Toongabbie Baptist Church: Recent Episodes
Toongabbie Baptist Church
Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath12 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. 2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”3 He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. 5 Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? 6 I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. 7 If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’[a] you would not have condemned the innocent. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”9 Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, 10 and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”11 He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.God’s Chosen Servant15 Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. A large crowd followed him, and he healed all who were ill. 16 He warned them not to tell others about him. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:18 “Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight;I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations.19 He will not quarrel or cry out; no one will hear his voice in the streets.20 A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out,till he has brought justice through to victory.21 In his name the nations will put their hope.”
Matthew 11:20-30Woe on Unrepentant Towns20 Then Jesus began to denounce the towns in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. 21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. 23 And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades.[a] For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. 24 But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”The Father Revealed in the Son25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26 Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.27 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:1-19[1] After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee.[2] When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples [3] to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”[4] Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see:[5] The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. [6] Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”[7] As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? [8] If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings’ palaces. [9] Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. [10] This is the one about whom it is written:“‘I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’[11] Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. [12] From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it. [13] For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. [14] And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. [15] Whoever has ears, let them hear.[16] “To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:[17] “‘We played the pipe for you, and you did not dance;we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’[18] For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon[19] The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.”
Matthew 10:16-4216 “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. 17 Be on your guard; you will be handed over to the local councils and be flogged in the synagogues. 18 On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. 19 But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, 20 for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.21 “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. 22 You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. 23 When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. Truly I tell you, you will not finish going through the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.24 “The student is not above the teacher, nor a servant above his master. 25 It is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!26 “So do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. 27 What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. 28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.[a] 30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.32 “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. 33 But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.34 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn“‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother,a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—36 a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’[b]37 “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.40 “Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41 Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. 42 And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”
Matthew 9:35 -10:15[35] Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. [36] When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. [37] Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. [38] Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”[1] Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.[2] These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; [3] Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; [4] Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.[5] These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. [6] Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. [7] As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ [8] Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.[9] “Do not get any gold or silver or copper to take with you in your belts— [10] no bag for the journey or extra shirt or sandals or a staff, for the worker is worth his keep. [11] Whatever town or village you enter, search there for some worthy person and stay at their house until you leave.[12] As you enter the home, give it your greeting. [13] If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. [14] If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet. [15] Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.
Matthew 9:18-34Jesus Raises a Dead Girl and Heals a Sick Woman18 While he was saying this, a synagogue leader came and knelt before him and said, “My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.” 19 Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.20 Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. 21 She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”22 Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment.23 When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, 24 he said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. 25 After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. 26 News of this spread through all that region.Jesus Heals the Blind and the Mute27 As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”28 When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”“Yes, Lord,” they replied.29 Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done to you”; 30 and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this.” 31 But they went out and spread the news about him all over that region.32 While they were going out, a man who was demon-possessed and could not talk was brought to Jesus. 33 And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowd was amazed and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”34 But the Pharisees said, “It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons.”
Jesus Forgives and Heals a Paralyzed Man9 Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. 2 Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”3 At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!”4 Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? 5 Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 6 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” 7 Then the man got up and went home. 8 When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to man.The Calling of Matthew9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’[a] For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”Jesus Questioned About Fasting14 Then John’s disciples came and asked him, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?”15 Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.16 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. 17 Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”
Matthew 8:18-34The Cost of Following Jesus:18 When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. 19 Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”20 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”21 Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”22 But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”Jesus Calms the Storm23 Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. 24 Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25 The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”26 He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.27 The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”Jesus Restores Two Demon-Possessed Men28 When he arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes,[a] two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him. They were so violent that no one could pass that way. 29 “What do you want with us, Son of God?” they shouted. “Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?”30 Some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding. 31 The demons begged Jesus, “If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.”32 He said to them, “Go!” So they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water. 33 Those tending the pigs ran off, went into the town and reported all this, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. 34 Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they pleaded with him to leave their region.
Matthew 8: 1-17 [1] When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him.[2] A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”[3] Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. [4] Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”[5] When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help.[6] “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”[7] Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”[8] The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. [9] For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” [10] When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith[11] I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. [12] But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”[13] Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment.[14] When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. [15] He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him.[16] When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. [17] This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
Proverbs 31: 10-31 Epilogue: The Wife of Noble Character10 A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.11 Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.12 She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.13 She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands.14 She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar.15 She gets up while it is still night; she provides food for her family and portions for her female servants.16 She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.17 She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks.18 She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night.19 In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers.20 She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy.21 When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet.22 She makes coverings for her bed; she is clothed in fine linen and purple.23 Her husband is respected at the city gate, where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.24 She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies the merchants with sashes.25 She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.26 She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue.27 She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.28 Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her:29 “Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.”30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.31 Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.
1 Corinthians 13If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Matthew 20:17-2817 Now Jesus was going up to Jerusalem. On the way, he took the Twelve aside and said to them, 18 “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death 19 and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!”20 Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him.21 “What is it you want?” he asked.She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.”22 “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?”“We can,” they answered.23 Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father.”4 When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers. 25 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Romans 8:14-16[4] This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.[18] The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”[19] Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. [20] So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. But for Adam no suitable helper was found.[21] So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs[b] and then closed up the place with flesh.[22] Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib[c] he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.[23] The man said“This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh;she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”[24] That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.[25] Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.Romans 8:14-16:[14] For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. [15] The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” [16] The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
Genesis 1:26-2:726 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.2 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.Adam and Eve4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.5 Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth[b] and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, 6 but streams[c] came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. 7 Then the Lord God formed a man[d] from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
John 20:1-181 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb.4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
John 19:28-3728 Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” 29 A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. 30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.31 Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. 32 The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. 33 But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. 35 The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. 36 These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,”37 and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”
[19] So David went up, as the Lord had commanded through Gad.[20] When Araunah looked and saw the king and his officials coming toward him, he went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground.[21] Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” “To buy your threshing floor,” David answered, “so I can build an altar to the Lord, that the plague on the people may be stopped.”[22] Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take whatever he wishes and offer it up. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood. [23] Your Majesty, Araunah gives all this to the king.” Araunah also said to him, “May the Lord your God accept you.” [24] But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels of silver for them.[25] David built an altar to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the Lord answered his prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.
