THE CHURCH UNCENSORED

SERMON TRANSCRIPT
“Those Called Saints”
1 Corinthians 1:1-9
Rev. Dustin Largent
 
So, we're going through 1 Corinthians, and this is actually our first week actually in 1 Corinthians. Last week we looked at Acts chapter 18 and found out how this church actually came about. So, if you're interested in how this church came to exist, you can go online, go to centerisbiblechurch.com and you can click on sermons and it's right there.

You can listen to it, you can watch it, it's all there. But last week we introduced this church in Corinth and how it got started and this church was established right around 50 to 52 A.D. So that means that at the time that this church gets started, remember Jesus was crucified probably around 29 to 30 A.D. So, the church has only existed for what, 20 some years. I mean think about that in terms of 20 years ago, that's 2005, right? Imagine if the church started in 2005, like the whole religion started then.

That's a big deal, right? So, it's pretty recent and then Paul ends up establishing the church. He stays in Corinth after he plants it there for about three, about a year and a half, 18 months and then he ends up writing this letter because he hears through the grapevine that this church that he planted is a train wreck. It's like a dumpster fire. This church is like doing all kinds of stuff they shouldn't be doing.

They are, it's pretty bad. I mean the condition of the church, we like have kind of, at the end of our year, we try to establish, you know, what's the condition of the church, how are things going? If they had an annual meeting, they would just like burn the meeting minutes because they were, it was a bad, it was a bad, bad deal and they didn't even know it was bad. They are not what the church should look like. They're not a picture of Christ at all. And so, I even mentioned this last week, people will sometimes argue with me and say, you know, the church of Jesus Christ, we need to move more like the first century church. We need to be more like the church, the New Testament church. And I'm like, no, you don't want to be, what, like Corinth?

You don't want to be like Corinth. This church is a really not messed up church. So, we need to be very careful to not do what this church is doing and to learn from their mistakes. So, I'll just give you a couple of examples of some of the stuff we're going to cover that's really messed up stuff because Paul's going to deal with this. He says later in the book that this church, at least our worship services, do more harm than good. Like it'd be better if you weren't meeting.

If you just canceled your services because boy, you're causing lots of problems. For instance, there's all kinds of factions and divisions within this church. So, you've got like, you know, certain people that are in the church or that had been missionaries and you get a section of the people that say, oh, I'm a big Dustin fan. I'm a big follower of Dustin. And then there are some that said, no, whatever Jeff says, I'm all for Jeff. And so, and then some are like, well, we love Jesus. And then there's other people that are going off. And so, they're pitting against each other, right? They're teaming up and saying, well, we're like followers of this person and that. They're questioning this church is questioning the actual authority that Paul is even an apostle. Like, well, who do you think you are?

You think you're some kind of big shot? You're telling us what to do? You can't tell us what to do. You ain't a real apostle. You didn't follow around with Jesus and see the feeding of the 5000 and all that kind of stuff. You're not a real apostle.

There's a case of incest in this church and everybody seems to think it's fine. Like, really? Yeah. Yeah, that should be fun. We'll get to that later. Everybody can't wait for that service. They're not sure they're not exercising any church discipline at all. They're suing each other. Somebody didn't like somebody. So, Randy ends up suing Janice. You stole my chili recipe and now it goes to the courts. Right. Everybody's all mad about it. They're practicing sexual immorality that the world Corinth, the people in Corinth are blushing. Right. I mean, they're committing sin that the porn star is saying, dude, wow, that's rough. And these are people in the church.

They're hurting each other by saying, well, I have freedom to do this or that, but then it's causing damage. Like there are people that have left idol worship. And so, there are other people saying, well, I'm going to eat food sacrificed to idols right in front of you. And they're like, what in the world are you doing? They're abusing the Lord's supper. We took the Lord's supper. They're abusing it. Some people are having a big feast during the thing. Other people are going hungry. I mean, they're not doing communion right at all. Their worship is disorderly. People are standing up in the middle of the service and blabbing and talking and speaking in tongues. And it's just chaos in the service.

And he says, you're doing more harm than good. There's confusion and there's actually outright denial that Jesus even rose from the dead. And this is a church.

