Ccf Sunday Messages

We will now wrap up 1st Corinthians 14, and in doing so we will finish the section on spiritual gifts that began with chapter 12. Sure, they were a gifted church, but with all of the giftedness came some real problems, wrong attitudes, and misunderstandings that Paul has had to correct. Many of the same things that were problems for them, we find to be problems that still exist in places in the church today! They overemphasized speaking in tongues and their church gatherings were very self-centered and self-promoting. This last section gives us real insight into what “church” was like in the first century. It seems there was lots of participation by the people of the church without all of the attention being on one main speaker. While we have inherited a “pastor-centric” church system with little expectation of the average person participating in the gathering, their experience was clearly different! We have to work hard to get people to participate, while Paul had to pu

1st Corinthians chapter 14 moves us to the other side of the discussion on spiritual gifts and ministry in the church. The creamy “oreo” center was chapter 13 — the Love Chapter — and Paul lets them, and us, know that love must be the grand pursuit of our lives! Now we know that LOVE is superior to GIFTS, but…of all the gifts of the Spirit, which is most important and why? Miracles? Healings? The Corinthians put an over-emphasis on one very outward and obvious experience: speaking in an unknown language. Don’t worry, I will explain more tomorrow. Paul shows them why their focus is misplaced and where it should be. There are two words that dominate the section: understanding and edification (building up). What we learn from the discussion between Paul and the Corinthian church is that our church participation is not intended to be merely an independent emotional rush. It is much more important that we understand the things being said and what is b

We’re spending this Sunday looking at the second half of 1st Corinthians chapter 13: the Love Chapter. We are looking at, what I would call, the “purest love”. The love of God never has mixed motives and is never corrupted by sin or selfishness. We get glimpses of it, but in our fallen and selfish human state it is very hard to comprehend and live! Have you ever heard, or said, the words “I don’t love you anymore.” Those are painful words of rejection. But in this next section, we learn about a love that never says that. Never! We live in the days of poorly made products that are meant to break. We have a throw away society where we don’t expect things to last. They break about two weeks after the warranty expires. “Love” in our day seems to have the same quality. But Paul says: “Love never fails.” Now you might say, “I tried to love my spouse or my friend and they still left me or rejected me.

This week’s passage, 1st Corinthians chapter 13, is arguably the most important passage in the New Testament! Affectionately known as “the Love Chapter”, we get a challenging picture of the kind of love that comes from God, and is expressed by God. Could there be anything more important in our lives than love? Everyone agrees we need more of it, but maybe we have different definitions of what it really is. And why is it so hard to do?? Love is the nature of God, the primary characteristic of a Spirit-filled life, and the way people know we are Christians. Even Jesus and the apostle Paul simplify the commandments of God into an expression of love. With that being the case we will take our time in this chapter, spending the next few weeks unpacking this important message. “But pastor,” you might ask, “what is a passage on love doing in the middle of passages about the spiritual gifts?” Great question! For all of you that have been exposed to

We spent the first message in our 1st Corinthians 12 study discussing spiritual gifts. Now Paul will give us a framework to understand how spiritual gifts work in a practical way and in real life. The ultimate truth he is conveying to the church is that the gifts are not given to make the recipient superior, but rather to make them useful. The gifts are not for their enjoyment or boasting, but for their contribution to caring for others, using the very gifts God has given them! The picture? A human body! You are—we are—the most complex machine that exists on the face of the earth. Who could possibly estimate how many functioning parts our bodies have and how many unique functions are performed on a moment by moment basis. Think of that extrapolated out to our entire lifetime! We are, in fact, a “complex unity.” Our bodies have 600+ muscles, 206 bones, 600,000 miles of circulation, and 12 systems that all cooperate when the body is healthy. In any given moment,

Are you “charismatic”? I am not speaking in terms of a personality that is smooth and personable and influential—what we would call “charisma”. I am speaking in the spiritual sense! You might answer by saying, “No, I am a Baptist…or Methodist…or Catholic.” Some might even have a negative response to the idea of a “charismatic church”. The picture in your mind of a charismatic church might be one of weirdness and discomfort. It involves things like “speaking in tongues” and raising your hands—things that freak people out and make them uncomfortable! In chapters 12-14, Paul opens a new discussion regarding the “gifts of the Spirit.” The Corinthian church was a “charismatic church” for sure! How do I know? Well, the word “charismatic” is a direct translation of the Greek word for “gift”: charis. Casting off the denominational label of 