2 Samuel 19:14-33[14] He won over the hearts of the men of Judah so that they were all of one mind. They sent word to the king, “Return, you and all your men.” [15] Then the king returned and went as far as the Jordan. Now the men of Judah had come to Gilgal to go out and meet the king and bring him across the Jordan. [16] Shimei son of Gera, the Benjamite from Bahurim, hurried down with the men of Judah to meet King David. [17] With him were a thousand Benjamites, along with Ziba, the steward of Saul’s household, and his fifteen sons and twenty servants. They rushed to the Jordan, where the king was.[18] They crossed at the ford to take the king’s household over and to do whatever he wished. When Shimei son of Gera crossed the Jordan, he fell prostrate before the king [19] and said to him, “May my lord not hold me guilty. Do not remember how your servant did wrong on the day my lord the king left Jerusalem. May the king put it out of his mind. [20] For I your servant know that I have sinned, but today I have come here as the first from the tribes of Joseph to come down and meet my lord the king.”[21] Then Abishai son of Zeruiah said, “Shouldn’t Shimei be put to death for this? He cursed the Lord’s anointed.”[22] David replied, “What does this have to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? What right do you have to interfere? Should anyone be put to death in Israel today? Don’t I know that today I am king over Israel?” [23] So the king said to Shimei, “You shall not die.” And the king promised him on oath.[24] Mephibosheth, Saul’s grandson, also went down to meet the king. He had not taken care of his feet or trimmed his mustache or washed his clothes from the day the king left until the day he returned safely. [25] When he came from Jerusalem to meet the king, the king asked him, “Why didn’t you go with me, Mephibosheth?”[26] He said, “My lord the king, since I your servant am lame, I said, ‘I will have my donkey saddled and will ride on it, so I can go with the king.’ But Ziba my servant betrayed me. [27] And he has slandered your servant to my lord the king. My lord the king is like an angel of God; so do whatever you wish. [28] All my grandfather’s descendants deserved nothing but death from my lord the king, but you gave your servant a place among those who eat at your table. So what right do I have to make any more appeals to the king?”[29] The king said to him, “Why say more? I order you and Ziba to divide the land.”[30] Mephibosheth said to the king, “Let him take everything, now that my lord the king has returned home safely.”[31] Barzillai the Gileadite also came down from Rogelim to cross the Jordan with the king and to send him on his way from there.[32] Now Barzillai was very old, eighty years of age. He had provided for the king during his stay in Mahanaim, for he was a very wealthy man. [33] The king said to Barzillai, “Cross over with me and stay with me in Jerusalem, and I will provide for you.”[34] But Barzillai answered the king, “How many more years will I live, that I should go up to Jerusalem with the king? [35] I am now eighty years old. Can I tell the difference between what is enjoyable and what is not? Can your servant taste what he eats and drinks? Can I still hear the voices of male and female singers? Why should your servant be an added burden to my lord the king? [36] Your servant will cross over the Jordan with the king for a short distance, but why should the king reward me in this way? [37] Let your servant return, that I may die in my own town near the tomb of my father and mother. But here is your servant Kimham. Let him cross over with my lord the king. Do for him whatever you wish.”[38] The king said, “Kimham shall cross over with me, and I will do for him whatever you wish. And anything you desire from me I will do for you.”
2 Samuel 13:1-22[1] In the course of time, Amnon son of David fell in love with Tamar, the beautiful sister of Absalom son of David.[2] Amnon became so obsessed with his sister Tamar that he made himself ill. She was a virgin, and it seemed impossible for him to do anything to her.[3] Now Amnon had an adviser named Jonadab son of Shimeah, David’s brother. Jonadab was a very shrewd man. [4] He asked Amnon, “Why do you, the king’s son, look so haggard morning after morning? Won’t you tell me?”Amnon said to him, “I’m in love with Tamar, my brother Absalom’s sister.”[5] “Go to bed and pretend to be ill,” Jonadab said. “When your father comes to see you, say to him, ‘I would like my sister Tamar to come and give me something to eat. Let her prepare the food in my sight so I may watch her and then eat it from her hand.’”[6] So Amnon lay down and pretended to be ill. When the king came to see him, Amnon said to him, “I would like my sister Tamar to come and make some special bread in my sight, so I may eat from her hand.”[7] David sent word to Tamar at the palace: “Go to the house of your brother Amnon and prepare some food for him.”[8] So Tamar went to the house of her brother Amnon, who was lying down. She took some dough, kneaded it, made the bread in his sight and baked it. [9] Then she took the pan and served him the bread, but he refused to eat.“Send everyone out of here,” Amnon said. So everyone left him. [10] Then Amnon said to Tamar, “Bring the food here into my bedroom so I may eat from your hand.” And Tamar took the bread she had prepared and brought it to her brother Amnon in his bedroom. [11] But when she took it to him to eat, he grabbed her and said, “Come to bed with me, my sister.”[12] “No, my brother!” she said to him. “Don’t force me! Such a thing should not be done in Israel! Don’t do this wicked thing. [13] What about me? Where could I get rid of my disgrace? And what about you? You would be like one of the wicked fools in Israel. Please speak to the king; he will not keep me from being married to you.” [14] But he refused to listen to her, and since he was stronger than she, he raped her.[15] Then Amnon hated her with intense hatred. In fact, he hated her more than he had loved her. Amnon said to her, “Get up and get out!”[16] “No!” she said to him. “Sending me away would be a greater wrong than what you have already done to me.”But he refused to listen to her. [17] He called his personal servant and said, “Get this woman out of my sight and bolt the door after her.” [18] So his servant put her out and bolted the door after her. She was wearing an ornate robe, for this was the kind of garment the virgin daughters of the king wore. [19] Tamar put ashes on her head and tore the ornate robe she was wearing. She put her hands on her head and went away, weeping aloud as she went.[20] Her brother Absalom said to her, “Has that Amnon, your brother, been with you? Be quiet for now, my sister; he is your brother. Don’t take this thing to heart.” And Tamar lived in her brother Absalom’s house, a desolate woman.[21] When King David heard all this, he was furious. [22] And Absalom never said a word to Amnon, either good or bad; he hated Amnon because he had disgraced his sister Tamar.
2 Samuel 11:1-5[1] In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. [2] One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, [3] and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” [4] Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back home. [5] The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”2 Samuel 12: 5-14[5] David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! [6] He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.” [7] Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. [8] I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. [9] Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. [10] Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’ [11] “This is what the Lord says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. [12] You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’” [13] Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. [14] But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord, the son born to you will die.”
2 Samuel 8:15-9:13[15] David reigned over all Israel, doing what was just and right for all his people. [16] Joab son of Zeruiah was over the army; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was recorder; [17] Zadok son of Ahitub and Ahimelek son of Abiathar were priests; Seraiah was secretary; [18] Benaiah son of Jehoiada was over the Kerethites and Pelethites; and David’s sons were priests.[1] David asked, “Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”[2] Now there was a servant of Saul’s household named Ziba. They summoned him to appear before David, and the king said to him, “Are you Ziba?” “At your service,” he replied.[3] The king asked, “Is there no one still alive from the house of Saul to whom I can show God’s kindness?”Ziba answered the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan; he is lame in both feet.”[4] “Where is he?” the king asked. Ziba answered, “He is at the house of Makir son of Ammiel in Lo Debar.”[5] So King David had him brought from Lo Debar, from the house of Makir son of Ammiel.[6] When Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed down to pay him honor.David said, “Mephibosheth!”“At your service,” he replied.[7] “Don’t be afraid,” David said to him, “for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.”[8] Mephibosheth bowed down and said, “What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me?”[9] Then the king summoned Ziba, Saul’s steward, and said to him, “I have given your master’s grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family. [10] You and your sons and your servants are to farm the land for him and bring in the crops, so that your master’s grandson may be provided for. And Mephibosheth, grandson of your master, will always eat at my table.” (Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.)[11] Then Ziba said to the king, “Your servant will do whatever my lord the king commands his servant to do.” So Mephibosheth ate at David’s table like one of the king’s sons.[12] Mephibosheth had a young son named Mika, and all the members of Ziba’s household were servants of Mephibosheth. [13] And Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king’s table; he was lame in both feet.
