0:06
Crowned him with many crowns. Crowned him with many crowns. Crowning the Lord of love. Love. The below in his hands and side are those wounds yet these
2:18
Nice little added strum there. Y'all can have a seat. I'm I'm out of the out of the game a bit this this week. I am glad to be back. I'm welcoming y'all here but I'm glad to be back here.
2:45
I got a chance last week to go down to for a pastor's conference in Jacksonville, Florida which sounds like it'd be great this time of year but it's not. Just trust me. But it was it was great. That church is very different from this church but the the speakers were incredible. They were preachers preaching to preachers, there were about 5,000 preachers there, pastors, and so that was a great, great time of kind of refreshing and encouragement and all that for a bunch of us, and then after that I got a chance to go visit my family, so I skipped the last speaker, I have to admit, I skipped Franklin Graham, he's the last speaker, but I wanted to see my momma and daddy.
3:27
I had heard lots of preaching, trust me, And I thought, well, you know what? He's the he's the last one. He doesn't start till six, he goes till eight, it's five hours to my mom and dad's house. I think I'll just skip that and I'll go see him now. So when I got to Shiloh, Georgia, you know, my place that I grew up and everything, my mom and dad say, well, it's fifteen minutes till time for church, which it was.
3:51
So we went up there and when we got there, I I got up, saw brother Don who was the pastor when I was a little kid. He came back to the church several years ago. I haven't been home to see them in two years. I haven't seen my folks in two years. So when I got to the church, he said, Ray, we're so glad you're home.
4:09
Would you preach to us? So so Sunday night, last Sunday night, I used y'all's sermon two weeks ago, the three weeks ago, the Corinthians 13. But I just wanna tell you, it was a great great experience, but I'm glad to be back. I have no idea what the announcements are because I've been gone. So we'll read them off the wall together.
4:27
Renzi. There we go. February 20 through the twenty second is a men's snowmobile trip at Old Faithful Christian Ranch, and who do they need to talk to about that? Matt? Steve?
4:40
Matt Lutzelman? Alright. Matt Lutzelman. Steve? Okay.
4:51
That's good. Steve Landis, if you wanna talk to it, Steve will know more about it than anybody else. Alright? Thank you very much, Steve. So that's the men's snowmobile trip, Conway.
5:04
That's who you need to talk to right there. Ladies first Friday fellowship is February 2, which is it's next Friday, which is the first Friday, and that's where the ladies usually get together and do crafts, you can do whatever you want to, bring whatever project you're working on, but that's a good time in the fellowship hall to get together, Friday, February, whatever that is. The Sunday morning girls study starts back up today, February 1, so Melissa and Geralyn have been leading that, is there anything we need to say about that Melissa? The youth room, common grounds, choir room, and we have breakfast casserole, but you have to be a teenage girl to get it. Alright, so middle school and high school girls starts back up today, and that's between services, right?
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Melissa? Is that between services, right? O'clock. 10:00, alright. Alright.
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Here we go. Can you turn that up, friends? Oh,
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oh, oh, God of the universe,
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Hi. My name is Mahindra Singh. I am the director here at Crossroads in Durban. We're presently feeding 2,000 children, so many children. The child has been really stolen from them because with their parents passing on because of HIV and AIDS, they have to take care of them of their own selves.
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There's no water. There's no electricity. There's no food in the morning. When they come to school, many of them are just there because of the breakfast program that Crossroads is offering. We have the highest HIV and AIDS sufferers in the world, and we have been realizing that people here are either depressed, they're sick, they they on their deathbed.
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We as Crossroads, we realized that we're really snatching people from the fire. I'm presently standing in a building that's looked incomplete. We call it the hope center. The hope center will be here as not just a building, but it'll be a a living organism. There'll be staff members here twenty four seven.
7:17
It's gonna represent a place where people could come to for food. It'll be a place where there'll be spiritual counseling going on. So if a child or a community member is looking for something, they can run to the walls as a health center. Every day, people are losing their lives. We are saying, unless the love of Christ is shed abroad in our hearts and they see it, they're wide open to accept accept Christ.
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Thank
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you. That's if you're interested in hearing more about Crossroads, that is my buddy Mahendry. Y'all heard me talk about him. You've heard Melissa, some of you. We're here Monday night when Melissa got to share kind of what she's been doing and is going back to do.
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If you want to hear more about it and that ministry in South Africa, please join for an informational potluck, Sunday February 8 after the second service in the fellowship hall. So if you want to hear more about it, she'll be there. That is the longest bumper sticker I've ever seen by the way. Meat will be provided if you'd like to please bring a side salad or dessert, and y'all don't want to miss that. Trust me.
8:17
That's gonna be something. I've been there and it's just an awesome ministry. Humanitarian aid for the sake of the gospel. So, thank you Melissa. Appreciate you and everybody and now it's time to stand up, shake hands.
8:30
Thank you, Renzi. Stand up and greet one another.
8:33
Last Sunday, we we talked a lot about the resurrection and if you want a free book, they're back there on the table.
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The dead, triumphing over death by death. Come away, come away, come and rise up from the grave. Beneath the weight of all our and hold you down in strength. You reign forever. That's your church.
