 Good morning everyone. Welcome to a new week. I just want to let each one of us know that my eyes are swelling. So I'm going to leave the video off and then I'll just project the notes. I hope that's okay because it's swelling in both my eyes. Alright, let's begin this time with a word of prayer. Any one of us can please leave the prayer? Charles? Yes, boss. Dear Father, we pray to you for the name of Christ. Thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity. Ask your guidance. You'll learn before you start your prayer. Well then, according to your holy will and we are good ministers for that. We dedicate ourselves to all our classmates and dear brothers and sisters. Thank you Father, show your mercy and your wisdom and knowledge. I ask this prayer in the name of our Jesus Christ, amen. Amen, amen. Thank you so much Prabhakar. Alright, so we've completed our first Corinthians. Alright, so we'll get into second Corinthians. And again, second Corinthians has 13 chapters. So let's begin with second Corinthians. Now a little bit of background. What happened was, Paul was in Ephesus and he wrote first Corinthians there. And most probably he sent the letter through Titus. Now remember later on Paul says there's a great door. Remember we did that last week. There's a great door that's open in Ephesus. And he also says they were like wild beasts after him. Meaning there was so much of persecution for the Apostle Paul. But yet he decides to stay back in Ephesus because there was a great door of ministry open there. So he stays in Ephesus and from Ephesus Paul went on to Macedonia. Now Macedonia includes Neopolis, Philippi, Thessalonica and Berea. Now while in Macedonia Paul wrote second Corinthians. Now again, we know the Macedonian call. Paul gets a dream and a vision and somebody says come over to Macedonia. There's a door open here in the dream. And so Paul goes there but there was a lot of persecution there. There was a lot of opposition there. And it's not like God, it's wonderful to look at this. God opened the door but the opposition was still there. It was not like everything was made smooth for the Apostle Paul. He went through great oppositions even in Macedonia. But he was comforted by the arrival of Titus. So Titus comes and he gives them a good report. He gives Paul a good report. So most probably what would have happened was Titus went. He gave the letter to the call. They read it. They would have changed their hearts. And now he's coming back and forming the Apostle that things are changing. The church has agreed to follow the instructions that you have read. And so he was greatly comforted by both Titus' arrival and the response of the church. So now let's get into chapter 1. Chapter 1, 2 Corinthians 1, 1 and 2. Paul and the Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Timothy our brother to the church of God which is at Corinth with all the saints who are in all Akhaya. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Right now Paul begins his letter with a customary greeting. What he always does, he says call to be an Apostle by the will of God. And we look at the word Apostle many times. Apostle or which means somebody who is sent or a delegate and an ambassador. And then he says Timothy our brother. Timothy was part of Paul's team. Now I have mentioned this many times. He was a young boy probably about 17 years old. But Paul has come to a place now. He's well matured in ministry. He's finished his second missionary journey. And now he's calling Paul our brother at Christ. So he's honoring the call that is there on Timothy's life. And with all the saints who are in Akhaya. Akhaya is a region of Greece that includes Corinth and Sancria. Now if you see when Paul goes into Athens, from Athens he goes to Corinth. But from Corinth there's no mention of Sancria. But later on we know in Romans 16 talking about the church there, believers in Sancria also. So Paul intended that these letters be read by the believers in the region. Not just for the believers in Corinth but also the region in Akhaya and Sancria. So what we will do is we will be going a little quick because there's a lot of repetitions in a second letter. So we'll see what is important and we'll pick up on those points. But feel free to stop me if you have any questions or anything you'd like to share. So comfort in suffering. Verses 3 to 7. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. Who comforts us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort those who are in trouble. And with the comfort which we ourselves are comforted by God. And you see the word comfort is being used so many times. The Greek word is paraclesis. The Holy Spirit paracletos is the comfort. So he says here, he's using the Greek paraclesis. Somebody who consoles, who comforts us. Now Paul praises God the Father who is the originator of compassion, who is merciful. And he is the one who brings comfort and console to everyone who needed it. Now remember this, Paul has a team. He says I'm greatly comforted when Titus comes. But again he's trying to make it the point for the church to understand that yes, we are comforted by people around us, by our family, friends. But the