Latest / Scripture Central / Scripture Central Come Follow Me Insights (Sep 11 - Sep 17) 2 Corinthians 1–7

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Scripture Central Come Follow Me Insights (Sep 11 - Sep 17) 2 Corinthians 1–7 · Scripture Central

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Hello everyone. Thanks for listening to Come
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Follow Me Insights with Taylor and Tyler presented by Scripture
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Central. We use a lot of visuals in our
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videos, so if you want to see the visuals, we invite you to
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find us on YouTube. Thanks for listening and enjoy.
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I'm Taylor and I'm Tyler. This is Scripture Central's
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Come, follow Me insights this week. 2nd Corinthians chapters
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one through 7. So if you could give a title to
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this particular book of scripture, Second Corinthians,
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that. There are a lot of potential
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answers here, But my favorite option would be to call this
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epistle the Great Exchange, because what's going on here is
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incredibly powerful in not just its historical setting, but in
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its doctrinal setting. So if we if we actually begin
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not in chapter one but go clear over to chapter 5 verse 21, so
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this is called in in many circles this is called the great
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Exchange verse. Listen to this for he has made
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him so that he would be God has made his Son to be sin for us
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who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in
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him. So what's happening that that
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might have sounded a little complicated at first, but what
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you have is Christ who is in his perfection, us who are in our
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imperfection in our sinful carnal fallen state.
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And then you have God the Father who sees our fallen state, and
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there's nothing we can do about it.
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I I can't resurrect myself, and I can't go into the past and fix
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what I did wrong because I'm imperfect.
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But Christ, who never did any wrong, he he could help us.
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And So what this becomes is a great exchange.
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It's one of the most merciful verses in all the Scripture
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cannon that we have. Without understanding, let's
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look at it one more time. For he hath made him to be sin
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for us, so he has Christ take upon himself our sin.
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He becomes the embodiment of our effects of the fall, if you
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will, And yet he knew no sin, but he becomes the embodiment of
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our sin because of this exchange that's taking place, that we
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might be made the righteousness of God in him.
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So it's this beautiful interchange that's taking place
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throughout Second Corinthians, but it really culminates right
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there in chapter 5, verse 21. This is powerful how Paul takes
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situations. Going on in the Corinthian ward
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where we talked about in the past was dealing with a lot of
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internal division and conflict, and he uses a variety of
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challenges they're facing to help them to see how the gospel
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can inform their lives. In fact, in particular, what
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he's addressing in in these chapters is other Christian
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preachers had showed up. And they had been very verbose.
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They brought letters of recommendation.
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They were very wise. They were wealthy and they
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disparaged Paul. Remember Paul had he had created
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or he had been the original preacher for the that Christian
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community. He was a tent maker and worked
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with his hands. And suddenly you bring in these
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very eloquent preachers and they're basically saying, why
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would you listen to a manual labor who isn't very
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sophisticated? When we have these letters of
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recommendation, look how wealthy we are.
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And so some of the Corinthian Saints were saying, oh, maybe we
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should follow these preachers who are building themselves up
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and building up their own kingdoms because they are really
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awesome to be around. And Paul writes this letter and
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and just shows that Christ himself, who had all things,
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he's the king of the heavens, descended below all things.
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He lived in poverty. He suffered.
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He did everything he didn't have to.
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To lift us up. And so if anyone's really going
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to be a preacher of Christ, they should follow his example.
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To be suffering with people up, building them, working for their
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behalf. It's okay to be a laborer with
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your own hands. It's okay if you don't speak
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with sophisticated words. Did Jesus come with deep
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sophistry and philosophy? So this context is important
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now, whether or not. We master the context.
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This principle is true, but I love how Paul uses this very
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challenging context in the Corinthian ward to make it
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totally clear the beautiful principle that we received
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everything from Jesus Christ so God could receive all things,
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which is us. Now if we remember this is we,
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we call it Second Corinthians, but really it's it's at least
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Third Corinthians because we lost that first letter that we
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already discussed back when we introduced First Corinthians as
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described in chapter five of First Corinthians.
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So we don't have his first letter, we don't have the
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response letter back to him from them.
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What we have was our First Corinthians, which is his then
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response. And you'll remember he was
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pretty in parts of First Corinthians.
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He was pretty heavy-handed. There was some rebuking, there
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was some disciplining and some correcting going on.
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And you could also see how other people from the outside could
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come in and say, why are you going to listen to this guy?
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He's just beating you up. He just tore you down.
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He made you feel like like dirt here.
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So why are you listening to him? And isn't it fascinating that
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principal in Doctrine comment section 121, that you rebuke be
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time with sharpness, but then you show an increase of love
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afterward? That's what the Great Exchange
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Epistle is. It's it's Paul.
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You're you're going to see this as we go through these chapters
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today. You're going to see him
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exchanging his rebuke with love. And what a beautiful principle
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for parents, for leaders, for anybody that you work with, that
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if you ever have to do any correcting to make sure that
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afterward there's an increase of love lest they esteem you to be
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their enemy. It's a beautiful principle that
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we see this object lesson of this actual epistle playing that
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out for us on the page. So just to reinforce, if there's
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nothing else you remember from the lesson, just remember that
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God the Father set up a plan for you to be redeemed by his Son
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Jesus Christ. That Christ was willing to
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descend below all thing, exchange His perfection and
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receive your imperfection and thus blot it out.
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So before we dive into to chapter one and then work our
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way through these, let's develop this great exchange one step
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further. It's this idea of our sinful
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state versus Christ's perfected righteousness.
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That's what's being exchanged here.
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He's righteous. We're sinful.
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This this concept from the book Mere Christianity, CS Lewis
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writes the following Only a bad person needs to repent, but only
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a good person can repent perfectly.
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The worse you are, the more you need repentance, but the less
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you can do it. The only person who could do it
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perfectly would be a perfect person, and he would not need
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it. You see, you see the paradox
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here. You see the incredible need for
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a great exchange to take place. Now skipping down, he says.
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Unfortunately, we now need God's help in order to do something
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which God in his own nature never does at all, That is, to
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surrender, to suffer, to submit, to die.
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Nothing in God's nature corresponds to this process at
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all. Now, skipping down a little bit
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further, but supposing God became a man.
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Suppose our human nature, which can suffer and die, was
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amalgamated with God's nature in one person.
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Then that person could help us. He could surrender his will,
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suffer and die because he was a man, and he could do it
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perfectly because he was a God. You and I can go through this
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process only if God does it in us.