2 Samuel 7:1-17[1] After the king was settled in his palace and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him, [2] he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent.”[3] Nathan replied to the king, “Whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the Lord is with you.”[4] But that night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying:[5] “Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord says: Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in?[6] I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling. [7] Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”’[8] “Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I took you from the pasture, from tending the flock, and appointed you ruler over my people Israel. [9] I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men on earth. [10] And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore, as they did at the beginning [11] and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over my people Israel. I will also give you rest from all your enemies. “‘The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you:[12] When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. [13] He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. [14] I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. [15] But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. [16] Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’”[17] Nathan reported to David all the words of this entire revelation.
2 Samuel 6:1-17[1] David again brought together all the able young men of Israel—thirty thousand. [2] He and all his men went to Baalah in Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the Name, the name of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim on the ark. [3] They set the ark of God on a new cart and brought it from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new cart [4] with the ark of God on it, and Ahio was walking in front of it. [5] David and all Israel were celebrating with all their might before the Lord, with castanets, harps, lyres, timbrels, sistrums and cymbals. [6] When they came to the threshing floor of Nakon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. [7] The Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down, and he died there beside the ark of God. [8] Then David was angry because the Lord’s wrath had broken out against Uzzah, and to this day that place is called Perez Uzzah. [9] David was afraid of the Lord that day and said, “How can the ark of the Lord ever come to me?” [10] He was not willing to take the ark of the Lord to be with him in the City of David. Instead, he took it to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. [11] The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite for three months, and the Lord blessed him and his entire household. [12] Now King David was told, “The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God.” So David went to bring up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing. [13] When those who were carrying the ark of the Lord had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. [14] Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, [15] while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets. [16] As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart. [17] They brought the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the Lord.
2 Samuel 1:1-16[1] After the death of Saul, David returned from striking down the Amalekites and stayed in Ziklag two days. [2] On the third day a man arrived from Saul’s camp with his clothes torn and dust on his head. When he came to David, he fell to the ground to pay him honor.[3] “Where have you come from?” David asked him.He answered, “I have escaped from the Israelite camp.”[4] “What happened?” David asked. “Tell me.”“The men fled from the battle,” he replied. “Many of them fell and died. And Saul and his son Jonathan are dead.”[5] Then David said to the young man who brought him the report, “How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?”[6] “I happened to be on Mount Gilboa,” the young man said, “and there was Saul, leaning on his spear, with the chariots and their drivers in hot pursuit. [7] When he turned around and saw me, he called out to me, and I said, ‘What can I do?’[8] “He asked me, ‘Who are you?’“‘An Amalekite,’ I answered.[9] “Then he said to me, ‘Stand here by me and kill me! I’m in the throes of death, but I’m still alive.’[10] “So I stood beside him and killed him, because I knew that after he had fallen he could not survive. And I took the crown that was on his head and the band on his arm and have brought them here to my lord.”[11] Then David and all the men with him took hold of their clothes and tore them. [12] They mourned and wept and fasted till evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the army of the Lord and for the nation of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.[13] David said to the young man who brought him the report, “Where are you from?”“I am the son of a foreigner, an Amalekite,” he answered.[14] David asked him, “Why weren’t you afraid to lift your hand to destroy the Lord’s anointed?”[15] Then David called one of his men and said, “Go, strike him down!” So he struck him down, and he died. [16] For David had said to him, “Your blood be on your own head. Your own mouth testified against you when you said, ‘I killed the Lord’s anointed.’”
Luke 2:1-15(1) In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (2) (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) (3) And everyone went to their own town to register.(4) So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. (5) He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. (6) While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, (7) and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.(8) And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. (9) An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. (10) But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. (11) Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. (12) This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”(13) Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,(14) “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests.”(15) When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
Isaiah 59:9-21(9)So justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us.We look for light, but all is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows.(10)Like the blind we grope along the wall, feeling our way like people without eyes.At midday we stumble as if it were twilight; among the strong, we are like the dead.(11)We all growl like bears; we moan mournfully like doves.We look for justice, but find none; for deliverance, but it is far away.(12)For our offenses are many in your sight, and our sins testify against us.Our offenses are ever with us, and we acknowledge our iniquities:(13)rebellion and treachery against the Lord, turning our backs on our God,inciting revolt and oppression, uttering lies our hearts have conceived.(14)So justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance;truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter.(15)Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey.The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice.(16)He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene;so his own arm achieved salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him.(17)He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head;he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.(18)According to what they have done, so will he repaywrath to his enemies and retribution to his foes; he will repay the islands their due.(19)From the west, people will fear the name of the Lord, and from the rising of the sun, they will revere his glory.For he will come like a pent-up flood that the breath of the Lord drives along.(20)“The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,”declares the Lord.(21) “As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord. “My Spirit, who is on you, will not depart from you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will always be on your lips, on the lips of your children and on the lips of their descendants—from this time on and forever,” says the Lord.
Luke 15:1-7(1) Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. (2) But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”(3) Then Jesus told them this parable: (4) “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? (5) And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders (6) and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ (7) I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
Genesis 6:5-8(5) The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. (6) The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. (7) So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” (8) But Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord.
Genesis 1:26-2:17(26) Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”(27) So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.(28) God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”(29) Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. (30) And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.(31) God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.(2:1) Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.(2) By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. (3) Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.(4) This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.(5) Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, (6) but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. (7) Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.(8) Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. (9) The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.(10) A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. (11) The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. (12) (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) (13) The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. (14) The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.(15) The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. (16) And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; (17) but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”John 17:3(3) Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
1 Corinthians 16:1-18(1) Now about the collection for the Lord’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. (2) On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. (3) Then, when I arrive, I will give letters of introduction to the men you approve and send them with your gift to Jerusalem. (4) If it seems advisable for me to go also, they will accompany me.(5) After I go through Macedonia, I will come to you—for I will be going through Macedonia. (6) Perhaps I will stay with you for a while, or even spend the winter, so that you can help me on my journey, wherever I go. (7) For I do not want to see you now and make only a passing visit; I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. (8) But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, (9) because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me.(10) When Timothy comes, see to it that he has nothing to fear while he is with you, for he is carrying on the work of the Lord, just as I am. (11) No one, then, should treat him with contempt. Send him on his way in peace so that he may return to me. I am expecting him along with the brothers.(12) Now about our brother Apollos: I strongly urged him to go to you with the brothers. He was quite unwilling to go now, but he will go when he has the opportunity.(13) Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. (14) Do everything in love.(15) You know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and they have devoted themselves to the service of the Lord’s people. I urge you, brothers and sisters, (16) to submit to such people and to everyone who joins in the work and labours at it. (17) I was glad when Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus arrived, because they have supplied what was lacking from you. (18) For they refreshed my spirit and yours also. Such men deserve recognition.