greatest comfort is the comfort that we can receive from God. Because he's the originator of comfort. Sometimes people may comfort us. We may feel alright, but after a couple of weeks or months, we'll go back to how we were feeling. But when God comforts us, there's this assurance, there's this peace. There's this feeling of calmness. And that is way above the comfort that we can receive from people around us. Now it does not mean that we don't need people around us, it does. For example, if somebody has lost a loved one, and during the time of bereavement, it is nice for somebody to be there to bring comfort. But they can only do it up to a certain limit. Once they go back, the person who's lost a loved one is still going to be troubled. So Paul is saying God is the comforter. The God who comforts us in all tribulation. Tribulation, the Greek word here is klipsis, which refers to situations that are pressure filled and oppressing together. We know the word tribulation means trials and challenges. A time of difficulties. As he's saying here, God comforts us in those times of tribulation. Now Paul is sharing from his personal experience as well. So if you look at this previous to this, he was in Ephesus. In Ephesus again, he mentions they were like wild peace. And even from the first missionary journey, from the time the Apostle Paul began his ministry, we see that he was persecuted. And he remember the time when they beat him and threw him from the cliff. They thought that he was dead, but he got up and went on. Remember the time in Acts 16, Paul and Silas and Philippi in prison, they had beaten him and chained him. And so there are many tribulations that Paul is going through and has gone through. And he's talking from experience. Comfort, consolation and strength is something that God can give them. It's very easy to break during times of tribulations. It's very easy to ask questions, God, God, why is this happening? Why am I going through this? Why am I not seeing a miracle? All these things are there. But Paul is sharing and he's saying God is a God who comforts us through all seasons. Now he's talking from experience. It's not like Paul is sitting in his house, comfortable space, and writing this letter. He's writing from experience. And he says here, every trial is an opportunity to receive divine strength and enablement from the Holy Spirit. Look at that word. It's an opportunity for us. All of us may go through trials, challenges, but it's an opportunity for us to say, God, you are my strength. You will enable me. You will comfort me. You will build me up and help me over the season to overcome the season. And so Paul is writing to the church in Corinth. Remember that the church was also persecuted because they were a small group of people who, and in Corinth there was all, you know, we talked about the background of Corinth, sexual immorality, there was all kinds of things happening. So it was not like the church was enjoying themselves. No, there was persecutions for them as well. So Paul is saying be encouraged. So verse five, for as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. He describes the kind of sufferings that he and his ministry team went through for the sake of the Gospel. Look at this in 2 Corinthians 11, later on we look at that. He says he was being whipped, imprisoned, stoned, shipwrecked, dangers of the sea, the wilderness, the city among false brethren, being weary, lack of sleep, hunger, thirst, being cold with inadequate clothing. Now look at this list. This is what Paul has gone through. And he's saying, God is our comfort. What an amazing, amazing attitude or what an amazing comfort God is. Imagine all of this happened to him. And I'm sure there were many other things, but he's just listing down a few of them here. Being whipped, imprisoned, stoned, shipwrecked, lack of sleep, hunger, thirst, the thing of traveling from one place to another. It was not easy. So he's mentioning here the sufferings that he went through for Christ. Again, Romans 8, 35 to 37 Paul lists tribulations. He says, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, battle, and sword, and declares triumphantly over all of this. He says, in all this, I love this verse, we are more than conquerors. So Paul is confident, right? He's saying the sufferings will come, the sufferings will go. And for the sake of Christ, the sufferings will increase. But where the sufferings increase, God's comfort, strength, and empowering will also increase. What a joy that is, right? When we're going through, many a times we feel, we're going through these problems. But where is God? He's there. He's there. It's just that we have to press on and say, God, give me the strength. So here's the thing, sometimes, you know, we look at those challenges. We look at those sufferings, those tribulations. And we focus on that more than focusing on what God can do, right? You know, yesterday, I was at church and all of a sudden my eye started burning, right? And I started to feel very nauseous. And then after church, many of them came for prayer. But my eyes started becoming red and just started swelling up. And, you know, I finished church, just prayed for people, went