Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / February 12, 2023 | 1 Corinthians - Conclusion

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February 12, 2023 | 1 Corinthians - Conclusion · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_00: It's good to see everybody dressed in red this early for Valentine's Day.
0:04
SPEAKER_00: It is way to be on the ball, you guys.
0:07
SPEAKER_00: It's just next Tuesday.
0:09
SPEAKER_00: No.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: Excited for Sunday evening.
0:13
SPEAKER_00: You know, as we've been talking this whole week, right?
0:16
SPEAKER_00: Super Bowl press week, there's been a lot of conversation about Chiefs Kingdom, right?
0:22
SPEAKER_00: Chiefs Kingdom and Kelsey Bowl and a whole bunch of other things.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: But Chiefs Kingdom is really sort of our moniker.
0:30
SPEAKER_00: And it got me thinking a little bit about what we're talking as we're finishing First Corinthians this morning.
0:39
SPEAKER_00: We have had a long road.
0:41
SPEAKER_00: It's been 21 messages, 16 chapters.
0:44
SPEAKER_00: We got started back in September.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: And as we're closing the sort of the book here on this letter and chapter 16, one of the things that's going to come out is going to remind us a little bit of the chiefs.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: And the reason why is because Paul is basically going to be sharing what it looks like to be a member of God's kingdom, what it looks like to sort of dress the way, look the way, talk the way, all of the things that help somebody to be identified as one who belongs to God's kingdom.
1:19
SPEAKER_00: And there's going to be a lot of, some people would use the word random.
1:23
SPEAKER_00: I'm not using the word random, but varied topics here in chapter 16.
1:28
SPEAKER_00: And as we walk through them, we're going to look at six quick lessons that sort of mark what it looks like to be a member of God's kingdom.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: And in order to do that, we're going to sort of walk through a little bit of memory lane on 1 Corinthians.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: We're going to look a little bit towards 2 Corinthians, which we'll tackle next fall.
1:48
SPEAKER_00: But most of all, we are going to focus on finishing this book because God has given us chapter 16 in all of its glory, and so we want to do it justice.
1:58
SPEAKER_00: The other thing that I'll mention, though, before we dive in is that 1 Corinthians, if it has not been apparent, has been a letter written to a very specific group of people, right?
2:09
SPEAKER_00: We have talked about a lot of very odd, exciting, challenging topics.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: Everything from church discipline to food sacrifice for idols, marriage and singleness, prophecy, speaking in tongues.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about the resurrection and a whole manner of other things.
2:26
SPEAKER_00: But Paul has written this to a specific group of people.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: And so it's important for us to keep that in mind as we get to chapter 16, as we look through it, and we see how Paul just kind of moves from one thing to the next.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: It's because he's talking with people he's familiar with.
2:40
SPEAKER_00: So with that, we'll go ahead and jump into verse one, where Paul says, Now about the collection for the saints.
2:49
SPEAKER_00: Do the same as I instructed the Galatian churches.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: On the first day of the week, each of you is to set something aside and save in keeping with how he is prospering, so that no collections will need to be made when I come.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: When I arrive, I will send with letters those you recommend to carry your gift to Jerusalem.
3:05
SPEAKER_00: If it is suitable for me to go as well, they will travel with me.
3:09
SPEAKER_00: So you might notice here that at the beginning Paul starts with now about.
3:13
SPEAKER_00: And if you've followed along in 1 Corinthians with us, this is the sixth time where he has used that phrase.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: And every single time it is referencing something, or we believe it's referencing something, that the Corinthians had asked Paul about.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: So with uh now about marriage and singleness in chapter 7, now about food sacrifice to idols in chapter 8, now about spiritual gifts in chapter 12, so on and so forth.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: Because remember, this is not just Paul is sending this letter to a random group of people.
3:45
SPEAKER_00: He knows them and they've been in correspondence.
3:48
SPEAKER_00: They're pin pals.
3:49
SPEAKER_00: And so they've written something to Paul, he is responding, and so this first topic that he is closing the letter with is something that they've asked him about.
3:57
SPEAKER_00: Whether that's because that Paul asked them to give to this church, sort of to the mother church in Jerusalem, or if they just wanted to do it of their own accord.
4:05
SPEAKER_00: For whatever reason, they have this question.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: Paul, we'd like to give this gift, this financial gift, to the church in Jerusalem, which is undergoing heavy persecution and a number of other things.
4:16
SPEAKER_00: How should we go about doing that?
4:19
SPEAKER_00: And Paul sort of brings up a couple points here, but before we get into those, just in verse one, he says, Do the same as I instructed the Galatian churches.
4:28
SPEAKER_00: You might be aware that there is another letter in the New Testament to the church in Galatia, that's not this one.
4:35
SPEAKER_00: In fact, what Paul's talking about here is a region.
4:38
SPEAKER_00: You'll see here this is uh the path for Paul's first missionary journey, which is in kind of the middle of Acts.
4:45
SPEAKER_00: And you'll notice the region of Galatia there, which includes the churches of Antioch, Iconium, Lystera, and Derby.
4:52
SPEAKER_00: And so what Paul's saying here is, and he visited all these before Corinth, he says, I've gone to all these churches, right, and they are doing the same kind of thing, right?
5:01
SPEAKER_00: They are giving these financial gifts back to the church in Jerusalem.
5:04
SPEAKER_00: Why?
5:05
SPEAKER_00: Well, because, long story short, they were facing persecution and hardship at kind of the epicenter where Christianity had bloomed, obviously, where Jesus Christ was crucified and resurrected, and they are facing all this opposition from the Jewish ruling party at the time, amongst other things.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: And so, because of that, also being the largest church, they were in need of help.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: So Paul is giving them this context.
5:30
SPEAKER_00: He says that's not just you guys who are doing it, it's all these other churches around the area, kind of connecting them with this global church idea, which we'll actually get into later.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: But the other thing that he gets into here is this idea of proportional giving.
5:45
SPEAKER_00: And what Paul says, he uses the phrase, in keeping with how you've prospered.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: And the semblance there is basically stewardship, right?
