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Podcast Host (Ainsley Earhart / Lauren Green)
This podcast is brought to you by Carvana. Car shopping shouldn't feel like preparing for a marathon of paperwork. That's why Carvana makes buying and financing your car easy from start to finish. Search thousands of vehicles with great prices, all online, all on your time. And when you're ready, your new car shows up right at your door. It doesn't get better than that. Buy your car the easy way on Carvana. Delivery fees may apply. Hello everyone, this is Ainsley Earhart. Thank you for joining me for this 38th episode of the 52 episode podcast series the Life of Jesus. In this episode of the Life of Jesus, we will listen into the final five chapters of Paul's second letter to the believers in Corinth. Paul ends this letter to the Corinthian Church by offering encouragement to those who feel like they are too weak or faulty to be of any value to the Kingdom of God. He assures them that God's grace covers all aspects of the human experience. We will then listen to the beginning of Paul's letter to a group of churches in Galatia, a region of Asia Minor that included the cities of Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, all places Paul visited on his missionary journeys. More of the Life of Jesus next. This message may be shocking to many millennials. If you are one, you might want to sit down. Right now, loads of people are searching the following on low rise Jeans, halter top, velour, tracksuit, puka shell necklace, disc belt. You likely placed these in the dark of your closet in 2004, never to be seen again. But if you can find it in yourself to dust them off, there are a lot of people who will give you money for them. Sell on Depop where Taste Recognizes taste.
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Paul (Reading of Paul's Letters)
Now it is superfluous for me to write to you about the offering for the saints, for I know your readiness, of which I boast about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready since last year and your zeal has stirred up most of them. But I am sending the brethren so that our boasting about you may not prove vain in this case, so that you may be ready as I said you would be, lest if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we be humiliated to say nothing of you for being so confident. So I thought it necessary to urge the brethren to go on to you before me and arrange in advance for this gift you have promised, so that it may be ready not as an exaction, but as a willing gift. The point is he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that you may always have enough of everything and may provide in abundance for every good work. As it is written, he scatters abroad, he gives to the poor, his righteousness endures forever. He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your resources and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way for great generosity, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. For the rendering of this service not only supplies the wants of the saints, but but also overflows in many thanksgivings to God. Under the test of this service, you will glorify God by your obedience in acknowledging the gospel of Christ, and by the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God in you. Thanks be to God for this inexpressible gift. I, Paul myself entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. I, who am humble when face to face with you, but bold to you when I am away, I beg of you that when I am present I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of acting in worldly fashion. For though we live in the world, we are not carrying on a worldly war. For the weapons of our warfare are not worldly, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience. When your obedience is complete, look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ, let him remind himself that, that as he is Christ's, so are we. For even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I shall not be put to shame. I would not seem to be frightening you with letters, for they say, his letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account. Let such people understand that what we say by letter when absent, we do when present. Not that we venture to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves, but when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding. But we will not boast beyond limit, but will keep to the limits God has apportioned us to reach, even to you. For we are not overextending ourselves as though we did not reach you. We were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ. We do not boast beyond limits in other men's labors. But our hope is that as your faith increases, our field among you may be greatly enlarged so that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you without boasting of work already done in another's field. Let him who boasts boast of the Lord, for it is not the man who commends himself that is accepted, but the man whom the Lord commends. I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me. I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to Christ to present you as a pure bride to her one husband. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and preaches another Jesus than the one we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you submit to it readily enough. I think that I am not in the least inferior to these superlative apostles. Even if I am unskilled in speaking, I am not in knowledge in every way. We have made this plain to you in all things. Did I commit a sin in abasing myself so that you might be exalted because I preached God's gospel without cost to you? I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you. And when I was with you and was in want, I. I did not burden anyone, for my needs were supplied by the brethren who came from Macedonia. So I refrained, and will refrain from burdening you in any way, as the truth of Christ is in me. This boast of mine shall not be silenced in the regions of Achaia. And why? Because I do not love you. God knows I do. And what I do I will continue to do in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is not strange if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds. I repeat. Let no one think me foolish. But even if you do accept me as a fool so that I too may boast a little, what I am saying, I say not with the Lord's authority, but as a fool in this boastful confidence, since many boast of worldly things, I too will boast for you gladly bear with fools, being wise yourselves, for you bear it. If a man makes slaves of you, or preys upon you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs or. Or strikes you in the face. To my shame, I must say we were too weak for that. But whatever anyone dares to boast of, I'm speaking as a fool. I also dare to boast of that. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one. I am talking like a madman. With far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings and often near death. Five times I have received at the hands of the Jews the 40 lashes, less one. Three times I have been beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I have been shipwrecked. A night and a day I have been adrift at sea on frequent journeys in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brethren in toil and hardship through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food and cold and exposure. And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak and I am not weak, who is made to fall, and I am not indignant. If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed forever, knows that I do not lie at Damascus. The governor under King Aretas guarded the city of Damascus in order to seize me. But I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his hands. I must boast. There is nothing to be gained by it. But I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know. God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise. Whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know. God knows. And he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. On behalf of this man I will boast. But on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. Though if I wish to