Testimony Matters | 1 Corinthians 6:1-8

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

Daniel 7 · chapter mention

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?