You can start by letting the Holy Spirit guide your Bible study instead of relying solely on commentaries. When you recognize that selfishness fuels arguments, you can choose to walk in the grace and power He provides to live for Jesus. Come forward today to receive the healing and relationship you need to truly live out this new life.
So, we're gonna dive back into the Corinthians series today. If you weren't here last week, well, go and check go and check the podcast. We talked about first Corinthians, the last verse of 1 Corinthians-4, and then, we went into 1 Corinthians-5. God put on my heart back in October to go verse by verse through the book of Corinthians because he wanted to teach our church and train our church in multiple ways. Split it up into really 4 parts.
We went through the first 3 chapters of Corinthians, and then chapters 4 through about 11, felt like I had the word fathered over it because Paul is fathering the Corinthians. God is our Father. And and, the Bible, yes, says, don't call any man father. *Jesus* said that actually. But then, we're His body.
And so, He fathers us personally, and He fathers us through His body. And, we talked about that how how Paul was the spiritual father. Everything okay over there? Okay. Praise the Lord.
Alex, you alright? Okay. Alrighty. Real church. So anyway, the some of the conversations are like tough father to son, father daughter conversations that need to be had.
And, that's was what happened last week, and hopefully, you went away encouraged. If you're wondering or curious about what we talked about, go to our podcast. It's on our website. You can click podcast, and it'll Or, if you're on Spotify, just search Real Church Clearwater, or if you're on Apple, search Real Church Clearwater, or any of the other podcast apps, and and it'll it'll come up. It'd be good to to check out and listen to.
But, we're gonna we're gonna just "dive right in". 1 Corinthians-6. We're jamming over here. Praise the Lord. Got me head bobbing for Jesus.
Alright. *1 Corinthians-6. Let's just pray. Father*, we thank you for your goodness and your love, your peace, Lord God, your joy, *righteousness*. We thank you for the Holy Spirit.
We ask you to open up our hearts, God, that you would clarify these words in such a way that we walk away knowing you more together. Amen. Amen. I'll do it again. Everybody said, Amen.
Come on. *1 Corinthians-6:1* says, if any of you has a dispute with 1 another. Wanna teach you something about the way that I study the Bible. And, I'm teaching you on purpose, so that you can go home, and as the Lord leads, do the exact same thing. Right?
You can There's many different ways to study the Bible, and I'm I'm gonna tell you, this is my favorite way to do it. And I do many, but this is my favorite way, and this is how I grow in my understanding of scripture. I read the Bible in relationship with the Holy Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit that's gonna open this up to me. He's gonna be the 1 that speaks and makes these words come alive in my life, so that I can live them out and follow him.
I can't do this word on my own by my own strength. I can't. I can struggle and try and and find this code of rules in the scripture, and and then end up failing over and over and over. But, because He's given me the Holy Spirit, as I read this in relationship with Him, not only does He speak this to me in such a way that matters on the inside, but he also empowers me by his grace to become what I've read, and to reflect the goodness of the 1 that I'm reading about. Jesus is the word, and this is pointing us to a deeper relationship with Him.
So, I read the word, I ask the Holy Spirit every time to illuminate His word, to open it up to me in such a way that I can hear Him clearly. And then, I read, I'm not just trying to read through a chapter in order to check it off my list that I I feel good that I read enough bible words today. I'm reading to hear, because faith comes by hearing. I'm reading to hear from God. And, I don't want to walk away from the Word until I've heard from Him.
So, when I read, and this is how this happened for me, like, I'm reading 1 Corinthians-6 in order to chew on what God's saying. And, I read, if any of you has a dispute with 1 another, and the word dispute popped out at me. And, I've learned, if something pops out, I have questions in my mind about it, or it's highlighted in my in my brain, or I just Man, let's let's look at that word dispute. I'll read it again. If any of you has a dispute with 1 another Okay.
What does the word dispute means? Now, if you don't know exactly what it means, you can generally define it, I would encourage you to pull up Google. Pull out your your smartphone, go to Safari, unless you are not an iPhone user, and we'll just pray that you're saved, in Jesus' name. Oh. Don't leave the church because of that.