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Proclaim. Let's proclaim it. Christ is risen for shout your name sing there's no one like our God there is no one like our God we will praise you praise you There's no one like our God. We will sing. We will sing.
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There is no one like our God. We will praise you. Praise you. Jesus is our God. We will Yahweh, in we love to shout your name.
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Say Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, we love to
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God, how good and how right and how fitting it is to to be able to meet with you. And I I thank you, God, that you've given us you've given us breath in our lungs and a means to be able to worship and express our our our love, our affection, our devotion for you. I thank you, God, for how we see you in creation. We need look around. This place is beautiful, and it is because of you.
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And more than that, God, you've given us life, and then you've you've you've rescued us from from death through the sacrifice of your son, and we are in debt to you. And we thank you, God. It is by grace that we are saved. And we we wanna sing of it, God, but we wanna we wanna remind ourselves. We wanna remind each other of this wonderful gift of salvation and your great love for us.
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Amen.
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And
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Let's sing of the empty grave,
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shall we?
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God, we do give you praise and honor. I thank you for the the empty tomb. That is why we are here today because we serve you a risen savior and we know that God because you live and because you live in in us. And because you live God, we can face tomorrow. We can face whatever is going on And we thank you.
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We just thank you, God, for being our constant companion, our father, our friend, the one who loves and and has created us and created us for you. And so we we live in light of this, God. And we give you thanks and praise. We thank you God for all things here as we enter in the worship of giving. I thank you God for every good and perfect gift that comes from you.
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I thank you God for blessing us spiritually that we can be full and rich with love and joy and peace and so much more And I thank you God for blessing us with every physical gift that comes our way. Food in our mouths and clothes in our backs and a roof over our head. We take these things for granted but we give you thanks. And God I thank you for the gospel and how it is not just reaching here in Jackson but to the ends of the earth. And when we give, that's, it helps to do this.
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I thank you God for the church in Durban. And and we pray for that church as we saw the video for them. I pray God that the gospel would would reach those, folks and that they would they would know the hope. They would know their salvation is in you. We pray this in Jesus name.
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Amen.
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Majesty majesty your grace has found me just as I am empty handed Amen.
26:06
The children are dismissed to head down to children's church. I love that sound, not because I want them to leave, but I just love to hear that much of it. Going home this past week, I already mentioned it during the announcements, but it's different going back home and seeing folks and seeing where you're from, and you see it slightly differently when you're not around it for a while. And there's a lot that I really, really missed and had nostalgic feelings about, and the food, my goodness, is just the best. Is that me that's making that noise?
26:45
It is? That's not good. Okay. So when I went home, I ate barbecue, gained 11 pounds, it's terrible. But it's the center of the world for you when you're growing up, you know, this church is gonna be the center of the world for these little kids that are running up and down, it's gonna be something that this is their formative years and this is your culture, it's where you grew up, Jackson's normal for people who grew up here, that's scary.
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First Corinthians 14 twenty-forty, now decisions, decisions, decisions I say because exegetically drawing from what's there and expository preaching, exposing what's there, there are so many decisions that have to be made in this passage that can go either way. Grammatically, they can go either way, and there's not any really good argument for one way over the other except what you bring into it, and so I try to remove the blinders as much as I can, and being home last week, I remembered my little church that I grew up in, and I thought how sweet and precious these people are, and how humble they are, and it's not many, there are just a few of them there, and when I was there, it would grow and it would get to a certain size and we would kind of come back down, and it would grow and then it come back down and I remember one particular time we were having a revival because you schedule those every August in Georgia. So, we're having a revival. We scheduled it. It was going to happen and we invited a preacher to come in and the preacher was excited to be coming, had a great booming voice for the word and for presenting, and people generally loved him, he was a pastor, associate pastor at another big church in a really big town nearby, and he found out that our minister of music at the time was Glenda Wattenberger.
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Glenda Wattenberger was sweet as can be, precious lady taught piano to the kids, and was just a generous and loving giving servant of the Lord. And when the pastor that was coming in, the preacher that was coming in, found out that Glenda Wattenberger was gonna be sharing the platform, he said, I won't come. I won't do that. And everybody was excited about him coming, and so they said, Glenda, would you mind stepping down for this guy to come in? And Glenda was like, no.
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I don't mind. So she stepped away. And this, for me, I was like, well, that's weird. She's up there every week. Presumably, she's gonna be here after he leaves, but he would not share the platform with her based on this passage that we're about to read.
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Decisions, decisions, decisions. I saw what that did in the life of my church, I saw what it did in Glenda Wattenberger's life, and I saw what it did with the kids and everybody else around, and so that, I will admit that presupposition going in, but I also think that I've prayed through this passage. I took a week off and went to a pastor's conference to clarify and be sure, and thank you Carl for skipping it. So decisions, decisions, decisions. I will go forward, I'm going to run through the first five verses pretty quickly because it's finishing up the section on prophecy in tongues, the relative gifts of prophecy in tongues.
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I'll get to this hard stuff in a minute but this is the end of the section that began in twelve one. So, there's a section about the spiritual gifts that started in twelve one. It goes to fourteen forty. We're going to finish that up today. Even though we do have communion and it's going take a while to get to it, okay?