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But God can do it only if he became a man.
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So brothers and sisters, the as as we go through again, as
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Taylor said, if you if you forget everything else, all the
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other details. Don't forget this when we say
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when we quote John 316 for God so loved the world that he gave
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his only begotten son, that that statement is encapsulated in
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this in this amazing great exchange that he is offering for
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us. And yet how often do we complain
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about the need to repent or the need to try to change our life
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and the need to try to swallow up our will in the will of the
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Father. You look at it from this
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perspective and we should all be shouting Hallelujah.
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There's there's hope for me. Why?
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Because Christ condescended from his righteousness to become the
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OR to take on flesh and to become sin without ever sinning,
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He stayed perfect, but he became the object of sin to pay the
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full price of justice and answer the ends of the law for us.
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So that condescension of Christ could then lead to exaltation
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for each of us, where we can receive, in exchange for our
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sin, our weakness, our badness, we could receive His
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righteousness. So as we begin chapter one,
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you'll see this pattern in all of Paul's epistles.
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He begins by introducing himself and then by giving his
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credentials as an apostle and as a witness of the name of Jesus
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Christ and this authority of the Godhead in every in every
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epistle that he's writing. He begins in that way.
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So I I find it fascinating, Taylor, where we've noticed as
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you go through, there are very different messages for different
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groups of Saints in different locations.
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So there's some contrast in these epistles, but it's also
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fun to notice the comparisons and say, wow, that is a repeat,
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which means because of its frequency and its repetition.
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And we should pay more attention to that as saying, ooh, this is
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something that is probably universally applicable, more so
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than these one off lessons. Notices use of the word grace
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and peace. Now this is a common greeting
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that is used in ancient letters. Even today when people used to
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write letters, they would say things of this nature.
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But in particular Paul is trying to heal the breach.
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A bit of what happened in the letter of First Corinthians.
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Where he had to speak with clarity about the problems that
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were going on with the the disunity in the church.
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But now he wants to come with God's grace and peace to help
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them to see that you can repent and you can find yourself back
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in God's graces as you have created a unified Christian
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community. So here we begin with this, with
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this grace and peaceful intro, he says.
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Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, meaning one who is sent
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by Jesus Christ, by the will of God.
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And Timothy, our brother, that's his, that's his missionary
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companion at this point when he's writing the letter and he's
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writing to the to the Saints in Corinth verse 2.
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Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord
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Jesus Christ. I love this.
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Again, you're going to notice throughout this entire book,
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just keep this on the front burner, This, this great
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exchange symbolism of everything in this book is going to be
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taking the good and exchanging it for the bad.
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It's it's the the eternal recycling program in the It's
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not just recycling, it's the eternal upgrade program.
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Where in this case, he says grace and peace, Where do they
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come from? They're not coming from Paul.
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They're not coming from your neighbor.
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They're not coming from your leaders.
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They're coming. The grace and peace comes from
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God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Well, grace and peace coming from above are going to be
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exchanged for what? What do we bring to the table?
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What do we bring to the to the body of the Saints, in this case
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in Corinth or in your home ward? What do we bring?
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We bring the opposite, often of grace and peace.
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We bring disunity, disloyalty and turmoil and tribulation and
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trial. That's We come wanting these
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good things, but we're not very good at it.
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We're not perfect. And so God the Father and His
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Son offer this great exchange for what we bring.
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It's a pretty amazing exchange rate.
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Like I've traveled to foreign countries where I exchange my
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national dollars, the money in that place, and there's a loss
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that happens or sometimes a gain.
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This one is like, I bring my brokenness and God exchanges it
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for what is real. And by the way, the word real
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and royal come from the same word and God is the king.
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The royal king provides what is real and that is the exchange.
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He is providing us our royal identity that we get to bring
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into His Kingdom where we are fully admitted into His
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presence. So now watch this continue.
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Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
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Father of mercies and the God of all comfort.
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There's a lot of confusion or there's a lot of debate in the
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world of Christianity at large about theology, about the nature
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of God, about the nature of Christ and and the relationship
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within the Godhead. You know, when you read Paul's
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intros in every one of his epistles it he seems to speak so
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beautifully about that perfect relationship between the Father
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and the Son in the Godhead. And he's not emphasizing the
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things that sometimes get emphasized in Christianity,
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because to him he's seeing it very clearly.
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This perfect relationship where God sent his son to save us.
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Now look at verse four who comforted us in all our
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tribulation. Circle that word all for a
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moment and pay attention all our tribulation.
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Meaning there are some of you who maybe feel like Jesus Christ
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is a great savior for everybody else and their problems, but not
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for my unique combination of trials or sins or addictions or
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weakness. I love how Paul uses the this
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extreme, all-encompassing word who comfort us in all our
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tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in any
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trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of
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God. It's back to his idea of of
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charity that we talked about before, this idea that these
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charitable deeds and kind words and actions, they're wonderful,
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but they are a reflection of the comfort that God has given us
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notice again. So let's read this one more
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time. God comforteth us in our
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tribulation. Why not just for our own
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benefit? So that we can now learn to love
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our neighbor more completely, that we may be able to comfort
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them, which are in any trouble. We've experienced it, we've felt
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it. And by the way, this comfort
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often manifests itself by somebody else who has
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experienced that, who is loving us and comforting us, and now
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giving us the capacity to turn outward and comfort others so
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that all may be comforted of God.
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That is the source of all charity, of all comfort.
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It's not us we're sinful, but because of the great exchange,
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Christ has brought that to us. Let's take this in economic
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terms about exchange. God is basically exchanging our
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worthless currency with his enduring currency.
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He gives that to us, not simply to enrich us alone so that we're
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sitting around like I have all this divine currency and wealth.
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It's to give it away, and as you do, it magnifies and expands.
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So as he strengthens us, we are asked to strengthen others, and
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it's powerful that in the English word for comfort.
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The base word is a Fort. A Fort is a place of strength
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and security. Then Paul, before he, he's going
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to give them an apology. He's going to speak very softly,
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very kindly, very lovingly to them.
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But before. So he's introduced this idea of
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comfort. And then he, he's wanting to say
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to them, just so you know, you're not the only ones who
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have faced tribulation and rebuke from God or from people.
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And Versedy says, for we would not brother and have you
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ignorant of our trouble, which came to us in Asia, that we were
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pressed out of measure above strength and so much that we
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despaired even of life. We thought we were going to
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going to die. That the the tribulation and the
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trouble was so intense we didn't know if we were going to
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survive. I want to build on this.
