00:00 Introduction and Christmas Announcements

00:34 Bible Reading Plan and Podcast Continuation

01:10 First Corinthians 9: Paul's Rights and Apostleship

06:02 First Corinthians 10: Warnings Against Idolatry

10:25 First Corinthians 11: Order and Authority in Worship

14:39 Conclusion and Prayer

Hey everybody.

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Welcome back to another edition

of the daily Bible podcast.

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It's actually Sunday's edition.

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It's December 1st.

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So welcome to a brand new month as well.

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It is the month of Christmas.

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So we are excited here

at compass Bible church.

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Uh, to be observing Christmas this year.

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Surprise.

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Hey, we're going to celebrate

Christmas this year.

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Um, no, w we are going to

do a three-part series.

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Uh, first two parts, December

15th and 22nd on Sunday.

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And then we will wrap up our Christmas

series on, on, uh, not new year's, but.

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Christmas Eve.

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On, uh, December 24th, as we all gathered

together at 4:00 PM at the church for

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just one Christmas Eve service this

year, but it's going to be a great time.

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So hopefully you're excited about the

Christmas season, but right now we

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are still in the season of a Bible

reading and that's an evergreen season.

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We're never done reading our Bible.

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We are always going to

be studying God's word.

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We're going to be doing this plan again

next year, the chronological plan.

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And so if you've had this, you've

been tracking with us then.

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Uh, we're going to keep going.

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And if you're wondering,

well, is this just going to be

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repeats of the podcast episodes?

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The answer to that one is no.

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Uh, we're going to record

brand new episodes, just like

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we have been all year long.

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We're going to do that again next year.

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Should the Lord allow

Lord willing at least?

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And you will have fresh.

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Commentary on, uh, these passages as

we go through it again in the new year.

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So can't wait for that.

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But today we are.

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Uh, December 1st, first Corinthians nine

through 11 first Corinthians nine picks

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up, uh, Paul's argument as he has been

talking about food sacrificed to idols

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and chapter eight and using our freedoms.

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He's going to talk about his own

freedoms, his own rights here.

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And.

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Uh, he is going to point to the fact

that the faith of the Corinthians is

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the seal of his apostleship in the Lord.

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Notice that he says that in verse

two, in other words, Uh, their

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faith was the evidence of the fact

that he had been commissioned by

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God with the message to bring the

gospel to them in the fact that they

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responded in repentance and faith was.

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Uh, the evidence of his

apostolic authority.

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But then he goes on to talk about

his defense before them, as though

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he needed to defend the fact that he

wasn't doing what he was doing for.

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Um, Uh, for sort of gain as it's put

in first, Peter five and some older

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translations, he wasn't doing this.

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Uh, he wasn't in it for

the money in other words.

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And he makes the argument, he

says, look, Uh, I have the right,

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he says, there to be supported by

the churches as a, as an apostle.

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And he reached back and quotes a

passage from the old Testament here.

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Uh, which comes from Deuteronomy

25 4, which is a law that says

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you shall not muzzle the ox.

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When it treads out the grain,

this is the first nine.

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And he applies that to those in ministry.

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He says, look, if, if they're laboring

in ministry, they have a right to be

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supported by those that they labor on

behalf of in verse 11, he says, if we've

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sown spiritual things among you, is it

too much to reap material things from you?

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Now, Paul's going to go on to say

that he didn't do this, that he was

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a tent maker by trade, literally.

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And we refer sometimes today

to those in ministry who are.

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Tent makers.

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As those who, uh, they are.

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Um, in vocational ministry and a

lot of times full-time pastors,

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but also supporting themselves.

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Uh, outside of that with another job and.

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Uh, most often it's that the

church's is smaller and not fully

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able to support a pastor in his

family or multiple pastors on staff.

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So at least one of the pastors is

supported a little bit by the church,

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but then mostly by a job that he has

on the side, we're blessed at our

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church and the generosity of our people

and also our sending church to have.

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Uh, both pastor, rod and myself,

uh, full-time on staff here at

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Marcus is part-time with us.

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And we look forward to continuing

to be able to see our, our body grow

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and, and, uh, bring on more people.

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But we.

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We do believe that that it's right.

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That vocational ministry in the sense

of you're being supported by the church

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as pastors is a biblical concept.

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And first Corinthians nine

is laying that out for us.

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But it's also a good concept because.

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It's good for the church body to

have pastors who can devote their

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full attention and their full

time to shepherding the flock.

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And that's one of the main arguments

in favor of full-time pastors.

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Full-time vocational pastors, pastors

that are not tent makers on the side.

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I get that.

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There's a time for that.

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A place for that.