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Listen fast. First Corinthians twelve one through three is the beginning of this, I want you to hear this because I think that this whole section is an inclusio, it is the beginning starts at twelve:one, fourteen forty, 30 seven-forty or so ended up. So now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, this is ESV, it does not say and sisters, but Adel Foy is brothers and sisters normally, and I mention that when I preached through it. Now concerning spiritual gifts brothers and sisters, I do not want for you to be uninformed, ignorant, ignorant. You know that when you were pagans you were led astray by mute idols, however you were led, however it happened, you know that it happened, you were duped, deceived.
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Therefore I want you to understand, to know that no one speaking in the spirit of God ever says Jesus is accursed, and no one can say Jesus is lord except in the spirit. Now, when we covered this the first time, did any of y'all think that this is church for crying out loud? Who would say Jesus is accursed? Somebody did. Somebody had said that in this assembly.
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I think today we find out a little bit more about who it might have been. Does this make sense? Jesus is accursed. Nobody says that by the spirit of God and no one can say Jesus is lord and mean it except in the spirit. So this is our starting point and we'll close it off with ending points today.
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Now, I'm gonna read this fast, just listen fast, I want you to ground this in the real world, I don't want you to live in theory and start arguing theology from pretexts, okay, and presuppositions, I want to ground this in the real world. So we're reading this very quickly together. This is Acts 18, it tells you about his arrival in Corinth and we'll go through his stay in Corinth. Then Paul left Athens, where he spoke at Mars Hill, but that's another story. Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.
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There he became acquainted with a Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, had recently arrived from Italy with his wife Priscilla. They had left Italy when Claudius Caesar deported all the Jews from Rome. Paul lived and worked with them, for they were tent makers, leather workers, just as he was. Each Sabbath found Paul at the synagogue trying to convince the Jews and Greeks alike. And after Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, remember Paul had trouble in Macedonia, had to get down there, out to Athens, Paul spent all his time preaching the word, that's what he did while he was among the Corinthians, he spent all his time preaching the word.
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He testified to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah, because that's what their background, they're looking for the Messiah, he said I know him, this is him, and I'm proclaiming him. But when they opposed and insulted him, Paul shook the dust from his clothes,
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of word word get
33:06
out out the Anyway, Paul shook the dust from his clothes and said, okay is that working now? Okay, thank you people. Your blood is upon your own heads, I am innocent. I've told you, I've spread it, I've said it, y'all are not listening, so he's removing himself. From now on I will go preach to the Gentiles.
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He moved next door, literally it says it. Then he left and he went to the home of Titius Justus, a Gentile who worshipped God and lived next door to the synagogue. Crispus, the leader of the synagogue and everyone in his household believed in the Lord. Many others in Corinth also hired Paul, became believers, and were baptized. One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision and told him, don't be afraid, speak out, don't be silent.
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What was he doing preaching the word, right? To Jews first, then to Gentiles. Don't be afraid. Speak out. Don't be silent for I am with you and no one will attack you and harm you like had happened multiple times on this trip.
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So Paul stayed there for the next year and a half. He was with them for eighteen months. Okay? A year and a half, he was there teaching the Corinthians. He knew them and he was teaching the word of God.
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He knows the Bible. He knows Jesus and he knows the Corinthians. There's no doubt about him knowing these folks. He knows them well but when Galileo became the governor of Achaia, some Jews rose up together against Paul and brought him before the governor for judgement. They accused Paul of persuading people to worship God in ways that are contrary to our law.
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But just as Paul started to make his defense, Gallio turned to Paul's accusers and said, listen you Jews, if this were a case involving some wrongdoing or a serious crime, I would have a reason to accept your case, but since it's merely a question of words and names in your Jewish law, take care of it yourselves, I refuse to judge such matters. And he threw them out of the courtroom. Literally, the crowd or everyone then grabbed Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and beat him right there in the courtroom, but Gallio paid no attention. Do you all remember this? This is the grounding.
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This is Corinth. This is where Paul and Sosthenes were there. If you remember the first verse of Corinthians, this letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle, one sent out by Christ Jesus and from our brother, Sosthenes. Sosthenes, the guy who got beat up, they know who this is, he knows them, and the letter is coming, they know the people well. Paul stayed in Corinth for some time after that, then said goodbye to the brothers and went to the nearby century.
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There he shaved his head according to Jewish custom marking the end of a vow, then he set sail for Syria, taking Priscilla and Aquila with him, male, female, female, male in that case. They stopped first at the Port Of Ephesus where Paul left others behind. Now this was his second missionary journey and he writes, this is the split between second and third missionary journey. He let me see where were we. Port of he stopped first at the Port Of Ephesus where Paul left the others behind.
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While he was there, he went to the synagogue to reason with the Jews. He always starts that way. They asked him to stay longer, but he declined. As he left, however he said, I will come back later, God willing. Then he set sail from Ephesus, the next stop was at the Port Of Caesarea, from there he went up and visited the church at Jerusalem, then went back to Antioch, where he'd started his second missionary journey, and after spending some time there, going back home basically, Paul went back through Galatia and Phreesia visiting and strengthening all the believers.
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That starts the third missionary journey. Oh come on, This is such a great map. Can y'all work on fixing that so it'll show up? This one, Paul's second missionary journey was over 1,500 miles. We discussed that a while back.