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It's interesting that so intense was the stress and pressure and
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suffering. Paul said he wasn't certain he
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on his own devices. In fact, he knew his own
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strength was insufficient to endure to the end.
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And this is the powerful verse 9, which is back to this great
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exchange. But we had the sentence of death
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in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God.
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God, which raises the dead. And we can take dead also,
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symbolizing any suffering we deal with.
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So just know that no matter the suffering you have, God is not
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simply trying to test your personal strength of how much
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you can endure, but how much can you receive of His comfort to
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endure? Are you willing to exchange your
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total suffering with his total comfort?
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And that's what Paul's trying to convey here.
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Paul didn't endure on his own. He had God's strength to do it.
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Isn't it interesting how the Great Exchange doesn't always
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result in? Bad things being replaced with
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good things. Sometimes it's our agenda being
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exchanged with God's agenda sometimes.
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And our agenda doesn't have to be bad or wicked or full of
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tribulation. In this case, it was a good
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thing. But God had other plans for
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Paul. He had a different direction for
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Paul to go. And so even there, you're seeing
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this great exchange to me that this whole concept is.
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Truly, let God prevail. That phrase that President
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Nelson loves using is give your whole life.
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Let him prevail. And whatever exchanges he wants
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to make, let's be willing to take them.
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Now let's jump down to verse 21. Now he which establishes us with
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you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God, by the way, who gets
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anointed in ancient times. And from Paul's context, as it
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having studied as a Pharisee, he knows all about anointing, which
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is the the root word in Hebrew Mashiach, the Anointed 1, the
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Messiah will in the Old Testament.
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The anointed ones are kings, prophets, and priests.
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And now he's saying God hath anointed us through Christ.
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Well, Christ is the anointed 1 the Messiah, and He comes down
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as part of His great exchange to anoint us.
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So He takes upon himself our sin, our flesh, and in exchange
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He puts His righteousness symbolically on our heads
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through this great anointing of oil so that we can become.
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Kings, Queens, priests, priest, priestesses, prophets,
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prophetesses that that group of anointed ones, the the exchange
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rate once again astronomically in our favor, the word
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Melchizedek. We think about the Melchizedek
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Priested, which often represents this process or the power
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through which these ordinances are conveyed.
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Melchizedek literally means King of righteousness, representing
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the totality of all this anointing, that all of us have
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been promised by God and that we all desire, that we all want to
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fulfill our divine destiny to be like God, a king or queen of
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righteousness. Now, one of the sweetest verses
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in a very sweet epistle. By the way, I I hope you're
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enjoying Second Corinthians. It's it's one of my favorites
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because it's just it's so filled with grace and hope.
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And and God's goodness that we quite frankly don't deserve.
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And and it's so powerful. Look at verse 22 to to bring
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this home from a different angle, who hath also sealed us
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and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
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If you look up that word earnest in Strong's Concordance, you'll
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see that it's a financial term. It's the The closest thing we
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would have to that today would be earnest money.
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If you if you want to buy a property or buy a home or buy a
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business or something, you you show that you're earnest in your
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intention to own that thing by putting down some money.
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It's earnest money. It's not even close to the full
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price for that. For whatever it is that you're
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purchasing. It's just to show that I'm
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serious about this relationship, and I fully intend I am earnest
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in giving you the full amount. Someday, when when certain terms
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of the agreement are fulfilled, we'll stop and think about it
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this way. God has sealed us, and He has
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given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
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God has given you in your heart. He's given you these little it's
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not even a down payment. It's just these little amounts
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of earnest money to show you he's serious about purchasing
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you, about owning you, about paying the full price.
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To and giving us the fullness that He has to offer.
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But for now, during the test of mortality, He can't give us the
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splendors. That's why the Scriptures say, I
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have not seen nor hath ear heard, what great things God
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hath in store for those that love Him.
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He can't give us the full purchased possession yet, but he
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can give us the earnest money and for him, the currency.
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The great exchange currency of that earnest money is his Holy
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Ghost, the Holy Spirit in our heart.
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So when you feel the Spirit testifying to you of God's love,
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of Christ's reality, of His perfect atonement and his
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long-suffering grace, enjoy that earnest payment.
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Enjoy that that reminder yet again, God.
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Is serious about me. He's serious about owning me,
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and he's got all these things in store for me.
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And I don't have to beat myself up because I'm not absolutely
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perfect, but I can rely more fully on He who is perfect.
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Because you see, the Great Exchange has two arrows.
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It's not just about what Christ was willing to give up for us.
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It's what we're willing to let go of and give up.
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For him otherwise, the exchange can't take place.
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He has perfectly fulfilled his side.
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God the Father perfectly fulfilled His part in giving his
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Son. I have to be willing to open my
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heart and to accept that earnest payment of the Spirit and act on
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it and let go of some of those things that that my heart has
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become so rooted in. In this fallen world and in my
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fallen condition for that great exchange to to be able to be
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completed. This reminds me of the Book of
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Mormon, where we have the knee fight preachers going among the
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Lamanites and Lemonai's father, the king of the Lamanites.
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He says I will give away all my sins to know thee.
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That's part of the great Exchange.
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It's invitation for all of us. We just kind of need to get over
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ourselves and say it's okay. God is actually not shocked or
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surprised that we're in a fallen state.
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This was not, like, somehow disordered from the plan of
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salvation. This was actually all part of
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the plan. And we sometimes get ourselves
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so stuck in our fallen nature, like, I must be so wretched.
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Well, it is true, but that's kind of by design, so that we
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can turn everything over to God and let him make us unwretched.
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In fact, as you read Paul, you'll often notice how he talks
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in opposites and look for those themes here.
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And this is the theme of opposites.
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God's greatness fully subsumes our nothingness, and it's okay.
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It's okay. God is not afraid of our
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nothingness. So then he he finishes chapter
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one by saying, Moreover, I call God for a record upon my soul.
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He's basically invoking the the heavenly authority as as God
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being the ultimate testifier or witness in in a court or legal
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setting. He's calling upon God that to
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spare you. I came not as yet unto Corinth
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to say God has other things in store for you and for me.
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And he's my witness. This is This is why I didn't
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come to you yet. Not for that.
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We have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your
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joy. For by faith ye stand.