We'll talk about how to have proper disputes with 1 another in the rest of the message. We can settle this. Alright. Dispute. All I do is is type in the search bar dispute and the definition comes up, a disagreement, argument or debate.
Okay? So, if anyone has a disagreement, argue or debate, argument or debate. And then, what I usually do is I read it in context. Okay? What is what is the Holy Spirit trying to say here?
Because, yes, Paul wrote this letter, but the Bible says, all *scripture* is inspired by God and useful for teaching and training in righteousness. Rebuking teaching, training, rebuking, and exhorting in righteousness. So, is inspired by God wrote this through Paul's pen. And, if the Holy Spirit wrote it, then it probably probably is in unity with other aspects of the scripture because the Holy Spirit wrote that too, even though it came through other people's pens. So then, if I wanna know a little bit more about dispute or arguments and disagreements before people, not only do I need to read this paragraph, but I also need to read what what does the rest of the Bible say about this?
Because maybe, just maybe, I won't understand everything God's trying to say from this passage unless I understand his heart when it comes to the matter of arguments between believers. And to understand his heart when it comes to the matter of arguments between believers, I probably need to see what else he said about it in the Bible. Amen? You ever read the Bible that way? Yeah.
If you haven't, hey, it's a good time to start. So you know what you do? You Google. I'm just Hell, I'm making it real for you in today's And, you Google, what does the Bible say about arguments? Or or you say, Google argue verse, or bible verse, or something like that.
Don't go to a commentary first. I'm a say it again. Don't go to a commentary first. Do you know why? It's another man's opinion.
Now, commentaries are good, but you have to know who it's coming from, and what angle they're coming from as well. Because there's always a perception they're coming from. And, if you're only trained by 1 person's perspective, you may believe the same lies they believe. So, you wanna go to scripture first. Always.
Now, I wanna hear what other people think because I wanna learn from them because there's some people that know Jesus a lot better than I do. But man, I wanna hear from scripture and the Holy Spirit first. So, Google argue. And I'll tell you what came to my mind in this is, if any of you has a dispute with 1 another Okay. So, wait.
And, another reason is like, you wanna use the Bible to interpret the Bible because you hear and understand what God thinks about disputes between believers and Christ. If it's not all there, it will be, or pieces of it will be in James, or pieces of it will be in Philippians, or pieces of it will be here. And, you put it all together, now you can understand why the Holy Spirit was saying what He was saying to the Corinthians in this moment. And then, you read the rest of the paragraph, and you're like, that makes so much more sense. That's how we study Scripture.
So, let's see what James says about arguments between believers. *James-4* says, what causes fights and quarrels among you? So, now, I'm about to understand what the purpose of the disputes or what caused the disputes between the Corinthians. What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you?
*James-4* verse 2, you desire but you do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. And, when you ask, you do not receive because you ask with the wrong motives that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don't you know that "friendship with the world" means enmity with God?
Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or, don't you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he caused to dwell in us? But He gives us more grace. That's why scripture says, God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble. Let me put it real simply.
Every argument that you have that you can't settle with someone else, it's because either you're being selfish, they're being selfish, or you're both being selfish. You desire something and you're not getting it. You want something and you're not getting it, or they want something and they're not getting. So it's Selfishness is the cause. Guess what?
Love is sacrificing yourself for the sake of another. Selfishness is sacrificing someone else for your sake. Love is sacrificing yourself for the sake of another. This is how we know what love is in 1 John-3 or 2. Jesus laid his life down for us.
Now, we're supposed to love others in the same way. So love, biblical love is sacrificing your life for someone else's sake in obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Selfishness is sacrificing them for your sake. There is no biblical precedence ever for selfishness. None.
0. Zilch. Now, there is another reason that you could be in dispute with 1 another and it not technically technically be selfishness. It would be if me and Courtney are talking. Courtney, baby, would you stand up?
This this actually happened a little bit this morning. Ella, baptism. Communicate transparently. Right? We're growing.
Either either she's being selfish, I'm being selfish, or both, probably me. Bonus points. Right? Okay. Or or it could be that we're both right.
