 Okay, good morning everyone, welcome to a new week, hope everything is going well, hope you had a good weekend as well. Everyone can hear me okay? It's a thumbs up we'll do. Yes we can. Alright, let's begin this time with the word of prayer. Yes, maybe one of us can pray. Kennedy, would you like to pray? You can pray, it's okay. Thank you. We thank you for this new week that you've given to us by the Jehovah. As we have mercy and favor to be upon our teacher, stop all, now that we lost him by the Jehovah. Amen. Thank you Kennedy. Alright, so let's get into our class. Yesterday as I was preparing, I just realized that we have to go a little faster because we have the whole of first Corinthians and the whole of second Corinthians. So what we do is we will take up the important verses from each chapter and yes we will go through it chapter verse by verse but we'll spend more time on the important chapter verses but we'll try to go quick so that you know by the end of the semester we would have finished the entire portion. Alright, so last week we did the introduction. Not last week but the week before that. We did the introduction and then we also did. After the introduction we did chapter one verse one to seven. Let me see if I can just present the notes so that we can follow along here. Alright, so we stopped at verse eight and we can begin from here. Feel free to post your questions in between and we will also try and answer those questions as well. So first Corinthians was eight onwards who will also confirm you to the end that you may be blameless in the day of the Lord. Now Paul is writing to the church in Corinthian to the Corinthians and he's telling them that right now you know maybe in his mind he's thinking right now there's so many things that are happening within the church but there will come a time when you will be blameless in the day of the Lord. Right now Jesus Christ will make firm or secure these believers so that they will be presented blameless in the day of the Lord. Now the word blameless without any accusation. Now look at the confidence that Paul is writing with. He's preparing to write to this local church several issues, division, strife and things are not going right, practical problems. And yet he's so confident that the Lord is going to work in them in such a manner that you know in the end they will be present blameless. Now it's so encouraging for us as believers you know even as we walk this journey we will make mistakes. And it's important to learn from our mistakes but here's the thing when we make a mistake we must go back to God. We must be confident that because of what Jesus did on the cross we can be secure and presented blameless in the day of the Lord. Now what is the enemy's work? The word Satan simply means accuser of the brethren. So his work is to accuse. How can you do this? But Paul is really teaching us something very important here. And it's applicable to us now also to be confident that even in our failures even when we have messed up we can always get back. And the Lord Jesus will present us blameless for the Father. Now if you follow this we see this one sentence of thanksgiving from verses 4 to 8. We see so many things that Paul is talking about. He says verse 4 he's talking about grace, verse 5 is enriching. Verse 6 the confirmation of the gospel. Verse 7 expression of the gifts of the spirit. And verse 7 the anticipation of Jesus' return. And verse 8 being thankful for all these things that God has done in the lives of the believers. So we see that Paul has not yet gone to the main problem of what is happening in the church. But he's assuring them. He's telling the believers see these are the things that you have. These are the benefits, the blessings that you have. And this is what Jesus Christ did for each one of you. So it's so wonderful. He's not writing this letter just you know I'm angry now. How can these things happen? And he's not just writing it out of anger. But he's trying to build a foundation for the believers. And he's telling them look it's all right. It's all right when things are not going right or when we mess up. All of these is available for us. And so we can make things right. And then we look at the next chapter how he tells the church. He comes to the problem. He deals with the problem. It's not like he's sweeping the dust under the carpet and saying it's okay because of God you have all this. He does deal with the problem. But you see the heart of our Father here. He's saying it's all right. We deal with the problem but this is who you are. So it's so wonderful to read that. Verse 9, God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ our Lord. Now the Apostle Paul is confident that the Corinthian believers will be firm and secure because God is faithful. Now here's something interesting. You've seen it. I've written it in blue there. Paul is not taking credit for the work of the ministry. He's not taking credit for himself. He's not saying I planted this church. I was the one who went to Corinth. I was the one who ministered and now I'm taking credit. We don't see that. He's saying the Lord will be firm and secure because God is faithful to keep you firm and secure. And here he uses the Greek word which we all very commonly use, koinonia, which means communion, sharing, partnership, friendship, intimacy with