back home. And my eyes had all swollen up. And I thought to myself, you know, I remember yesterday, I was just telling, oh man, you know, I have to do this, I have to prepare for the class. I have things to do, you know, regarding the church. I've got to meet people, so many things to get done. And all of that, you know, I only focused on what the problem was. But I thank God that, you know, even as we, as I just, you know, look to God and I said, God, give me the strength to go through this season. There was a comfort, right? It's not easy. I can hardly open my eyes right now. I can hardly read. But God is our comfort. God is our strength, right? And we take consolation in that, that He gives us the grace. Let's look at verse 6 and 7. Now, if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for the enduring and for enduring the same sufferings, which we also suffer, right? Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. And our hope for you is steadfast, because we know that you are partakers of the sufferings. So also, you will partake of the consolation, right? So wonderful. The sufferings that Paul endured for the sake of the gospel has resulted in great fruit for the Kingdom of God, right? Now, it was not like, Apostle Paul is suffering and suffering and suffering and there's no result. No. He's seeing the fruit, right? And because he's seeing the fruit, there's a consolation, right? Imagine this. Paul starts off in his first missionary journey. He goes into Galatia. He goes into these churches. He plans churches. But what happens in the first missionary journey? They persecuted him. They beat him. He went through all those turmoil. But he is seeing with his own eyes the fruit that has been of the gospel, the fruit of his afflictions, of his troubles. And here he's saying, he was strengthened to endure sufferings for the sake of the gospel. And he's seeing the fruit. So it was like Paul is saying, okay, there's going to be troubles, but I see fruit. I see churches being planted. I see people giving their lives to Christ. I see God is working. So we will take consolation. We will take consolation that God is working using us, but also we will take comfort that God will give us the grace through these trials and difficulties. So very important. Something that we can always learn is, during these challenging times, see the fruit. See what God has done probably in the past. Look at how he brought healing or brought deliverance. How he was there for you. He miraculously made a way. Look at those times that find consolation. That's what Paul is doing. Difficult times. He's probably looking at the fruit that he's saying, oh, this is, if we did this through the sufferings, but God was faithful to work in their lives. Verse eight to 11, for we do not know, sorry, we do not want you to be ignorant brethren of our trouble, which came to us in Asia, that we are burdened beyond measure above strength so that we despair even of life. Yes, we had a sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust ourselves, but in God who raised the dead, who delivered us from so great a debt and delivered us in whom we trust that he will still deliver us. You also helping together in prayer for us that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the gift granted to us through many. So Paul is saying, listen, we want you to know some of the challenges that we've gone through. It's not like Paul is saying, he's not posting of those troubles that I went through, but he's saying, I went through, underwent these trials and tribulations which burdened and weighed them down. So they were able to overcome all of this. He's listed down there, right, fighting with wild beasts and emphasis, 39 stripes after being brought before the Jewish court. Those lashes were really painful ones. The riot and emphasis, they caught him, they beat him up and somehow they asked him, Paul escaped from there, the persecution shortly before Paul left for Troas. Now these are just few of them. Paul had seen many, many, many persecutions. But Paul is saying here, he trusts God who delivered them and he continues to deliver as he has promised in the past. He will promise, he will do it even today. He is the deliverer. He's the unchanging God. He's the same yesterday, today and in the future as well. This is an important and powerful truth about the nature of God that you and I can hold onto this promise. God, you have delivered me before. You have restored me before. You can do it now as well because God is the God who's the same yesterday, today and forever. So he's unchanging. If there are seasons we're going through, we can look to him. We can look to him and say, God, you've done it in the past. Do it again, my life. God is willing to do it. Paul is stating the importance here of intercessory prayer by the church for those in ministry. Paul knew and acknowledged that the release of the gifts for effective ministry is from God and it's the answer of faithful prayers of the believers. So he's saying, it's important that we know that there will be trials, there will be challenges but it's important to have people pray. There's intercessory prayer that has happened. And