Podcasts about Corinth

Ever feel like you're growing in faith but have no one guiding you? You're not alone. In this episode, Jenilee and author Lori Melton talk about what to do when you don't have a mentor, how God still leads you in the waiting, and practical ways to grow spiritually right where you are.Lori shares her journey of learning to depend on the Holy Spirit, finding “spiritual giants” to learn from, and what it really means to be mentored by God Himself. You'll walk away encouraged, equipped, and reminded—you're not growing alone.Why mentorship matters for spiritual growthHow God mentors us through people, books, and everyday momentsWhat to do when you feel spiritually stuck or unseenSimple rhythms to deepen your walk with GodIf this episode encouraged you, share it with a friend who's growing in faith. And don't forget to grab your Hearing God's Voice Journal to start your own mentorship journey with the Holy Spirit.

Paul reminds the people of Corinth that they are God's building where the Holy Spirit dwells and Jesus Christ is the sure foundation. (Lectionary #671) November 9, 2025 - Cathedral Rectory - Superior, WI Fr. Andrew Ricci - www.studyprayserve.com  

The early church is often painted as an ideal of perfect community. The reality, however, was far from picturesque. The church in Corinth was, to put it lightly, a mess. In one of his letters to the Corinthian church, the Apostle Paul tried to paint a clear picture for the people and untangle the many theological and moral knots the church had created for itself. His letter to them still rings true to the church today. How can we be unified in a world of chaos? How can we be wise in a world of foolishness?

Introduction: It's Time to Grow Up… (1 Corinthians 3:1–9) Because your childish THINKING holds you back. (1 Cor 3:1–2) Because your childish BEHAVIOR hurts others. (1 Cor 3:3) Because your childish FAVORITISM highlights man and not God. (1 Cor 3:4–8) Because your childish SELFISHNESS hides your identity. (1 Cor 3:9) God, help me to grow up. Today, I need to stop _______________________________________ and start _______________________________________. Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANKHint: Highlight blanks above for answers! Small Group DiscussionRead 1 Corinthians 3:1-9What was your big take-away from this passage / message?Why do so many Christians act like adult babies and why do so many churches pamper these adult babies? What is the solution to this problem?Define jealousy and strife. How do you see yourself being jealous or stirring up strife right now?According to Paul, why shouldn't there be any competition in the church?What identity does Paul assign to Christians in 1 Corinthians 3:9? How should this identity affect how you act and serve the church?BreakoutShare how you filled in the following blanks at the end of your outline: God, help me to grow up. Today, I need to stop _______________________________________ and start _______________________________________. Encourage and pray for one another. AUDIO TRANSCRIPT Turn your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verses 1 through 9.1 Corinthians chapter 3 verses 1 through 9.It's time to grow up.Have you ever thought that about someone else?You ever thought that about a neighbor, a coworker?Have you ever said that to someone else?To a friend, to a family member?And whenever you think or say that sentence, it always comes with a sense of frustration,a sense of disbelief that someone could be so immature, that someone could be so childish.I can distinctly remember a time where I thought and said that exact sentence.It's time to grow up.It was years ago as I was sick on the couch watching my favorite sick day show, Dr. Phil.And don't judge me for my favorite sick time show.You probably don't have one that's much better.Maybe it's helped me with counseling over the years. I don't really know.But I'll never forget this one particular episode as Dr. Phil interviewed a 24-year-old manwho considered himself 18 months old.He was an adult baby.He slept in a massive custom crib.He had customized onesies in his closet.He wore diapers and he ate baby food.And Dr. Phil asked him, "Do you think you'll ever grow past this age?"Is that decent? I've been working on that all week. Is that okay?My wife doesn't think it's really good, so I guess it's not.Pastor Jeff is encouraging me, though.And then Brett said, "I don't think so. I've done a lot of research.And this is the age that I feel, 18 months."I was so disturbed by Brett's delusions.I was so bothered by his contentment with never growing upand the unwillingness of his loved ones to call him out.As I was sick on that couch, I wanted to climb through the TVand join Dr. Phil in saying, "It's time to grow up."Do you know what's even sadder to me than Brett's childish behavior?The childish lifestyle of many Christians.Adult babies are in every church.Adult babies are men and women who are content to never grow up.Content to never mature.They are committed to staying right where they areand never making any progress.So many churches are content with pampering these adult babies,catering to their desires, and baby-proofing the Bibleto avoid any sharp edges or offensive truths.So many pastors are committed to playing along with people's delusionsrather than lovingly calling them out.Thankfully, the apostle Paul did not have that commitment.He had a much different commitment to the Corinthian church,who also had an adult baby problem.Paul was 100% committed to this church's unity and purity.He had no interest in playing along with their delusions.He was unwilling to clean up their toys,snap on their onesies, and tuck them into their adult cribs.He was unafraid to burst their bubble and to lovingly call them outbecause their behavior was unacceptable to Godand it was damaging to the entire church.Paul was bold in calling out the Corinthians and saying,"Okay, it's time to get your big boy pants on.It's time to grow up."And this message from Paul wasn't just for the Corinthiansalmost 2,000 years ago.This message from Paul is for Harvest Bible Chapel today.And I really don't want you to think,"Oh, man, I wish so-and-so was here.He or she really needs to grow up."Listen, that person isn't here, but you are.You really need to hear this word from the Lord.In some ways or in many ways, you need to grow up.I need to grow up.So before we continue any further, let's go to the Lord and ask for His help.Please pray for me that will faithfully proclaim God's wordand I will pray for you that you will faithfully receive it.Father, we just celebrated children in our church.Children are a gift. Children are a blessing.The Lord, when we as adults act like children, there's a huge problem.Lord, I admit to you that I can be an adult baby.I can be childish.And I know the same is true for every single person in this room.Help us to stop thinking that this is for somebody else.This is a word for each and every one of us.Maybe we'd walk out of this room as different peopleand we'd be put on the path to maturity.We ask and pray all these things in Jesus' name.Amen.It's time to grow up.Reason number one, because your child is thinking holds you back.Your child is thinking holds you back.In last week's passage, the Apostle Paul reminded usthat everyone who is in Christ has been given the mind of Christ.That sounds really awesome, doesn't it?But what in the world does that mean?What is the mind of Christ?God's Word.You have been given God's Word.You don't have to wonder what God thinks about anything.You don't have to wonder what God thinks about himself, salvation,or how you should live your life.He tells you in His Word.He not only gives you His Word,but He also gives you the Holy Spirit to help you understand this Wordand help you to understand how you apply it to your life.God doesn't tell you all that you could know,but He does tell you all that you need to know.Those who are spiritual are able to understand spiritual truths.Well, great. Thanks, Paul. I appreciate that.Here is a butt coming in chapter 3, verse 1.Listen to what Paul says."But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people,but as people of the flesh as infants in Christ."At first glance, it seems like Paul is sayingthat there are no Christians in Corinth.This church is only made up of unsaved peoplewho have no true life and no true relationship with God.But that's not what Paul is saying at all.There are true believers in Corinth,and there are two context clues in this versethat show us that Paul is talking to Corinthian Christians.First of all, Paul calls them brothers.Paul isn't Hulk Hogan. He isn't called everybody brother.That was just for Pastor Jeff.Paul only calls his spiritual siblings brothers and sisters.This is a term of affection.Paul isn't coming in hot saying,"Okay, idiots, time to shut up and grow up."That's not what he's doing.He's not putting them in a headlock and giving them noogiesuntil they do what he tells them to do.No, he's coming in with an arm around their shoulder.Brothers, sisters, I love you.You're my family. Jesus Christ loves you,but you're not acting like you love Jesus.You're not acting like Christians.You're not acting like you have the Holy Spirit within you.You are letting your sinful desires,you are letting your flesh control you.And secondly, Paul calls them by another name.Paul calls them infants in Christ.So they are in Christ.They are saved. Their sins have been forgiven,but they are stuck in their immaturity.They are standing still.And Paul is saying to them,"I want to have an adult conversation with you,but all you can do is goo goo, gaga, and spit up all over yourself."What is the proof of their baby-ness?Verse chapter 2 tells us it's their spiritual diet.Let's read verse 2."I fed you with milk, not solid food,for you were not ready for it,and even now you are not yet ready."When my kids were born,I didn't throw them a pizza party in the delivery room.I didn't try to serve them a hot slice of pizzawith extra cheese and pepperoni.Why not?Because they were not ready for it.Their systems couldn't handle that kind of meal.When we brought Sam and then years later,Emmy home from the hospital,I didn't try to force-feed them ribeye steak and corn on the cob.Again, why not?Because they could not handle it.They were not ready for it.Newborns cannot eat corn on the cob, pizza and steak.Newborns cannot eat solid food.Babies can only be nourished by milk.But that was years ago.Let's talk about now.Sam is six years old and Emmy is almost four.Should my kids be able to handle pizza, corn on the cob and steak now?Why is that?Because they're older.They should be ready for solid food.If they're not, there is something seriously wrong within themthat Kate and I should not ignore.The Corinthian church should be ready for the solid food of God's Word,but they're not.There is something seriously wrong within them that Paul cannot ignore.After years and years of being Christians,the Corinthians are still only drinking from the milk of the Bible basics.Their diet is way off because they have no desire to move forward.And to be clear, new believers do need the milk of the Bible basics.They do need the spiritual ABCs.God is holy, man is sinful.Jesus Christ came to die on the cross,and everyone who trusts in Him will be forgiven.Jesus loves me this I know for the...Yes, amen to all these truths.We do touch on these essentials every single week, don't we?These are the foundation of our faith.But do you agree there's way more to the story?There's way more to know.There's way more to learn.At the beginning of your spiritual life,you must be fed like a spiritual newborn.But as time goes on, your diet should progressso that you can progress,that you can grow in your faith and make improvements.I'm not a dietitian by any stretch of the imagination,but to grow big and strong physically,you need a certain calorie intake.You need to eat from a wide variety of food groups.To grow big and strong spiritually,you need to consume a significant amount of God's Word.You need to have a balanced understandingof the Old Testament and the New Testament.You shouldn't say, "You know what? That book isn't really for me."No, they're all for you.All 66 books of the Bible are essential for your growth.You should make the attempt to have a balanced understandingof the major topics of Scripture,the character and attributes of God,the person and work of Jesus Christ,sanctification, the church, end times,and on and on the list goes.As Paul says in 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 through 17,"All Scripture, not just some, not just most,all Scripture is breathed out by God,and profitable for teaching, for reproof,for correction, for training and righteousness,that the man of God may be complete,equipped for every good work."It takes the whole Bible to make you a whole person.You should have an appetite for the solid food of Scripture.Your knowledge of and your love for God's Wordshould increase day by day, week by week, month by month,year by year, and again, if it's not, there's a problem.Your desire to obey God's Word should increase over time.If you truly have the mind of Christ,you should love the thoughts of Christ.And the author of Hebrews explains the long-term side effectsof only drinking milk.He says this, "For though by this time you ought to be teachers,you need someone to teach you againthe basic principles of the oracles of God.You need milk, not solid food.For everyone who lives on milk is unskilledin the Word of righteousness since he is a child."I'm going to be very blunt for the next few minutes.I've been praying for this section of the sermon all week longbecause I want you to receive what I'm about to offerwith the intention I give it.This comes from love and concern.Some of you have only been drinking milk for years,and it shows.Some of you are still spiritual newbornsand not spiritual adults,even though you've followed Christ for years,maybe even decades.Some of you should be ready for the solid food of Scripture,but you're not.Some of you should be ready to teach the Bibleback in Harvest Academy, but you're not.Some of you should be able to pray in front of other believers,lead prayer groups to prayer services, but you're not.Some of you men should be elder qualified by nowand ready to help shepherd this flock and shoulderthe responsibility, but you're not.If I have described you on any level,please understand I'm not trying to scold you.I'm not trying to push you down like the Apostle Paul.I only have the desire to encourage you and to pull you uplike the Apostle Paul.I want to put a shoulder around you, brother, sister,God has so much more for you in store.If you'll just take a step forward and make progress by His grace.Don't stay where you are.Don't be content to always drink milk feast on this book.Do not be content to always swim in the shallow end of the gospelwith your floaties on.Dive in, explore, challenge yourself.Do not be content with riding with spiritual training wheelsyour entire life.Ask God to give you a sense of confidenceso that you can ride with confidenceand help other people to ride with confidence.Repent of your laziness.Turn from your apathy to the things of God.Ask the Lord to give you a greater hunger for His word,a greater motivation to run after holiness,a greater commitment to the strength of this church.After service, ask a pastor or elder to pray for you.Ask a mature member of this congregationor a godly friend to help you and to keep you accountable.It's time to grow up because your childish thinking holds you backfrom being who God has created you to beand doing what God has called you to do.It's time to grow up.Reason number two, because your childish behavior hurts others.Your childish behavior hurts others.Paul goes on to give another exampleof the Corinthian sinful immaturity in verse three."For you are still of the flesh.For while there is jealousy and strife among you,are you not of the fleshand behaving only in a human way?"Childish thinking always leads to childish behavior.And the childishness of the Corinthianscan be summed up in two words, jealousy and strife.Jealousy is a serious case of dissatisfactionwith what God has given to you.You deserve more.You deserve better.You deserve whatever you want.When you are jealous of what someone else has,you cannot be content with what you have.If you are jealous of someone else's success,you cannot celebrate that person's success.Strife is needless conflict.Strife leads to dumb divisionthat can and should be avoided.Jealousy is an attitude,and strife is the aftermath.Jealousy is the root,and strife is the result.No one needs to teach you how to be jealous.No one needs to show you how to create strife.These sins are inherent within each and every one of us.If you don't believe me,just go back to Harvest Academy for a few minutes.You will see jealousy and strife soonerrather than later.Why does Suzy have that toy in her eye?I hate Tommy and Joey because they never let me play with them.I'm not inviting Ruthie to my birthday partybecause she didn't invite Betty to hers.You may laugh at that,but the adults in the church are not much better than the kids, are they?Listen, you can be jealous.You.Maybe you are envious of someone else in this room.That person who has the marriage that you want.That parent who has more under control kids than you do.That person who seems to be more talented than you.You should be celebrating and rejoicingand God's good gifts to that brother or sister,but instead you resent them.And you want them to be knocked down a few pegs to feel how you feel.You can be jealous.You can cause strife and factions in the church.You have a serious bone to pick with the leadership at Harvest.Instead of coming to the elders directly, you start whispering.You start spreading misinformation.You start spreading rumors.You are offended by someone else.Instead of going to that person directly,you go to other people to recruit them to your side.And you may say, "Oh, I'm just doing this to warn people."No, you're not.You're doing this to the other people who will like you more than that person.Just be honest about it.Maybe you enjoy getting into fights.You enjoy making a big deal out of nothing.You lace up your boxing gloves and get into worthless, pointless battles with people.Are you jealous right now?Are you causing strife right now?If you are jealous, if you are stirring up trouble,you're just acting like an adult babyand not a mature son or daughter of God.If you are stirring up trouble, if you have sinned against someone else,it's time to swallow your pride and admit what you've done.Kids sweep things under the rug and ignore it.Adults expose sin and confess it.It's time to grow up because your childish behavior hurts others,especially the people you love.It's time to grow up.Reason number three, because your childish favoritism highlights man and not God.Because your childish favoritism highlights man and not God.Jealousy and strife at Corinth played out in a specific way,and it led to people playing favorites with specific leaders.Let's see what Paul has to say about this in verse 4.For when one says, "I follow Paul,"and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not being merely human?Pastor Jeff preached on this favoritism controversy a few weeks ago,but Paul talks about it again, so what are we going to do?We're going to talk about it again.Paul was the one who planted the Corinthian church during his second missionary journey.And he was there for about a year and a half ministering, preaching, pastoring.And some people had a soft spot for Paul.They were nostalgic for him because he was the one who led them to Christ.After Paul left, Apollos comes to town, and he's a much better speaker,a much more dynamic preacher, so many people prefer Apollos.And this history of favoritism led to both men having their own personal fan clubs,even though both men do not want their own personal fan clubs.In modern day terms, there is a Paul fan page on Facebook,and there's an opposing Apollos fan page on Facebook.There are trading cards with these men's faces and pastoral stats.There are YouTube channels that highlight and spell out their sermons on why they're so great.But Paul says this kind of favoritism is childish.It is not the way of heaven. It is the way of this world.He's saying, "If you say I follow Paul, or I follow Apollos, grow up.You're acting like a child. You need to cut it out."And Paul gives a reason why he and Apollos are not worthy of these cult followings in verse 5.What then is Apollos? What is Paul?Servants through whom you believed as the Lord assigned to each.Paul and Apollos are not celebrities. They're not superstars.They're not mega church pastors. Who are they according to this verse?Servants.This word can also be translated as table waiters.Waiters do not cook the food. They simply deliver the food.Busboys simply clean up.Paul and Apollos are just lowly busboys in God's restaurant.Last time I checked, there are no busboy enthusiasts.There are no busboy trading cards. There are no busboy YouTube channels.When was the last time you had a restaurant and thought to yourself,"Man, this table is spotless. I don't even need a plate. I can just eat right off of it.I need to go find the busboy and congratulate him."Has that ever happened to you?Paul is saying, "I'm just a busboy. I'm not worthy of anything that you want to give me."He's knocking himself off the pedestal that the Corinthians have put him on.He's demystifying Apollos and putting him in his place too.They are just servants of the Lord. They are servants of the Corinthian church.But Paul isn't done lowering himself yet.He and Apollos are not just busboys.They are also farm hands, according to verses 6 and 7."I planted Apollos watered, but God gave the growth."So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God gives the growth.I've never farmed before.I've never even kept a garden before in my entire life.The last time I can remember planting a seed was in first grade with that cup on the window sill,that cup of dirt.I'm not a farmer, but I do know a farmer in our congregation.I spoke to Jesse Hogan last week and I asked him,"How much credit can you take for a good harvester crop?"Do you want to know what farmer Jesse said?None.All I can do is plant, pray for good weather, and trust that God will bring the growth.Trust the results to God.Jesse is a successful farmer because he understands his place in the process.He entrusts the results to God.He knows his limitations.Paul is successful as a pastor, as an evangelist, as a church planner,because he knows his place in the process.He trusts the results to God.Paul knows his limitations.Paul is saying, "I planted the church in Corinth."Paul has watered it with his faithful preaching,but who alone gets the credit?Who alone gets the glory for the growth?God and God alone.Once again, Paul and Paulos are nothing special.They are just farmhands who plant and water the seeds of the gospel.That's it.Paul goes on to give you another reason why he and Paulos shouldn't be pitted against each otherin verse 8."He who plants and he who waters are one,and each will receive his wages according to his labor."There is no reason for Paul and Paulos to competebecause they are on the same team.They are one.I've already admitted that I'm not a farmer,but I may be a better farmer than I am an athlete.Some of you were laughing too hard at that.But I did play basketball from sixth to twelfth grade,and I can remember distinct games where every man in our team was out for himself.Every man was trying to show off.Every man was trying to show everyone how great he was.And that never led to victory because we forgot that we were one.We forgot that we were on the same team.I can also remember other games when we did come together as a cohesive whole.Everyone wasn't trying to win for himself, trying to win for the entire team.In those moments, we were one.We were on the same team, which often led to victory.We are on the same team at Harvest Bible Chapel.We should be pulling together to be one in the Lord,rather than pulling apart to try and be special on our own.On my own, I am a zero.On your own, you are a zero, but together we are one.Our strength comes from our unity.Recently, a member of our church paid the highest compliment to this churchthat made my entire year.She said, "To be honest, I don't really care who preaches on a Sunday morning,because I know, I trust that everyone who preaches at Harvestwill be faithful to God's Word."That is the goal.That woman gets it.That is what Paul is talking about in this verse.It's not about the servant.It's about the one we serve.It's not about the bus boy.It's about the one who owns all things.It is not about the farmhand.It's about the only one who gives the growth.Playing favorites in the church is stupid.It is immature.It is childish foolishness to try to figure out who's the bestand who's the most important.We all have a role to play.No one's gifting or role is more important than another.And according to Paul, each worker will be paid by God Himself,and God never stiffs His employees.He always gives infinitely satisfying rewards.So please don't try to reward yourselfby seeking after the affirmation and praise of others.Wait diligently for the rewards of God,because they are coming.Adult babies live for the moment,but godly servants live for the long haul.It's time to grow up and start highlighting God and not man.It's time to grow up.Final reason, because your childish selfishness hides your identity.Because your childish selfishness hides your identity.Let's wrap up with verse 9."For we are God's fellow workers.You are God's field, God's building.I truly enjoy partnering with all of my coworkers,Missy, Gillian, Ashley, Pastor Rich, Pastor Jeff.I love all my coworkers,but do you know which coworker I enjoy working with the most?God.Pastor Jeff is a great boss,but do you know who's an even greater boss?The Lord.So many pastors fall into sinand disqualify themselves from ministrybecause their childish selfishness hides their identity.They think they're the ones making things happen.They think that the church growth is happening because of them.They're in charge. They're running the show.And they end up becoming bullies.They end up becoming tyrants.They forget they work with and for the God of the universe.Those pastors did not shed their own bloodon the cross for the members of their church.Their churches do not belong to them.Their churches belong to Christ.You do not belong to me.You do not belong to Justin Cady, Brian Beehe, Pastor Rich,or even Pastor Jeff.If you have trusted in Christ, you belong to Him.He's the one who shed his blood for you.He is the one who died for you.You are God's field.You are God's building.That is who you are.Do not let your childish selfishness hide your identity any longer.Do not try to find your identityin what the world says to find it in.The world will tell youthat you are the maker of your own meaning.Your worth is found in what you achieve.But that is not what Paul is saying in this verse.You are not a precious snowflakewhose every one preference should be met.Your story is not the main event of this world.You are not the point of anything.You are just a small part of the field that God is cultivating.You are just a single brickin the beautiful structure that God is building.You are a part of the church of Jesus Christwhich will never ever pass away.It's time to grow upand stop believing that life is all about youbecause it's not.It's about the Lordwho will do great things in and through you.It's time to grow upand start remembering who you areand whose you are.Some of you in this room do not belong to Christ.You are not even an infant in Christbecause you have not been born again.You are not a part of God's field.You are not a part of God's building.You are just a lonely seed.You are just a discarded brick.But your identity will change in an instantif you give your life to Jesus.If you trust in Him as your Saviorwho died on the cross for your sins.If you trust in Him as the Lord of your lifewho has every right to tell you what to do.If you place your faith and trust in Christ,you will be adopted into His family.You will be planted into God's field.You will be slid into the perfect spot in this churchthat is reserved just for you.You will be placed on the path to mature adulthood in Christ.The biggest temptation for a sermon like thisis to feel the sting of conviction in the momentand then do nothing with that conviction once you get home.But do you know what's the most childish thing of all?Knowing that something needs to changeand then doing nothing about it.Please do not fall into that childish temptation.Choose to put away your childish thinking.Choose to put away your childish behavior.Choose to put away your childish favoritism.Choose to put away your childish selfishness.Brothers and sisters, it's time to mature.It's time to grow up.But you can't grow up on your own, can you?You need God's helpbecause He is the expert on growth, not you.There are still two blanks left on your sheet that you need to fill in.These are a prayer to the Lord.God, help me to grow up.Today I need to stop blank and start blank.I have no idea what you need to fill in those blanks with, but you do.And so is God.Maybe it's God, help me to grow up today and He has stopped making excusesand start reading my Bible every morning at 7 a.m.Maybe it's God, help me to grow up today.I need to stop being jealous of so-and-so, it's small groupand start being content with what you have given me.It could be God, help me to grow up todayor maybe God, help me to grow up today.I need to stop sitting on the church sidelinesand start serving at harvest today.Don't be vague because vague goals lead disappointing results.Be practical, be specific,because that will lead to encouraging results.Take a few minutes to fill in those blanks.Take a few moments to go to the Lord, to confess sin,to ask for His help.Ask Him to empower you to change.Ask for His help so that you can be empowered.Take steps to grow up.Fill in those blanks and spend some time in the Lord with prayer.Father, I thank you for your immense patience with us.I know as a father I can be so impatient with my children at times,but Lord, you are so long suffering.But all of us in this room can be childish.All of us in this room can be immatureor may today be a brand new day of transformation.May today be a day where a first step is taken,where growth happens by your grace and by the power of your spirit.Lord, may we not just be convicted in this moment,be convicted the rest of today, the rest this weekand the rest of our lives seek after you and your Word,to pursue after the unity of the churchand to fit into our exact spot in the church.Lord, I thank you for what your Holy Spirit has done this morningand I thank you in advance for what He will do.I ask all these things in Jesus' name, amen.