Christ. And he's basically stating as believers we have been called to have koinonia, which means communion, sharing, partnership. Now don't you feel this is such a beautiful way of, you know, the church's problem was division. Now he's bringing the foundation. He's coming to the point. He's saying, hey, as believers, fellowship, koinonia, this is what we must have. And so as a reader, I'm thinking, hey, you know, I'm seeing so much division. So probably if I was in the Corinthian church sitting and they are reading this letter, the Holy Spirit will begin to talk to us saying, hey, I'm seeing one is, you know, Cephas, one is Paul, one is for the Lord Jesus, one is Apollos. But here we're saying that we must have koinonia, which means partnership, sharing, friendship, intimacy with Christ. And so here's the important part. Fellowship is always two ways, right? Fellowship is always two ways. So it's not something that, you know, it just happens one way from one person. But if I have to have fellowship with somebody, I need to, you know, spend time with that person. I need to, you know, get to know the other person. And so when we want to have koinonia or fellowship with each other and with God, with the Holy Spirit, it's a two-way relationship, right? It's two ways. It's not something that only one person can work towards, right? And we learn a lot about this in the Holy Spirit as well, right? So let's go to the next. I'm going a little bit quick, right? So that we can just, you know, look to finish as much as possible, right? A call to unity. Now, you see here that Paul is trying to come to the problem, right? Now, we know one of the plenty of practical problems, but one of the main problems was also division, right? So he's coming to the problem here, right? He says in verse 10, let's go to that verse. I just want to go verse by verse. So this is an important section. Now, I plead to you brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing and that there is no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment, right? So from chapter one, for about nine verses, he's just encouraging them, right? And now he gets into the heart of the problem. He says, the Apostle Paul makes the plea, makes this plea with the authority that the Lord Jesus gave him, right? And he's saying to them, right, what a local community of believers should strive for, right? And he's made there, you know, a couple of instructions he's giving. One, speak the same thing. Now, speak the same thing, meaning doesn't mean, oh, you know, we all speak the same words, but our faith as people of God, our understanding, our vision must be the same thing, right? What does the Bible say? People have, if there are two people, if they're not in line, you know, they're not going to walk together, right? But when you have the same understanding, the same faith, the same, you know, your steps are guided together. So Paul is firstly saying, I want you as a church to have the same faith. Two, no divisions, you know, nothing should split us apart. Now Paul knows that there are divisions, right? And he's saying, as a church, you should not have divisions. Then he's saying, to be perfectly joined together, right? Now, you get this, you know, this whole understanding of joined together is to, you know, be made fit. Like, it's like a puzzle, right? You've got these pieces of puzzle. And unless every piece is put at the right place, the right shape is put at the right place. It's not going to form a perfect picture, right? And so it should be perfectly joined together. So when you look at a church, Paul is saying it should be perfectly joined together, meaning everyone should, you know, compliment each other and not compete with each other. So if I have certain gifts and another person has, you know, another gift, I am to compliment. So for example, I can, you know, probably have the prophetic gift. So I say, God, in the church, help me to use the prophetic gift well. And so in the church, people know, and maybe there's somebody else who has the gift of working of healings and miracles. Now, if I go through a sickness, I should not come to a place where I say, hey, well, no, I'm a prophetic person. So how can I go to this other person and ask for prayer for healing? What's going to happen? There's no union. There's no perfectly joined together feeling. They're not complimenting each other. So that's what Paul is saying here. Now, remember, this church was already flowing in the gifts. So this could be one of the things that is happening within the church. Then he goes to say the same mind. When you hear the mind, he's referring to the faculties of perceiving, you know, judging or determining. So Paul is saying, OK, all of us are different people. We are all different individuals. We have our differences. We have our different perspectives. We have our opinions, our feelings. We understand things differently. You're right. But here's the thing. As children of Christ, as people in Koinonia, in fellowship with one another, we have to make a choice to align ourselves together. It's not going to happen automatically. We have to make a choice. OK, let me align myself with what is happening in the church. And when we do that, we are glorifying Jesus Christ and it strengthens the body of Christ. And that's so wonderful, right? It's so true