we see all through the scriptures, especially the life of Paul, many a times he has focused on the importance of prayer. Even before going to King Agrippa, he says, I bow my knee to the Father. Which means I don't bow my knee to anybody else. I bow my knee to the Father and I pray for each one of you. And he again says, the burden for each of the churches that is there in him. He says, I pray for each one of you every day. So intercessory prayer is very important for those in ministry and for those who are believers, part of a church, it's very important to pray for your leaders, for the pastors, for the believers within the church as well. I think there's a question. Yes, Christopher, go ahead please. Christopher, do you have a question? Oh, yes. Thank you. My question is with intercessory prayer, is it possible to, besides asking someone who is here on the earth, someone who is an elder or a pastor or a close one, there are denominations where they pray to people who have passed on and people who are believers. So as well as, for example, the Catholic Church, they pray to Mary to intercede for them. So I just wanted to understand what your comment on that would be. Sure. So I would respond to this with one simple verse. It is 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 5. And it says, And God wills that all should come to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, because Jesus Christ is the one mediator between God and man. All should come to the knowledge of the truth because Jesus is the one mediator between God and man. So Christopher, to answer your question, yes, there are, as you mentioned, the Catholic Church that believe even in purgatory, they believe in, I think it is all souls they are not sure what that day is, but they pray to those who have passed on. Now it is not biblical, right? Because one, there is one mediator between God and man. Two, Paul also writes that he says, to be absent in the body is to be present with the Lord. Right? So if we are, you know, praying to a soul that is already passed, they cannot do anything. They are powerless. They may be the greatest, you know, evangelists or pastors, but they cannot really do anything because God says there is one mediator between God and man. Nobody else. Nobody else can take that place. So that, I think that verse itself, Christopher speaks for itself. One mediator between God and man. And he goes on to say the man Jesus Christ. So it's wonderful to see that, you know, Paul is writing the man Jesus Christ because it's the man Jesus Christ who can relate to us. I have used this example many times, right? So we are going through troubles, or for example, we are going through a time of fasting. Now the God, the Father doesn't know what it feels like. Right? He does understand this, but he hasn't gone through that because, you know, he's got the Father, right? But Jesus, being our intercessor, being our mediator, he knows what it is, right? He knows what it is to stay without food. He knows what it is to, you know, have pains in the body. So the man Jesus Christ relating to both his God, he's man as well. So Christopher, I would say that it is wrong and it is not biblical and it should not be done. Alright, so just to confirm, I mean, I guess the argument from these people is that if we can ask, you know, if I were to ask you to pray for me, I'm still going in a sense through you as an intercessor. So what they are saying is that can they go to, I mean, I think Mother Mary is the one that they keep, you know, they do keep, you know, mentioning. So they feel that, you know, in the same way we can get Mother Mary to intercede for them. Yeah, so the thing is, it is not biblical because Paul writes to the Ephesians. He says to the Ephesians, especially he says to them, you know, pray for each other, pray for your leaders. So praying for each other, that is okay. But I'm praying for somebody who has already passed away and gone. See, if I, for example, I have a prayer request, right? I'm coming to you and I'm saying, Christopher, you know what? This is what I'm going through. Can you pray for me? Now, Paul says the prayer of, I think it's in Matthew, the prayer of faith will heal the believer. So now, I am praying with somebody, right? But I'm not praying to somebody that who's already passed on, who's dead, right? And the Bible says that, I understand where you're coming from. Your question is, you know, I'm asking you to pray. So why not I ask somebody who's, for example, Mother Mary or a great saint who has passed on, why can't I ask them to pray? So the thing is, when I'm praying with somebody who's a brother or a sister in Christ, we are praying with understanding. We're praying for each other, right? But here it is, it's more of a one-way prayer. And I would say it's not biblical, first of all. But again, over the years, these ideas and thoughts have come into the Roman Catholic Church especially. So it still carried on. But I would say, if somebody asked me, I would say that, you know, I wouldn't do it because there's one mediator between God and man. So I'm not praying to the person when I'm praying with somebody. I'm praying with the person, right? So