1 Corinthians 15:50-58(50) I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. (51) Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— (52) in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. (53) For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. (54) When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”(55) “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”(56) The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. (57) But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.(58) Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
1 Corinthians 15:29-49(29) Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptised for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptised for them? (30) And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? (31) I face death every day—yes, just as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus our Lord. (32) If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised,“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”(33) Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” (34) Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame.(35) But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” (36) How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. (37) When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. (38) But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. (39) Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. (40) There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. (41) The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.(42) So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; (43) it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; (44) it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. (45) So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. (46) The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. (47) The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. (48) As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. (49) And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.
1 Corinthians 15:12-28(12) But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? (13) If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. (14) And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. (15) More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. (16) For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. (17) And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. (18) Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. (19) If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.(20) But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. (21) For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. (22) For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. (23) But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. (24) Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. (25) For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. (26) The last enemy to be destroyed is death. (27) For he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. (28) When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.
1 Corinthians 15:1-11(1) Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. (2) By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.(3) For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, (4) that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, (5) and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. (6) After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. (7) Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, (8) and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.(9) For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. (10) But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. (11) Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.
1 Corinthians 14:26-40(26) What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up. (27) If anyone speaks in a tongue, two—or at the most three—should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret. (28) If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and to God.(29) Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. (30) And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. (31) For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged. (32) The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. (33) For God is not a God of disorder but of peace—as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people.(34) Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. (35) If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.(36) Or did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only people it has reached? (37) If anyone thinks they are a prophet or otherwise gifted by the Spirit, let them acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord’s command. (38) But if anyone ignores this, they will themselves be ignored.(39) Therefore, my brothers and sisters, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. (40) But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.
Revelation 7:9-12(9) After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. (10) And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”(11) All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, (12) saying: “Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!”1 Peter 3:8-9(8) Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. (9) Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.
Jeremiah 29:4-7(4) This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: (5) “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. (6) Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. (7) Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” 1 Peter 2:12-17(12) Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.(13) Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, (14) or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. (15) For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. (16) Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. (17) Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.
1 Peter 1:13-2:3(13) Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. (14) As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. (15) But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; (16) for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”(17) Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. (18) For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, (19) but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. (20) He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. (21) Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.(22) Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. (23) For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. (24) For,“All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;the grass withers and the flowers fall, (25) but the word of the Lord endures forever.”And this is the word that was preached to you.(2:1) Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. (2) Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, (3) now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
"Edifying is to build up. We are brick by brick, building them up to be more and more like Jesus Christ. We want to see them spiritually mature. We want to see the church built up brick by brick by brick. Pursue the way of love that builds up. See, church isn't a place for entertainment. It's a place where we worship God. But we also encourage one another."We are challenged that love doesn't show off, but it builds up. Secondly, it doesn't confuse but brings clarity: it is intelligible and therefore stirs our hearts. Finally, love doesn't point to you, but it points to God, allowing people to see the Saviour.1 Corinthians 14:1-25(1) Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. (2) For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit. (3) But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort. (4) Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church. (5) I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be edified.(6) Now, brothers and sisters, if I come to you and speak in tongues, what good will I be to you, unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or word of instruction? (7) Even in the case of lifeless things that make sounds, such as the pipe or harp, how will anyone know what tune is being played unless there is a distinction in the notes? (8) Again, if the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle? (9) So it is with you. Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking into the air. (10) Undoubtedly there are all sorts of languages in the world, yet none of them is without meaning. (11) If then I do not grasp the meaning of what someone is saying, I am a foreigner to the speaker, and the speaker is a foreigner to me. (12) So it is with you. Since you are eager for gifts of the Spirit, try to excel in those that build up the church.(13) For this reason the one who speaks in a tongue should pray that they may interpret what they say. (14) For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. (15) So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding. (16) Otherwise when you are praising God in the Spirit, how can someone else, who is now put in the position of an inquirer, say “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since they do not know what you are saying? (17) You are giving thanks well enough, but no one else is edified.(18) I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. (19) But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.(20) Brothers and sisters, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults. (21) In the Law it is written:“With other tongues and through the lips of foreignersI will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to me,says the Lord.”(22) Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers; prophecy, however, is not for unbelievers but for believers. (23) So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and inquirers or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind? (24) But if an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all, (25) as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!”
"We're called to read it as if it's something that's been done for us, that God has been patient with you, he's been kind to you. He does not keep a record of your wrongs. He always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres with you.Now, if you read that like that, that has been done to you, and you understand the love that God is offering to you, if you really understand that, you won't seek love anywhere else, because it will just fill you up. You can love without trying to demand it from others, because you're always filled with the love of God."We are reminded that giftedness is not the same as grace - that just because a ministry is successful, it doesn't indicate a supernaturally changed heart. Furthermore, goodness does not equal godliness, and we are all capable of doing the right thing for the wrong motive. This passage ultimately points towards the personification of Jesus Christ Himself, who fills us with His love, allowing us to live a life full of grace and godliness.1 Corinthians 13:1-13(1) If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. (2) If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. (3) If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.(4) Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. (5) It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. (6) Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. (7) It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.(8) Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. (9) For we know in part and we prophesy in part, (10) but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. (11) When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. (12) For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.(13) And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
"Jesus is not ashamed to call you a brother or a sister. What Paul wants you to know is that he wants to remind you that the universal experience of all Christians is the Spirit, that you exalt Jesus Christ. That we're family, that we are one in our diversity. We're family. Don't be ashamed. Jesus is not ashamed to call you his brother. He's not ashamed for him to call you his sister. You are dearly loved." We are reminded that we are all part of the body of Christ in our diversity, and that "you need others and others need you". We often fall for one of two lies: that either we're not needed or that they can't survive without us, but we were ultimately reminded that God transforms you through others and others through you.1 Corinthians 12:12-31(12) Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. (13) For we were all baptised by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. (14) Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.(15) Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. (16) And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. (17) If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? (18) But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. (19) If they were all one part, where would the body be? (20) As it is, there are many parts, but one body.(21) The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” (22) On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, (23) and the parts that we think are less honourable we treat with special honour. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, (24) while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honour to the parts that lacked it, (25) so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. (26) If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.(27) Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. (28) And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. (29) Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? (30) Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? (31) Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.