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Uh, but, but it's a good thing to have.

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Full-time pastors.

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They are able to give themselves

fully to the shepherding, the flock.

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Now that said for us as pastors, we're

going to be held accountable to that.

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It's it's uh, when,

when you get to work at.

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Um, a fortune 500 company in,

in, in your, uh, in, uh, the

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business world, your paycheck.

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Yes, it is.

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God's money in the sense

that God owns everything.

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He owns the cattle on a five on a

thousand Hills, but it's really the money

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that's coming down from that company.

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Um, W four for pastors.

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We have an obligation when we work to

work as though we are truly working

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unto the Lord, because the, the,

the money that we get to support

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our families is truly God's money.

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It's God's money from God's people.

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And we just want you to know that we

take that seriously, that, that, that is

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something that weighs heavily upon us.

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Uh, that, that has a lot to do with

how we work and how hard we work in

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our integrity and our accountability,

all of those things factor into that.

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So, Um, all that to say first Corinthians

nine, he's talking about these things.

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He's talking about.

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He, as an apostle, had the right to

earn a living from the churches that

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he was planting and supporting, but he

said, look, I'm not doing that because

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I want you to know, especially early on

in the church here, that I'm not doing

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this for ill motives, I'm not doing

this for the wrong reasons, but I'm

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doing this for the sake of the gospel.

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And then he ends in chapter nine

by talking a lot about the sake of

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the gospel, a passage it's probably

familiar to you as he goes through.

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And he says, look, I.

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Do everything that I do in order that

I might win more people to Christ.

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And that's kind of the gist

of verses 19 through 23.

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And this is where he goes through.

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And he says to those under the law,

I became as one under the law to win

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them to those, not under the law.

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I became as one, not under the law, except

for the law of Christ in order that I

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might, what, when them to the weak, I

became weak, that I might win the weak.

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I become all things he says in verse 22.

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To all people that by all

means I might save some.

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Now Paul's not saying

that he's going to save.

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We understand that God saves,

but what Paul is saying is here.

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Is I'm going to, I'm going to do

everything that I possibly can to

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see as many people as I possibly

can come to faith in Jesus.

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That was his heart's desire.

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And that's really what we're

seeing in chapter nine.

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He's.

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That's why that the ESV heading

is Palsa renders his rights.

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He sing.

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I'm after everything about

my life is about seeing more

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people come to faith in Jesus.

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And that's the goal.

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And that's why he says in

verses 24 through 27, he says,

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look, that's, that's my prize.

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I'm running after.

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So I'm going to run that.

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I might obtain it.

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And by the way, you

should do the same thing.

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He says, he says, we need to be those.

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That, that exercise self-control

pursuing that the imperishable

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wreath, which is the.

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Uh, the word of Jesus on that final day.

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Well done.

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Good and faithful servant.

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So that's Paul in first

Corinthians chapter nine.

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Chapter 10, he gets into warning.

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About idolatry, because remember

this is a largely Gentile.

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Uh, body here most likely.

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And they're coming out of idol worship,

and they're being reminded here that

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you need to be wary of these things.

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In verse six, he says in the old

Testament, They, they need, they

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drifted, they had everything.

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They, they saw water come

from the rock, right.

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They were led by the rock they

drank from the spiritual rock.

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He says in verse four, that's referring

to the Exodus and wilderness wanderings.

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And he said, yeah, they drifted.

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And he said, these are examples to

us that we might not fall in the same

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way, desire, the same evil that they

desire do the same things that they did.

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Verse 11.

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He says it again.

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He says these things happened

to them as an example, but we're

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written down for our instruction on

whom the end of the ages has come.

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And so what's the conclusion.

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Verse 12, let anyone who

thinks he stands take heed.

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Lest he fall, he's talking to the people

that think they're doing okay right

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now they're listening to everything.

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He's been re he's been writing to this

point, reading it all, and they're

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thinking to themselves I'm okay.

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And yet he says, you know what?

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Be careful be aware because remember

the old Testament, remember that

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the, the Exodus generations,

everything that they saw, and yet

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they still drifted, they still fell.

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They still rebelled.

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So take heat.

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And then he says in verse 13,

no temptation has overtaken you.

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That is not common demand.

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That that's such a good verse

for us to hold on to church.

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It's so easy to think.

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Well, my situation is unique.

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My struggle with this sin is unique

because I am prone to it or I'm given

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to this or, or nobody knows the battle.

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This is.

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First Corinthians 12.

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Uh, 10 rather 13, so that there's

not a temptation that has that

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you've encountered in your life

that is not common to other people.

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And then he goes on and he

says this on top of that.

