Corinthians | Week 1 | Summer Series

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Transcript

Welcome And Service Setup

SPEAKER_02 0:02

Hello, this is Jamie Bridges, and thank you so much for joining us for this week's podcast. All of our services are inspired and built straight from the Bible. Let's get into this week's message recorded at Life Community Church.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Good morning. If you are visiting with us today, thank you for checking us out, even if your mom drug you here. Because it's Mother's Day. We're so glad that you're here with us. Um okay, hold on. I'm going to pre-warn all of the children in the room. You're about your time is about to shine, okay? Do not let me down. Listen, don't let me down, okay? Especially if your mom's in this room, do not let me down. Okay? If your mom, can you? I'm just gonna have you raise your hand. You don't have to stand back up. Will you raise your hand if you're in the room, your mom? Okay, now everyone who does not have their hand raised, I want to hear it like we just won the World Series kind of clapping for us.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

You're letting me down. Your mom is right there. She's right there. Okay. There we go.

Ezer Meaning Strong Protective Helper

Resurrection Power And Spirit Fruit

Three Reminders And Prayer For Moms

SPEAKER_01 1:31

There we go. Listen, you guys did it better than anyone else. I'm like, let's clap for a mom. I'm like, she literally feeds you every day, bro. Every day, three times a day. Not at my house. I don't feed people three times a day. You get to eat twice at my house. Figure it out the rest of the time. Okay, I want to take a moment to celebrate the moms in the room and to honor you. We know this is coming every year. We get one day. Thank you so much, Hallmark, for giving us one day out of the entire year. Um I'm really praying that what I'm going to say to you is like medicine to your soul today. If you've come in here weary and tired because being a mom, I think no matter what age you are as in your motherhood journey, young, old, it's exhausting. You've got lots of people to think about and care about for your whole life. So it's tiring. So I really hope and pray that this is just medicine to your soul today. So I'm going to start with Romans 8, um, 10 through 11, and I'm going to read this and then I'm going to go somewhere and we're going to come back, okay? Um, Romans eight, ten through eleven, it says, And Christ lives within you. So even though your body will die because of sin, the spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. The Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. And just as God raised Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by the same spirit living in you. Okay, now I want to go all the way back to the beginning, Genesis 2. My Bible's really heavy. Genesis 2, 18. I think we all know this scripture very well. And then the Lord said, It is not good for man to be alone. I will make whom a helper who is just right. And that's the word I want to look at today. The help helper in Hebrew is called Ezer. And the R American word does not do it justice. Ezir, I want you to listen to this definition, literally means strong help, and it appears especially in contexts where God provides military aid to Israel. The term is used to describe Eve only twice in Scripture, but it is used 11 times in the Old Testament to describe God. We can see it in Psalm 33, Psalm 70, Psalm 115. That's just to name a few. God creates a woman not as a subordinate assistant, but as a powerful protective strength created in his own image and his own character. Moms, we are created as warrior-like protection for our families. Now we know this is true because the word mama bear, it doesn't just come out of nowhere, right? We're literally created like that. I was about to take out a seven-year-old girl a couple weeks ago for messing with my seven-year-old girl. And then I realized it's not very Christ-like. So we can't take out children. But you've messed with the mom, you mess with the wrong person, right? We're created to be that way. Um, let me give you some examples from the Bible if you don't believe me. Um Jacob Ed is Moses' mother. Then we have Rab, uh Rahab, Abigail, Ruth, Deborah, Holda, Tamar, Esther, Joanna, Susanna, Mary Magdalene, Martha, Lydia, Priscilla, Phoebe, and those are just to name a few. Now I want you to think back about to Romans 8. Not only are we are we created to be a strong protection from our for our families, but the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead literally lives in us that believe in Jesus. Literally