5:53
SPEAKER_00: God has blessed the Corinthian church, some of them quite a bit, right?
5:57
SPEAKER_00: There is there's a great disparity in financial status within the church.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: They have some extremely wealthy merchants, and then they also have slaves, and they're worshiping together.
6:06
SPEAKER_00: And so instead of instituting something that's kind of like a flat marker for everybody, right?
6:12
SPEAKER_00: Everybody pitches in the same amount, as would be the case for the temple tax.
6:16
SPEAKER_00: The temple tax back in Jerusalem, same amount for everybody.
6:19
SPEAKER_00: Instead, Paul says, in keeping with how you have prospered, you should be giving in this way.
6:25
SPEAKER_00: And so what that looks like is Paul's saying, basically, cover your needs, cover the things that you desperately need so that you might live.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: But then when we look at the extra, right, that is the amount that we're considering for these finances.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: And the difficulty is that the needs idea sort of grows like Pinocchio's nose, right?
6:47
SPEAKER_00: As we change income brackets and things like that, often the things that we consider to be needs changes as well.
6:53
SPEAKER_00: And so whether it's person one or person two, hypothetically, what Paul is saying here is this amount and this amount are what are coming into the gift.
7:06
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, cover your basic needs.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: But your basic needs are not always the needs that you would consider.
7:11
SPEAKER_00: It's the needs that you require for living, and beyond that, we should be considering what generosity looks like.
7:18
SPEAKER_00: For myself, for my own household, what that looks like is we pay our mortgage, we pay our necessary bills, and then out of that we give back.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: Um, and beyond that is what we give to our retirement and Netflix and entertainment and all those other things.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: Regarding how, or I should say, whether that is your story, whether that is your situation, there's still some really specific lessons we can take away from this as we look at our first sort of kingdom identifier.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: So the first in verse two is where they all begin.
7:49
SPEAKER_00: On the first day of the week, Paul says, and for them that would be Sunday.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: Um, the first day of the week, because in sort of this Jewish culture, right, Saturday, right, is where we're finishing up.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: And so, anyhow, in Paul, for them, Sunday is where their day begins.
8:02
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, on the first day of the week, it is regular.
8:05
SPEAKER_00: There is a rhythm to it.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: Each of you, that would be another, it's a universal thing.
8:10
SPEAKER_00: It's proportional, but it is universal.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: Everybody in the church is involved with this.
8:14
SPEAKER_00: They are to set something aside.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: Well, to me, that sounds like a habit.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: That sounds like something that they've I used the word rhythm earlier, but they've adopted into their natural way of life.
8:24
SPEAKER_00: It has become part of their schedule, some of their consistent thinking.
8:30
SPEAKER_00: And then finally, we've already talked about it, to save in keeping with how they are prospering.
8:35
SPEAKER_00: I think that's proportional.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: And so, with all of these things, right, Paul has given them an image, and then beyond that, once that he comes, they've already collected all this money.
8:44
SPEAKER_00: That's why he says that no collections will need to be made when I come.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: It's all there.
8:49
SPEAKER_00: And then when he comes, he'll write these letters and they'll send a delegation off to Jerusalem where they'll deliver this gift, and it will do many great things there.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: But our first kingdom identifier this morning, being a part of God's kingdom, is marked by giving generously.
9:05
SPEAKER_00: It's something that is shown throughout the Bible in many different contexts.
9:08
SPEAKER_00: It shows up here in chapter 16, and it is part of being part of God's kingdom, considering the need for others and being a good steward of the gifts that God has given to us.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: As we move on to the second idea, Paul is now going to get into some what may we might call like travel arrangements.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
9:26
SPEAKER_00: Verse 5, I will come to you after I pass through Macedonia, for I will be traveling through Macedonia, and perhaps I will remain with you, or even spend the winter, so that you may send me on my way wherever I go.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to see you now just in passing, since I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord allows.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, because a wide door for effective ministry has opened for me, yet many oppose me.
9:52
SPEAKER_00: It strikes me, and I could be alone, that Paul sounds like some people in my life who are really terrible at making plans.
10:01
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
10:01
SPEAKER_00: When he's like, I might be there during the winter, and I might stay during the winter.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: Who knows?
10:08
SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure there are people, right, those with Google calendars back in Corinth, and they're like, Paul, I need to know if you're gonna be here in the winter, and furthermore, if you're gonna stay at my house during the winter, come on, Paul.
10:21
SPEAKER_00: His planning, right, leaves a little bit to be desired if we look at it from that perspective.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: And certainly he doesn't look like he's planning a trip the way that I might.
10:30
SPEAKER_00: But is there a good reason for that, right?
10:32
SPEAKER_00: Is Paul just sort of very casual about his plans, or does he have a specific reason?
10:38
SPEAKER_00: Well, let's go to very briefly to Acts 16, and I want you to get a glimpse into one example of how Paul views his travel plans, or what how his travel actually happens.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: This is Acts 16, verses 6 through 10.
10:55
SPEAKER_00: They went through the region of Fergia and Galatia.
10:59
SPEAKER_00: That'd be the Galatia that we talked about just a moment ago.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: They had been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: When they came to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.
11:10
SPEAKER_00: Passing by Mijah, they went down to Troas.
11:13
SPEAKER_00: During the night, Paul had a vision in which a Macedonian man was standing and pleading with him.
11:17
SPEAKER_00: Cross over to Macedonia and help us.
11:19
SPEAKER_00: After he had seen the vision, we immediately made efforts to set out for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to him.
11:28
SPEAKER_00: Does that sound like somebody who has concrete travel plans?
11:32
SPEAKER_00: No, but that does sound like somebody who is recognizing that the Lord is directing his paths in all of these different areas, right?
11:42
SPEAKER_00: Paul is a traveling missionary.
11:44
SPEAKER_00: His job that he has taken upon himself and that the Lord has given him is to go into each of these, into Asia, into the Middle East, into all of Europe, and to plant these churches.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: And when Paul is doing that, he'd stay at one for a couple months, maybe like he did in Corinth, a little over a year.