In this illuminating episode of The Reformed Brotherhood, Jesse and Tony explore Jesus' parables of the mustard seed and leaven found in Matthew 13. These seemingly simple parables reveal profound truths about God's kingdom—how it begins imperceptibly, grows irresistibly, and transforms completely. The hosts delve into what these parables teach us about God's sovereign work in both our individual spiritual lives and the broader advance of His kingdom in the world. Believers can find hope in understanding that God intentionally works through what appears weak and insignificant to accomplish His purposes. This episode offers practical encouragement for Christians who may feel discouraged by the apparent smallness of their faith or ministry impact. Key Takeaways The kingdom of heaven begins in small, hidden, or seemingly insignificant ways, but grows powerfully through God's sovereign work. The mustard seed illustrates the kingdom's visible expansion (extensive growth), while the leaven highlights its internal transformative influence (intensive growth). Both parables emphasize that God's kingdom often appears to "disappear" initially but produces outsized results through His work, not our own. These parables provide encouragement for times when the church feels weak or our personal faith feels insufficient—God's power is made perfect in weakness. God's kingdom transforms both outwardly (extensive growth illustrated by the mustard seed) and inwardly (intensive growth shown by the leaven). Cultural transformation happens most effectively through ordinary Christian faithfulness rather than flashy or provocative engagement. Christians should not despise small beginnings, recognizing that faithfulness rather than visibility is the true measure of fruitfulness. Understanding Kingdom Growth: From Imperceptible to Unstoppable The parables of the mustard seed and leaven powerfully illustrate the paradoxical nature of God's kingdom. In both cases, something tiny and seemingly insignificant produces results far beyond what anyone would expect. As Tony noted in the discussion, what's critical is understanding the full comparison Jesus makes—the kingdom isn't simply like a seed or leaven in isolation, but like the entire process of planting and growth. Both parables involve something that initially "disappears" from sight (the seed buried in soil, the leaven mixed into dough) before producing its effect. This reflects the upside-down nature of God's kingdom work, where what appears weak becomes the channel of divine power. For first-century Jewish listeners expecting a triumphant, militaristic Messiah, Jesus' description of the kingdom as beginning small would have seemed offensive or disappointing. Yet this is precisely God's pattern—beginning with what appears weak to demonstrate His sovereign power. This same pattern is evident in the incarnation itself, where God's kingdom arrived not through military conquest but through a humble birth and ultimately through the cross. Finding Hope When Faith Feels Small One of the most practical applications from these parables is the encouragement they offer when we feel our faith is insufficient or when the church appears weak. As Jesse noted, "God is always working. Even when we don't feel or see that He is, He's always working." The kingdom of God advances not through human strength or visibility but through God's sovereign work. These parables remind us that spiritual growth often happens imperceptibly—like bread rising or a seed growing. We may go through seasons where our spiritual life feels dry or stagnant, yet God continues His sanctifying work. Just as a baker must be patient while bread rises, we must trust the invisible work of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in the church. When we feel discouraged by apparent lack of progress, these parables assure us that God's kingdom—both in our hearts and in the world—is advancing according to His perfect timing and plan. As Tony explained, "The fact that it feels and looks and may actually be very small does not rob it of its power...in actuality that smallness is its power." God deliberately works through weakness to display His glory, making these parables powerful reminders for believers in any era who may feel their impact is too small to matter. Memorable Quotes "We shouldn't despise small beginnings. Let's not despise whatever it is that you're doing in service to God, to your family, to your churches, especially in the proclamation of the gospel... Faithfulness and not visibility—that's the measure of fruitfulness." — Jesse Schwamb "The Kingdom of Heaven is at work not only in our midst as a corporate body, but in each of us as well. God's grace and His special providence and His spirit of sanctification, the Holy Spirit is the spirit of holiness and the one who makes us holy. He is doing that whether it feels like it or not, whether we see outward progress or not." — Tony Arsenal "What cultural transformation looks like is a man who gets married and loves his wife well, serves her and sacrifices for her, and makes a bunch of babies and brings them to church... We transform culture by being honest, having integrity, by working hard... without a lot of fanfare, without seeking a lot of accolades." — Tony Arsenal Full Transcript Jesse Schwamb: Welcome to episode 468 of The Reformed Brotherhood. I'm Jesse. Tony Arsenal: And I'm Tony. And this is the podcast with ears to hear. Hey brother. Jesse Schwamb: Hey, brother, you and I have said it over and over again. One of the incredible truths that the Bible conveys about the kingdom of God is that it's inaugurated in weakness. It's hidden. It advances irresistibly by the sovereign work of God through the Word and the Spirit. It transforms both individuals and nations until Christ's reign is fully revealed in glory. And so as we're about to talk about parables today, I can't help but think if that's one of the central positions of the Bible, and I think we both say it is how would you communicate that? And here we find Jesus, the son of God, our great savior, you know where he goes. He goes, mustard seeds and yeast. So that's what we're gonna talk about today. And if you're just joining us maybe for the first time or you're jumping into this little series, which is to say, we do know tiny series, this long series on parables, you, I go back to the last episode, which is kind of a two-parter because Tony and I tried this experiment where we basically each separately recorded our own thoughts and conversation, almost an inner monologue as we digested each of those parables, both the one of the mustard seed and then the leaven sequentially and separately. And now we're coming together in this episode to kind of talk about it together and to see what we thought of the individual work and to bring it all together in this grand conversation about the kingdom of God that's inaugurated and weakness and hiddenness. [00:02:31] Affirmations and Denials Explained Jesse Schwamb: So that's this episode, but it wouldn't be a episode without a little affirming. And a little denying it seems, 22, we should this, every now and again we pause to say why we do the affirmations and denials. Why, why do we do this? What, what is this whole thing? Why are we bringing it into our little conversation every time? Tony Arsenal: Yeah. I mean, it, it, at its core, it's kind of like a recommendation or an anti recommendation segment. We take something that we like or we don't like and we spend a little bit of time talking about it. Usually it ends up taking a little bit of a theological bent just 'cause that's who we are and that's what we do. And we use the language of affirmations and denials, uh, because that's classic, like reformed confessional language. Right? If you look at something like the, um. I dunno, like the Chicago statement on Biblical and Errancy, which was primarily written by RC sprawl, um, it usually has a, a statement, uh, of doctrine in the form of things that we affirm and things that we deny. Um, or you look at someone like Turin, a lot of times in his, uh, institutes of elected theology. He'll have something like, we affirm this with the Lutherans, or we affirm that or de deny that against the papus or something like that. So it's just a, a little bit of a fun gimmick that we've added on top of this to sort of give it a little bit of its own reformed flavor, uh, onto something that's otherwise somewhat, um, Baal or, or I don't know, sort of vanilla. So we like it. It's a good chance for us to chat, kind of timestamps the episode with where we are in time. And usually, usually, like I said, we end up with something sort of theological out of it. 'cause that's, that's just the nature of us and that's, that's the way it goes. That's, and that's what happens, like when we're talking about stuff we. Like when we're together at Christmas or at the beach, like things take that theological shift because that's just who, who we are, and that's what we're thinking about. Jesse Schwamb: By the way, that sounds like a new CBS drama coming this fall. The nature of us. Tony Arsenal: The nature of us? Yeah. Or like a, like a hallmark channel. Jesse Schwamb: It does, uh, Tony Arsenal: it's like a a, I'm picturing like the, the big city girl who moves out to take a job as a journalist in like Yosemite and falls in love with the park ranger and it's called The Nature of Us. Jesse Schwamb: The nature of us Yes. Coming this fall to CBS 9:00 PM on Thursdays. Yeah. I love it. Well, this is our homage to that great theological tradition of the affirming with, or the denying against. So what do you got this week? Are you affirming with something or you denying against something? [00:04:55] No Quarters November Tony Arsenal: I'm affirming. This is a little cheeky. I'm not gonna throw too much, much, uh, too much explanation. Uh, along with it. I'm affirming something. I'm calling no quarters, November. So, you know, normally I'm very careful to use quarters. I'm very careful to make sure that I'm, I'm saving them and using them appropriately. And for the month of November, I'm just not gonna use any quarters. So there'll be no 25 cent pieces in my banking inventory for the month. Oh. So I'm, I'm making a little bit of fun. Of course. Obviously no, quarter November is a tradition that Doug Wilson does, where he just is even more of a jerk than he usually is. Um, and he, he paints it in language that, like, normally I'm very careful and I qualify everything and I have all sorts of nuance. But in November, I'm just gonna be a bull in a China shop, um, as though he's not already just a bull in a China shop 95% of the time. So I'm affirming no corridors. November maybe. No corners November. Everything should be rounded. Jesse Schwamb: That's good too. Tony Arsenal: Yeah. No, no. Quatro November. Like we don't do anything in Spanish. No fours in Spanish. I don't know. Okay. I'm just making fun of that. I'm just making fun of the whole thing. It's such a silly, dumb enterprise. There's nothing I can do except to make fun of it. Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, I think that's fair. That's basically the response it deserves. This time, we, we brought it up for several years going, it's such a strange thing. [00:06:13] Critique of Doug Wilson's Approach Jesse Schwamb: It's hard not to see this thing as complete liberty to be sinful and then to acknowledge that. Yeah. As if somehow that gives you, reinforces that liberty that you're taking it, it's so strange. It's as if like, this is what is necessary and probably we'll get to this actually, but this is what is necessary for like the gospel or the kingdom of God to go forward is that kind of attitude at times. Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. And I will say this, I do always look forward every year to seeing what he sets on fire. 'cause the, the videos are pretty great. I'm not gonna lie. Like the video quality is, is certainly compelling. Um, and you could say it's lit is another little punny way to get at it. Uh, I, I haven't seen it this year. I mean, that's, we're recording this on November 1st, so I'm sure that it's out. Uh, I just haven't seen it yet. But yeah, I mean, it's kind of, kind of ridiculous, uh, that anyone believes that Doug Wilson is restraining himself or engaging in lots of fine distinctions and nuance. You know, like the rest of the year and November is the time that he really like holds back, uh, or really doesn't hold back. That's, that's just a silly, it's just a silly gimmick. It's a silly, like, I dunno, it's a gimmick and it's dumb and so I'm gonna make fun of it 'cause that's what it deserves. Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, I think that's right. You know, I was thinking recently because as you said, the counter just rolled over. And generally this time of year I end up always watching that documentary that Ligonier put together on Martin Luther, which is quite good. And I think it does, has a fair treatment of him, including the fact that he was so bombastic and that he was very caustic with his language. And I think they treat that fairly by saying, oh, that some of the same things that we admire in somebody can be some of the very same things which pull them into sinful behavior. And there's no excuse for that. And, and, and if that's true for him, then it's true for all of us, of course. And it's definitely true for Luther. So I think this idea, we need to be guarding our tongues all the time and to just make up some excuse to say, I'm not gonna do that. And in some way implying that there's some kind of hidden. Piety in that is what I think is just so disturbing. And I think most of us see through that for what exactly it is. It's clickbaits. It's this idea of trying to draw attention by being bombastic and literally setting things on fire. Like the video where he sets the boat on fire is crazy because all I can think of is like, so if you judge me, one more thing on this, Tony, 'cause I, I, when you said that, I thought about this video, the boat video implicitly, and I've thought about this a lot since then. There's a clip of him, he sets the boat on fire and it's kind of like him sitting on the boat that is engulfed in flames looking out into the sea, so, so calmly as if it's like an embodiment of that mean this is fine, everything is fine, this is fine. Right? Yeah. And all I can think of is that was great for probably like the two seconds that somebody filmed that, but guess what happened immediately after that? Somebody rescued you by putting out the fire on the boat. Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Jesse Schwamb: It's just like insanity to presume that, encapsulating that single moment and somehow conveying that he is a great champion, pioneer advocate of things of the gospel by essentially coming in and disrupting and being caustic and that him setting thing on fire makes everything better is a mockery, because that's not even exactly how that shoot took place. Yeah. So I, I just really struggle with that, with the perspective he is trying to bring forward. Tony Arsenal: Yeah, I mean, I'm dubious whether or not there was actually any fire involved. Well, that's, I think 95% of it is probably camera magic, which is fine. Like, I don't know. That's fine. Like, I don't want Doug Wilson to burn up. That's, that wouldn't be cool either. But, um, yeah, I mean, like the fruit of the spirit is love, joy piece patience, kindness, good as gentleness, setting things on fire and being a jerk in November, apparently. And I, I just don't, I, I've never fully understood the argument. Um, and this is coming from someone who can be sarcastic and can go over the top and go too far. And, and I recognize that about myself. I've just never understood the argument that like, it's okay to be a jerk sometimes. Or, or not even just, okay. It's necessary to be a jerk sometimes. Exactly. Um, there's a difference between boldness and being a jerk. And, you know, I think, um, the people who, who know me well are gonna like fall off their chairs. I say this like, Michael Foster is actually someone who I think. Does the boldness with a little bit of an edge. I think he actually does it really well. And just like all of us, I, you know, he, he probably goes over the line, uh, on occasion. Um, and, and, but I think he does the, I'm just going to be direct and straightforward and bold. And sometimes that might offend you because sometimes the truth is offensive. Um, I think he does that well. I think where we go sideways is when we try to couch everything in sort of this offensive posture, right? Where, where even the things that shouldn't be offensive, uh, somehow need to be made offensive. It, it's just, it's dumb. It's just, um, and I'm, I'm not saying we should be nice just for the sake of being nice. I think sometimes being nice is. When I say nice, I mean like saccharin sweet, like, like overly uh, I don't know, like sappy sweets. Like we don't have to be that. And uh, there are times where it's not even appropriate to be that. Um, but that's different than just, you know, it's almost like the same error in the wrong direction, right? To be, just to be a jerk all the time. Sometimes our words and our behavior and our actions have to have a hard edge. And sometimes that's going to offend people because sometimes the truth, especially the gospel truth is offensive. Um, but when what you're known for is being a jerk and being rude and just being offensive for the sake of being offensive. Um, right. And, and I'll even say this, and this will be the last thing I say. 'cause I didn't, I, I really intend this just to be like a, a jokey joke. No quarters, November. I'm not gonna spend any quarters. Um, I don't know why I was foolish enough to think we weren't gonna get into it, but, um. When your reputation is that you are a jerk just to be a jerk. Even if that isn't true, it tells you that something is wrong with the way you're doing things. Right. Because I think there are times where, and I'll say this to be charitable, there are times where Doug Wilson says something with a little bit of an edge, and people make way too big of a deal out of it. Like they, they go over the top and try to condemn it, and they, they make everything like the worst possible offense. And sometimes, sometimes it's, it's just not. Um, and there are even times where Doug says things that are winsome and they're helpful and, um, but, but when your reputation is that you are a jerk just to be a jerk, or that you are inflammatory just to get a reaction, um, there's something wrong with your approach. And then to top it off, when you claim that for November, like you explicitly claim that identity as though that's not already kind of your shtick the rest of the year. Um, and just, it's just. Frustrating and dumb and you know, this is the guy that like, is like planting a church in DC and is like going on cnn. It's just really frustrating to see that sort of the worst that the reformed world has to offer in terms of the way we interact with people sometimes is getting the most attention. So, right. Anyway, don't, don't be a pirate. N November is still my way. I celebrate and, uh, yeah, that's, that's that. Jesse Schwamb: That's well said. Again, all things we're thinking about because we all have tendency to be that person from time to time. So I think it's important for us to be reminded that the gospel doesn't belong to us. So that means like that sharp edge, that conviction belongs to Christ, not to our personalities. So if it's tilted toward our personalities, even toward our communication style, then it means that we are acting in sin. And so it's hard for us to see that sometimes. So it does take somebody to say, whoa. Back it down a little bit there and you may need to process. Well, I'm trying to communicate and convey this particular truth. Well, again, the objective that we had before us is always to do so in love and salt and light. So I agree with you that there is a way to be forthright and direct in a way that still communicates like loving compassion and concern for somebody. And so if really what you're trying to do is the equivalent of some kinda spiritual CPR, we'll know that you, you don't have to be a jerk while you're doing it. You don't have to cause the kind of destruction that's unnecessary in the process. Even though CPR is a traumatic and you know, can be a painful event by it's necessary nature, we administer it in such a way that makes sure that we are, we have fidelity to the essential process itself, to the essential truths that's worth standing up for. Yeah, it's not a worth being a jerk. Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. [00:14:37] Practical Application of Parables Tony Arsenal: Jesse, let's, let's move along. What are you affirming or denying tonight Jesse Schwamb: and now for something much lighter? So, my, my affirmation I share at the risk of it being like so narrow that maybe nobody will actually want to use this, but I actually had you in mind. Tony, I've been sitting on this one for a little while 'cause I've been testing it. And so we're, we're just gonna run like an actual quick experiment 'cause I. I'm guessing you will find this affirmation useful and will come along with me and it and might even use it, but you and I are not always like representative of all the people in the world. I say that definitely tongue in cheek. So we're a little bit nerdy. We love our podcasts and so occasionally, I don't know if this happens to you, I'm guessing it does, but I want to capture like a moment that I heard while podcast is playing on my phone. Maybe somebody says something really interesting, it's great quotes, or it's mathematical nature and I wanna go back and process it. And so generally what I do is I, I don't know, I stop it. I try to go back and listen to it real quick if I can, or maybe I can't because running, driving, all that stuff. So. When I hear something now that I want to keep, I just cry out to my phone. I have an, I have an iPhone, so I say, Siri, you could do this with Google. Take a screenshot. What happens is the phone captures an image of my podcast app with a timestamp showing of course what's being played. Then I forward this image, this is the crazy affirmation part. When it's time to be alive, I forward this image to a certain email address and I get back the text transcript of the previous 90 seconds, which I can then either look at or file into my notes. What is this email address sent it to you. Well, here's the website so you can go check it out for yourself though. Website is actually called Podcast Magic App, and there's just three easy steps there, and this will explain to you how you actually get that image back to you in the format of a transcript. And the weird thing about this is it's, it's basically free, although if you use it a lot, they ask for like a one-time donation of $20, which you know me, I love. A one time fee. So I've been using this a lot recently, which is why I've been sitting on it, but it is super helpful for those of you who are out there listening to stuff. They're like, oh, I like that. I need to get that back. And of course, like you'll never get it back. So if you can create this method that I've done where you can train your phone to take a snapshot picture of what's on the screen, then you can send it to Podcast Magic at Sublime app, and they will literally send you a transcript of the previous 90 seconds no matter what it is. Tony Arsenal: That is pretty sweet. I'll have to check that out. Um, I don't listen to as many podcasts as I used to. How dare you? I just, the I know. It's, it's crazy. Where do we even do it Feels like heresy to say that on a podcast that I'm recording. Yes. Um, Jesse Schwamb: we've lost half the audience. Yeah. Tony Arsenal: Well, yeah. Well, the other half will come next. Um, no, I, I, I just don't have as much time as I used to. I, I live closer to work than I used to and um, I'm down to, we're down to one car now, so, um, your mother is graciously giving me a ride to work. Um, 'cause she, she drives right past our house on the, the way and right past my work on the way to her work. Um, but yeah, so I guess I say that to say like, the podcast that I do listen to are the ones that I really wanna make sure I'm, I am, uh, processing and consuming and, uh, making sure that I'm kinda like locking into the content. Jesse Schwamb: Right. Tony Arsenal: So this might be helpful for that when I do hear something and I do think, like, it's hard because I use matter, which is great, and you can forward a podcast to matter and it generates a whole transcript of the entire episode, which is great. Um, but I don't often go back and, you know, a lot of times, like I'll go through my matter, uh, queue and it'll be like three weeks after I listened to a podcast episode, I be like, why did I put this in here? Right? I get that. I don't wanna listen to the entire 60 minute episode again to try to remember what that special thing was. So I just end up archiving it. So this might be a good middle ground to kind of say like, I might set, I might still send it to matter to get the whole transcript, but then I can use this service to just capture where in the transcript actually was I looking for? Um. It's interesting. I'll have to look at it too, because you can, you can send, uh, through Apple Podcast, the Apple Podcast app and through most podcast apps, I think. Right? You can send the episode with the timestamp attached to it. Yes. So I wonder if you could just send that, that link. Okay. Instead of the screenshot. Um, you know, usually I'm, I'm not. Uh, I don't usually, I'm not driving anymore, so usually when I'm listening to a podcast I have, my hands are on my phone so I could actually send it. So yeah, I'll have to check that out. That's a good recommendation. Jesse Schwamb: Again, it's kind of nuanced, but listen, loved ones, you know what you get with us, you're gonna get some, it could be equally affirmation, denial that Doug involves Doug Wilson, and then some random little thing that's gonna help you transcribe podcasts you listen to, because life is so hard that we need to be able to instantly get the last 90 seconds of something we listen to so that we can put it into our note taping at note taking app and put it into our common notebook and keep it. Yeah, there you go. Tony Arsenal: There's a lot of apps. There was actually a, a fair number of apps that came out a while ago that were, they were trying to accomplish this. Where you could, as you were listening to the podcast, in that app, you could basically say, highlight that and it would, it would highlight whatever sentence you were on. But the problem is like by the time you say highlight that you're already onto the next sentence, you now you're going back trying to do it again. And I didn't find any of that worked really seamlessly. It was a lot of extra friction. So this might be kind of a good frictionless or less friction way to do it. Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, I'm totally with you. [00:20:08] The Kingdom of Heaven Parables Jesse Schwamb: I mean, speaking of like things that cause friction, there's no doubt that sometimes in Jesus' teaching on the parables that he himself brings the heat, he brings a little friction in his communication. And since you and I basically did go through each of these parables, we don't have do that again on this conversation. In fact, what I'm looking forward to is kind of us coming together and coalescing our conversation about these things, the themes that we both felt that we heard and uncovered in the course of talking through them. But I think as well ending with so what? So what is some real good shoe leather style, practical application of these ideas of understanding the kingdom of God to be like this mustard seed and like this lemon. So why don't I start by just reading. Again, these couple of verses, which we're gonna take right out of Matthew chapter 13. Of course, there are parallel passages in the other gospels as well, and I'd point you to those if you wanna be well-rounded, which you should be. And so we're gonna start in verse 31 of chapter 13. It's just a handful of verse verses. Here's what Matthew writes. Jesus puts another parable before them saying The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It's the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown, it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches. He told them another parable. The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flower till it was all leavened. Alright? Yeah. So Tony, what do you think? Tony Arsenal: Uh, I mean, these are so like, straightforward. It was almost, it, it felt almost silly trying to like explain them. Yeah. One of the things that, that did strike me, that I think is worth commenting too, um, just as a, a general reminder for parables, we have to be careful to remember what the parable is saying, right? So I, I often hear, um. The smallness of the mustard seed emphasized. Mm-hmm. And I think your, your commentary, you did a good job of kind of pointing out that like there's a development in this parable like it, right? It's a progression and there's an eschatology to it, both in terms of the, the parable itself, but also it comments on the eschatology of the kingdom of heaven. But it's not just that the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. It's the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sewed in his field. Right? It's that whole clause that is the, the kingdom of heaven is like likewise, the kingdom of heaven is not just like leave, it's like leave that a woman took in hidden in three measures of flour till all was leavened. So when we're looking at these parables. Or when we're looking at really any parable, it's important to make sure that we get the second half of the, the comparison, right? What are we comparing the kingdom of heaven to? You know, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a sower who sowed seeds among, you know, in three types of four types of soil. This kingdom of Heaven is like, this is like that. We don't wanna miss part of the parable because we latch on to just like the first noun, and that follows the word like, um, but I think these are great, these are great little, um, parables that in some ways are almost like, uh, compliments or ex explanations of the other parables that we're looking at too. They, they explain to us something more about what the Kingdom of Heaven is using similar kinds of analogies that help us flesh out the parables that are surrounding them. So the Kingdom of Heaven. You know, again, we always want to caution against kind of like overinterpreting, the parables, but the, the parable of the sower is talking about the seed that is sewn into the field, right? And then there's the parable of the wheat and the tears, and there's seed again. And we, we might have a tendency to sort of miss the nature of the kingdom in a certain sort of dynamic. This fleshes this out. So we might think of like the parable of the sowers, like we don't know what, what proportion is of good soil, you know, good soil versus bad. We know that there's three types of soils that are bad soils or unproductive soils and one type, but we don't know like how much of the soil is, um, like what percentage of the field is that. Similarly, like we don't know what percentage of the field was wheat and what was weeds. This is kind of reminding us that the, the kingdom of heaven is not found primarily in the, um, the expansiveness of it. Right. It's not, it's not initially going to look like much. It's going to initially start out very small. Right. And in some ways, like in both of these, it appears to disappear entirely. Right? You sow a grain of mustard seed. I don't, I've never seen a mustard seed, so, but it's very small. Obviously you sow that into the ground. You're not gonna find it again, you're not gonna come back a week later and dig up that seed and figure out where you sewed it. Um, similarly, like you put a, you put a very small amount of yeast or lemon into a three measures of flour. You're not gonna be able to go in even probably, even with a microscope. You know, I suppose if you had infinite amount of time, you could pick a every single grain of flour, but you're not gonna be able to like go find that lemon. It's not gonna be obvious to the eye anymore, or even obvious to the careful searcher anymore. So that's what the kingdom of heaven is like in both of these. It's this very small, unassuming thing that is hidden away. Uh, it is not outwardly visible. It is not outwardly magnificent. It is not outwardly even effective. It disappears for all intents and purposes. And then it does this amazing thing. And that's where I really think these, these two parables kind of find their unity is this small, unassuming thing. That seems ineffectual actually is like abundantly effectual in ways that we don't even think about and can't even comprehend. Jesse Schwamb: Right? Yeah. I would say almost it's as if it's like, well, it's certainly intentionally, but almost like offensively imperceptible. And I think that's the friction that Jesus brings with him to the original audience when he explains it this way. So again, from the top, when we said this idea that the kingdom of God is imperceptible, it's hidden, it grows, it conquers, it brings eschatological resolution. And I'm just thinking again, in the minds of the hearers, what they would've been processing. I think you're spot on. I liked your treatment of that by focusing us to the fact that there is verb and noun and they go together. We often get stuck on the nouns, but this, that verb content means that all of this, of course, is by the superintendent will of God. It's volitional. His choice is to do it this way. It is again, where the curse becomes the blessing, where it's the theology of the cross or theology of glory, where it is what is small and imp, perceptible and normal by extraordinary means becomes that which conquers all things. And so I can. Picture, at least in my mind, because I'm a person and would, would wanna understand something of the kingdom of God. And if I were in a place, a place of oppression physically and spiritually living in darkness, to have this one who claims to be Messiah come and talk about the inauguration of this kingdom. My mind, of course, would immediately go to, well, God's kingdom must be greater than any other kingdom I could see on this earth. And I see it on the earth that the sun rises. And cast light across provinces and countries and territories in a grand way. And then we have this kingdom of God, which, you know, theory, the, the sun should never set on it and the sun should never be able to shine, but on a corner of it. And it doesn't have provinces or countries, it doesn't even have continence, but it has, it encapsulates worlds. And it doesn't stretch from like shore to shore or sea to shining sea, but from sun to sun or star to star from the heavens to the earth, its extent couldn't be surveyed. Its inhabitants couldn't be numbered. Its beginning, could never be calculated because from Tard past, it had no bounds. And so I'm just thinking of all these things and then like you said, Jesus says, let me tell you what it's really like. It's like somebody throwing a tiny seed into a garden. Or it's like a woman just making bread and she puts yeast into it. These seem like not just opposites, but almost offensive, I think, in the way that they portray this kingdom that's supposed to be of great power and sovereign growth, but it comes in perceptibly and how perfect, because the one who's delivering this message is the one who comes imperceptibly, the person of Christ preaching the gospel and the hearts of believers. But that grows into a vast and global proportion, and that of course, that aligns exactly with so many things you and I have talked about in process before. These doctrines are providence and sovereign grace, that God ordains the means that is the seed and ensures the outcome, which is the tree. Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. And I think too, um, you know, I don't, I don't know of any affinity with mustard seed in like the Old Testament law, but there's, there's a sort of a reversal of expectation here too, because although Levin is not always associated with like impurity, um, I think most Jewish listeners would immediately have a negative connotation with Levin for sure. Right? So when, when all of a sudden he's comparing the Kingdom of Heaven to leaven it, it becomes sort of this, um, the reason Levin is so pernicious and the reason that in the Old Testament law, you know, they're, they're, they're not just not making their bread with leave for the, for the Passover. They have to like sweep out their whole house. They have to empty all their stores out. They have to clear everything out. And that's not just because like. In, in, in Old Testament, sort of like metaphors, leaven does get associated with sin, right? Uh, and that gets carried on into the New Testament, but just the actual physical properties of leaven is like, if there's any little bit of it left on the shelf or even in the air, like even on your hands, it's can spoil the whole batch. It can cause the entire batch to go a different direction than you want it to. And in a certain way, like the Kingdom of Heaven is like that, right? Um. [00:30:21] The Resilience of God's Kingdom Tony Arsenal: You hear about, um, you hear about situations where it seems like the presence of God's people and the, the kingdom of God is just, it's just eradicated. And then you find out that there's actually like a small group of believers who somehow survived and then like Christianity is thriving again like 50 years later. Um, you can't just wipe out the kingdom of heaven because it is like leaven and any small remaining remnant of it is going to work its way back through the entire batch in a way that is, uh, mysterious and is somewhat unpredictable and is certainly going to surprise people who are not expecting it to be there. Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. [00:31:04] Understanding Theological Concepts Jesse Schwamb: One of the things I really picked up in your treatment of that, that kind of drew me in in a special way was, you know, we think of some theological terms. We have really, I think, strong. Rubric for processing them, and especially like their multifaceted nature. So for instance, when we think about sanctification, we often talk about positional and progressive. And those are really helpful ways to understand a concept that brings us into modeling where it's finite and precise to a degree that allows us to understand it and comprehend it with a greater degree of confidence. And knowing it's many parts, because it is many parted. [00:31:36] The Parable of the Leaven Jesse Schwamb: And I was thinking as you were talking about the leaven, how the kingdom of heaven here that is inaugurated by Christ, that comes by the power of the Holy Spirit is growth and always deny that. But what you drew out for me was I think we're definitely seeing in that this idea of the intensive growth and then of course in the. Parable of the mustard seed. It's more extensive growth and they're both important. So they're in consummate harmony. It's not just like one recapitulating the other. And what that made me think about was even as you were speaking now, this really interesting difference, you know, the woman is taking this, again, talking about the verb, there's two nouns here actually. There's like the, the proper pronoun of the woman there is the act which she's doing, which she's taking the leaven and working it as it were like into the flower. I just did like a weird motion here on the camera if you're watching on uh, YouTube. Sorry about that. [00:32:28] Practical Lessons from Bread Making Jesse Schwamb: Almost like I was giving CPR, but she's working it into this meal or this flower and the working it from within outwards and that working itself like changes the whole substance from the center to the surface of this meal. Now I was thinking about this 'cause you noted something about bed bread. Bread baking in yours. And I did actually just a couple weeks ago, make some bread and the recipe I was using came with this like huge warning. Some of the recipes are like this, where when you're using some kinda lemon, most of the time we're using yeast. You have to not only be careful, of course, about how much yeast you put in because you put in too much, it's gonna blow the whole thing up. You're gonna have serious problems. You're not gonna make the bread anymore, you're gonna make a bomb, so to speak, and it's gonna be horrible. You're not gonna want to eat it. But the second thing is the order in which you add the ingredients, or in this recipe in particular, had very explicit instructions for when you're creating the dry ingredients. When you have the flour, make a little well with your finger and delicately place. All of the yeast in there so that when you bring the dough together, when you start to shape it, you do it in a particular way that from the inside out changes the whole thing so that there's a thorough mixing. Because the beauty of this intensive change is that. As you know Tony, like there's so many things right now in my kitchen that are fermenting and I talked about before, fermenting the process of leavening something is a process of complete change. It's taking something that was before and making it something very different. But of course it retains some of the essential characteristics, but at the same time is a completely different thing. And so it's through a corresponding change that man goes to whom the spirit of God communicates His grace. It's hidden in the heart and chain begin, change begins there. You know, the outward reformation is not preparing a way for inward regeneration. It's the other way around that regeneration, that reformation on the outside springs from a regeneration that's on the inside, growing out of it as a tree grows from a seed as a stream flows from the spring or as leave, comes and takes over the entire lump of dough. [00:34:26] The Power of Small Beginnings Jesse Schwamb: It's amazing. This is how God works it. We again, on the one side we see the kingdom of heaven. That is like the manifestations of his rule in rain coming, like that seed being sown and growing into this mighty tree. It brings shade. The birds come nest in it. And that may be a reference Allah to like Ezekiel or Daniel, the Gentiles themselves. There's that inclusion. And then to be paired with this lovely sense that, you know what else, anywhere else, the power of the kingdom of heaven is made. Manifest is in every heart in life of the believer. And so the Christian has way more in religion in their outer expression than they do anybody else. Because the inner person, the identity has been changed. Now you and I, you and I harp all the time on this idea that we, we don't need some kind of, you know, restoration. We need regeneration. We don't need to be reformed merely on the outside by way of behaviors or clever life hacks. We need desperately to be changed from the inside out because otherwise we. Where it's just, I don't know, draping a dead cold statue with clothing, or all we're doing is trying to create for ourselves a pew in the house of God. What we really need is to be like this bread that is fully loving, that grows and rises into this delicious offering before the world and before God. Because if you were to cut into this outwardly looking freshly baked bread and find that as soon as you got through that delicious, hard, crispy crust on the outside, that in the inside all it was, was filled with like unprocessed, raw flour, you would of course say, that's not bread. I don't know what that is. But that's not bred. What a great blessing that the promise that God gives to us is that the kingdom of God is not like that. It lies in the heart by the power of God. And if it's not there, it's not anywhere. And that though the Christian May at times exhibit, as we've talked about before, some kinda hypocrisy, they are not essentially hypocrites. Why? Because the Kingdom of God is leavening us by the power of the Holy Spirit. That gospel message is constantly per permeating that yeast through all of who we are, so that it continues to change us. So that while the natural man still remains, we are in fact a new creation in Christ. So to start with, you know, bread and or not bread to end with bread, but to start with flour and water and yeast and salts, and to be transformed and changed is the intensive power of the growth of the gospel, which is with us all our lives, until we have that beautific vision. Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. And I think, um, you know, to kind of take a, a pivot maybe to the practical, I think this is, this is not the point of the parable necessarily 'cause the parable. I think there's a lot that these parables have to say to us about like, personal, individual growth, but they really are about the growth of the kingdom or the, the, maybe necessarily the growth of the kingdom. I think that's there too. But really like the nature of the kingdom as this sort of like, hidden, hidden thing that then grows and creates big results. [00:37:34] Encouragement in Times of Darkness Tony Arsenal: I, I think this is a, this is a parable that should encourage us. Like absolutely for sure we should look to this and, and be encouraged because. It is not the case. Um, I know there are lots of people who wanna act as though like this is the worst time anyone has ever lived in, and everything is the worst as it's ever been. It's, this is not even close to the worst time that the church has ever existed in, um, there are, it's funny, um, we'll give a little plug. Some of our listeners have started their own new show called Over Theologizing, and, um, it, it was, it was funny listening to the second episode they had, um. Pete Smith was on there and they were saying, like, they were talking about like, how do you feel about the nature of the church? And Pete was like, it's fine. Like it's great out here. Like there's lots of churches, lots good. Like I, I think that there are pockets in our, in our world, um, particularly, you know, my, my former reference is Western World and in the United States and in some senses in, in Europe, um, there are certainly pockets of places where it's very dark and very difficult to be a Christian, but by and large it's not all that challenging. Like, we're not being actively persecuted. They're not feeding us to the lions. They're not stealing our businesses. They're not, um, murdering us. You know, like I said, there are exceptions. And even in the United States, there are places where things are moving that direction. But there are also times when the church is going to feel dark and small and, and like it's failing and, and like it's, it's weak. And we can look at these parables and say, the fact that it feels and looks and may actually be very small does not rob it of its power that does not rob the kingdom of heaven of its power. It in, in actuality that smallness is its power, right? Leave is so powerful of an ingredient in bread because you need so little of it, right? Because that it, you can use such a small quantity of lemon to create such a, a huge result in bread. That's the very nature of it. And it, its efficacy is in that smallness. And you know, I think the mustard seed is probably similar in that you, you don't need to have, um. Huge reaping of, of mustard seed in order to produce the, the crop that is necessary, the trees that are necessary to, to grow that. So when we look around us and we see the kingdom of heaven feeling and maybe actually even being very small in our midst, we should still be encouraged because it doesn't take a lot of leave to make the bread rise, so to speak. And it doesn't take a lot. And, and again, like of course it's not our power that's doing it, that's where maybe sort of like the second takeaway, the baker doesn't make the bread rise by his own like force of will, right? He does it by putting in this, this agent, you know, this ingredient that works in a sort of miraculous, mysterious way. It's obviously not actually miraculous. It's a very natural process. But I think for most of history. So that was a process that probably was not well understood, right? We, we, people didn't fully understand why Bread did what it did when you used lemon. They just knew that it did. And I think that's a good takeaway for us as well, is we can't always predict how the kingdom of heaven is gonna develop or is gonna operate in our midst. Um, sometimes it's gonna work in ways that seem to make a lot of sense, otherwise it's gonna seem like it's not doing anything. Um, and then all of a sudden it does. And that's, that's kind of where we're at. Jesse Schwamb: I like that. That's what a great reminder. Again, we all often come under this theme that God is always working. Even when we don't feel or see that he is, he's always working and even we've just come again on the calendar at least to celebrate something of the Reformation and its anniversary. Uh. What again, proof positive that God's kingdom will not fail. That even in the places where I thought the gospel was lost or was darkens, even in Israel's past in history, God always brings it forward. It cannot, it will not die. [00:41:26] Faithfulness Over Visibility Jesse Schwamb: So I wanna tack onto that by way of, I think some practical encouragement for ministry or for all believers. And that is, let's not despise small beginnings. Like let's not despise whatever it is that you're doing in service to God, to your family, to your churches, especially in the proclamation of the gospel. This is from um, Zacharia chapter four, beginning of verse eight. Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, the hands of the rebel have laid the foundation of this house. His hands shall also complete it. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zabel. So I love this encouragement that is for all Christians. That's one. Again, God is doing all the verbs like just. For one last time for everybody in the back. God does all the verbs. Yeah, and in so doing, because he is doing all the verbs, he may, but he chooses to start with small things because again, he is always showing and exemplifying his glory and he does this in these normative ways. It's a beautiful expression of how majestic and powerful he is. So let's embrace those things with be encouraged by them. The gospel may appear weak or slow in bearing fruit, yet God guarantees its eventual triumph. God guarantees that he's already stamped it. It's faithfulness and not visibility. That's the measure of fruitfulness. So if you're feeling encouraged in whatever it is that you're doing in ministry, the formal or otherwise, I would say to you. Look to that faithfulness, continue to get up and do it, continue to labor at it, continue to seek strength through the Holy Spirit, and know that the measure of his fruitfulness will come, but maybe in a future time, but it will come because this is what God does. It's God doing all the work. He's the one, he's essentially the characters needs of these parables, sowing the seed, working in lemon. Yeah. Tony Arsenal: Yeah. And I think, you know, like I said, the, the parables are not necessarily about individual personal growth. Um, but I, I think the principle that is here applies to that as well is I think oftentimes we feel like, um. I'll speak for myself. There are have been many times in my walk as a Christian, um, where it just feels like nothing's happening. Right? Right. Like, you just feel like it's dry and like you, you're, you know, you're, you're not like you're falling into some great sin or like you've walking away from the faith, but it just feels sort of dry and stale and like God isn't doing anything. And, um, I've only ever tried to bake bread once and it was a, it was just a terrible, terrible failure. But, um, I think one of the things that I've. I've read about people who bake bread is that there is a level of patience that has to come with it, right? Because oftentimes it seems like the bread isn't rising. It seems like the, the lemon is not doing what it's supposed to do until it does. Right? And like, if you take the bread out of the oven every couple of minutes to check and see if it's rising, it's never going to rise. It's never going to do what it's supposed to do. And, um, you know, I think that is kind of like the Christian life in microcosm too, is we, we have these spiritual disciplines that we do. We pray, we read the scriptures, we attend faithfully to the Lord's Day service. And oftentimes it doesn't feel like that's doing anything right. But it is. The Kingdom of Heaven is at work in not only in our midst as a corporate body, but the kingdom of heaven is at work in each of us as well. That's right. God's, God's grace and his, uh, special providence and his spirit of, of sanctification, the Holy Spirit is the spirit of holiness and the one who makes us holy. Um, he is doing that whether it feels like it or not, whether we see, um, outward progress or not. If the spirit dwells within us, he is necessarily making us holy and necessarily sanctifying us. Um, and and so I want us to all think about that as we, we kind of wrap up a little bit here, is we shouldn't be. I, I don't wanna say we shouldn't be discouraged, um, because it's easy to get discouraged and I don't want people to feel like I'm like, you should never be discouraged. Like sometimes the world is discouraging and it's frustrating, and it's okay to feel that, but we should be able to be encouraged by this parable. When we look at it and we remember like, this is just. This is just the parable form of Paul saying like, God glories by using the weak to demonstrate his strength. Exactly right. He, he is, his power is shown in, in using the weak and frail things of this life and this world to accomplish his purposes. And so when we are weak, when we are feeling as though we are failing as Christians, we should be able to look at this and say, well, this is what the kingdom of heaven is like. It's like a tiny mustard seed, a tiny mustard seed of faith that grows into a large tree. It's, it's like this little little spark of leave that God puts in us and it's hidden in us and it leavens the whole loaf. And that's us, right? And that's the church, that's the kingdom. It's the world. Um, God is at work and he is doing it in ways that we would not ordinarily see. Even the person who has this sort of like explosive Christian growth. That's not usually sustained. I think most people when they first come to faith, especially if they come to faith, you know, as a teenager or a young adult, um, they come to faith and they have this like explosive period of growth where they're like really passionate about it and on fire. And then that, that passion just kind of like Peters out and you kind of get into like the, the day in, day out of Christianity, um, which is not, it's not flashy. It's not sexy, it's not super exciting. It's very boring in a lot of ways, like right, it's, it's basic bread, it's basic water. It's hearing a, a person speak and it's, it's reading words on a page. But when the Holy Spirit uses those things, he uses them faithfully to finish the work that he started. Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, I think that's exactly right. The spirit's work of leavening, it continues quietly, but it powerfully, yeah. And we shouldn't despise that quietness or that smallness that I think is altogether a gift of God. And again, we're talking about the one who embodies the perfect will of God, who came and condescended to his creation was like us in every eight, where every way without sin. This is the one who became, I think as Paul writes in Galatians, a curse for us. And so again, this blessedness arises out of, again, what I think is this offensive means. And if that is the model that Christ gives to us, we ourselves shouldn't despise that kinda small beginning or even despise the sacrifices we're often called to make. Or those again, I would say like offensively and auspicious kinds of beginnings. All of that is peace wise, what it means to be a follower of Jesus. And there's a beauty in that. And I would say, I want to add to what you said, Tony, 'cause I think it was right on, is this idea that's easy to be discouraged is. It doesn't require any explanation. I, I, I'm totally with you. If you were to pick up any, or go to any kind of website and just look at the headlines for their news reporting, you're going to find plenty of reasons to be discouraged and to feel melancholy. And yet at the same time when I think we, you and I talk about these things, what I'm prone to consider is what Paul writes elsewhere to the church in Corinth, where he says in two Corinthians chapter 10, we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. Being ready to punish every disobedience when you're disobey, when you're obedience is complete. And so what I think that applies to us in this particular case is understanding that this is the promise of God. Like you're saying, you and I are saying. Discouragement happens. And yet the truth is that small inauspicious beginnings in the kingdom of heaven always result in outsized gains that God never ceases to work. That he's always with us, that he's always for us. Then we do have to take captive those thoughts that lead us into kind of a disproportionate melancholy that pull us away or distract us from this truth of God, the knowledge of God, which is that he is super intending, his sovereign will completely over every molecule in the universe because this is what the Kingdom of Heaven does. And so that gives us, I think as I said last week, hope and evangelism we're storming those gates of hell we're coming for you like because there is a triumphalism in Christ that will be manifested in the final day. It's the reformed understanding of the here but not quite yet. [00:49:57] Cultural Engagement as Christians Jesse Schwamb: And like the last place that Le that leads me to like some practical, I think application is, and I wanna be careful with this, so I'm curious for your opinion. It's cultural engagement. You know, if we're thinking about this, leave permeating this dough, this tiny seed growing to overtake the garden, then I think believers should labor to continue to bring biblical truth into every sphere. So your family, your vocation, arts, politics, everything under Christ's lordship. I think sometimes that doesn't necessarily mean that you have to be. As we've talked about the top of the show, really outspoken in a provocative kind of way. I think sometimes, again, that same quiet though, consistent work that the Holy Spirit does that's powerful in leavening us is the same thing that we can do with just our attitudes at work or our attitudes in our family, or our willingness to serve or our kind words. Of course, it does require us to preach the gospel using words. It also means that the power of the leaven is that quiet power. It doesn't jump outta the bread. It doesn't boast, but it is present. So maybe I'm saying Christians, let's be present, and leavening means to be present with the attitude and the mind of Christ. What? What do you think? Tony Arsenal: Yeah, I think that's, um, I think that's right on, you know, um, it, it's not quite a parable, but Christ, Christ commands his people to be like salt and light and true. Um, and, and by saying that the kingdom of heaven is like leaven, you know, like a, a measure of leaven that was hidden away in three measures. Um, he's also commanding us to be like leaven, right? And he is commanding us to be like the, the mustard seed because that is what we are. And I think, um, we shouldn't think that we can cloister off or sequester off the kingdom of heaven from the rest of culture and create like, um, I'm not quite, uh, I'm not quite to the point where I'm, I'm a transformational in the sort of like Tim Keller sense, but I do think that. We, and I don't like this word, but I'm not sure of a better, a better way to say it, but like, we like to set up these little Christian ghettos where like we, we isolate ourselves culturally into these little subcultures and these little sort of cordoned off areas of culture. Um, where we, we actually then strive to look just like the culture that's around us, right? Right. We subsection off Christian music and although it's, you know, typically it's like a decade behind the curve in terms of what music is good, we're really just doing the same music as the rest of the world. We just baptize it with Christian language. Like, I remember my, my youth pastor in high school rewrote the song closing time to Be Quiet Time. And like that was like, that was like the most Christian thing he could do at the time, was rewrite the lyrics to a song. But like, that's, that's absolutely not what cultural transformation looks like. Right. Well, cultural transformation, and maybe I'm channeling a little bit of, of Michael Foster here, what cultural transformation looks like. Is is a man who gets married and loves his wife, well, serves her and sacrifices for her, and makes a bunch of babies and brings them to church, right? Like that's, that's cultural transformation. And in our culture, like that is a very counter-cultural way to do things. It's actually very counter-cultural. There have been times when that's not particularly countercultural and there probably will be times again where it is. And actually it seems like our broader American culture is moving away from the sort of like two kids, two kids and a dog is a, is a bygone era fantasy. And now it's like two single people living in a house together with a dog. Um, you know, and, and that's not to say that that's the only way to be, to transform culture, right? That's just one example of sort of the most mundane, natural thing is actually the way that we do it. Um. We transform culture by, um, by being honest, having integrity, yes. By, um, working hard, right? Yes. Going to work, doing your job well, uh, without a lot of fanfare, without seeking a lot of accolades, um, and just doing a good job because that's what God commands us to do when he tells us to honor our employers and to be good, faithful bond servants in the Lord. Um, that is also very, uh, that also will transform culture. Um, you know, I think we think of cultural transformation and we, I think we immediately go to, for better or worse, we go to like the Doug Wilsons of the world and we go like, that guy's engaging the culture. Well, yeah, I guess in a certain sense he is. Um, or we, or we go to. The Tim Keller's of the world where they are, they're engaging culture in a different way. But I think for most of us, for most Christians, our cultural engagement is very nor like very normal and very boring. It's living a very ordinary, quiet life. Um, you know, what does Paul say? Work quiet life. Mind your own business. Work with your hands, right? Like, don't be a busy body. Um, like that's, that's actually the way that culture is transformed. And that makes perfect sense. We will have to come back and do another episode on this sometimes, but like, that makes perfect sense. When you think about how God created Adam and what he was supposed to do to transform and cult, cultivate, right? The word cultivate and culture come from the same roots to transform and cultivate the entire world. What was he supposed to do? Plant a garden, tame the animals, right? You know, bake babies. Like, it's, it's not, um, it's not. Rocket science, it's not that difficult. And again, we are all called to different elements of that. And God providentially places us in situations and in, in life, you know, life circumstances, we're not all gonna be able to fulfill every element of that. But that's where this, that's where this becomes sort of the domain of the church, right? The church does all of these things in the culture, and I don't mean the church as institution. I mean like the people who are the church. They do all of these things in very ordinary, normal ways, and that will, that will transform the culture. Um, right. You, you show me a. And this is not, you know, by God's common grace, there are lots of really nice people out there who are more or less honest and have integrity and work hard at their jobs. So it's not as that, that's a uniquely Christian thing. But you show me a, a, a person who is known to be a Christian and works hard as honest is straightforward, is kind, is charitable, is self-sacrificial in, in all arenas of their life. Um, people will notice that and they will see it as different and they will associate it with Christianity. They will as

