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Relationship vs. Rights
11 Plays3 years ago
**Note** This episode touches on some themes near the end that you may not want young listeners to hear! Vernon & Michelle talk through 1 Corinthians 6:1-11 and discuss lawsuits, rights, and touch on our true identity as a believer.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Walking Free' with Vernon and Michelle
00:00:02
Speaker
This is your host, Vernon Terrell, with Grace Ministries International, and it's time for Walking Free.
00:00:20
Speaker
And welcome back. This is Vernon Terrell and I am joined by my awesome wife and colleague, Michelle. Hello, Michelle. Hello. And we both have been fighting a little something illness, head cold, uh, I longer than Michelle has. But, uh, so if you hear a cough or a sniffle here or there, well, that's what's going on. How are you feeling? I'm, I'm here. My eyelids are open. The coffee is, is perking me out.
00:00:49
Speaker
We are engaged
Discussion on 1 Corinthians Chapter 6: Lawsuits Among Believers
00:00:50
Speaker
with caffeine and we thought we would continue, well, I've been talking through 1 Corinthians and I asked Michelle to join me as we jump into 1 Corinthians chapter six and we're just going with it. We may finish the book, we may not. I hope we do. It's a fun, long letter that Paul wrote. But we start out in 1 Corinthians chapter six, verse one, continuing this idea
00:01:17
Speaker
Paul talking to the folks at Corinth and he is giving them some words of encouragement but also some exhortation and also some thoughts around some areas of concern he had and this continues that idea where he says, does any one of you
00:01:41
Speaker
when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints. So what is he talking about here? Is this lawsuits? I mean, look at this. He goes, you've got a case, a grievance against your neighbor and you're going to the law before the unrighteous, the folks who are not saved. I've got a whole bunch of tough questions for you then.
00:02:07
Speaker
Oh Lord, this is, this is scary because you know, you've been in this situation. I have in a way. Um, I have been involved in a lawsuit because of a vehicular accident I was in last year and I've been using an attorney to help get justice. And, uh, do you think it's sin?
00:02:30
Speaker
to be engaged in a lawsuit? Wait, I thought I was asking you the tough questions. I wanted to ask it first because I don't think it is. I don't think so. Now, this isn't part of scripture. The folks who have translated this version of the Bible, I have a heading about this section. It says, lawsuits among believers.
00:02:55
Speaker
So was I supposed to go to the fellow that was in the accident with me and ask if he was a believer and then take our case to a church and have some elders of the church determine what happens with our car accident? What's Paul
Paul's Advice on Resolving Disputes Outside Courts
00:03:16
Speaker
getting at here? Yeah, I don't think so. I think these are grievances and there was all kind of grievances.
00:03:21
Speaker
uh, happening in the day. And we do have, obviously our legal system has grown and evolved over the millennia, uh, uh, since, uh, uh, and the time since this was written. But I think this is more, again, notice this is, you have a case against your neighbor and, uh, your neighbor there's, there's, there's something happening. I don't know if you've,
00:03:48
Speaker
lived in a community and you've had something that your neighbor has done that has bothered you and it's such that it is really irritating and maybe it's unjust and you don't go to your neighbor to resolve it.
00:04:12
Speaker
You want to take action against your neighbor. And I wonder if that's really where Paul is getting to. Well, let's skip down to verse 4 because he has a solution. Paul's solution here says, therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, appoint as judges even men of little account in the church.
00:04:37
Speaker
So I think if it's our neighbors next to us, I don't think. I'm not gonna go to my church and ask. Right. But I do think, I think there's an idea here. I think there's an idea that you don't need to go around bringing lawsuits against your neighbor, against folks that are around your neighbor.
00:05:03
Speaker
in your circle of friends or circle of influences, you don't need to go around bringing lawsuits, number one. Number two, now there are times when
00:05:15
Speaker
You know what, there is a just reason, there is a reason that we have a legal system and that is for justice. And we don't always get it, doesn't mean we can't go seek it. But when it comes to this grievance, a case against our neighbor, and I think here it's our neighbor in the idea of our believer. We're not talking about our neighbor next door. If you do have a case against your neighbor, go talk to your neighbor.
00:05:42
Speaker
If you can't resolve it with your neighbor, then you may have to go through the legal system. But here, again, where I was going, is this your neighbor in your neighborhood? Is this the neighbor when she said, who is your neighbor? Or is this a relationship that you have established as a believer?
