Welcome to Books of the Book,
we are studying the letters
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of Paul to the Thessalonians.
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I'm Jon Pauline, dean of
the school of religion at Loma
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Linda University and with
me is my Pastor, Jon Ciccarelli
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Pastor of the Calimesa
Seventh-day Adventist church.
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What will we be
looking at today Jon?
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Well Jon we are going
to start picking it up in
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1 Thessalonians 2:1-12 and
here Paul is talking about his
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time with them, and his
intent behind the things when he
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was with them. Why
don't you take us there?
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Well in Chapter 1 he
is focusing on the church.
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So in all that he was talking
about them, he's praying for
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them, he is thankful for
them, and reciting all the
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things that they are doing.
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But in this passage, he
switches from the church to the
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apostles and what is really
special I think about this
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passage, is it gives us
a window into Paul's inner
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emotions and
motivations and so forth.
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This is pretty rare
actually in the New Testament,
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or even in the
Scriptures as a whole.
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Psalms would be an example
I think in the Old Testament
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where you have a lot of
introspection, a look inside
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of an inspired writer.
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But this is one of the
clearest places for Paul and
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it is pretty exciting.
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Paul is talking about
motivation for ministry.
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Why would one want
to go into ministry?
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Why would one want
to be a missionary?
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Why would one want
to be an evangelist?
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What are the things
that lie behind this?
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He goes through a whole
list of the kinds of motivations
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that people had in the ancient
world for doing similar types
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of work, rules them all out and
says really there is only two.
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He says I'm
motivated by what God thinks,
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and I am motivated
by my love for you guys.
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So we will get into that
in a little more detail here.
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Why don't you read the first
couple verses of the chapter?
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Sure, 1
Thessalonians 2:1, 2 Paul says,
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Now this brings us back
to that time when he was in
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Philippi before he came
to Thessalonica and they were
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beaten, they were
beaten and thrown into prison.
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They really had it tough,
and they came to Thessalonica
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beat up and bruised.
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What was it like in the prison,
how did they confine them?
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They wanted them
in the deepest part.
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The inter part of the
prison, and would put their feet
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in stocks and locked them up.
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So they were in confinement,
chained up and could hardly
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even move. - Right, and
thank God at midnight there
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singing hymns and
praying prayers and God sends
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an earthquake to let them out.
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Of course the
jailer gets saved as
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we read later in
the story. - Umhumm!
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So here in the first couple
verses of 1 Thessalonians 2
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they are referring back
to that experience when they
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entered Thessalonica,
they had visible signs of those
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beatings, there were bruises,
there were probably cuts,
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they were really pretty beat up.
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I think the important thing,
the reason he brings it up
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here is to say, a lot of
people coming to town here.
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A lot of people say stuff,
a lot of people teach stuff.
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For a lot of people it's
not real, it's a way to earn
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an easy living, but
he says for us it's real.
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If it wasn't real we wouldn't
have brought the Gospel to
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you, you see, because
they were all beat up.
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Any human kind of
condition they should have quit
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preaching, if this was phony
we wouldn't even have come.
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So it was very clear
that the message was genuine,
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and they truly honestly
believed it deep inside.
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And Paul also wants to
make the point that God was with
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us, we became bold.
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You know there is a sense
that God took over in spite
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of all these
things, God took over.
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And this word, inner
struggle, that's a translational
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little bit different
than what you will see
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in most Bible translations.
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In the Greek is the word
Agonie, it is where we get agony
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from in the English, it's
actually a Greek based word.
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And even in the English
agonies could be physical but it
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can also be emotional. - Sure!
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Now in the Greek that
term was particularly used for
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athletics, the Olympians
striving to reach the marker
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and win the race, it's the
agony, the agony of defeat.
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The agony and ecstasy and stuff.
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But in the New Testament
that word is consistently used
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for more inner struggle.
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There are words for
persecution, there are words for
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getting beat up and mistreated,
and you see some of those
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in this verse, but this
particular word is about inner
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struggle, Paul is opening
up the inside and saying,
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we are
apostles, we struggle too.
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We have our challenges,
we are not always sure what
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God is doing in this
situation, or how we should
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relate to other people.
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So another thing they
mention in this text is access.
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The Thessalonians had
something to do with this too.
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They were open, they were
accessible, they were free,
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they were hungry for this thing.
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So Paul experiences the
Thessalonians desire for the
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message as he experiences
God's power and working.
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They pick up emotionally
from these wounds and
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get after it again.
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Jon one of the things I
like about what you said is how
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they became bold, sometimes
I think we accept Christ,
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go be bold, and if we
are not bold all the time we
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sometimes feel guilty, or
were not doing what we should.
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I like how you brought
out, he became bold and the
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boldness came as he experienced
God, Christ in his life,
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through the sufferings
and the Spirit continued
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to make him bold.
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I think about suffering
and how much, probably almost
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all our prayers from the
day we are children, protect
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us from suffering, and yet
sufferings seems to be such
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a means, if you will, of
us letting go and letting
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God do more in our life.
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Again, I mentioned once
before from Hebrews 5, where it
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talks about Jesus, even
though He was a Son He learned
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obedience through suffering.
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I think in my own life and
those that I've counseled with,
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suffering seems to be,
if we look at our life like
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a vessel, suffering
seems to be one of those things
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that begins to break the
vessels so they can expand and
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they can grow, and in a
sense, a little bit in the sense
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there is more room for
God's grace in our life.