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He's given you opportunities to stand without, without us coming
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and doing this for you. And then he he launches into his
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apology in Chapter 2. But I determined this with
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myself, that I would not come again to you in heaviness, not
29:57
like that heavy letter we'd read earlier.
30:01
But instead he wants to bring this love and forgiveness and
30:04
even seeking for their love and forgiveness in return.
30:07
And doesn't he tie us into Jesus?
30:09
Because it's like God has forgiven us, He's loved us.
30:13
As a Christian community, we should be doing the same.
30:16
And Paul now in this chapter is trying to model for people.
30:19
I am trying to be more like Jesus by forgiving you and also
30:24
seeking your love in return. So if any of you have any of
30:27
loved ones who are struggling with their faith, or struggling
30:31
with their their belief, or struggling in any other way,
30:36
look at how he describes this in verse three.
30:38
I wrote this same unto you, lest when I came I should have sorrow
30:43
from them of whom I ought to rejoice, having confidence in
30:48
you all, that my joy is the joy of you all.
30:52
For out of much affliction in anguish of heart, I wrote unto
30:55
you with many tears. Some of you, some of you can
31:00
relate to this better than others, this affliction, this
31:05
seeing loved ones struggle. And it it, it hurts, it pains
31:10
our soul. He says.
31:13
But that you might know the love which I have more abundantly
31:17
unto you, why does it hurt so bad?
31:23
It's because you love so well. If you didn't love, it wouldn't
31:29
hurt. You wouldn't care what your
31:31
loved ones did with their life. There's an element reflected
31:35
here of the divine, where you become a little bit more like
31:40
the Savior. When you have that empathy, when
31:43
you have that compassion, when you have those feelings and
31:46
those prayers to heaven in their behalf.
31:50
Why? It's not because you want to
31:52
force them to conform to certain behaviors.
31:55
It's because you want them to be happy, and you know that the
31:58
decisions they're making, in many cases, aren't going to lead
32:02
to any kind of lasting happiness.
32:03
Well, can you see, can you see the Great Exchange here?
32:08
Can you see God the Father looking at us with those same
32:12
tears of compassion and love and empathy?
32:17
And can you see the Savior's infinite agonies through his His
32:22
infinite atonement? He loves so perfectly that he's
32:28
willing to take upon himself and bear our burdens and carry our
32:33
sorrows and our griefs for us, because he knows what he can
32:38
then offer on the back end that great exchange of him being able
32:43
to one day. Wipe away all your tears.
32:48
So, brothers and sisters, the point here is not to take this
32:52
upon ourselves. It's to cast this burden upon
32:56
the Lord. It's to trust in him more fully.
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It's to express more love to those, to those loved ones who
33:03
are struggling in a way where they feel our confidence in
33:09
Christ, our trust in God for them.
33:14
That will be a much better motivating factor than guilting
33:19
or shaming them or or preaching negatively at them trying to get
33:24
them to conform to behaviors. But that steady, quiet
33:28
confidence in Christ that comes as we radiate that love.
33:32
So look at verse 6, verse 6. Sufficient to such a man is this
33:39
punishment which was just or which was inflicted of many?
33:44
So that contrary wise you ought rather to forgive him and
33:47
comfort him less. Perhaps such an one be swallowed
33:50
up with over much sorrow. It's that idea of they know they
33:56
they know they're doing wrong. They're trying to justify it,
33:59
trying to rationalize. I get it, But they often don't
34:03
need more condemnation because they're experiencing some
34:06
suffering. They need to experience a great
34:09
exchange from us. This comfort in exchange for
34:13
judgment. I like how he continues to build
34:16
on this. Again, he's trying to signal for
34:20
them how he is aligned with Jesus Christ.
34:22
He's trying to represent as an apostle.
34:25
Here's what Jesus Christ would do 1st 10 To him to whom ye
34:30
forgive anything, I forgive also.
34:33
So this is Paul speaking, but you can imagine Jesus speaking
34:36
for if I forgive anything to whom I forgave it, for your
34:39
sakes, forgive I it in the person of Christ.
34:44
So again, a Christian community, we are called Christians not
34:48
because we declare it with our words, but because we live it in
34:52
our souls and their lives. And forgiveness is a core
34:56
essence, if you consider the Great Exchange.
34:58
The Great Exchange is the essence of forgiveness, where
35:03
something is given away our sins that really shouldn't have been
35:08
given away because we had to pay the price.
35:11
And God says I'm going to forgive it, I'm going to take
35:14
care of it. So that kind of forgiveness is
35:17
inherent and in the essence of the Great Exchange.
35:22
Which now brings us to Chapter 3.
35:25
And you heard Taylor at the beginning talk about these
35:28
letters of recommendation, letters of or commendation.
35:33
Look how he he. Goes after that idea.
35:37
Verse one. Do we begin again to commend
35:39
ourselves, or or need we as some others, epistles of commendation
35:44
to you, or letters of commendation from you?
35:48
Do we need other people to give to give a good word so you'll
35:52
trust us? Yeah.
35:53
Could you imagine if the way the church was run is that you
35:56
needed a whole bunch of letters of recommendation before we
35:59
called release society presidents and home teachers,
36:03
prophets and apostles? Now that it is true, there has
36:06
to be a form of recommendation that comes from God.
36:08
There's a sense of revelation where somebody has been called
36:12
to a position. Not that a bunch of elite people
36:15
say, hey, we really like this person and we're going to write
36:19
a nice letter and we're going to install them as a leader, like,
36:23
out of our own merit or own wisdom.
36:25
And that was going on anciently, that look, the modern world kind
36:29
of works like that. We're not saying that's a
36:30
problem. You get letters of
36:32
recommendation when you go get a job or if you're trying to get
36:35
an opportunity somewhere. That's how the world works.
36:37
And frankly, it's a good thing, but all on its own, that is not
36:42
how the Kingdom of God works. You need to have authorization
36:47
from God. And this is the point Paul
36:49
makes. He has already has the letter of
36:51
recommendation. It is the spirit of God.
36:53
It's the visions he received. He's about as recommended as
36:56
they come. And it's beautiful how how he
36:59
plays that out in verse 3. For as much as ye are manifestly
37:03
declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, you're
37:09
our letter. It's you, this, this living body
37:13
of people, written not with ink but with the spirit of the
37:19
living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables.
37:25
Of the heart. That's where the real exchange
37:30
can take place. That really matters.
