What did you learn at the Sunday morning gathering?

What did you learn this Sunday at the gathering of the church where you attended?

This week I had the rare occasion to simply be a part of those listening to the sermon, rather than also the one preaching it. We’re in Minnesota visiting family, and I had the joy of attending the church our daughter and her husband call home.

The preacher was beginning a new series in Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth. Thus, we were at the very beginning of the epistle —

Paul, called as an apostle of Messiah Jesus by God’s will, and Sosthenes our brother:

To the church of God at Corinth, to those sanctified in Messiah Jesus, called as saints, with all those in every place who call on the name of Jesus, Messiah, our Master — both their Master and ours.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Master, Jesus, Messiah.

(1 Corinthians 1:1-3)

After the service, some of our family headed to a coffee shop and then ate lunch together. And I asked what I almost always do on Sunday afternoon, “What did you learn from the service, the sermon, or the text today? How did the Holy Spirit speak to you in a lyric or a part of the passage?”

It’s a simple question, and it’s a great way as a family, or friends, to further engage with the gathering. We had a really great conversation, and as always, I learned more than just what the Spirit had spoken to me, by listening to and hearing what the Spirit was teaching my family.

A couple things we heard the Spirit saying.

First, I think we all were impacted by the preacher’s pointing out that Paul was addressing, in this opening of the letter, our identity and our allegiance. Read the text above, and see if you agree with that exegesis (note: exegesis is the science of drawing out the meaning of a text).

Second, I was deeply struck by Paul’s statement, “to those sanctified in Messiah Jesus.” As a sinner still struggling with falling short of our Father’s standard, of transgressing his laws, of not being all he has called me to be, I really needed to hear this morning that my identity is grounded in the reality of my sanctification. My sanctification in Messiah, Jesus. That I am sanctified, past tense. That while I still have a ways to go in being made like Jesus, that work is also done.

As John Piper once said it to me, “God had to make you perfect before he could make you good.”

I
Am
Sanctified

It was a good morning.
The Holy Spirit was at work, teaching and shaping us.

What did the Spirit say to you?