I have always loved Paul's description of being
an ambassador for Christ. There's just something
very powerful about that image. You heard it
in our call to worship already from this morning.
It's found in 2 Corinthians 5. I'll put it on
the screen again here in just a moment so that
you can see it. But it goes like this. Therefore,
we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God
were making an appeal through us. We beg you
on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. When
I think about this passage, I picture in my mind
walking down the street in our community. Doesn't
matter whether I'm in Newhall or Valencia or
the northern kingdom of Castaic. Walking down
the street somewhere in our community, shopping
at a market, going to dinner at a restaurant,
getting a drink at my favorite coffee shop. And
everywhere I go, carrying with me the identity
of Christ and his kingdom in the world. Think
about that. Each of us being a representative
commissioned by him as we walk through our community.
And walking through life equipped and prepared
for when those opportunities present themselves.
to speak on his behalf. That's what an ambassador
does. He speaks on behalf of the one who sent
him. Speaking on his behalf, using both our godly
conduct and our well -seasoned words to talk
to those around us. Being both salt and light
to the people who live here, who live all around
us, for them to see, for them to hear. And as
we do this, allowing him to make an appeal through
us. Because that's really the beauty of that
passage, right? It's not our words. It's not
us selling the gospel on people. It's God making
an appeal through his ambassadors. That's where
the power lies. Urging people, explaining to
them that they can be reconciled to their creator
and their Lord. What a responsibility we've been
given. What a privilege. We've been given to
be ambassadors. And here's the beauty of it.
It's not that we have to be so extraordinary
at these things. It's really just about embodying
Christ faithfully in the very ordinary parts
of daily life. Just walking as an ambassador.
And every interaction we have with the people
in this community. Now, having said that, it's
important for us to realize there's another side
of the coin when it comes to being an ambassador.
Sometimes professing Christians by their actions
and by their words can cast a dark shadow over
the message and the master that they represent.
They turn people away from the Lord because their
lives contradict the claim that they make that
Christ produces transformative change in his
followers. By the way they live, by the way they
speak, by their attitudes, motivations, they
actually contradict a very claim that they will
say is that Christ changes lives. And what the
world sees, what the world hears is people out
there saying, well, I'm a Christian or I go to
XYZ church while living with all kinds of double
standards in their lives, being prideful, being
unkind, being dishonest, being gossipy. being
cliquish, being materialistic, and so many more.
They're poor ambassadors for the gospel. They're
failing ambassadors. And by representing Christ
poorly, they undermine the credibility, the message
that we've all been given to go out there and
share and spread. It affects all of us. Spurgeon,
and even in his day, recognized this. He once
wrote, the Bible is the light of the church,
not the light of the world. Because the world
does not read the Bible. The world reads Christians.
Ouch. Exactly. Right? Because they're not going
to wake up in the morning and go, hey, where's
a Bible that I can start to read? But they may
run into you during the day. In another sermon,
he said this, and I think it's insightful. He
said, the world becomes a watchdog over the sheep,
barking furiously as soon as one goes astray.
It is upon your public life that the verdict
of the world will very much depend. So here's
the bottom line. If you're a professing Christian,
you are an ambassador in the master's service.
You're either an effective ambassador or you're
a failing ambassador. And it would benefit each
one of us just to stop for a moment and to consider
that and to reflect on how we're doing. Are we
helping or hindering the spread of God's kingdom
in this community? And are there areas that we
need to grow in so that we can do that well?
Grab your Bibles. We're going to look at this
very case in the text for today in 1 Corinthians
6. So here we are. We're getting into a whole
new chapter in Paul's letter. We are moving fast,
aren't we? It's been a wild ride up to this point,
hasn't it? I mean, it's only when you really
walk through this letter slowly like this that
you, sort of the cumulative effect of the problems
in this church kind of overwhelm you. And we've
seen Paul bring up one problem after another,
divisions in the church, jealousy and rivalries,
pride and boasting, a whole cultural misunderstanding
of what wisdom is. Spiritual immaturity, fleshly
living, and then in this last chapter, we saw
this apathetic response to serious unrepentant
sin in the body that they've allowed to just
sit there and fester. Letting a little bit of
leaven to leaven the entire batch of dough. The
Corinthians are very poor ambassadors for Christ,
right? That's what we're seeing so far. And now
today, we're gonna look at a whole nother problem.
