was be strong that's the title of the sermon tonight be strong and as i read through this
chapter i was thinking about what would be a good title for this chapter and what i realized is
the way paul ends this chapter the way paul ends first corinthian 16 is literally
strengthening the church is finding ways hey this is how we can strengthen one another let's
pick it up on verse number one first corinthian 16 verse one it says now concerning the
collection for the saints as i have given order to the churches of galatia even so do ye my first
point for tonight is strengthen the needy strengthen the needy so what we see here
oh let's read verse number two he says upon the first day of the week let every one of you
every one of you lay by him in store as god have prospered him that there be no gatherings
when i come now what we gather here is that there is a collection for the saints
okay paul is traveling through and he says look there are saints that need your assistance
he says there in verse number one i gave the same instruction i gave the same order
to the churches of galatia to put a collection for the saints now i'll just quickly read to you
from romans 15 you don't need to turn there but it gives us a little bit more information
about this romans 15 verse 24 he says whensoever i take my journey into spain i will come to you
for i trust to see you in my journey and to be brought on my way thitherward by you if first
i be somewhat filled with your company but now i go into jerusalem to minister unto the saints
so there was a problem there was a necessity in jerusalem for the saints in jerusalem and as
he was passing through us he was writing letters to these churches not just to the galatians but
to the romans and to the corinthians he says look we need to go and i need to go to jerusalem
and and minister to the saints they have a need okay now i'm not sure exactly historically
what that need was i have heard that there was drought i've heard like these are extra
biblical sources that say at this point of time there was a drought in jerusalem and there
was a shortage of food and so you know the saints got together and put a collection to help
one another right now that could be right i'm not sure but we don't really know but what
we see here is that even though the corinthian church was a church with a lot of problems
there was still a church that could help saints in need there was still a church that could
strengthen the saints saints in need and this point they needed finances they needed help
monetary aid to help them get through their difficulties and let me say to you that if we
have brethren that are in a financial need that are struggling for whatever reasons and and the
request comes to us hey is there something you can do to help then i would probably apply a
similar principle here i would probably say to you hey you know this coming sunday you know
pray about it dig deep you know such and such brethren need our assistance we're going to have
a special collection this sunday for that for that situation okay i mean it's never happened it's
never had to happen right i'm saying besides your usual ties and offering if you can dig deep
for this situation then that might be something we do at some point in time if there's a financial
need okay if there's a struggle for the saints because we want to strengthen the needy okay
and this is this is the advantage of being in a church this is the advantage of being in christ
is that there are brethren throughout the whole world that you can get assistance from you
know there are some places that have more than others you know there are third world countries
that need you know a place to meet they can't you know that they earn a lot less
and a lot of times the brethren from western countries help the brethren from poorer countries
right or they help support a missionary in these these nations and again i would like to be a
church that at some point we take on a missionary okay that we take on a missionary but we want
to make sure that the missionary is doing the work we want to make sure that the missionary
is not there just learning the language not just being not just studying not just you know
raising a family but are actually actively going out preaching the gospel to the to the people
in that area okay so there is a time where you know we can come together and have a collection
for the needy strengthen the needy now there isn't a lot in the bible about how we give
to the local church now i would just take this principle and by the way what's the first thing
we learn here that on the first day of the week they were to come together and lay by him in store
so this proves basically this proves that they were meeting on a regular basis on a sunday on the
first day of the week because what did the seventh-day adventist say oh you've got to you've
got to you know you've got to have church on a saturday you've got to have it on the seventh
day that's why i call that seventh-day adventist and there are some that go as far as say
well if you worship if you go to church on a sunday that's the mark of the beast it's crazy
right does that mean all these saints here in carinthians were taking the mark of the beast
because they were meeting on sunday but we see this was a regular occurrence so saying hey on
the first day of the meet when you when you meet that's the time to take collection and so i
just take these principles for our church i know this isn't about your regular giving to the
local church i understand that but i just take the principle that hey the first day of the
week is is the probably is the best time to have the collection to have to collect the the
the you know the finances that come from your pockets to help finance the work of this church
okay that's why on a thursday i don't have the offering box out here okay because i i don't we
don't need to you bring it on the sunday okay now i'm just going to read to you like malachi
310 okay malachi 310 is is a verse that's often quoted about tithing you can turn there
if you want the last book in the old testament malachi 310 it reads bring you all the tithes