This is a church that is in your Bible. And you say, whatchu talkin’ ‘bout, Willis? Come on. How can that be? How can you have a church? I mean, given all these issues that make the church of Corinth more of a train wreck than a productive church, these first few verses we're going to read in 1 Corinthians, to me, they just strike me strange. They strike me strange. Let's throw it up on the screen. If you've got a Bible open up, 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 1, we'll dive right in. Consider what you just heard about what this church is like. Because you're like, man, are these people even Christian? How could they be Christians and act like that?  Right? They get kicked out of every denomination we have. Well, except, well, that's not true. Not anymore.

But they would have. Here's what it says, Paul called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. So, he's got to establish himself here that he's an apostle because they're challenging that. And our brother Sosthenes, who was a synagogue leader there, we've found that last week. He used to be the synagogue leader and then he went next door and now he's a Christian to the church of God in Corinth. So, he calls him a church. That right there is enough to make you wonder why do you even call them a church? But he goes on, he doubles down to those sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be saints. And now I'll tell you in the original language, it doesn't say called to be it says “called saints.” Called saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. And I look at this and I think to myself, what are you doing, Paul? Why aren't you going after these people?

Right? This is ridiculous. I mean, he just called them, first of all, he called them the church. Second of all, he called them sanctified in Christ. You think they deserve that? You think that's a name they should have got? He just called them saints. He just called them under Jesus' lordship. And the problem is that there seems to be, at least to me, there seems to be this disconnect. This disconnect between reality and what he's talking.

Just a reality between what he's saying and the reality on the ground. You say they're a church and I say, yeah, but they don't act like a church. And you say, he says they're saints. But you're approving of people that are okay with incest in your church. Like make that work. There's a disconnect. See that in your own life? You see in your own life that you say, I look at my life and I see what God says about me, but it doesn't match my life on the ground.

It doesn't match. I mean, I know God that you say I'm forgiven of my sin. And I know that you say that when I gave my life to you, that I'm white as snow and that I'm guiltless before you. But that doesn't match the reality on the ground because I'm going to leave this building and somebody's going to cut me off on the road. And all of a sudden, I'm going to hope that I don't die immediately because I have to ask for forgiveness. And Jesus is your Lord, but it sure doesn't look like Jesus is your Lord, right?  It doesn't look like he's calling the shots. So just like you, many of these people in Corinth are genuinely became Christians. Okay, these people, even though they're jacked up, they're a dumpster fire as a church.

They're doing more harm than good. They at some point, these people, when they met with Paul, they became a church. They really did genuinely give their life to Christ.

For most of us here, we would say that's the case. Yes, at some point, I realized I was a sinner. I realized that Jesus had paid the price to allow him to offer me grace and to say, I'll accept you in. And he washed me of my sins. I did that at one point. But then I'm looking at the reality on the ground, and it doesn't change that.

Look at this. The definition of a saint, look at verse 2, to those sanctified in Christ called to be saints. Any Catholics here? Recovering Catholics?  Any recovering Catholics? A couple? We've got one in the back, right? We've got a couple.  We've got a few of them. Yeah, raise that hand high, Kale. Yeah, so if you're, and it's not just Catholics believe this, when you ask somebody, what's a saint? If you were to go out on the street and say, what's a saint? Basically, what a saint is to most people is that's a person who at some point in their life, they were really, really holy.

Like a Mother Teresa or a Benedict or one of these people that was really holy. And they did really good things and then they died. And then after they died, they were so good that they got to sit like in the good seats with God. And so they're like sitting next to God and they're like, hey, God, I was really good when I was on earth. He's like, yeah, you were.

That's cool. And so, he's like, hey, so and so is praying to me. They're talking to me and they want to see if I can put in a good word for you.  You're like, all right, all right. Well, what do they want? Well, you know, they want a miracle over here. And so and so they say, all right, well, we'll do a miracle for them, but only because you're sitting next to me and you're a good cat. And so, God grants the miracle. And then the church says, yes, that person was a saint.

It's proof that that person was sitting next to God and is holy and is really a saint because we can verify the miracle is related to that specific person that we were praying to that saint. And they canonize it. That's not in the Bible anywhere. There's nothing in the Bible at all anywhere remotely close to that.