"True spirituality is not about the spotlight. It's not about the spectacular. It's about confessing Jesus as Lord. It's about serving others. And it's about exalting Christ above all so that we bring glory and honour to the King of Kings, the one true God. True spirituality is seen in the exaltation of Jesus, not the elevation of self."We are challenged that true spirituality is not about exalting ourselves or having the spotlight. The mark of the Holy Spirit is not spectacular things in themselves or miraculous wonders, but it is about exalting Jesus as Lord; confessing that is what makes a person spiritual. The Spirit unites us around the one God, as we all work together, with the gifts we have been given by grace, all working towards the one thing, of making Christ known.1 Corinthians 12:1-11(1) Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. (2) You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. (3) Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.(4) There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. (5) There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. (6) There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.(7) Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. (8) To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, (9) to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, (10) to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. (11) All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.
"Be very mindful of who we naturally gravitate towards and who we naturally gravitate away from. Are we going to be a multicultural church and then be segregated by our race? That's ridiculous. Because our Christian culture means that every nation, every tribe, as Jesus mentions in the Great Commission, are equally valuable in his eyes. And if they're valuable in the eyes of Jesus, they must be valuable in our eyes, for we reflect the heart of God."Diddy continues through our 'For the Glory' series, looking at the communion from 1 Corinthians 11:17-34. We examine the issue of the heart, challenged to consider whether we look down on others within our community, and we are reminded that we are all adopted into the family of God. Through communion, we proclaim the truth of Christ's victory until He returns.1 Corinthians 11:17-34(17) In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. (18) In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. (19) No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval. (20) So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, (21) for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk. (22) Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? Certainly not in this matter!(23) For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, (24) and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” (25) In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” (26) For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.(27) So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. (28) Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. (29) For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. (30) That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. (31) But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. (32) Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world.(33) So then, my brothers and sisters, when you gather to eat, you should all eat together. (34) Anyone who is hungry should eat something at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment.And when I come I will give further directions.
"Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. In our cultural moment, one of the ways in which we can bring glory to God is that we honour in our services. We honour the beauty of God's design in an appropriate way that makes sure that everyone knows that we are equal, that we affirm one another. And so as we do that, as we express the gospel like that, as we live that out, we will display the beauty of the kingdom to the world around us."We are reminded that though the order in worship was flipped upside down at the fall, Christ has redeemed it, that we may serve each other as distinctive but equal people, and shine the love of Jesus through this.1 Corinthians 11:2-16(2) I praise you for remembering me in everything and for holding to the traditions just as I passed them on to you. (3) But I want you to realise that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. (4) Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonours his head. (5) But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonours her head—it is the same as having her head shaved. (6) For if a woman does not cover her head, she might as well have her hair cut off; but if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, then she should cover her head.(7) A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. (8) For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; (9) neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. (10) It is for this reason that a woman ought to have authority over her own head, because of the angels. (11) Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. (12) For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God.(13) Judge for yourselves: Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? (14) Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, (15) but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering. (16) If anyone wants to be contentious about this, we have no other practice—nor do the churches of God.
"We're always part of something bigger, which means that every action, every reaction, is part of a constant narrative that's being played out. And that our life is a signpost, indicating that every action points to something or somewhere. The only question is, where are we pointing people to?Are we pointing them to self-interest, to bitterness, to fear, to pride? Or are we pointing them towards Jesus?"We are challenged to consider how our lives are pointing to something greater. Our lives are a sermon; they might be the only Bible someone ever reads, and they may shape someone if they trust Christ more or less. So, we are challenged to sacrifice and be willing to die to ourselves for others' salvation. And we do so out of joy, because Christ perfectly represented us to the Father, so we represent him before the world as a joyful child who knows they're already loved.1 Corinthians 10:23-11:1(23) “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. (24) No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.(25) Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, (26) for, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.”(27) If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. (28) But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, both for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience. (29) I am referring to the other person’s conscience, not yours. For why is my freedom being judged by another’s conscience? (30) If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for?(31) So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. (32) Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God— (33) even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved. (11:1) Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.
"We are running for an imperishable crown. We get to invest our whole life to run a race that we get to receive an imperishable crown, which is the Lord Jesus Christ, the one in whom is above all things, the one whom we desire and treasure. He says we get him. So why don't you run?"We are challenged with the question: "What kind of runner are you?" We want to be a church of Christ followers who don't just start the race well, but we also want to end well. We want to run to win, to lay down everything, to be disciplined as Paul was, for an imperishable prize. We are warned that we are only one step away from danger; however, we have great hope in Christ, who will never let us go. And so as a church, we run together, to keep each other on track as we run towards the crown of glory that awaits.1 Corinthians 9:24-10:13(24) Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. (25) Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. (26) Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. (27) No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.(10:1) For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. (2) They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. (3) They all ate the same spiritual food (4) and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. (5) Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.(6) Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. (7) Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.” (8) We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. (9) We should not test Christ, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. (10) And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.(11) These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. (12) So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! (13) No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
We are challenged by the question: how do we, in a city where it's all about personal rights, filled with thinking that 'I deserve this', and where it's all about our individual freedom, how do we live in that as followers of Jesus? We hear that we lay down our rights so that other people may gain life in Jesus Christ. We are challenged by four application points. Personally, to listen well and be adaptable, to build a gospel-shaped church with Christ over culture, to put Jesus first within families and to see every newcomer as a gospel opportunity.1 Corinthians 9:1-23(1) Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord? (2) Even though I may not be an apostle to others, surely I am to you! For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.(3) This is my defense to those who sit in judgment on me. (4) Don’t we have the right to food and drink? (5) Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas? (6) Or is it only I and Barnabas who lack the right to not work for a living?(7) Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink the milk? (8) Do I say this merely on human authority? Doesn’t the Law say the same thing? (9) For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it about oxen that God is concerned? (10) Surely he says this for us, doesn’t he? Yes, this was written for us, because whoever plows and threshes should be able to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest. (11) If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you? (12) If others have this right of support from you, shouldn’t we have it all the more?But we did not use this right. On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ.(13) Don’t you know that those who serve in the temple get their food from the temple, and that those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? (14) In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.(15) But I have not used any of these rights. And I am not writing this in the hope that you will do such things for me, for I would rather die than allow anyone to deprive me of this boast. (16) For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! (17) If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me. (18) What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not make full use of my rights as a preacher of the gospel.(19) Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. (20) To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. (21) To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. (22) To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. (23) I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
"We need to live as people who are driven not by fears and taboos and superstitions, nor by the pressures of the culture around us and the desire to conform and fit in, but instead by the gospel of the crucified Jesus. We need to live as people who love God above all else and who are known by God, as people who know that our whole lives are to be lived, as Paul puts it in verse six, through and for the Lord Jesus, as people who know and love our neighbour as a person for whom the same Lord Jesus died. We need to live as people who use our knowledge and our freedom in their service for his glory."Paul tells the Corinthian church that while they were technically correct in their thinking about knowledge and about freedom: they were at the same time dreadfully wrong. They were missing love, and destroying their brother and sister in Christ whom Christ died for, by exercising their rights freely. We are challenged to consider how this applies to us in Sydney, in 2025, as we sail through a sea of idolatries, to exercise the freedom we have in Christ with love for each member of God's family.1 Corinthians 8(1) Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. (2) Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. (3) But whoever loves God is known by God.(4) So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that “An idol is nothing at all in the world” and that “There is no God but one.” (5) For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), (6) yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.(7) But not everyone possesses this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. (8) But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.(9) Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak. (10) For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols? (11) So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. (12) When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. (13) Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.