into the storehouse okay now just think about what we just read there in first corinthians 16
verse 2 it says upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store okay so
there's a there's a time it's like it's talking about storage a storage of the finances
okay and we see this in the old testament as well that the the old testament temple was
considered the storehouse you can bring your tithes and offerings into the storehouse that
there be meat in mine house what's the house of god in the new testament it's the church in
the old testament it was a temple in the new testament the house of god is called the church
and prove me now here we've saved the lord of hosts if i will not open you the
windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing and there shall be not enough room to receive it
okay so i'm just i'm just bringing out of this the same teachings that we see sort of
in the new testament of the old testament that there's a time to store up the finances
to bring in the tithes okay and i i got asked the question i think um because i i need to do a
whole sermon on tithing at some point okay i mean there's so much to preach on i feel like
there's so many topics to preach on okay but i'm just going i'm just going sermon as sermon as
the lord gives it upon my heart to preach you know to a newer church and again we don't
have any troubles with the finances anyway so it's not a topic that needs to be preached urgently
but i just want to make this clear that i do believe in the tithes i do believe that we ought
to give 10 of our income to the church now i did cover this a few weeks ago and what i said was i
don't believe it's a mandatory requirement okay now the reason why i chose those words
mandatory is because often when you hear people preach on tithing they associate with
this is mandatory and the reason they say it's mandatory is because if you don't do it
god will curse you okay now the question that came to me well do you believe it then it's
not a commandment well no no i do believe it's a commandment okay and and because you don't hear
people for example let me give you an example of this love thy neighbor is that a commandment
absolutely it's a commandment but do you people say is it mandatory is this a mandatory
requirement that you love that's not the language people use okay but when it comes to
tithe in people often use that that terminology mandatory in association with being cursed by god
okay so what i just want to and again i'm not going to do a whole similar tithing right now
that's for another time okay and there's a lot of there's a lot of confusion over tithing as
well as to what tithing is anyway but that needs to be done so i just wanted to clarify
that point just while we're here talking about finances that i do believe you ought to give
it is a command to give 10 of your income to the house of god that you ought to bring that
to the house of god but i do not believe it's a mandatory requirement in the sense that god will
curse you if you don't do that because god jesus christ became the curse for us and i've preached
on blessings and curses already in the past if you need some information about that you can let
me know okay um and you know at some point what we see here in in malachi 3 10 it says
bring ye all the tithes okay it's something we ought to bring to the storehouse it's
something we ought to bring to the church that's why i've been very resistant just to open up
a bank a church bank account okay because i know it'll be very tempting to just deposit
it automatically right i understand that but there is something sacrificial about coming
and bringing it into the storehouse on the first day of the week okay and so at some point
at some point i will have especially when we have the new church name we will have a church
bank account under that church name and at that point if you want to give into the church
bank account you can do so but i didn't want to do that until i gave you my explanations as
to why i believe that's the best practice okay that's what we kind of see in the bible
and as long as we kind of live in a society that still has cash i mean i know we're almost
cashless you know it's still like that same practice of bringing that into the storehouse
and having that reserved for the local church okay now look at verse number three
first corinthian 16 verse three and when i come whomsoever ye shall approve by your letters
then will i send to bring your liberality unto jerusalem so your liberality that's that's
reference to the collection the collection that you come for the saints in jerusalem
we're going to send them uh unto jerusalem but it says whomsoever you shall prove by your
letters so back in those days they didn't have the internet they didn't have a telephone
okay so when they were sending uh representation from one church to another church often they
would go with a letter of recommendation okay and some pastors and some churches
still apply this today like if you want to change your membership from one church to
another church often the the church that is accepting you requires a letter of recommendation
from your sending from the sending pastor because they don't they want to make sure this guy's
not like this crook that's been kicked out of the church you know that's been caught stealing
or that's been you know caught you know extorting the brethren has been you know whatever it is
and and they're accepting that person they want to make sure that the person they receive
is in good standing okay and that's why you know back in these days without the internet
without phone calls without facebook whatever right they would take a letter to say hey
we're from this church here's you know the the approval from that sending church
and uh and look at uh verse number verse number four and if it be meets that i go also
they shall go with me so say look if i can i will go with them to Jerusalem as well okay
but i think what's important here is that paul maintains the independence of the carinthian
church you need to collect the offerings and you need to send your people to go and give
that offering to the other church in need okay paul is not saying i'll come and take it