12:03
SPEAKER_00: He'd get to know them very well, but then he's ministering to all these different places, and then he's going back through trying to visit them.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: Paul understands the truth that God's timing is what he must be following and not his own travelogue.
12:20
SPEAKER_00: When we see Paul, he couches all of these plans with the phrase, if the Lord allows.
12:29
SPEAKER_00: As somebody, he had already experienced that, what happened in Acts 16, what we just read, as somebody who understands what it means to have their plans changed by the Lord himself, he understands that he can't be so callous as to act like there's a definitive truth in him coming, sometimes a year from now, to them.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: The idea about whether he's going to be there in the winter or not, he's actually being really polite because he doesn't want to impose upon them, saying, Well, hey, I've already, before talking to them, right, because this is the first letter they've received hearing about this, he's not gonna be like, hey, just so you know, um, I'm going to be staying at this person's house all winter long.
13:05
SPEAKER_00: He's hoping for an invitation.
13:07
SPEAKER_00: But there's wisdom there too.
13:09
SPEAKER_00: If he was in Corinth, a port city during the winter, there's terrible weather.
13:14
SPEAKER_00: The the ships are not going and coming as often.
13:17
SPEAKER_00: They aren't traveling by sea as often because they can't see the stars and navigate as well.
13:21
SPEAKER_00: If he was there in winter, he'd probably stay.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: So, all of that coming together, we get back to, though, the main reason that Paul is speaking like this.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: Because the Lord allows, and also critically, because of Paul's goal.
13:38
SPEAKER_00: A wide door for effective ministry has opened for him.
13:43
SPEAKER_00: Not always the case in his truth, not always the case in his life, right?
13:48
SPEAKER_00: That Paul has always had this huge opportunity, but he's seen sort of like the the Red Sea has parted, and there's this pathway through, and Paul wants to take advantage of that.
13:58
SPEAKER_00: He recognized that the Lord is guiding his path, but also that there are people who oppose him.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: People have stoned Paul, they've whipped Paul, they've jailed Paul, he's been shipwrecked, there have been a whole lot of things.
14:10
SPEAKER_00: And even beyond that, because Paul understands the spiritual warfare taking place, he gets that there are two sides that are warring on Paul's travel schedule.
14:21
SPEAKER_00: God is protecting Paul's Google Calendar from Satan.
14:27
SPEAKER_00: And so, because of that, he recognizes that he needs to be careful, but also needs to couch everything in terms of what the Lord is doing.
14:34
SPEAKER_00: He is staying in Ephesus until Pentecost.
14:37
SPEAKER_00: He's that's the book of Ephesians in Ephesus.
14:40
SPEAKER_00: He's in Ephesus right now, writing to the Corinthians.
14:44
SPEAKER_00: So all of these things, they remind us of our second kingdom mandate.
14:48
SPEAKER_00: The being a part of God's kingdom is marked by following God's timing.
14:52
SPEAKER_00: It's really captivating.
14:53
SPEAKER_00: It is really tempting to try and set our own timing for things.
14:57
SPEAKER_00: And obviously, what Paul is doing is he's presented, right, this framework.
15:01
SPEAKER_00: He says, okay, if if everything goes according to my plan, then this will happen and this will happen and this will happen.
15:07
SPEAKER_00: But it doesn't always go according to my plan.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: And the reason why it doesn't always go according to my plan is because my ultimate goal is how I may impact the kingdom to the greatest amount.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: And furthermore, God is the one who determines that.
15:20
SPEAKER_00: And so because that's my goal and that's my king, I have to recognize that my plans are sort of held in loose hands.
15:26
SPEAKER_00: He's going to follow God's timing in all things.
15:31
SPEAKER_00: As we move on in verse 10 and uh through 12, we're see this one actually doesn't I don't have a lesson attached to it, it's just interesting.
15:40
SPEAKER_00: Um we're gonna hear about two people, Timothy and Apollos.
15:44
SPEAKER_00: And those two people could not be viewed more differently by the church.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: Timothy, right, well, I should read it.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: If Timothy comes, see that he has nothing to fear while with you, because he is doing the Lord's work just as I am.
15:57
SPEAKER_00: So let no one look down on him.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: Send him on his way in peace, so that he can come to me, because I am expecting him with the brothers.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: Now about our brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to come to you with the brothers, but he was not at all willing to come now.
16:10
SPEAKER_00: However, he will come when he has an opportunity.
16:13
SPEAKER_00: So Timothy, Paul mentioned back in chapter four.
16:17
SPEAKER_00: This is why I have sent Timothy to you.
16:19
SPEAKER_00: He is my dearly loved and faithful child in the Lord.
16:21
SPEAKER_00: He will remind you about my ways in Christ Jesus, just as I teach everywhere in every church.
16:27
SPEAKER_00: But if you remember, if you were with us when we talked about chapter four, that passage, that section, is being interjected into this place where Paul is talking about the arrogance of the Corinthian church.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: And even after in verses 18 and beyond, he talks about how arrogant the church is and how they need to be careful that they receive Timothy, who is bringing Paul's instructions with a level of humility, which they might not.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: And so, because of Paul's concern here, that's why he says all these things about Timothy.
16:58
SPEAKER_00: See that he has nothing to fear while with you?
17:02
SPEAKER_00: See that because he is doing the Lord's work just as I am, so let no one look down on him, send him on his way in peace?
17:09
SPEAKER_00: Well, he's nervous.
17:10
SPEAKER_00: Timothy is sort of Paul's mentee.
17:12
SPEAKER_00: And at this point, right, Paul has been tutoring uh Timothy, he's gone with him on his travels, and at this point in Timothy's life, he's kind of an he's graduated, he's like an emissary or a missionary on behalf of Paul, and sort of going and carrying his authority.
17:27
SPEAKER_00: And then later on, Timothy gets settled and he becomes the elder of a church, and that is when uh we receive or see the letters 1 and 2 Timothy being sent from Paul to him.
17:37
SPEAKER_00: But Timothy, there's a good chance that he is not going to be received well here.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: And the reason why is because Paul does not have the greatest reputation with the Corinthians.