lives in us. We have resurrection power living inside of us. We have the power of life in our very being. So for the moms who are new knee deep in toddlers and babies or teenagers and toddlers, because some of us like that role, um, and you can't like seem to function on some days. I want you to remember you have resurrection power living in your inside of you. For the mom who has a medically challenged child, or the mom who is raising children who aren't biologically yours, to the mom who has a child who's strayed from the Lord, or a mom who has a child whose relation uh relationship is strained with their child, we have resurrection power living inside of us. We get to come and we get to speak life to our families, to our children, to our husbands, to our moms, to our dads. Um the one last scripture I want to look at is Galatians 5, 22 and 23. So not only do we have resurrection power living in us, we also get to possess the fruits of the Spirit, which most of us know and could rattle off, but I want you to hear them. But the Holy Spirit, who lives inside of us, that's my words, it's not there, produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. That means that we get to have all of those things. We get to have love, we get to have joy. We already possess self-control. We already possess patience, we already possess goodness because the Holy Spirit that lives inside of us produces that kind of stuff out of our lives. Now, here's the trick, here's the kicker. Let me get to where I typed it out because I want to read it exactly. We quite literally are life to our families, right? We literally gave all of you in here life. You are welcome. Um then we get to speak life, we get to model life, we get to show them how to live. But we cannot do that unless we don't hold on so tight to the God who created us. We can't do it without Him. So if you've walked in here and you're tired, overworked, underappreciated, sad, brokenhearted, maybe some of you have lost child, or you've lost your own mom, or you're a mom that's here that you're questioning your every mom move, which we all do. I want you to remember these three things when you leave today. You have the same spirit living in you that raised Jesus from the dead. God created women as a powerful presence for our families. You are the mom called to that specific job. And when God calls you to the job, he equips you for the job. Because of the Holy Spirit, we get to have all of those fruits that live inside of us. Being a mom is the hardest, messiest, most holy job that we can have. And don't forget that God is our source. We don't look to the world for our answers. We don't look to TikTok, Instagram, our friends, our counselor. We looked here. Every single thing that we need as a mom is right here. But we have to do the job to go and find it. We have to do the job to sit at the feet of the Lord and listen to what he says to us. And then when he says it to us, we actually have to go and do it. And it's not always easy, and sometimes it's hard. And we all know being a mom is the hardest thing we've ever done. So if you guys would stand, if you're a mom, would you stand? I'm gonna pray for us. And I hope that you heard encouraging words today if you're struggling or if you're on the top of your motherhood journey, you're like, I got this thing. Wait till tomorrow, you won't. And I want you to remember those words that we have the power of the Lord living inside of us. We have access to every answer that we need, but we do have to sit at his feet and listen for it and find it. Let's pray. God, we thank you so much that you created women not just to be a meek, weak helper, but God, you create us to be a powerful source of life. God, that we literally get to have your life living inside of us, and then we get to give out that life to our children, to our families. God, we get to be a light wherever we go. We don't have to look like mom, the other moms, God. We get to be different because we possess the things that you give us. So, God, I pray today that every mom in this room feels encouraged. God, that every mom today feels loved. God, that even if we feel unseen for our families, God, that we know that you see us, that you created us, that you made us to be exactly where we are doing the exact job that we're doing. So, God, I pray for those of us who need wisdom, God, that you give us wisdom. For those of us that need patience, God, that you produce in us more patience. God, for those of us that are brokenhearted and sad, God, I pray that you come and you comfort us. Jesus, I thank you so much for every mom standing in this room. God, I pray a blessing over them in Jesus' name. Amen.