Look at this verse. It says to those called saints verse two, this is the definition of a saint to those sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be saints. So, who are the saints? Those that are sanctified in Christ Jesus. Those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Those people who have called on the name of Jesus Christ for their salvation have said, listen, I can't save myself. I'm calling on Jesus.  You say it's saved me by what you did. All of those people, every one of them according to scripture is a saint. You don't get to just call Mother Teresa a saint. As a matter of fact, I don't even know what Mother Teresa's faith was. If she didn't put her faith and trust in Jesus Christ, she's not a saint.

You can have the best person in the world that does all the best things and is doing all kinds of wonderful things for the world. And if they have not put their faith in Christ, if they have not called upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, they're not a saint. And so what Paul is doing is he's saying, you know, listen, you Corinthian people, you're a nightmare, you're a train wreck, you're a dumpster fire, but you've called upon the name of Jesus and therefore you're a saint. So a saint is anybody who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus for salvation. Because when you put your faith in Jesus, all your guilt from sin, all of your guilt for all of your sin is eliminated. It's all gone.
 
Now here's the big question as we get into this. Why is Paul calling the church? Why is he calling them the church? Why is he calling them sanctified? I mean, these people are a nightmare. Like if you were their pastor, would you be opening this way? Or would you say, you guys stink. You guys are evil. Why would you start with this? Why would you start just kind of, it sounds like kind of kissing their butt a little bit and saying, oh yeah, you're saints. Why would you start that way?

Here's why, because Paul is going to go after their behavior to correct them and they need to understand why the way they're living is unacceptable. She gets some little girl, maybe it's a Little Miss Flame contest. We'll just use Little Miss Flame, right? You get the girl and she's a nightmare before the Little Miss Flame contest. She's over there and she's acting a fool and taking her little dress and putting it over her head. And she's rolling around upside down and in the mud and on the monkey bars. And it's because she's a little girl. But then they crown her and they say, you are Little Miss Flame. And all of a sudden she's like, oh, well, I can't act like that. I can't be hanging upside down on the monkey bars. I can't be rolling around in the dirt because that's not the appropriate way to act when you're Little Miss Flame.

Right? And so, Paul is trying to explain to them, listen, I'm not just telling you to change. I need you to understand why you need to change because you're a saint and you're not acting like a saint. You are acting completely upside down of who you truly are.

And so, you need to get that, you need to understand that. This is what Paul's saying. The reason I'm going after your behavior and telling you to change is because you are saints. That's the reality of who you are. You aren't immoral pagans like you were before you came to Christ. You are holy, sanctified saints. The way you are living is not, it is incongruent with who you are in Christ.

You are holy because Christ is holy and because Christ makes us holy. And so, you start living like it. Start living like it. Now if you want to claim you're not saints anymore, if you don't want to be connected to Christ, then live however you want. But if you're going to call on the name of Christ and you're going to say you're a Christian, if you are going to, if you've called on the name of Jesus, that's the reality of who you are. And something's a little, ah, ah, ask you what the way you live in now.

And so, the first point if you got your notes is that your identity as a saint is the foundation for your life of holiness. Some of you wondered, why should I live any different? I became a Christian, why should I live different than I lived before?

I liked to do that stuff before and now why don't I just keep doing it? And I got a little fire insurance here and Jesus saves me so I'll live sinful here and then I'll go to heaven and then I'll live however I want there because I don't really know what's going on and I'll do that. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. When you were saved, you were transformed, you were changed completely. You were turned into a saint. And so being a saint means this, you have received God's grace. Let's look at verse four because we're going to talk about grace for a second. This may change the way you view being a Christian. Today I don't know how much you know about grace. I don't know how much you know about faith, but we're going to talk about this a little bit.

Verse four, it says, I give thanks to my God always for you. What? I give thanks to my God always for you, for these people. These people are whack. They're messed up and you're thanking God for them? You should be praying for them saying, man, God, please bring fire from the sky and burn those people away.

Right? No, because they're saints. He's praying for them. He is thankful for them because he knows that they are saved. He knows they are believers. He knows the potential of a believer.

He understands that. It says, I give thanks to my God always for you because, not because of you, but because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in Him in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you. So, what's grace?

Let's talk about this first thing. What is grace? Paul is thanking God that the Christians at Corinth have received grace. Grace is God being nice to you, God being kind to you, even when you don't deserve it. So, you think, well, I look at my life and I look at who I am and I say, do I deserve for God to be nice to me?