he's saying you send your people by letter by recommendation to go and give it to that
church okay we see the independence of each church here as as paul speaks of this okay
and i think the other problem was if you remember there were some people that had a
problem with paul and they didn't want to pay paul remember that they didn't want to pay him
and so he's like well maybe probably that's why he doesn't want to take the finances with him
in case you know there's accusations again of him being greedy for money or something like that
okay now look at verse number oh actually before i say that if we're going to give support
as a church okay to another work i want to make sure that that work is always under another
church of body okay now i know there are good missionaries out there i know there are good
missionaries doing hard work but they're not under the authority of a local church they've
not been sent out by a local church they've gone and done it themselves they've gone out
to a nation preaching the gospel thank god they're doing that i'm not against the work that
they're doing okay but what we see here is the corinthian church giving it to the church in
jerusalem and then the church in jerusalem would divvy up the funds as necessary okay
and that's why if you ask me what about this missionary what about that missionary first of
all they need to be doing the work but second of all they need to be under a local church
okay even if they're the best missionary i know and they're doing the most work i know i still
believe the proper practice is that they are under the authority of a church and have been sent
out by a church okay so if you're wondering why those decisions that's that's why okay now
look at verse number five so we've seen how to strengthen the needy we ought to strengthen
our needy brethren okay but we also ought to strengthen a church by godly leadership strengthen
a church by godly leadership look at verse number five now i will come unto you when i
shall pass through Macedonia for i do pass through Macedonia and it may be that i will abide
yea and winter with you so he's saying look i might be there for the whole winter with you
that you may bring me on my journey with so whithersoever i go for i will not see you
now by the way but i trust to tarry a while with you if the lord permits but i will tarry
at Ephesus until pentecost so his plans are to be be in Ephesus that's where he is at
the moment to be in Ephesus until pentecost and then he's going to look at traveling to
the Corinthians and passing through some other places the point i want to bring out of this
is obviously we see this church struggling with good leadership we see this church struggling in
sin we see this church just falling apart but the way Paul sees that this church is going
to be strengthened is with good leadership with good preaching from good godly man and he says
look i'm going to make an effort to go and be there with you i'm going to be there with
you the whole winter let's say three months something like that that's how long he's going
to be with them and get things said in order not just the letter the scriptures that is written
to them but he wants to be there and preach to you guys okay so i i would love to eventually
have good godly men come stand behind this pulpit and encourage all of us strengthen all
of us and i'm not saying that man necessarily has to agree with us on all doctrine right if
he's got the foundations right if he's a godly man if he wants to see souls saved if he's
got the fundamentals right and he's a godly man trying to serve the lord i would love to
have men come and stand behind this pulpit that aren't from our local church and preach for us
strengthen us encourage us as a church okay but it's not just paul look at verse number nine
well actually before we get to that look at verse number nine quickly he says here
for a great door and affection and effectual is opened unto me and there are many adversaries
so that goes with verse number eight but i will tarry at f fss until pentecost so it says look
i'm not in a rush to leave emphasis why is he not in a rush he goes for a great door and
effectual is opened unto me he's saying there's a great door of ministry right now he's having
great success the people in if fss are really receptive to the gospel so that he explains that
this door that has been opened for him so he's not in a rush to leave it right god has
opened the saw and he's ready to do the work there once he's done there then he'll travel
to our currents okay now you may have heard the saying let me let me see a raise of hands if
you heard this saying but the saying goes when god closes a door he always opens a window who
said that one when god opens the door all right that's not in the bible all right it's
not in the bible a lot of people think it is a biblical quote but it kind of is a little
bit okay it kind of comes from this teaching here right because god does open doors okay
and i would encourage you if you're in a time in a time in place where you need to make a
decision okay now if you mean if you need to make a decision between right and wrong
it's easy you you choose what's right okay that's not something you need to ask god about
you know it's right or wrong you choose what's right okay but sometimes in your life you need
to make a decision and it could all be right i mean there's nothing wrong in of them you know
you know in of itself there might be multiple ways and that's where i would encourage you lord
open the door make it clear close the other doors and show me which way to walk and look
sometimes god will just leave them all open and you just have to decide for yourself
but i like to go in prayer and often often when i ask god this question he answers it often
he makes it so straightforward and so simple that i know man everything else is closed this
is the door to walk through all right let me give you an example you know when i was
wanting to come up here to the sunshine coast to start this church i was working for a business
that was importing goods from china um and selling and i was pretty much running the