Marriage Insight And Summer Series Intro

How To Read The Bible Well

Why Paul Writes To Corinth

Division, Preferences, And Church Unity

God’s Wisdom, Offense, And Maturity

Holiness, Relationships, And Hard Topics

Freedom, Grace, And Stumbling Blocks

Love, Gifts, And The Resurrection Core

Go All In This Summer

SPEAKER_03 10:24

Amen. Amen. Amen. So I I realized uh wish I would have realized this earlier in our um in our marriage. My wife is a um acts of kindness kind of girl. Meaning she likes when Jamie does projects. She does not like when Jamie says words of affirmation. So 730, I'm like complimenting the world out of her, and she's like, don't need that. Go home, do some projects. You know what I mean? Like that's that's what gets it done. That's what gets it done. So almost 29 years of marriage. It took me uh probably uh 28 and a half before I realized it. According to you, 26 years of marriage, you know what I mean? It's whatever. It's it's all good. Hey, so um I want to introduce our summer series to you uh today. We're gonna be talking the next 16 weeks in the book of Corinthians. And there are some things that I just want to highlight before we jump into this because I believe like this could be a pretty crucial time uh the next three months, uh four months for us to to dive in during the summer. And I know we scatter a little bit in the summer, a lot of travel, a lot of a lot of people moving around. And so I want you to stay connected. So our podcast every week, the the when you listen to it on whatever day it is, it's for the next Sunday. So the person that's speaking that Sunday is going to be on that podcast talking about what they're talking about, so you're reading ahead of time so that when you're coming in, this isn't new information, this is for a lot of you confirmation of what the Lord already said to you the previous week. Like that's how the Bible is supposed to be read. Not just revelation, but confirmation for what God is speaking to you. Like that's important. So when we're reading the Bible, like when we're diving in, there are some things that I want us to really understand. Read the Bible to understand before you read it to react. I think a lot of us we read it and we we open the Bible and we go, okay, what is for me today? And I react to it, versus understanding what is God actually saying to me. So let's ask this who was this written to? What is happening culturally? What is the main point of the passage? And what does this reveal about God? Again, when reading this, what did what did this mean then? Right? What timeless truth exists right now? And how should I live differently from what I just read? That keeps you from misusing scripture, over-spiritualizing things, which I think we have a tendency to do, and it helps us not to make the Bible about ourselves. So many times we read the Bible and we make it about us. Oh, this is this is gonna be a quick fix. Go to gov.org if you want a quick fix. Like, this isn't what we're talking about. Scripture cannot mean to you what it never meant to the original hearers. Meaning, God telling Noah to build an ark is not your life application. God's not telling you to build an ark. However, the principle of obedience, faith, and trusting God where you are right now are principles we need to live by. But it doesn't mean that that's what that is saying, that you and I need to go build an ark. And again, before applying a verse personally, understand the original audience. Don't write verses out of context. Not every promise is universal, and not every command is personal instruction. Look for principles, not just personalization. Again, good Bible reading says what truth is timeless here? What principle transcends culture? What character of God is being revealed? Bad application is this verse means whatever I feel today. Know this. Truth does not bend around our emotions. In fact, I would say truth targets our emotions. It's just sometimes we're so emotional we don't hear it. If you have a teenager in the room, you understand that. You're gonna grow out of it. It's gonna happen. And your parents were there. They get it. You know why they understand drama? Because they used to bring it. Right? You know why your mom, why you're a little emotional? Your mom used to be so emotional too. You're not always the bad qualities of your dad. And yes, you brought life, but I planted the seed. And secondly, interpret scripture with scripture. I didn't say that in the other services. Listen, interpret scripture with scripture. One confusing verse should never outweigh the entire counsel of God. The clear passages of scripture help explain the difficult ones. It's the reason Paul said all scripture is inspired by God. All scripture is useful to teach us what is true. Don't start with how does this help me? Start with, what does this teach me about God? What does this expose in me? What needs to change in my thinking, and what obedience is required. Application without transformation