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This is a better option. Y'all can't see it, but I know it, so I'll try to share it with you. Right here is the city of Corinth, right here on this Isthmian Peninsula, that's Corinth, and it has a temple of Apollo, the sanctuary of Apollo, we mentioned that in our first transition from Thessalonians into Corinthians. It's a huge deal. Apollo was one of the more powerful Greek and Roman gods, Greek gods, and at this time, had a temple up on the top of the hill, Acro Corinth above Corinth.
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50 miles away, between fifty and sixty miles away, was Delphi. Delphi had a sanctuary also to Apollo. Apollo listen fast, there's a lot of history in here. Apollo the God, g, small g, was supposed to have killed the python, which was a huge, huge, huge snake. He kills this python, and everybody worships him for killing this python, which controlled a lot of them and the spirits and all kinds of stuff.
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It's an unusual thing, but the temple at Delphi to Apollo was something have you ever heard of the Oracle of Delphi? Anybody heard of that? Okay, back up just a minute. Philippi. When Paul comes up on the second missionary journey, he hears the Macedonian call in Troas right here, and he goes across to Philippi.
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He first encounters Lydia, a woman, seller of purple, seeking after God, Jewish adherent. She was seeking after God, and when Paul witnessed to her Lydia accepted Christ and immediately started acting like it. Invited men with hospitality, took care of them, and then the next person that we meet in Philippi is the girl with a that was demon possessed. In fact, think I have it up here. Acts sixteen sixteen.
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So we were in 18 a few minutes ago, we're back to 16 just looking at this. One day, as we were going down, Luke writes this because he was with Paul, as we were going down to the place of prayer, which is where they met with Lydia, we met a demon possessed slave girl. Literally, says a certain girl having a spirit of python. So the spirit of python is a huge thing, especially at this time. It's a big, big deal, and everybody knows about it.
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They just throw that out there like everybody's gonna know what that means. Y'all probably, when you came in, weren't aware that the demon possessed slave girl was possessed of this certain spirit, which Apollo was supposed to have killed this snake, but the snake's spirit still carried on through people, and it was she was a fortune teller who earned a lot of money for her masters, and the fortune telling that she did was divining or telling the future, says it. She followed Paul and the rest of us shouting, these men are servants of the most high God and they have come to tell you how to be saved. It sounds like free advertising, I went through that when we were in Acts, It was not good. Eventually, it frustrated their efforts.
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I don't know if they were trying to be sly and slide in or speak to people individually or if it sounded like she was mocking them, but this went on day after day until Paul got so exasperated that he turned and said to the demon within her, the spirit of Python within her. He said, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her, and instantly it left her. So this is the background, this is the real world where Paul traveled, and this is what he was dealing with. So after Philippi, he comes on over and he goes down, sails to Athens, he speaks to the guys at Mars Hill, I mentioned that. There's a temple there, but it's not a temple to Apollo.
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He goes from there to Corinth, and it's a big city center that has lots of people from all over the place, it has a Jewish synagogue, we have archaeological remains of it, it has a lot of people cosmopolitan area, lot of people speaking a lot of different languages, but they worship Apollo, and it's a big big deal. Nobody can live in Corinth and not know this, not know that he killed Python, for example. Across the way there, 60 miles away, is Delphi. Now Delphi here we go. That's a better one.
41:25
Corinth is here, straight across the sea there is Delphi, and it's a sanctuary with an oracle. It's also a Panhellenic sanctuary, which means it is a sports town. So the Panhellenic games were like the Super Bowl. Today is Super Bowl Sunday. You knew I would eventually mention it.
41:45
Olympia is probably the most famous one, the Olympics we get from that, but these Panhellenic Games were very very important, and in Delphi, that's no I mean, that's the same thing, but Delphi would have been popular anyway because of the Oracle Of Delphi. This is very, very close at hand. For me, 50 miles away is where they film The Walking Dead. It really is, and it's where Alan Jackson's from, and it's where Ray Charles is from, and it's where so for me, all those things are kind of important. When I went back home, was like, wow, that is kind of scary just to look around at some of that Walking Dead stuff.
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This is the Temple Of Apollos, which looks very much like the one at Corinth, this is the one at Delphi. This is the Theater at Delphi. You can gather a lot of people in this theater, Paul most likely did. This is the oracle of Delphi. I'm sorry.
42:43
Paul was not this was Delphi, not Corinth. Delphi. So this is where the oracle of Delphi would receive people with inquiries, and she had below ground, a sanctuary, they called it, where she went down below ground. It's a long story, but I wanted to get to this. This what does that look like?
43:03
It looks like a target symbol. That is a belly button. I'm Phalos. Because the story about Delphi is that the God Zeus sent out eagles to the farthest reaches, and he sent those two eagles out, and when they came back, where they crossed was the center of the whole universe, absolute dead center of everything, obbligo, o phalos. It's the belly button, the very center, the navel of the world is Delphi.
43:33
That's a coin from Delphi. That is a little tripod where the oracle of Delphi would sit. There's a lot of history here, I know. A lot of art too. So this is the Oracle of Delphi sitting on her tripod, and this is someone coming to ask her a question.