business all by myself okay for a friend of mine and i had the opportunity to buy the
business off him okay and i thought it's not a big business okay um i just need a warehouse
to put stock in there and then it's all online it's all through the internet
and i thought you know what this might be an opportunity for me to buy this business
then take it up with me to the sunshine coast there was a big clientele it was it was
making good money and i could you know work in the church and also have this business where
i could work my own hours and sort of work around i thought it was a great opportunity
so you know i approached you know the owner and we agreed on a price then i went to the bank
and asked for a loan and every time i approached the bank they always said yep you know your house
has equity no problem you'll be able to buy this business but as soon as we sat down how
many kids how many dependents i don't have any kids i had at that time maybe eight it's like
nah it's not happening it's not happening and i would go from bank to bank from broker to
broker always yep it can be done and then like nah can't be done right and and i was
frustrated right i was frustrated because i thought this was a door that i could walk through
and so i just prayed lord you know you need to close it or you need to you need to open
something else right and um i remember telling the owner he's saying look keep trying i said to him
look i've lived a while now and i've experienced when something's so difficult it's probably god
saying that's it no that's not going to happen right do something else and thankfully within
a few months i was working for a granny flat company right and then i had the opportunity to
build a granny flat on my property you know to build a house there which is now being rented and
now that's my income right the income that i get from the house the income that i get from
the granny flat that was something that opened up i never planned to build a granny flat in my
backyard to think of that as an income source but hey you know god opened up another door and
i walked through that door and so i would encourage you hey when you need to make decisions
ask god and he will uh look just coming up here to the sunshine coast that's just one example
i can give you many examples where i was like god what where how and lord opened the door and
he opened it and it made it clear and it was it was so clear that i'm like i someone asked me
are you sure you came to the right place i say without a doubt i'm in the right place
without a doubt because i can see how god led me bit by bit and most of you i didn't even know
when i thought about coming here right but we immediately have a church i honestly thought it'd
just be me and my family you know and maybe cameron or something i don't know you know but
honestly you know i'm surprised by how many people were interested in this church and wanted
this church to come obviously if the people here were praying for that and god was making
things happen right god was leading me in the right path and god was leading you guys
in the right path so just just on that you know pray that god will open doors for you
when you have many decisions to make verse number 10 now timotheus come so not only is paul
going to come to this church to strengthen the church he's sending timotheus that's another
name for timothy you know when read the book of timothy first timothy second timmy same guy
okay it says now if timotheus come see that he may be with you without fear for he worketh the
work of the lord as i also do now if you just read that verse by itself it sounds like
he's saying like like he may or may not come it says now if right now if timotheus come
but if you remember verse chapter number four if you want to turn there quickly uh first
corinthians chapter 4 verse 17 first corinthians 4 17 paul says to the corinthian church for this
cause have i sent unto you timotheus who is my beloved son and faithful in the lord who shall
bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in christ as i teach everywhere in every church
so he had already sent timotheus but i guess you know back in those days you know the
transportation the difficulties of traveling he's kind of saying well if hopefully you know i'm
expecting him to be there i already sent him but we see that paul sees the importance of
sending godly leaders to a church to encourage them right not just himself but timotheus also
now look at verse number 11 let no man therefore despise him why would people despise
timotheus i was thinking about this and my first thought is when we read chapter one they
were worshiping men right they had men on a pedestal right they they were they were
they were over paul and they were of apollos and they were of cephas
but they weren't of timothy and i was thinking well maybe they see timothy as this lesser
leader and maybe that's why they despise him but i was also reminded of first timothy chapter
four first timothy chapter 4 verse 12 where paul writes to timothy and he says to him
let no man despise thy youth but be thou an example of the believers in word in conversation
in charity in spirit in faith in purity so what how's he encouraging timothy he says
don't let people despise you don't let it get to you that you're a young man
okay you're a godly young man you know be a good example and he's saying the same thing
to the corinthian church when he comes don't despise him so i'm assuming it must be about
his youth then right must be because he was a young man and you know sometimes an older
christian can despise a younger christian right the young christian is doing more work for the
lord he's doing greater things right maybe he's preaching doctrine they don't even agree on
and they start to despise that younger younger preacher they start to despise
that younger uh believer and he's saying to the corinthian church yes he's young
but don't despise him okay he's someone that's going to come and strengthen and encourage
your church and for me you know if you've got a sermon if you're over 12 years old because how
old was jesus when he was telling teaching teaching doctrine at the temple who's 12 years