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He says for Christians, God is faithful

and he will not let you be tempted beyond

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your ability, but with the temptation

will also provide the way of escape.

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That you may be able to endure it in

other words, that you won't fall by it.

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And so that's, that's a huge thing

for us to get into the practice

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of, of looking for is when you feel

tempted, no Christian, that God is

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going to provide a way of escape.

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Look for the wave escape and take it.

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That's the hard part.

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That's the self-control part.

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That's the discipline part.

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You may be able to see the way of escape.

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You may be able to identify the way of

escape, but are you going to take it?

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You need to take it.

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That's why he says in verse 14,

flee from idolatry flee from.

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Flee from it.

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Uh, from here, he goes on.

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Two.

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Provide some, some final commentary

about idols and idolatry, then the

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food sacrificed to idols comes back

in and verse 20 there he's saying,

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look, no, I am not implying that, that.

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The idols, the false gods are real,

but, but there are demons there.

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And so he says to the Christians there be

careful of engaging with the, the demons.

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Be careful participating with demons.

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You don't want to do that.

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Uh, you can't partake of the Lord's

table and the table of demons.

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And so he's warning against them.

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Again, coming back to the

concept of freedom there.

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Um, he's warning against them saying,

well, my freedom says that demons

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aren't or false gods aren't real.

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So I'm going to go to the pagan temple

and, and participate in this ceremony

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because it's not real, Paul's saying no.

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Be on guard.

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There, there is the

demonic realm out there.

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We've talked about that before on

the podcast that we, as Christians

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have to be careful and on guard.

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Against, uh, exposing ourselves

to the demonic out there.

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And that's true.

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You gotta be careful

about things like that.

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Weegee board, seances, psychics,

mediums, all those things.

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We even talked about it

recently on the podcast that.

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The, the people that will come

in and bless your house for

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you and things like that would.

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Eh, we, we, we don't need those things

church and, and we gotta be on guard

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against giving any of them, even a

crack door to get into our lives.

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Our families lives.

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Instead, as he goes on here, he S.

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He repeats the theme that he said before

back in first Corinthians six, 12, he says

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it again here in first Corinthians 10 23.

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All things are lawful, but

not everything is helpful.

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Again, talking about

the concept of freedom.

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We are verse 24, not to seek our own

good, but the good of our neighbor.

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That's kind of the abiding guide there.

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And that's the abiding

guide that Jesus gave us.

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We're going to talk about

that a little bit in.

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At church this morning, that because of

the way that we have been loved by Jesus,

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we're going to love others even better.

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We're going to be better friends

because Jesus is our friend is

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the point that we're going to

make in, in church this morning.

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But.

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Um, yeah, let no one seek his own

good, but the good of his neighbor,

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let that be the guiding principle.

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You're not going to have to worry about

whether the food was sacrificed to

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idols and out or anything like that,

because you're just going to be on

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default, focused on loving your neighbor.

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Notice verse 31, whether you eat or

drink, whatever you do, do all to the

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glory of God, that's in the context.

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Of talking about food offered to idols.

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He's saying, look, if you're

going to eat the food that was

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purchased in the marketplace, it

probably was sacrificed to idols.

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Okay, fine.

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If that's where you're at and you have

the freedom to do that without causing

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someone else to stumble fine, do it.

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If you're not.

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Okay, fine.

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Don't abstain either way.

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Your goal first Corinthians 10

31, whether you eat or drink.

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Implication or don't, whatever you do,

do everything for the glory of God.

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Give no offense, but do

everything for the glory of God.

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And so that is first

Corinthians chapter 10.

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Then we get into chapter 11.

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He opens up with a statement

that is, is pretty sh.

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Uh, staggering and one that we

should all strive for ourselves.

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And that is.

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Be imitators me as I am of Christ.

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Ah, man, I live such a life that

you could tell someone imitate

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me because I am imitating Christ.

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What an awesome, awesome concept.

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That would be a win, an awesome target.

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That would be.

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It goes on here now in verses two

and following, and he talks about

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some things that, uh, have caused

a lot of confusion in the church.

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A lot of consternation in the church.

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He says in verse three, I

want you to understand the

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head of every man is Christ.

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And the head of a wife is her husband

and the head of Christ is God.

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And so he's establishing the

fact that there is a, an order

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and there are roles and there's

authority, and those things are.

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Uh, are important for us to

observe and to note here.

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And so along those lines, he goes in

to talk about what that looks like

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within the worship in the church itself.

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Uh, that, that the roles in

the authority of a husband and

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a wife and a man and a woman.

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Those things need to be preserved

within the worship service.

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Now some of this is cultural.

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Okay.

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Not all of it is cultural.