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They come to gain insight or wisdom, and there is no longer lasting history better documented from this time than the Oracle of Delphi and what she guessed. It's taken down in about 50 different Greek people, poets, and different folks. It took down because it had to do with history. It was real. People really went to her.
44:15
It's not made up, and they went and they asked her questions. Now, much like I saw several of these while I was home, the red hand on a piece of plywood out in the yard, that's prophetess Mary, you know what I'm talking about? At y'all don't know it because y'all are not from Georgia. Prophetess Mary, you go ask her a question and she'll give you a vague answer, it's kind of like the horoscope, it's that sort of thing. Usually they're very vague.
44:39
I have a few. In '67, well hold on a second. Love of money and nothing else will ruin Sparta. There are this is a different one. Plutarch, the Oracle of Lycurgus, said that his prayers had been heard and that the state from which Lycurgus would become the most famous in the world with such an endorsement, he went on leading men of Sparta and enlisted their support.
45:07
Seeking further assistance, she also told him, there are two roads most distant from each other, the one is leading to the honorable house of freedom, the other the house of slavery, which mortals must shun. It is possible to travel one through manliness and lovely accord, so lead your people to this path, the other to reach the hateful strife and cowardly destruction, so shun it most of all. They're vague nonsense for the most part. The truth about this place and where it was, there was supposed to have been two fishers' faults in the earth, they would go to this person and she would babble. She would babble out loud, and the guys around her, men around her, priests of Apollo, would interpret what she said.
45:54
It's funny, they always interpreted it into iambic hexameter. Strange. If you don't know this and you don't care anything about Greek history, the matrix, this is the oracle on the matrix. And what's interesting about this is when one of these priestesses of Pythia, the python spirit, when one of them would die, they would just replace her. So if you saw the first two Matrix movies, this was the Oracle, if you saw the third one, this was the Oracle.
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They just replaced them. When they died, they picked another lady, and she was the one until she died, and then they picked another lady, and they would go into this little sanctuary down below and they would breathe fumes, probably hallucinogenics, and they would come up babbling. And when they came up babbling, then the priests of Apollo would interpret what it is that they had said. This is 50 miles from Corinth. Okay?
46:51
So the oracle at Delphi was also known as the Pythia, Paul had dealt with the python spirit and the demon possessed slave girl, and this was always a woman. This was not ever a man, they didn't have a priest of the Pythia. They didn't have the man go down there and inhale the fumes. This was always a woman, and it would she would be replaced. She was expendable, probably killed her from breathing the fumes, but that's a painting of that.
47:21
Now coming back to this, this is that world. This is the barbecue where they're from. You know what I'm saying? This matters to them. It's something that they have always culturally been proud of.
47:32
You see on Super Bowl Sunday, people get the the Broncos thing going. Conway's right here in Broncos. We've got people, Patriots fans, I'm sure, and Seattle fans for certain, and when when people are from a place, it kinda sticks with them. So this is the milieu that Corinth, the church, is born into. So again, I'm gonna say, this was the last question I asked you before I started last week.
47:57
Can we agree again, right now, that Paul wrote this letter to help the Corinthians with things that were real problems at the church in Corinth. Can we agree on that? Yes. Why would he write the letter except to do that? He says that's why he wrote the letter.
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He also mentions multiple times throughout that he had heard reports from the household of Chloe and he had received at least one letter, probably multiple letters outlining different things that were going wrong and going on in Corinth. He knew there were divisions. He knew there were powerful leaders that had taken place. He knew that there were some who were rejecting modesty. He knew that there were some that were having sex with their stepmother.
48:35
He knew that they were doing nothing about it. He knew that there was disorder. So this whole section is gonna be about order in the church. The last few verses are gonna be I mean, the first few verses are are about the about speaking in tongues and prophecy still, but we'll hurry through those. The problem is that we don't know exactly nor specifically what the problems were.
49:00
There are lots of people that have postulated lots of different things, and I might mention some of them, but we take it for holy writ and we have to make a decision what it means. For me, just getting back from home, I know how much that means. That's why I shared that whole history lesson with you right there. But also because each time that I read this passage, I feel like that doesn't sound like God, and that doesn't sound like Paul. How can that be?
49:28
So admittedly, when I went and I was thinking, Lord, change me, change my mind, work on me, I don't want to bend this, I want a reasonable explanation for people as to what this means and why. Especially when I know people who are serving God so well that are female. So the part about tongues. Dear brothers and sisters, this is the New Living Translation, so it is inclusive where it says brothers and sisters, it is including because adel foi, just like in Spanish, hermanos, hermanos is hermanos y hermanos, it's both brothers and sisters. Dear brothers and sisters, unless the text says that it's not, Dear brothers and sisters, don't be childish in your understanding of these things, Be innocent as babies when it comes to evil, but be mature in understanding matters of this kind.
50:14
It is written in scriptures, I will speak to my own people through strange languages and through the lips of foreigners, but even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord. That's a quote from Isaiah. In Isaiah, the enemies were coming in and they were saying, it's happening just like God said it would, basically and they took em over. They took em over and God says, and they didn't listen and Paul is saying, you're gonna be hearing this from the lips of strangers. I'm just speeding through this.