And poor Paul, remember, he's their spiritual
father, he's their shepherd, and this is a very
difficult body of believers to manage. By the
way, one of the ways he's going to do this, six
times in this chapter, we're going to see Paul
ask a question. It goes like this, do you not
know? And you can sense the frustration in his
words. He's going to say over and over again,
haven't you learned this yet? Do you not know?
This can be painful for the Corinthians to hear,
right? It's going to strike at their pride. Because
remember, these men and women, they thought they
were so very wise. The reality is they're so
very immature in their understanding of Christian
doctrine and Christian living. So let's look
at verses 1 through 8 together. Just a heads
up, there's quite a few translation issues that
pop up in this section of Paul's letter. And
the New American Standard, which is the translation
I always preach from, it's a little bit wonky.
That's the technical theological term. It's a
little wonky in its wording, so I'll make some
comments here on some alternative readings as
we go along. Verse 1, Paul says, Does any one
of you, when he has a case against his neighbor,
dare to go to law before the unrighteous and
not before the saints? Now, I have no idea why
the translators of the NAS put the word neighbor
in there. That is not the right word. It is in
the original Greek, it's the very common Greek
word heteros, and it's almost always translated
another. And for some reason they put in neighbor,
and it confuses the meaning of this passage.
The ESV gets this right, the CSB, the NIV, everybody
else gets this right. So I'm going to put a good
readable translation on the screen for you. It
says this, does any one of you, when he has a
case against another, Dare to take his case to
court before unbelievers and not before the saints.
That is the crux of this next problem that Paul's
going to deal with there in Corinth. Believe
it or not, Christians were suing other Christians
and taking them into secular courts for judgments.
Verse 2. Or do you not know that the saints will
judge the world? If the world is judged by you,
are you not competent to constitute the smallest
law courts? Again, a little bit wonky there.
Basically what he's saying is, if you're going
to judge the entire world someday, are you not
competent to judge just basic trivial cases?
Verse three, do you not know that we will judge
angels? How much more matters of this life? So
if you have law courts dealing with matters of
this life, Do you appoint them as judges who
are of no account in the church? In other words,
do you lay your cases before men who aren't even
a part of the church, who don't have any standing
in God's kingdom? Verse five, I say this to your
shame. Is it so that there is not among you one
wise man who will be able to decide between his
brethren? Is there not a single wise person in
your church? capable of arbitrating these disputes,
he says. Verse 6, but brother goes to law or
to court with brother and that before unbelievers.
Verse 7, actually then it's already a defeat
for you that you have lawsuits with one another.
Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be
defrauded or cheated? On the contrary, you yourselves
wrong and defraud. You do this even to your brethren.
Ouch. I mean, that is a punch in the face, is
it not? So here's what we're going to do with
this passage this morning. We're going to walk
through it. We'll look at all the reasons why
this is so detrimental to the spiritual health
of a church. And then we're going to bridge the
time gap and go from the first century to today
and talk about all the ways that we can fall
into the same trap if we're not careful. So let's
start. Go back up to verse 1. You can almost
picture the blood rushing to Paul's face as he
writes this. How dare you go to a secular court
when you have a dispute with a fellow believer
rather than appealing to your leaders in the
church? He's obviously greatly distressed by
this. Not only is the church divided in so many
ways, we've seen this, right? They're lining
up behind leaders, there's cliques, there's factions,
but now we find out they're also suing each other.
I mean, could it get more dysfunctional than
this? That alone, Paul says, the fact that you
have lawsuits is a defeat for you, he says in
verse 7. Just that, the fact that you're suing
each other is a defeat. And you make these conflicts
even worse when you hand decision -making power
over to pagan judges, to men without the Holy
Spirit, to men who have no understanding of biblical
principles. What they don't seem to realize is
that the secular courtroom is a whole different
realm than the church. It has a whole different
value system than we have in the Christian community.
