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1 Corinthians | Chapter 4 | Audio · Life Community Church

• 0:13
  Hello, Life Community Church.
• 0:15
  It's so good to have you join us again for week four of our Summer in Corinthians series.
• 0:22
  I'm your host, Shelley Williamson, and today we'll be reading First Corinthians chapter four.
• 0:28
  The New Living Translation reads this way.
• 0:33
  So look at Apollos and me as mere servants of Christ who have been put in charge of explaining God's mysteries.
• 0:41
  Now, a person who is put in charge as a manager must be faithful.
• 0:46
  As for me, it matters very little how I might be evaluated by you or by any human authority.
• 0:53
  I don't even trust my own judgment on this point.
• 0:57
  My conscience is clear, but that doesn't prove I'm right.
• 1:01
  It is the Lord Himself who will examine me and decide.
• 1:06
  So don't make judgments about anyone ahead of time before the Lord returns, for he will bring our darkest secrets to light and will reveal our private motives.
• 1:17
  Then God will give to each one whatever praise is due.
• 1:22
  Dear brothers and sisters, I have used Apollos and myself to illustrate what I've been saying.
• 1:28
  If you pay attention to what I have quoted from the scriptures, you won't be proud of one of your leaders at the expense of another.
• 1:35
  For what gives you the right to make such a judgment?
• 1:38
  What do you have that God hasn't given you?
• 1:41
  And if everything you have is from God, why boast as though it were not a gift?
• 1:48
  You think you already have everything you need.
• 1:51
  You think you are already rich.
• 1:54
  You have begun to reign in God's kingdom without us.
• 1:59
  I wish you really were reigning already, for then we would be reigning with you.
• 2:04
  Instead, I sometimes think God has put us apostles on display, like prisoners of war at the end of a victor's parade, condemned to die.
• 2:13
  We have become a spectacle to the entire world, to people and angels alike.
• 2:20
  Our dedication to Christ makes us look like fools, but you claim to be so wise in Christ.
• 2:27
  We are weak, but you are so powerful.
• 2:31
  You are honored, but we are ridiculed.
• 2:34
  Even now we go hungry and thirsty, and we don't have enough clothes to keep us warm.
• 2:40
  We are often beaten and have no home.
• 2:43
  We work wearily with our own hands to earn our living.
• 2:46
  We bless those who curse us, we are patient with those who abuse us.
• 2:50
  We appeal gently when evil things are said about us.
• 2:54
  Yet we are treated like the world's garbage, like everybody's trash, right up to the present moment.
• 3:02
  I am not writing these things to shame you, but to warn you as my beloved children.
• 3:09
  For even if you had ten thousand others to teach you about Christ, you have only one spiritual father.
• 3:17
  For I became your father in Christ Jesus when I preached the good news to you.
• 3:22
  So I urge you to imitate me.
• 3:26
  That's why I have sent Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord.
• 3:31
  He will remind you of how I follow Christ Jesus, just as I teach in all of the churches wherever I go.
• 3:38
  Some of you have become arrogant, thinking I will not visit you again, but I will come, and soon if the Lord lets me, and then I'll find out whether these arrogant people just give pretentious speeches or whether they really have God's power.
• 3:54
  For the kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk, it is living by God's power.
• 4:01
  Which do you choose?
• 4:03
  Should I come with a rod to punish you, or should I come with love and a gentle spirit?