50:42
He's not saying anything new here. He's saying that prophecy is more important for the building up of the church than tongues in this section. So, you see that speaking in tongues is a sign not for believers but for unbelievers. Prophecy, however, is for the benefit of believers, not unbelievers. Even so, if unbelievers or people who don't understand these things come into your church meeting in Corinth and they hear everyone speaking in an unknown language, they will think you're crazy.
51:11
That's as plain spoken as it can be and that's what it says, right? But if all of you are prophesying, that is intelligible language that can be understood and unbelievers or people who don't understand these things about tongues come into your meeting, they will be convicted of sin and judged by what you say. If you're honest and you do an honest presentation of the gospel, of the word of God, and you just put it out there for what it says, God says that will convict people of sin, and it will judge them. It will allow them to do a self evaluation. If you accurately present intelligibly what the word of God says, then people will respond.
51:53
As they listen, their secret thoughts will be exposed and they will fall to their knees and worship God declaring, God is truly here among you. Is there anybody in here who went to church and just thought, hooey, bunk, but then after you heard it, it started to make sense to you, and you said, you know what? That is is reasonable. I am sinful. I do need a savior.
52:19
Is there anybody here that raised their hand right now and say that that's the case? Yeah. That happened to me. Orderly worship is what the rest of this is about. Well, my brothers and sisters, he says, my bringing them in, Adel Foy brothers brothers and sisters.
52:36
Let's summarize, it's been going on for 25 verses in this section, Well my brothers and sisters, let's summarize, when you meet together, so this is about church, when you get together, one will sing, another will teach, another will tell some special revelation that God has given. It does not mention specifically if it's instantaneous revelation or if it was revealed in the study to him or her. One will speak in tongues and another will interpret what is said. He's listing the gifts that he's already mentioned. But everything that is done must strengthen all of you.
53:12
Remember this from a few weeks ago? But the manifestation of the spirit, the way that God shows himself, manifest himself, is given to each and everyone. The each there is each and every. It doesn't say given to every man. King James actually says to every man but poor translation led to a lot of problems.
53:33
I love the King James. Normally, they missed it on that one. It's given to each one for the common good, and the for the common good is what I'm going for. No more than two or three should speak in tongues. So he limits how many should speak in tongues if they're going to speak in tongues.
53:49
They must speak one at a time, and someone must interpret what they say, it is a must. If someone's gonna speak in tongues, one, two, or three of them, then someone must translate what it is that they said. But if no one is present who can interpret, they must be silent in your church meeting and speak in tongues to God privately. He's not saying that the gift doesn't exist, he's saying that it does not build up the church, It's not orderly and it should be done if it's going be done. It should be done in order.
54:18
No more than three. One, two, three, maybe but someone has to interpret or hold your peace and speak to God in tongues privately. That's okay. He doesn't say that that's not to be but then he gets to prophecy. His tongues and prophecy, this whole section, right?
54:33
Let two or three people prophesy and let the others evaluate what it said. But if someone is prophesying and another person receives a revelation from the Lord, the one who is speaking must stop. In this way, all who prophesy will have a turn to speak one after the other so that everyone will learn and be encouraged. Is this just as simple as it can possibly be? It's pretty simple.
54:59
From our context, we kinda know that usually there's gonna be one guy leads the music, or gal, and one guy preaches. That's our context, it's normal. Yeah, two, and they take turns. He goes first, I go second. But in Corinth, the problems that they were having were obviously disorderly and people were all speaking out at the same time over one another and trying to win people to their opinion or their side.
55:21
And so Paul is correcting that by saying, for crying out loud kids, take turns. Literally for crying out loud. That's funny to me. Remember that people who prophesy are in control of their spirit and they can take turns, But for God is not a God of disorder, but of peace, a God of order, as in all the meetings of God's holy people. It's funny that in some translations, that second clause right there comes after a comma, and that makes a difference if you're reading it after a comma or if oh, I'm sorry, that comma.
56:01
In this one, it's a comma. If you look over here in Spanish, it's not, because God is a god of order, peace, and not confusion, and then it has this, is actually attached to the next verse. So this has been used because there was no punctuation in the original. That comma makes a huge difference. Paul is saying, God is a God of order.
56:25
That's the way that it is in church. It it needs to be done in an orderly fashion. If you tack this on, it says, as in all the rest of the meetings all over Christendom, everywhere. It's an orderly thing, and y'all aren't being orderly. Y'all are out of line.
56:44
You need to get back in line. So if you leave that off and you tack it to the next verse, it makes a difference. Let me get to it. Hold on a second. Maybe I can't get to it right now.
56:56
Hold on. Okay. So, this is the King James version of the thirty four and thirty five and these are the ones that people split churches over. So, pray with me that that don't happen. Let your woman, let your women keep silence in the churches for it is not permitted unto them to speak but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.
57:23
That is very plain spoken, and it bristles with lots of people. Not just women, it bristles me. I don't like that. I don't like to hear it. That is absolute, and it sounds like, oh my goodness, God has given gifts to each one and everyone and he's been saying this the whole time, and then he says, but don't let them use it, for crying out loud.
