1 Corinthians 11:1-16, Called to Honor
Theological Proposition/Focus: The call of a Christian is a call to bring honor to God and therefore anything that might be shame upon God should be completely absent from Christian behavior.
Homiletical Proposition/Application: Christians should make sure their actions bring honor to their God.
Introduction:
Image:
Setting the Stage:
Today we tackle a very hard passage!
However, just because a passage is difficult or doesn't say things we want to hear does not mean we can ignore the passage. Our commitment here is to preach the entire Word of God and so we will do exactly that. Our commitment is also not to water down the Word of God and not to speak beyond what is written in Scripture. We also must be careful to use the intellect God has given us to understand the context and meaning of Scripture. In other words, what we have before us is a challenging task but that Does not mean we should just ignore it.
Let's read the passage, 1 Cor. 11:1-16
Text: 1 Corinthians 11:1-16
Let me summarize my view of this passage before we go any further.
I think the point that Paul is trying to make here is that we must be careful to ensure that in our worship honor is brought to God and not shame.
Really, I think this is the simple straightforward application of the passage. Now there are all sorts of details we need to discuss but the simple application is simple. Make sure that your actions in worship bring honor to our God.
Need: Christians should make sure their actions bring honor to their God.
Preview: Today we will see the tGod has established a divinely set order to things, we must bring honor to God, and this is accomplished when we make prayer a priority.
Body
Let me start out by talking about the divine order that God has established.
Because God is not a God of disorder, we should conduct ourselves in a way that honors God's order.
Image: Who is flying the airplane? Positive exchange of flight controls.
I have told you many times that I love to fly but something that I also do is listen to podcasts of accident reports. Not to be morbid, but rather to learn from the mistakes of others. Having a second pilot in an aircraft is a great way to improve safety but only when things are properly ordered. A number of years ago an army Apache helicopter crashed. Upon investigation what was found was that as they were maneuvering close to the ground the combat team on the ground called on the radio and said they were going to give updated target coordinates. As the coordinates came in, the pilot in front flying the helicopter stated to the pilot in the back "you have the controls" and let go of the controls. Simultaneously, the Pilot in the back said "I've got it" 11 seconds later the helicopter impacted terrain. Accident data showed the the pilot in the back never touched the controls. When the politics said "I've got it" perhaps he meant the coordinates, we don't know. What we do know is that a little chaos resulted in a major incident.