00:06:03
Speaker
Right, I think Paul makes it really clear to us if we jump down next verse, verse five. Now this one's gonna knock your socks off a little bit. Paul says, I say this to shame you. So let's circle back around to that in a moment because I think we need to go over the scripture that makes it clear. Then he says, is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers,
00:06:31
Speaker
So he makes it clear, your neighbor that I'm talking about is believers. And he goes on to say, but instead one brother goes to law against another and this in front of unbelievers. So he's being really clear. This is where we have folks that are in the same community, in the same, uh, ecclesia, the same church that are
00:06:54
Speaker
suing each other in public court and not settling a dispute amongst themselves. I do not know, I have to be honest here, I do
Resolving Disputes Within Church Communities
00:07:06
Speaker
not know of a single church who has followed through with verse four and has appointed judges amongst the church. So do you think this is a cultural thing? Is this applicable to us?
00:07:21
Speaker
in 2022 and our current church. Um, I feel like part of the difference there is, there was probably the church in Corinth, one church, and where we live here, there is a church on every other corner where we're in the Bible belt. And so you may have a dispute with another believer and be attending two different churches, two different denominations.
00:07:47
Speaker
Absolutely. I think there is a level of application here, but I do agree this is culture. There's so much cultural underpinnings in these letters. They were written in a culture and Paul was addressing issues in the context of a culture. We have to read it that way. I do think there's things that we can apply here.
00:08:10
Speaker
that when we do have disputes with one another as believers, is there not someone as a believer in the ecclesia, whether it's a physical church or among the body of believers that you can come to help mediate? Have you ever had a relationship issue or known a friends in a relationship issue that it's getting pretty serious?
00:08:33
Speaker
And are there not believers who can step in to help facilitate and talk through the issues? Well, honestly, that's what we do a lot at Grace Ministries. We have especially disputes between spouses. And where things are escalating, a lot of times they'll reach out for help and say, we have conflict and we don't have conflict resolution. We're not able to resolve.
00:09:00
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And so they ask a believing counselor to step in, hear both sides and speak into both lives and move towards a resolution. And it really does take both parties being willing to lay something down. And I love that later on in chapter six, we're gonna see Paul talks quite a bit about laying down rights and all of conflict resolution involves some aspect of laying down a right.
00:09:29
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So we want to, and we may go back and forth and play a little devil to advocate here, but could this be, you know, are we talking about setting up some type of theocracy and church legal system that we need to go to instead of the legal system?
00:09:47
Speaker
No, I think what we are saying is that there are times in our current culture where it makes sense and it's the right thing where we go to law, but when we have disputes among each other, why not first follow the example, I think, and the idea that Paul is laying out here,
00:10:07
Speaker
is to either go to your church elders, to the pastor of the church, go to if it's a relationship or an issue that you can resolve with a Christian counselor, go and seek that type of resolution and that reconciliation through that third party first before going through the legal system for that type of issue.
00:10:34
Speaker
There's a specific situation I want to touch on because as we're chatting about this, I can put myself in some other folk shoes that are going to be feeling some mounting guilt right now. And that's where you have a husband and wife who the relationship ends in divorce. They're both believers and they battle it out in public court.
00:10:58
Speaker
Um, to get clarity on all of the details, the finances, the kids, all of that. Can you speak to that? Because I, I have a feeling, uh, a bunch of our listeners are feeling, uh, hot under the collar right now and starting to sweat a little bit. You know, wondering my goodness, I feel, I already felt guilty, um, that I've been in court with my ex and now here's this Bible verse, this section that saying,
00:11:24
Speaker
Am I doing this all wrong? Am I dishonoring God by going to court to get a settlement by a judge? First of all, no. First of all, there is no condemnation in Christ, so don't feel condemned. Don't feel this level of guilt about that. In our culture today, there are times when there is no recourse
00:11:53
Speaker
and you're in the public court and you're getting, you're going through settlement, going through who gets visitation rights. This messy stuff that it's just open, it's hurtful, it's sometimes embarrassing, you feel that. Don't feel embarrassed or feel that God is judging you or that you're in some deep sin with under the context, say, of this verse. You're not.