is just information. Okay? James even said this: don't just listen to God's word, do exactly what it's saying. Again, application without transformation is just information. The goal of reading the Bible is not bigger heads, better arguments, or even being better at Bible trivia. It is transformation, to live transformed. That is the goal of reading the Bible, to change you. And again, as you're gonna read when Paul talks to the church at Corinth, this is foolish to the hearers. It's foolishness to live in the kingdom of God. His standards do not commute to people who aren't living that way. That's why it says those who are being saved, they're being transformed. But it's foolishness to those who are not being saved. Something has to click in here, something has to click in here. This is what Paul is saying. The Bible was written for us, not always to us. There was a big difference. The goal is not to make the Bible fit your life, the goal is to surrender your life to the truth of Scripture. Not every verse is a direct command to you personally. Every verse, though, is beneficial, and understanding that keeps us from manipulation and bad theology. Again, you have you have people that are taking scripture out of context, and they're one-hit wonders, they're 30 seconds. It's the reason. Like you see it everywhere. It's quickly, and you just swiping up from all these things because mature believers do not ask, how can how can I make this verse work for me? They ask, What must I change because this is true? What needs a change in my life because this is true? And so Paul is writing to a church that he planted in Acts 18. You want to read about the plant? You want to read about what Paul did? Acts 18. Paul plants a church in the city of Corinth. It's a wealthy community. Okay? It's a port city. A lot of exports, imports are going in and out of there. Very wealthy, and it's also very immoral, spiritually confused. It's one of the top cities in the Roman world, and it's filled, again, with sexual immorality, idol worship. This is what it's known for. Pride and status, division, competition, debates are going on. Pagan temples are happening, corruption in the temple. All these things are happening. And Paul writes them a letter to the church at Corinth. And this is Paul's attempt to correct them, to encourage them, and strengthen them. It would have been a lot easier for Paul to tell them, you guys just figure this thing out. It's harder to write a letter. A letter says, I can't be with you now, but I've heard some things. And because I've heard some things, I must address them. That's love, you guys. Not loving them is I've heard some things, and this is gonna get messy, so I'm not gonna deal with it. At the heart of God, He is a reconciler. He can reconcile any conflict that you came in with, and you think that conflict is past anything that could be resolved. God says, Nope, that's the heart. This is where when we talk about it being crazy to the world, Paul is saying, This is the kingdom of God that we deal with these issues, we walk through these issues, we deal with conflict. At the heart, the Church of Corinth is in great conflict. And Paul writes them a letter. And here's what I would say up front for any friend that you have, anybody that you're discipling, mentoring, leading, guiding, you have influence in them, they at some point should get a letter. There should be how-to's, what to, all of these things, not to imitate you, not to not to follow you, but that you might understand that there are some things that you learned that they don't know about. And so who he's writing to are immature believers. That's who he's writing to. They don't know any better. And if they don't know, this mindset that I think we sometimes in America have said is like, well, hopefully they just figured it out. You know what we celebrate? 10 people got saved, 20 people got baptized, and I'm not saying that shouldn't be celebrated, but Jesus didn't say go and get people saved, he said go and disciple people. He didn't say go and just baptize them, he said make disciples, which means I gotta walk with you through the questions. I'll never forget this was probably two years ago. I'm sitting down with a young man, gave his life to Jesus, had zero church background. Incredible. Great conversations. There was a mindset that he had, and when he's reading the Bible, and as we're reading the Bible, this epiphany happened to him. He was sleeping with his girlfriend, and I said, Well, we need to walk through and talk about the fact. That you shouldn't be sleeping with your girlfriend. He's like, What? What do you mean I shouldn't be sleeping with my girlfriend? He never heard that before. We've in the past have said, Well, hopefully the Holy Spirit convicts him and he figures it out. Paul is going, I'm not relying just on that. I'm writing you a letter. I'm informing you of some things. As parents, I think it's beneficial at an age that you deem appropriate that your