But, I'm not loving her enough to be patient and listen. And, instead, I'm assuming the worst about what she's saying. And if that's the case, then we could both be right, but think that the other's wrong, and still have a dispute. Or, it could be that she's right, but I don't think she's heard me. And so, don't think that she's valuing what I'm saying and I'm assuming that she doesn't know what I'm really saying.
So, there would be insecurity, which is pride too, which is selfishness. Because a lack of patience to listen with the heart of Christ is poor communication. Communication is partly what you say and doubly what you hear. And, learning to listen with the heart of Christ is patience, is love, which is a lack of selfishness. So, it's all selfishness.
So, every argument or dispute you have with anybody as a believer that cannot be settled or is not settled appropriately is because of selfishness. So, is no biblical precedence for disputing and arguing between believers long term? None. Let me prove it. You did great, baby.
She's beautiful, isn't she? She's thank you, Jesus. Remember, this is all background for *1 Corinthians-6:1*. If you have any dispute with 1 another, what So right now, we know there's no biblical reason that we should actually continue in any dispute with 1 another, but it should be settled and handled like Christian adults in the way of Jesus. Well, what does that look like?
Well, Philippians-2. "Watch this". This is beautiful. Therefore, come on church, therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any compassion sharing in the Spirit, capital s, that's Holy Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like minded. Say, like minded.
Like minded. Having the same love, being 1 in spirit, and of 1 mind. Now, wait a second. Let's think about this for a second. You were born again.
You don't know Jesus if you haven't been born again. The Bible says, no 1 can enter the kingdom of heaven unless you've been born again. There are some people that don't know what born again means, but they've been born again. Born again simply means, you believe Jesus died and rose again, and you've confessed Him as your Lord. Meaning, you're living for Him instead of for you.
Man, if that's the case, you've been born again, which means the Holy Spirit, born of spirit, the Holy Spirit has been put inside of you, so you can know the mind of the Father, so that you can communicate and have a relationship with the God of the universe, as you are created to, which is beautiful. Amen? Amen. Now, if you have the Holy Spirit in you, and that is communicating the mind of the Father to you, and you're surrendered to his Lordship and following him, and I have the Holy Spirit in me, and that's communicating the mind of the Father to me, and I'm surrendering to Jesus' word and following him, then won't we be perfectly unified? So to the extent that we're not perfectly unified, either 1 of us is out of step with the Holy Spirit, both of us is out of step with the Holy Spirit, or we're not loving 1 another enough to listen to each other.
Watch this. So this is with disputes, the reason is selfishness. Here's how we handle it. Philippians-2:3. Do nothing.
Everybody say nothing. Nothing. There is no biblical precedent for any selfishness. Watch this. Do no thing out of **selfish ambition** or vain conceit.
**vain conceit** would be, I'm doing this to make myself look good or look better than I am, instead of humble confidence in who he says that I am. Nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, rather, in humility, value others above yourself, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of others. The Bible Bible says what we're talking about honor today. Honor. Honor.
What is honor? Valuing others. Like, to value others is to honor. Like, if I honor you, I'm gonna give weight to what you say. And this says, I'm supposed to honor you above myself.
As a matter of fact, the only thing that we're supposed to be competitive with each other in is how well we honor 1 another. In Romans, Paul said that we're supposed to "outdo 1 another" in showing honor. What would it look like in your marriage if you and your wife outdid 1 another in showing honor? You competed with how well you valued the other person above yourself? And, when they said something, you're like I mean, you just gave value to it.
And then, you said something, they gave and you're like, man, you valued me better than I valued you. Let me value you better. Can you imagine how amazing that marriage would be, that friendship would be, that father son relationship would be, The church would be? Instead, it's selfish ambition. I'm getting mine.
I want my place. You promote me for my gifts, so I can do this. That's junk. Get out of here. Amen?
I don't know what that was. That was the thunder of the Lord. Alright. Verse 5. In your relationships with 1 another it goes even further, guys.
Watch this. In your relationships with 1 another, have the same **mindset as Christ Jesus**. We are commanded by God to have the mindset of Jesus in our relationships with each other. And then, it gives an example, who, being in the very nature of God, did not just consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking on the very nature of a servant and being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death even on a cross. What does that look like in our relationships practically? Heidi, would you come here 1 more time? Well, I don't have my shoes on this time. That's okay.