37:32
Not these ink written. Look at all these important
37:35
people who think I'm important, therefore you should think I'm
37:38
important. That means nothing.
37:41
All of the the commendations of the world aren't going to have
37:45
the angels up in heaven all of a sudden start taking notes,
37:48
saying, oh, we we should pay attention.
37:51
Yeah, my academic credentials, my degrees, my my attainments in
37:58
work do not qualify. Qualify me for service in the
38:01
Kingdom. Those skills actually might
38:03
benefit the Kingdom. But look, I've been to the
38:06
church for a long time. I have seen people called into
38:08
positions who, from a worldly standpoint, weren't technically
38:12
qualified and God magnified them.
38:14
And there were other people who apparently were qualified
38:16
according to worldly standards, and God called them to other
38:20
positions. And I love how Paul just says
38:22
it. Look, if you need a letter
38:23
recommendation, you're it. I'm the one who actually
38:26
convert, you know, converted, preached all of you to Jesus
38:29
Christ. And some of the group is now
38:31
saying with their letters of recommendation, you're going to
38:33
follow them. I also love how he ties in
38:36
Jeremiah chapter 31, where he brings in this idea, the
38:39
covenant now being written in the heart.
38:41
We don't need written instructions now.
38:43
It is helpful to have written instructions, but ultimately
38:46
what God cares about? Do we have His covenant written
38:49
in our heart? You know, that's that's actually
38:51
a really good point that that is worth digging into a little bit
38:56
more here is that it really doesn't matter how much ink has
39:02
been used to write how many amazing words and commandments
39:07
and prophecies and revelation, if none of them end up written
39:12
in my heart, the world could be filled.
39:15
Literally. With sacred words and sacred
39:18
books from from holy prophets. And it won't make any difference
39:24
to me unless some of those words or more of those words become
39:30
written, written on my heart. So isn't it amazing opportunity
39:34
as you, as we continue to go through the Come Follow Me
39:37
curriculum, that the church is prepared that the goal isn't
39:41
just to become smarter, it's not to learn some historical facts
39:44
and some? Context.
39:47
Or maybe some Greek language stuff.
39:49
All of that is a means to an ends of getting the words of God
39:55
written in our heart. And look at verse 5.
39:59
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as
40:03
of ourselves. We we technically can't.
40:08
Write letters of recommendation that really matter in an eternal
40:12
sense, for ourselves or for anyone else.
40:14
We can't give ourselves authority, but our sufficiency
40:18
is of God. Our authority comes from God.
40:21
There you go. So then he he brings in Moses
40:25
and his countenance and the veil, and he does this beautiful
40:29
object lesson, because when Moses came down off of Mount
40:32
Sinai, he was glowing and his face was so I guess,
40:37
transfigured and and bright that he used a veil.
40:41
And then Paul says verse 14 but their minds were blinded.
40:45
For until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the
40:50
reading of the Old Testament, Which veil is done away in
40:53
Christ? He's saying, you, you Jewish
40:56
Christians in Corinth, you're keeping the veil over your face
41:01
when you're reading the Old Testament.
41:04
And if you take that off, it is done away in Christ.
41:09
Now you can see the full meaning of the Old Testament if you read
41:13
it through the lenses of Christ. But even unto this day when
41:18
Moses is red, the veil is upon their heart.
41:21
Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be
41:23
taken away. Now look at verse 18.
41:27
But we all with open face, notice no veil.
41:33
All of us, when we take that veil off, be holding as in a
41:37
glass or a mirror, The glory of the Lord are changed into the
41:44
same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the
41:49
Lord. Is this back to the greatest
41:51
change? You pull the veil off and you
41:53
look in the mirror and you're supposed to see the face of God.
41:59
And Christ came down, pulls the veil off.
42:02
And who does he see in the mirror?
42:04
He sees you, he sees me, and he answers the ends of the law for
42:10
you and me. He He takes our place in that
42:16
Court of Justice, and the full extent of the law is extended to
42:21
him in the infinite agonies and the punishment that were meant
42:26
for me, that were deserved by me, that couldn't be overcome by
42:31
me. He took it so that now when I
42:34
look in the mirror and you look in the mirror we see reflected
42:38
there. The image of Christ brings us
42:40
back to Alma Chapter 5. Have you received His image in
42:44
your countenance? He's already done everything he
42:48
can in this great exchange. Now He will assist us and help
42:53
us to do our part to give our life over to Him so that
42:57
increasingly, when you look in the mirror, you see reflected
43:01
there elements of the divine elements of our Savior and
43:05
Redeemer. Let's put this back into their
43:08
cultural context. In Corinth, which is a very
43:12
diverse, vibrant society. Imagine any large city today,
43:16
anywhere in the world, just so much diversity of religious and
43:19
political and economic thought. So in Corinth, you had all these
43:25
up. On Aqua Corinth you had all
43:26
these temples dedicated to so many gods.
43:28
You'd have the image of the gods and people would have to go do
43:31
sacrifices to those gods. Imagine how soul expanding it is
43:36
that instead of going up to Aqua Corinth and giving away food
43:40
offerings to some fake God who's got a statue there, Paul is
43:45
teaching through revelation. You do need to do a sacrifice,
43:48
you need to make offerings. It's your soul, it is giving
43:52
away your sins and who are you doing it to?
43:55
To God. And you can see God's image.
43:58
In the mirror. That's really quite stunning.
44:02
Now we've grown up with these concepts, so to us it's like not
44:05
that like revelatory. Like yeah, I've heard this
44:08
before For the ancient Corinthians it would have been
44:11
really mind expanding. Like wow, this is incredible
44:14
stuff. So again, just think that what
44:16
God asks us to do is to give those sins away so we can more
44:21
fully see His image reflected in our lives.
44:24
And in the community of God's image, that's everywhere.
44:28
We should be seen in our Christian communities
44:31
representations of God everywhere.
44:32
This is so powerful, Taylor. Now, now watch with this context
44:36
that Taylor's just set up with, with the the Corinthian Saints
44:40
living under the shadow of Acro Corinth, and the incredible
44:43
amounts of idol worship going on.
44:45
Look at verse four, in whom the God of this world hath blinded
44:49
the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the
44:53
glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
44:58
shine unto them. Keep in mind those idols are
45:01
images of their pantheon of gods and goddesses.
45:05
And he's saying, how does God reveal who he is?
45:09
He sent his son. And you move on to verse 6.
45:13
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness back to
45:16
the creation, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the
45:21
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
45:26
So another great exchange we bring darkness.
