Latest / The Daily Word / March 20 – A Little Leaven Affects the Whole Life
Transcript
- Jenny Dirmann: Hey there, it is Pastor Jenny and we are on March 20th, which means if you're following along with us in our daily life journal, we are in 1st Corinthians chapter 5. Now, this is not a very large chapter if you have read with us today already. It is a mere 13 verses. But don't let it being small deceive you into thinking it is not jam packed with some goodness. And in fact today living in our culture, it's, I would say a pretty ⁓ powerful passage in the sense of it can be hard to hear for some. ⁓ the culture we live in is very sex crazed and that's really what this passage is all about. It's about sexual purity. So I really want to, read several verses to you because just to give the context and then I'll share what really jumped off the page to you from for me from my journaling this morning. But so understanding that the Corinthian church first of all as we continue to read in Corinthians I hope you'll stick with us this month or over the next couple of weeks. but you'll see if you don't know already the Corinthian church was so full of operating in the gifts of the Spirit, so passionate about the Lord and letting the Spirit moved. It was wild. They were moving hot and heavy, I'll say, ⁓ with the gifts of the Spirit that Paul had to come in and really kind of restore some order. However, there were some other things going on apart from the gifts and moving of the Spirit. They had a lot of the flesh operating. Thus the reason Paul's coming in and talking to them today about sexual purity. He's gonna go on and talk to them about many other things because despite the moving, the great moving of the Spirit, ⁓ they're what some I've heard referred to as they're a bit of a dumpster fire. There was so much going on in their lives and they really needed God to come in and purify them. And so Paul's not coming in and. saying, hey, let me stick all of these laws on you, but let me help you come in and see the finished work of Jesus and what he's done so that he can cleanse you from the inside out, because that's what he came to do. He came to set you free so that you can be free indeed. knowing that Jesus has come to set us free, let's read the text with that in mind. So Paul is of course saying, I mean, I'm just going to read to you beginning of verse one, chapter five, verse one, it says it is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you and of a kind that is not tolerated even among the pagans. So I mean, right from the get go, Paul's like, what you're doing is so bad, the pagans wouldn't even do that. But ⁓ and even who he's or whoever this person is he's referring to, Paul says in verse five, when I come to you, You need to deliver this man, this person to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. So essentially Paul's telling them you need to cast this person out from you. You need to get him out so that he actually can be saved. This isn't a punitive thing, but you need to put him out of your fellowship in order for his salvation to actually come to pass. There was something that needed to be done with his physical proximity to the fellowship. It needed to be removed in order to ensure his salvation. Verse six says, your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil. but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. So what is Paul saying here? Paul saying that even a little bit of leaven, leavens the whole loaf, even a little bit of thinking that just some sort of form of sexual impurity, just a little bit of this, a little bit of that, just a little bit of letting in this kind of thinking. How does it get in? It gets in through our eyes and our ears through what we're watching. through what we're listening to, who are putting ourselves around, letting in a little bit of evil. It's only gonna grow that up. Think about any addiction that maybe you've had or someone you know has had, any addiction, it starts somewhere. And what Paul is saying is when someone has been given over to sexual immorality, that thing's just gonna continue to grow. And if they're in your group and that's growing, that's just gonna continue to grow in the group. And so for the sake of both this person and the fellowship, they have to actually be cast out of the fellowship. And so he goes on to say, verse nine, I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. And he said, not at all, meaning the sexually immoral of this world. He said, cause you'd have to actually leave the world. But he said, I'm talking to about those who are in the church, those who profess to know Christ, but are actually still doing these things. Verse 12, for what have I to do with judging outsiders is that not those inside the church whom you are to judge. God judges those outside, purge the evil persons from among you. Have you ever heard someone say, it's not to me to judge, God does the judging. Well, there's a partial truth in that. But we are actually called amongst ourselves as brothers and sisters in Christ to judge one another, not according to ourselves. but according to what God's word says. We, and we're not to do it in such a way that says, hey, let me tell you what you're doing wrong, but we come to one another in love. We just ⁓ recently heard a teaching on repentance and accountability. And it was such a phenomenal teaching talking about what true accountability is. True accountability is not one person saying, hey, you got a real problem and I hope you work that out. No, true Christian brotherly love and accountability is, hey, I see maybe something you missed, a smudge on the window that you missed. And it's up to us as individuals to repent for that sin in our lives. But we have brothers and sisters who want to walk alongside of us and help us step out of that sin, but we have to repent for that. But it's clear here what Paul was talking about was a sexual immorality. These are people who were living in sexual sin that essentially were had no problem with it. They didn't think there was any problem with what they were doing whatsoever. They were not bowing down to the lordship of Christ and what God was saying was sin. They they were seeming to profess as no sin. And so when a decision like that, when people make decisions like that, God says you're to not associate with people like that. Those can be very tough decisions for us to make. That could be just a decision for me to make. And I'm sure you found yourself, maybe you find yourself in that position right now. But this is when we have to come to the scripture and see what is God telling us to say and be reminded that God's not asking us to make this decision to punish us or to punish the person. For I'm reminded in that verse five, when it says to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, it's not for the destruction of the man. It's for the destruction of the flesh, of the fleshly desire, so that his spirit may be saved, that his soul may be saved. And so when we are in community with others and we say, no, you know what, we're gonna stand for truth and for what God's word says, and we choose to stand for truth and not to sacrifice truth. and say, well, no, I mean, I guess that's okay that you do that and you can still be a part of what we do. No, we have to say we're standing for truth. Sexual immorality is not in line with what God says who we are or what we do. Now, again, I'm not talking about someone that's having a struggle with someone, but that's where we come alongside and we work together ⁓ for a path towards repentance. But when someone's made a decision to say, nope, it's okay to live this way, then they've made a decision to not make Jesus the Lord of their life. And then that's when the Bible says we do have to cast them out from our fellowship, from our ⁓ daily life. So for me and my application, I just have to be aware of what the scripture says. And these can be hard things to read, but I have to trust that God's word is true, that he is faithful and I walk in love towards those around me. And I remember that it is his love that draws people into repentance. It's not my job to bring conviction, but I will stand on the side of truth. I will ⁓ follow what the Lord leads me into. And so I'm thankful that the Lord is judge over the world, but I'm thankful for the opportunity to walk in fellowship with others and to stand in sexual, not, ⁓ Immorality not to be sexually immoral and not to do that So if that's something you're struggling with I pray that you would find someone that you could talk to about that ⁓ Whether it's someone you know or you yourself are in struggle with that Know that there's hope and there's forgiveness in Jesus and that he wants to walk you through that ⁓ Remember that repentance. That's all God's looking for He's looking for that repentance that open heart to cleanse and be purified and he'll walk you through that turning ⁓ of the heart that results into a turning of behavior. So let me pray for you and for us. Lord, we love you and we thank you that you are so gracious. You're so merciful. And so Lord, I thank you that no one is ever too far beyond ⁓ you, Jesus, that you came from heaven to earth so that all may have the opportunity to walk in a saving relationship with you. God, I thank you that when it comes to some of these hard topics, some of these things that maybe the world tells us would feed and satisfy our soul, we know that there is nothing like a relationship with you that is great. There's nothing greater than a relationship with you that is more fulfilling and satisfying than walking in that and walking in obedience and who you've called us to be. So Lord, anyone listening today, would their ears and eyes be opened to who you've called them to be? Would they hear and see you today, Jesus? And Lord, as you lead us into your light, as you lead us into who you've called us to be, would you help us to see others as you see them and to walk in all truth? In Jesus' name, amen.