You can you can stand right here. Okay. Who being I'm I'm in Jesus, who being in the very nature of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but that's supposed to be an example of my relationship with everyone here. So we're both humans. So, I'm in the very nature of Heidi, but I'm not supposed to consider equality with Heidi something to be grasped.
I'm not supposed to say, man, I'm just as good as Heidi. I need to prove it. Instead, I'm supposed to take on the very **nature of a servant** to "wash her feet" with my words and my actions to honor her above myself because that's biblical relationships. Becoming obedient even to the point of death to my heavenly Father and how I do it. That's having the same mindset as that of Christ Jesus.
Ain't that awesome? Thank you, miss Heidi. Now, we can continue. *1 Corinthians-6*. If anyone of you has a dispute with 1 another, we understand biblically why disputes with 1 another are never okay, which allows us, now that we've heard, it allows us in dispute with 1 another to to hear the Holy Spirit better when he says, hey, you're being selfish.
Stop that. That's not who you are. You're the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. You've seen how I loved you, so so lay down your life to love this person well in truth. Yeah.
You can better see it, can't you? Now that you heard so you can hear him more clearly. And, we we know what it looks like to do it in a positive way from Philippians-2. So, if any of you has a dispute with 1 another, Paul says, do you dare he's talking to the Corinthians. Do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord's people?
Like and that word dare, it's it's used in the original, like, emphatically. Like, this is a I I cannot even believe that in your arguments with 1 another, you're taking it for people who don't have the Holy Spirit and the wisdom of the Creator of the universe inside of them to judge between who's right and who's wrong? Are you serious? That's that's the the way that he's speaking about this. Verse 2, or do you not know that the Lord's people will judge the world?
We'll talk about it. And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? We'll talk about it. How much more the things of this life?
Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, do you ask for a ruling from those whose way of life is scorned in the church? I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? But instead, 1 brother takes another to court and in front of unbelievers? What?
You know why? Because our unity is supposed to bring unbelievers to Jesus. *John-17*, Jesus prayed, Father, make them 1 as we are 1 so that the world would know that you sent me. That means, unity causes the world is the best way of causing the world to know that Jesus loved it. So, the Father loved it so much, He sent His 1 and only Son that whoever would believe would not perish, but have eternal life.
So, unity in the body of Christ is the most effective form of evangelism according to Jesus' prayer, which would mean disunity would be Satan's most effective weapon to prevent the world from knowing Jesus. That's why Paul's so hard on disputes between unbelievers. And, the bible talks about unity and what's it look like having the same mindset of Christ in all of our relationships. It's vital. What's the answer?
The answer is, if you're in the flesh and they're in the flesh, and you don't know who's in the flesh, meaning, you don't know who's being selfish, like real practically, well then, go to another believer who's a little more mature in Christ than you and ask them. And if you can't get go to the elders of the church. Now, I just really wanna tell you, does that mean that I'm always gonna be right because I'm the pastor? No. Me and Courtney were having a talk like this, and I wasn't listening to all that she was saying because I was making assumptions this morning about what she was saying.
And I had to apologize. Did I apologize? I'm sorry, baby, if I didn't apologize. Oh, no. No.
I remember now. Same thing to you. Okay. So, we both apologized. We're good.
What I'm saying is, if we get it wrong, like, and if your beef's with me, let's go to another l other elders. Right? Let's go to other things. Don't just run off in offense because "offense gives ground" for the devil. The Bible says that if you don't forgive somebody, I won't forgive you.
That's craziness. And, offense gives ground for the enemy to cut and attack your life and rip you to shreds. You will lack peace. So, whoever you're offended at, you need to let it go and forgive and walk forward in Christ, whether it's an ex husband, an ex wife, kids, parents, friends, doesn't matter. It's not forgiving, it's not saying what they did was okay, but it's letting it go and letting Jesus so that you can love them appropriately.
Not forgiving will prevent you from walking out with calling that God has for you in every way. And, that will be a stronghold in your life that the enemy attacks every other area of your life and cuts up, and eventually causes death, physically and spiritually. So, *Jesus* loves you. He forgives you. Amen.