You know what secular courts do? They pick winners
and losers. And they establish penalties. They
assign blame. And that is not how the kingdom
of God operates. So you're walking into that
world that sees things completely differently.
and expecting them to judge, to pick winners
and losers, to pick that guy's to blame, and
this guy has to pay that. In the church, what
do we do? We look for forgiveness and compromise.
We look at peace. We look at restoration and
reconciliation. Paul says you're not going to
get those things if you keep taking your cases
into secular courts. It's an abandonment of gospel
principles. And then compounding the error, you're
doing this, you're taking this contentious fight
and you're literally laying it before the world,
before these curious, unbelieving spectators
for them to watch you fight. The world, the very
harvest field where your witness matters, where
you're supposed to be a transformed people, that
world is now sitting back with great glee and
watching you fight together. Listen, the church,
we never pretend to be perfect, right? We never
pretend that there's not conflict in the body.
But we can be honest about all of our shortcomings,
but it is not helpful to our gospel witness when
we air our dirty laundry for the whole world
to see. So Paul asks, why aren't these issues
being handled privately within the church? The
church is literally designed and structured by
Jesus to handle these kinds of disputes. We have
the whole guidebook on how to do it. So why isn't
it being handled internally? You have qualified
elders who can handle family matters. They have
the character and integrity to arbitrate these
things. So take your case to the overseers. And
I think there's a really important connection
here between what we read about these lawsuits
and what Paul just talked about. in church discipline
in chapter five. When there's unrepentant sin
happening in the body, it's a family matter.
We don't run off to the world and say, look at
all the sin here. That would be stupid, would
it not? That would be unstrategic. We handle
it internally, not from the public eye. Well,
the same principle applies here. When brothers
are at odds and that conflict is escalating,
that is not the time to run to the world and
file a lawsuit. That's a time to actually slow
down and to start applying the Matthew 18 principles
we looked at last week. Same thing, whether it's
sin in the body or it's conflict in the body,
start looking at the guidebook on how to handle
it. And we have it, Matthew 18. Go to your brother.
Look, sometimes things happen in the church,
right? There's a real serious conflict. Go to
your brother. Address the grievance. Do it privately.
Do it personally. And if you run into resistance,
what do you do? Bring in some other brothers
and sisters who care about this person, who care
about peace in the body. And you keep working
at it. You don't run off to secular courts. You
keep working at it. You look for peace. And if
necessary, you say, okay, we need to get leadership
involved. We call the elders in. Because these
are men who have wisdom and experience. They
know the scriptures. They have experience in
conflict resolution. And what do we do? We start
looking for compromises. We look at fair settlements.
We look for a process that is going to restore
unity to the body. We take spiritual family matters
and we fix them within. We don't take them to
unbelievers. That would be foolishness. It's
actually an abandonment of your obligation to
the body of Christ. If you run off. to unbelievers
to settle your dispute in the church. That's
what Paul's getting at here. Now, there's likely
some cultural issues happening here that help
us to understand why this was happening. It's
interesting. A faithful Jew would never consider
taking an internal community conflict and going
to a Gentile court. That would never happen.
The Jewish community is very good at this, right?
They will handle things internally. But Greek
culture, very different. Greek culture, very
different. Ancient Greeks, and you might recognize
this in America, had a tendency to enjoy a good
fight, a good battle. They love battle. They
love athletic contests. They love debate. They
love rhetoric. And so for them, litigation in
court is kind of like a blood sport. It's a form
of entertainment almost. And do we not understand
this? Think over the last few decades, how many
TV shows and movies center around courtroom dramas.
We love that stuff, don't we? We love a good,
powerful lawyer with a strong argument who closes
a deal and persuades a jury, and we're like,
yeah, it's a great show. We kind of see it as
a blood sport as well. So once again, we see
the Corinthians are letting their cultural backgrounds
seep into their walk with Christ. They're having
a hard time keeping the culture out of the church.