old if you're 12 years old and over and you've got a sermon for us i'm willing to give
you the chance all right boys okay if you're 12 years and over you got a sermon a 10-minute
sermon i'm willing to get you up here and preach that sermon for us okay i don't want anyone
to despise your youth okay god can use you at a young age god can use you at an early age
now you may remember the mother's day sermon on sunday what did we learn about timothy
his mother his his mother right his mother uh eunice and his grandmother
lois lois and eunice yeah right so you know i'm sure that you know his mother's his mother
and his grandmother who encouraged him the lord who's taught him the scriptures you know was
now just rejoicing the fact that timothy is not just a pastor but he's a traveling pastor
he's going from church to church and encouraging believers across the world right we see the impact
of the mothers that they can have on on a man and we see that timothy even though he's young
he's used to help encourage this church look at verse 12 as touching our brother apollos
remember apollos i'm of apollos yeah now regarding apollos i greatly desired him to
come unto you with the brethren but his will was not at all to come at this time
but he will come when he shall have convenient time so he says look i'm coming timothy is
already on his way and apollos will come when he's ready we see the importance of sending
godly men especially to a church of struggling and to encourage them okay to encourage them not
to destroy them but to encourage them okay now verse 13 verse 13 the memory verse
watch ye what does it mean to watch to be vigilant pay attention you're already a church
that's struggling you're already a church that's falling apart he says watch don't be
don't be hurt anymore okay pay attention stand up he says look watch uh stand fast in the faith
now he already taught them this in chapter number 10 right in chapter number 10 verse 12 he says
wherefore let him that think if he standeth take heed lest he fall so it's just encouraging them
in the same things that he's taught him in the previous chapters saying stand firm watch be
vigilant don't let the devil don't let the adversary come and hurt you any longer don't
let these divisions in your church cause problems and then he says stand fast in the faith quit you
like men okay so if you may remember that that was the teaching from chapter 14
first corinthians 14 verse 20 he said brethren be not children in understanding how being in
malice be your children but in understanding be men stop being children that are tossed to and
fro with every wind of doctrine stand first and stand firm and as you saw in first corinthians
16 sorry in first corinthians there's a lot of good doctrine right every chapter has some
great meaty stuff that this church needed and paul's just encouraged them hey everything
i've just told you i'm just i'm just i'm just concluding this letter remember these things
watch stand firm okay stand fast quit you like men stop being children stop being babes
stop being immature grow up okay and then it says be strong that's the title of the sermon
right be strong and again i'm reminded in the first chapter first corinthians chapter 1
verse 25 he says because the foolishness of god is wiser than men and the weakness of god
is stronger than man so we want the wisdom we want the wisdom that comes from god it's
stronger even the foolish what they consider foolishness in the world is still stronger than
man's wisdom he says i want you to be strong strong in yourself not strong in the lord
strong in his wisdom strong in his understanding okay study this epistle preach this epistle
all right he wants this for the corinthian church and then verse 14 and we've covered
this recently let all your things be done with charity what's charity love right be love
into the brethren love one another that comes from first corinthians 14 verse 1 he said follow
after charity okay yes watch stand firm stand fast be strong be men but do it all with charity
okay remember without the charity it's all a waste of time it's all unprofitable okay so we
saw now we saw strengthen the needy we saw strengthen a church with godly leaders right the
paul timothy and apollos now strengthen the work okay point number three strengthen the work okay
because this church was doing some work and what paul needs to tell this church is get
behind the work get behind the workers okay do more than what you're doing before verse 15
i beseech you brethren you know the house of stefanis that it is the first fruits of
akia and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints what's the house of
stefanis who's stefanis you may remember his name from chapter one right remember when paul says
i'm glad i didn't baptize any of you but then he says in verse 16 and i baptized also the
household of stefanis besides i know not whether i baptized any others but he says here in verse
15 he says that the house of stefanis is the first fruits of akia so here's what
stefanis and his family are some of the first that got saved okay they were early members of
this church okay and he says he says look i beseech you um that this this this family
stefanis have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints i mean it's a it's
an interesting way of saying it they're addicted to the ministry right they love the work of god so
much paul describes it as an addiction now normally when we think of addiction we think
of it in negative terms right addicted to drugs or addicted to alcohol or addicted to facebook
right i've heard that one a lot addicted to you know computers and internet and whatever
often in a negative sense but we can be addicted to good and godly work okay stefanis was one
of those he was addicted to the ministry of the saints now i'm not sure if it means by ministry
of the saints like like um uh how to explain this like a ministry to the saints like like
he's ministering and serving the people in the church i'm not sure if that's the reference
or if you're saying the ministry um sorry the ministry what's that again ministry what are the