17:48
SPEAKER_00: He is the one that planted the church.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: He describes himself as this loving father who cares for them so deeply and wants to correct them and guide them on towards love and good things, but in fact, they actually have a different favorite, and that would be Apollos.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: Apollos is the one you could recall in chapter one, was the individual that had sort of caused a lot of these factions in the church to develop.
18:12
SPEAKER_00: People were like, he's awesome, he's really charismatic, and there were people who were following after Apollos, there's kind of a camp.
18:18
SPEAKER_00: There was one going after Paul, there was one going after Peter, and there was kind of a confusing one going after Jesus, but that sort of meant that they weren't going to listen to anybody else.
18:27
SPEAKER_00: And there were these factions within the church, they weren't unified.
18:31
SPEAKER_00: Apollos was the one that they were focusing on, and yet Paul in chapter two says, We have the same goal.
18:39
SPEAKER_00: I planted the church, he watered it.
18:42
SPEAKER_00: All of this is coming together for God's glory and for his kingdom.
18:46
SPEAKER_00: And so that's why here at the end of the letter now, Paul is able to say, I think in humility, but also with a clear eye towards his main goal of effective ministry, he's like, I tried to send the guy you love back to you.
19:00
SPEAKER_00: I told him, I urged him, please go back to the Corinthians.
19:03
SPEAKER_00: They can't stop talking about you.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: They want to see you so much.
19:06
SPEAKER_00: And if while you're there, you can maybe tell them that to quit, you know, making little parties based on you.
19:10
SPEAKER_00: But anyhow, but he says, I strongly urged him to come with you, but he was not willing to come now.
19:16
SPEAKER_00: Why?
19:16
SPEAKER_00: We don't know.
19:17
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps because Apollos, like Paul, recognized that it was not an effective time for his ministry to take place there.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: But he will come when he has an opportunity.
19:28
SPEAKER_00: As we go on, we'll see the now the third item in our kingdom list, and the one that comes from the shortest passage, verses 13 and 14.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: Be alert, stand firm in the faith, be courageous, be strong, do everything in love.
19:45
SPEAKER_00: Be alert, Paul says.
19:47
SPEAKER_00: This could be translated as well as somebody who is standing guard, or the image could be given, of one who is standing guard like a soldier.
19:55
SPEAKER_00: And I think when Paul is talking here, he's kind of cross-eyed in the best way.
20:00
SPEAKER_00: There's one eye that is looking towards the future.
20:03
SPEAKER_00: And this is the eye that he has brought up in many parts throughout his uh letter, but especially chapter 15, and then earlier on in the letter when he's talking about the return of Christ.
20:14
SPEAKER_00: I feel like he's got one eye on the return of Jesus.
20:16
SPEAKER_00: And he says, when Jesus returns, all things will be made new, but there's also judgment coming at that time.
20:22
SPEAKER_00: And then there's also an eye that is kind of focused on the present and the now.
20:26
SPEAKER_00: And he says, okay, well, be alert though, because, oh, Corinthians, you are being swept away into the sea by this culture that surrounds you.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: You are in this place where there is so much sexuality and depravity.
20:41
SPEAKER_00: There is so much that is pulling you away from the things that you know to be true.
20:46
SPEAKER_00: And he is saying, be alert.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: Recognize these things, see when they're coming to you.
20:52
SPEAKER_00: Be able to discern when your faith is being challenged.
20:57
SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, though, he says, stand firm in the faith, because it's not really your faith, it is the faith.
21:06
SPEAKER_00: That's a distinction that we have to make.
21:08
SPEAKER_00: When I was a kid, I used to read those goosebumps, choose your own adventure books, right?
21:13
SPEAKER_00: Where you get to a story and then you get to decide what happens next and you turn to one page or the other to sort of follow along.
21:20
SPEAKER_00: There are far too many Christians where their faith is represented like a choose your own adventure book.
21:26
SPEAKER_00: They're operating under the moniker of Christianity, and they say, I love Jesus, but some of the things that they believe and that they say that they aren't representing truth.
21:36
SPEAKER_00: And that's why Paul brings it sort of back here.
21:39
SPEAKER_00: He says, Well, be alert, be on guard, but also stand firm in the faith.
21:45
SPEAKER_00: It's the same kind of message he had at the beginning of chapter 15, which was Hey, I've entrusted to you the gospel, and there's one gospel, and it is based on Jesus Christ and his death and his resurrection, and that one gospel is the truth.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: And from that flows a multitude of different things.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: In that case, it was the resurrection.
22:05
SPEAKER_00: But here he says, Stand firm in the truth.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: And it will take courage, and it will take strength, because that is not an easy thing to do.
22:14
SPEAKER_00: To stand against the tide, it is going out, and to be able to say, I believe something important.
22:20
SPEAKER_00: I believe something that is true.
22:23
SPEAKER_00: Be courage or have courage.
22:25
SPEAKER_00: Be strong.
22:27
SPEAKER_00: But then, if we recall chapter 13, do everything in love.
22:32
SPEAKER_00: If the image of a soldier standing guard and being alert, if the image of one sort of standing firm in this faith and being courageous and strong, if that implies to you some kind of offensive or attack, then we have to be careful that we are buttressing everything with this idea of love.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: If you recall, Paul says, if you don't have love, you are a clanging gong, a noisy cymbal, you're a rusty gait.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: Everything you do is worthless, he says, if you don't have love that is bringing it about.
23:05
SPEAKER_00: And so as we are standing firm in all of these things, which are important, Paul says, those who are part of the kingdom do everything in love.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: Every single thing that we are commanded to do is supposed to be done with love.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: That is how we are to be known and defined as people who hold to truth and our faith with strength and courage and are alert to what the world around us is doing, but also doing so and presenting that truth with love.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: As we go on in verse 15, Paul is now going to talk about those who would be present because they had delivered the letter.
23:43
SPEAKER_00: You might recall that this letter, right, would be read in the assembly of all the different believers, and there were people who had to bring it to them.
23:51
SPEAKER_00: And those people most likely are the three mentioned here: Stephanus, Fortunatus, and Achaichus.
23:58
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, you know the household of Stephanus.
