The God You’re

Looking For.

From Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians (Part

two)

The God You’re Looking For?

OA God who comforts us.OA God who can be trusted.OA God who loves us.OA God who accepts us.OA God who gives generously.

How do people view church…or God?

Paul’s motivationOHow he now views God.

“Christ’s love has moved me, at times, to extremes. His love has the first and last word in everything we do.” (v.14)

OHow he now views other people.

“We no longer evaluate people by what they have or how they look.” (v.16)

Paul’s revelationOWhat God can do in us.

“Therefore, if any-one is in Christ, they are a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come!” v.17)

OWhat God has done for us?

“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ.” (v.18)

Paul’s revelationOWhat God can do in us.

“Therefore, if any-one is in Christ, they are a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come!” v.17)

OWhat God has done for us?

“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ.” (v.18)

Or to put it another way“God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them” (v.19)

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (v.21)

Paul’s expectationOEnter the ministry“(God) gave us the ministry of reconciliation… He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” (vv.18-19)

OShare the message

“We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” (v.20)

A Challenge for 2013

Don’t look on things as they are, but how they

could be!

OReconciled to God…to be a community of reconciliation

ONo more dividing walls - (racial, social or relational)

“Building bridges to make Jesus known”

Seeing things as they could be!