--PRE-SERVICE PRAYER--

Focus: Civic Responsibility

Foundation Scripture: Proverbs 21:1-3 (MSG)

Prayer Points:
1. All Civic Leadership
2. Righteous Hearts
3. Committed People
4. Wisdom Among People
5. Sunday Services

--MESSAGE--
Non-Negotiables Pt. 2

DEFINITION: not open to negotiation or discussion

Foundation Scripture: 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 NKJV

The apostle Paul wrote a letter to the church in the ancient city of Corinth. And he wrote to deal with several serious problems that he considered non-negotiable.

The Corinthian Christians lived amid a pagan culture. The lifestyle practices and behaviors of people in Corinth were very sinful. It was a culture where every kind of moral vice was accepted as a commonplace thing.

Temple prostitution was crucial to the economy. Idolatry was interwoven into all of society. Sexual immorality was celebrated. Pleasure-seeking was the main focus of activity. Materialism was the philosophy of life.

The immoral practices that characterized the unbelieving Corinthian culture often found their way into the lives of the people in the church. And so, Paul wrote his first letter to the Christians in Corinth to deal with the sinful practices they were embracing from the culture around them.
While dealing with all this, Paul writes something that I believe the Lord would have us hear today. They are not “politically correct” words by any means, which is exactly why it is so important that we give particular attention to them.

1. Context is King

a. Christian Taking Another Christian to Court

In other words, such behavior as aggressively dragging one another before an unsaved judge and suing each other did not fit who they were in Christ. Notice how Paul put the finger squarely on the sinful motivations characterizing the Christian Corinthians in their actions.

b. The Real Problem

The Corinthian Christians were not behaving like the distinct people they truly were in Christ. They behaved just like the "unrighteous" people of the unbelieving culture surrounding them.

I believe that Paul was particularly emphasizing that last item in the case of the Corinthians Christians suing each other, that they were guilty of behaving like "extortioners" or "swindlers" toward one another. But clearly, he takes the opportunity to speak to a whole list of other worldly characteristics.

And what I ask you to notice is that these things are not just occasional, isolated moral failures. Paul was not condemning anyone for stumbling and falling. These are things that are set before us as ongoing lifestyle practices and habits. They are not presented to us as mere “acts” someone may occasionally do; but rather as “names” by which someone is identified. They are practices that were so fully embraced, and around which everything else in life was so completely accommodated, that the person doing them became the thing identified by the name of the thing, and in such a way as to be called “unrighteous."

2. Category One. Sins Done in the Body.

a. Fornicators. The word he uses is the Greek word “pornos.” It refers to any kind of sexual immorality. In the context of our passage, it is used in a broad sense, and refers to persistent sexual activity outside of marriage.

b. Idolatry. That is, the worship of idols. An idol is anything you put before God.

c. Adulterers. That is, someone who either has entered into a marriage covenant and breaks it by giving themselves to someone outside the marriage; or someone who violates the marriage covenant of someone else.

d. Homosexuals and Sodomites. In the original language, the first word basically means "soft"; and is sometimes translated "effeminate". The second word basically means men together in the place of sexual intimacy. Together, they both refer to all and different aspects of homosexual behavior.