somebody's praying for me, for my prayer request. I'm praying with him, but I'm not praying to him. I'm not saying, okay, I hope this guy, this person I'm praying with is able to heal my sickness. No, I'm praying with him to the Lord Jesus. Here I'm praying to the soul, which is wrong. So I hope that I may not be very, if I'm not very clear, maybe we can, you know, I can just get some more thoughts and share with you later on as well. So I think that's something we must remember just first. So I'm praying with somebody or I'm praying to somebody. Okay, Sayi has lifted his hands, raised his hands. Yes, Sayi? Yes, Pastor, not to be too vocal, but just to support your comment is that, I think this takes us back to church history, which you took us last year. Sorry, this year rather, last year, this year, I can't remember. But I know we discussed basically that there were a lot of pagan worship practices. Now we're, you know, adopted into the Catholic church. And one of it is what has been mentioned by Brother Christopher and so we just have to be very careful to understand that if there's nothing in any practice that is done by any faith and it's not consistent with scripture, I think we should just discard it because the practice of praying to Mary or to the saints was something they adopted from the pagan practices they were into before Christianity was institutionalized in the Roman, in Rome at that time. So, but we must be consistent with scripture. Just like you pointed out, you know, we only have one person in whom we pray in and to and true. And that's Jesus Christ. No, none of the saints who have gone, even the apostles, even the Mary, none of them have any power, you know, to carry on our prayers to God. The only person we have been who to pray to or, you know, it's Jesus Christ basically. So I think we should just put that into context and put that in mind that many things that are done in the Catholic church today is as a result of the pagan worship then. And it's interesting that there's actually a segment of the Catholic church called the Charismatic Catholic Church who have identified some of all these practices and they have stopped all those things, though they still regard themselves part of the Catholic church, but there are a number of things they have discarded and one of it is this, right? So we must be consistent with scripture. I think that's a summary basically. Thank you, Pastor. Yes, thank you so much. Say yes, being consistent with scripture. And also I think another thing is, you know, in the book of Acts, you know, I have had a lot of discussions with people from Catholic faith that they asked me this question. Why do you say it's wrong? My answer was very simple because, see, in the book of Acts, firstly, they say they call her the Virgin Mary and we know that she's not a virgin. She did have other children after that. So that debunks the whole Virgin Mary thing. And then two is when the 120 were praying for the Holy Spirit, she was there. Now, we do honor her. We do respect her, but we don't worship her and we don't pray to her because she herself was there praying for the gifts of the Holy Spirit. So there's only things that, you know, when we think about these, you know, we just know that, you know, God has decided that there will be one mediator and, you know, that mediator is going to be Jesus. Rupa, you have raised your hands as well. Yes, sir. Just while you were discussing with Brother Christopher, suddenly a verse popped up in my mind. I just wanted to share Revelation 14-13 and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Right, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth. He said the Lord that they may rest from their labors and their works do follow them. After a person dies, even if he is a saint, his works is rested. He is resting in the Lord. He is no more interceding for anyone. That is what I got from that verse, sir. I just wanted to share. Thank you so much, Rupa. Yes. Thank you. Thank you so much. Yes. Christopher, I hope that helps. Rose has also commented here praying for the, praying for help from the dead. It falls on divination. Yes, yes, it does. Remember the Old Testament? The witch at Endor. I forget the chapter, but the witch, Saul goes to the witch of Endor and says, bring up Samuel so that he can tell me what I must do. And, you know, so Samuel, the witch was able to bring a person, but we know that it was not Samuel. So it's divination. It is, it is not something that, as Rose has mentioned, it's a abomination in the eyes of God. But again, it's God's grace. It's the lack of understanding. You see how the enemy is a deceiver. He's able to bring in things that can just, you know, divert people from the truth. That's all he wants to do. He just wants to go a little astray, right? So something that is truth. If you go a little away from it, it becomes false. But most of it may be true, but yet it still remains false because we've gone away from it. So the enemy is, you know, he works in that way. So we, as believers, must be very careful on what we, let the word of God be our basis. That is the standard of which we, you know, on which we should step. Right. Thank you, Charles, for