Passage for this week: 1 Corinthians 6:9-10
Resource: Pray The Word Podcast by David Platt
How to use this resource: The questions below should be read after you and your family have spent time listening to the resource, and after you have had time to read through the passage carefully and slowly. Following your family time discussion (using the questions below, or your own questions regarding this text), close in prayer and ask your kids how you can be praying for them and let them know how they can be praying for you as parents.
Family Devotional Question For This Week:
1. What stands out to you the most from reading this passage? What did you learn that is new to you from this passage? What did you learn that caused you to remember something you’ve known, or what has been reinforced from reading this passage?
2. Is this passage saying that any person who has ever done any of the things mentioned within cannot be saved? Why or why not?
(Potential answers: This passage is NOT countering the forgiveness, grace and mercy that are central to the Gospel message. So, lets look at the very next verse – verse 11 – which states “…and SUCH WERE SOME OF YOU!”. This means that “some of you” were engaging in such acts of sin before you were encountered with the Gospel, believed it, repented of your sin, and trusted in Christ’s forgiveness as you were given a new life, new heart, and now new desires and motives! God’s word remains blatantly clear, though, that those who are entrenched in these sins must be saved and freed from practicing such things in order for the Gospel to remain true and for Christ’s power over sin and death to save such a person. People who engage in such sins that Paul described are to be disfellowshipped from the Body so that their sin can be understood and repented of!)
3. How are we to view the sin that we still have in our lives? What is the difference between Sanctification and Justification?
(Potential answers: At salvation, there are some struggles that God, for reasons unknown to us, frees us from completely, and others that we will continue battling against for the rest of our sanctification process. Sanctification can be described as the process God brings each true believer through for the rest of their lives as believers who are to become more and more like Christ. But in that sanctification process, we continually are called to heartfelt repentance and grief over the sin that we commit against a Holy and mighty God. Justification happens at the moment of belief and trust in the life of a true believer where that believer has been pronounced ‘clean’ because of the imputed righteousness of Christ’s perfect sacrifice as our propitiation for our sin (Romans 3:24-25). Forgive the brevity of such momentous tenets described above. The sin we have been forgiven of as well as the sin we continue to commit is the necessary cause for the perfect sacrifice, once and for all (Hebrews 10:14), that Jesus willingly endured in our place so that we – through repentance yet again – are cleansed. This understanding should radically change the way we see sin – we should be reminded here of the seriousness of our sin and our constant need for repentance and returning to God each and every day, for His mercy is new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23.)
Prayer Prompts For This Week:
– Pray that we would understand the weight of our sin in light of eternity and never celebrate it as David described.
– Pray that God would turn our hearts away from sin and for God to deliver us in those moments of temptation or weakness (see 1 Corinthians 10:13). Pray for the desire to lead a holy and set apart life so that as others see our examples, they would come to know and glorify God (Matthew 5:16).
– Continue to pray for one another and write down or remember the requests of each person. Either have one person pray over each request, or delegate those prayer requests so that each person prays for something or someone specific.