Yes. When you see that, you'll walk in forgiveness. When you don't see that, you won't walk in forgiveness. I'm gonna be 5 minutes late. Alright.
We we had that little piece about, and if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? So, like Paul said, do you not know that the Lord's people will judge the world? And, I just wanna talk about that, so there's no confusion there. And then, he says, do you not know that you're gonna judge angels? Where does that come from?
What's going on? Why would Paul even reference that in this argument? You need to understand because it's vital for the way that you see the world and the way that you live for Jesus. So first, what is he talking about? The Lord's people will judge the world.
What? Let's go John chapter, and we'll just hit these verses real quick. You can go back to the podcast, check it out, and then study it on your own. But, in John-5:22, it says, moreover, the Father judges no 1, but has entrusted all Everybody say, all. All judgment to the Son.
That's Jesus, capital s, Son, Jesus. Skip down verse 26 and 27 of John-5. For as the Father has life in Himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. Just just so you know, principles of the kingdom leadership is you'll do the same things I do and even greater. The Father did that with the Son.
Now, the Son does that with believers. Now, we should lead in that exact same way. Never holding people back, but always, you'll do the same things I do and even greater. Watch. Verse 27, and he has given him, the Father has given the Son, authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.
That's Jesus. Now, watch this. Revelation-3, just showing you, giving you a little biblical context for what Paul's saying here, so you can understand. Verse 21, it says, to the 1 who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. Now, I said that like that for a reason because I wanted to highlight that part.
*Jesus* was victorious when He finished the task that God gave Him to do. The Father exalted Him, gave Him authority over heaven and earth, and had Him sit down with Him on His throne. It's pretty awesome. Now, read the part before that. To the 1 who is victorious, that's the believer, who is victorious, meaning, we don't shrink back in fear and show that we never believed really, and it was all about us.
Instead, we stand till the end. Right? And, if we fall back, and it looks like we're falling back, we run back and stand, and end up finishing well. Okay? To the 1 who's victorious, I will give the right to sit with me, Jesus, on his throne.
That's crazy. What? Remember the great commission? All authority on heaven and earth has been given to me, therefore, go. What does he do?
He delegates his authority to the believers. And, in the in the the time to come, that's what he does. That's amazing. It's not we're ruling because we earned it. We're ruling and reigning with him in his kingdom that he earned by his authority, but because he's so generous and such an amazing leader, he says, come, share in this and do.
Wow. That's what we have we can look forward to. How cool is that? Just to to drive it home, because it's not just New Testament. Daniel-7:27, then the *sovereignty* Well, I'll read 22 2, until the ancient of days came and pronounced judgment in favor of the holy people of the Most High, and the time came when they possessed the kingdom.
Verse 27, then the sovereignty, power, and greatness of all the kingdoms under heaven will be handed over to the holy people, that's us, guys, of the Most High. His kingdom, Jesus' kingdom, will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey Him. His kingdom, we're His body, we get to rule and reign under His authority and His sovereignty with Him. Amen. How cool is that?
That's that's the end of the matter, which is awesome. So, that's what we have to look forward to. In *1 Corinthians-6*, it also says, 3, do you not know that we will judge angels? What is it talking about there? Well, there's not really many other verses that talk about us judging angels to look at.
So, I have to read it then in context of the first 1, which probably, it's Jesus' right to judge angel angels because he's such a great leader. You do the same things I do and even greater, he's going to allow us to operate in that authority too. That's the best I got. But, that's what we have to look forward to. Now, watch this.
Why did Paul go there in talking about us having the wisdom to judge between disputes in the church? Here's why. Because, I think our church has done a good a good job at showing, if you've been here for any amount of time, showing that we can experience the goodness of the kingdom of heaven now. That as we follow him in lordship, like, and we're His Son, He credits His righteousness to us. His kingdom is a kingdom of righteousness, joy, and peace, and we get to walk in that now.