saying it's not godly to ask help from the dead. Even praying for them is idolatry. Yes. All right. So let's continue from where we stop. So verse 12 onwards, Paul is mentioning about, you know, hidden motives or actions. Verse 12, what our boasting is this, the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity. Not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God and more abundantly towards you. Paul's conscience was clear. Right. He conducted himself in sincerity, in honesty, in integrity, without pretence, without hypocrisy. So he was clear. He didn't have to hide anything. He didn't have to portray himself as somebody else. He was clear. His conscience was clear. He knew that everything that he did was for the benefit, is what God called him to do and also for the benefit of the church. And so he, there was no pretence. There was no hypocrisy. Right. For we are not writing any other thing to you than what you read or understand. Now I trust you will understand even to the end. There is no self seeking here. Paul is saying, as ministers, we must follow a good example. Live life with a clear conscience. Simplicity and sincerity. And I think some of these two are very important. There's power in simplicity and there's power in sincerity. Right. Humility also. Right. It's powerful. And as leaders, you see Apostle Paul, he was a humble man. Yet he brought correction in the right way. He was sincere. Yet he, you know, he was sincere for the church and the things that are happening. He was a simple man. Right. You know, Paul does not mention about his, you know, his great achievements. There was only one time when he was talking about himself. He was saying all these things I was, but all of this I counted rubbish at the side of God. So he was, he was actually a great man. Studied under Gamelia, the commander of the temple guard, a Pharisee of the Pharisees. But you see that there was some kind of simplicity in him. He never used those credentials as a way of, you know, manipulating people or trying to, you know, rule or boss over people. He never did that. He explains that he only says that I did ministry with a clear conscience, simplicity and sincerity. Right. Verse 15 and 16. And in this confidence, I intended to come to you before that you might have a second benefit to pass by the way, by way of you to Macedonia to come again from Macedonia to you and be helped by you on my way to Judea. Therefore, when I was planning this, did I do it lightly? Or the things I planned, do I plan according to the flesh that would mean there, would mean there should be yes, yes and no. But as God is faithful, our word to you was not yes and no. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, by me salving this intimacy, was not yes and no, him was yes. Right. So now Paul is writing to the church and he's mentioning a bit of changes in his travel plans. Right. He's saying, I would love to visit you at Corin when I'm returning from Macedonia. Then he says, Paul changed his mind and visited himself. So he's here in Ephesus. He has to go to Macedonia and now it says that on the way, probably Paul changed his mind and he said, okay, before I go to Macedonia, let me go visit Corinth. Right. Now the visit, this visit was difficult one for both Paul and the Corinthian church because now remember the first letter? Paul was stern. He was, he had to confront people. Remember, he also said, hand them over to the devil, meaning just take them out of the church. Now on this, after seeing all this in this first letter, Paul had to go and he wanted to still meet them. Now this visit was unpleasant and didn't seem much beneficial. Paul did not visit Corinth while returning from Macedonia but wrote to them a severe letter instead. Right. So we see that on the way to Macedonia, he visits Corinth. But while coming back from Macedonia, he says, no, I will not visit Corinth. Right. Instead of visiting them, I will write a letter. Right. And that's when he wrote second Corinthians. So Paul declares with utmost confidence that even as God's nature is faithfulness, God does not say yes when he wants to say no and vice versa. Right. So in some manner his words were also true. And so basically what Paul is saying is whatever I do is not led by the flesh but what I do is led by the spirit. The decision that I made to change my travel plans and come to you before going into Macedonia was God's leading. Now while returning from Macedonia, I'm going to, I'm not going to visit you because when I visited you, there was, it was not a pleasant visit. It was not beneficial. Maybe some of them were still upset with Paul's letter. Remember the first few chapters of first Corinthians? That was really stern. He says, he starts, you know, he's so upset with the church. Maybe some of them are still upset with him or, you know, they didn't, you know, they didn't accept him the way that he wanted or probably the whole visit was not beneficial at all. So he says, okay, I will write a letter to them. For the promises of God in him are yes, and to him and in him, amen to the glory of God through us. In Christ's promises for each of us, I'm sure we've all gone through the book who