Matthew 7:1-12(1) “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. (2) For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.(3) “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? (4) How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? (5) You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.(6) “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.(7) “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. (8) For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.(9) “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? (10) Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? (11) If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! (12) So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”
Matthew 6:16-18(16) “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. (17) But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, (18) so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
Matthew 6:16-18(16) “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. (17) But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, (18) so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
Matthew 6:25-34(25) “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? (26) Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? (27) Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?(28) “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. (29) Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. (30) If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? (31) So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ (32) For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. (33) But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (34) Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Matthew 6:1-4(1) “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.(2) “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. (3) But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, (4) so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.Matthew 6:19-24(19) “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. (20) But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. (21) For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.(22) “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. (23) But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!(24) “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
Matthew 6:5-15(5) “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. (6) But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (7) And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. (8) Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.(9) “This, then, is how you should pray:“‘Our Father in heaven,hallowed be your name,(10) your kingdom come,your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.(11) Give us today our daily bread.(12) And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.(13) And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’(14) For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. (15) But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
Matthew 7:13–23(13) “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. (14) But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.(15) “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. (16) By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? (17) Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. (18) A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. (19) Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. (20) Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.(21) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. (22) Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ (23) Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
Matthew 7:24-28(24) “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. (25) The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. (26) But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. (27) The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”(28) When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching,
Matthew 5:38-48(38) “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ (39) But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. (40) And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. (41) If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. (42) Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.Love for Enemies(43) “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ (44) But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, (45) that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. (46) If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? (47) And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? (48) Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:31-37(31) “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ (32) But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.(33) “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ (34) But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; (35) or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. (36) And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. (37) All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.”
Matthew 5:21-30(21) “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ (22) But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.(23) “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, (24) leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.(25) “Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. (26) Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.(27) “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ (28) But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (29) If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. (30) And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.”
Matthew 5:13-20(13) “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.(14) “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. (15) Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. (16) In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.(17) “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. (18) For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. (19) Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (20) For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 5:1-12(1) Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, (2) and he began to teach them.He said:(3) “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.(4) Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.(5) Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.(6) Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.(7) Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.(8) Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.(9) Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.(10) Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.(11) “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. (12) Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
John 11:1-27(1) Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (2) (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) (3) So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”(4) When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” (5) Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. (6) So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, (7) and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”(8) “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”(9) Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. (10) It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”(11) After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”(12) His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” (13) Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.(14) So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, (15) and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”(16) Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”(17) On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. (18) Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, (19) and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. (20) When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.(21) “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. (22) But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”(23) Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”(24) Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”(25) Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; (26) and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”(27) “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
John 10:1-21(1) “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. (2) The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. (3) The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. (4) When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. (5) But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” (6) Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.(7) Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. (8) All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. (9) I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. (10) The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.(11) “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. (12) The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. (13) The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.(14) “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— (15) just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. (16) I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. (17) The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. (18) No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”(19) The Jews who heard these words were again divided. (20) Many of them said, “He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?”(21) But others said, “These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”
1 Samuel 30:1-6(1) David and his men reached Ziklag on the third day. Now the Amalekites had raided the Negev and Ziklag. They had attacked Ziklag and burned it, (2) and had taken captive the women and everyone else in it, both young and old. They killed none of them, but carried them off as they went on their way.(3) When David and his men reached Ziklag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. (4) So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep. (5) David’s two wives had been captured—Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. (6) David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the Lord his God.1 Samuel 31:1-6(1) Now the Philistines fought against Israel; the Israelites fled before them, and many fell dead on Mount Gilboa. (2) The Philistines were in hot pursuit of Saul and his sons, and they killed his sons Jonathan, Abinadab and Malki-Shua. (3) The fighting grew fierce around Saul, and when the archers overtook him, they wounded him critically.(4) Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through, or these uncircumcised fellows will come and run me through and abuse me.”But his armor-bearer was terrified and would not do it; so Saul took his own sword and fell on it. (5) When the armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell on his sword and died with him. (6) So Saul and his three sons and his armor-bearer and all his men died together that same day.
1 Samuel 30:1-6(1) David and his men reached Ziklag on the third day. Now the Amalekites had raided the Negev and Ziklag. They had attacked Ziklag and burned it, (2) and had taken captive the women and everyone else in it, both young and old. They killed none of them, but carried them off as they went on their way.(3) When David and his men reached Ziklag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. (4) So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep. (5) David’s two wives had been captured—Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. (6) David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the Lord his God.1 Samuel 31:1-6(1) Now the Philistines fought against Israel; the Israelites fled before them, and many fell dead on Mount Gilboa. (2) The Philistines were in hot pursuit of Saul and his sons, and they killed his sons Jonathan, Abinadab and Malki-Shua. (3) The fighting grew fierce around Saul, and when the archers overtook him, they wounded him critically.(4) Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through, or these uncircumcised fellows will come and run me through and abuse me.”But his armor-bearer was terrified and would not do it; so Saul took his own sword and fell on it. (5) When the armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell on his sword and died with him. (6) So Saul and his three sons and his armor-bearer and all his men died together that same day.
1 Samuel 28:1-16(1) In those days the Philistines gathered their forces to fight against Israel. Achish said to David, “You must understand that you and your men will accompany me in the army.”(2) David said, “Then you will see for yourself what your servant can do.”Achish replied, “Very well, I will make you my bodyguard for life.”(3) Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in his own town of Ramah. Saul had expelled the mediums and spiritists from the land.(4) The Philistines assembled and came and set up camp at Shunem, while Saul gathered all Israel and set up camp at Gilboa. (5) When Saul saw the Philistine army, he was afraid; terror filled his heart. (6) He inquired of the Lord, but the Lord did not answer him by dreams or Urim or prophets. (7) Saul then said to his attendants, “Find me a woman who is a medium, so I may go and inquire of her.”“There is one in Endor,” they said.(8) So Saul disguised himself, putting on other clothes, and at night he and two men went to the woman. “Consult a spirit for me,” he said, “and bring up for me the one I name.”(9) But the woman said to him, “Surely you know what Saul has done. He has cut off the mediums and spiritists from the land. Why have you set a trap for my life to bring about my death?”(10) Saul swore to her by the Lord, “As surely as the Lord lives, you will not be punished for this.”(11) Then the woman asked, “Whom shall I bring up for you?”“Bring up Samuel,” he said.(12) When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out at the top of her voice and said to Saul, “Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!”(13) The king said to her, “Don’t be afraid. What do you see?”The woman said, “I see a ghostly figure coming up out of the earth.”(14) “What does he look like?” he asked.“An old man wearing a robe is coming up,” she said.Then Saul knew it was Samuel, and he bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground.(15) Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?”“I am in great distress,” Saul said. “The Philistines are fighting against me, and God has departed from me. He no longer answers me, either by prophets or by dreams. So I have called on you to tell me what to do.”(16) Samuel said, “Why do you consult me, now that the Lord has departed from you and become your enemy?