45:30
He brings light, He shines that light in in exchange for our
45:36
darkness. Verse 7 But we have this
45:38
treasure in earthen vessels. It's a way to refer to your
45:43
flesh, your your body of flesh and bone.
45:47
We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the Excellency of
45:51
the power may be of God and not of us.
45:56
It's all of the good things that we're going to do.
45:59
It's because of the Great Exchange.
46:00
It's because of God giving us these capacities, this power to
46:04
act, this knowledge, this wisdom, these these good desires
46:08
that we just. We give them a place in our
46:10
heart to grow. And then the gardener does all
46:14
of the miracle of them growing that all of these amazing
46:19
miracles that are being performed in these earthen
46:21
vessels, it's because of God. It's not.
46:26
We're not generating that on our own.
46:28
Which brings us to verse eight. What do we bring?
46:32
We are troubled on every side, yet we're not distressed.
46:39
We are perplexed, but we're not in despair.
46:43
And Paul loves to just. Put these opposites together to
46:47
kind of make these learning experiences just more obvious.
46:52
So. So if you're feeling frustrated
46:54
that you're saying, wow, I'm experiencing so many troubling
46:58
things in my life right now, go back to versa.
47:01
You are troubled on every side. And you've probably noticed that
47:05
troubles aren't very courteous. They don't usually stand in a
47:09
line and wait their turn. Sometimes they gang up on you.
47:14
Sometimes the the full fury of trouble unleashes like a a
47:19
violent storm in your life. But you'll notice the promise
47:24
through Christ. We don't have to be distressed
47:29
if we're rooted in Christ. If we're continually seeking to
47:33
give our life over to Him, we will have trouble.
47:38
But we don't need to be distressed.
47:40
We can be still and knows he is God.
47:44
It won't make the troubles go away, it will just have allow
47:49
him to calm the distressing storm and the despair inside of
47:53
his verse 90 takes it further. Persecuted but not forsaken you.
48:00
You start flipping through the scriptures forwards and
48:03
backwards from here and you're going to find all kinds of
48:06
trouble, perplexing situations and persecution, but we don't
48:13
need to have the the negative results or responses to those
48:18
elements, he says. We're going to be cast down but
48:23
not destroyed, always bearing about in the body, the dying of
48:27
the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made
48:30
manifest in our body. We're allowing the Great
48:36
Exchange to Live Today. Don't This isn't a lesson for
48:41
next week. This isn't a lesson for Sunday,
48:44
or for next year, or for when when you're much older or near
48:48
death. This is a lesson for today.
48:51
In fact, it's a lesson for right now to allow the life of Jesus
48:57
Christ to take deeper root in in my heart and in my life as I
49:03
move forward. Now if you jump over to verse
49:06
16, for which cause we faint, not, but though our outward man
49:11
perish. Yet the inward man is renewed
49:15
day by day. As you get older and older, or
49:19
as disease, or as accidents or as natural effects start taking
49:25
place on the body, the outward man begins to perish.
49:29
But he's saying, the inward man is renewed day by day for our
49:35
light affliction, which is but for a moment worketh for us a
49:39
far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
49:44
Can you see the great exchange? Can you see yet again an
49:48
exchange of our weakness, our mortality, our frailties being
49:53
exchanged for what? And an exceeding and eternal
49:58
weight of glory rather than this moment of affliction that we're
50:03
experiencing, if we're willing to take up the cross that God
50:08
has given us to bear, and if we bear it to the best of our
50:12
ability, with our focus fixed on Jesus Christ, the promise is
50:18
sure that the weight of glory is far exceeding the weight of that
50:25
cross that we may be bearing at this point in our life or moving
50:29
forward. So as you read Paul, you might
50:31
find him just a bit confusing at times with just how he uses
50:35
these opposites again and again. But if you again remember the
50:38
Great Exchange, this in some ways is the great opposite.
50:41
God has everything. We have nothing, hope, despair,
50:47
right? Sin, forgiveness.
50:49
It goes on and on. So as you read through Paul,
50:51
you'll see him again and again pairing contrasts that could be
50:56
understood through the lens of the Great Exchange.
50:59
So now let's let's skip over some of these verses and and
51:02
jump to the towards the ending of chapter 5 where he says verse
51:09
17. Therefore if any man be in
51:12
Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away.
51:17
Behold, all things are become new.
51:20
Great exchange all I bring, all the old.
51:23
He offers me all the new and all things are of God who hath
51:29
reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ.
51:34
The word reconciled there comes from this Greek word, which
51:39
actually is rooted in the word exchange, that you you change
51:46
coinage, you you change currency, there is an exchange
51:51
taking place and God is reconciling you to himself by
51:58
Jesus Christ. Heavenly Father is offering
52:02
Jesus Christ in this exchange and now we just have to give
52:08
what we have onto the table, which isn't very much in order
52:12
to accept that exchange rate. Again, if we think about like a
52:15
financial world, we have accounting and accounting is
52:19
this very process. We want to make sure that the
52:21
books are balanced, and if they're imbalanced somehow,
52:24
there has to be a way. To reconcile the books and if
52:29
you're in debt, God is the only way to reconcile you.
52:33
In fact, I'll take the word finance just very briefly.
52:35
It's such an interesting word. The word finance comes from the
52:42
word final. So if you think about the final
52:46
days or the last days like where all the accounts have been
52:49
brought together and reconciled finance is about things coming
52:53
to an end, we're going to close out the books.
52:56
And God is the great closer of the books who reconciles
52:59
everything, and it's actually Jesus Christ who presents those
53:03
books reconciled, spotless, and clean to God.
53:06
And despite all the messiness of the accounting that we brought
53:09
to bear, Jesus is the great accountant, the great financier
53:14
who knows how to smooth everything out.
53:17
He does all the exchange, and he presents everything glorious to
53:21
God. And we are down here so worried
53:24
that we have to fix the accounting like it's not our job
53:29
to do the work of Christ in that way.
53:33
Ultimately, he is the one who does the great finance, the
53:37
great accounting at the final day.
53:40
Now, yes, we need to do our part to fix things as we can as we
53:44
rely on Jesus Christ. But it's very, very powerful
53:48
that again, one of the core things of Paul is.
53:52
Stop trying to save yourself. Accept the freely offered grace
53:58
and love of Jesus Christ. Bind yourself in that
54:00
relationship and be obligated to follow in the works of Jesus
54:05
Christ, which is being willing to suffer.