kids don't get the highlight version of your accolades in high school. I think they need to hear what you did wrong. I think they need to hear about how bad you were. I think they need to hear the good, the bad, and the ugly. Again, you can deem when that is right and how much you share, but not sharing it and then them finding out you did what now? When do you usually share that? When they've made the same mistake as you. But hear me. The generation after us always exceeds us. They're always better at what we did bad. They need to hear about that. So what is happening in the church of Corinth right now? Verse 12 tells us there's quite the division. It says some of you are saying I'm a follower of Paul, others are saying I follow Apollos. Some say you follow Peter, and others say you follow Christ. Here's what is happening. They've made church a popularity contest. They've made church a fan club. And before you start thinking, we don't do that here, liars. You prefer a certain style of worship, you want certain songs, you want certain preachers, you listen to certain podcasts, you listen to certain people on TV, you have certain influences, you're no different. We are no different than what is happening at Corinth. Some of you, you like hanging out with Peter, some of you like hanging out with Apollos, some of you you don't mind hanging out with me. Why aren't you following Jesus first? What we've done, what they were doing, is they're splitting into camps the personalities of people above Jesus. I mean, let's be real. Some of you are here because you didn't like the worship style of your old church. Or your last preacher, or your last small group, and you found your way. I'm not saying you shouldn't have. He's saying it's okay that you like hanging out with Paul. It's okay that you like hanging out with Apollos, but if you put them above Jesus, we've made a mistake. This is what he's addressing. He didn't, he's saying Jesus didn't die for your preference, he died for unity. Are we following Jesus? And this is what he's talking about. And then he says, there's this wisdom of God versus the wisdom of the world. The foolish plan of God. Look at verse 24 of 1 Corinthians 1. 25 is on the screen, but let me go back to verse 24. But to those who called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles. Okay, this blew people away. They understood it was for the Jew. Now it's the Gentile. Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. He says this foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God's weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength. He's saying God's wisdom often looks foolish to the world. The cross is offensive to pride. God uses weak people. Human wisdom cannot save. Like we see all this. This is one of the strongest themes in all of this letter in 1 Corinthians. He's saying to the immature and offended Christians who he coincides. Hey, listen, you want to know your level of immaturity? How quickly are you offended? He always associates offense with immaturity. That'll hit. He's saying, listen, in verse three of chapter three, he says, You're still controlled by your flesh, your sinful nature. He's saying you're so controlled by the things, it's causing jealousy, it's causing division, it's causing pride, it's causing spiritual maturity. He says, Listen, you're you're eating, you think you're eating spiritual meat, but you're really drinking spiritual milk. And he puts in this illustration so that you and I understand it. I have a one-year-old granddaughter. I'm not giving her meat yet. She can't handle it. She can't handle the meat. She got two teeth. Right? We understand. We're giving her milk, and yesterday an occasional piece of a donut. That I'm sure someone's gonna get in trouble for. But I watched KK do it first, so I then did it. You know what I mean? Like, I think the role of the grandfather is to cross the lines. Like, oh, you need shoes, here's three pairs. You know what I mean? Like, that's just my role. Right? Take it extreme. He's addressing that these people are so immature, they're trying to eat meat, they need to be drinking milk. And then he's saying to the other group, he's going, Why are you guys still drinking milk? You are old enough to eat more, but you're acting immature, which we understand. If you're watching a 16-year-old walk around with a bottle drinking milk, you're gonna think that dude's immature. You're gonna call him a baby, you're gonna say some other things about him, you're gonna call him a mama's boy, you're gonna you're gonna make fun of him. Like there's gonna, you're gonna go like something is not right. We understand that physically mature-wise, we get it. He's talking from a spiritual standpoint. He goes, This is what this is like. You're spiritually immature. And here's how we know this you're tolerating sin. Verse 1 of chapter 5, he says, I can hardly believe the reports that I'm hearing about you guys. He's like, I just thought you guys would be