Today, in our scripture text we find a word that is common to many languages. It is the same word or close to the same word, whether you are praying with a group of Christians who speak Chinese, Russian, French, or an African language. It is the word, AMEN. This one word brings to every culture a vision of God and the world.

Loving Each Other By Encouraging Each Other

Love never fails. I want something with that kind of assurance, with that kind of guarantee

God sets us free for many reasons. But one of the most powerful reasons is that He desires us to use our freedom to bless others.

Today we learn that our differences are all part of God's plan, so that there are no divisions and rivalry, but instead unity and oneness. As a united church we have a beautiful purpose to fill every nook and cranny of the earth with the glory of Christ.

The church is to be different, literally the light of the world shining in dark places. There are many groups in the world that do good things, but the church is different in that it seeks to glorify God and love people. The difference is spiritual. The difference is supernatural.

We are a new creation and community because of Jesus’ death and resurrection. We celebrate this in the Lord’s Supper as we celebrate through remembering and proclaiming. Let us rejoice in the new covenant this morning that was made possible through the blood and body of Jesus Christ.

This is really what life boils down to: is God’s name being glorified in and through my life or is another? Paul was trying to make this point to the church at Corinth with the issue of pagan feasts they were attending and with the Lord’s Supper that they were also participating in. Paul wants us to see in today’s text that the Lord’s Supper is really about what you do when you are not at the Lord’s Supper and what we do with the threat of idolatry coming at us every day. Let our life not be a feasts of idols, but a life lived for the glory of God, for that is why Christ died for us.

What we believe about God and his majesty, and what we believe about the meaning of being human in relation to God will make all the difference in the world how we think and act about abortion and racism