The Essential Expectation

Week 1 – Personal Decision to make

-          Prioritize Christ – The Gospel

-          See from Paul’s Perspective – It’s about Jesus – Advancing the Gospel not Ourselves

Week 2 – Things are different for those of us who make the decision to follow Christ

-          God is different than the way He gets portrayed

• He is supreme and above all

-          God picks different people than people assume He should

• He doesn’t pick the perfect, religious, or worldly wise – he chooses how He wants

-          We should live differently

• Our lives are to be founded on Christ – that shapes the whole house and makes it last

We’ve discussed the Corinthian Church had some problems

• They were divided among their leaders – Paul says that if it’s in Jesus then it’s the same thing – 1 Corinthians 3:21-23
• They were struggling with non-Christian influences and practices in the church
• They had some wrong belief

There is a certain way things are supposed to look and function

-          Ever looked at something and said, “That’s Just Wrong!”

-          Like the Lingerie Football League

• Depravity in its finest
  • Exploiting temptation for profit
  • Making common something that is to be sacred
  • Making mockery of football
• There is a certain way football is supposed to look and certain purposes that it is supposed to accomplish

-          God EXPECTS his church to look and function in a certain way

Chapter 5 – addresses sexual immorality in the church

-          Watch how you live and what influences you

• 5:1-2 – Guy is shacking up with his mom
  • They were proud – indication is that they were proud of their “freedom” to live as they please
  • Paul says they should be grieved – Are we about the sin in our churches?
  • He should be disciplined – true love and commitment to growth
  • 5:6 – Believers Continued living in open sin can be destructive to the whole

Chapter 6 – addresses lawsuits among believers

-          Godliness is our standard

• We look to the world to fulfill our desires “our rights”
  • Kids fighting over who gets the last pop tart – small world
  • We live from a bigger world (eternal) – share, be thankful that we have poptarts
  • We should work things out together as believers in the church
  • 6:7-11 – Care about the bigger picture – We are saved through Christ’s sacrifice and will inherit the kingdom of God – DON’T FIGHT OVER OR GIVE INTO SELFISH PURSUITS – this covers vs 12-18

Chapter 7 – addresses Marriage and Priority of God’s work

-          Keep things in the right order of priority

• Paul’s perspective – better not to marry
• Vs 17 – However, we each have a specific place in God’s plan
• Don’t commit to things in this life that will prevent you from putting God first
• Vs 29 – Why? TIME IS SHORT – Vs 35 – Live undivided

Chapter 8 – addresses eating food used in pagan worship

-          Live to inspire growth in others not cause problems in weak believers

• 12 Temples in Corinth to other Gods – sometimes the believers would be invited to feasts at the Temples
  • Food would be sacrificed to these Gods and then eaten in feasts to celebrate those Gods
  • Those Gods weren’t real and Paul says that there is no sin in eating that food
  • However, some of the “new believers” felt that it was wrong to do so
  • Paul tells the stronger believers to not eat the food so that the weak believers would not be tempted to fall back into idol worship
    • Vs 9-13 – READ can be applied to a variety of things in our culture

The Essential Expectation of the Church ~ How Should We Live? Chapter 10:31-33