boast, I shall not be a fool, for I shall be speaking the truth, but I refrain from it. So that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. And to keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I besought the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ. Then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. I have been a fool. You forced me to it, for I ought to have been commended by you. For I was not at all inferior to these superlative apostles, even though I am nothing. The signs of a true apostle were performed among you in all patience with signs and wonders and mighty works. For in what were you less favored than the rest of the churches, except that I myself did not burden you. Forgive me this wrong here. For the third time, I am ready to come to you. And I will not be a burden, for I seek not what is yours but you for children ought not to lay up for their parents, but parents for their children. I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you the more, am I to be loved the less. But granting that I myself did not burden you, I was crafty, you say, and got the better of you by guile. Did I take advantage of you through any of those whom I sent to you? I urged Titus to go and sent the brother with him. Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not act in the same spirit? Did we not take the same steps? Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves before you? It is in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ, and all for your upbuilding, Beloved. For I fear that perhaps I may come and find you not what I wish, and that you may find me not what you wish, that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, selfishness, slander, gossip, conceit and disorder. I fear that when I come again, my God may humble me before you and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned before and have not repented of the impurity, immorality, and licentiousness which they have practiced. This is the third time I am coming to you. Any charge must be sustained by the evidence of two or three witnesses. I warned those who sinned before and all the others. And I warn them now, while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again, I will not spare them. Since you desire proof that Christ is speaking in me, he is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful in you. For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we are weak in him, but in dealing with you we shall live with him by the power of God. Examine yourselves to see whether you are holding to your faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you fail to meet the test? I hope you will find out that we have not failed. But we pray, God, that you may not do wrong, not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed. For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. What we pray for is your improvement. I write this while I am away from you, in order that when I come I may not have to be severe in my use of the authority which the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down. Finally, brethren, farewell. Mend your ways, heed my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you. You all. The letter of paul to the galatians. Paul, an apostle. Not from men, nor through men, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead. And all the brethren who are with me to the churches of Galatia, Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him, who called you in the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel. Not that there is another gospel, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the Gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preach to you, let him be accursed, as we have said before. So now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed. Am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still pleasing men, I should not be a servant of Christ. For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not man's gospel. For I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. But when he who had set me apart before I was born and had called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles. I did not confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me. But I went away into Arabia, and again I returned to Damascus. Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him 15 days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother. In what I am writing to you before God I do not lie. Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and I was still not known by sight to the churches of Christ in Judea. They only heard it said, he who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy. And they glorified God because of me. Then after 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up by Revelation, and I laid before them, but privately before those who were of repute, the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, lest somehow I should be running, or had run in vain. But even Titus, who was with me, was not compelled to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. But because of false brethren secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy out our freedom which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage to them. We did not yield submission even for a moment, that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. And from those who were reputed to be something, what they were Makes no difference to me. God shows no partiality. Those I say, who were of repute added nothing to me. But on the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised. For he who worked through Peter for the mission to the circumcised worked through me also for the Gentiles. And when they perceived the grace that was given to me, James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. Only they would have us remember the poor, which very thing I was eager to do. But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he ate with the Gentiles, but when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And with him the rest of the Jews acted insincerely, so that even Barnabas was carried away by their insincerity. But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, if you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews? We ourselves, who are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners, yet who know that a man is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, Even we have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law shall no one be justified. But if in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we ourselves were found to be sinners, is Christ then an agent of sin? Certainly not. But if I build up again those things which I tore down, then I proved myself a transgressor. For I, through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God. For if justification were through the law, then Christ died to no purpose.
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Podcast Host (Ainsley Earhart / Lauren Green)
I'm Lauren Green. Thank you for listening to this episode of the 52 episode podcast series the Life of Jesus. Make sure to spread the Word. It seems to be the human condition that at one time or another, or maybe even continually, each of us feels we are not enough. We feel we lack ability or knowledge or wisdom or any number of things that are typically prized as life enhancing tools. Paul was no different. But even if he felt total unequal to the task before him, he forged ahead with determination and purpose. How he trusted God to supply wherever he lacked God is not a taskmaster. He doesn't assign duties and then sit back to watch us sink or swim. Our Heavenly Father is never far from us and is always providing what we need to accomplish his plan for our lives. This is because of his limitless grace, his unmerited favor toward those who belong to Him. Father, give me the courage and boldness of Paul to embark on whatever journey you have for me. Thank you for your grace in my life. Thank you for listening to episode 38 of the 52 episode podcast series the Life of Jesus. Make sure to spread the word. Listen ad free with a Fox News Podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. Amazon prime members can listen ad free ad free on the Amazon Music Applied.