05-15-11 AM - Take Another Look

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1 Cor. 11:17-33 But in giving this instruction, I do not praise you, because you come together not for the better but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you; and in part, I believe it. For there must also be factions among you, in order that those who are approved may have become evident among you.Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper, for in your eating each one takes his own supper first; and one is hungry and another is drunk. What! Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God, and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I will not praise you. For I received from the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you, do this in remembrance of me.” Therefore who ever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. But if we judge ourselves rightly, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord in order that we may not be condemned along with the world. So then, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait one for another.

We all know the rest of the story when Adam and eve fell to the seduction of Lucifer’s voice and instead of being agents of redemption they became agents of rebellion.

“Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over every living thing that moveth upon the face of the earth.”

1. THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS  Col. 2:9

For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.                         

In 1 Timothy Paul says it is the mystery of godliness, that God    was manifest in the   flesh.

1. THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS  Col. 2:9
John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

2. ALONE WE ARE NO MATCH FOR THE POWER OF SIN
John 10:17-18 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father
“This is my body which is broken for you… This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you.
It would be good for us to be mindful of the power of sin and be equally mindful to acknowledge our dependence on the crucified Christ to gain victory over sin.

3. WE ARE TEMPLES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
If we fail to discern the body of Christ properly we will miss the fact that Christ came to help us develop an awareness of our place in His plan for redeeming the world.
1 Cor. 6:19-20 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
1Cor. 3:16-17 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
Don’t fall in love with what you have to leave…

4. TOGETHER WE ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST
There are divisions and factions among you.
The enemy will never fear a large church because a large church is not necessarily an indication of a powerful church. But the enemy will always fear a unified church.
God is not looking for more churches; He is looking for more living temples in which he can live and move and have His being.