also. We all have different temperaments, different perspectives, different opinions, feelings, different ideas, different strategies within the church, right? Even as a church, when we make decisions, we come together, we talk and we try to make decisions together. And we come up with all kinds of, you know, plans and strategies. But in the end, we try to put them all together and, you know, come up with a good plan which is beneficial for the church. Now, it's not like any of us will feel, hey, how come they didn't, you know, even think, consider my opinion. No, because we are trying to do what's best for the body of Christ. And as leaders for the body of Christ, one of the things that we want to see is that the plan and the strategy should strengthen the body, strengthen the believers and it should glorify Christ. That is what must happen, right? And so this is so powerful. These few things that Paul is mentioning here, he's saying, speak the same thing, same faith. Don't say one, you know, one, if one group is saying, I don't believe in the gifts of the spirit and then here there's another group saying, I believe in the gifts of the spirit. Now, as a church, everything is so, you know, there'll be confusion. Now, don't say, no, I follow Paul, I follow Apollo's division. And he's saying, we perfectly join together like a puzzle, just complement each other, be there for each other, have the same mind. You know, our understandings may be different, we are different individuals, but we have to align our understanding to the will of God, right? Have the same view, have the same opinion. And so wonderfully, Paul is bringing out the meaning here. Let's go from verse 11 to through 16. Please feel free to stop me, right? If you have any questions, if you want me to repeat anything also, please feel free to stop, right? Okay. Verse 11 through 16, here he comes to the matter now, for it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe's household, that there are contentions among you. Now, I say this, that each of you says, I am of Paul, I am of Apollo's, or I am of Cephas, or I am of Christ. It's Christ divided, was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Christmas and Gaius, lest anyone should say that I baptized in my own name, right? So here, he's coming to this whole problem here. What is causing divisions and quarrels among the Corinthian believers? Now, we did the introduction. We talked about Apollos and how Aquila and Priscilla taught Apollos about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He was a wonderful orator, very learned man. He went to Corinth and he began to minister at Corinth. And so now, for all they know, because he's the leader, they know Peter, because he's again a leader in the Jewish community and everyone know Peter. And then there's Apollos. Thankfully, there's no Aquila and Priscilla even though they were there, because Aquila and Priscilla were there only for a very short term. So they probably didn't mention them. But here, there are three people, Paul, Peter and Apollos. Now some are saying, hey, you know what, when also Paul came, he said this. And then the Jews probably are saying, but Peter, he's talking to the Jewish church and the church in Jerusalem and he's talking about this and what do you think about this? This is what Peter has been teaching. And then another group is saying, hey, Apollos was the best, you know, the way he spoke, the way he ministered. So now you've got three leaders, all three of them have one intention to build the body of Christ. But the people, the congregation, the believers have completely turned it around. Hey Paul, he's a pioneer. Hey, no, Peter, because he was with Jesus, he's seen Jesus. Paul is talking about, you know, he's not seen him or Apollos. He's talking, you know, from his wonderful intellect. And so there's divisions. But this became a big problem. Imagine a church that's divided. It's not going to stand strong. It's so important, right? There's no way a house divided in itself cannot stand. Even if you look at a house with four people, right? Imagine the husband is saying something, the wife is saying something, and probably two adult children in the house, adult youth in the house. And one is the youth, one is saying another thing, one is saying another thing. All four are divided. I mean, they all love each other. They all care for each other, but their opinions and thoughts are all divided. One thinks yoga is good. One thinks there is no God. One says there is, you know, matter. And one thinks, you know, Jesus is the true God. You've got four thoughts in one house. That house is not going to stand for long, right? Now, it's a very important lesson to learn for each of us. No matter how many leaders come and go, it's wonderful. We have to learn from their lives. But you and I must base our identity in Christ. Jesus is our model, right? The moment Jesus is our model, yes, we look at people. We learn from people, right? We learn from their lives. We are encouraged. We gain faith. But our model is Jesus. Hey, I want to be like Jesus. I don't want to be like this person, but I want to be like Jesus. Maybe I want to achieve what this person has done, right? Or I want to achieve what this pastor or this worship leader has done or this minister of God has done. I would love to achieve it, but I want