further. I can't believe you're still struggling in this area. Because here's here's what's happening. They're not just struggling with sin, they're celebrating it. They're celebrating sin. The churches, this is what he's talking about. Before we get self-righteous, understand that we sometimes do the exact same thing. And when we get into Corinthians, we're gonna find that what we used to be hidden is now promoted. What used to be shameful, I think the church sometimes is applauding it. And what Paul's addressing is if the church looks like the world, then what are we trying to save people from? Like that's the question that he's asking. And then he moves right into sexual sin and holiness. It's the only time in Scripture when we talk about sin that we don't talk about putting on the armor. Every other chapter, Ephesians 5, when Paul's talking to the church of English, man, armor run up. You got an enemy out there. When we get to talking about sexual sin, what's he say? Run. Run. Like, I'm not a runner. You're gonna get taken out then. He's saying flee. He's saying they were you were just struggling, and he's saying, like, flee. Paul is teaching your body belongs to God, grace is not permission to sin. And he's saying the church must lovingly confront sin. And he didn't just talk about sexual sin. He moves right into marriage, singleness, divorce, relationships, all in chapter 7. He's highlighting how honorable marriage is, how singleness can be powerful. He's addressing the people that are single, that are saying things like, nobody wants me, nobody wants me to be married. Paul's going, listen, it's better that some of you stay single. You're gonna have more money, you're gonna have more time. Come on, somebody. That was a good moment, guys. It's true. Paul's like, don't don't knock the single people. They have all the freedom to pick up and do whatever they want without anybody going, you can't do that. Like, there will be a day when she will say, no, no, no. I mean, our 23-year-old son is like backpacking across everywhere, Europe here soon. And he's like, What do you think about this? I'm like, do it. You don't got any attachments. Just call your mother every once in a while. Make sure she's good. Do you need money? No, this is even better. I mean, he's he's living the dream. I'm living vicariously through him. You can't do that. I said, son, do it while you can. There will be a day. She'll say, You can do it, but you're gonna be sleeping on the couch when you get back. Yeah, you can go to that game. Just no, I'll be sleeping when you get home. You know what I mean? Like these things happen. Paul's addressing it. Paul's saying, stop looking down on being single. There's power there. He doesn't just do that, he's answering practical questions to believers about dating, about marriage, about divorce, about purity, and he's addressing it. He's having conversations, he's not hiding from it. We're gonna take, we take issue as a church to not have these conversations, to assume everybody understands what the Bible says about these things, and these are not easy conversations, you guys. These are difficult conversations, but if they don't know, if we're not the ones that are telling them, like for us to imagine that 30 minutes a week is enough when it comes to sharing, there's no way it's enough. It's what Kelly just said. Like, if you want the answers, here they are. Here they are. And Paul's addressing it. He talks about freedom. He says Christian freedom versus stumbling, being a stumbling block. He says this in verse 9 of chapter 8. He says, You must be careful so that your freedom does not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble. What's he addressing? He's addressing this freedom that we have in Jesus to live in a certain way that we abuse the freedom. If there's a moment that we say, I'm gonna do this, knowing God can forgive me, that's a dangerous abuse of grace. Understand this. Grace being extended to us is forgiveness. But the heartbeat behind grace is that grace empowers you to never be the same again. And here's how this changes. How I view sin is determined if I ever get past that sin. Here's what I mean by this. If I'm not, if I'm bringing my sin to God and I'm saying, God, can you take my sin? I need forgiveness, but then I'm returning to that sin. I'm constantly going back to that sin. I'm abusing the grace. I'm not seeing sin the way God sees sin. I'm seeing sin from my own standpoint, like I'm the one that can fix this. And what he's saying is, church, listen, don't use this freedom that you have in Christ to cause someone else to stumble. Meaning, you're having conversations with people and you're sharing the gospel, but then you're participating in the same things of the people that you're trying to reach. And man, we've westernized this really good. Well, Jesus hung out with sinners. Cool. Let's continue that story. Every single one of them were transformed because of the way Jesus loved them. Can we say the