Latest / A Chapter a Day Bible Reading / August 7 - 1 Corinthians 3

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August 7 - 1 Corinthians 3 · A Chapter a Day Bible Reading

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  Hello friends, it's Sean. Here it is Wednesday.
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  It is the 7th of August. So glad you have tapped on play.
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  Or maybe you even asked your personal assistant to just start
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  playing your favourite. Listen to me getting a little
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  presumptuous about favourite podcast being this one play this
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  podcast. I don't know.
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  That's how I played in my my car drive to work each morning.
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  I asked very politely and my Irish Siri starts playing it for
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  me. So clever.
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  But wherever you are, no matter how you are playing this great
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  to have your company as we continue to have this expose of
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  all that was going wrong in the church in Corinth.
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  And today we're going to hear about this chap named Apollos.
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  No, this has got nothing to do with the Apollo 13 mission.
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  You know, all those years ago, seated from there, Apollo was
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  the Greek and Roman God of well, he was the God of a lot.
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  He was the God of the sun, the God of archery, prophecy, poetry
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  and music. And this God was, well, a
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  central figure in life back then.
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  And so people who believed in those religions named their
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  children after them. Just if if you have got children
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  or you have been named after some biblical character, same
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  deal. Except they lived in a world
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  where a very different religion was the dominant religion of the
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  day. And in fact, the reason they
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  called it the Apollo series of missions in space was because
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  one of the NASA administrators was at home reading a
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  mythological book and came across this image of Apollo
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  riding his chariot across the sun and thought, cool, that's
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  what we're going to do. So we named them the Apollo
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  missions. But here we have a worldview
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  which in some ways we still haven't moved all that far from
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  where our world is, certainly not a world that lives in line
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  with God's rulership of it. So we are going to hear about
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  this chap who is part of that world but has converted and is
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  indeed now becoming a force for good in God's Kingdom.
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  So let us read together, friends.
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  First Corinthians, chapter 2. Dear brothers and sisters, when
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  I was with you, I couldn't talk to you as I would to spiritual
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  people. I had to talk as though you
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  belonged to this world or as though you were infants in
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  Christ. I had to feed you with milk, not
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  with solid food, because you weren't ready for anything
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  stronger. And you still aren't ready, for
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  you were still controlled by your sinful nature.
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  You were jealous of one another and quarrel with each other.
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  Doesn't that prove that you were controlled by your sinful
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  nature? Aren't you living like people of
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  the world? When one of you says I'm a
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  follower of Paul and another says I follow Apollos, aren't
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  you just acting like people of the world?
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  After all, who is Apollos? Who is Paul?
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  We are only God's servants through whom you believed the
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  good news. Each of us did the work the Lord
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  gave us. I planted the seed in your
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  hearts, and Apollos watered it. But it was God who made it grow.
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  It's not important who does the planting or who does the
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  watering. What's important is that God
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  makes the seed grow. The one who plants and the one
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  who waters work together with the same purpose, and both will
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  be rewarded for their own hard work.
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  For we are both God's workers, and you are God's field.
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  You are God's building. Because of God's grace to me,
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  I've laid the foundation like an expert builder.
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  Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this
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  foundation must be very careful, for no one can lay any
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  foundation other than the one we already have, Jesus Christ.
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  Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of
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  materials, gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay or straw.
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  But on the Judgement Day, fire will reveal what kind of work
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  each builder has done. The fire will show if a person's
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  work has any value. If the work survives, that
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  builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up,
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  the builder will suffer great loss.
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  The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping
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  through a wall of flames, don't you realise that all of you
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  together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives
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  in you? God will destroy anyone who
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  destroys this temple, for God's temple is holy, and you are that
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  temple. Stop deceiving yourselves.
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  If you think you are wise by this world's standards, you need
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  to become a fool to be truly wise.
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  For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God, as the
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  Scriptures say. He traps the wise in the snare
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  of their own cleverness. And again, the Lord knows the
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  thoughts of the wise. He knows they are worthless.
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  So don't boast about following a particular human leader.
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  For everything belongs to you, whether Paul or Apollos or Peter
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  or the world or life and death or the present and the future.
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  Everything belongs to you and you belong to Christ and Christ
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  belongs to God. Oh Jesus, it is not comfortable
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  when we feel so foolish when we stand up for you or when we live
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  according to your ways and it rubs up against our culture.
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  We can be left flushed cheeked, embarrassed, heart beating fast
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  thinking why am I in this situation where I feel so
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  stupid? Jesus, continue to embolden us,
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  continue to encourage us that looking foolish in the eyes of
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  this world is not a bad thing, but staying true to you and your
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  wisdom and your holy ways, that is what you want for us.
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  So purify our heart through that fire that Paul wrote about, so
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  that all that's left in US is what is eternal and lasting and
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  of you. So that when the tribulations
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  and trials that this world throws at us hit us, that we
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  would stand firm for you, no matter how foolish it might look
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  in the broken eyes of this fallen world.
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  Because we love you and we choose you and to live our lives
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  for you. Jesus.
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  So embolden us to do that. We pray all of this in your
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  wonderful, saving, loving and forgiving name, Jesus, Amen.