1 Samuel 24:1-15(1) After Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, “David is in the Desert of En Gedi.” (2) So Saul took three thousand able young men from all Israel and set out to look for David and his men near the Crags of the Wild Goats.(3) He came to the sheep pens along the way; a cave was there, and Saul went in to relieve himself. David and his men were far back in the cave. (4) The men said, “This is the day the Lord spoke of when he said to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.’” Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.(5) Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. (6) He said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, or lay my hand on him; for he is the anointed of the Lord.” (7) With these words David sharply rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. And Saul left the cave and went his way.(8) Then David went out of the cave and called out to Saul, “My lord the king!” When Saul looked behind him, David bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground. (9) He said to Saul, “Why do you listen when men say, ‘David is bent on harming you’? (10) This day you have seen with your own eyes how the Lord delivered you into my hands in the cave. Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you; I said, ‘I will not lay my hand on my lord, because he is the Lord’s anointed.’ (11) See, my father, look at this piece of your robe in my hand! I cut off the corner of your robe but did not kill you. See that there is nothing in my hand to indicate that I am guilty of wrongdoing or rebellion. I have not wronged you, but you are hunting me down to take my life. (12) May the Lord judge between you and me. And may the Lord avenge the wrongs you have done to me, but my hand will not touch you. (13) As the old saying goes, ‘From evildoers come evil deeds,’ so my hand will not touch you.(14) “Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Who are you pursuing? A dead dog? A flea? (15) May the Lord be our judge and decide between us. May he consider my cause and uphold it; may he vindicate me by delivering me from your hand.”
1 Samuel 21:10-15(10) That day David fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath. (11) But the servants of Achish said to him, “Isn’t this David, the king of the land? Isn’t he the one they sing about in their dances:“‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands’?”(12) David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath. (13) So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard.(14) Achish said to his servants, “Look at the man! He is insane! Why bring him to me? (15) Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me? Must this man come into my house?”
1 Samuel 19:8-20:4(8) Once more war broke out, and David went out and fought the Philistines. He struck them with such force that they fled before him.(9) But an evil spirit from the Lord came on Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand. While David was playing the lyre, (10) Saul tried to pin him to the wall with his spear, but David eluded him as Saul drove the spear into the wall. That night David made good his escape.(11) Saul sent men to David’s house to watch it and to kill him in the morning. But Michal, David’s wife, warned him, “If you don’t run for your life tonight, tomorrow you’ll be killed.” (12) So Michal let David down through a window, and he fled and escaped. (13) Then Michal took an idol and laid it on the bed, covering it with a garment and putting some goats’ hair at the head.(14) When Saul sent the men to capture David, Michal said, “He is ill.”(15) Then Saul sent the men back to see David and told them, “Bring him up to me in his bed so that I may kill him.” (16) But when the men entered, there was the idol in the bed, and at the head was some goats’ hair.(17) Saul said to Michal, “Why did you deceive me like this and send my enemy away so that he escaped?”Michal told him, “He said to me, ‘Let me get away. Why should I kill you?’”(18) When David had fled and made his escape, he went to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went to Naioth and stayed there. (19) Word came to Saul: “David is in Naioth at Ramah”; (20) so he sent men to capture him. But when they saw a group of prophets prophesying, with Samuel standing there as their leader, the Spirit of God came on Saul’s men, and they also prophesied. (21) Saul was told about it, and he sent more men, and they prophesied too. Saul sent men a third time, and they also prophesied. (22) Finally, he himself left for Ramah and went to the great cistern at Seku. And he asked, “Where are Samuel and David?”“Over in Naioth at Ramah,” they said.(23) So Saul went to Naioth at Ramah. But the Spirit of God came even on him, and he walked along prophesying until he came to Naioth. (24) He stripped off his garments, and he too prophesied in Samuel’s presence. He lay naked all that day and all that night. This is why people say, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”(20:1) Then David fled from Naioth at Ramah and went to Jonathan and asked, “What have I done? What is my crime? How have I wronged your father, that he is trying to kill me?”(2) “Never!” Jonathan replied. “You are not going to die! Look, my father doesn’t do anything, great or small, without letting me know. Why would he hide this from me? It isn’t so!”(3) But David took an oath and said, “Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said to himself, ‘Jonathan must not know this or he will be grieved.’ Yet as surely as the Lord lives and as you live, there is only a step between me and death.”(4) Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you want me to do, I’ll do for you.”
1 Samuel 17:26-50(26) David asked the men standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?”(27) They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, “This is what will be done for the man who kills him.”(28) When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, “Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.”(29) “Now what have I done?” said David. “Can’t I even speak?” (30) He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before. (31) What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him.(32) David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”(33) Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”(34) But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, (35) I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. (36) Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. (37) The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.”(38) Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. (39) David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them.“I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he took them off. (40) Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.(41) Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. (42) He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with health and handsome, and he despised him. (43) He said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. (44) “Come here,” he said, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals!”(45) David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. (46) This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. (47) All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”(48) As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. (49) Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground.(50) So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.
1 Samuel 15:10-29(10) Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel: (11) “I regret that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions.” Samuel was angry, and he cried out to the Lord all that night.(12) Early in the morning Samuel got up and went to meet Saul, but he was told, “Saul has gone to Carmel. There he has set up a monument in his own honor and has turned and gone on down to Gilgal.”(13) When Samuel reached him, Saul said, “The Lord bless you! I have carried out the Lord’s instructions.”(14) But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?”(15) Saul answered, “The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God, but we totally destroyed the rest.”(16) “Enough!” Samuel said to Saul. “Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.”“Tell me,” Saul replied.(17) Samuel said, “Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. (18) And he sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; wage war against them until you have wiped them out.’ 19 Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord?”(20) “But I did obey the Lord,” Saul said. “I went on the mission the Lord assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. (21) The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal.”(22) But Samuel replied:“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord?To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.(23) For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.”(24) Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned. I violated the Lord’s command and your instructions. I was afraid of the men and so I gave in to them. (25) Now I beg you, forgive my sin and come back with me, so that I may worship the Lord.”(26) But Samuel said to him, “I will not go back with you. You have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you as king over Israel!”(27) As Samuel turned to leave, Saul caught hold of the hem of his robe, and it tore. (28) Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors—to one better than you. (29) He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change his mind.”
1 Samuel 8:1-22(1) When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as Israel’s leaders. (2) The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second was Abijah, and they served at Beersheba. (3) But his sons did not follow his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice.(4) So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. (5) They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.”(6) But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. (7) And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. (8) As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. (9) Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will claim as his rights.”(10) Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king. (11) He said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. (12) Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. (13) He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. (14) He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. (15) He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. (16) Your male and female servants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. (17) He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. (18) When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”(19) But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. (20) Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.”(21) When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the Lord. (22) The Lord answered, “Listen to them and give them a king.”Then Samuel said to the Israelites, “Everyone go back to your own town.”
