. Christian obedience demonstrates true love.
In the previous posts from this series we have looked at each.
What happens if you corrupt any one of those values?
What is love that is pleasing first to God? It has something to do with obedience in the context of truth. We have considered ‘Love’ (Part 3 of this series) and ‘Truth’ (Part 4 of this series), so this time let’s focus on ‘Obedience’.
Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them (1 John 3:21-24)
A love that is pleasing to God is a love that obediently follows his commands.
Sermon from the 1 John Series by Ken Noakes – ‘Love & Hate’ from 1 John 3:11-24 & 4:7-21 – available to stream or download: http://bit.ly/2iqxgDg
Read the Bible text: http://bit.ly/2fPKuZ8
Full Text and working for this sermon – Love & Hate (1 John 3.11-24, 4.7-21)
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