57:46
That doesn't sound that doesn't ring true. It doesn't ring right. If they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home. The if there is actually there and it's very strong and it says, if they are willing to learn, then let them ask at home. So some theories about why he's saying to let the women keep silent is that there was chatter speaking out of turn and speaking out loud and questioning the people who were speaking during the speaker.
58:12
You ever been to a comedy show when somebody starts heckling? You ever been to a sermon when somebody starts heckling? That's disorderly. You're trying to make a point and people start yelling back at you and asking questions, it throws everything into confusion. So that's where that comes from.
58:28
Let's go back for a minute. Paul said in first Corinthians 11, but there's one thing I want you to know, the head of every man is Christ, and the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. That'll make you bristle just a little bit, but if you consider that in Greek, husband and wife are the same words as man and woman, then that gives you a little bit of breathing room. Most Christians would agree that Christ is the head of man, the and husband is the head of the wife, I think most people can agree on that, and I think that that is what Paul is saying. In Spanish, they don't even give us the option, every version that I chose said esposo y esposa, it didn't say man and woman, it said husband and wife.
59:13
A man dishonors his head if he covers his head while praying or prophesying, but a woman dishonors her head if she prays or prophesies without a covering on her head. Now thinking about that, Paul just said it in chapter 11, he said, When a woman prays or when a woman prophesies. Now do you think he's limiting them in chapter 14 and saying, You can't do that, that's only theory? No. He was saying, When a woman prays, she should have her head covered in Corinth.
59:40
The Jews typically did cover their heads, and they did sit men on one side and women on the other. The Gentiles had no such custom, that was not the case. Apparently they were the ones that were throwing everything into confusion because they didn't want to submit to putting on the head covering or to their husbands in some cases. Consider, some of the women might not have even been believers. Their husbands though were.
1:00:06
What happens when a humble Christian receives opposition? Oftentimes what we do is say, I defer to you, and we step back. Glenda Wattenberger stepped back, and she didn't say that, and my church when I was growing up didn't say, No, Glenda's here. She's ours. You go preach where you want to.
1:00:27
We'll schedule the revival next August. We've got somebody else. Women should be silent during the church meetings. It's not proper for them to speak, they should be submissive, just as the law says. If they have any questions, they should ask their husbands at home, for it's improper for women to speak in church meetings.
1:00:48
And that's the New Living Translation, and this is limited, it's not husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, this just says women. But I want you to consider something, the hey in front of women right here means the or those, and if you look up how often it means what, it means those 406 times in the New Testament. Those women should keep silent during the church meetings. That makes a huge difference, does it not? Does that make a difference to y'all?
1:01:20
They should be submissive, agreed, just as the law says. If they have any questions, they should ask their husbands at home. If those women have any questions, they should ask their husbands at home for it's improper for them to speak out in the church meetings. And then he goes to this, or do you think God's word originated with you Corinthians? Did you is this your deal?
1:01:41
Or are you the only ones to whom it was given? Should it go by the church triumphant world over or should it go by just your common practice where you live? This is a silent church today. Men and women are being silent. Are you the only ones to whom it was given?
1:02:05
I want you to consider this too, half the translations including the King James and the New King James says, What? That's what it says about like that, it's an exclamation.
1:02:14
What?
1:02:16
And it's two rhetorical questions. Do you think that God's word originated with you Corinthians? Because it didn't. Are you the only ones to whom it was given? No, you're not.
1:02:27
In Spanish, it just translates the questions into a sentence that tells the point of it, or do you have it as a given that the word of God started with you or that you're the only ones who have received it? Blank slide. If you claim to be a prophet or you think that you're spiritual, you should recognize that what I'm saying is a command from the Lord himself, but if you do not recognize this, you yourself will not be recognized. So when you get to this point, after you've had such a strong and emphatic statement that the women are to be silent, and then you back it up with, Hey, if you claim to be spiritual, you'll know that what I'm saying is right. That's the way that this has been taken in a lot of different cases throughout church history to the peril of many, many, many women and men.
1:03:13
The castrati, oh my goodness, the Catholic church for many years castrated young boys so that they could sing the female parts to the songs. Yeah, hundreds and hundreds of them did because they just totally missed this. Paul's whole point all along is it's for each and every, every, every, every, every, every, then this section. So there are a couple of different ways that you can think of it. One of them is from their cultural background, that this is what he's speaking into, and some of those ladies in that church may have been very, very bold speaking out and causing great disorder.
1:03:46
That's one way to take it. There's another way to take it, and that is that this section is a quote from the letter that they had sent to him. That make sense? They send him a letter and they said, yeah, this guy's sleeping with his mother-in-law, and this is happening, and this is happening, all the problems that we've gone through, and then they said, and tell us the deal, the women are supposed to be silent during the church meeting, it's not proper for them to speak and they won't be submissive. They've been taking it for a while but they're writing to Paul saying this is causing a huge problem in our midst, this is something that's huge.
1:04:22
If they have any questions, they should ask their husbands at home for it's improper for them to speak out. So if you take that as a quote, Paul says right before it, he says, sorry, get me back to it. People are in control who prophesy and they can take turns. God's a god of order of not of disorder but of peace as in the meetings of all of God's holy people. God's a god of order.
1:04:49
And then you get to, a woman should be silent. If you take that as a quote, then it opens up the possibility for Paul saying this, what? Really? Is that what you believe? Is that what you're thinking?