This Sunday we continue in 1st Corinthians chapter 11, picking up in verse 17 and going through the end of the chapter. Communion? Eucharist? Lord’s Supper? Some of you might be so new to Christianity that you have no idea what these words mean. Others are very familiar with the practice in some form or another. If you come to CCF from a Catholic or more formal church background, the way you participated in the Lord’s Supper might be much different than if you come from a Baptist background. At CCF we have the little plastic cups and little morsels of Matzah while others have a common chalice and priestly officiants! Is there a right way or a wrong way? Let’s have a moment of honesty: have you ever felt like you were just going through the motions of a ritual? You know it should be meaningful but it doesn’t feel meaningful. Everyone takes the elements and the priest or pastor says the right words in the right order and we eat the dry cracker and drink the litt

With the snow gone and as we gather back again on a Sunday, we return to our study of 1st Corinthians, picking up in chapter 11. This is the famous — or infamous — passage that addresses the way men and women dress during for the church gatherings. Does God have a dress code? Is there a “right way” for men and women to come before the Lord? The passage also speaks to male and female differences and even role differences. Is the Bible is patriarchal book that belittles women and favors men? Are women second class citizens in God’s eyes? Should women wear a veil on their heads? Why or why not? We will make our way diligently through this passage, mining out what is cultural and what is eternal. Our God is a God of order and not chaos! Aren’t you thankful for that! Listen in as we explore this very interesting passage in 1st Corinthians.

Who has church on a Saturday!? Well, when an impending snow storm is definitely going to make meeting on Sunday impossible, sometimes it makes sense to gather on Saturday! On January 12th, Pastor Steve and the leaders had a special service that turned out to be a great time of worshipping together and digging into God's Word! Listen in as Pastor Steve steps out of 1st Corinthians for this special service and gives an important teaching from Ephesians chapter three.

Continuing in 1st Corinthians chapter 10, Paul is now wrapping up a discussion about our favorite topic — food! This discussion began in chapter 8 and now, three whole chapters have been taken up with answering a question about food. The question seemed simple enough but a well-crafted answer was required, better than a simple “yes” or “no” answer. Paul has heaped reason upon reason for his advice, including warnings of danger and encouragement toward love and care for each other. But now Paul adds a surprising final element to the discussion of enjoying meals at the idol’s temple. Before I tell you what that element is, we have to agree on something. Agree on what? That meals are about more than just getting food into our body so we can keep working! Unfortunately in our culture that places a higher value on productivity than relationship, meals have morphed to reflect this ideal. How long do you take for lunch? Do you even take lunch? Have you

As we set our hearts and minds on a new year starting in just a few days, and possibly resolve to work off the extra poundage we have gained over the last week, 1st Corinthians 10 is a perfect passage for the occasion. How so, you might ask? Maybe you know that the month of January derives its name from the mythological god Janus. This was the “two-faced” god, with one face looking back at the past and one face looking ahead to the future. Well, that is what Paul does in chapter 10 — he looks back to look ahead. Having spoken to the church about the challenges of freedom and the need for discipline and the reality of disqualification, Paul takes them on a journey into the past. This journey is useful because God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We might be entering into a new year, but God is the same. He never ages, never gets tired, and never randomly acts on emotional whims. His unchanging nature makes Him predictable. If He did it in the past, He will d

In 1 Corinthians chapter 9, Paul is on the defensive with the unreasonable, stubborn, and proud Corinthians! Paul has just challenged them that love is more important than knowledge, and that more knowledge leads to a greater and more Godly love. It seems that they have challenged Paul and his authority to even tell them what to do! Now Paul takes a whole chapter to show them that he is not asking them to do something he is not willing to do himself. But first, he establishes certain rights he has as an apostle, and that he is (in fact) an apostle. Then he shows them how he has given up his rights. With nineteen rhetorical questions and an amazing array of support from the Old Testament and from common sense, Paul argues for his rights. But in an interesting turn of discussion, he argues for his rights so that he can demonstrate his willingness to give them up and not so he can enforce them. In the midst of the chapter, we have a great encouragement for evangelism and a great

As we enter 1st Corinthians chapter 8, Paul is trying his best to get the Corinthians on the same page about a variety of issues from resurrection to spiritual gifts! In the past few weeks we have hammered out chapter 7 (via a mini-study we titled "Questions about Marriage"). Now we come to a new section and another conflicting issue for those Corinthians believers. The next few chapters begin with a discussion of “meat sacrificed to idols”. While this was a big issue for the Corinthians, I am certain it is not for us! I can’t imagine that, before sitting down for Thanksgiving turkey, any of you asked your host, “Hey, where did you get this meat? Was this sacrificed to an idol?” Have you ever felt weird about going out for Indian food — all of the statues and pictures of Hindu gods? (Especially the weird elephant-looking one, Ganesh to be exact). Probably not! OK, so their specific issue was a little different than what we face today. But, while