That *eternal* life, knowing God starts now, and we experience the victory of that. I mean, in in the Bible, it says, anybody who gives up father and mother, sons and daughters, lands and houses, and other things, will receive that and much more in this life and in the 1 to come. Like, there is blessing in following Jesus. Yes, you're going to suffer. In this world, you will have trouble and trial and tribulation, but there is joy now in following Him as well.
Right? So, I I think, you know, there's been a major focus on you understanding the benefits of following Him and walking with Him now, and that is vital. And, I did that on purpose because a lot of people just believe in the sweet buy and buy, but don't really believe that it matters for them now. But now, the other is important too. Maybe even more important.
Okay. Let me show you. Having a what I mean is having an eternal perspective and living from the perspective of eternity. If they would have had an eternal perspective, they wouldn't have been having these problems. 80 years in the in the let's say you live 80 years.
Let's let's pretend that that meant eternity. If you What that would mean is, like, what you do in your life today matters for eternity. Okay? So, if 80 years was eternity, then the next 8 minutes of your life, what you did in those 8 minutes mattered for the rest of those 80 years. And, if you knew that, wouldn't you live intentionally every second of those 8 minutes?
Like, you wouldn't waste any time being selfish. You would follow him with every aspect of your life because those 80 years all depend on those 8 minutes. *1 John-3*. This You gotta get this 1. If you haven't been leaning in for anything, lean in now.
Verse 1, see what great love the Father has lavished on us, like poured abundantly more than we need to walk this thing out, more than we deserve, more than than we can imagine. He's he's abundantly poured out his love on us. Receive it, and believe it, and walk in it. God loves you so much that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are. Amen.
The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God now because you've been born again. If you haven't been born again, you can become a child of God. You're not yet. God loves you, and he's drawing you to him by Jesus, and that's why you're here today, to come to know Him.
And, it's time to enter into relationship with Him. We'll talk more about that in a second. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and that is what we've and what we will be has not yet been made known. Watch this. But, we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him.
When Christ appears, we're gonna be like Him. Why? For we shall "see Him as He is". All who have this hope that we're gonna be like Him and because we see Him as He is. All who have that hope in Christ purify themselves.
Wait. What? *Purify* themselves just as *Jesus*, He is pure. Hold on. Let me let me explain this practically, so that we can understand this in the context of everything.
Let's imagine that you're 8 years old again, and you know in the depths of your heart that you're destined to be the goat of basketball. 1 day, you will be the next Michael Jordan. For those LeBron James fans out there, I'm sorry. You need to be saved too. But, I love you.
Amen. In the Lord. 1 day, as an 8 year old, you know you're gonna be the next Michael Jordan. Like, you know it in the depths of your soul. And so, for the next 20 years, you spend all time doing what?
Now, if you spend all your time playing ping pong, do you think you really believed that? Or was it just a pipe dream and a wish? You didn't really believe it. You just said, maybe once in a sweet bye and bye, that's what I'll be. But, I'm gonna spend all my time playing ping pong.
You'll show that you really didn't believe what was true about you. But, if you believe it, then you will spend every waking moment studying Michael Jordan, learning to dribble, learning to do the crossover, learning to do the jump fade away that he does. Every single moment, and you will stink at the beginning. And, you'll get better and better, little at a time. And, not only that, Remember, put this in the context of, but, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
The more that we see him as he he is, the more we'll like him. Yes. Okay. Watch this. With Michael Jordan, as an 8 year old, I don't really understand everything he's doing.
I don't understand how he's shifting his weight in order to make the the crossover work in the way that it does. I don't understand how he's pivoting in such a way in order to have the fade away, and and the way that he's jumping and moving, and the way that he's looking the opposite way when he's passing certain passes. I don't understand all those things. I can't see it, so I can't replicate it. But, the more that I study Michael Jordan, I see a little thing differently.
Oh, I didn't realize he did that. But, now that I see that he did that, I can replicate it and put it in my life. Oh, now that I see that he spins on his on his jump shot, and that way, now I can replicate it. Oh, now that I see he's not shooting on the way down, he's shooting almost all the way at the top, but on the way up, and that's how he gets so much force to shoot from so far back. Now that I see that, I can replicate it.