They're falling back into their old ways. Our
old selves are coming back. These things that
we have these passions for that aren't godly.
They're not biblical. While we can't know for
sure because Paul doesn't give us all the details,
I think it's entirely possible that these church
members in Corinth didn't really want to settle
quietly. It's not what they wanted. They didn't
want to deal with him spiritually. They were
bifurcating their life. There's the business
side of life and there's the spiritual side of
life. And I don't want a spiritual settlement
here. I want a business settlement. That's right.
I want secular justice. They prefer the public
sport of arguing their cases. What they want
is a win. That hurts me deep in my soul because
I'm a competitive person. How many of you guys
are competitive, right? Sometimes you just want
to win. It's not the way God does things. Not
in the church. And so they want to win, and that's
why Paul says the opposite. This is a giant L
for all of you. It's a giant loss for everybody
in the church when you do this. Take the L. So
are you understanding the reason behind this,
how bad this looks in Corinth? Now, before we
go any further, we should qualify a couple of
things to make sure we understand what Paul's
not talking about. because this is important.
The first thing is this. Paul's not, this is
not a blanket indictment against the legal system,
that it's all inherently wicked. As most of us
know in Romans 13, Paul points to the government
authorities, including the legal system, and
says, look, these have been established by God,
right, for the purpose of restraining evil and
promoting justice. So even though they're imperfect,
and we know that, they're wildly imperfect, right?
They're necessary for functioning societies.
So he's not making this blanket indictment against
the system. Secondly, he's not talking about
criminal cases here. And this is an important
distinction. He's talking about civil matters
here, not criminal matters. And we know that
because the idea of lawsuits are being defrauded.
That's not criminal necessarily. That's more
likely civil, right? So he's talking about things
like financial agreements and contract disputes,
conflicts in business, compensation claims. These
are the things that the Corinthians are struggling
with. And a lot of them are likely rooted in
money and property and materialistic possessions.
Again, criminal matters are not the issue here.
And maybe you've seen some of this in the headlines
recently. When churches become aware of criminal
acts in their midst, The ground rules change
completely. And I've seen churches get, or heard
of them getting in massive trouble, legal trouble,
for covering over criminal acts, saying, well,
we're trying to handle it internally and using
this passage to justify that. No, no, no, no,
no. Criminal acts are a different thing, right?
And some of these things are horrific, right?
Major theft or embezzlement, physical assaults
and abuse, including children. Those types of
things get reported to the authorities immediately.
That's important to say that. They're too serious
to say, well, I understand that this thing happened,
but let's see if we can work this out internally.
No, in that case, justice demands not just church
discipline or excommunication, it demands criminal
consequences. That's important. The church has
its place in dealing with certain kinds of conflicts.
And the legal system has its place in handling
other types of conflicts. And we have to be able
to have the wisdom to understand which is which.
Amen? Third qualifier I need to mention is this.
This passage shouldn't be used to say that a
Christian can never appear in court under any
circumstances. Because I've heard people make
this case. Well, fine, then we can never go to
court. That's not what it's saying. In fact,
Paul... in his day, had some experience in the
court system, didn't he? He got pulled into courts
multiple times. So we know it's possible. And
there may be times when one of us has no choice
but to go to court. Your spouse files for divorce.
You've got to respond in court. You're in a custody
battle for children. The other party isn't a
believer. You've got to repeatedly go to court
and make your case before the judge. Someone
out there in the world chooses to sue a believer.
And yeah, we're forced to hire a lawyer so we
don't get financially taken advantage of. Even
churches today get sued. And they've got to go
to court, right? And ironically, you know why
they're most often sued? Because they practice
church discipline. Oh, interesting, huh? Just
make sure, those are important qualifiers before
we go any further, just to know that Paul's not
talking about every single case, but a very specific
type of case that was happening there in Corinth.
Okay, let's look at verses two and three now.