Well, not really. No, because I live my life. I mean, naturally, I live my life for me, not for him.

Disagree with him on stuff. I sin, I disobey Him, that's the way we're born, that's how we live, we come into this world, just want to live for ourself, and the way we want to live is opposite of what God wants us to do, do we deserve for God to say, I'm going to be nice to you and just save you, do we deserve that? Absolutely not, none of us deserve that, because there's no good people. So, grace is being kind to you when you don't deserve it, but when did they receive grace? This is the question, when did they receive the grace?

When did they get the grace? It says, verse six, even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you, so the moment you received God's grace, that's when they became saints. So the testimony about Christ was either told you by somebody, when we talk about the testimony of Christ, that could be a lot of things. When the testimony of Christ came to me, because first somebody told me about Jesus, I was asleep over, a friend came over, told me about Jesus, then I heard the testimony of Christ, cause I got a little booklet, a little track, and it had all the stuff about Christ in it. Maybe you were at church and you heard about Christ there, but you heard about Jesus, you heard about His grace, and what happened? It says the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you.

What does that mean? It means that you heard the word of God, and you affirmed it, you agreed with it, you said, that sounds right. Actually, it all makes sense, and now that that has happened, it is settled within me. It is settled, yes, it is settled in me that Jesus died for me, that I am without guilt because of what God did.

It is settled within me, it is confirmed within me. And it says even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed among you. And so, the proof that you've received His grace from God is the fact that you received the testimony and didn't say, ah, that's stupid, that it was confirmed in you, you believed it, it was settled, you were converted, you became a saint. And this grace, when we receive grace, when we receive God, it's just kind to us, and we know we didn't deserve it. And we receive and say, God, thank you for being kind, I'll take that gift of you being nice to me.

When we do that, it changes us. So, I'm gonna take a moment, and I wanna share some things that help you understand what grace is, and I've got them in your notes, and you can follow along. And I got these from John MacArthur, he's a late pastor who died not too long ago, but he gives a wonderful understanding of what grace is, and so here are a couple things. I can't, it can't be grace if you're still guilty.

That's the first one. It can't be grace if you're still guilty. So if you say in your heart, you say, yes, I receive the grace of God, but you still feel guilty? Like you still think you're guilty before God.

Some of you, that's the case. You're like, yes, I believe that I receive the grace of God, but I'm also scared to death that I might be guilty before God. Then you haven't received the grace of God. Because guilt cannot be in the same room with God's grace. When God offers you grace, that grace is about you no longer being guilty. You're saying, yes, I receive grace, I'm therefore not guilty. God's grace forgives you all your sins and holds you absolutely guiltless before God for the rest of your eternity. And so when we understand grace, the reason why people that get saved, all of a sudden they're transformed, is because they're recognizing the fact that they're no longer guilty before God.

That's a major transformation. I'm not living in fear of God. God is nice to me. He's not out to get me. He's not sitting there going, I can't wait for you to do something bad no longer. He's not doing that.

He is the one who's being kind to you and saying, come to me, I love you. I love you and I will not hold any of that against you. I won't, I never will. If you trust me, you have no guilt before me at all.

You are completely spotless and I can't wait to see you. But the guilt has, when you talk in grace, you have to say that the guilt's gone. Otherwise, what is grace?

What is he gracious about? If you're still holding on to sin, if you still think of yourself as a sinner, then you didn't really receive that grace because you don't believe it yet. Do you believe that you're saved?

Do you believe that God has offered you his grace? The second one is it can't be grace if it creates a human obligation. Okay, it can't be grace if it creates a human obligation. So, if I say, yes, God, you died on the cross for me and you have offered me grace out of the kindness of your heart, you love me and I can just be saved by true faith because of what you offered me. But now, because of that, I'm gonna do this and this and this because I need to pay you back and I am obligated now. I have an obligation to now do certain things, and I am obligated to do it because of that grace. It's no longer grace. Because now I have not received a gift.

Now I am paying the gift back by what I do. Does that make sense? You understand what I'm saying? Grace is tricky, isn't it? So first of all, grace means that you have to understand that your guilt is wiped out. Second, you need to understand that it can't create any kind of human obligation.