my identity to be based from Jesus Christ, right? He has called each one of us. He has raised each one of us to serve Him, right? So each church, each leader, each ministry, it's very different, right? God gives grace to each of them in different ways, right? There are some churches where the pastors, they have certain gifts and they flow in it so beautifully because it's a grace of God, right? There are some believers who have their own calling, their own identity and it's so wonderful, but our identity is not from our leaders. My identity is not that I'm a pastor at APC. It is one of the roles that the Lord has called me to fulfill and I'm more than happy to fulfill that role. But what if I'm not a pastor? Will my identity be the same or will I feel, hey, nobody's calling me pastor? Will things change? Could be, right? So why? That means my identity has been on this pastoral calling or my identity is in that status of being called a pastor. But if my identity is in Christ and not in a ministry, then it doesn't matter whether I'm on the pulpit, whether I'm not on the pulpit, whether I'm preaching or not preaching, my identity remains strong. Hey, one day I want to be like Jesus. So very important lesson for each of us to learn, right? It's good to look at individuals, look at great leaders, but let us keep Jesus as our model. Let us keep Jesus as our model. Now, we must also be careful not to put down anyone. So there may be people who are our friends or believers who are saying, hey, have you listened to this sermon by this pastor? Don't say, hey, who's this pastor or who's this person? I want to be like Jesus. No, God has placed them. So that, yeah, they've done wonderful things to God. We learn from their lives. But when you hear a sermon, when you hear the word of God, say, God, help me to be more like you. And that's so wonderful. And he goes on here in verse 17. He says that what really matters, right, for Christ to not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with words of wisdom, lest the cross of Christ should be made effect. Now, Paul is saying, this is so wonderful. He's saying, now, this church is good. Yes, there are divisions among the church. It's good to see that, you know, there are leaders in the church, baptism, all these things are good. But what really matters is the gospel. Because the gospel is the message of the cross. And without the cross, there is no gospel. Without the gospel, there is no believers. Without the believers, there is no church, right? So he's trying to bring our attention to the main aspect of ministry. Why is the Corinthian church meeting? And why are you all meeting together? Because of the gospel, because of the cross of Jesus Christ. And later on, he says, did Paul, was Paul crucified? He tries to bring that point as well. It's a cross. It's not because we have free time and we are meeting. It's a cross. It's not because we are wonderful people called, you know, to, you know, we have asked for forgiveness and now we are good people. No, it's because of the cross, right? Now, if we preach the gospel as clearly as we can, you know, and the Apostle Paul did it so wonderfully, we see that in, you know, in Athens, he preached the gospel so wonderfully. Now, this crowd was a crowd in Greece known for its wisdom, right? But Paul is saying here, we must not depend on our wisdom, our intellect or our eloquence. Paul was a learned man, but he could have depended on his intellect. He could have depended on his eloquence of speech. He could have said, hey, you know what? We don't see that, right? And the whole encounter and the book of Acts, when he's at Corinth and Athens, he's preaching. We don't see, he doesn't say, oh, you know, first let me give you a background of who I am. I was a young man, I was a Judaism. I studied under Chameleon. I was, you know, I know everything about Judaism. And I was a commander, I'm a Hebrew. I'm a tribe of Benjamin. I'm a commander of the temple guard. And I've got all these credentials. So now I want to tell you something. He didn't start off that way so that they, you know, they say, oh, this man is an intellectual man. Let us listen. All he said was, I see that you have these statues that says there is no, to an unknown God. Let me make, no one know who that God is. Because to reach the gospel, right? And all his credentials didn't matter at all to him. You know, it's so powerful, right? For us also to learn this, right, that our credentials is not what will, you know, bring a change in people's lives. The Holy Spirit will work through the message of the gospel. And then he goes on verse 18 to 25. Let's read from verse 21, right? I just want to, and we know that from verse 21. Yeah, he says, for sins in the kingdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God. It pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. But the Jews request a sign and Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ through Sapphire, to the Jews, a stumbling block, and to the Greeks, foolishness. Right? Now let's look at this, right? So wonderfully he writes here. For since in the wisdom of God, verse 21, the world through wisdom did not know God. Now, we see two kinds of wisdom here, right? One is the worldly wisdom, with the wisdom of the natural man, his own wisdom. And then there's a wisdom of God. There's a