54:08
Endure difficulty to share with one another, to forgive.
54:12
And Christ never need to do this, But we need to repent.
54:16
But you don't have to save yourself.
54:18
It's glorious when you let go of the need.
54:21
To do God's work of salvation on your own.
54:25
I've experienced that in my own life.
54:27
And he reemphasizes that in verse 19, after introducing the
54:31
ministry of reconciliation In the bottom of verse 18, he says
54:35
to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the Word world unto
54:41
himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.
54:45
And I've committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
54:48
God is doing His work in the world through Christ, not
54:52
condemning you because of your imperfection, but through Christ
54:58
allowing this, this opportunity to be reconciled to God.
55:02
That the word underlying reconciliation here, katala gay,
55:06
it's this. It's this Greek word that keeps
55:09
coming up and getting translated as reconciliation or being
55:13
reconciled. Keep in mind, back in Romans 5
55:18
verse 11, it was translated as atonement and it's the only
55:23
time, one time in the entire New Testament 27 books where you get
55:27
the word atonement. That was back in Romans 5 verse
55:30
11. Here it could have just as
55:33
easily been translated as atonement reconciliation because
55:37
it's the same Greek word underlying it here as it is back
55:40
in Romans 5, it's the atonement of Jesus Christ.
55:44
Brothers and sisters, is the ultimate exchange.
55:48
It's where Christ descended below all of us and took upon
55:53
himself all of our sins, all of our weakness, all of the effects
55:57
of the fall of Adam and Eve that we experience in any degree.
56:01
He takes it all, and that's the great exchange which now leads
56:07
into verse 20. Now when we are ambassadors for
56:12
Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you
56:17
in Christ said, be ye reconciled to God.
56:24
That's the key, is that we don't just look at the gospel of Jesus
56:29
Christ as one side of a coin, that it's What can God do for
56:33
me? And what did God do for me?
56:35
And what has Christ accomplished for me?
56:38
He already told you God is reconciled to you, and you're
56:42
reconciled to God through Christ.
56:45
And now what is our part? Be ye reconciled to God?
56:49
And how do I do that? I don't do that on my own.
56:52
I do that through Christ, through my covenantal connection
56:57
with him, by having faith in him, trusting him, repenting of
57:02
my sins, getting baptized, entering into that covenant
57:06
relationship with him, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and
57:09
enduring to the end on that covenant path.
57:12
That's how I become reconciled to God.
57:14
And by the way, I don't do any of that on my own.
57:18
I do all of that in connection with and empowered by and fueled
57:24
by the strength and the grace of Jesus Christ.
57:30
All of that reconciliation discussion now brings you to
57:34
where we started with the great exchange, verse 21.
57:38
With all of this, this context that we've shared, let's read
57:41
verse 21 again. For God hath made Christ to be
57:47
sin for us who knew no sin. Christ knew no sin, but God made
57:54
him become that for us, that we might be made the righteousness
57:59
of God in him. So here's the Father using the
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Son as this great exchange, Mediator of Reconciliation, or
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at one meant becoming one with God, which now brings us to
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chapter six. He says, We then, as workers,
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together with him, beseech you also, that ye receive not the
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grace of God in vain or. Lacking in purpose.
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So he he gives you in Chapter 6 these elements that are
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associated with our salvation and this reconciliation process
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of what do we need to do? And instead of being frustrated
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when bad things happen to us, recognize that God is in charge
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and He can turn all things to our gain if we keep our focus in
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the in the proper place fixed on Him.
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And of course, Jesus Christ is a great exemplar.
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There's all these verses 234-567-8910 all these bad
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things that may or could happen in your life.
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What happened to Jesus? He was the one who shouldn't
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have ever experienced anything bad.
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In the great Exchange he was willing to suffer all things.
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Paul also demonstrates it as a follower of Christ.
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He also has suffered a lot and that people shouldn't be
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surprised when they suffer. But in the great exchange you
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will be able to find comfort and peace and strength that God will
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give you to endure, and that suffering will be turned to an
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eternal weight of glory. Now you come down to verse 14.
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Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
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For what fellowship hath righteousness with
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unrighteousness? And what communion hath light
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with darkness? That yoke analogy, take my yoke
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upon you. From my yoke is easy and my
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burden is light. Can I just say there's never
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been a time when there's been more of an unequally yoked
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situation than when Christ invited me to come into a yoke
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with him. He took my sin, and in exchange
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he offers me his yoke, which is a yoke of righteousness.
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And let's provide some clarity here, because Paul used a
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different verse back in First Corinthians talking about the
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value of, say, a believing spouse being married to an
1:00:26
unbelieving spouse. And he indicated that the belief
1:00:30
of 1 spouse would be uplifting to the unbelieving spouse.
1:00:34
Well, is now Paul. Do we call him a liar?
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This guy can't seem to get his doctrine straight.
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Or would we see that as a good leader, he's giving very
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specific instructions at specific times, even if it seems
1:00:46
like on the face of it, they don't come together?
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And how would you reconcile this?
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Yes, it is okay to be married to somebody who has different
1:00:54
beliefs, to be in friendship with people who believe or act
1:00:57
differently. What we're talking about here is
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from an eternal standpoint, you need to be yoked to Jesus
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Christ. Yes, you will have lots of
1:01:07
relationships with people on different paths or on different
1:01:11
stations of the path back to Jesus Christ.
1:01:13
And don't find yourself stuck far back on the path because of
1:01:17
a friendship. You don't have to abandon
1:01:19
friends, but you don't have to necessarily stay at the same
1:01:21
spot they are. That's what Paul is saying.
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It's okay to be friends with people.
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Don't let where they're at keep you from progressing.
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And then he goes on to describe exactly what Taylor's talking
1:01:35
about here, verse 16. But what agreement hath the
1:01:38
temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the
1:01:43
living God, and that ye is in the plural form in Greek.
1:01:46
So he's talking to the collective body of Saints in
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Corinth. You, all of you, together,
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you're the temple of the living God, as God hath said, I will
1:01:54
dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and
1:01:59
they shall be my people. That OFT repeated covenant from
1:02:04
the Old Testament comes up again.
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Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, save
1:02:09
the Lord. Touch not the unclean thing.
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He's not talking about the people, he's talking about the
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temples and the idols. And the unclean worship, Don't.
1:02:18
Don't yoke yourself with those gods.