As I've shared this progression idea of, “Father in the home to elder in the city to ruler in the Kingdom,” I keep getting the same question. They say,“Tim, I get the ‘father in the home' part, but elders and ruling part doesn't make sense.”Yeah, I understand why. Most people think “elder” means church board member, and “Kingdom of God” means an eternal vacation in heaven. There's some truth to these perspectives, but neither are completely biblical.The Biblical Progression for MenWhile society may have lost this “noble task” of aspiring to be an overseer, Scripture hasn't. Its vision for men is this:* Fatherhood in the home is training for eldership in the city.* Eldership in the city is training for ruling cities in the Kingdom.The framework comes directly from 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1.When discussing the qualifications for an elder, in 1 Timothy 3:4 Paul says:“He must manage his own household well, with all dignity, keeping his children submissive. For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?” (ESV)The principle seems to be this: managing my home well qualifies me for broader leadership to help others manage their homes and affairs.It's the same principle we see in Proverbs 31:23, where the husband of the excellent wife has an outstanding reputation and sits as an elder at the city gates. The whole chapter describes her household management, and that qualifies him to sit among the leaders of the city. (Why our communities desperately need this elder role and the impact of its absence is a topic for a future post.)Subscribe to join me and other Christian men in pursuing the noble task of eldership (1 Tim 3:1).But how does that connect to ruling in a Kingdom?Let me unpack these two ideas a bit more from a biblical perspective. I'm honestly still wrestling with how to articulate this well, so please help me here as this (hopefully) starts to click for you.First Objection: “Tim, isn't 1 Timothy 3:4 about church eldership, not the city?”Yes. Kinda.“…for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?”The confusion comes because we read “church” and think of our modern experience and understanding of “church.” This isn't just talking about the guy who passes offering plates on Sunday mornings. Church leadership is included here, but there's more to it than that.Every biblical example of eldership we have points to governing in a city, not just religious functions. When Scripture talks about elders, they're sitting at city gates (Proverbs 31, Ruth 4), making community decisions, settling disputes, serving people, and managing the common good of their city.The word “church” (ekklesia) in 1 Timothy 3 is the same word used throughout Scripture for assembly or gathering. It's a community of people, not just a Sunday service. I think we've domesticated this concept by limiting “elder” to church committees when the biblical vision is far broader: proven household stewardship qualifies men for civic influence and leadership in the community of faith.Think about Boaz. He goes to the city gate, gathers the elders, and facilitates a legal transaction for Ruth and Naomi. That's not church leadership—that's civic eldership. These guys are known, respected, and trusted with community decisions because they've proven faithful in stewarding their households and businesses well.This is why, in Titus 1:5, Paul says:“…I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you…” (ESV)Paul directs Titus to appoint city elders for the sake of the body of believers (i.e. the church) there.This coincides with Paul's understanding of the church (body of believers) being city-wide communities, not the isolated church corner buildings we have today. Paul writes “to the church in Ephesus, Corinth, Colossi, Philippi, etc.” Jesus does the same thing in Revelation 1 when he writes to the church in Laodicea, Smyrna, Sardis, etc.So, yes, I think, “…how will he care for God's church,” is more accurately understood as, “…how will he care for God's people in that city?”Second Objection: “Ok, but how do you get to Kingdom rule?”Good question! And it's a result of the same issue as before: we read our preconceived ideas into the text. In this case, it's whatever one thinks of when they think of the Kingdom of God.Stay with me here. This is important.In Genesis 1:28, God creates mankind as His image-bearer and blesses them with a clear mandate:“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion...” (ESV)We were created to rule and reign with Him over His creation. This blessed authority was the original design.In some ways, The Fall broke our ruling, but redemption doesn't erase the original purpose — it restores it. Jesus didn't come to evacuate us from earth; He came to restore earth under God's rule with us as His image-bearing representatives.Subscribe to join me and other Christian men in pursuing the noble task of eldership (1 Tim 3:1).This is where Luke 19 becomes critical. In the parable of the ten minas, the nobleman gives each servant one mina and says, “Engage in business until I come.” (More on this command to engage in business is coming in a future post, too.) When he returns, he evaluates their faithfulness with what they were given. The faithful steward who turned one mina into ten receives authority over ten cities. The one who turned one mina into five gets five cities.Notice what the reward is: authority over cities. Not harps in heaven. Not eternal singing. Not floating on clouds. Actual governing responsibility in God's Kingdom.The point?Fruitful management now qualifies you for greater management later.Jesus isn't just testing their financial skills, although that's probably part of it. He's showing that the way we handle what God has entrusted to us right now—our marriages, our children, our businesses, our communities—is preparation for ruling and reigning with Him in His Kingdom.Paul echoes this in 2 Timothy 2:12: “If we endure, we will also reign with him.” The writer of Hebrews says Jesus is bringing “many sons to glory” (Hebrews 2:10). Revelation describes believers as those who will reign with Christ (Revelation 5:10; 20:6; 22:5).“…and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” Revelation 5:10 (ESV)This isn't fringe theology. This is the biblical narrative arc:God created us to rule with Him, sin broke that, Christ redeems us and is preparing us now for our eternal role as co-rulers in His Kingdom.