difference, right? We can make out the difference here. Man has his own wisdom, but through that wisdom, you cannot comprehend and understand God. Now, let's look at these wonderful, very learned people. Right? There are all these intellectuals, highly knowledgeable, very influential, very accomplished in life, have great wisdom. They've done wonderful things in business. Now, if they're about God, they'll say, there is no God, or I don't believe God, or they're probably believing in something that is, you know, on other faiths, idol worshipping. I remember this man, a young guy, one of my friends, very, very intellectual guy. He would read and read a prolific reader full of wisdom. When he talks, you can just see that, you know, he has so much wisdom when he talks. Many times, I try to share the gospel with him. You know, what does he say? He says, how can there be a God? How can there be a God that can create all this in a couple of days, or how can it be? And that day, I thought to myself, you know, young man, he has so much of wisdom, but it's all earthly wisdom. It's a natural wisdom. It's not going to, he cannot comprehend the things of God. When I told him about Jesus, you know, Jesus, God sent his son. And his natural wisdom cannot comprehend it. It does not make sense. Right? So spiritual things cannot be understood with a natural mind, but only with the help of the Holy Spirit. Right? So here's an encouragement for us. We can share the gospel to people. That's wonderful. And only the Holy Spirit can work in their lives because our natural wisdom and our natural, you know, apologetics can only bring us to a certain place. But the work of the Holy Spirit is the only one who can change a person's heart. Right? So Paul is saying, hey, when I went to, Paul has been everywhere. He went to Galatia first, right? And he knows the Jews. He was sharing with the Jews. They said, get out. We don't want you. We don't want you to, you know, tell us anything about this. So here, first he's saying, there's a natural wisdom. There's a heavenly wisdom. Natural wisdom. You cannot comprehend the things of God, but the wisdom of the Holy Spirit will help us to comprehend and understand the things of God. And it please God to the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. You know, the first time I read this, I thought, why is Paul saying foolishness of preaching? It's not foolish to preach. Is it foolish to preach? And I thought his words were a little bit harsh, but it's true. Right? All we have to do is preach this message of the cross to those who have to, to those who believe. That's all we have to do. Jesus, you know, came into this world. Jesus was God. He came into this world, born of a virgin. He lived a perfect life, died on the cross. He rose again from the dead. He defeated the enemy. And we believe in Him. We have forgiveness of sins. The simple gospel, you preach this. Now it looks sometimes, you know, it looked like we are fools. Right? People may mock us, ridicule us. Right? Look, many a times I felt like a fool. I felt so, you know, sometimes humiliated. Felt so weak when you have a crowd of people just saying, you know, doesn't make sense. And you've got some intellectuals trying to, you know, do that whole debate with you. And, you know, they pull out quotes from all these other people. Sometimes I felt so foolish. But this is a wonderful reminder. The things, the natural mind, cannot comprehend the things of God. God has chosen this method of preaching the gospel, not by our own works. Right? Because the moment we stop our works, salvation will stop. Right? If it's by what Jesus did, it is complete. And so each one of us, even as Paul is telling the church, he must apply it to ourselves. Right? And we learned a lot of this in lifestyle evangelism as well. Let's go to the next portion, 22 to 24. This is interesting. For the Jews request a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified. To the Jews, it's a stumbling block. To the Greeks, it's foolishness. Now, the Jews were spiritual people. They were looking for supernatural signs and manifestations. You know, if you read the book of John, you'll see that all through, I think you're also studying John and John 1, 2, 3. It's really interesting, the book of John. Right? Jesus keeps mentioning that, you know, they all followed him and he knew what's in their heart. He knew that they were following him for the miracles. And what's the proof? The proof is, he was on the mountain, there were 10,000 people. There were 5,000 people. Thousands of people were following him. Right? What did they want? They wanted miracles. Right? They wanted to see, oh, this great prophet, you know, whenever he, you know, the blind are seeing, the deaf are hearing, the, hey, I was, I witnessed five loaves of bread and two fish. He broke it, gave thousands of people. How was he able to do this? So people were following him. But the moment he died, where were the thousands? Nobody was there. Only 120 people are there, sitting in the upper room. All the thousands said, okay, this man has gone. No more signs. If he was really who he said he was, Messiah, he would have come down from the cross. He didn't come down. It became a stumbling block. They could not accept the fact that Jesus, if he was a Messiah, you know, to die on a cross is a sign of