Now that doesn't mean that you're not going to, out of your love and excitement, wanna serve God, but not because you have an obligation. Not because somehow the bill has been paid. He paid this bill.

He's like, now you're gonna work it off. No, no, no, no. Doesn't work that way. Doesn't mean that you don't wanna show it, but you can't pay him back. And then last, it can't be grace if it's tied to human merit. Right, see, you say, well, God, you are nice to me. You are so nice to me and you allowed me to have a relationship with you. You wiped away all my sins and it's because I was one of the good ones.

I look at all the people in Atkinson and you only save some of those people, but you save me. Why did you offer me grace and not that person over there? Cause I was better than them. I'm better than them, right?

Cause they're doing stuff they shouldn't do and at least I was kinda trying over here and I was trying to be a good cat and at least my heart was right or whatever. None, none, none, none, none, none. None of that matters, right? It can't be grace if it's tied to human merit. Hey, God, God saved us because we were better than them. God didn't say, hey, those are the good people, so I'll save them. So let me ask you this, especially for people maybe watching online or even people here and you're like, I don't know if everyone would wanna become a Christian.

Why would you not? Do you wanna be free of all the guilt that you have before God, past, present and future, with no obligation at all to do anything to repay God and receive this completely based on nothing that you've done could do or can't do, right? If that's what you would like, then you should be a Christian. You should trust that God has paid the cost on the cross. He has paid so that he could in a just way offer you grace. Your sin, everything you've done, who you are, deserves death and he said, you know what? I want to forgive them, I wanna offer them grace, I want them to have a relationship with me but the only way I can do it is I have to satisfy my own wrath in order to be a just God and so he dies on the cross to satisfy wrath so that he can offer you grace and he says, it's nothing you're doing, you don't deserve it, there's no obligation to you. It's just receive it and say thank you.

Receive it and say thank you. That's grace and it's what was given both to you, it's what was given to the church in Corinth, it's what's given to all Christians and as a result of that, that changes, not out of obligation but it changes the way you look at your life, it changes the way you function as a person. When you've been radically offered that kind of grace and love for nothing, just because he loves you, it changes you so being a saint means that you've received God's grace, that's past tense. I received God's grace back in 1987, I received God's grace, that was past tense. Now I'm continuing to receive God's grace, God has given me good things still, God gives me a place to live, God's given me a great church to be in, God's given me great friends, God's given me food, God provides, that's grace too, God is continuing but we're talking here about past tense, well what's happening in the present? Verse seven, it says, so that you are not lacking in any gifts as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So, we had past tense, this is present tense. Being a saint means this, first of all, it means that you receive the grace of God, right? That's one of the things that they are, is in Corinth and what we are, we receive the grace of God, so we are saints. But it also means that God keeps giving gifts to his saints even though we don't deserve. So even though we receive grace then, now he's continually now receiving gifts.

Another reason you should give your life to Christ. Not only will God give you grace, but he's gonna give you gifts, all kinds of gifts, gifts of love, gifts of provision, gifts of the spirit, gifts of talents, gifts of joy, gifts of all kinds of things, God provides that. Second Peter says in verse three, he says, his divine power has granted us, to all of us, things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. Back in verse five it says that in every way you were enriched in him in speech and in all knowledge. So listen to what this means. God even gives us what to say in the present.

Any of you really good public speakers? Some of you are like, yeah, I'm good, let's do it. It's okay to say that.

It's okay to say that. Most people are deathly afraid of speaking in public. Like apparently people, like speaking in public is the number one fear. The number two is death. People are more afraid of public speaking than death.

So, Seinfeld used to say, say that people are better off to be in the coffin than giving the eulogy. But why are we nervous? We're afraid to talk because we're like, well, I don't know what to say. Like I'm at McDonald's and I'm like, boy, this person, and they're kind of over there. And I'm like, hey, I want to say something. I feel like I should say, but I'm afraid to talk.
I'm afraid to say anything. Look at what this is saying here. It's saying you're not lacking in the ability to do that. You're not lacking in the gift to do that. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the power of him who called us to his own glory and excellence.

And then verse five, that in every way you were enriched in him, in all speech, in all speech, everything you need to say, and in all knowledge, everything you need to know at the time. So, what I'm saying is don't just say, well, I can't do it. No, when you became a saint, God gave you the gift to be able to in the moment, be ready with what you need at that moment, no matter what it is. You are equipped and ready because God has given that to you. He gives us what to say in the presence. He gives us knowledge.