1:05:04
It's not like that anywhere else. People speak in turns. They speak in an orderly fashion. They don't yell on top of each other. They don't act like kindergartners.
1:05:17
Are you the only ones to whom it was given? Is this your way of doing church? Babbling on like this? And then if you say, if you claim to be a prophet or you think that you're spiritual, you should recognize that what I'm saying is a command from the Lord himself. But if you don't recognize this, you yourself will not be recognized.
1:05:37
There are more decisions that have to be made right here. The decision for this one is very easy. You will recognize that what I am saying, it's plural. It's not just this one issue. It's that everything that I have been writing to you is from the Lord.
1:05:54
I'm saying this to help you correct a problem. If you're spiritual, you'll see that you need to have some church discipline with the guy that's having relations with his mother, stepmother, mother-in-law. You will take care of some of these issues that you obviously are having. You'll take care of this, and you will stand up for what is right. You'll be orderly in worship.
1:06:14
But if you don't recognize this, if you look at it in Spanish, you'll recognize that it's a command of the Lord, and if you do not recognize it, the Lord won't recognize you. He's saying you're that you're an unbeliever. That's a possibility that would take that as a passive verb and that God would not recognize you, and that's a good way to take that. There's no problem with that. It's also it could be middle.
1:06:36
It's an ambiguous form, so this is the you yourself will not be recognized. Paul is saying, recognize that order is necessary or you will not be recognized and have the floor. You can't do this. You can't keep disrupting the meetings. I like the senor, I like that better myself because I think that it is a divine passive that God is not recognizing you if you don't recognize his word.
1:07:03
If you don't hear his voice, you might not be one of his sheep. So, my dear brothers and sisters, inclusive, Adelfoy, be eager to prophesy and don't forbid speaking in tongues but be sure that everything is done properly and in order. The whole thing is about orderly worship. That's what it's about. Y'all are incredibly orderly.
1:07:25
Most of us are. We like our things in our little boxes. Being sure that everything is done properly and in order gets back to that to each one is given for the common good. Is there anything else? So what are you saying?
1:07:39
I've been saying it now for a long time. What are you saying? Real problems need practical solutions. You can't just say it in theory without having a practical application. Uncontrolled speech is disorderly.
1:07:52
In fact, if you look back at Psalms and Proverbs and James, slow to speak, quick to listen. Uncontrolled speech is disorderly, it's confusing, and it's unprofitable. So control your speech is what Paul is saying. Content matters. You cannot say Jesus is accursed.
1:08:11
You can't say that because it's not true. Content matters. So does context. Where you are makes a difference. In church, it's different from at home.
1:08:22
There are times to ask those questions of those people who are mentioning them. By all means, if any of y'all, and y'all will. Come to me afterwards, I know, and talk to me about this. Please do. Please, please, please do.
1:08:33
Context matters. I thank you that you have not heckled me during the sermon. It is okay to limit the time frame and the amount of sharing. I'm sinning on that one right now. We're ten minutes over and we've got communion left.
1:08:47
But it is okay to limit it. Two or three, he limits it. Take turns so that everyone present can understand and disrupting the understanding for others is not good. That's what he's saying. Those those are the takeaways from today.
1:09:03
Now, would you all stand with me and let's sing a song, surrender all. That was a hard one, I know, but it is what it is. Let's do communion now, sounds good. Frontline team, will y'all come on down front? This also is a passage, if you hadn't recognized it, about spontaneity and order in worship.
1:09:21
He's saying leave some spontaneity in there, leave some spontaneity in there. Carl is very much, he has his numbers on his sheets, we all know exactly what he's gonna play and in what order, but there's still room for a benediction to just arise, and there's still room for people to speak up. So Lord God, please bring us together, make us all one. Would you please bless this bread as we pass it Lord, and remember your broken body, that you died for all of those, Lord, who would receive you. You died for the sins of the world, Lord, and you gave a very real invitation, and you lived on this where you saw people mistreated and abused, and then you took that upon yourself, the mistreatment and the abuse.
1:10:05
Lord God, would you make us one right now as we remember you and your divine sacrifice after having tried so hard to understand what it is that Paul's saying. Jesus, we love you. Thank you for your broken body. Amen. Yes.
1:13:38
On the same night that Jesus was betrayed, he took bread after supper and he blessed it. He said, this is my body that's broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. Lord God, I thank you for the blood of Jesus that washes away sin. Lord, for those of us here who have accepted his sacrifice, this table is open to remember it today.
1:14:08
The new covenant in Jesus blood. Would you bless each here? Give us recognition and cognizance of our own sins so that we can willingly and readily confess it before you lord. Thank you for the blood of Jesus. Amen.
1:17:34
In the same manner, he took the cup after supper saying, this is the new covenant in my blood. Take this, drink, and do it in remembrance of me. Amen. I'm going to pray for the benediction today. God, I thank you that Paul's writing would not have been nearly so confusing to the Corinthians.
1:17:59
I thank you that that would have been a solution to the problems they were facing, lord. I pray that you that it does not my exposition of it does not cause problems here. In Jesus name, bind us together with cords that can't be broken and teach us your more excellent way. Amen.