words there ministry sorry guys what verse i'm up to 15 ministry of the saints like the ministry
of the saints what's the ministry the ministry of reconciliation i'm not sure if he's saying
that the ministry of the saints is the gospel preaching and that's what they're addicted to
or the ministry of the saints like ministry to the saints in that sense maybe both either way
this guy was a good example to this church okay and what we'll see soon is that it seems like
stefanis may have been the pastor of this church or if he wasn't the pastor he just may
have been a godly leader in this church because look at verse 16 he says that yes so
in what way can we support in what way can we can we strengthen the work in what way can
we strengthen stefanis in verse 16 he says that you submit yourselves unto such unto such
who the household of stefanis and to everyone and everyone else that helpeth with us and laboreth
so be there and help the laborers you know most churches that i've been to
10 percent of the people do all the work 10 percent of the people do all the work
okay when it's so many time it's 10 of the people it's 10 of the families okay
what paul is saying look there are those that look he recognizes there are those that are going
to do more work than others but for those that aren't doing that all that work get behind them
submit yourselves and help them out be part of the work strengthen them to do more okay
because if you're doing all the work and you're not getting any support eventually it's going
to become discouraging and so we ought to get behind the workers of the church
right if even if you're not the one going so winning you know ask how is the soul winning
you know can i pray for you you know is there anything that i can do you know to help you in
that work you know and and so and it says submit yourselves unto such there in verse 16
it reminded me of hebrews 13 17 i'll just read it to you quickly hebrews 13 17 that says obey
them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves for they watch for your souls as
they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is
unprofitable for you so that's what makes me think of maybe stephanus was a pastor i don't
know because he's saying hey you know submit yourselves to him and to the work that he's doing
because that's the same instruction he gave to a pastor those that have the rule in the church
to submit under them not to submit under you know to lord of the flock and and and be
this big shot in the church but submit in the sense hey you know encourage the preacher encourage
the workers and get involved in the work yourself look at verse 17 1st corinthians 16 verse 17
i am glad of the coming of stephanus and fortuitous and archaicus for that which was
lacking on your part they have supplied now i don't know who these other two names are
they're not really brought up anywhere else in the bible i tried to find it
but they could be if you remember chapter one they could be of the house of chloe
now if you remember paul says look i'm writing to you i know there are problems in your church
because the house of chloe have confirmed these things have told me about these things
so it's possible these two other names are from the house of chloe
and they've gone to report to paul about the struggles of the church
that's a possibility i don't know i'm just throwing that out there it's not that
important but look at verse number 18 verse 18 for they have refreshed my spirit and yours
therefore acknowledge ye them that are such so kind of like you acknowledge stephanus he's doing
the work but not just him but fortuitous and archaicus acknowledge them as well okay because
it's possible if they were the ones from the house of chloe they're the ones that report him
bad on the church it's possible when they come back to the church they won't be received
very well are you told on us kind of thing right he says no get behind them encourage them
right uh and he says look paul says in verse 18 uh yeah that they refreshed his spirit you
know they were they were a personal blessing to paul when they came to see him as well
now the last point that i want to bring out of this chapter is strengthen brethren from other
churches strengthen strengthen brethren from other churches look at verse 19 he's wrapping up the
chapter now it says the churches of asia salute you so all the churches in asia they know about
you and they send you greetings do you think that would encourage this church that's in
strife absolutely to know that there are other churches that love them and are sending them a
message of greeting right that hey they know they're praying for us they love us right
aquila and priscilla salute you much in the lord now quill and priscilla we know if you
remember in the book of acts they were with paul and they helped get this church started
they were helping paul laboring in the gospel he says look they they greet you they're no
longer they're part of that church they've they've moved to ephesus says here aquila and
priscilla salute you much in the lord with the church that is in their house so they had
a church operating within their house in ephesus and that church salutes you okay they send
their greetings to you all the brethren verse 20 all the brethren greet you greet you one
another with an holy kiss all right so it says look when you come even like greet you one
another so in the church when you when you see one another greet one another with a holy kiss
so starting from sunday no i'm kidding in some places in the world it's still common practice
you know when we went to chile for three months they still greet one another with a
kiss on the cheek there's places around like you know and it took us a while to get used to
that right because i'm not used to just going to a lady and kind of giving a kiss on the cheek
you know i mean but that's normal it's not it's not something inappropriate that's just
normal it's it's abnormal not to do it okay it's abnormal and so that was their tradition
that was their practice they would greet one another with a kiss so how would we apply that
to australia it'd be like a handshake okay that would be the holy kiss of australians