00:12:21
Speaker
You're not you're following the protocol that's in our culture to get to settle this legally. Now, I think even in the midst of that, God may be speaking to your heart on things in that negotiation to give and to take and you seek the Lord's wisdom in that.
00:12:42
Speaker
And I think it's an opportunity where perhaps there is a wise believer in your community that knows both of you, that may be able to speak into some of the nuances, some of the agreements that you're working towards.
00:13:01
Speaker
I could see a case for that being both and at the same time that the judge is going to Determine, you know by law by the law of the land how it's gonna happen But yet maybe there could there could be some place again, you would need both parties willing to come and speak to someone who would be wise counsel and
00:13:24
Speaker
And I think that's what's so tough is when we look at that situation, most people are thinking, well, they're more your friend than my friend. They're gonna side with you. They're not gonna side with me. And we don't necessarily trust ourselves over to someone. And maybe that person is not partial. Maybe they do have a preference. Maybe they are partial, sorry, said that backwards.
00:13:50
Speaker
So that takes a lot of prayer, prayerful consideration, and those are the sticky, the sticky difficulties of moving through this broken world and broken relationships. And it is a broken world. And Paul does this, the intent of this particular chapter is not to lay out
00:14:13
Speaker
a new legal system. It's a very specific issue that Paul is addressing and I think Paul is hitting on these and I'm inferring here. Please disagree but some of these are minor issues. Some of these are relational issues as I infer in here and Paul's saying don't you have someone in the church that can help go through and talk through this. Some of these might be financial land issues probably
00:14:40
Speaker
property issues potentially, and saying, can't you work it out? Can't you work it out together? The intent here is that come together relationally, come together with other believers who can give wisdom, godly wisdom,
00:14:57
Speaker
both parties should be seeking the Lord. Uh, that wasn't happening here evidently. And I think that's the message is not to say that our legal system is bad and you can't go to the legal system, but it's, Hey, can you come with a heart of humility and come move toward each other and not starting out against each other? The
Handling Grievances and Future Judgment of Angels
00:15:18
Speaker
whole goal here is to come together and to have folks around you. Do you have people around you and community?
00:15:25
Speaker
Do you have a group or a church around you that when you're hurting that you can go to and be open and to come together and come to resolution? I think that's one of the points here.
00:15:35
Speaker
Absolutely. Let's read those verses that talk about laying down of the rights, because I think in our culture and in their culture back then, everyone was being told, fight for your rights. You've got to defend yourself. You've got to fight for yourself. If you don't stand up for yourself, no one will. Can you read that passage there? Yes, and before we do, let me read this one verse that I love. Do you not know that we will judge angels, verse three?
00:16:02
Speaker
I mean, we will judge. I don't think a lot of people know that. We're judging, we are in union with the creator of the universe and we are going to judge angels. What does he mean by that? Which angels are receiving judgment? In fact, there's, well, there's angels already under judgment and I'm sitting there, I'm trying to wrap my head around that right now.
00:16:31
Speaker
We're gonna literally judge angels at some point in time. I don't have a full clue what that means.
00:16:41
Speaker
So that could be angels that were involved in the rebellion, that we know Satan led that rebellion and a third of the angels followed in his coup to try to take over heaven. They lost that battle, but they have been having some level of authority on earth, having a presence and an influence. We have authority over them right now, but we will have judgment over them at this last day. That sounds like something final.
00:17:10
Speaker
where they will no longer be able to run around or scoot around. I don't know how they get around, but there will be a closure to what they've been able to do. I don't know about this, but is there a judgment of angels for the good that they do? I don't know. I don't know. But the idea here
00:17:38
Speaker
So if we're gonna do that, and we've got Christ living in us, who is our strength and our wisdom, and we can ask for wisdom, he just gives us his wisdom and his grace.
00:17:53
Speaker
Can we
Cultural Mindset in Corinth and Spiritual Identity
00:17:54
Speaker
not come together in that humility and help each other resolve issues? And in that context, as Michelle was saying, let's look at the next verse and these next verses in verse seven. He goes, actually then, it is already a defeat for you that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be
00:18:20
Speaker
We're not gonna like this. Wronged. Why not rather be defrauded? On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud. And you do this even to your brethren.