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The order there is established by God.

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It is trans.

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Uh, temporal it is, is trains cultural.

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It, it, it trains since time.

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Um, he says in verse eight, man

was not made from woman, but woman

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from man, neither was man created

for woman, but woman for man.

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Now this is not inferiority.

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This is difference in roles.

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And so those roles are going to

look different during Paul's day.

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There were instructions about who was

supposed to pray, how they were to pray

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what they were to do when they prayed.

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Those were more cultural than

they are a binding across time.

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And so the order principles are

binding across time, but the

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expression of that order may look

different in different generations.

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If a woman comes in and she has shorter

hair, we're not going to sit there and

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say, I'm sorry, you can't be in here.

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And you can't pray.

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Um, there are some cultural norms that

still linger, generally speaking, I

321

would say, I think there are still

some principles that we could pull

322

from here and say, yeah, I get that.

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Uh, typically nature would say a woman has

longer hair and a man has shorter hair.

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That's not going to be always

the case necessarily, but

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typically that's the case.

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And so he's appealing to things that

culturally we're there to establish what

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the order and authority was in the church.

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That's what's going on there in the first

part of first Corinthians chapter 11.

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After this verses 17.

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And following he asked you,

get back into correction mode.

331

Because as they were observing

communion, the Lord's supper together.

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Uh, they were doing it in

ways that were not good.

333

In fact, as they were gathering, he said

there were factions, there were divisions.

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Uh, amongst them, they were being

self-centered because they were

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not waiting on everybody to show

up, but they were just diving in

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and eating and they were making

it about themselves and eating.

337

Uh, one ate the food and then another

shows up at verse 21 and they're hungry.

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And then another person

here is getting trunk.

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Even he says, what do you not have

houses to do all of these things in?

340

Why would you do this here

in the presence of the Lord?

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And so then he goes on and gives the

instructions for the Lord's table.

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These are familiar.

343

You hear me read them every

time we do communion like today

344

we're doing community today.

345

You're going to hear me read first

Corinthians 11 today in church.

346

And it's in this context where

Paul is saying, this is what

347

we're supposed to do here.

348

This is about a Memorial.

349

This is about remembering.

350

This is not about you

filling your bellies.

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And you're like, well, I have

a tiny little way for an,

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a tiny little cup of juice.

353

Okay.

354

The principle that we apply here

that we need to draw out from this

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is we need to be careful to be

intentional and thoughtful about

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how we observe the Lord's table.

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Here.

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This was more of a meal.

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We don't do a meal to

observe a Lord's table.

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They did during this time, if we ever did.

361

Okay.

362

We would look at this and, and

apply some broader principles there.

363

We don't observe the meal.

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We, we do the cups.

365

And so we need to be careful still though,

to make sure that we are not taking the

366

elements in it on the worthy manner.

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That's why you always hear me say that

you need to be aware of three things.

368

The lack of conversion.

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Uh, lack of confession and

a lack of concentration, uh,

370

because if, if you're not saved,

you're not welcome at the table.

371

And, and it's not a, Hey,

you're inferior to us.

372

It's it's this is meant for Christians.

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This is meant for believers.

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That's what it's for.

375

And then the lack of confession.

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And if you're coming in and you're not

examining your heart before you observe

377

the Lord's table, before you take the

elements, you're not confessing sin.

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You're harboring sin.

379

And that's a dangerous place

to be, and it's welcoming the

380

discipline of God into your life.

381

And then finally, if

you're not concentrating.

382

If you're just going through the motions.

383

Uh, then we are not, uh,

observing this the way that you

384

were supposed to observe it.

385

And in, in this era in Paul's

day, meant some even died.

386

Because of the way that they

were observing the Lord's table.

387

And so that's a warning to us.

388

That's something that reminds us.

389

Hey, we've got to be careful about this.

390

And so first Corinthians

chapter 11, addresses the

391

Lord's table there at the end.

392

All right.

393

Y'all well, let me pray.

394

And then we'll be done with this

episode of the daily Bible podcast.

395

God, we thank you for

another day in your word.

396

And we are grateful for the way God's

us and instructs us and teaches us.

397

And we can even look at things and say,

okay, that may have been the cultural

398

norm at that time, but, but we can draw

the principal out and say, okay, this

399

is might be what it looks like today.

400

So help us to do that and do that

with skill and know, uh, when to, uh,

401

to apply things and, and when to, to

adapt and what that would look like.

402

And so keep us from any error

towards that end as well.

403

I pray.

404

In Jesus' name.

405

Amen.

406

All right.

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I'll keep her in your Bibles and

tune in again tomorrow for another

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episode of the daily Bible podcast by.