we are in Christ. As believers, we have a whole list of promises that God is giving us because we are in Christ. Look at this verse, first Corinthians 670, he says, but he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. You are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8 1 therefore there is no condemnation for you for those who are in Christ Jesus. So as believers we are in Christ. Colossians again, he talks about being in Christ. So plenty of places Paul writes were being in Christ. All of us have been promised by the Father that when we are in Christ Jesus is assured us a yes and an amen. In Christ promises are ours. So and we've learned this in who we are in Christ. We it is just imputed into us. The moment we become believers, we believe in the Lord Jesus, the work that he did on the cross and we accept him as our personal saviour. All the promises that are in Christ is imputed which means it's just poured out into us. God is not going to say, okay, have you prayed one hour a day? Have you done this? Have you done that? Have you read your Bible? No. He has imputed all those gifts or the promises into us. We are saved, we are healed, we are delivered, redeemed. We are the child of God with the air of Christ and co-heirs with him and those wonderful, wonderful promises it all is for us because we are in Christ. Verse 21 and 22. Now he who establishes us with you in Christ and hasointed us in God has sealed us and given us the spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. God does these for the disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are established in him. One of the word established means to make firm or to make sure we're established. So no matter what the devil comes and says, you are like this, you are like that, we must be established in him. We may not feel established but we are established. Two, we are anointed by the Holy Spirit. Christ has anointed us in God and the Greek word anointed here is Kriyay which is to rub oil or to smear to concentrate for holy use. So God has anointed us, he has empowered us, he has filled us, separated us for his service. He has anointed us by the Holy Spirit. We are sealed by the Holy Spirit and Paul says in many places I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit. Do not leave the Holy Spirit with whom you have been who is a guarantier of our soul and so he has purchased possession he has sealed us, he is saying we are his and the Holy Spirit is our guaranty a down payment as a pledge that the full redemption will be made in the future. Holy Spirit is our guaranty a down payment for us. Finally the last two verses Moreover, I call God as witness against my soul that I spare you I came no more to call it not that I not that we have dominion over your faith but our fellow workers for your joy for by faith you stand. So again Paul is stating out of concern that he did not visit them as planned since he did not want them to be even more sort of you see the heart of Paul here you see the heart of a father the heart of a loving father and you know when you read 1st Corinthians it looks like why is he so angry but it's just the love of God that he he is saying here this sentence itself is so touching look at the church when you picture it the church and Corinth are they are a small group of people just trying to live a holy life they are finding it difficult Paul is correcting them some of them are taking it some of them are upset some of them are sad so Paul is saying I didn't want to come to you because if I see you you will be more sorrowful and I also will be more sorrowful so that's why I will write a letter to you but Paul is saying that there is a responsibility that I have we called as an apostle he has this responsibility with the believers so he did not boss over them and he did not dominate their faith but he was only doing what he was doing out of love but he was correcting them sternly but he did it out of love he did not want them to lose faith in God he did not want them to just walk away from the things of God and we see that apostle Paul had that heart it's very sad when you think of this Paul would be sorrowful and even Paul would be sorrowful maybe he felt that first visit that he came maybe he saw that they were sad or they were upset and that he got upset or sad for this but his main aim was to build the believers up to get them to do the right things and it is by their own individual faith that each corrupted believer stood for Christ and lived their life and verse 24 is wonderful not that we have dominion over your faith but we are fellow workers for joy for my faith you stand so Paul is saying I may be an apostle I may be the one who came and started the church but I am not overpowering you I am not having dominion you have to listen to me he says he talks about the right of an apostle and he is saying this is what I am but he is saying this not to dominate over them but to just tell them we are fellow workers in Christ together we can see the joy of the Lord because it is by faith itself that we can stand he brings this first chapter to a close alright let's take a break and we will begin with chapter 2 10 minutes break thank you