24:02
SPEAKER_00: They are the first fruits of Achaia, and have devoted themselves to serving the saints.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: I urge you also to submit to such people, and to everyone who works and labors with them.
24:12
SPEAKER_00: I am delighted to have Stephanus, Fortunitus, and Achaichus present, because these men have made up for your absence, for they have refreshed my spirit and yours.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, recognize such people.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: Well, who are these individuals?
24:25
SPEAKER_00: The only one that we know for sure is Stephanus.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: Stephanus was mentioned back in chapter one as the individual who is the first convert in this area to Christianity.
24:36
SPEAKER_00: When Paul came and planted the church, effectively you could say Stephanus was the guy he planted it on.
24:42
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's planted on the gospel of Jesus Christ, but Stephanus was the first guy to believe.
24:47
SPEAKER_00: That's why he's referred to here as the first fruits, right?
24:51
SPEAKER_00: The first of an amazing harvest that has happened here in Corinth began with this guy named Stephanus.
24:58
SPEAKER_00: And we would guess, because it's true of other places where this phrase is used, when it says the household of Stephanus, it probably means he was pretty rich, that he had a whole household.
25:08
SPEAKER_00: It's not like you and I would say, hey, my household, your household, I mean, and we're talking about our nuclear family.
25:12
SPEAKER_00: No, it was probably an operation that he had.
25:15
SPEAKER_00: And still there's a good chance that Stephanus was wealthy.
25:19
SPEAKER_00: But notice here what Paul is drawing attention to.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: He says they have devoted themselves to serving the saints.
25:30
SPEAKER_00: The saints being those who have believed in Jesus Christ.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: If you come from a Catholic background, this is different, right?
25:36
SPEAKER_00: We're not talking about, you know, the people who have been lifted up, but we're talking about all Christians everywhere, those who have trusted in Christ.
25:44
SPEAKER_00: And there's something about Stephanus, Fortunitus, and Achaichus that distinguishes them as worthy, as he says here at the end, of recognition, right?
25:56
SPEAKER_00: Why are they worthy of recognition?
25:58
SPEAKER_00: Well, because this they're serving the saints and they are working and laboring with them, right?
26:06
SPEAKER_00: They are so focused on the kingdom and what it is and how that they can serve it, that Paul says they are the ones who are deserving of praise.
26:15
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of weird because we spent a whole lot of time back in chapter 12 when we talked about spiritual gifts, saying, hey, you remember the image of the body, right?
26:24
SPEAKER_00: You can't have like a thousand eyes, you need arms and legs and fingers and toes and all of this kind of stuff based upon the one head, which is Jesus Christ.
26:33
SPEAKER_00: But then Paul was also talking about the way that the Corinthians were making a mistake in attaching praise to those who had gifts that were much more obvious, like those who spoke, and not recognizing those who really had this heart for service for the church.
26:48
SPEAKER_00: Paul had this kind of kingdom mandate back in 12 about what it meant to attach recognition to people in God's kingdom and in his church.
26:57
SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't based on their status, it wasn't based on how popular they were, it wasn't based upon how much weight they threw around in the assembly.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: No, it was based upon their function within his kingdom, within God's kingdom, and in particular, their ability to serve others.
27:17
SPEAKER_00: That was what was deserving of praise and recognition.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: That, above all else, you might recall when he said to that we are supposed to give attention to the parts of the body that are less well known.
27:28
SPEAKER_00: It is because they are the ones who are often laboring without any attention whatsoever.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: And so Paul says, they are the ones who form the backbone of the church.
27:37
SPEAKER_00: Not often recognized, but critically important to its function, holding up the head.
27:43
SPEAKER_00: This brings us to our fourth kingdom mandate, which is that being a part of God's kingdom is marked by serving others first.
27:49
SPEAKER_00: You can't get away from that one.
27:52
SPEAKER_00: When it comes to all the gifts that God has given to us, we talked about stewardship earlier.
27:56
SPEAKER_00: Part of stewardship, it's not just financial, it has also has to do with the gifts and the skills and the talents that the Lord has blessed us with by the power of the Spirit.
28:06
SPEAKER_00: Those things are supposed to be given back to the church.
28:09
SPEAKER_00: But beyond that, they are supposed to be given not so that we can prosper, but because we're concerned about how others might prosper, that others might hear about Jesus, that others might grow and they might know him.
28:21
SPEAKER_00: And so, when it comes to sort of the food line, the ones who should be put at the front are those who serve others first, because they're the ones who are constantly trying to be at the back of the line so that everybody else can eat first, right?
28:35
SPEAKER_00: This is one thing that defines the kingdom, and this is why Paul, going against seemingly what he said previous, he said, Stephanus, Fortunitus, and Achaichus, they are worthy of your recognition, they are worthy of you, they even say submitting to them, because they put others first.
28:53
SPEAKER_00: Verse 19 the churches of Asia send you greetings, Aquila and Priscilla send you greetings warmly in the Lord, along with the church that meets in their home.
29:02
SPEAKER_00: All the brothers and sisters send you greetings, greet one another with a holy kiss.
29:06
SPEAKER_00: So after the service this morning, we're all going to get together and we're going to.
29:13
SPEAKER_00: No, don't worry.
29:15
SPEAKER_00: Um but what we do see here, though, is something we brought up, which is that Paul has been really concerned in the Corinthian church that they would understand in their context where they are, you know, in this sort of isthmus of Greece and the Aegean Sea off the Mediterranean, that's where they are.
29:36
SPEAKER_00: But there is a global church that they are also a part of.
29:39
SPEAKER_00: This is how he began his letter, 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 2, to the church of God at Corinth, to those sanctified in Jesus Christ, called as saints, there's that word again.
29:51
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's a saint who calls upon Jesus Christ as their Savior, with all those in every place who call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both their Lord and ours.
30:01
SPEAKER_00: What is the unifying element between those in, as he says, Asia, if you don't know, if you're not great at geography, far away from Greece, okay?
30:12
SPEAKER_00: What is the same thing that is going on in Asia that is going on in Greece?
30:17
SPEAKER_00: They worship the same Lord.
30:19
SPEAKER_00: They're in different time zones, their churches look different, their skin looks a little different, but they all worship the same Lord.