00:18:36
Speaker
This is sounding like he's dealing with something that's so core to the culture that these believers are being pulled out of. It sounds like it is absolutely normal to use deception, to wrong each other in the general culture, and then these folks are coming into the church and coming with that old mindset of just trying to get the most that you can get.
00:19:02
Speaker
And anytime that someone is wronged or cheated, they're jumping into a court case, but those are the same people who are tuning around and cheating a different brother. So it sounds like this is part of the cultural situation going on in Corinth that Paul is saying, listen, you are no longer
00:19:23
Speaker
in the world, you guys are now pulled out of this worldly mindset for me, me, me. I'm just going to get, you know, whatever I can get from you, even if I have to defraud you. There's this sense of greed, of the flesh of just trying to take the most possible, get the most marbles.
00:19:42
Speaker
That's because our mind and our focus is on the stuff. It's on the issue It's on being right because I'm right and Paul saying your focus should shift on relationship not on rightness and It's a defeat
00:20:03
Speaker
when you're going so hard and fast after the issue, and you may be right, you may be so justified, but why not rather be wronged instead of righted? Why not rather be wronged? Or why not rather be defrauded for the sake of the relationship? And that word defrauded this idea of being deprived of what is rightfully yours.
00:20:33
Speaker
I think there's two camps of people. There's a camp of people that are wired to sort of be the doormat in their flesh and that they have no voice. They consistently are being defrauded and they don't speak up. Then you have another camp of people in their flesh that are always standing up for their rights. They're the bean counters. They are keeping account of every little wrongdoing that happens.
00:21:01
Speaker
And I feel like this passage is addressing both. To those who generally are not speaking up and having a voice, and then they're allowing a harmful person to just move on and harm the next person, they need to be going to the leadership saying,
00:21:16
Speaker
You know, this is what happened and to have a voice and speak into that and yet those who are constantly barking for their for their own rights to be heard maybe they need to allow an offense and forgive an offense and
00:21:35
Speaker
instead of constantly fighting for their rights. So I feel like Paul is always challenging. We're in the flesh, we're going to be on one side or the other. And he's not saying modify your flesh. This isn't flesh reformation. This is if the Spirit of God is inside of you, listen to the Spirit and the Spirit will give you the courage to speak up and say, hey, this isn't right. The Spirit will also give you the comfort
00:22:04
Speaker
to quiet down and say, I don't need to make a deal of that. I can forgive that and overlook that offense. And it really does take the Holy Spirit wisdom to know when are there offenses that just can be overlooked and you move forward. And yet sometimes continually overlooking an offense just enables some unhealthy behaviors to continue. It's not love. It's not loving to not speak up. God says, speak the truth in love.
00:22:33
Speaker
So this takes some maturity and that's what this whole book is about, the whole book of Corinthians. Sometimes I've heard it, the book of corrections is about bringing a spiritual maturity and even an emotional maturity to the believer.
00:22:51
Speaker
That's why I love that. Do you not know that we will judge the angels? Yes. And you have Christ in you who is your wisdom and you can ask him for wisdom and that's why I love this next set of verses which is often, I think, preached incorrectly. It's often used as a battering ram and that's not at all the intent.
00:23:20
Speaker
He as Michelle was talking and saying That there are two camps we we we can walk after the flesh as a doormat and we can walk after the flesh asserting our rights and Both need to come in humility and learn how to walk in faith walk in faith to speak up when necessary to believers to to
00:23:46
Speaker
to speak the truth in love or to walk and take that step of faith to humble ourselves and to not assert our rights and to be wronged and perhaps even to experience that sense of being defrauded. Paul says this in verse nine.
00:24:08
Speaker
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? It's
Believers as New Creations and True Righteousness
00:24:15
Speaker
like, what, where are you going with this Paul? Because do not be deceived. Neither fornicators nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And you're thinking, okay,
00:24:37
Speaker
That's pretty tough. I'm sunk. I mean, that's a pretty wide swath of people.
00:24:46
Speaker
But then he finishes the thought in verse 11 and he says, and such were some of you, but you were washed past tense. You were sanctified, made holy, set apart, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God.
00:25:11
Speaker
That is powerful. He's saying, look, why are you going to the unbelievers? And in fact, here's what the unbelievers, here's what the unbelievers are characterized by. Not that they're not people who are good people versus bad. And remember, we've talked about that before on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It's not about goodness or badness, but he says, don't be deceived.