Thomas de Mahy was one of many aristocrats executed by rioting mobs during the French Revolution of the late eighteenth century. According to one legendary account, upon reading his death warrant, de Mahy responded, “I see that you have made three spelling mistakes.” If true, de Mahy pointedly disregarded a drastically more significant matter—his imminent death. Today we’re in danger of unintentionally missing a crucial point, one that concerns the body of Christ (the church). There are those who would distort its purpose. Maybe we see the church as a political action committee or as a place to be served. Perhaps we see it as a mere religious institution. The church’s priority, however, has always been the good news of Jesus. Paul told the believers at Corinth, “What I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). While other things may have an appropriate time and place, the gospel is of first importance. How can we be agents of God’s good news to a world so saturated with bad news? By asking God to empower us to share this good news whenever possible.

🕊️ Sermon Summary: Transformed by the Spirit of God This week, we were blessed to hear from our speaker, Erica Lugg, as she continued our series on "Life in the Spirit" with a powerful message titled "Transformed by the Spirit of God." Erica's message focused on the profound promise of transformation found in 2 Corinthians 3:16-18. Key Scripture and Context The message centred on 2 Corinthians 3:16-18 (NIV): "But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all who with unveiled faces, when we contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."  Erica first set the scene by explaining that the "veil" Paul refers to is no longer needed because of Jesus' sacrifice. The barrier that once separated people from God's glory, as with Moses' veiled face in Exodus 34, is now removed for all who turn to the Lord. This means everyone can freely come into God's presence and encounter His glory. Understanding Transformation Erica explored the question: What does it mean to be transformed? More than "Change": The Greek word used is metamorpho, the root of metamorphosis. This is far deeper than simply "changing clothes" or improving our appearance. The Butterfly Analogy: Transformation is likened to a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. The caterpillar doesn't just get "wings"—it dissolves into an unrecognisable form where every single cell is broken down and reformed. A New Creation: God's vision is not for us to be a "better version of ourselves" (a "caterpillar with wings") but a completely brand new creation. This transformative work is from the inside out and is done by the Holy Spirit. Why Does God Transform Us? God transforms us because He is restoring His original image in us. The Original Image: Mankind was made in the image of God to walk with Him in a relationship characterised by natural joy, peace, and freedom from shame and sin. The Broken Image: Sin broke that image, like "hot tar" thrown on the relationship, shattering the natural flow of joy and peace. Restoration, Not Improvement: The Spirit is not "improving" us but restoring, reforming, or reborning the image of Jesus in us, back to how it was meant to be. Power vs. Self-Help: This transformation is God's power at work, not "costume Christianity" or self-help. Information is not transformation. The world offers tips, but the Spirit offers transformation and freedom. The Process of Transformation Erica used the moving story of Little Ted, Liz Patton's rescue dog, to illustrate the nature of the Holy Spirit's work. It's a Process, Not a Moment: Erica's initial idea to "fix" the anxious and fearful dog in one moment by introducing him to another gentle dog was a disaster. The true transformation began only through faithful, consistent love, security, and boundaries over two years. Steady, Patient Work: The Holy Spirit's work is not a "one-time fix" or an "abracadabra" moment. It is a steady, patient transformation from the inside out. Celebrating All Progress: We are changed from "one degree of glory to another". We must celebrate the small degrees of change, as they are still the work of the Holy Spirit. Our Role: Contemplating His Glory While the Spirit sustains and completes the work, we have a role to play: Contemplate, Behold, Look Upon: The scripture says, "those who contemplate, behold, look upon, they're the ones being transformed". Renewal of the Mind: Romans 12:2 says, "be transformed by the renewal of your mind". There is no neutral ground; we are either conforming to the pattern of the world or being transformed by the Spirit. Mindsets to Surrender: We need to discern the "lean" or "posture" of our minds. Do we lean towards: Fear instead of Trust?  Grumbling instead of Gratitude?  Pride instead of Humility?  Worry instead of Worship?  Positioning Ourselves: We position ourselves for transformation by beholding or contemplating Jesus, allowing His truth to renew our minds. Erica concluded by encouraging us to listen to the words of our own hearts to discern our mind's "slant" and to surrender those worldly mindsets to God, committing to be transformed to be like Jesus. Transcript We pray. Amen. Good morning, everybody. Really good to see you all. We're continuing in our theme. My microphone is at the hem of my jumper. There's always a drama with this when I'm speaking, isn't there? There's always something I haven't done. There we go. Is that better? Great, okay. Good morning, everybody. Great. It's good to see you all again. We're following our series on being in life in the Spirit. We've looked at what it means to be led by the Spirit, the fruits of the Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, and there'll be more of that coming as we go on in the next few weeks. But the title of my message this morning is Transformed by the Spirit of God. And we're going to be looking at 2 Corinthians 3, verses 16 to 18, if you've got your Bibles on you, or this is a great opportunity to get out your phone, and you could even pretend to be on games. And people will think you're reading the Bible. Except the Holy Spirit sees, you know. He sees everything. Just saying. So 2 Corinthians 3, verses 16 to 18, and I'm going to be using the NIV version. Karen mentioned last week about using different versions of the Bible, which I like doing, but the NIV uses a word here that I think is really important. Now, before I come to reading that scripture, I want to kind of set the scene a little bit, because we've kind of arrived at the end of, or in the middle of, Paul's thoughts to the church in Corinth. And if you want to know more about the church in Corinth, you can look that up in Acts chapter 18. So they were a vibrant church, a passionate church, but also they were a bit of an immature church. And although they loved Jesus, they were easily swayed by all the different snazzy teachings that were coming up. And so what Paul is doing is establishing a foundation, and that's where we come to. And before we get to our verse this morning, Paul is reminding the people about an encounter with God that Moses had back in Exodus 34. So those of you that will remember where Moses fits into the picture, if you don't, Exodus 34 and the chapters before will fit you in. But Moses goes up Mount Sinai, he has this incredible encounter with God, separate to the people that he's leading, and God's glory shone so brightly on him that as he comes down from Mount Sinai, that glory is radiated all over his face. And there is this veil that covers the glory of God to protect the people from the shine, but also so that the people couldn't see the glory of God fading, because that's what happened. And what Paul is saying before we come to our scripture is that that veil, that protection isn't needed anymore. That with Jesus, there isn't an elite bunch of people that can encounter God, and those that weren't elite that just got the ends of everything, but all of us, we can come freely into the presence of God and encounter his glory freely because of the sacrifice of Jesus. That when we turn to Jesus, he removes everything that blocks us from truly seeing him, and that's the work of the Holy Spirit. With me so far? Okay. Thank you, Cornelius. I'm looking out for your amens there, the rest of you. Okay. So, 2 Corinthians 3, 16 to 18 says this. Paul is saying to the people, but whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. What's the criteria? Whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. This thing that separates, this barrier. Now, the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Now, you can read it the other way on that says if the Spirit of the Lord is not involved, whatever we are experiencing is not freedom. Looks like freedom, masquerades of freedom, but where the Spirit of the Lord is, that is where there is true freedom. Good so far? Good. And we all who with unveiled faces, these are the people that have turned to the Lord. Nick, if I could have a glass of water, that would be really good. Thank you. We all who with unveiled faces, when we contemplate the Lord's glory, so contemplate means to behold, to look upon, to think upon, to be at the presence of, are being transformed into his image with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. Verse 16 is the promise. Whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. So if you have given your heart to Jesus, and you have opened your life to him, God removes the veil, that barrier is taken away, which means we have the opportunity not only to see God, to encounter his glory, but for that glory then to be reflected out of us to the people around. Which is great news. Paul says, we all can see and reflect the Lord's glory. This is not just for spiritual elite, this is for all of us. And then he goes on to say, the Lord is the Spirit. And I just want to... Is this yours, Roland? Yeah. It's in my space. I nearly drank it. Is there vodka in there? Just checking. The Lord is the Spirit. It's important to remember that the Holy Spirit is not an it, or a force, or a vibe, or a thing, or an emotion, or a tingle down the spine, or a moment in the church service. The Lord is the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. He is God himself in our presence, here with us today. He's a person. So we all, who with unveiled faces, contemplate or look upon the Lord's glory, we are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory. And that is the verse that I want us to kind of look at today. And there are four questions that I want us to ask. I want us to ask what it means to be transformed. I want us to ask the question, why are we being transformed? How does it work? And when does it happen? And then, I also want to ask the question, what does that mean for me tomorrow morning, Monday morning, at work, Tuesday morning, in the middle of all the things that I'm going through? What does this scripture mean for me? And how do I apply it to my life? So, some translations, we're going to ask the question, what does it mean to be transformed? Some translations use the word changed. We are being changed. But I feel that that is really a very weak word. Because we change clothes all the time, don't we? We change appearance all the time. Cut our hair, grow our hair, dye our hair. Some of you haven't got any hair. That's okay. But we change things all the time. I'm a different person to how I was when I was a lot younger. There's a lot about change that I can do myself. But the scripture here is talking about transformation, which is a deeper thing. In fact, the Greek word is the word metamorpho, which is the word that Paul uses in this translation, which is where we get the word metamorphosis. Is that how you pronounce it? Metamorphosis. When you say that word, what does it remind you of? Caterpillar and butterflies. Okay. Thank you very much because that's in the notes. Ten points for Jules over there. It's the same word that we use to describe what happens to a caterpillar. Now, a caterpillar starts small. It crawls around on its belly on the ground. It is incredibly limited. It has a very limited lifespan. And then there comes a moment when it spins a cocoon and then something incredible happens inside the cocoon. Any of you that have done biology before, what happens inside that cocoon to that caterpillar? It dissolves. It does what? It dissolves. It dissolves. It mulches down into an unrecognisable blob of something. It's good, isn't it? A blob of something. Very technical. Every single cell changes. Thank you. Every single cell changes. It's the same word. It's the same word in here, the transformation. And it becomes unrecognisable. And in the process of the cocoon, where every single cell is broken down, something is then reformed or reborn, and out comes... Thank you. Out of the cocoon comes a butterfly. It doesn't come and become a caterpillar with wings. Because that's what change does, isn't it? When we change ourselves, we become caterpillars with wings. But what God is speaking about here is that the old has gone, the shape of the caterpillar, all of that is gone. And out of this cocoon is reborn something completely brand new because every single cell has been broken down. And out comes this thing that we call a butterfly. And which is the thing that we ooh and ah at when we see? Do we ooh and ah at the caterpillar or do we ooh and ah at the butterfly? It's the butterfly. And it somehow becomes from this grovelling on the ground kind of creature to this beautiful, unlimited, expansive life of freedom that this butterfly has. I remember once... Was it you or was it Aidan? We went to... Oh, no. When I was a TA in a school, went to the butterfly farm in Cleethorpe. Have you ever been in there? And we walked into the butterfly house and a butterfly landed on... His name was Charlie, actually. A little boy's Charlie's head. And one of the kids said, Oh, look, Charlie, there's a butterfly on your head. And he went... That's just a bit of an aside. It's nothing to do with the scripture. No one's going to start whacking you on the head or anything like that. It's just a... Okay. So, and that's the Holy Spirit work in us. When we turn to Jesus, he begins to transform us from the inside out. He breaks down the cells. He mulches us into something, bit by bit, so that out of it comes this new creation. That's what it means to be reborn. God's vision is not that we become better versions of ourselves. I have to admit that I've used that in some of my evangelistic spiel and said, you know, what God wants to do is to make you kind of the best version of yourself. God knows. He's breaking everything down and transforming us completely, not into caterpillars with wings, but into butterflies. Isn't that amazing? Okay. So that's the first question. That's what it means to be transformed. We are not being edited or adjusted or tweaked or... improved. We are being changed. We are being transformed from one degree of glory to another. So why does God want to transform us? And to answer that question, which is point number two, we have to go back to the beginning. In the beginning, God made mankind in his own image. No other creature on the face of the earth is made in the image of God. No other creature. We are completely different to the rest of God's creation. We were made in the image of God. And you have that wonderful picture of God walking in the garden with his creation, those that were made in the image of him. And in that relationship, because of that uniqueness of it, it was shame-free and blame-free and sin-free and peace and joy were natural. Can you imagine a world where peace and joy comes naturally to us? Put your hands up this morning if peace and joy flow naturally out of you all the time. David, I'm going to ask Jen. I'm going to ask Jen. She's my friend. She'll tell me. But imagine that, where peace and joy flow naturally. That's what the relationship used to be like. And that is because we were made in the image of our creator. So there was that natural sense of relationship. and then we all know the story that a lie was told and a lie was believed and humanity, we weren't content to be like God. We wanted to be God himself and so all of that. And basically, what happened in that moment, it was as if somebody came along with hot tar and threw it up against that beautiful relationship, up against that image of God that was in us. And then that relationship, the natural flow of joy and peace, shame free, sin free, all of that was destroyed. And that is because the image of God in us became broken and damaged. Still with me? Okay. And that natural relationship was shattered and separation came. Now, before Adam and Eve ever knew how to even ask for forgiveness or ask for a way back, we already see God beginning his restoration process, process, don't you? And that's why you can see Jesus all the way through the Old Testament. So, we were made to bear God's image but sin covered the image with self and when the spirit comes along to transform us, he is not improving us, he is restoring or reforming or reborning the image of Jesus in us that was there right back at the beginning of time. because he's not changed his mind, he's actually saying I want it back the way it was, I want you to know, I want you to experience what it means to live in the natural place of joy and peace and relationship with God. Ezekiel 36, 26 says this, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you and that's the difference between costume Christianity and spirit transformation because we all can wear costumes can't we? We all do wear costumes. I know that it's a gift that I've learnt over many years how to put a costume on but that's the difference between costume Christianity and spirit transformation. We can change our image, what we look like on the outside but only God can transform the identity within us and I don't want to live from a place of costume Christianity, I want to know day by day what it means to live the identity of Christ, Jesus in me, Christ in me, the hope of glory. That's why we need power. Not self-help or how to be a better person podcast. Those things are good because they help us to manage habits but they can't make us new. They polish the outside but only the Holy Spirit can change the inside of who we are. In fact, we can't change the inside of who we are and we're arrogant if we think we can somehow change the core of who we are. You can read every book and still feel stuck because information is not transformation. That's why we need power. The world offers tips but the Spirit offers transformation. The world will give us advice but God is the only one that gives us power and the only one that gives us freedom through the Holy Spirit. Now I want to tell you a story this morning about a dog. If I could have his picture up here. Oh, I knew that would get you. Do you know who he is? Little Ted. His name is Little Ted. So I kind of want to use this story. He's really had a huge impact on me. This story to try and give us a bit of an idea of what I mean. So all of you know Liz Patton. Yes. So this is Liz Patton's dog. And by the way I have asked permission to put him up on screen this morning. He's allowed to be streamed by the way. It's all right. We've got permission. Now Little Ted was a rescue dog until about two years ago. And two years ago I had the privilege of going to the rescue center to meet him. And Liz and I took him out for a walk and immediately could see that he was an incredibly anxious and fearful dog. You could tell from his behavior. And also really reactive to other dogs. Really I've never seen anything quite like him and his response. And all you could imagine was what has he experienced in his little life to have got to the stage where he was such a distressed and sad to say trauma. So sad. Is that the word? Trauma? I can't. And when we went to the shelter and inquired about him, Liz obviously had to go away and make up her mind. And so she said to the owner of the shelter, do you mind if I let you know on Friday? I think this was probably Wednesday. And the woman said, oh don't worry about it, let me know any time because nobody wants him, he'll still be here. I know, doesn't it pull on your heart strings? And I didn't say a word to Liz, I thought I can't say anything, I can't even look at her and went to where I thought because my heart was already like well I can't leave him behind. Anyway, within just a few hours Liz had decided that she was going to have him and I don't know that whether or not at the very beginning of having him she thought maybe it had been a mistake because he was incredibly, incredibly difficult dog because of what he'd gone through. Anyway, I had this idea, I said I know what will help him and because he's reactive to other dogs and he's scared of other dogs, I'm going to introduce him to Max. Oh. He died in January. Oh. Max is like a big baluba bear, just a real big therapy dog, everybody loved him, in fact when he died in January the condolences I received were just, everybody loved Max and I thought I know what I'll do, I'm going to invite Liz and little Ted over and we're going to introduce little Ted to Max and there's going to be this huge, just like this amazing transformation as little Ted comes into contact with Max. What a brilliant idea you've had Erica and Liz was saying to me all the time, do you think it will work? And I'm going, absolutely it will work. First of all it's my idea and my ideas generally work, isn't that right Nick? Yeah. And also we're talking about Max here, I mean, and she said to me, are you sure? And all the way in the car, yeah, yeah, I'm absolutely sure. So we pulled up to the house and little Ted started barking in response to Max and then we put them out in the garden together and guess what? It was a disaster. It was an absolute disaster. It was utter chaos. With this gentle giant here ending up with little Ted's head in his mouth. And it was not friendly. And I think the only reason that Max didn't come out without any marks is because little Ted has got no teeth. But it was absolute chaos. Now I have thought about this a lot. That actually although it was kindly motivated, it was incredibly arrogant of me to think that a dog that had been through everything that little Ted had could be fixed in a moment by one of my bright ideas. Now you all know I'm a bit of a fixer. That's how I work. I like to fix. And if I can't fix, I get frustrated. Now I want you to move on two years. And Isla knows this. Two years on little Ted has been at Liz's and he's not perfect. but he's a completely different dog. And it wasn't Max that did it. It was Liz who took the long view. Faithful, consistent love, discipline, security, acceptance, boundaries, and the determination that said, and I admire her for it, she said, no matter what, you are my dog. And that has been a faithful commitment over two years. What I thought I could fix in a moment, Liz has with her faithful commitment to this dog over two years begun and is continuing a transforming work in this dog. Now he's not perfect but I tell you what, he's a million miles better than he was. And I just want to encourage you because that's what the Holy Spirit does in us. He is working Jesus in me. And it's not a one-time fix. I didn't say the sinner's prayer and suddenly all the issues that I deal with or all the issues that are as a result of my broken character, they're not dealt with in a way abracadabra but a steady, patient transformation from the inside out and out working of the Holy Spirit in me. Yes, Amen. I looked back as part of this message, I looked back and saw what God has been doing. So he goes on to say it's changed from one degree of glory to another. I want to encourage you that small degrees are still a work of the Holy Spirit. We celebrate the big jumps, don't we? Wow, look how much that person has changed. But then we often look at ourselves and yeah, but look at me, I'm really rubbish at this or what is God doing? Celebrate the small things that the Holy Spirit is doing in you and then don't despise the small things that the Holy Spirit is doing in someone else. Are you still with me? Okay, so it's the power of the Holy Spirit, aware of time. When does transformation happen? When? Well, it starts the moment the veil is removed, the moment we surrender to God. In fact, that in itself is a work of the Holy Spirit. To be able to see is a work of the Holy Spirit. But then the Bible goes on to say that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion. There's the promise, he will do it. Completion, there's the fulfilment. When we stand before Jesus on that day, we will be like him in entirety. But in the process, we are being changed. The Spirit began it, he sustains it, and he completes it. Good with that. So now we know what, and we know why, and we know how, and we will know when. What does that mean? If the Spirit does it all, does that just mean we get to sit around and go, Holy Spirit, change me? No, we don't. The Bible says in that scripture, it says, those who contemplate, behold, look upon, they're the ones being transformed. In Romans 12, 2, it says, do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the of your mind. Paul is not talking about gaining more information. He's not saying we should all go home and read a concordance. Information is not transformation. But we do all have mindsets. We all lean towards something, and the Bible says either we are conforming to the world or we are being transformed. There is no neutral ground. So either we are leaning into the spirit and we are allowing him to change us, or we can have a lean into things of the world. And he's talking about mindsets. And so when we are thinking about the renewal of our minds, we are thinking about what position has my mind taken? What is the posture or the lean or the attitude of my mind? If it leans towards the things of the world, we will by nature be conformed to the patterns of the world. But if we, with unfilled faces, contemplate his glory, lean into the spirit, then he is faithful to begin that work within us. Still with me? Minds are never neutral. Sometimes they lean our minds towards fear or self-reliance or pride or negativity or shame. That's just some. That's the pattern of the world. But when the Holy Spirit renews our mind, he wants to straighten our lean so that we lean into him. So instead of fear, we begin to trust. I'm learning that a lot when I have one of my children on tracker. They've allowed me to have them on tracker. But when that little green thing stops flashing and it's three o'clock in the morning and and they're no longer, you know what I'm talking about, right? They're no longer live and you, last time they were connected to the internet was 20 minutes ago and it's three o'clock in the morning and they're in the middle of Luton coming out of the airport walking. My mind in the middle of the night goes down the road of fear. As natural as that. And I'm learning, last night, learning to drag it back. And say, I trust you, God. I trust you. My mind has a lean towards fear. My mind can have a lean towards grumbling if I'm not careful. But the Holy Spirit wants to lean me into an attitude of gratitude. As you can see with Max, my mind has a lean towards pride instead of humility, thinking I could fix something. It can lean towards despair instead of hope. Or rebellion instead of obedience. Or criticism instead of compassion or worry instead of worship. Am I the only person in this room? Yeah, let's be honest here. Come on. Renewal isn't about knowing more, but it is learning to think differently. And that's what the Bible says. So, we need to position ourselves. We position ourselves to contemplate him, to think about him, to look over him, to have our minds changed by his truth, and allow him to renew our minds in order that the transforming work of the Holy Spirit can continue freely. I'm going to ask the musicians if you could come back for me. Please. How do you know if your mind is leaning in the right direction? And let's say, just begin to play something. I'm going to ask us to respond. Because maybe you've realised this morning that you do have a slant towards something of a worldly pattern of thinking, a mindset, an attitude. Maybe your mind automatically goes towards fear or control. My mind goes towards control or pride or worry. And the way I think about it is, or the way I discern it in my own life is to listen to the words that I use. Because you know that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And when we speak, not when we speak to our friends and we're putting on a costume, but when we speak in the privacy of our own hearts, what are the words that we use? Because that will tell us which way we are slanted. Do I talk about Jesus but really and truly I trust myself? Or maybe you can tell because peace is not the norm for you, it's the exception. We've been called to a life of peace and part of the transformation of our minds and of our lives is to recognise that we are completely safe in him. That's the truth. Maybe we go down the road of controlling everything and thinking if it's hard it mustn't be God or I need to somehow control it in order for it to work out well. You know, God is great and all that but he really needs my help. Maybe you just feel exhausted but you feel you can't stop pretending or performing. Could be an indicator of where our hearts and our minds are leaning. It might be that you know your heart is sharp about something or someone but you know that Jesus' heart is soft. well there immediately is a what do they call a disparity. It's forming him, Jesus in us. Or maybe it's living in fear so more influenced by the headlines than by scripture. Or maybe faith is tired and hope feels naive. Well it's all very well to have faith but we need to be people that live in the real world. Have you heard that before? Or maybe it's just really simply I know that Jesus, yeah he's part of my life but he's not really the centre. Those things lean us into conforming to the patterns, the mindsets, the postures of the world. And the way we recentre and lean into Jesus is by beholding or contemplating him. So I just wonder if we could stand together. Maybe we need to surrender some of these things to God and actually name them for what they are. I have recognized, and I'm being really open here today, I have recognized how easy it is for me to live in a place of fear. Not about everything, but about certain things. I live in a place of fear and see how my mind goes down that road. It's just like a light switch, it goes down that road. And I know that I have to keep bringing that to God and surrendering it to Him and saying, I trust you. And it might be that's where you're at today and you just know, you know that there's a lean and there's an imbalance. We're leaning into the logic or the understanding or the wise words of the world. Lord, as we worship, I would just love for us to respond together. Holy Spirit, thank you for the transforming work of your power within me. Thank you that you are faithful to complete that which you've started. But our Father, I also know that I have a role to play in all of this. Forgive me for believing the lies of the enemy. Forgive me for my prideful heart that thinks that somehow I can fix things. And if you feel that the Holy Spirit's been pointing something in your heart or highlighting something, just we've got a few minutes. Let's come down to the front and join me here. Let's just pray together. As we surrender our lives, Holy Spirit, we want to be transformed to be like Jesus. I don't want mindsets that don't look like Jesus in my life. I don't want that. I don't want to proclaim freedom and Jesus with my mouth and yet live in bondage in my heart because of something that I'm scared to let go of. If the Holy Spirit's been speaking to you, come and join me as we worship together.