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They're not equal to you, nor are they anywhere close to
1:02:24
being, even in the same universe, to being equal with
1:02:27
God. Bottom of verse 17 said, I will
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receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be
1:02:35
my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
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None of the idols can say this, because none of them can talk.
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I will be. Your father and you'll be my
1:02:47
sons and my daughters. Remember the three great
1:02:49
identities, primary identities that President Nelson invited us
1:02:52
to, to take upon ourselves. I am a child of God.
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I am a child of the covenant. What's the covenant?
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I will be your God. You will be my people, is the
1:03:03
overarching essence of all of these covenantal connections
1:03:06
with God. And the third one, I am a
1:03:09
disciple of Jesus Christ. Which now brings us to Chapter
1:03:13
7. What do I do?
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I've I've had all of this beautiful, great exchange
1:03:19
imagery taught, I believe the reconciliation, the atonement
1:03:23
doctrine. I'm so thrilled that God's
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willing to to give me the earnest of his spirit in my
1:03:29
heart, these these down payments, so to speak.
1:03:32
But I keep messing up. I'm not perfect and it fits in
1:03:37
the context. Paul has this expression of an
1:03:42
apology or or forgiveness or even saying I'm sorry that my
1:03:46
letter to you caused so much distress.
1:03:49
And sometimes it seems like he's talking in contradictory terms.
1:03:52
Like if you take a look here he says in verse 8 for though I
1:03:56
made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I I did
1:04:00
repent if I received this, perceived that the same epistle
1:04:03
have made you sorry, though it were but for a season.
1:04:06
So he's not. He's glad that he sent it
1:04:09
because it had the intended effect of getting them to
1:04:11
repent. But he's also sorry that it hurt
1:04:14
people. So he feels both emotions.
1:04:17
And if you look at this chapter, he is trying to say I am sorry,
1:04:21
human to human, Christian to Christian, for any pain I may
1:04:25
have caused. But as a servant of God, I was
1:04:27
under obligation to teach you the truth and to invite you back
1:04:31
into that covenantal relationship.
1:04:33
And for that I am not sorry. So that's why we sometimes see
1:04:36
that Paul is seeing two things that seem to be a little bit
1:04:39
different, but he's speaking both as a disciple of Jesus
1:04:42
Christ and sometimes just as a a typical human who has those core
1:04:46
emotions. So, building on that, look at
1:04:48
verse 9 and 10, it says now I rejoice not that you were made
1:04:51
sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance, he said.
1:04:55
I'm not, I'm not mocking your tears.
1:04:57
I'm not or I'm not gloring in your tears.
1:04:59
Oh yeah, I I made them sad. He's saying that that doesn't
1:05:02
please me. But what does please me?
1:05:05
Is that ye sorrowed? To repentance.
1:05:09
For ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might
1:05:13
receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh
1:05:19
repentance to salvation, not to be repented of you don't want to
1:05:24
repent of being saved. And you don't want to repent of
1:05:27
feeling sorrow if it's godly sorrow that leads you to
1:05:30
repentance or brings you to God. But the sorrow of the world
1:05:34
worketh death. When you've done something
1:05:37
wrong, or maybe you've not even done something wrong, but you
1:05:40
feel bad about something you've done, turns out you did it
1:05:42
right. There are all these variations.
1:05:45
The fact is, if your sorrowing is godly sorrow, it will cause
1:05:52
you to turn towards God. It will cause you to change the
1:05:57
way you see God, the way you see yourself in the mirror, and the
1:06:01
way you see others. It will change.
1:06:03
You'll turn. That's what godly sorrow will
1:06:06
do, is it brings action that is drawing you closer to God.
1:06:12
Worldly sorrow causes you to turn away from God, to lower
1:06:17
your head in shame and guilt, in self loathing and feelings of
1:06:25
I'm never going to be good enough.
1:06:27
I'm never going to get this right.
1:06:30
I am so bad. Do you know what you're saying
1:06:32
when we say those kinds of things we're saying?
1:06:35
I need to be my own savior. I need to fix myself.
1:06:39
I need to heal myself, which flies in the face of everything
1:06:44
that Paul has been teaching with this great exchange.
1:06:47
What he's saying is godly sorrow is going to be this.
1:06:52
Turning to God with with a broken heart and a Contra spirit
1:06:58
and saying I can't do this, I'm broken.
1:07:04
I'm. I'm incapable of fixing my
1:07:07
problem. Wilt thou please have mercy on
1:07:11
me through the atoning blood of thy Son Jesus Christ, and help
1:07:16
me not continue to struggle forever in these realms, but to
1:07:22
be able to slowly over time have the Lord perform His redeeming
1:07:29
grace filled work in our lives, specially starting in our heart?
1:07:35
So this portion of the letter has a nice concluding in verse
1:07:39
16 where Paul is again trying to express an apology, brother to
1:07:44
brother, brother to sister in the Gospel, but also recognizing
1:07:47
his role as an apostle in the messenger of Jesus Christ.
1:07:50
That sometimes he has to teach reminders that there are things
1:07:54
that you need to do to be receiving all of this grace.
1:07:59
But he concludes, I rejoice, therefore, that I have
1:08:02
confidence in you and all things.
1:08:05
But where would he get that confidence from?
1:08:07
Is Is it because the people somehow are perfect?
1:08:10
They have chosen so well they never need God again?
1:08:12
Or if we go back to chapter 5, verse 21, that Paul has
1:08:17
confidence in them because he knows they're part of this
1:08:20
great, everlasting, whole, other great exchange?
1:08:23
In some ways it might be we could see that Paul is saying I
1:08:26
have confidence in you because I have confidence in God.
1:08:30
So as we conclude. Our hope, our prayer, our desire
1:08:34
not just for us, but for all of us, is that we can put these
1:08:38
lessons into action. As you now go and study your own
1:08:42
scriptures and and review these principles, and with a prayerful
1:08:46
heart, ask the Lord to bless you, inspire you with what this
1:08:51
looks like in your own life. How do we more fully embrace the
1:08:56
incredible Great Exchange offering that has been made for
1:09:00
us? To be reconciled to God through
1:09:03
his grace so that we might be made the righteousness of God in
1:09:11
Christ. That's our hope and our prayer
1:09:14
and our testimony that he will do this work if we'll give our
1:09:19
life to him. And and we leave that with you
1:09:23
in the sacred name of Jesus Christ.
1:09:25
Amen. Know that you're loved and
1:09:29
spread light and goodness.