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We can grow and the
vessel can expand, and yet those
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wounds that God brings healing
to, also act as a way for
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God's grace to kind of
ooze through the cracks,
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if you will, you're with
people you have experienced
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and I have when you are
with people who are suffering.
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If you have suffered you
understand it a little bit more.
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You're more gracious, your
more gentle, you're not there
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to stand and rebuke, be
trusting God more, but to be
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with them in the suffering and
let God ministers them through
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you, so suffering is a
huge thing for us to grow as
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Christians to continue to
let loose of the reins of our
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lives and trust God in
the things of our lives.
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So like I said
he became more bold.
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Those suffering I think
were key and a part of that.
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Even the apostles were in
this process of growing and
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becoming more like Jesus.
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Let's go on to verse 3,
and I should mention to our
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viewing audience that the
translations of 1 Thessalonians
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are my own, and the reason
is not any disrespect for other
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Bibles translations but
sometimes the grammar of the
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original language, sometimes
there are keywords that are
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repeated and the translation
in some of that is lost.
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So by using these translations
we have the opportunity
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to catch some of the
flavor of the original language
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and bring that out to you.
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Verse 3, we want to
particularly focus on three
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words there, it says,
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Now it is very interesting,
in the ancient world there was
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a philosopher named Aristotle.
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Most people have heard of
Aristotle, and Aristotle was
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a pagan but the encouraging
thing perhaps it's from his
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teacher he did learn
monotheism, he did have one God.
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For the pagans that
was a major advance.
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But Aristotle was a
keen observer of people.
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He suggested, he wrote a book
called the Art Of Persuasion
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Like in ancient Greek
this is like 2300 years old.
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The Art of Persuasion are
preaching books are still based
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on that, he was so observant
of how people are persuaded
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of things you see.
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He said there is three
ways, three things that persuade
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people. Number 1. Is the
character of the speaker,
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the
incredibility of the speaker.
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He called that
the ethos in Greek,
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we get ethical from that.
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Number 2. The logic of the
argument, the Greek word is
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logos, we get logic from that.
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It has got to be a logical
argument, it has to make sense.
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Number 3. Is emotion, passion,
they have to connect with
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the emotions of the hearer.
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In this particular passage,
Paul is talking about the
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first of those three, the
character of the apostles.
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The apostles character was
one of the things that drove
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the whole message and so
it was very, very important.
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Paul is saying here, look
it is not out of a delusion,
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delusion is translated
different ways in different
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versions, but the Greek
word here implies that someone
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genuinely believes something
but they are just nuts.
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They just don't know, they
are really excited about this
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but it is totally off the wall.
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Their folk like us and
Paul says no, no we're not
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delusional here, we are
dealing with real stuff.
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Second, he says we are
not out of uncleanness.
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That is a Greek word
that really talks about sexual
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uncleanness, so Paul is
saying I was not motivated
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sexually by this, that's
something we may want to explore
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a little later. - Right.
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Would anybody find ministry
a path to sexual uncleanness.
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Is there something going on
there, we have known sometimes
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a famous Pastors who
have struggled in that area.
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A third thing he
says, its not to deceive.
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A deceiver is somebody
who knows what he is saying is
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false and is
deliberately trying to twist you
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and so on, so Paul is
saying I did not come out of
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intellectual mistake,
I did not come for sexual
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opportunity, I did
not come to be deceptive.
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If I had been motivated by
these things, we would have quit
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a long time ago. - Yeah, yeah!
00:12:03.02\00:12:04.75
So I like how you brought
out the character that Paul is
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really bringing out here in
his message, that is just so
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essential when we are
sharing the Gospel, living the
00:12:11.89\00:12:15.46
Gospel really and as a Pastor
I know in my own experience
00:12:15.46\00:12:19.87
I can get up and talk and
give a great sermon or a bad
00:12:19.87\00:12:23.74
sermon, somewhere on the
scale but living with people and
00:12:23.74\00:12:27.94
they get to know who you are,
80% of that sermon is spoken
00:12:27.94\00:12:32.11
before you even get up there.
00:12:32.11\00:12:33.45
It depends on who
you are with them.
00:12:33.45\00:12:35.28
And if you are living
what you are talking about the
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impacts is so much more.
00:12:38.52\00:12:39.69
If you are not living with
the people and you give these
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wonderful sermons that rank
high on the scale, but you are
00:12:43.32\00:12:46.96
not living it with them,
that sermon has no power.
00:12:46.96\00:12:49.83
So people don't care how much
you know until they know how
00:12:49.83\00:12:53.80
much you care, that is an
old saying that I think has
00:12:53.80\00:12:56.71
a lot of weight.
00:12:56.71\00:12:58.14
I think the way we can
actually live that life, is that
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simple message Jesus
gave John 15, about abiding in
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Him, you know He says, apart
from Me you can do nothing.
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So we just abide in Him,
we trust in Him and love one
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another and then He, people
will know because you will
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bear witness of Me as
you have been with Me.
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So being with Jesus will
lead us to be authentic in our
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message when we
share the Gospel.
00:13:21.30\00:13:23.33
Sounds awesome, let me
just read the next few verses
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because I think that
picks up where we are from.
00:13:27.30\00:13:31.24
So Paul says I don't go
to people for my guidelines.
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I don't go to people for
my character, I go to God.
00:13:51.69\00:13:57.10
I think God test my heart
and so he was working from
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this perspective, the
popular philosopher said,
00:14:02.54\00:14:07.21
know thyself, examine
thyself, but Paul is saying,
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no, I let God examine me.
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After the break, perhaps
we want to reflect briefly on
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how you do that.
00:14:17.99\00:14:19.69