Are you stuck? Maybe you feel like you're in a rut, unable to move forward. Well, God is offering you a way forward — through a relationship with Him. Long ago, a follower of Jesus named Paul wrote this in a letter to the people of Corinth: …anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! You can be made new today! If you confess your sins and wrongdoings to God and ask Him to make you new, you can have friendship with Him starting now. Not only that, but you can live forever with Him in Heaven. Do you want to accept His invitation and have a fresh start at life? Pray with me now. God, I need your help to get unstuck. Please forgive me for all the wrongs of my past. I don't want to live that way anymore. I'm putting my life in Your hands. Always remember, there is hope with God. I'm Andrew Palau. Scripture Reference: 2 Corinthians 5:17 radio.hopewithgod.com

The sermon explores the distinction between sins that are 'not unto death' and those that are, emphasizing the believer's responsibility to intercede prayerfully for fellow Christians caught in habitual sin, while recognizing that some sins carry immediate physical consequences. Drawing from 1 John 5:16–17, it clarifies that 'death' here refers to physical death, not eternal separation from God, and underscores the importance of loving others as Christ loved, with compassion and urgency. The preacher highlights examples such as Ananias and Sapphira, drunk worshipers in Corinth, and King Saul to illustrate sins that resulted in divine judgment, while affirming that believers should not pray for such deaths but instead seek repentance and restoration. The tone is pastoral and instructive, calling the church to active, loving accountability without condemnation, rooted in the truth that God values repentance over punishment. Ultimately, the message affirms the believer's confidence in prayer and the power of intercession to restore a brother or sister in Christ.

One of the characteristics of the letters of the apostle Paul was his numerous personal references.  And if you just read through the names, they may not seem very important.  But today, Pastor Dan expounds upon the many, many names in the last chapter of the book of Romans.  And one of the most important is Phoebe*, who actually carried this letter all the way from Corinth to Rome.  God may sometimes give you seemingly obscure or unimportant jobs.  But nothing He gives you is insignificant in His plan.

Many people travel the world to visit sacred places. Paul is reminding the church in Corinth, that God no longer dwells in a house of stone but in the very flesh and bone of His church, us. This is a radical truth that changes everything

The Greatest of These Is Love 1 Corinthians 13 Introduction: Let me begin with a “softball question.” What is the primary reason there were divisions in the church in Corinth? We could come up with all sorts of reasons. They were following different teachers. They overlooked immorality. Some didn't believe in the resurrection. People wanted […] The post 1 Corinthians 13:1-7 The Greatest of These is Love appeared first on Woodland Hills Church of Christ.

Fr. Clint continues our Bible study on Paul's Second Letter to the Church in Corinth.

Message by Pastor Doug Bunnell, recorded live November 2, 2025 at First Presbyterian Church of Bellingham. Scripture read by John Freal.Finish WellPaul ran well and finished well and he did it by asking for help.What does Paul mean by “being poured out like a drink offering”?What emotions or attitudes do you see in Paul as he reflects on his life and ministry?What is “the crown of righteousness” Paul mentions in verse 8?What does this section tell us about early Christian communities and relationships?If you knew your time was short, what would you want to say to those closest to you about your faith?2 Timothy 4:6-226 As for me, I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. 8 From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.9 Do your best to come to me soon, 10 for Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica; Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. 11 Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me in ministry. 12 I have sent Tychicus to Ephesus. 13 When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments. 14 Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will pay him back for his deeds. 15 You also must beware of him, for he strongly opposed our message.16 At my first defense no one came to my support, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them! 17 But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion's mouth. 18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and save me for his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.19 Greet Prisca and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus. 20 Erastus remained in Corinth; Trophimus I left ill in Miletus. 21 Do your best to come before winter. Eubulus sends greetings to you, as do Pudens and Linus and Claudia and all the brothers and sisters.22 The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.

When life gets hard, it's easy to think the answer is to leave. But in Acts 18, Jesus shows Paul—and us—the power of staying. What if the greatest impact for God's kingdom happens not by going, but by staying?

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“Men sometimes speak as if humility and meekness would rob us of what is noble and bold and manlike. O that all would believe that this is the nobility of the kingdom of heaven, that this is the royal spirit that the king of heaven displayed, that this is godlike, to humble oneself, to become servant of all!”~Andrew Murray (1828-1917), writer and pastor “It is blasphemy if you pray before God while you are full of anger.”~Ephrem the Syrian (c.306-373), Aramean Christian theologian and writer         My dear Wormwood,Be sure that the patient remains completely fixated on politics. Arguments, political gossip, and obsessing on the faults of people they have never met serves as an excellent distraction from advancing in personal virtue, character, and the things the patient can control. Make sure to keep the patient in a constant state of angst, frustration, and general disdain towards the rest of the human race in order to avoid any kind of charity or inner peace from further developing. Ensure the patient continues to believe that the problem is “out there” in the “broken system” rather than recognizing there is a problem with himself.Keep up the good work,Uncle Screwtape~from C.S. Lewis's devilish book, The Screwtape Letters (1941) “They all therefore were glorified and magnified, not through themselves or their own works or the righteous doing which they wrought, but through His will. And so we, having been called through His will in Christ Jesus, are not justified through ourselves or through our own wisdom or understanding or piety or works which we wrought in holiness of heart, but through faith, whereby the Almighty God justified all men that have been from the beginning; to whom be the glory forever and ever.”~Clement of Rome in 1 Clement 32:3-4, a letter written to Corinth in c. A.D. 96 “God allowed his Son to suffer as if a condemned sinner, so that we might be delivered from the penalty of our sins. This is God's righteousness, that we are not justified by works (for then they would have to be perfect, which is impossible), but by grace, in which case all our sin is removed.”~John Chrysostom (c. 347-407), Homilies on the Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians Question 33: What is justification? Answer: Justification is the act of God's free grace by which He pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in His sight. He does so only because He counts the righteousness of Christ as ours. Justification is received by faith alone.~Westminster Shorter Catechism (1647)SERMON PASSAGEselected passages (ESV)Acts 2 41 So those who received [Peter's] word were baptized, and there were added that day [to the church] about three thousand souls. 42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.Ephesians 2 1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. 11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.Ephesians 4 & 5 1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace…. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. 1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Series: N/AService: Sun AM WorshipType: SermonSpeaker: Bill Sanchez

Pastor Damian continues the Acts series in chapter 18, focusing on “real community-based ministry.” He explains that true community is both something we share and something we feel—a sense of belonging that includes even those we might not choose to include. Using Paul's story in Corinth, he shows how God builds ministry through familiar relationships, shared purpose, and genuine connection. #Acts18 #Community #Belonging #FaithInAction #RealRelationships

The early church is often painted as an ideal of perfect community. The reality, however, was far from picturesque. The church in Corinth was, to put it lightly, a mess. In one of his letters to the Corinthian church, the Apostle Paul tried to paint a clear picture for the people and untangle the many theological and moral knots the church had created for itself. His letter to them still rings true to the church today. How can we be unified in a world of chaos? How can we be wise in a world of foolishness?

Are You Leading Like Jesus? Have you ever hesitated to take a leadership role—at work, at home, or even in church—because it felt intimidating or messy? In week two of our Dear Corinth series, Pastor Vicki Harrison dives into 1 Corinthians 4 with a powerful reminder: leadership in the Kingdom of God looks nothing like leadership in the world. Watch the full service video below or listen to the sermon audio player. Leadership, God's Way In Paul's letter to the Corinthian church, he confronts a community obsessed with popularity, platform, and power. Sound familiar? Pastor Vicki reminds us that while the world promotes self-glorifying leaders, God calls leaders to be servants and stewards. 1. A Leader Is a Servant (1 Corinthians 4:1) True Christian leadership starts at the bottom. Paul says church leaders should be seen as servants of Christ. Jesus models this when He kneels to wash His disciples' feet (John 13). A Christian leader isn't above any task. Strength is found in humility, not control. Our identity is rooted in Christ—not our title or role. 2. A Leader Is a Steward (1 Corinthians 4:1–2) Paul says leaders are "entrusted with the mysteries of God"—that is, the Gospel. A steward doesn't own the message but manages it faithfully. Stewarding the Gospel means living it out, not just preaching it. God's leaders don't cater to comfort—they deliver truth, even when it's hard. We're accountable first to God, not human applause. Living Leadership Daily Pastor Vicki challenges us to examine our lives—because we are all leaders in some way. Whether you're parenting, teaching, managing, or mentoring, the call is the same: serve others in Jesus' name. Ask yourself: Do I put others' success above my own? Do I genuinely listen and respect others, regardless of their role? Do I serve, even when no one's watching? Am I faithfully stewarding the Gospel in my words and actions? Leadership isn't about climbing up—it's about bowing down, like Jesus did.

1 Corinthians 7:1-16,32-35 | The Church in Sin City, Part 7 | 11/2/2025 | Pastor Tony Shen. In response to questions from the Christians in Corinth, the Apostle Paul responds - with commands and instructions in some ways hard for us to accept.

The War With Pride, 1 of 5 from November 2, 2025 “In a world fighting by arrogance and deceit, we triumph by meekness and integrity.” 2 Corinthians 10 by Michael Lockstampfor (@miklocks)SUMMARYThis sermon explores the themes of humility, conflict resolution, and spiritual integrity as addressed by the Apostle Paul in the context of Second Corinthians. Pastor Michael discusses the challenges of maintaining unity and peace within faith communities, emphasizing the power of meekness and Christ-like humility in overcoming pride and divisive influences. The sermon encourages listeners to measure success and approval against Jesus's standards rather than worldly ones.REFLECTION & DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

In Acts 18, we see Paul's ministry in Corinth marked by opposition, encouragement, and a divine call to stay. This sermon reminds us that God's presence emboldens us to remain faithful, even when the path is uncertain—and that obedience, not outcomes, defines our faithfulness.

Letters From Your Father - Pt. 8The Super Apostles are spreading their lies in Corinth, and people are falling for it. The Apostle Paul hears about it and writes like a fool. Pastor Dave unpacks 2 Corinthians 11 and encourages us to be careful who we listen to.

SCRIPTURE: 2 Thessalonians 1:3-12 SHOW NOTES: For encouragement on your spiritual journey, we invite you to visit our ministry website, Discover God's Truth, where you can access additional resources to enrich your Walk with God. The Apostle Paul traveled across Asia Minor and into Europe on three main missionary journeys. During his second trip (Acts 16:23-20:38), he visited Thessalonica and Corinth. The first epistles Paul ever wrote were those to the church he had established in Thessalonica, Macedonia. These were written from Corinth (Acts 18:1-18), shortly after Paul had left Thessalonica. "Dear brothers and sisters, we can't help but thank God for you, because your faith is flourishing and your love for one another is growing. We proudly tell God's other churches about your endurance and faithfulness in all the persecutions and hardships you are suffering." 1 Thessalonians 1:3-4 Paul had previously been concerned about their faith and love for each other. In this second letter, he praises them for their growing faith and the increasing love they share. Paul also told others about their faithful perseverance through hardship, suffering, and persecution. When we examine early Church history, we gain a clearer understanding. What did believers in Jerusalem and Judea experience after Jesus Christ ascended to heaven? The Jewish religious leaders did not want “The Way” to spread and grow. A man named Saul persecuted them, having some arrested and thrown into prison. This man became Paul after his conversion on the road to Damascus. He personally knew that the church grew during persecution, which makes it even more remarkable. "So, we keep on praying for you, asking our God to enable you to live a life worthy of His call. May He give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do." 2 Thessalonians 1:11 Paul and his companions prayed that the Thessalonians would continue to be purified through their trials rather than stray from the truth. Suffering and persecution can be a great blessing from God and can bring much glory to our Lord Jesus Christ, both now and in the future.SONG: "My Prayer for You" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj_0pvIGkks&list=RDhj_0pvIGkks&start_radio=1

Send us a textWhat if the biggest threat to your relationships isn't what you lack, but what you quietly protect—envy, self-promotion, and a puffed-up certainty that can't be taught? We open 1 Corinthians 13 and treat love as verbs—habits that confront our reflex to compete, parade, and look down from a tower of pride. The result is a bracing, practical journey through three refusals that free us to love well: no envy, no bragging, no arrogance.We start where Paul starts: love without competing. Envy boils when someone else is honored; agape rejoices without comparing. Then we face bragging—the gentle spotlight we keep turning toward ourselves, even in spiritual settings. Paul's piercing question reframes everything: What do you have that you did not receive? That simple truth dismantles the need to parade our gifts and replaces it with gratitude and quiet faithfulness. Finally, we examine arrogance—how inflated self-importance masquerades as tolerance. Real love does not enable what destroys; it tells the truth with tears, invites repentance, and seeks restoration. We explore where Corinth stumbled, how churches repeat those mistakes, and why humble conviction is the most compassionate path.Across the conversation, you'll hear memorable stories, Scripture's sharp clarity, and practical ways to shift your posture: celebrate others' wins, choose anonymity over applause, and welcome correction that realigns you with Jesus. This is a call to step down from the tower and onto the solid ground of service, where love is sturdy, honest, and full of grace. If you're ready to trade performance for peace and pride for a better way, press play—and share this with someone who needs courage to choose truth in love. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us which habit is hardest for you to surrender.Support the showStephen's latest book, The Disciples Prayer, is available now. https://www.wisdomonline.org/store/view/the-disciples-prayer-hardback

Send us a textWhat if the biggest threat to your relationships isn't what you lack, but what you quietly protect—envy, self-promotion, and a puffed-up certainty that can't be taught? We open 1 Corinthians 13 and treat love as verbs—habits that confront our reflex to compete, parade, and look down from a tower of pride. The result is a bracing, practical journey through three refusals that free us to love well: no envy, no bragging, no arrogance.We start where Paul starts: love without competing. Envy boils when someone else is honored; agape rejoices without comparing. Then we face bragging—the gentle spotlight we keep turning toward ourselves, even in spiritual settings. Paul's piercing question reframes everything: What do you have that you did not receive? That simple truth dismantles the need to parade our gifts and replaces it with gratitude and quiet faithfulness. Finally, we examine arrogance—how inflated self-importance masquerades as tolerance. Real love does not enable what destroys; it tells the truth with tears, invites repentance, and seeks restoration. We explore where Corinth stumbled, how churches repeat those mistakes, and why humble conviction is the most compassionate path.Across the conversation, you'll hear memorable stories, Scripture's sharp clarity, and practical ways to shift your posture: celebrate others' wins, choose anonymity over applause, and welcome correction that realigns you with Jesus. This is a call to step down from the tower and onto the solid ground of service, where love is sturdy, honest, and full of grace. If you're ready to trade performance for peace and pride for a better way, press play—and share this with someone who needs courage to choose truth in love. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us which habit is hardest for you to surrender.Support the showStephen's latest book, The Disciples Prayer, is available now. https://www.wisdomonline.org/store/view/the-disciples-prayer-hardback

Pastor Tommy starts in chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians and leads into chapter 13 bringing the clear message of 1 Corinthians, we are called to love one another! We hope this messages is transformative in ... Read More The post Letter to the Church: Corinth | Chapter 13 | Pastor Tommy Piowaty Palmer appeared first on Atlanta Dream Center Church.