weaknesses, not a sign of power. There's too much for them to understand and to take. How can a Messiah die a death on a Roman cross? It's not possible. It becomes a stumbling block. Now the Greeks were interested in things that appealed to the mind. Right? Now, Jesus came. He lived the life. He died on the cross. He rose again. And now he defeated that. It doesn't sound interesting at all. Where is he? He's there somewhere in the heavens. It doesn't sound interesting. It sounds foolish. Okay, so, but you know what? God sent his Holy Spirit to come and reside in you and it's like Jesus staying in you. Where's the Holy Spirit? I don't see the Holy Spirit. Now the Greeks are going to say, yes, you're talking foolish things. And that's exactly the response what the Apostle Paul received. Some said, okay, you come back. You're talking some interesting things. We have some questions. You come back and you talk to us. But the others said, rid the earth of this guy. He's talking nonsense. What do we see here? One, you have people who want miracles. Two, there are people who want to understand it. Paul is saying to the Jews, it's a stumbling block to the Greeks foolishness. But it does not matter because when I came to you, I preached the gospel, the message of the cross and you believed. So it is only the cross that can change you. It's only the work of the Holy Spirit through the gospel message of the cross that can change a person's life. Verse 25, he ends that by saying, because the foolishness of God is wiser than man and the weakness of God is stronger than man. So, you know, it is so interesting to think of this. The foolishness of God is wiser than man. We may have the wiser man on the earth. Even if God even if God can be foolish, the foolishness of God also is wiser than that. Come to think of it, it is like, you know, Paul is trying to really bring a point across saying that, hey, on our own efforts, nothing can be achieved. On our own, we may think we are wise, but we are not. Even the foolishness of God is wiser than our best wisest man. So Paul is saying, you have confidence in this, the gospel, the message of the cross, the power of God as the wisdom of God and when you are preaching it, preach it boldly, preach it unashamedly. Because the message has the power of God as the wisdom of God. Now, you may think it is foolish, but the foolishness of God is wiser than your wisdom, the earthly wisdom. So we see here that Paul is really trying to make the church understand who they are, their identity, understand, you know, the power of the gospel that they have not been saved by any miracles or did not been saved by any preacher who came. Yes, God used Paul as a tool, but it is not because of that they are saved because of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And this is so encouraging for us. Wherever we go, we can preach the gospel and know that hey, it is the work of the Holy Spirit, it is the power of God, the wisdom of God. Right? Any questions? Any thoughts here? Anybody has an urban talking? Any questions? Shall we just go ahead, continue? Okay, let's go ahead. Verse 26 says, For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. Now, Paul is bringing out something here, another aspect he is trying to make the believers understand the calling. God does not call each of you because of your earthly accomplishments. Now, Corinthian church is a mixed crowd. Now, we must remember, all the Gentile churches, right, were a mixed congregation. There would have been a couple, you know, a few Jews, but mostly they were Gentile believers, right? Now, for example, Corinth, which has increased, there would have been many learned people with many accomplishments. You know, they may have been very wise in their thoughts and, you know, even even Paul says, you know, the whole point of this whole division Paul, Peter, Paul, accomplished people, right? They did a great work in God's kingdom and God used them mightily, but here Paul is trying to say it is not not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. So it's not about our earthly accomplishments. Now, I want to be very careful because, you know, sometimes people take this and use it in a wrong context. For example, there are people who, young people that I meet now, but God does not call the qualified. It's true, but that does not mean we don't, you know, one of the examples that he uses here, Peter was just a fisherman but he did so great things. So, you know, I also don't want to study much, but I want to do something for God's kingdom. Now, that would be the wrong approach to take. Why? Because God is also called as to, you know, to learn to equip ourselves. Work is God's original design, studying and powering ourselves. It's what God wants us to do. Now, Paul was a learned man. Now, if you look at the other disciples, yes, there were people who were not learned, but there were people who were learned also. God chose people who were, you know, who had accomplishments and people who didn't have accomplishments. Now, it does not mean that I say, I should not, you know, spend too much time on all these getting a degree and getting a master's if to do God's work. No, yes, God's work is important but God also expects us to learn and develop and grow, you know, build ourselves. There's nothing wrong in, you know, taking speaking