You can tell people about Jesus. The reason you don't is you're just too afraid. You won't be afraid if you open your mouth once in a while.

Just open your mouth. He's giving you gifts. Finally, here's the last one. Paul reveals what being a saint means for us in the future. Verse 8, it says, who will sustain you to the end. That's good, because I can't sustain myself to the end here, to the very end.  So, let's sustain you to the end. Guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, God is faithful by whom you were called in the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
 
Being a saint means this. You have a guarantee that you aren't going to have to stand before God and have him declare you guilty. I want you to let that sink in for a second. In the past, he's offered you grace in the past. He's offering you gifts now to be able to handle everything that is here. But he has also offered you a guarantee because you are a saint, just like these in Corinth. He is telling the people in Corinth and you that if you have put your faith and trust in Christ, you need not worry about standing before God because you will be guaranteed guiltless before him when you stand before him.

That is a guarantee. So, some of you may be here and you're like, you talk about the end times and Jesus is gonna come and you're like, dude, I hope he doesn't come really soon. Anyway, like that, you're like, I hope he doesn't come too soon. Because if he came tomorrow, I'm not sure what would happen. I gave my life to Jesus, but you know, there's still a little bit of like, like I might get up there and he's gonna bring up like last Friday, right? Or last Thursday, or two o'clock in the morning, Thursday, or, you know, he's gonna bring stuff up, right? And he's gonna say, you know what? I got there and now I get blindsided because Jesus is remembering some stuff and he's saying, you know what? I died for your sins except for that one.  That one over there, that's a bad one, right? So, you're, and you're like, dude, I was so close. I was so close to having it, right?

If you are a saint, if you have received Christ as your Lord and Savior, if you've received his grace, say you died on the cross, I believe that. I'm receiving that gift. I'm not rejecting it at all. I surrender to you. Change me, make me yours. Then I've received his grace and all that means, the freedom of that. He's given me everything I need to function and to live for him right here. And I have a guarantee, a guarantee that makes, I don't need to be afraid to stand before God because when I get there and I stand before Jesus, I will be found guiltless because all of my sin, the guilt has been paid. It's been suffered for. The sin that I've committed in my life has been suffered for. There has been, somebody has been tortured for that sin. Somebody has died for that sin. It's not like it's gone unpaid for. It has been completely paid for. And so we have a guarantee. Scripture says about God to the saint.

Who will sustain you to the end? Guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Listen, you didn't call God, God called you. You didn't ask for grace. God offered it to you. You never deserved it. It was never based on your behavior in the first place. It's always been God being nice to you even though you didn't deserve it. So verse nine, God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Your guarantee is the faithfulness of God. The only way based on what God has said that you would be held guiltless is if God somehow isn't faithful. How many of you think God's not faithful?

Let's put those hands up real high. No, we all believe God is faithful. When God says something, it's true. And he has guaranteed us who will put our faith and trust in him, him alone, received his grace that you belong to him. Now live that way. Paul is saying live that way. If indeed you are saints, Corinth, if indeed you are saints, Sunrise, if indeed you are saints, people online, even if indeed you are saints because you have received the grace of God and you're guaranteed to someday stand guiltless before Jesus, then you have every reason in the world to live like a saint, to not live your life like a dumpster fire, which we're gonna see over the next little bit, but to live like a saint, to listen to the correction of God.

Those of you, some of you are here, we're gonna have to listen to the correction of God. Why? Because we're saints. That's why. Because we're saints because we need to live and be who God has really called us to be. Yes, make me like Christ. Yes, I'll accept your correction. That's the spirit in the heart we need to come to as we go into 1 Corinthians, okay? And that's the foundation in why we're gonna do that, right?
 
God, I thank you so much for your word. God, you've given us a reason to be holy. You've given us a reason to be righteous. Not because of anything we've done, but because you have called us saints because of your grace. We receive it and now we say, God, you do the work. You do the work within us. You've offered us gifts because of our sainthood. You've offered us a guarantee because of our sainthood. You've offered us grace because of our sainthood. And God, we embrace it and we say, bring it on, change us, transform us, make us more like Christ in your name, amen.

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