Sermon thoughts – Psalm 137 & 1 Corinthians 6:1-11

When I was first asked to preach to the Antioch crew I had little hesitation picking an old sermon and reworking it to suit the audience. For my second time I opted to do that same thing but take it back to the Old Testament – various opinions from the people I knew suggested OT sermons were often the best for the young audience.

So I went back to the sermon I did on Psalm 137 with these key points:

• Our citizenship is not of this world, but in Zion – the heavenly place of rest
• Verse 9 is a difficult verse, however properly understood we see that this psalm is ultimately a prayer for God to remember the enemies of His people and to bring about just retribution upon them.
• Ultimately we are to remember God above all else – and for us today, we are to remember Jesus and cling fast.

It went relatively ok – I had original misgivings about the suggested length of time which was confirmed during the sermon. I split it in two and played a song in the middle (SCC’s – Not Home Yet) but when I got up for the second time to finish off, people’s faces began to droop. Not a good sign and something to keep in mind for next time I preach in Mid-October.

Then a few weeks later I had my turn to preach through 1 Corinthians 6:1-11. Main emphasis in this particular sermon covered:

• Law suits between Christians over trivial matters are a bad idea
• The underlying theme to this passage, which connects it to what is previously said and what is to come, is the idea of ‘bad judgement’ – bad judgement displaying itself in the acceptance of an immoral relationship (chapter 5), in bringing law suits (chapter 6:1-8) and failing to understand the sanctity of the body as God’s temple (rest of Chapter 6)

Whilst most people said it was concise and pretty clear I knew, even before I started, that I had left the ending quite short and had thus negated what could have been a more powerful ending/application.

With that in mind, and doing a bit more thinking, I came up with these final challenges from the passage:

• Are we, as Christians, using the appropriate wisdom when it comes to resolving disputes between ourselves – or do we still cling to the notions that our rights need to be protected?
• In keeping with how Jesus gave up His rights for us, will we give up our ‘rights’ for others?