Discovering What the Remains of Corinth Reveal About Paul's Mission Footsteps of Paul (Ep. 1) by Tim Hatch

My Identity Is IN CHRIST Philippians 1:1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all God’s holy people IN CHRIST JESUS at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons: (NIV) 1. YOUR IDENTITY IS IN CHRIST Philippians 1:1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints IN CHRIST Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: (ESV) Colossians 1:2 To the saints and faithful brothers IN CHRIST at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father. (ESV) Ephesians 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful IN CHRIST JESUS (ESV) Colossians 1:26–27 the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. 27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is CHRIST IN YOU, the hope of glory. (NIV) Romans 8:11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living IN YOU, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives IN YOU. (NIV) Galatians 3:26 For IN CHRIST Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. (ESV) 2. YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS IS IN CHRIST Philippians 3:9 and be found IN HIM, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith (ESV) 2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that IN HIM we might become the righteousness of God. (ESV) Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are IN CHRIST JESUS. (ESV) Ephesians 1:7 IN HIM we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, (ESV) Ephesians 4:32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God IN CHRIST forgave you. (ESV) Ephesians 2:13 But now IN CHRIST JESUS you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (ESV) 1 Corinthians 1:2 To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified IN CHRIST JESUS, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: (ESV) 2 Timothy 1:9 Who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us IN CHRIST Jesus before the ages began, (ESV) 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is IN CHRIST, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (ESV) 3. YOUR GODLY MIND IS IN CHRIST Philippians 2:5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours IN CHRIST JESUS, (ESV) 4. YOUR HUMILITY IS IN CHRIST Philippians 2:5- 8 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours IN CHRIST Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (ESV) 5. YOUR CONFIDENCE IS IN CHRIST Philippians 3:3 For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory IN CHRIST JESUS and put no confidence in the flesh (ESV) Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives IN ME. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (ESV) Ephesians 3:12 In whom we have BOLDNESS and access with confidence through our faith IN HIM. (ESV) 6. YOUR PEACE IS IN CHRIST 7. YOUR NEEDS ARE MET IN CHRIST Philippians 4:19 And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory IN CHRIST JESUS. (ESV) 1. Am I truly In Christ Jesus? 2. Am I confusing my wants with my needs? 3. Am I obeying God’s word? Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us IN CHRIST with EVERY spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, (ESV)

The early church is often painted as an ideal of perfect community. The reality, however, was far from picturesque. The church in Corinth was, to put it lightly, a mess. In one of his letters to the Corinthian church, the Apostle Paul tried to paint a clear picture for the people and untangle the many theological and moral knots the church had created for itself. His letter to them still rings true to the church today. How can we be unified in a world of chaos? How can we be wise in a world of foolishness?

What does unity look like in a divided church? We begin our Dear Corinth series with a powerful message from Pastor Roberto Chaple, diving into Paul's heartfelt appeal for unity in the church. If you've ever wrestled with conflict, preferences, or disconnection in the body of Christ—this message speaks to you. Watch the full worship service below or listen to the sermon audio to reflect and respond. Unity Isn't Optional—It's Essential "I appeal to you… that there be no divisions among you." — 1 Corinthians 1:10 Paul doesn't simply suggest unity—he begs for it. In a church caught between personalities and worship styles, he calls believers back to the center of their faith: Jesus Christ. Here's what we explore together this week: Church unity starts with Christ, not charisma. The early church divides itself over leadership—Paul, Apollos, Cephas, or Christ. But faithful leadership points to Jesus, not itself. It's not about personal preference; it's about one Savior. Worship style shouldn't divide what the Spirit unites. Whether traditional or contemporary, every form of worship should bring us closer to God. Arguing over style is like keeping the box and throwing away the gift. Multigenerational worship paints a clearer picture of God's Kingdom. Mission matters more than preference. Paul says, "I become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some" (1 Corinthians 9:22). The goal isn't to win a debate—it's to win someone to Christ. Faith in Action: Church Unity Starts with Us What if we leave our preferences in the glovebox and unite around the mission of Jesus? What if we come to church hungry to serve instead of angry about style or change? Unity doesn't mean uniformity—it means choosing love, humility, and shared purpose. Let's be the kind of church that reflects heaven. Need a way to get connected? Join a Group, start serving, or explore your Next Steps.

Introduction: We're Not Putting on a Show (1 Corinthians 2:1–5) Because the show will replace God's MESSAGE. (1 Cor 2:1–2) John 17:17 – Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. Because the show will replace God's METHODS. (1 Cor 2:3–4) Because the show will replace God's MISSION. (1 Cor 2:5) Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANKHint: Highlight blanks above for answers! Small Group DiscussionRead 1 Corinthians 2:1-5What was your big take-away from this passage / message?What are some ways you have seen a church make the Gospel into a show / performance?Why does God prefer to work through weak people instead of strong & talented people (1 Cor 2:3-4)?How can you tell if a “good preacher” is a real Spirit-filled preacher, or a talented man just using his own gifts?BreakoutPray for one another. AUDIO TRANSCRIPT Open those Bibles up to the book of 1 Corinthians. We're going to be in chapter 2.Let's just pause for a moment.And I'm going to ask that you would please pray for me to be faithful to communicate God's Word accurately and clearly.I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive what God said in His Word.Alright? Let's pray.Father, there are so many things that compete for our attention and devotion.Give us a hunger for your Word, because it is through your Word that we know you.So I pray, Father, that our appetites would be for nothing but the bread of your Word.Let us dial into what your teaching is here in this passage, Father. We pray in Jesus' name.Amen.Amen.1 Corinthians chapter 2, are you there?I was today years old when I learned what that phrase meant.How many people have heard that? I was today years old. How many have heard that one? How many of you used that?Some of you are like, I don't know what you're talking about. Well, maybe you're not hip like Justin Cady,knowing all the vernacular of the children.But let me give you an example. I was today years old when I learned that on a box of tic-tacs,do you know when you open it up, there's this little oval in here? Do you know what that's for?That is to serve the tic-tac. Did you know that?Have you been just eating your tic-tac straight from the box like a wolf?Did you know that you're supposed to use this thing to...Ta-da!Maybe you can flick it in your mouth.Never mind.I'm going to give you, in all seriousness, the biggest and most shocking thing.The whole phrase I was today years old means there's something I should have known.I'm just finding out this thing that I should have known my whole life and wow, it changes everything.Well, here's the biggest one of all time.Did you know that you have the ability to take power out of the cross of Jesus Christ?Did you know that? You might be leaving here today saying I was today years old when I learned.I can empty the cross of Jesus Christ of its power. Do you realize you have that ability?The Bible says we do have that ability. Look back at chapter 1 verse 17.We covered this a couple of weeks ago, but very briefly because I knew we would be hitting it hard this week.But chapter 1 verse 17, Paul says, "For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel,and not with words of eloquent wisdom lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power."What? I can take power away from the cross of Christ? That's what he said.How can I take power away from the cross? How can I empty the cross of Christ of power?He tells us right here in verse 17 by relying on eloquent wisdom.Look at chapter 2. We're going to look at the first five verses, but I want us to read it all first.I want us to be very clear what the Lord is saying here.Paul says through inspiration of the Holy Spirit, "And when I came to you, brothers,did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were notimplausible words of wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.That your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God."See a theme there? Over and over and over he's talking about wisdom.And you're like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on, hang on, timeout Pastor Jeff, hang on."I thought wisdom was a good thing, right?And we've had whole sermon series on wisdom and there's books in the Bible called wisdom literature.I thought wisdom was a good thing. Why are we poo-pooing wisdom here today, Pastor Jeff?Well, wisdom is one of those words that can have different connotations depending on the context.A lot of words like that, right? Like the word aggressive.Is that a good word or a bad word?Well, depends on where we're using it, right? It's great if you're playing hockey.It's bad if you're in a meeting. See?Or how about the word judge? You hear that word judge, is judging good or bad?Well, depends how you use it. We are commanded to judge to discern.But we are forbidden to judge in the sense of criticizing people like we talked about in the sermon on the Mount.So you see, judge is bad or good depending on the context. And it's the same with wisdom.Because the Bible is clear there is God's wisdom and there is man's wisdom.And the obvious point of this passage, all circles around this idea of not man's worldly, earthly wisdom.That's the point. He says it in verse 1. He says it in verse 4. He says it in verse 5.So to sum up this passage, here's what Paul is saying.He's saying, "I didn't come proclaiming man's wisdom. My message was not in man's wisdom and your faith can't be in man's wisdom."You're like, "What's he saying? What's the problem here? Why is he so adamant about this?"Well, you have to understand something about the Greeks.You have to understand something about the people that lived in Corinth.You see, for them, public speaking was entertainment and competition.Now please dial in here, because if you miss this, you're going to be so confused as we go through these verses.Public speaking was entertainment and competition.They would actually compete for money and prizes and fame with public speaking.So for the Greeks, those in Corinth, public speaking was putting on a show.Public speaking was a performance.Remember, they didn't have TV.They weren't sitting down to entertaining themselves by watching the Judge Judy or whatever.They didn't have the internet where they would sit on their phone and death scroll through countless videos about cats.That's not how they were entertained.They were entertained in the Greek culture by two things, really.Sports, we get that, right? But their other form of entertainment was public speech.And public speech, listen, public speech was evaluated on eloquence.We get that, because how many countless TV programs do we have about judging talent?Right? The Americans got talent and American Idol and The Voice, The Mass Singer, what else is there?All these shows where, you know, so you think you can dance, we're constantly evaluating the talent level of people on these programs.Public speaking was that in Corinth.Now, do you see the issue?Paul came to them with a speech, the Gospel.He came to them with a speech and he came to a culture that evaluates a speech based on the performance of the performer.So if you look at this passage again, I'm going to look at it again, just abbreviating it, but you could substitute this phrase where it talks about wisdom.You could substitute putting on a show. That's what he was talking about here.Paul's saying, "When I came to you, brothers, I did not come proclaiming you the testimony of God by putting on a show."And then down in verse 4, "My speech and my message was not about putting on a show."And then in verse 5, "Your faith might not rest in the show, but the power of God."You see? That was the issue for that culture.And you're like, "Phew! Stinks for that culture because I get a... You know what, Pastor Jeff, it would be absolutely horrible.I mean, that would be terrible if people today turned the Gospel into our show.I mean, could you imagine how tacky it would be if people made church a performance?We don't have to stretch our imagination, do we?What do you see when you go to a lot of churches and Bible conferences, right?Fog machines and lights and how about a man pole dancing and swallowing swords?That happened at a men's conference.And oh, every spring I gag as I see churches promoting this summer at such and such church, summer at the movies.Life lessons according to Toy Story 2.I'm like, "Really? You've preached through the whole Bible and you're out of material and now we're turning to Pixar.Really?We made it into a show.Come to our church. We're dropping Easter eggs out of a helicopter.Oh, you know what the worst is. This could be... And this is personal opinion. This is the worst.The pastors that get on stage dressed up like a character.Have you seen this? Have you seen this nonsense?Pastor Taylor sent me a video for the record making fun of it.He sent me a video of a pastor that got on stage and their whole thing was Indiana Jones.And look, I love Indiana Jones, but the pastor was dressed like Indiana Jones.It was so stupid. He had a whip and he's just standing up there.It was so foolish.I have a... Noa guy who's a pastor, local-ish.We're talking about what's happening in church, what's going on in your ministry right now.And he went on and on and on bragging. He bought an evil-can-evil costume and preached as evil-can-evil.I'm like, "Great. Did you have to spend 20 minutes explaining to the people under 60 who evil-can-evil is?"Like, "Really? That's church?"What are we doing?If you sit these people down that are putting on these performances, these pastors,that are putting on these performances, like, "Why are you doing this?Why are you standing on stage waving a silly whip around like Indiana Jones? What are you doing?"They would say, "Well, that's how I get people to church.""Hey, no need to thank me, Jesus. I have a brilliant plan to fill the seats."And just as sad, churchgoers applaud these gimmicks because they get attention, right?That's why we're sharing these videos. They get attention.Oh, but then we get out to do each other, don't we?He dressed like Indiana Jones next week, harvest."You come to church next week. I'm going to be dressed as Darth Vader."[sighs]Your faith is weak.Won't that be awesome?You're like, "No, Pastor Jeff, that would be stupid."And you're right.We're going to top the other guy, and then we're going to top ourselves, right?Okay, so my thing with Darth Vader, people are clapping and giggling for that.So what am I going to do next week that's better than that, right?Just like one of those Lord of the Ring elves or something, and we'll blast fireworks on stage.What are we doing?This is exactly what Paul's talking about here.This is the principle. Lofty speech, human wisdom, plausible words.It's making the gospel into a show in order to win people.Paul says, "I didn't do that when I came to you in the Harvest Bible Chapel.We're not doing that either."And somebody right now is like, "Oh, Pastor Jeff, come on, what's the big deal?"Lighten up.I mean, if it draws people to church,why wouldn't we apply a little worldly wisdom?Listen, we are not putting on a show.We are not putting on a show.That is a hill that I will die on.You're like, "Well, what's the issue?"Well, let's revisit the text here, and we're going to see it's a much bigger issue than you think.We're not putting on a show.Write some things down. Number one, because the show will replace God's message.That's why the show, the show will replace God's message.Look at the first two verses again.Paul says, "And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to youthe testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom, for I decided to know nothing among you."Except Jesus Christ and Him crucified."When I came to you, you can revisit this story."Acts chapter 17, Paul was in Athens and he preached and responds, "Not so great."Then Acts chapter 18, he goes to Corinth.He's alone and he's looking around and he's like, "This place is even worse than Athens."And Paul here is saying, "So when I came to you, did I come with the fancy talk?Did I come like your public speakers putting on a show for you?"He's like, "No, no, no, no, the Gospel isn't about that.I didn't come to you like one of your philosophers.I came to you as a witness of Jesus Christ."And I love this.What is it?He says, "For I decided."It wasn't a whim.It wasn't one of those tweak and go things, last minute change.He goes, "No, no, no, no, no.I made the decision ahead of time that I'm not going into Corinth and I'm not going to try to dazzle them into the kingdom."By the way, do you think Paul could have?Do you think he had the ability to dazzle people with the knowledge that he had?Yeah, he could have.He said, "I will not do that."So what was your plan, Paul?He tells us this was my plan, verse 2, "For I decided to know nothing among you."Except what?Say it.Jesus Christ and say it.Him crucified.That's it.That's all I wanted to know.That's it.The only thing I wanted to know.The only thing I wanted to teach.The only thing I wanted to talk about was Jesus Christ and Him crucified.You're like, "Oh, time out question.Isn't there more to the Bible than that?"I mean, isn't there more to the Bible than that?Nope, there's not.Listen, the cross of Jesus Christ is literally everything.Everything.How is it that a person is saved?How is it that a person can have their sins taken away and the promise of being in glory with their God forever?How does that happen?The cross of Jesus Christ.How do we know that God loves us?How do we know that the God who created us has a love and compassion and He really cares for us?How do we know?The cross of Jesus Christ.How do we know that God is holy, that God is a God of justice?How do we know that God always upholds His Word, always does what He says?How do we know that?The cross of Jesus Christ.How does God feel about sin?How does God feel about our rebellion, our thumbing, our noses at Him and our...How does God feel about our sin?Where do we get our answer? Shout it out.That was the weakest shout it out I've ever heard.Come on, you can even hit the Sunday School Answer here.How do we know how God feels about sin?Where do we look? Tell me.The cross!That tells us.You know, I was really hitting this this week, hard thinking,is there anything that's not finding its foundation in the cross?I couldn't think of anything.And somebody's like, well, how about money?How about money, Pastor Jeff?Does the cross speak to money?Yeah, it does.Why do we give?Because God is a God who expresses His love through giving.And the cross of Jesus Christ tells us why we should be generous givers.Read 2 Corinthians chapter 8.He talks all about that there.So yes, the cross is a foundation even for giving.Oh, okay, okay, Pastor Jeff.Very slick.What about marriage and sexuality?I bet the cross doesn't talk about that.Oh, you got me. No, you didn't.Who did Jesus die for?His bride.Jesus died so that He could have a bride that was spallus.And heaven is described as the marriage supper of the Lamb.And husbands are to conduct themselves in a home in the pattern of Christbecause the purpose of a marriage is to put on a graphic displayof the relationship Jesus has with the church.Husbands represent the self-sacrificing love of Jesus Christ to their wives.Do you see how the cross speaks to marriage?We could do this all day.Fight me.Fight me.Show me something.Show me something that the cross of Jesus Christ doesn't cover.Doesn't explain.Paul says, "I wanted to know nothing.I decided I'm not going to know anything except Christ and Him crucified."Then I'm going to tell you, church,it is absolutely baffling to me when I see all these goofy gimmicks that people are doing in churches.It's absolutely baffling to me when we're dressed up like Indiana Jonesor Evil Can Evil or Super Mario or whatever.It's absolutely baffling to me.I'm like, do you realize the message that we have in the Word of God?Do you know what this message is?The message is God spoke everything into existence.He created us in His image.We rebelled against Him so God in His love came to this earth as a manand demonstrated supernatural abilities proving who He was.And then in the ultimate act of love, He sacrificed Himself on the crossso that we could be forgiven and then they put Him in a tomb and He rose from the dead.And that's not it.Then He flies to heaven and He's making a place because He's going to come backand He's going to take us so that we can be there with Him forever in a place that's so glorious.And like, is there anything better than that?There's the greatest message in the world.And somehow we think it needs bling.We think we need some kind of a gimmick to make Jesus exciting.What are you talking about?That's Paul's point here.It's the greatest message and it always will be in any attempt to put on a show.It's not going to enhance the gospel. It's going to replace the gospel.You know what I mean by that?Take our good friend Indiana Jones.I hope you weren't in that service.But if you were, could you imagine what people were talking aboutwhen they walked out of church that day?Do you think they walked out of church going, you know,after watching the pastor get around and waving his silly little whip around?Do you think people walked out of church going, Jesus Christ is so awesome?Do you think they walked out of church going, oh how wonderful the salvation of Godthat He would so love us?I'll tell you what people said walking out of that church.People walked out going, man I got to find my temple of doom VHS.We've replaced the message of how to be safe from hell with nonsense to entertain people.Well, at harvest Bible Chapel, Bible is our middle name.We are committed to pillar number one, proclaiming the authority of God's word without apology.Why are we so committed to nothing but expository preaching, representing the word?Why are we so committed to that?Like why are you so hard-nosed about that?I'll give you three reasons why.Number one, because it's commanded.God said this is what we were to talk about.So that's what we're going to talk about.It's commanded.Second reason that we're so committed to the word of God is it's literally the only thing that's effective.God said He is watching over His word to perform in Jeremiah 1.God says Isaiah 55, that His word always accomplishes the purposes for which He sends it out.It's effective.Nothing else will change a person.But the Spirit of God working through the word of God.That's it. That's the only way change happens.There's another reason that we're so committed to the word of God is because it's unifying.In John 17, Jesus was praying for us, and Jesus said, "Sanctify them in the truth."Sanctify means set apart.Jesus said, "Regarding His people, regarding us, we are to be set apart in the truth."Like where do we find that?Right there, Jesus said it.As He was praying to His Father, He says, "Your word is truth."So Jesus said, "The thing that must unify us, church, isn't some gimmick or a favorite form of entertainment.The thing that must unify us is the word of God. Get under the word."That's why we're committed to that.And you know what? I got to tell you this personally.This is so freeing for me.This is so freeing.I don't have to wonder what to say to you.See, we don't get in our offices through the week and we're like,"Oh, Pastor Taylor, what do you think we should say this week?Let's come up with some really great thing that's going to really fire people up."We don't have to do that.We just have to share the word of God.It's so freeing. I don't have to think, "How do I top last week's show?"I mean, people were really entertained last week.How do I top that?It's freeing for you, too.It's freeing for you.We talk about witnessing.One of the main obstacles people have about witnessing,I hear this all the time, Pastor Taylor,you've heard it a billion times as well, give or take.But you know what people say about witnessing?They say, "I don't know what to say."I would share my faith, but I'll be honest with you.I don't really know what to say. Yes, you do.You know exactly what to say.What do I say?Try this. Try Paul's technique.Nothing but the cross. How about that?Nothing but the cross. Share that.Do you know about the cross? Share that.You know, when people come to you and they're like,"Well, you know what does the Bible say about politics?"And like, Republicans and Democrats, you're like,"Well, do you know that Jesus Christ died for your sins?Did you know that?"And then they're like, "Well, what does the Bible say about AI?"I mean, AI is kind of scary.What does the Bible say about that?And your response is,"Do you know that God loved you so muchthat He sent His Son to die on the cross for you?That's how much God loves you."And they're like, "Well, does the Bible say anythingabout in vitro fertilization?"And she's like, "No, no, no. All I know is that Jesus died for you."That's all we need to know.We're not putting on a show because the showwill replace God's message of the cross of Christ.Number two, write this one down.We're not putting on a show because the show will replace God's methods.The show will replace God's methods.Look at verses 3 and 4 again.He says, "And I was with you in weakness and in fearand much trembling.And my speech and my message were notin plausible words of wisdom,but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power."Paul reminds them, he didn't come to themlike a boxer going to the ring.Like, "I fired up."Yeah!You see, there's really goofy, like,WWE professional wrestlers.Do you ever see these guys that come to the ring with the fireworks?Yeah!Yeah, and Paul's like, "That's not how I came to you.Like some goofy entertainer."He says, "I came to you. Use the three words, 'weakness,' fear, and trembling."What do you mean?What do you mean by that?Well, you look at how it's used biblically.Trembling is talking about mental anxietyover an important issue.That's when you feel something heavy in your heart and mind.You feel something so heavy that it's like weighing on you.And here's what I mean.Have you ever had the unfortunate business of having to give somebody newsyou didn't want to give them?Unfortunately, in my role, I've had to do that too many times.And it's so heavy on you.You're driving to the person's house because you have to tell them face to facethat there's been a terrible accident and things don't look good,that heaviness that you have while you're heading there.And delivering the message, just...That's what he's talking about.Or the heaviness, like if you have to confront somebody about their sin.Like, it's been brought to my attention that so-and-so is involved in a relationshipthat shouldn't be involved in.Now I gotta go talk to them about that.You see, you don't walk into that like a WWE wrestler, do you?Like, "Hey, guess what? I got news for you.There's been a terrible tragedy!"Like, what's the matter with you?No, that's the heaviness of having to deliver a serious message.That's what he's talking about here.Paul says, "This was my posture when I was with you.Not exactly the celebrity showman that the Corinthians would have preferred."Paul is saying, "I came in weakness because I didn't want to put on a showbecause I didn't want to get in God's way."Why, Paul? Why?Because the show will replace God's methods.You're like, "Well, what is God's method for reaching lost people?What is God's method?"It's the foolishness of preaching from a weak preacher.That's God's method.Did you ever say something like magnanimous, you have this really idealistic convictionand then the word of God kind of changes your mind on that?What I mean is, in past time I've said things like,"Well, you know what? The messenger is insignificant. The message is everything."After my study this week, I'm not so convinced of that anymore.Yeah, look, we established already that the message cannot be replaced.We already talked about that.But you cannot separate gospel content and gospel communication.Because according to this, in 117 that we already talked about at the beginning,you can suppress the power of the gospel message if attention is taken away from thatand put on the speaker.And you're like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on. Hang on a second, Pastor Jeff.Are you telling me that popular people can't be faithful preachers?"Sure they can.So long as the spotlight isn't on them, you see.You're like, "Well, where's the line? Where's the line?"It's a hard issue. I'm not sure that we can see the line, but I know that God can.And I know that there is a difference between preaching Christ and showing off.And please hear me. You don't need to dress up as Indiana Jones to show off in church.You can dress like Pastor Taylor.You know, you really hurt his feelings by laughing just there.There is nothing wrong with how you're dressed.I'm sorry, Pastor Taylor.Do you know what this thing is for in a tic-tac box?You put the tic-tac in there.Moving right along.You don't need to dress up as Indiana Jones to show off.You can dress like Pastor Taylor, but unlike Pastor Taylor, you can try to make yourself the star.Unlike Pastor Taylor, you can put all the attention on yourself.You know, the message of the cross, you know what the message of the cross is?The message of the cross is about the humiliation of God.And preaching and witnessing require the humiliation of man.If you're sitting here today and you're like, "Well, I'm not really anything special.I'm just a sinner saved by grace."Well, if that's your attitude, then that's exactly why God wants to speak through you.Because you've found nothing to boast of in yourself.And instead, all you can do is exalt Jesus Christ.The power is in the gospel, which is why it must be preached by someonewho isn't going to drown out the gospel message with the sound of tuning their own horn.So we're not putting on a show because the show will replace God's method of preaching through weak men.One more.We're not putting on a show, number three, because the show will replace God's mission.Look at verse 5.He says that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.See here Paul's landing. This is the end game.The results.Here's the bottom line.If you're dazzled by men, your faith is going to be in men.But if you are dazzled over the power of God, if your experience is with the power of God,then your faith is going to be in God.What you win people with is what you win them to.See we're not putting on a show, why?Because if we win people with the show, with entertainment, we've won them to entertainment.And guess why people are going to come to harvest?Because they want entertained.But if we win people with Jesus, we've won them to Jesus.And people are going to come to harvest because they want to know Jesus.Putting on a show replaces God's mission.Instead of making disciples of Jesus, I'm making disciples of me.There's a very pragmatic problem with that too.If the church is replacing God's mission for the show, it leaves the converts vulnerable.Why? Because there's always a more impressive performance.There's always a more charismatic personality out there.There's always a better show somewhere else.And that's why, listen, that's why people bounce around churches.People bounce around churches looking for something more entertaining.They're not going to use the word entertaining.They want something that is going to be more appealing to them.We hear it all the time."Oh Pastor Jeff, we love harvest.We love the people here and we love you.But such and such church has a better playground.We've got little kids and they need better facilities like that with playground and stuff.I had one family.I said, "Oh Pastor Jeff, we love harvest."But he said, "My kid, he had a 12 year old kid.He said, "My kid loves the concert atmosphere at such and such church, so we're going there."I'm like, "First of all, Dad,I seriously doubt the wisdom of leaving the decision of the spiritual direction of the familyin the lap of the most immature member of the family.That's a problem.But is that how we're picking churches who has the best concert?You see, if the faith of the responders is produced by the preacher's show,what if the preacher leaves?What happens when that preacher retires?What are we going to do now?Worse, what if the preacher fails?See, you replace the mission for the showand Paul says you're missing out on God's power.God's power, you're like, "Well, what is the power?What is the power?"You're like, "Oh, I know this one.I know what the power is because I've seen this on TV."Who's that guy that's...He slaps people and heals them?What's his name? Benny Hill?Hen, Benny Hinn.Benny Hill's different.I've seen that show.He slaps the people and they're down.And then he waves at a group of people and they all fall down.That's the power of God, right?Well, back in chapter 1 verse 18 of Pastor Taylor preached on last week,we learned what the power of God is.You know what the power of God is?The gospel.The gospel. Romans 1.16, the gospel is the power of God.You're like, "Well, do we see the power of God at Harvest Bible Chapel?"Yeah.Every time that we have a baptism serviceand you have somebody stepping in to the tubgoing, "I turn from my sin and I receive Jesus Christ, I am born again."You're witnessing the power of God.Every time somebody chooses forgiveness,"I was wronged, I was offended, I want to forgive, I want the relationship restored."Every time that happens, you're seeing the power of God.Every time somebody uses spiritual gifts to minister to others in the church,you're seeing the power of God.You see, the power of God is a changed life.You're the power of the Holy Spirit.That only comes from Jesus.In church, we are doing a major disservice to peopleto replace people experiencing His power with people enjoying my performance.I have no power at all.I can't save anyone.I can't change anyone.Only Jesus Christ can do that through His Spirit.So we're not putting on a showbecause the show will replace God's mission of making disciples of Jesus.The Harvest Bible Chapel, there's no tricks for results herebecause the Gospel just simply points to the bloodied Jesus Christ on the crossand says, "There, right there on the cross is your salvation.There on the cross is your example.There on the cross is your victory.There on the cross is your power."So this is a call for discernment.Look, are you new here?You're a first-time visitor here today?Have you been bouncing around visiting churches?And this is just one of many that you've been checking out.Or maybe you're somebody who's been attending for a while.Maybe you're even a member who's been thinking about moving on.I just want to ask you a couple of questions in light of what God says here.What are you looking for in a church?Wait, wait, maybe that's not the right question.Maybe the better question is what should you be looking for in a church?More fireworks?More pizazz?Or is Jesus what you really want?Are you saying, you know, I want to know the Gospel.I want nothing more than to experience the power of God in my life.Well, wherever you choose to worship,I would encourage you to make your decision based on the right factors.I have no say over what other churches do.I have some say here in a harvest Bible chapel.We're not putting on a show.We buy our heads as the worship team makes their way back up.Father in heaven, we bow before you as people who live in a culturebombarded by entertainment.Bombarded by churches trying to win people through goofy stuff.Father, your word is so clear on that in this passage.That your Gospel doesn't need help.It's just He's proclaimed.Father, I'm sorry for all the times that I thought it was about me.I'm sorry God for all the times that I was trying to factor in some element of creativityor something to really wow people and your Gospel doesn't need that.My efforts will just replace the pure, simple, clear message of the crucified Christ.Father, I pray for all of us that we would have the discernment that only comes from your spirit.That as we are evaluating where we are worshiping and how we are worshiping,we're evaluating the methods that you've laid out in your Word.We're evaluating the mission that you've laid out in your Word.We're evaluating the message that you've given us, Father.Give us discernment.We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Kendall Gendron's favorite movie is Beetlejuice. When the Seattle native met her future husband and discovered that his hometown was East Corinth—where the movie was filmed—it felt like a match made in heaven. In 2016, the couple moved from the Pacific Northwest to East Corinth. When the opportunity arose to own the fictional Miss Shannon's School for Girls from the Beetlejuice movies, Kendall jumped at the chance. It wasn't just about owning a part of movie history, but how the iconic, Gothic structure on Village Road could become a vibrant events venue and community gathering space. In this episode, I talk to Kendall and lifelong East Corinth resident Wade Pierson about Beetlejuice, the building's past, present and future, and the meaning of community. Visit happyvermont.com Support Happy Vermont on Patreon 

