Worship and the Real World By Kevin O'Brien

How are we gonna open up and show the world what he's doing? Show the grace that he has offered. How can we be ministers of reconciliation or confident in the future even while being jars of clay? How can we make it through suffering and shine the light of the gospel as sinners saved by grace? Cleanse ourselves, bringing holiness to completion because that's what we are meant to be. And all that we leave behind, all those things wasn't getting us what we wanted anyway. [00:38:26] (38 seconds)  #GraceAndWitness

And none of this is about following the rules to follow the rules. It's about our deepest connection with God and our identification with him. We obey God. We purify ourselves as worship because at the end of the day, we are the temple of God. The place where his glory dwells. And we are to shine that light out into the world. And if we're dirty, if we're polluted, if we're no different than the world around us, how on earth can we be who we are supposed to be? [00:37:48] (39 seconds)  #WorshipPurity

We become believers in God not simply to get a better life or to have things go well. Paul has been very clear throughout this book. No. That's not how this is gonna work. You're gonna suffer. But there is more and better to be had. We believe because Jesus reconciles us to God. And the people who are open to God and the ministry of one like Paul need to remove wrong partnerships from our lives. [00:10:58] (33 seconds)  #SufferingAndReconciliation

And there is sort of in the background of this, I think, a rhetorical question of a different sort from Paul. Why do you keep putting up these blocks to worship in the real world, Corinthians? Because you don't get the presence of God. You don't get identification as his people if you don't live in the real world in such a way to identify yourself as his. We have to remove those wrong partnerships, remember God's repeated promises, and then restore rigorous purity. [00:32:34] (38 seconds)  #RemoveBlocksToWorship

But by the time they hit teenage years, all the funny has gone away. Right? And all of us, whether we were the teenager or the parent in question, have scars from those battles. But tough love is sometimes what we need. And that is kind of where we are with Paul and the people in Corinth right now. Because his message is that true connection with God requires separation, requires that we take stock, that we make changes in the way that we are living in the real world. One commentator I read called this whole passage a plea for purity. [00:08:49] (50 seconds)  #ToughLoveForPurity

And these rules seem arbitrary to us. What difference does that stuff make to us here and now? But as the law is written, Israel is moving into the land, and their neighbors are all pagan. And they have pagan practices, and God wants them to be separate, to show who they belong to. And these laws, these rules that seem arbitrary to us were meant at least in part to be a physical reminder of that separateness. To be a reminder to say, hey, who are you and who do you belong to? [00:14:18] (40 seconds)  #LawsShowSeparateness

Later in in chapter 11, Paul is going to say that the false teachers within the church preach another Jesus and a different gospel. And straight up unbelievers don't even do that. How can you pull in the same direction, Corinthians? How can you pull in the same direction, Village Bible Church, if you are incompatible? It won't work. Remember your affections. Remember your direction. [00:18:00] (37 seconds)  #BewareFalseTeachers

Purity is a weird word to us today. We don't think about it a lot. Or when we do, it seems old fashioned. But you want your medicine to be pure because if it's got foreign things in it, it's not effective. You want the gold in your wedding band to be pure. We expect purity in a lot of things. And and what Paul is saying is this is not a put upon thing. This is a necessary thing. It's not something that we just bring out on special occasions. This is not our Sunday best, if you will. [00:33:12] (44 seconds)  #EverydayPurity