Here's where we get some pretty, pretty interesting
statements from Paul. And here comes the first
of the six do you not know statements. Verse
two, do you not know that the saints will judge
the world? You bring your lawsuits before the
world, but don't you know that someday you're
going to judge the very world that you're bringing
lawsuits to? You've got this thing so messed
up, he says. Now, I would love to do a whole
excursus on that statement about judging the
world. I don't have time for that, but let me
just say a couple things. We do see hints of
this truth in other parts of Scripture, in both
the Old and the New Testaments, that we're going
to judge the world. How do you guys look in a
black robe? Look good? Right? With a big gavel?
No, somehow we're going to be involved in judging
the world. You see this in prophetic texts, like
in Daniel chapter 7. You see it in promises that
Jesus made to his disciples in Matthew 19 and
Luke 22. And you see it in Revelation 20. Revelation
20, where it says that the tribulation saints
who resist the mark of the beast, says, will
come to life and reign with Christ in the future
millennial kingdom. And then John says he saw
thrones in this picture, in this vision, and
they sat on them and judgment was given to them.
I know it's a little mysterious and we don't
have all the details, but it's clearly there
in Scripture. But listen, from a general perspective,
think about this. We know that Christ is going
to judge the earth. We know he's going to judge
all the inhabitants of the earth. And we are,
as believers, forever in union with him. So whatever
he does, we do. in some sense, right? Because
of our union, it follows that the elect saints
will somehow be involved in reigning over this
millennial kingdom, and that reigning or ruling
would also necessarily involve judgment. Again,
we don't have all the details on that, but wow,
that's a big responsibility, right? But don't
get lost in all that. See Paul's big point here.
If someday you're going to reign with Christ
and judge the world, why today would you turn
to that very same world to judge cases within
the family of God? That's the point he's making.
Does that make sense? Good. Then amazingly, he
goes on in verse 3 and extends this whole idea
into the spiritual realm. Do you not know that
you're going to judge angels? Now, does that
blow your mind? Now, this is the only place we
really see this principle taught, which means
Paul is here exercising his inspired role as
an apostle of Christ to give us new information
under the new covenant. And it's pretty exciting,
right? But it's not a huge leap to infer this.
Remember, we've been granted by God's grace a
higher status than the angels. By God's grace,
I don't know. I can't explain this. I don't know
why he chose to do this, but he makes it clear.
We have been granted, as his children, a higher
status than the angels. And we know that for
a few reasons. Number one, the angels aren't
made in God's image, as we are. Angels aren't
redeemed by Christ, as we are. And angels were
created as ministering servants to who? To us,
believers. Wow. So when Christ returns to establish
his kingdom, the saints were going to be reigning
and judging over the world. And so it makes sense
that we would also in some way participate in
the judgment of fallen angels. But again, the
big point here that Paul's making, what he's
doing is he's making, we call this an argument
from the greater to the lesser, right? If someday
you and I are going to judge these extraordinary
beings, right, these angels, can we not just
judge the simple matters of everyday life? Right?
I mean, greater to lesser, we're going to have
this amazing job of judging angels. Can't we
just handle trivial cases? You'd be like a Supreme
Court justice who goes to his local traffic court
to arbitrate some personal issue. You'd say,
are you kidding me? You're on the Supreme Court.
Paul's saying, realize who you are. This is literally
what he's saying to these guys. Hey, church,
realize who you are, the role you have in the
future. What are you doing? Now, back in chapter
4, Paul assured the Corinthians, look, I'm not
trying to shame you in all these corrections.
But here in chapter 6, verse 5, he specifically
says he's doing that. He says, I say this to
your shame. He's hot about this issue. And then
he goes on. Is there not one wise man among you
who is qualified, who will step up and do the
job that needs to be done? to arbitrate these
disputes in your church. Where are your leaders?
Instead, you run to the world to do what you
ought to be able to do for yourselves. You should
all be ashamed, he says. He's hot, like I said.
Okay, final part of the passage before we get
to application. Let's look at the testimony issue
starting in verse six. In disbelief, Paul writes,
This is a terrible witness for Christ, he says.
And listen, we all know this because we live
in a country like America. There are people out
there who hate Christianity. They hate everything
that the Bible teaches. They live for themselves.
