Gospel Life Church - Cape Girardeau

What happens when a church confuses tolerance with grace? In this message from 1 Corinthians 5, Pastor Elliott Swoboda explores why church discipline is not cruel—but deeply loving. When sin goes unaddressed, the church’s witness, purity, and joy begin to erode. Drawing from Paul’s rebuke to the Corinthians and the words of Jesus Himself, this sermon reminds us that truth and grace are not enemies—they are brothers born of the same covenant. True love calls one another back from the fire, for the glory of God, the good of the sinner, and the health of Christ’s body.

We live in a world allergic to correction. Say something is wrong and you’re judgmental; call someone higher and you’re labeled toxic. But the Kingdom of God calls us to something better—correction that restores, not crushes.Paul shows that godly correction isn’t condemnation—it’s love that warns, invites, and walks beside. The goal isn’t shame that destroys, but discomfort that redirects. Like a loving father, Paul calls his spiritual children back to joy: “Imitate me as I imitate Christ.” Correction that heals always reminds us who we are—beloved sons and daughters who reflect Jesus in both word and deed.Real transformation doesn’t come from talk, but from power—the Spirit’s power alive in us. The Kingdom doesn’t move through empty words or defensive pride, but through humble imitation of Christ. When we receive correction in grace, we make space for resurrection power. And when we offer correction in love, we help others find their way home to joy.Godly Correction... Ensures there is love within the relationship Affirms the love within the relationship Does not Destroy Someone's Identity, but affirms identity in Christ Provides Direct Correction instead of coddling to the point of avoiding correction Calls to one's side - Uses "we" language Sounds like, "We are not people who do _______.  We are people who do ________. Godly correction doesn’t shrink us—it strengthens us. It’s the Spirit’s way of saying, “This is who we are. Let’s walk back together.

The Christian has a unique identity in Christ.  First as a servant, but also as a steward.  We live under the Authority of Christ and serve Him with all of our life, but He has also put us in charge of His Creation Estate until He returns.  We are both humbled and honored.  

Many in our day have traded the fullness of Christ for smaller, safer versions of faith—shaping God to fit politics, comfort, or culture. In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul calls us to grow up, build wisely, and see the magnificent width of Christ in whom we already have everything. The Church must rise above narrow ideologies and become a living temple—overflowing with truth, healing, and power for a world starved of both.

Our nation reels from fresh wounds—another school shooting, Trey Reed’s tragic death, and the assassination of Charlie Kirk, a brother in Christ who was killed for proclaiming truth about Jesus and God’s created order. These events expose both the depth of evil in our world and the confusion in the church over how to respond. Paul tells us plainly: we are a people with the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16).The natural mind runs on fear, anger, politics, and human wisdom (sourced in the Adversary’s lies)—it comes to nothing, always divides, and always fails. The spiritual mind, given by the Holy Spirit, discerns with humility, boldly speaks in love, and shapes our posture, affect, words, and actions.Our grief, anger, fear, and hurt are real, and God does not dismiss them. Yet we must not let worldly wisdom—whether from media, politics, or ideology—become our guide. We are a people who test everything against the mind of Christ.If we cut ourselves off from one another, we silence one of the Spirit’s clearest voices—God often speaks through His people, sharpening us, correcting us, and holding us fast to Christ when the world pulls us apart. In this dark time where disagreements so easily divide, we are a people who honor one another and speak the truth in love. When we pursue understanding, we grow both in hesed and in the wisdom that comes from God.

Just as the Son, who loves the Father does what He sees the Father doing, we are shaped by the people we love and  who love us. God has given us His covenant love—hesed—as the foundation for our identity. When that love takes root among us, we don’t just learn about Christ, together, we begin to look more like Him.So how do we build a community bound by hesed? Carve out unhurried time together—because joy isn’t found in isolation, it’s born when God’s people share life face to face. Have fun together.  Break bread often—around the table, gratitude grows, stories bind hearts, and prayers knit us into one family. When weaknesses are shared, cover them with tenderness instead of quick fixes, creating a refuge where honesty and healing can breathe. Let joy be the engine of our life together, so that when storms come, our first response is love, not fear. These everyday rhythms weave us into a family that reflects Christ’s own love—and together we will shine His light into the lives of others.

Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, reminds the Corinthians that real change comes from Christ, not from following favorite teachers or chasing wisdom and power. Divisions grow when believers anchor their identity in people instead of Jesus. The gospel centers on Christ crucified, which brings both the wisdom and power of God. True transformation comes only through connection with Christ Himself.

The church doesn’t stand on our strength, but on God’s call, God’s grace, and God’s faithfulness.

We experience Compassion Fatigue when we have a joy leak and our ability to make disciples is stripped from us.  True rest is receiving joy from the Lord's delight in us through Jesus.  The Joy of the Lord unsticks us in our uncomfortable emotions and frees us to have compassion on people who are like sheep without a shepherd.

How do we truly change?  What brings spiritual and emotional transformation?  Psalm 3 takes a particular historical event associated with David, and from it draws an individual lament that is for the everyday Israelite in which he or she may involve themselves with the rest of the people of God for the purpose of expressing and shaping their emotions.  We are truly changed when our identity is shaped by attaching to God by looking to Him for the provision of all our needs.

We need joy in our soil for good fruit in our lives.  The Psalmist of Psalm 145, a psalm of David, is leading others to bless the Name of the Lord, so that the Joy of the LORD may be fulfilled in them.  

Psalm 2 challenges us in that the emotion that is expressed is a lament for the lostness of the Gentile Kings who are representing in the Psalms.  Heaven's perspective is shared to provide security, the Messianic King speaks affirming his ultimate purpose (representation, resembling the ideal godly man, and ruling in a way that is good, leads to flourishing, and participation in the Mission of God), and it ends with advice given to the Gentile Kings to come under the Good rule of the King set by God in order to be blessed.  This Psalm leads us to Repentance, Faith, and a Heart for Mission.

“Happy are the people who help others and are helped by others,for they delight in the Story of God, in which they have a significant place.”

By what will your life be shaped?  The situations and circumstances in which we find ourselves (wether they be thrusted upon us or by our own making) can carry the most weight in our life.  Especially when these circumstances and situations are difficult.  This was certainly the case for the Israelites in Egypt,“Let heavier work be laid on the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words.” (Exodus 5:9 ).  However, the story of Exodus culminates in the climax of “the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle.”  Over everything else, the Lord and His presence with His People was to carry the most weight in their lives.  In other words, the Lord being with His people was to shape their lives.  As the story of the Bible unfolds, we see Jesus show up as the Same God of Exodus, working the same plan of redemption for His people, but in Christ this plan is fully accomplished.  The veil was torn and removed so that God’s people can see the glory of the Lord embodied in Jesus.  Jesus also prepared the way for the Holy Spirit to indwell, not the Tabernacle, but the people of God as living stones.  We now, with unveiled faces to God’s glory and the presence of God in us, are empowered to be shaped into God’s people.  We finished looking at the parable Jesus told to the Chief Priests and Elders in Matthew 21.  Two sons were told to go work in their father’s vineyard.  One said, “yes,” but didn’t go.  The other said, “no,” but changed his mind and went.  This parable forces us to ask, “Which son am I?”  Am I giving lip service to God, but reflecting different loyalties in the way I live my life?  Or, has Jesus moved the glory and presence of God into my life?  If we claim the latter, then we must be willing to confess and repent from those wayward loyalties. The Israelites carried the story of Exodus with them.  It is the story that defined them.  The story of Exodus shaped the way they lived.  We have been ingrafted into Israel.  The Church is the fulfillment of Israel.  Exodus is our story, too.  However, our story is greater, because we have the greater mediator, Jesus the Christ.  Jesus saved us and He continues to shape us by moving the glory of the Lord into our lives through His finished work and the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit, by whom we are empowered to live like God’s People—Because that is exactly who we are.  By what will your life be shaped?  

We are a shepherding church because we are under the reign of our Good Shepherding King Jesus.  

Jesus stirs our hearts to be generous, giving of our possessions, time, and skill.

Ascension.

We must carefully guard against twisting Scripture to fit our historical and political agendas.  Psalm 118 is a song for the Covenant People of God to praise and give thanks to God in a way that galvanizes them for perseverance.  It was not a victory song for nationalism.  

The beauty of God's Character made away for Redemption.

We rebel against God when we worship the creation over the Creator.  This means we need intercession.  We have the perfect intercessor in Jesus Christ, who also calls us to intercede for others who are lost in their pursuit of creation instead of the Creator.