One thing is certain living in this world, sooner or later life gets hard. No matter how hard we may try to avoid the troubles of this world, sooner or later those troubles will find us. So how do we respond when adversity hits? How should we live when life gets hard? The Teacher has some wisdom to offer us that we won’t find in the world. First, live in denial about your mortality. Second, embrace correction. Third don’t take the easy way out. Even in the difficult times God is in control and you can trust him.
As we approach the end of one year and beginning of a new year it can be overwhelming to think of all that change that has taken place. For some of us, the extent of change that has taken place over the course of our lifetime is staggering to consider and it’s easy to wonder if there is anything that doesn’t change? Is there anything that we can truly anchor ourselves to? The answer is yes, because even if everything around us changes we believe in and serve a God who is immutable, a God who does not change. The unchanging nature of God means that everything we have learned about God over the past 10 weeks provides us a firm foundation upon which we can build our lives. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.
Paul’s instruction for giving in this section provide some principles for our giving today. First ,giving should be a priority (on the first day of the week). Second, giving is for everyone, everyone should bring something. Third ought to be proportional. Although everyone can give something, depending on what God has blessed us with we may have much more to give than another. Finally, giving should be purposeful, we need to plan to give. Like all spiritual disciplines giving is very unlikely to happen by accident.
Sermon Notes:
There’s a lot going on in this passage, but the big picture concern of Paul is that when the church comes together for worship God is the focus. What seems to have been happening in Corinth was that many people were wanting to place themselves front and center, making themselves the stars of the show. When the church meets to worship God should get the glory, gifts should be used in the service of others and God’s people should be built up and strengthened in the faith.
Sermon Notes:
Most of us are so familiar with the golden rule we don’t consider how radically transformative it is. What would it truly look like for us to treat others in the way we wish others would treat us? How radically would that transform our homes, workplaces and churches? How on earth could anyone actually live this way?