In the same way, as you keep your eyes on Jesus, and focus on Him, and live for Him moment by moment, knowing that you have a hope that 1 day you're gonna be like Him. When you see a little, a different aspect of who he is, you can replicate it in your life. *Purify* yourself just as he is impure, but not by your own strength. Only the person who has the natural ability will be able to be like Mike. But, you gotta have some kind of a base level of naturability along with all that practice.
A lot of people just discount themselves. Well, I don't have any baseline natural ability to be holy like Jesus. You're right. You don't until you're born again. And then, you have a baseline supernatural ability called the Holy Spirit, who's gonna empower you to be like Jesus, and he's gonna be the 1 that shows you the little details of what he's like.
And when he shows it to you, and you see it, that means he wants to empower you to do it. You just gotta have the have the faith to walk in the grace that he's given you to live it out. Yes. Yeah. "So good".
Ain't that good? Yes. So good. Come on. And fun.
So that's why in 1 Corinthians-6, and we're done. I'm done, almost. Whereas Paul gives them an internal perspective. Man, if you're so focused on Christ, and growing in what the Holy Spirit is telling you, and how to live for Him, well, then you would have a baseline wisdom to judge between saints that are having arguments. And for the most part, you wouldn't even be in an argument.
The fact that you're in an argument and going to judges means you've already been defeated. Meaning, you're so focused on yourself and what the enemy has put before you that you're not even living close to like Jesus. And maybe it's because you've had such a temporal perspective. You've been focused on what you can get today, and how you can be happy, and joyful, and peaceful today, instead of having an eternal perspective, the hope that, man, I'm gonna be like Jesus 1 day, so I'm gonna make every moment matter now to follow him with everything I have. That's Christianity, guys.
That's who we are. And, that's all I have. So, we're gonna do this. We're gonna end by giving you the opportunity for those of you that need to, to be born again. We're gonna end by giving you the opportunity for those of you that you need to, to repent for selfishness.
Bible says, if you can't get over something, confess your faults to 1 another and pray for each other so you can be healed. Guess what? We're have the elders and leaders come up to the front, so you can come forward if you need to, if you have a stronghold in your life that you need freedom from. Maybe the opportunity to pray for healing. If you got sickness in your body, healing goes along with the gospel.
And that thought that said, no, it doesn't, that's a lie. Get it out of there. It does. Jesus paid for you to be free physically, emotionally, and spiritually. And, we believe it enough to pray for it and stand and trust him in the process.
And, we've seen it over and over and over. Seizures healed, cancer's healed, and little things like headaches and ankles. He cares about the details of you. 1, to to show the gospel, but 2, just because he loves you and he wants to lavish his love on you. Specifically, as I was preaching, I had heat in my left ear.
"Word of knowledge" is is basically God confronting something in somebody's life because he Jesus confronting something because he wants to heal it and we get to participate in that. You don't have to raise your hand right now. Actually, if you'd be radically bold. Is there somebody that has problems deaf? Left ear.
Good. Anybody else? Pain, issues, deafness, earaches, left ear? Anybody? Okay.
Well, we wanna pray for you. Jesus is gonna heal you today. So I want I have heat too. In the same spot? No.
I just had heat. God's rod wants to heal somebody with heat. Okay. God God wants to heal somebody today. With heat?
What do mean by Yeah. Well, I was I was actually thinking about Kelly. Yeah. Kelly, you need to come up here again. I need to put my hand on top of your head.
Yeah. Because he wants me to put my hand on top of your head. Your neck will be healed with heat. There she is. Alright.
Praise the Lord. Let's let's stand up. Let's stand. Hey, let's ask this. If you need Jesus and you know you need Jesus today, you've never had encountered a relationship with him and you want 1, I want you to come forward to be prayed.
Don't leave out of here as the Lord is is working on your heart. If you're If you say, hey, that's me. I know I need a relationship with Jesus. Is there anybody in here that would raise their hand and say that? I see it.
Praise the Lord. Don't don't Make sure to come forward when we dismiss. Okay? We wanna lead you into a relationship with Jesus. Anybody else who would who would confess?
I see your hand. Okay. There there's 2. Praise the Lord. Don't leave.
Come forward. We wanna lead you into a relationship.