00:25:39
Speaker
and talking about the unrighteous, which they're going in front of. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. That's who you were. You're not that anymore.
00:25:54
Speaker
I think he's talking about the root versus the fruit. He's saying if you have a root of unrighteousness, what naturally comes out of unrighteousness is unrighteous deeds. So if the spiritual state of someone is unrighteous.
00:26:12
Speaker
What naturally is gonna flow out of that is all that icky looking stuff And and he's saying I love that he leaves the question hanging because we're supposed to answer the question Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? You know what that means? Who gets to inherit the kingdom of God? the righteous
00:26:34
Speaker
he has made us righteous and he lays that case you were washed you were sanctified you were justified that's justification is that righteousness that our spirit has we've been given a righteous spirit and so when we have righteousness as our root guess what the fruit is going to be
00:26:56
Speaker
Righteousness is natural for it for that to come out and it's really unnatural For us to continue on as if we were still unrighteous and for believers you see it all the time They are discontent when they're living unrighteously because it doesn't align with who they really are they have a spiritual conflict when spiritually you've been made righteous and
00:27:20
Speaker
But you keep acting in that old way of unrighteousness, it doesn't sit well with us. It kind of makes us sick in our soul when we live disconnected from who we truly are. And the idea, again, going back to your idea of the spiritual root and what is the root, you're not a fornicator.
00:27:44
Speaker
If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you're not a fornicator, you're not an idolater, you're not an adulterer, you're not a feminine homosexual or a thief or covetous, you are a righteous holy saint. That doesn't mean you cannot do a behavior.
00:28:01
Speaker
one of these behaviors, but that's not who you are at the root. And that's the issue. And John talks about this in his gospel, that our natural as a believer in Christ, we are naturally, supernaturally righteous in our behavior. Everything we do has been radically transformed
00:28:24
Speaker
But we can be deceived and we can slip into an old pattern. We can make bad decisions. But that isn't the defining idea of who we are. As a believer, you're set apart, sanctified, justified, forgiven, reconciled, and redeemed. That is at the core who you are. And that's what he's saying. You were this.
00:28:48
Speaker
before you knew Jesus. That is exactly who you were. You were in this, and you were defined in these various categories, but that's not who you are now. You're washed. So why are you gonna act like that? Why are you gonna go and act like an unbeliever and act in this way? That ain't you. That's the point. And so that root,
00:29:14
Speaker
of unrighteousness will not inherit the kingdom. You will because you are a believer in Jesus Christ and you've received his forgiveness in life. And we're gonna stop, we're gonna continue this next week.
00:29:30
Speaker
Because he's gonna say, and I hope next week it may skip a week depending on, we've got some more exciting guests coming on to share their story. But when we do pick it up, he says all things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. And he's gonna talk through another angle of this same conversation in 1 Corinthians 6, 12.
00:29:58
Speaker
But Michelle, any final thoughts on this in verse nine and 10? What comes to me is that an unrighteous person who, let's just take the first one on the list, the first one there is fornicate. And I don't know, does everybody know that word fornicate? Fornicate, yeah, that root, that actual word is porneo or pornos. So in our culture, our definition for fornication is what?
00:30:26
Speaker
Well, I could tell you the fornication is sexual immorality.
00:30:31
Speaker
Okay, is it, because the other one he has here is adultery. So adultery I get, because if you're married and you have sexual relations with someone other than your spouse, that's adultery. But who's the other side if they're not married? Right, so fornication is having sexual. Inappropriate sexual relationships. With two single people. With two single people. Okay, just so that we're clear, I don't think everybody does know. And I think folks, I'm glad you said that word is an old word.
00:31:00
Speaker
but it's a general word and it comes, we get our word, this pornography from, but this is taught, when you see that word in scripture fornication, that is a relational word, that is a sexual activity, relationally, that is outside of God's design.
00:31:22
Speaker
So an unrighteous person who fornicates is a fornicator. Yes. And that's what verse 9 is showing us. The unrighteous person who fornicates is a fornicator. What if the person is no longer unrighteous? What if they have accepted Jesus as their Savior, they've been washed, sanctified, justified, they're now righteous, and they do an act of fornication,
00:31:50
Speaker
does that now make them a fornicator? That makes them a righteous person who made a very stupid decision because it's not who they are. Okay, so when we're talking about this identity, the list says that all these people, fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, this whole list isn't going to inherit the kingdom. Is it possible for someone to be righteous and a believer and yet still be doing some of those things and they not get sucked back into that as an identity?