They live for their sin. You guys, they are eager
and excited to find any reason to disparage our
faith. Why help them out? Why give them the gift
of helping them to disparage your faith, to disparage
the name of our Savior by doing foolish things?
When Christians fight other Christians in a public
forum, it stains the reputation of Christ and
it gives people just another reason to reject
the gospel. In a way, I don't blame them. Think
about this. I don't blame them. If Christians
can't work through simple disagreements, I understand
why we lose credibility in the eyes of the world.
I get it. If I was on that side of it, I might
see the same thing. They don't recognize God's
transforming power in our lives. They don't see
new life in us. They don't see anything different
about us than the people in their world. has
to be at the forefront of our minds if we care
at all about the Great Commission. What is our
testimony? What is our witness in this community?
This is why at Oak Hill, this is a major part
of our church covenant. Our members know this.
Number seven in our covenant says this. We will
seek by the power of the Holy Spirit to live
carefully in the world. To live carefully in
the world, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts.
recognizing that we have a special obligation
to lead a new and holy life. We are a people
who've been saved and set apart by God to be
unique, to be different. Paul says in Philippians
2 that we're called to be above reproach in the
midst of a wicked generation so that we shine,
so that we shine, appearing as lights in the
world. All of us, by the way, this is not just
the mature believers or the leaders. All of us,
all of us are called to be shining as lights
in the world. And whenever we're in the public
square, wherever we go, we represent Christ.
And we represent Oak Hill. And so how you interact
with people in this community matters. You are
an ambassador for the gospel everywhere you go.
And how you treat your brothers and sisters in
the faith, no matter which church they go to,
it reflects on Christ. It either helps or hurts
our overall testimony in Santa Clarita. So when
you have a problem with a brother or sister,
when you have a conflict, remember what's at
stake before you do anything else. Stop, slow
down. I know I'm angry. Get my emotions in check.
Okay, what's at stake here? The reputation of
Christ, right? My testimony among this world.
Don't be that guy who brings dishonor to the
name of Christ by taking action that he regrets
later or saying things he doesn't mean. Don't
be that gal who brings conflict and division
into Christ's church. Live in such a way today
that you won't be ashamed on the day of Christ.
When you stand before him and you go, oh my goodness,
I have... brought harm to his bride. Live today
in such a way that you won't be ashamed on that
day because you've damaged the bride of Christ.
Then can I just say, Paul lays down the most
difficult challenge in this whole passage in
verse seven. He says, you know what? Why not
rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded
or cheated? Rather than fight your brother for
your rights in a public setting, Why not just
allow yourself to be wrong for the sake of the
testimony of the church? And man, that's hard
for us, isn't it? As I was working on this message,
I thought, man, that's a hard one. Again, because
I'm competitive. I hate losing. You hate losing,
right? We don't like to lose. It hurts our pride.
We don't like to see other people get over on
us. It's almost built into our DNA as Americans.
We don't like it. And we don't like it when we
know there's injustice involved. That's wrong,
we say. And so it's a very challenging idea to
say, I'm willing to be cheated out of money,
out of possessions. I would rather be cheated
than damage the reputation of Christ, to damage
the testimony of the church in the place that
I live. But among other things, didn't Jesus
say this at the Sermon on the Mount? If anybody
wants to sue you and take your shirt, let them
have your coat also. That's a hard one. Whoever
forces you to go one mile, go with them too.
It's hard. It's a good question for all of us
to consider. What are we willing to suffer for
the sake of the gospel? Are we willing to suffer
insults? or injury or even financial loss? What
are we willing to suffer for the sake of Christ?
If Jesus is our model in life and death, all
we have to look at is, well, how was he treated?
And how did he respond when he was arrested unjustly,
when he was tortured unjustly, when he was nailed
to a cross unjustly? Was it not injustice? Of
course it was, yet he remained silent in the
face of his executioners. Peter tells us this,
and this is such a great passage. When you do
what is right and suffer for it, this finds favor
with God. For you've been called for this purpose.
