It sounds funny, but every time I've ever heard a message on Corinthians, my immediate thought has always been “Oh no, someone must be fighting in the Church… here comes a another message on unity.”
But that's not what inspired our latest series at Bixby Community Church. Our purpose in looking at the books of First and Second Corinthians isn't to focus on what we’re doing wrong, but to focus on what we’re doing right. Our aim is to get better, so we can come up higher and learn how to respond to life. The six week goal is to understand the connection between Corinth and Bixby.
This last week, we looked at the spiritual concepts of multiplication and division. It’s curious how anytime we multiply in numbers as a church or grow in maturity, there’s always a test of division put before you.
In the beginning, when Paul first went to Corinth, Paul faced that same test. But, the Lord had a Word for him and I believe it’s the same Word He has for us today: "Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city” (Acts 18).
Saints, there are countless people in Bixby who need to hear this message...and it is our call to keep on speaking to these people and compelling them to come into this Sanctuary to be restored!
Paul wasn’t afraid to speak out against the church. In fact when he was writing to them in Corinth he wrote about the good, bad and ugly. Take a look at his first comments in 1 Corinthians 3. He wastes no time in chastising them for becoming too worldly. Sounds like the Church today, doesn’t it? People who confess the Lord Jesus as Savior and who claim to live in the kingdom of God, conforming to the ways of the world.
The bad and the ugly in Corinth were found in the hearts of a stubborn people. They didn't need God, and they certainly did not care about His vision for their lives. All they could focus on were trivial issues and preferences. These people became corrupt and started to manipulate others only to benefit themselves and divide the church.
How could they help people when all their focus was on themselves? The simple answer is, they couldn’t! That's why Paul reprimanded them and reminded them of who they were in God…His temple, created to do good works of service.
By building others up, we multiply… by building ourselves up, we divide. It’s that simple. Division ultimately leads to destruction. Multiplication leads to the fulfillment of the vision God has for our community: The vision of marriages being restored, teenagers obeying their parents and making Godly decisions for their life, the vision of helping single mothers, and teaching people how to have an abundant life!
It's really not that hard to multiply and fulfill this vision. If we just multiply love at home, at work, and at church ...things will change.
There’s no simpler rule than that to multiply love across this community.
The secret is to get our eyes off ourselves and onto Jesus. We need to ask God to help us think right so we can be a witness of His life-saving grace in Bixby and in our own home.
Above all else, we must learn to multiply our love,
Pastor Steve
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