same thing? Jesus never partaked in what they were doing. Can we say the same thing? If we're gonna use that analogy as Jesus hung out with sinners, then we must take that further. And this is what Paul's addressing. Paul's saying, listen, if this freedom in Christ that you have means that you have to give up something that you haven't allowed to become an addiction in your life to save someone who is addicted to it, meaning, I'll remember when my sister, who had been through rehab, told me I can meet you anywhere, but we can't go to Applebee's because Applebee's was a place for her where she used to do certain things or know certain people. Well, Applebee's as a whole is not bad. I mean, the food might be questionable, but that's not even what we're talking about. For her, it was a stumbling block. I don't need to know why it was a stumbling block, I just know that it was a stumbling block. So then for me to say, let's go to Applebee's, then would be wrong of me. There's things that Paul is addressing saying, guys, are you willing to give up something that you find permissible, that they find as a problem, so that their soul gets set free? Are you willing to give that up? Paul's saying, you found it as something that's easy for you, but it's difficult for them. And he's saying, Are you willing to be a stumbling block? In fact, later Jesus would say something along the same lines, and he says, Listen, it would be better for you to take a boat in the middle of the lake, put a weight around your neck and to jump in, than it would to cause someone else less than you to stumble. He wasn't saying less to you in the sense of you're better and they're not. He's again addressing spiritual maturity. He's saying, You who are spiritually mature, don't cause them to stumble. Show your maturity by not allowing yourself to cause them to stumble. That's what he's addressing. This is a lesson to the church of what he's saying, and then he gets into this whole point about love and what love is. You probably have read chapter 13. Love is patient, it's kind, all these things. Love never fails. It's important to know what Paul is saying is listen, you can be the greatest of these, but without love, you're noise. It's just noise. You can have knowledge and the most knowledge in all the world, but if you don't love, you're empty. No one's hearing you. He even even uses a gong, like this sounds. I always picture like you know, Charlie Brown's teacher. Anyone else that's 50 and older in this room? Some people are looking at me like, what are you talking about? It sounds like wah wah, wah wah, wah wah, wah wah, wah wah. That's what sometimes it sounds like in here to some of you. Uh it's it's nothing, it's noise. He says you can gain everything, but if you don't love, that's what it sounds like to people. And he's getting us to understand that love is the foundation that we build on, it's the foundation of how we do things, it's why we do things, and he brings it all back. He's saying this church is elevating spiritual gifts above others. That's why the whole chapter 12 talks about the church as a body and and we're a body. He's saying every part plays a role, nobody's just on the sidelines, and the hand needs the eye, and the eye needs the ear to function right. He says, Every believer plays a role, none better than the others. And what's happening is there's spiritual gifts that are happening at Corinth, and they're elevating them more than everybody else. They're making people feel less than. And Paul's going, You guys need to knock this off. You're not better than anybody else. He says, Listen, different gifts, different roles, same spirit. That's chapter 12. That's what he's addressing. And it just goes right in line with chapter 13. And then Paul ends this way. He says, Listen, chapter 15 through 17. If Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless. He says, Listen, this is the this is the crux of us who follow Jesus, that everything is dependent on the resurrection of Jesus. It's what Kelly talked about. If if the resurrection of Jesus didn't happen, then we're all still stuck in our sin. But because it did happen, the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives inside of you. The resurrection matters, life after death matters, victory over sin matters, and this is what he's addressing so much that his famous line, chapter 15, verse 54, is death is swallowed up in victory. Like this is his point. He says, Listen, guys, I need you to understand that the power of God lives inside of you. That's not that's a message to every believer, and that is the biggest point of what Paul's saying, and this is the biggest challenge. He started with it in verse 2 of chapter 1, and he ends with the why. The why, the heart of the resurrection. He says this he says, You are not called to blend in, you are called to be different. He says that in verse 2, he says, You are called to be a holy people, not to reflect culture, but to transform it. Transform