Are you ready? Since Christ also suffered for
you, leaving you an example for you to follow
in his steps, Who committed no sin, nor was any
deceit found in his mouth. It's 100 % injustice.
But while being reviled, he did not revile in
return. While suffering, he uttered no threats.
But what did he do? He kept entrusting himself
to him who judges righteously. Look, I know this
is hard. But it's in black and white. It's in
the scriptures, right? This is the command. This
is the instruction from our Lord to have this
attitude in life. So are we able to absorb the
damages and extend grace for his sake? Are we
able to prioritize peace over winning? Are we
able to forgive remembering how much we've been
forgiven? Are we able to put God's reputation
above our own? Are we able to loosen our hands
on money and possessions that we've actually
received from him in the first place? They still
belong to him. We're just stewards. Can we let
go of those things for the sake of our testimony?
By the way, Paul lived this out. One of the best
parts about scripture is... It's these guys who
wrote these principles. They didn't just write
them in a vacuum. They lived them, right? Paul
lived this out. Think back to Philippians chapter
one. We find out that there are men out there
preaching the gospel because Paul's in prison.
And they're jumping on the opportunity to take
the spotlight because he's in prison, right?
And to preach the gospel. And so how does Paul
respond to that? Does he rail against them? Does
he promise to sue them later? He says, no, what
does it matter? The important thing is that in
every way, whether from false motive or true,
Christ is preached. Kingdom over personal. It's
beautiful. I've always marveled at that little
piece of Paul's story, but it makes sense. Like
Jesus, he understood, and this is so important,
that the courts of this day are not the final
court of appeal. Right? God will one day make
all things right. He will establish perfect justice.
We can't expect that in this life. It's not going
to happen. So what do we do? We look to Jesus'
example. We keep entrusting ourselves to the
one who judges righteously because that's all
that matters in the end. Okay. That's what Paul's
talking about in the first century. Let's bridge
the gap now and talk about us. today in Santa
Clarita. First of all, maybe we should ask and
answer this question. Why is Paul so upset about
this issue? The obvious answer is the unity and
the testimony of the church are at stake. Unity
and testimony. Under the new covenant, the church
is the dwelling place of God. We've looked at
this recently. The dwelling place of God. To
tear at the temple by attacking other members
of the body is self -destructive. We don't tear
at the temple. As fellow believers, we are commanded
to build one another up. Do you think lawsuits
do that? No, they tear one another apart. These
actions by the Corinthians are a denial of the
life -changing power of the Holy Spirit. It's
a denial of the gospel itself. We cannot and
must not fall back into the patterns of the world,
allowing the desires of our old selves to seep
back in and cause damage in the corporate life
of the church. We can't fall back, back into
the culture, back into our old ways, back into
the ways that the world sees things. We focus
on what God says about it. conflicts among members,
unreconciled relationships in the body. These
destroy the worship of the church. Just like
sexual sin in chapter five, these conflicts in
chapter six cannot be allowed to sit unaddressed
in the body of Christ to fester and to grow.
Jesus gave us the essential command on this in
the Sermon on the Mount. He says, if you are
offering your gift on the altar, and there you
remember that your brother or sister has something
against you, what do you do? He says, you leave
your gift in front of the altar, you go and be
reconciled with your brother or sister, and then
you come back, and then you offer the gift. He's
talking about worship. In other words, don't
bring an offering of love to me if you don't
have love for your brothers and sisters. If you
don't establish peace with them, you're not gonna
find peace with me. They go together, don't they?
The Corinthians were failing to address all their
little beefs with one another. They were letting
them just sit there. And instead of doing the
hard work of reconciliation, and by the way,
I'm the first one to admit, it's hard work. When
conflicts happen and you gotta dig in and you
gotta walk through the issues and you gotta forgive
and confess and work towards restoration, it
is hard work. But that's what we're called to.