Click here for the DRB Daily Sign Up form! TODAY'S SCRIPTURE: Job 13-14; Acts 17-18 Click HERE to give! Get Free App Here! One Year Bible Podcast: Join Hunter and Heather Barnes on 'The Daily Radio Bible' for a daily 20-minute spiritual journey. Engage with scripture readings, heartfelt devotionals, and collective prayers that draw you into the heart of God's love. Embark on this year-long voyage through the Bible, and let each day's passage uplift and inspire you. TODAY'S EPISODE: Welcome to the Daily Radio Bible, your daily companion on a journey through the Scriptures. In today's episode, host Hunter invites listeners from around the world to gather by the “fires of God's love” on this 23rd day of October. Together, we dive into Job chapters 13 and 14, where Job passionately argues his case before God, wrestling with suffering, justice, and hope. Next, we move into Acts chapters 17 and 18, following Paul and Silas as they face opposition and share the message of Jesus throughout Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, and Corinth. Along the way, we encounter inspiring figures like Priscilla and Aquila, who gently guide Apollos into a deeper understanding of faith in Christ. Through thoughtful reflection, heartfelt prayer, and words of encouragement, Hunter reminds us that our true rest and identity is found in Jesus. So grab your Bible, settle in, and let's explore these powerful stories together—trusting that through it all, we are deeply loved and never alone. TODAY'S DEVOTION: Aquila and Priscilla and the Invitation to Rest Aquila and Priscilla went to help Apollos. And they want to help us too. They want to point us to our baptism into Christ. Apollos, we're told, only knew about the baptism of John, but Priscilla and Aquila point us beyond that—to our baptism into Christ, an even greater hope and assurance. This is the amazing, liberating news: that God has reconciled us to himself and drawn us into his life. Our identity is not wrapped up in our striving, our performance, or our attempts at holiness. Our identity is in Christ—deeply rooted in what He has done, not what we can do. Baptism, Priscilla and Aquila would remind us, signifies this new reality. Ours is not to strive after some unattainable perfection, but to rest in who Jesus says we are—trusting in His perfection, His holiness, and His love. In Christ, God assumed all of humanity into Himself, so that we might participate in the loving life that Jesus shares with the Father and the Spirit. This is what Priscilla and Aquila invited Apollos to discover: not just a message about repentance, but the ongoing, participatory life in Christ, where we rest, and our joy and strength is found. And that is the invitation laid before us today—to rest in what Jesus has done, to find our strength and joy there. Let us not be anxious or strive in our own strength, but remember that Jesus has included us, adopted us, and called us His own. That's a prayer I hold for my own soul. That's a prayer I have for my family—for my wife, my daughters, and my son. And that's a prayer I have for you: may we rest in our true identity in Christ, and live each day from that grace-filled place. May it be so. TODAY'S PRAYERS: Lord God Almighty and everlasting father you have brought us in safety to this new day preserve us with your Mighty power that we might not fall into sin or be overcome by adversity. And in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose  through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen.   Oh God you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth and sent your blessed son to preach peace to those who are far and those who are near. Grant that people everywhere may seek after you, and find you. Bring the nations into your fold, pour out your Spirit on all flesh, and hasten the coming of your kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.   And now Lord,  make me an instrument of your peace.  Where there is hatred let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon.  Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope.  Where there is darkness, light.  And where there is sadness,  Joy.  Oh Lord grant that I might not seek to be consoled as to console. To be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love.  For it is in the giving that we receive, in the pardoning that we are pardoned, it is in the dying that we are born unto eternal life.  Amen And now as our Lord has taught us we are bold to pray... Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our tresspasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not unto temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Loving God, we give you thanks for restoring us in your image. And nourishing us with spiritual food, now send us forth as forgiven people, healed and renewed, that we may proclaim your love to the world, and continue in the risen life of Christ.  Amen.  OUR WEBSITE: www.dailyradiobible.com We are reading through the New Living Translation.   Leave us a voicemail HERE: https://www.speakpipe.com/dailyradiobible Subscribe to us at YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Dailyradiobible/featured OTHER PODCASTS: Listen with Apple Podcast DAILY BIBLE FOR KIDS DAILY PSALMS DAILY PROVERBS DAILY LECTIONARY DAILY CHRONOLOGICAL  

Send us a textStart with a single word that dares to redefine everything: love. Not the kind that fades when the fireworks end, but agape—the steady, others-first commitment that turns a vice-soaked city into a living testimony of grace. We walk through Corinth's streets, hear Paul's urgent appeal in 1 Corinthians 13, and ask what happens when a church chooses to practice love daily rather than chase spiritual hype or cultural applause.We open the hood on four different “loves” and why only one can carry the weight of a life: storge as natural family affection, philia as friendship and affinity, eros as romantic desire, and agape as the self-giving decision to value another regardless of payback. You'll hear why philia runs out when tastes shift, why eros withers in the face of bills and broken bones without covenant, and why storge collapses in a society bent inward. Then we put agape at the center—where God put it—showing how it anchors families, deepens friendships, dignifies romance, and rebuilds a community that used to be known for everything but holiness.Along the way we face hard questions: Can grace be both forgiving and demanding? What does it mean to move from “such are some of you” to “such were some of you”? How do we hold the doors open to all while submitting our desires to Scripture? The path forward isn't abstract: practice love every waking hour. Choose presence over performance, service over status, and covenant over convenience. If you're ready to exchange the rush for the rooted, listen now, subscribe for the full True Love series, and share this episode with someone who needs a better word for love. And if this encouraged you, leave a review—tell us where you want to practice agape this week.Support the showStephen's latest book, The Disciples Prayer, is available now. https://www.wisdomonline.org/store/view/the-disciples-prayer-hardback

Send us a textStart with a single word that dares to redefine everything: love. Not the kind that fades when the fireworks end, but agape—the steady, others-first commitment that turns a vice-soaked city into a living testimony of grace. We walk through Corinth's streets, hear Paul's urgent appeal in 1 Corinthians 13, and ask what happens when a church chooses to practice love daily rather than chase spiritual hype or cultural applause.We open the hood on four different “loves” and why only one can carry the weight of a life: storge as natural family affection, philia as friendship and affinity, eros as romantic desire, and agape as the self-giving decision to value another regardless of payback. You'll hear why philia runs out when tastes shift, why eros withers in the face of bills and broken bones without covenant, and why storge collapses in a society bent inward. Then we put agape at the center—where God put it—showing how it anchors families, deepens friendships, dignifies romance, and rebuilds a community that used to be known for everything but holiness.Along the way we face hard questions: Can grace be both forgiving and demanding? What does it mean to move from “such are some of you” to “such were some of you”? How do we hold the doors open to all while submitting our desires to Scripture? The path forward isn't abstract: practice love every waking hour. Choose presence over performance, service over status, and covenant over convenience. If you're ready to exchange the rush for the rooted, listen now, subscribe for the full True Love series, and share this episode with someone who needs a better word for love. And if this encouraged you, leave a review—tell us where you want to practice agape this week.Support the showStephen's latest book, The Disciples Prayer, is available now. https://www.wisdomonline.org/store/view/the-disciples-prayer-hardback

Join me on a 9-day "Hearing God in Greece" Getaway retreat with 12 of my listeners to Athens, Corinth & Santorini to walk where Paul walked. Bring your best gal or your other half & tell me why you should come on this trip! Submit the application for consideration and details. ------------------------------------------If evangelism & sharing the gospel makes your palms sweat, this conversation will set you free. Jenilee sits down with Greg Stier, founder of Dare to Share, who's trained millions of teens and leaders around the world to share their faith with confidence. Greg breaks down his simple 3-word framework — Ask, Admire, Admit — and reveals new research proving youth ministries that mobilize students see 3× growth and 10× more Gospel conversations than traditional models.From growing up in a violent family to leading a global youth movement, Greg's story will stir your faith and show you that God can use anyone — yes, even you — to change lives. (And hear Jenilee share a story of her own recent AWKWARD sharing-Jesus moment).What You'll Learn:The 3-word framework that makes faith conversations natural and Spirit-ledHow empowering teens to lead produces 3× growth and 10× more Gospel impactWhy awkward moments are actually awesome in evangelismHow one mom's prayers transformed an entire crime-filled familyThe truth behind why 80% of believers come to Christ before 18 — and how that shapes our missionMentioned in This Episode:Dare2Share.orgUnlikely Fighter by Greg StierDay of Global Youth Evangelism – November 8Follow Greg on Instagram @GregStierScripture Highlight:“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer…” — 1 Peter 3:15-------------------------------------------

This Sunday, Pastor Rheva shared a powerful message from 1 Corinthians 1 titled “Give Us Wisdom.”Paul wrote to the young church in Corinth—a diverse, fast-growing community struggling with division. Pastor Rheva reminded us that, like them, we sometimes let personalities, opinions, or cultural trends pull us apart. But Paul calls us back to unity in Christ, the One who was crucified for us.The message of the cross may seem foolish to the world, but it is the very power and wisdom of God. Human wisdom—no matter how intelligent or advanced—can't replace what only God reveals through His Spirit.Pastor Rheva encouraged us to:Stay united around Christ, not divided by differences.Seek God's wisdom, not the world's opinions.Remember that if we lack wisdom, we can ask—and God gives it generously (James 1:5).Let's continue to walk in the power of the cross and the wisdom that comes from above.For more info, you can go to our website, check us out on Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube. If you would like to support STUDIO financially, you can do so here.Have a great week!