classes. I know a couple of my friends who are taking speaking classes and they go for classes for, you know, to remove stage fear and how to speak, and that's wonderful. Now, is it that they want to, you know, to accomplish good things in life? Yes, but they're also good believers. They want to use that for the ministry as well. They want to learn how to reach out, how to minister to people. So God works in a way that he takes the week. He reveals his power, his wisdom to them and he releases the work of God in their lives. He works with the week, with the foolish, with the unvalued, with the despised and he's willing to reveal his work through them. But he also uses the intellectual the famous, the rich uses them to do the things of God. Right? So why does he do this? He does this because none of us can glory in ourselves. None of us can say, because of me, this person has become a believer. No. I won't say. It is because of God. Now, I've written down a couple of examples there. I'm sure you may have not. Ravi is a Christ who wanted to commit suicide after his failure in the studies. But after he gave his life to Christ, who would have known that he would have come up with I've read a lot of his books and I have to read it at least to understand it. Who would have known this God would have used this young Indian boy from a small town who wanted to commit suicide took this because of failure in studies and made him a world-renowned evangelist writing these wonderful books with such high grammar and understanding. Who would have known? Fanny Crosby in the church history was a blind young girl and all she wanted to do was to write songs, but she had this whole thing of a very weak blind tiny girl. So what happens? God uses Fanny Crosby in such a powerful way. She's the first woman in church history we study she was the first woman to sit in a court proceeding and she's written about 8000 hymns to God one blind girl even now we sing Blessed Assurance Jesus is mine hundreds of years later they are still singing her songs what about Billy Graham he was a very very shy boy when he was we would not talk to people who would have known God would have used to take him and put him as an evangelist with thousands of people he has to preach in front of thousands of people he's very shy in his school so why am I giving these examples because with our own strength with our own abilities God is able to take that weakness that we have and make it his strength that's only the work of God he's buttering and stammering made him the leader to speak to so many people and he said no no I don't want to speak get somebody else to speak then God said okay add a new speak for him so this brings hope for each of us right God will work in each of our lives he will be willing to display his wisdom his power and when he does that we have to glorify him now whatever we have achieved say God it is because of you he's able to take the uniqueness of Christ he takes our weakness and makes it our strength maybe if it's public speaking some of you may feel hey I'm not good at public speaking God is able to take that weakness and make it a strength some of you may feel I'm good in studies whatever I study I don't remember I can't understand you can take that weakness make it as a strength I hate it in school I hated books I would always wonder why should we read and then even after I became a believer I didn't have this thing of reading can't read it was something I had an aversion to I didn't want to read went through the school and college anything other than reading but then there came a time after I became a believer I said God for me to to understand the scriptures I have to read it I can't keep listening to sermons that's good but I have to read it for me to understand to grow in it help me then I slowly began to read books so now I'm not posting that I can I use a lot of examples it's all from books that I've read and I love reading books now I just look out for any book I've been reading Andrew Womack's Find, Fulfill and Follow wonderful book and I'm learning so much and now I can't stay without reading is it the work that I have done you look at the fall of the fall I hated books but God takes that weakness and makes it as strength so each one of us we have a weakness don't let that weakness bring you down it may be even parenting even now I pray as I go help me to do small kids help me to be good parent help me teach me I don't know I've not gone for any parenting classes and all that I would love to I do read about parenting but teach me this is a weakness I may have you teach me at verse 30 and we'll take a break but of him you are in Christ Jesus who became for us wisdom of God and righteousness sanctification and redemption all that happens is because of what God himself has done for us in Christ Jesus God has made Christ to be for us wisdom righteousness God is our wisdom God is our righteousness a sanctification a redemption so all that we glorify we must glorify Christ so in conclusion to this chapter we should not boast in men not in Paul not in Paulus not in Peter not in any of the preachers that are there during our time we learn from them but our message is a gospel of Jesus Christ so let's take a break come back at 10 and we'll continue from where we stop we'll go to chapter 2 let's take a break thank you