30:27
SPEAKER_00: And Paul is bringing all of this together, right?
30:29
SPEAKER_00: It's not only the churches of Asia that send you greetings, right, that Paul has planted and he knows, but then he brings up something that hits right at home, Aquila and Priscilla.
30:39
SPEAKER_00: You might be familiar with them.
30:40
SPEAKER_00: They appear a bunch in the New Testament because they were kind of Paul's main benefactors.
30:45
SPEAKER_00: They were tent makers and had been Jews who lived in Rome until they were expelled from Rome.
30:51
SPEAKER_00: Then they came to live in Corinth.
30:53
SPEAKER_00: So everybody here knows who these people are.
30:56
SPEAKER_00: They lived with them and worshipped with them.
30:58
SPEAKER_00: But then Paul went off to Ephesus, where he's at now.
31:01
SPEAKER_00: And Aquila and Priscilla, the Aquila's the husband, Priscilla's the wife, they went along and followed after Paul and have continued to support his ministry, helping him to find these windows of opportunity.
31:12
SPEAKER_00: And so Aquila and Priscilla send you greetings warmly in the Lord.
31:16
SPEAKER_00: Hey, they've left your congregation, but they are still saints, and they are still ones who worship the same Jesus, and they want you to know that they care for you.
31:27
SPEAKER_00: Along with the church that meets in their home, they're still doing the good work.
31:30
SPEAKER_00: All the brothers and sisters send you greetings.
31:32
SPEAKER_00: If the churches in Asia was not a wide enough net, he just says, literally everybody who calls upon Jesus.
31:40
SPEAKER_00: Literally everybody who calls upon Jesus as a brother and sister in Christ, they send you their greetings.
31:46
SPEAKER_00: How could Paul had, did he go around and survey them?
31:49
SPEAKER_00: Every single person, hey, you are brother and sister in Christ over here in Asia.
31:53
SPEAKER_00: Do you send Corinth your greetings?
31:55
SPEAKER_00: No, why does Paul feel comfortable to do this, right?
31:59
SPEAKER_00: Because it is an expectation that there is a level of unity between what is going on with people and wherever, and what is going on with people and another wherever, that both worship the faith in Jesus Christ, that they care for one another, and that they have unity.
32:19
SPEAKER_00: When Paul started his letter and now he finished his letter, he's trying to reinforce to them that being a part of God's kingdom is marked by living in unity.
32:27
SPEAKER_00: And there's a couple ways that you cut that cake, though, right?
32:30
SPEAKER_00: Because there's this global unity that Paul is talking about and reinforcing here at the end of his letter.
32:36
SPEAKER_00: But throughout his letter, he has done a very specific job, had a very specific goal of reminding the Corinthian church that they should be unified within themselves.
32:47
SPEAKER_00: Right?
32:48
SPEAKER_00: We've talked, I won't belabor the point, but when it came to the factions back in chapter one, or the division that was present because of the spiritual gifts, or the way that they were not taking the Lord's Supper together as a church because some of them were more rich than others, or the way that they were viewing the resurrection and some people didn't hold to the same faith, or the way that some had different opinions about food sacrificed to idols and were going against others.
33:13
SPEAKER_00: They were taking each other to court, like, okay, right, we get the point.
33:16
SPEAKER_00: Paul Connor has belabored it.
33:18
SPEAKER_00: But what I'm saying is that Paul had this global idea of unity based in Christ, but also this very, very local idea.
33:28
SPEAKER_00: And that you and I, being people who go to Topeka Bible Church, are united in Jesus Christ.
33:35
SPEAKER_00: We are united in the faith.
33:37
SPEAKER_00: And even though we might be different, and you all might be different, and however you want to define diversity, at the same time, the thing which undergirds all of that is the fact that we trust in Christ as our Savior.
33:51
SPEAKER_00: We believe the same things, or at least the most important things.
33:55
SPEAKER_00: And there are places where this breaks down, especially when you consider the global community.
34:00
SPEAKER_00: There are places where we say, hey, we align on Jesus, but there are some other areas where we might have to talk.
34:08
SPEAKER_00: And even taking those things into account, we should still be able to say, if somebody worships the same God that we do, their Lord and our Lord is the same one, we should be able to send our greetings to them.
34:21
SPEAKER_00: We should be able to send our greetings to each other, even if we disagree in precisely how that happens.
34:28
SPEAKER_00: We're supposed to be marked by living in unity.
34:32
SPEAKER_00: Finally, we get to the very, very end of the letter, and Paul is signing off.
34:38
SPEAKER_00: Verse 21.
34:39
SPEAKER_00: This greeting is in my own hand, Paul.
34:42
SPEAKER_00: If anyone does not love the Lord, a curse be on him.
34:45
SPEAKER_00: Or Lord, come.
34:46
SPEAKER_00: The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.
34:49
SPEAKER_00: My love be with all of you in Christ Jesus.
34:51
SPEAKER_00: Verse 21 kind of comes off a little weird because what's happening there is the letter that was received was obviously handwritten.
34:59
SPEAKER_00: Gutenberg hadn't come around yet with his printing press.
35:02
SPEAKER_00: And so it's handwritten.
35:03
SPEAKER_00: And what Paul had most likely done is he had what's called an amanuensis.
35:07
SPEAKER_00: An amanuensis is somebody who was Paul was dictating the letter to, and they were writing, right?
35:12
SPEAKER_00: So Paul didn't get his hand cramped.
35:14
SPEAKER_00: And so they've written this long, long, long letter.
35:17
SPEAKER_00: They've written it in the assembly.
35:19
SPEAKER_00: But remember, Paul, even though he's referred to himself as the least of the apostles, he still has the authority of an apostle.
35:25
SPEAKER_00: And beyond that, there was a lot going on, even here were about 20, 25 years post-resurrection.
35:33
SPEAKER_00: There was a lot of people who were sending letters going around claiming to have authority, and Paul needed to establish himself as the one who was giving direction that should be listened to, basically.
35:45
SPEAKER_00: And so here, even though you can't read it or understand it, here's where he would have signed his letter.