a handshake right that would be appropriate he says greet one another okay and uh you know
sometimes i kind of get frustrated because i'm trying to set things up for church you know the
the audio or whatever my microphone and i see people walk in and i actually want to go there
and greet you i want to go and shake your hand or whatever but i need to get this stuff
done before the you know church starts whatever i feel frustrated because i know we ought to
greet one another and if sometimes you might say well kevin didn't say hi to me now i don't
know if anyone thinks that but i have been in churches where people get frustrated and get
angry at the pastor or get angry at other people in the church because they forgot to say hi to
them or something like that i don't want that to be like that all right that's my intention
my intention is to greet you with that holy handshake okay and to acknowledge your existence
and acknowledge that you're a blessing to me just for being here in the church
right and we see hey that's a good practice for a church we see
paul instructing the korean church do that you know greet one another with a holy kiss
and so that's that's important okay it's important for someone to feel valued
to to be greeted you know and if our church grows to the point you know i encourage you
always greet new visitors greet people you've not spoken to in a while encourage them you know
in the past there's been times where i just didn't want to go to church i just felt down
i just didn't really want to be there you know but then when you get to church and there's
been a time where brother oh kevin great to see you're a blessing you know how's it going
is there anything i can pray for you you know what that's lifted my spirits i'm like yeah i'm
glad i'm here right i'm glad that someone recognizes and acknowledges me and loves me
enough to ask me about my life you know and so please be mindful you know you might not be
the outgoing type you might not be the person that that likes to encourage a believer not
because you don't want to but maybe you're a bit shy in yourselves hey but this is something
you need to work on this is something you need to work on you know be interested in the brethren
greet them make them feel valued it's so important and you know how important if
you came into church and no one acknowledged you no one said hi to you wouldn't you feel a
bit down afterwards yeah i mean this is something that's that's easy to do and it's
very important okay very important to do now uh look at verse 21 the salutation of me paul
with mine own hand so this part of the letter paul has written in his own hand
now you might say what's why is that important well there was back then there were people
trying to um pretend to be poor they would write letters that pretend to be poor
and obviously teach false doctrine so he's saying look this part of the letter i guess
it had a different handwriting or something is from paul okay and i'll just read to you
quickly you don't need to turn there uh second thessalonians chapter 3 verse 17
he says at the end of it he says the salutation of paul with my own hand which is the token in
every epistle so i write so when you see my writing this final bit okay then you know yeah
this definitely came from paul otherwise if it's the same handwriting and he doesn't acknowledge
his little token whatever that is maybe a signature i don't know you know then don't reject that
that's not that's not a teacher from paul that's just someone pretending
that someone's pretending to be paul not to take notice of that verse number 22 we're almost
done here if any man love not the lord jesus christ let him be anathema maranatha
you know what's that why is that not in english well anathema means accursed if someone in
because this church had problems right if there's someone in your church that does not love
christ okay they're speaking bad of him in fact i think we read about that there was some talking
about christ being cursed things of that nature if there's people like that then let them be
accursed okay don't accept them in fellowship don't don't be friends with them this is another
thing that will get you kicked out of church i won't preach on this one though as a separate
topic but if someone's there in the church causing problems saying that and hating jesus
christ then have nothing to do with them let them be accursed okay but then it says maranatha
and what that means is our lord come okay so it's like just final words you know someone hates
the lord in your church just they're a curse get rid of them okay and hey be excited for the
lord's coming as well be excited for his return our lord come and you might say well why
is that written like this why isn't it written in english it was the reason why if you're
curious it's not that important but if you're curious it's because it was a transliteration
of aramaic into greek and not a translation of the aramaic words into greek words
now if you don't know what i'm talking about let me give you an example in our english um
language in our you know there are words most of the words we speak are english words
but you know we also commonly use words that are not english words so i just checked this
with christina again before we came here there are no english words that end with the letter i
are there any exceptions maybe except for i like i but there's no english words do not end with i
what about spaghetti spaghetti ends with i doesn't doesn't it it does so obviously spaghetti
comes from italy it's an italian word but what do you call spaghetti in italy what do you
call spaghetti in italian anyone know spaghetti it's spaghetti okay so my point is this
that word spaghetti in italian was not translated into english we don't have an english word
for spaghetti we have a transliteration of the word which we've basically taken the same word
and applied that to english okay so when the king james translators translated these words
they kept the way it is with the aramaic way of saying it um because it's a transliteration
and not a translation why is that important just for your information okay if you're curious