These guys were choosing the really cold, really
easy path. I'll just go to the courts. I'll just
get a judgment in the courts. What a sad, what
a lazy, what an ungodly response. And then there's
the issue of testimony. Imagine how the unbelieving
population in first century Corinth was processing
what they were watching. Here's this new religious
movement that had come to their city. It's another
philosophy they would have seen. among all the
others. And the followers of this movement are
really vocal about what they believe. But then
the Corinthians must have been going, but they
don't look any different than the Stoics or the
Epicureans or any of the other philosophies.
Why should I pay attention? Now, what about us
today here in Santa Clarita? I've got a whole
series of questions for you. None of these are
targeted at any individual in this church. So
just take it collectively. Every time I do this,
people go, were you talking to me? I'm not. I'm
not. But how do we handle disagreements here
at Oak Hill? How do each of you handle a disagreement
that you have in the body? Do we do it biblically
or out of fear? Do we just resist? I don't want
to deal with it. Don't like confrontation. It's
how we end up in trouble. Do we deal with it
biblically? Is unity a top priority for us? Do
we see that? What's the number one thing in our
covenant? Unity. And we always say it. If we
get that one right, we're ahead of the game,
aren't we, right? If unity reigns, we're going
to be okay. Is that the top priority for you
in this church? Do you forgive others quickly?
Do you let love cover a multitude of sins? Letting
things go? Are you quick to overlook an offense?
Because we live life together. It's like a rock
tumbler. Sometimes the sharp edge catches one
of us, right? Are you able to overlook those
things or do you get triggered by everything?
And now everything, you know, a molehill becomes
a mountain. How do we speak about our fellow
members? How do we speak about fellow members?
Do we build them up? Or do we enjoy tearing them
down? How do we speak about leadership in the
church? Do we honor our leaders or do we grumble?
Is gossip a problem in our lives? When we get
together, do we find ourselves gossiping? Do
we relish the opportunity to air things that
should be kept private? Do we walk with our fellow
members through the hard things of life, or do
we just say, eh, I'll worry about myself? Somebody
else will pray for them. Somebody else will bring
a meal. I've got to worry about me. Is that our
testimony? Do we treat the church as a place
to be served, or do we zealously look to serve
others? Is that what we're known for? What kind
of attitude do we display in our jobs? Among
all the unbelievers around us, what are we known
for at work? What are we known for? How do we
treat the folks who serve us in various businesses
in our community, in our restaurants and coffee
shops and grocery stores? How do we treat people?
Are our interactions marked by kindness? kindness,
compassion? How do we interact with the staff
who teach our kids at school? Are we known among
the school community as being a gracious parent?
What kind of bridge building and gospel conversations
do we initiate when we put our kids into hobbies
or youth sports? What kind of intentional conversations
are we, is that even on our radar? To have intentional
conversations about the gospel? Do the fellow
parents on my son's baseball team know me as
kind and gracious? Or am I that parent that's
out of control? What about in our neighborhoods?
If you live in a house, what are you known for
on your block, on your street? If you live in
an apartment complex, what do people see in your
daily life mixing? In your apartment complex.
Look, we could go on and on on this, right? The
bottom line is this. What kind of an ambassador
are you? What kind of an ambassador are you?
And I'll speak as Paul does. Do you not know,
O kill, that these things matter? Do you not
know? Are we helping or are we hindering the
spread of the kingdom here in Santa Clarita?
Both by our actions and by our words. Now there's
good news. I'm going to finish on a high note.
We can make a fresh start today. If you weren't
aware of this or you're like, man, I'm feeling
the weight of conviction right now, amen and
amen, that's great. There's never a bad time
to act upon a conviction and say, you know what,
I need to do better. I need to do better. There's
forgiveness from the Lord for past mistakes.
There's always grace for the past and hope for
the future. Together, let's commit to these things,
to what we say in our covenant. Let's commit
to biblical principles when it comes to unity.
And when we have disagreements in the body, let's
keep our collective witness in mind. Let's live
out our covenant, seeking by the power of the
Holy Spirit to live how? Carefully in the world.
To live carefully in the world, denying ungodliness
and worldly lust, recognizing that because we're
found in Christ, we have a special obligation
to lead a new and holy life. Together. Amen?