As the final installment in our "miniseries" on marriage, we complete 1st Corinthians chapter seven, with Paul's answers to the Corinthian's questions about marriage. Next week chapter eight picks up with a new question and a new topic. The last section of this chapter has some difficulties. The difficulties exist because Paul is addressing some very specific questions they had and we don’t know the questions! It’s like Corinthian Jeopardy — we have the answers but have to guess at the questions. Another challenge is that we don’t fully understand the context — what was happening in Corinth at the time. In fact, Paul refers to a “present distress” and we can only guess as to what that distress might have been. But despite that, Paul's answers are based on some sound and insightful principles and truths that are clear and relevant to us today! Paul has addressed two married believers, a believer married to an unbeliever, widows,

Continuing in First Corinthians chapter seven, we continue into the section from verse 10 through 24. In this section Paul will discuss marriage, separation, and divorce. His statements are simple and clear and so important to us today! What if I told you that there is one area of focus and attention that, if improved, would positively affect national and state levels of crime, economic prosperity, and poverty related issues? What if I told you that addressing this area would even take a burden off the need for more and greater government involvement in social life? Well, there is such a thing, and the answer is not gun control or immigration, education, minimum wage, or healthcare! It is the health and stability of the family unit! This topic is very well documented and the verdict is clear: healthy families make healthy societies. Divorce related issues plague us and influence our world in ways many do not understand. Divorce has social, emotional, economic, and even governmental impac

A large part of 1st Corinthians includes the Apostle Paul’s responses to questions--or disagreements--they had about certain topics including spiritual gifts and offerings to idols. They were trying to sort out what it looked like to live the Christian life in Corinth in the first century and surrounded by Corinthian culture!  If we had access to Paul today, what we would ask for clarity about? As we start chapter seven, we see Paul begin to respond to some hot issues that were on the minds of the Corinthian church. There are some hot button issues related to sexuality and marriage that the Church and our current culture really differ on. And guess what: issues of sexuality were "hot button items" for the Corinthians too! Opening this chapter, Paul begins chipping away at the questions they had written to him about, and it appears that discussions of marriage and divorce and sex and remarriage were important topics for the christians living in Corinth.   These first nine

How do you view the body? Well, that's a weird question, isn't it? In the second half of 1st Corinthians chapter six, Paul has to deal with some challenging topics, and he wants the Corinthians to know it isn't just about the surface layer of actions (sexual immorality), but really has to do with the core issue of how we view our bodies. Are they for us or are they for the Lord? As you might expect, Corinthian culture and norms are not that different from the world we are facing today in America. Views on morality have swung far away from a God-centric worldview to a hedonistic worldview: "my body is mine and I can do with it whatever I want!" The Corinthians had that same view and Paul starts this section by quoting it: "All things are permissible [lawful] for me!" but that doesn't mean all things are beneficial. As Pastor Steve deals with this difficult and challenging topic of sexual sin, our bodies, and how we are to live in a permissive culture, listen in and be challenged to think

This week we open our Bibles to 1 Corinthians 6:1-11 and--oh my--what a practical and challenging passage written to an immature and problematic people! Chapter five challenged the church's pride and unwillingness to respond to public and flagrant sexual sin. Now, there’s another black eye on the face of this church. What was it?  They couldn’t resolve conflicts--so they took each other to Corinthian court to let them decide in the case involving God’s children! Paul is beside himself about this. How does this apply to us? Every so often I get a call. “Pastor, we need some work done on our house and we’d like to give the work to Christian.  Can you recommend someone?”  I have come to realize that Satan loves when God’s people get into business deals together! It is almost predictable; the call comes some time later about how they didn’t get paid or the other person cheated them, the work was shoddy, exp

This week as we enter the fifth chapter of 1st Corinthians, Paul has a difficult topic to handle with the immature Corinthian church: discipline in the body. The issue is blatant and unrepentant sexual sin, and the response of the church has been to boast at their openness and grace to this troubling issue, that isn't even acceptable "among the Gentiles," Paul tells them. Paul speaks with authority and conviction at the need to deal with this cancer--this leaven--within the body before it spreads everywhere and brings death and ruin. Listen in as Pastor Steve shares from this serious chapter the important truths of proper and loving discipline in the body of Christ.

This week we will take a break from 1 Corinthians and step into Matthew’s gospel with a special look at the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant in chapter 18.  Unless you live under a rock, you are at least exposed to the news in some small form or another. You, as well as I, can see that we are living in a culture of divisiveness, polarization, guilt and punishment and judgement.  The prevailing attitude of the day can be summed up in phrases we hear, like: "I have been hurt/offended/violated. Someone else is to blame. We are angry. We won’t stand for it any more. They need to be punished. Justice needs to prevail…for me. You can’t get away with this!" That is where we are, and it appears it is only getting worse. Now, the age old response to our predicament is “Why can’t we all just get along?” The focus of today's message is that the reason we can't is that we are leaving a very important word out of all these conversations. This word may