35:50
SPEAKER_00: This greeting is in my own hand.
35:52
SPEAKER_00: He stops over, writes Paul, you know, and then he goes on.
35:57
SPEAKER_00: If anyone, kind of P.S.
36:00
SPEAKER_00: postscript, if anyone does not love the Lord, a curse be on him.
36:04
SPEAKER_00: Kind of intense way to finish the letter, right?
36:07
SPEAKER_00: This language is a little unusual to us, but it wouldn't be to them.
36:10
SPEAKER_00: The language of blessings and curses, it's much more Old Testament.
36:14
SPEAKER_00: That's where we see it a lot.
36:16
SPEAKER_00: But it's not the way that we might think of curses today.
36:19
SPEAKER_00: What Paul is saying is something that he has said throughout the whole letter.
36:25
SPEAKER_00: Your relationship with Jesus Christ and the way that you respond to the commands of Christ and the grace of Christ is going to bring something to you.
36:34
SPEAKER_00: And it is not about what we get from it, but those who follow after Jesus are going to be blessed, and those who reject him are going to be cursed.
36:43
SPEAKER_00: Back in the covenant times, in the Old Testament, right, we are in the New Covenant, and so you could say that this is a blessing and a curse related to that.
36:51
SPEAKER_00: But specifically, when it comes to like the Mosaic covenant, God said, okay, here are the boundaries that I've established.
36:57
SPEAKER_00: These are my people, they are the Israelites, they are supposed to worship me as their one God.
37:03
SPEAKER_00: And if they stay within this boundary, they are blessed.
37:06
SPEAKER_00: They are following my commands, and I will take care of them.
37:10
SPEAKER_00: If they choose, though, to step outside of those boundaries and go against me and rebel against me and worship these false gods, he says, then they are bringing a curse upon themselves.
37:21
SPEAKER_00: That's basically what Paul's referencing here.
37:24
SPEAKER_00: He says, We have the new covenant, but those who have rejected Jesus Christ have said, That is not my Savior.
37:32
SPEAKER_00: That is not the one who has rescued me with his death and his resurrection.
37:36
SPEAKER_00: If that's the case, they are bringing a curse upon themselves, a curse that will ultimately be fully revealed when Jesus returns at the second coming.
37:46
SPEAKER_00: Because he references that, right?
37:48
SPEAKER_00: In the next sentence, Oh, our Lord, come.
37:52
SPEAKER_00: He just spent, we spent two weeks on it.
37:55
SPEAKER_00: He just spent all that time talking about the resurrection in chapter 15.
37:58
SPEAKER_00: And he wants them, right?
37:59
SPEAKER_00: We're cross-eyed.
38:00
SPEAKER_00: We have an eye towards the future and an eye on the present.
38:03
SPEAKER_00: And so he says, Hey, I want people to understand everything we're doing is based in Jesus Christ.
38:09
SPEAKER_00: And everything we're doing based in Jesus Christ also has a future component to it.
38:14
SPEAKER_00: Not just the resurrection of the dead, but the return and the judgment that comes with it for the living and the dead.
38:20
SPEAKER_00: Our Lord come and may they trust in Jesus Christ.
38:25
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, if anyone does not love the Lord, a curse be on him.
38:29
SPEAKER_00: The last thing I'll say about that too is there's probably a bit of a direct message being given to some specific people within the church.
38:37
SPEAKER_00: You might recall there were a lot of contentious topics that he talked about.
38:41
SPEAKER_00: And you might also recall that this letter would have been read while everybody was sitting.
38:46
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so you're all in Corinth.
38:49
SPEAKER_00: Stephanus, Achaicus, and Fortunatus bring the letter that Paul has written, and either they or whoever was leading one of the elders of the church just starts reading the letter.
38:58
SPEAKER_00: They don't know what's in it, you don't know what's in it, and we encounter it together.
39:02
SPEAKER_00: And so the guy who, like, for instance, was sleeping with his father's wife in the audience, right?
39:09
SPEAKER_00: Getting to experience all of that, the people who were in these different factions.
39:14
SPEAKER_00: And so, as Paul, they were all experiencing this together, he's concluding his letter by sort of reminding some of them that their obedience to God was tied to their love for Christ.
39:27
SPEAKER_00: And he wanted to warn them.
39:29
SPEAKER_00: But then he finishes verse 23 and 24 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.
39:35
SPEAKER_00: My love be with all of you in Christ Jesus.
39:38
SPEAKER_00: This is the only letter where Paul finishes it by including his own love for the church.
39:44
SPEAKER_00: Paul always finishes on a really high note, you know, he always finishes by talking about the love of Jesus Christ or the love of God that is given to a church.
39:52
SPEAKER_00: But this is actually the only letter that we have where Paul says, My love goes to you.
39:58
SPEAKER_00: It shows the deep connection that he had with that church.
40:01
SPEAKER_00: He had lived with them for over a year.
40:02
SPEAKER_00: He was burdened by their sin and wanted them to change.
40:06
SPEAKER_00: What's a little melancholy about this, though, is as we get into 2 Corinthians next fall, we're going to see that this relationship is going to deteriorate, that they are going to basically reject Timothy and Paul and his instructions.
40:20
SPEAKER_00: They're going to begin to chastise him and criticize him, and Paul is going to basically have to go on the defense for the instruction that he is giving to them.
40:28
SPEAKER_00: But nevertheless, what we have right now is Paul saying, My love be with all of you, and what?
40:33
SPEAKER_00: In Christ Jesus.
40:35
SPEAKER_00: And that's our final point for today.
40:37
SPEAKER_00: Everything about this, the blessings, the curses, the future, the present, the love, it is all based around Jesus Christ.
40:49
SPEAKER_00: Those who are part of God's kingdom are marked by trusting in Christ.
40:54
SPEAKER_00: And you might hear me say that, and you're like, well, that's kind of an easy statement.
40:57
SPEAKER_00: It's not, though.
40:58
SPEAKER_00: See, if you're a part of God's kingdom, you've made this step.
41:02
SPEAKER_00: And you can't be taken out of his kingdom if you trust in Christ.