00:32:21
Speaker
It is impossible for one who has been radically transformed by the grace of God, who has been sanctified, forgiven, and made brand new creation. Once they are made a brand new creation, they are sealed with the Holy Spirit, a seal that cannot be broken. That identity is forever. Now, can they make unwise decisions? Can they be deceived to think that they haven't changed? We see it all the time.
00:32:48
Speaker
Okay, so I agree with you, but I just want to test that premise and let's go the opposite way. Let's say someone is unrighteous, they're not a believer, and they are involved in a sexual relationship with a boyfriend-girlfriend sleeping together, so fornicating. And then they hear this message like fornicating is a sin, a God-intended sex to be between husband and wife inside of marriage.
00:33:13
Speaker
And so let's say they go, ooh, we don't want to do that. Let's stop sleeping together. And so they do. They stop sleeping together. Are they still unrighteous if they simply stop sleeping together?
00:33:27
Speaker
If they simply stop sleeping together, that means they have not received Jesus Christ as their Savior, receiving His forgiveness in life. They have simply moved. They have simply stopped a behavior. They haven't changed the core essence of who they are because only Christ can do that.
00:33:46
Speaker
All right, so they are still unrighteous and they still need Jesus as their savior. It wasn't just about cleaning up the behavior. It's not a behavior modification system. Okay, so cleaning up their bad behavior didn't make them righteous. Just like the person who's righteous, when they mess up, it doesn't make them unrighteous. So it's not behavior driven. Behavior isn't going to change this core sense of the core truth of whether we're righteous or unrighteous.
00:34:15
Speaker
That's really a key thing that's hard for us sometimes to wrap our head around is that our behavior does not determine our righteousness or our unrighteousness. And we see that. We see the behavior coming out and we think there has to be a direct correlation. If I do this bad thing, therefore I'm unrighteous. And if I do good things, I must be righteous.
00:34:39
Speaker
And that's why it's really, pastors should not camp on this and talk about, hey, if you're a fornicator and you're an idolater and you're an adulterer and you're a homosexual or you're a thief or you're covetous, you're going to hell and you need to change your behavior. That's not the point of this message or this letter that Paul is writing.
00:35:03
Speaker
is not the gospel. Changing your behavior is not the gospel. Believing
Conclusion and Encouragement to Apply Biblical Teachings
00:35:09
Speaker
and receiving the forgiveness and life in Jesus Christ is the gospel. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the good news. The minute we start focusing on telling somebody to change their behavior, we've gone away from the gospel.
00:35:27
Speaker
And I think Paul is saying when you are connected to your true identity, you are righteous now that you have accepted Jesus. You do inherit the kingdom of God. And so he calls them to live this life out on earth from that identity.
00:35:44
Speaker
your behavior will change. He's not saying go do whatever you want to do sexually or you know just go have a wild and crazy time because now you're righteous. He's actually saying if you get this, if you understand that you are inheriting, you get the kingdom of God.
00:36:01
Speaker
Live out of who you truly are and let those true desires of your heart Be be lived out in your life and you're going to see you don't want fornication There's something that you want more than just that momentary sexual pleasure there is a Deeper thing that will drive you say same with all of these here
00:36:24
Speaker
So, I think Paul does care about behavior because, honestly, God hates the things that are harmful to us. These things, this whole list of things, is not good for us, and so he hates the things that hurt us. And so he doesn't want his kids living in those things that are not good for us, out of love for his kids.
00:36:49
Speaker
and also what we'll see the next time that's just out of the design. It's just not His design. And your body actually reacts to these foreign things that are against your brand new nature and the design that God has made in this body. So we're going to look at some of that
00:37:12
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on the next time. So if God's stirring up something in your heart, in your mind, about what we've talked about on this podcast, as we often say, pray about it, seek His wisdom,
00:37:29
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And you may need to talk it out, but there's gonna be a point where God says, you know, I think you got it. It's time to stop talking and start walking. You've been listening to Walking Free, a production of Grace Ministries International in Marietta, Georgia. For more information, go to our website at gmint.org. That's gminc.org.