Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. - Genesis 1:26-27
Gender distinction! It may be the greatest expression of God's brilliance in creation and it is certainly among the greatest gifts ever given to mankind. Men and women, different from one another and yet perfectly suited to work together and to need each other, accomplishing the will of God in the world he loves. If gender distinction is a reflection of God's glory it should not surprise us that gender confusion is key to the devil's strategy as he seeks to pervert the image of God in mankind and to rob people of joy. That strategy began in Eden and it has continued uninterrupted throughout human history. As a result, what was created to work together in companionship constantly works against each other in competition. It has become the way of the world; it should not be that way in the church.
First Corinthians 11:2-16 is all about relationships between men and women in the church and in the presence of God. It is a gnarly passage about a controversial issue and many of you won't immediately appreciate what it says but hang in there and stay with me today. If we can get this right, we will enjoy a dynamic in our marriages and in our church that we all are hungry for and a liberty to be fully what God created us to be. If we can get this right, we will offer hope to a world suffering from gender confusion.
Identity - Week 22
June 12, 2011
June 12, 2011 • Dan Jarrell
Identity - Week 29
July 31, 2011 • Dan Jarrell
Today is the last week in our study of 1st Corinthians. We began it together in January! We've considered philosophical issues such as the source of true wisdom and the role of God's spirit in our lives. We've discussed sexual purity, marriage and divorce, the exercise of rights and liberties, leadership in the church, the roles of men and women, church discipline, spiritual gifts, the Lord's Supper, the resurrection, and the importance of order when we gather to celebrate in worship. Some of the issues are controversial and tend to stand out in our minds but above every issue, regardless of controversy, hangs the priority of love. 16 times in 16 chapters the Apostle brings his readers back to the priority of love. In this final chapter Paul drives that point home once more. Most of the chapter has very little to do with us really. Verses 1-9 talk about a collection for the persecuted followers of Jesus in Jerusalem. Verses 10-12 introduce Paul's young disciple Timothy. Verses 15-24 are all personal and contain greetings, expressions of thanks, and finally a blessing. But tucked right in the middle of these 24 verses is one of the most pointed descriptions of love's power in the entire Bible. I hope it challenges you today and that you leave here more enthralled with God's love for you and the privilege you have to live a life of love. - Dan Jarrell
Identity - Week 28
July 24, 2011 • Dan Jarrell
RESURRECTION! What if it didn't happen? How would our lives be different if the resurrection were just a myth or a religious fable and not an historical reality? Every promise of faith would be empty. Hope would vaporize. We would still be in our sin, guilty before God and destined for judgment. Fear would be energized were it not for the resurrection and the grief of losing a loved one, of knowing the end of life on this earth was really the end of life, would be overwhelming. Everything substantive about the Christian faith fully depends upon the promise of resurrection. Today we consider this spectacular promise and its implications for how we live. It's a paradigm shifting truth. It can rearrange every value in your life and change the way you look at every challenge, opportunity, and experience. At the core, followers of Jesus are people of hope and that hope depends upon the resurrection. I pray you are encouraged by this passage today and challenged to rethink how your life reflects confidence in the fact and the promise of resurrection. - Dan Jarrell
Identity - Week 27
July 17, 2011 • Jim Capaldo
Throughout the world, the gathering of the saints of God, for public worship, reveals unbelievable uniformity. This is one reason why a Christian from the United States can find herself in authentic fellowship with other worshipers of Christ, even in the farthest reaches of the earth. It is not that public worship looks the same, sounds the same or even smells the same, but rather that the underlying principles for orderly public worship are upheld and celebrated wherever growing believers are found. Today, in 1 Corinthians 14:26-40, we will examine these principles deeper and find that when Christians publicly gather for worship, they strengthen each other, they instruct each other, they encourage each other, they reflect God's created order together and they mutually submit to the authority of the scriptures. These principles have distinguished the public gathering of the saints from the time of the Apostles until now. They are timeless and they glorify God. Today, I look forward to celebrating them with you! - Jim Capaldo