41:06
SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, there is also a measure here where God's kingdom mandates, first and foremost, begin with trusting in Christ, and then everything else follows from that point.
41:18
SPEAKER_00: If we look back on this list about giving generously, following God's timing, doing everything in love, serving others first, living in unity, trusting in Christ, trusting in Christ is the first, and it will also ultimately be the last.
41:32
SPEAKER_00: When we look to the future, those who reject Christ, who do not trust in him, will not be a part of his kingdom.
41:42
SPEAKER_00: Right now, we have the opportunity to spread that kingdom.
41:47
SPEAKER_00: And I recognize sort of the dual language I'm using here.
41:50
SPEAKER_00: There is a kingdom coming that is going to be perfect.
41:54
SPEAKER_00: But right now we have the opportunity as Christians to make this world look as much like God's kingdom as we possibly can.
42:01
SPEAKER_00: We are lights in the darkness.
42:04
SPEAKER_00: That's our gig.
42:05
SPEAKER_00: That's our role.
42:07
SPEAKER_00: And because of that, though, Satan really desires that this world would look like his kingdom too.
42:13
SPEAKER_00: And so the two kingdoms are warring against each other.
42:16
SPEAKER_00: We already know the outcome.
42:18
SPEAKER_00: It's not even a competition.
42:20
SPEAKER_00: But for the current moment, these two kingdoms are waging against each other.
42:23
SPEAKER_00: And here's my my kind of plea, my encouragement, though, and I guess my question is what if it was as easy to see that we were a part of God's kingdom as it was to see that we were fans of the chiefs?
42:41
SPEAKER_00: And I don't have anything wrong with people wearing red today.
42:44
SPEAKER_00: Frankly, I picked out my clothes last night and I forgot to wear red, okay?
42:49
SPEAKER_00: So no judgment.
42:51
SPEAKER_00: But for some of us, it's a lot easier to tell people that we follow the chiefs and we support them than it is to say that we follow Jesus Christ and we support him.
43:01
SPEAKER_00: And there's a problem there.
43:02
SPEAKER_00: And the problem is that as great as the chiefs are, that kingdom is not going to last, or frankly, do anybody any eternal good.
43:13
SPEAKER_00: What will last is God's kingdom.
43:16
SPEAKER_00: That is the thing which will change lives and eternal destinies.
43:19
SPEAKER_00: And the problem is that if we are so willing to show people this, you know, exciting chiefs, Kelsey Bowl, fun side of things, we should also be able to tell them the thing which far is far more important and supersedes that every single day, which is our allegiance to Christ.
43:38
SPEAKER_00: So here's my challenge to you, though.
43:41
SPEAKER_00: You would consider that, but you would take this list and talk with a significant other, a friend, a family member, uh your kids, whatever it is, and that you would say, hey, let's look at this here, because this is not exhaustive, but it's a pretty good list of what it looks like to be a member of God's kingdom.
43:58
SPEAKER_00: And if we're doing all of these things well, it should be pretty obvious where we stand.
44:03
SPEAKER_00: It should be pretty obvious what kingdom we are the biggest fans of.
44:07
SPEAKER_00: And that you would ask the other person, where's an area of our lives that we can dive deeper into this?
44:14
SPEAKER_00: Where can we give more?
44:16
SPEAKER_00: Where can we view our time and our schedule and the future in terms of God's plan?
44:22
SPEAKER_00: Where can we do more things in love?
44:25
SPEAKER_00: How can we serve others better?
44:27
SPEAKER_00: How can we live in unity if you feel fractured in how you view Christians right now?
44:32
SPEAKER_00: And most of all, how can we trust in Christ more deeply?
44:35
SPEAKER_00: These are the things which should define our kingdom on earth and will define, in some regards, our kingdom in the future.
44:44
SPEAKER_00: So we say with Paul as we close out 1 Corinthians, right, our Lord come, and until then, may his kingdom be known.
44:52
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
44:54
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we come before you, and God, we thank you.
44:59
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for Jesus Christ.
45:01
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for his death on the cross.
45:03
SPEAKER_00: We thank you that by trusting in that, in his perfect life and perfect sacrifice, we might be forgiven of our sins by your grace and your love, Lord.
45:12
SPEAKER_00: We are thankful for that, God, and thankfulness it even falls short.
45:16
SPEAKER_00: You have saved us when we do not deserve it.
45:20
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, we cannot do anything to deserve it.
45:23
SPEAKER_00: Yet, Lord, we say we are part of your kingdom.
45:25
SPEAKER_00: And I pray that by your guidance, by the grace of Christ, by the power of the Spirit, Lord, we might be people who are known to be members of your kingdom.
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SPEAKER_00: That those around us would feel loved in the way that we express our kingdom identity.
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SPEAKER_00: And Lord, as we try and show the world a glimmer of the hope that is coming through our actions and our words, Father, might we be able to draw closer to you in that space as we get our own glimpse of the joy that can be found by being a part of your kingdom here on earth?
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SPEAKER_00: Father, finally, I pray that you would help all of us.
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SPEAKER_00: As we are, we must be realistic, waging war against another kingdom of Satan, who deeply desires that this world would not look like you.
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SPEAKER_00: Father, that we might be able to walk forward alert, stand firm, standing firm in our in the faith, and be strong and courageous, God.
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SPEAKER_00: We need these things, and they can only be provided by your spirit, for we are far too weak to do them on our own.
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SPEAKER_00: Lord, we love you, though, so much, and we thank you for the gift of Christ, and it's in his name that we pray.
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SPEAKER_00: Amen.
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SPEAKER_00: All right, everybody.
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SPEAKER_00: Wanted to thank you just on a personal level from going through 1 Corinthians with us.
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SPEAKER_00: I've really enjoyed it.
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SPEAKER_00: Um, I hope that it's been impactful for you.
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SPEAKER_00: Uh, we're going to be starting a new series next week.
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SPEAKER_00: Um, Jim and I are going to be doing something jointly, and then a couple weeks after that, we're going to dive back into an Old Testament book.
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SPEAKER_00: So, anyhow, um, I hope you have a great week and go, Chiefs.