it. The church was never meant to sit in the safe, in the safety of culture, we were meant to change it. As the church, that's the vehicle that God uses. And if you're like me, you look around the room and you go, Wow, we are so different. And you know what God says when he sees it? Good. Because you're gonna reach people that some people cannot reach. That's why when someone says, Do you like so and so's singing? Do you like so and so's band? My first thought is, are they glorifying Jesus? Then they're gonna reach someone that I could never reach. It doesn't matter if I like them, it's are they reaching people, then who cares? It's not right or wrong. Because people sin differently than we do, doesn't give us the right to say we're right and they're wrong. This is what Paul is addressing. He's saying, guys, you've highlighted your spiritual gifts, who you are above everyone else. Knock it off, knock it off, and then he ends with, I'm coming for you. Again, he couldn't make it, so he wrote him a letter. This is a letter to us. If in three months, if you decided today, today, Mother's Day, 2026, you made a decision, and you said, Here's what I'm gonna do today. I'm cutting out sugar, I'm cutting out gluten, I'm going all in riding a bike, walking, running, something different than I did yesterday. I'm going all in the next three months. I have no doubt in my mind, you're gonna look different. Your face is gonna look different, your gut's gonna look different, and people are gonna come up to you and they're gonna go, something different about you. And you're gonna have zero problems going, yeah, here's what I did. I cut out sugar. Yep, here's what I did. I stopped eating all the bread in the world, even the sourdough stuff that they said was healthy for me. It's not that is the definition of the church over-spiritualizing something. Yeah, you can eat sourdough, it's good for you. No, it's not. I disagree. Maybe I haven't had the right one yet. Bet I haven't had the right one yet. You can leave it at the office. Right? I have zero doubt you're gonna look different and you're gonna have no problem telling people you're ready to. I mean, you've only been doing it for three months, but you're gonna talk like an expert, right? And some of you, you've done it. You understand what I'm saying? What if the next three to four months we did the same thing spiritually? What if we canceled subscriptions? What if, what if in that time we read the Bible more than we've ever read it before? What if, what if we did something so uncomfortable? Listen to me, God doesn't call us to do comfortable things, he calls us to do uncomfortable things. So, those of you in the room that's going like, I don't feel comfortable doing a small group, that means it's for you. Because listen to me, I don't feel comfortable eating broccoli, and neither do some of you, because you smother it with cheese, which tells me broccoli is not good tasting stuff. I got a choir to taste it. I would much rather have chocolate a little bit. What if the next four months we said, I'm in, I'm diving deep, I'm going. I'm going deep in this book. I'm going deep in meeting with people I would have normally not met with. I would encourage some of you, you're like, oh, small groups, we close for summer. Keep going. It's a free country. Keep going. Keep meeting. Keep worship. You don't need us to organize it. Keep doing it. And then in four months, when people are like something different about you, you can point back. Yeah, here's what I did. Here's what I changed. If not now, when. If not now, win. You don't have the time, you're never gonna have the time. Never. What do we want to look like in August? Is my question for us. That's my challenge. I think physically, I think spiritually, I think these things go hand in hand. I do. I think they go hand in hand. What would it look like if we said I'm in? And here's how I know whether we're in or not. Find someone that you say, I need you to hold me accountable for these two things. And watch what God does. Watch what God does. Jesus, I pray for your help today. God, we recognize we can't do this thing without you. You are God. And God, you empower us to never be the same again. And God, we hear what you're saying. James says, it's not good just to listen to what God says. You must do what he says. God, I pray that there aren't just listeners in this room. God, I pray that there are doers in this room. Men and women who have fed up, they're fed up with returning to who they used to be. They're fed up with being immature spiritually. God, this is it. This is the moment. We're not just drawing a line in the sand. God, we're we're getting away from that line and we're drawing closer to you. So the line never even enters the conversation. We're so close to you that we can't be close to anything else. God, that's our heart. God, we need your help in that. I pray that today decisions are made not emotionally, but God, because you said it, because you spoke it.