to know the word menu the word menu is a french word it's not an english word but we
still use it because we use it as a transliteration okay not as a translation all right uh 23 verse 23
the grace of our lord jesus christ be with you my love be with you all in christ
jesus amen now i don't really have any thoughts on those few verses there but you
can see just pull wrapping it up it's i think it's a great epistle i think it's a great book
to go through as a new church especially a church that may be struggling with difficulties
one of the best books you can read through okay but i just want you to think just honestly
yourselves just think of this church okay pretend we have the corinthian church an hour away from us
okay like the way they were we know like literally there's a corinthian church like that
right now okay now chapter one was these people were lifting up men in the position of
jesus christ they were causing divisions over their favorite preachers okay chapter two well
chapter two is not a problem that just the teaching of the spirit of god that teaches us
spiritual things chapter three was about jesus christ being the foundation that we need to lay
our rewards on jesus christ but then chapter four was that they were proud and foolish they
made foolish judgment on believers that were despised by the world if you remember that
paul says hey we're despised but you're you're like you're rich if you remember that like he's
been sarcastic toward him okay because there were people in that church that were proud and they
were looking down they were looking down at believers they were working hard for the lord
but were being despised by the world think about if this church existed right now we have proud
boastful christians they're looking down on people who've been persecuted okay verse chapter
number five is about they were accommodating grievous sin grievous sin they were accommodating
that in the church and they weren't kicking people out over these sins okay uh chapter number
six they were taking brethren to court over trivial matters
chapter eight it was about the liberty in christ that they were using their
liberty in christ and not being mindful of how they were offending their fellow brethren
okay they weren't doing wrong but they weren't being mindful of the brethren that
were weaker or younger brethren and so they were taking their liberty and causing brethren to sin
chapter nine they were resistant toward the apostleship of paul
they didn't want to pay him if you remember that they didn't want to pay him
chapter 11 he had to teach them about the length of hair what the right length of hair
is for a man and what the length of hair is on a woman i mean you have to teach them
some very basic things there and and how they were to administer the lord's supper okay
because there were people in the church greedily eating and drinking not leaving it for anybody
else they weren't mindful about their fellow brethren chapter 13 they were lacking love
in charity and love for one another chapter 14 they were disorganized and unorganized and
disorderly he had to teach them how to be organized and how to have how many preachers
and and how to use you know the unknown tongues in the church and things like that
you know in chapter 15 there was some saying there was no resurrection
there was no reason i mean think about this if we had a ifb church right now that was just
like this church don't tell me you wouldn't throw them out like don't tell them don't
tell me that you would be like i'll just be accepting of them because they're my brethren
you know full well and not even i would if you said to me kevin i'm thinking of going to that
church i'd be like don't go there man that's a disaster they're going to tear you down
they're going to destroy you i would not look lightly i would not look well on that church
okay but what's paul doing paul gets in there and encourages them right he says i love you
i'm going to send leaders to help get you right okay i'm going to teach you doctrine
we're going to get you back and look i would think i would have thought this church
had lost their candlestick i would have thought by now god would have nothing to do
with that church is no longer truly that no longer represents the body of christ whatsoever
that's what i would think and i think if you're honest you would think the same my point is this
let's not be so harsh on churches that are failing okay churches that have maybe doctrine
that we strongly disagree on if they're not fundamentals okay let's not be so harsh on these
people they need to be encouraged okay we need to give them at least the opportunity where
maybe we can be a blessing to them maybe we can encourage them maybe there's a church that's
not doing any soul winning but they're true believers of christ hey there's an opportunity
for us to get in there and say hey brethren can we help you can we get out there knock
doors on your behalf preach the gospel we'll use your tracks it doesn't matter we get the rewards
in heaven it doesn't matter what church or what tracks we're using we'll use your tracks
we'll encourage your brethren if you want us to take him and take him so many and train them
that's what we need to be right and not be so aggressive look they had problems paul had
to fix it okay but let's not throw out every church that doesn't line up perfectly with the
way we would like it okay because that's you lacking charity these people need to be loved
these people need to be encouraged these people need to be prayed for even hey just a
greeting from our church hey man we're praying for you brethren i hope you're doing well hope
you're serving the lord let's make sure we're balancing all these things okay because i'm
not having a go at you because i would be the same i would look at that church and go man
god's done with them god was done with them a long time ago but that's not true
god was still able to come in and help encourage them and when we go through second
carinthians we'll see that this church turn the corner we'll see that this church
got right with the lord and became a true church of god that people looked up to
they got themselves right okay let's pray