1 Samuel 4:1-11(1) Now the Israelites went out to fight against the Philistines. The Israelites camped at Ebenezer, and the Philistines at Aphek. (2) The Philistines deployed their forces to meet Israel, and as the battle spread, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand of them on the battlefield. (3) When the soldiers returned to camp, the elders of Israel asked, “Why did the Lord bring defeat on us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the Lord’s covenant from Shiloh, so that he may go with us and save us from the hand of our enemies.”(4) So the people sent men to Shiloh, and they brought back the ark of the covenant of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim. And Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.(5) When the ark of the Lord’s covenant came into the camp, all Israel raised such a great shout that the ground shook. (6) Hearing the uproar, the Philistines asked, “What’s all this shouting in the Hebrew camp?”When they learned that the ark of the Lord had come into the camp, (7) the Philistines were afraid. “A god has come into the camp,” they said. “Oh no! Nothing like this has happened before. (8) We’re doomed! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? They are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the wilderness. (9) Be strong, Philistines! Be men, or you will be subject to the Hebrews, as they have been to you. Be men, and fight!”(10) So the Philistines fought, and the Israelites were defeated and every man fled to his tent. The slaughter was very great; Israel lost thirty thousand foot soldiers. (11) The ark of God was captured, and Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, died.
1 Samuel 2:12-26(12) Eli’s sons were scoundrels; they had no regard for the Lord. (13) Now it was the practice of the priests that, whenever any of the people offered a sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come with a three-pronged fork in his hand while the meat was being boiled (14) and would plunge the fork into the pan or kettle or caldron or pot. Whatever the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. This is how they treated all the Israelites who came to Shiloh. (15) But even before the fat was burned, the priest’s servant would come and say to the person who was sacrificing, “Give the priest some meat to roast; he won’t accept boiled meat from you, but only raw.”(16) If the person said to him, “Let the fat be burned first, and then take whatever you want,” the servant would answer, “No, hand it over now; if you don’t, I’ll take it by force.”(17) This sin of the young men was very great in the Lord’s sight, for they were treating the Lord’s offering with contempt.(18) But Samuel was ministering before the Lord—a boy wearing a linen ephod. (19) Each year his mother made him a little robe and took it to him when she went up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice. (20) Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, saying, “May the Lord give you children by this woman to take the place of the one she prayed for and gave to the Lord.” Then they would go home. (21) And the Lord was gracious to Hannah; she gave birth to three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile, the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the Lord.(22) Now Eli, who was very old, heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel and how they slept with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting. (23) So he said to them, “Why do you do such things? I hear from all the people about these wicked deeds of yours. (24) No, my sons; the report I hear spreading among the Lord’s people is not good. (25) If one person sins against another, God may mediate for the offender; but if anyone sins against the Lord, who will intercede for them?” His sons, however, did not listen to their father’s rebuke, for it was the Lord’s will to put them to death.(26) And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the Lord and with people.
1 Samuel 1(1) There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. (2) He had two wives; one was called Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.(3) Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the Lord Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the Lord. (4) Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. (5) But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the Lord had closed her womb. (6) Because the Lord had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. (7) This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat. (8) Her husband Elkanah would say to her, “Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don’t you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?”(9) Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the Lord’s house. (10) In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly. (11) And she made a vow, saying, “Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.”(12) As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. (13) Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk (14) and said to her, “How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine.”(15) “Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. (16) Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.”(17) Eli answered, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.”(18) She said, “May your servant find favor in your eyes.” Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast.(19) Early the next morning they arose and worshiped before the Lord and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah made love to his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her. (20) So in the course of time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, “Because I asked the Lord for him.”(21) When her husband Elkanah went up with all his family to offer the annual sacrifice to the Lord and to fulfill his vow, (22) Hannah did not go. She said to her husband, “After the boy is weaned, I will take him and present him before the Lord, and he will live there always.”(23) “Do what seems best to you,” her husband Elkanah told her. “Stay here until you have weaned him; only may the Lord make good his word.” So the woman stayed at home and nursed her son until she had weaned him.(24) After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. (25) When the bull had been sacrificed, they brought the boy to Eli, (26) and she said to him, “Pardon me, my lord. As surely as you live, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord. (27) I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. (28) So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.” And he worshiped the Lord there.
Matthew 13:44-46(44) “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.(45) “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. (46) When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it."
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23(1) That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. (2) Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. (3) Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. (4) As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. (5) Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. (6) But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. (7) Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. (8) Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. (9) Whoever has ears, let them hear.”(18) “Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: (19) When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. (20) The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. (21) But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. (22) The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. (23) But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”
Luke 15:11-32(11) Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. (12) The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.(13) “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. (14) After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. (15) So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. (16) He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.(17) “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! (18) I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. (19) I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ (20) So he got up and went to his father.“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.(21) “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’(22) “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. (23) Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. (24) For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.(25) “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. (26) So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. (27) ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’(28) “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. (29) But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. (30) But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’(31) “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. (32) But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
Luke 12:13-21(13) Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”(14) Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” (15) Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”(16) And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. (17) He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’(18) “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. (19) And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’(20) “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’(21) “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
Luke 15:11-32(11) Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. (12) The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.(13) “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. (14) After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. (15) So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. (16) He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.(17) “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! (18) I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. (19) I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ (20) So he got up and went to his father.“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.(21) “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’(22) “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. (23) Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. (24) For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.(25) “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. (26) So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. (27) ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’(28) “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. (29) But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. (30) But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’(31) “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. (32) But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
Luke 15:1-7(1) Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. (2) But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”(3) Then Jesus told them this parable: (4) “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? (5) And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders (6) and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ (7) I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
Isaiah 9:6-7(6) For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.(7) Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom,establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.
Ecclesiastes 2:1-11(1) I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless. (2) “Laughter,” I said, “is madness. And what does pleasure accomplish?” (3) I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives.(4) I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. (5) I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. (6) I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. (7) I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. (8) I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers, and a harem as well—the delights of a man’s heart. (9) I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me.(10) I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure.My heart took delight in all my labor, and this was the reward for all my toil.(11) Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve,everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.
1 John 4:7-21(7) Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. (8) Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. (9) This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. (10) This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (11) Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (12) No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.(13) This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. (14) And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. (15) If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. (16) And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. (17) This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. (18) There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.(19) We love because he first loved us. (20) Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. (21) And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
2 Corinthians 5:16-21(16) So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. (17) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! (18) All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: (19) that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. (20) We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. (21) God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
1 Peter 1:1-5(1) Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, (2) who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood:Grace and peace be yours in abundance.(3) Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, (4) and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, (5) who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. Hebrews 11:8-10(8) By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. (9) By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. (10) For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
1 Corinthians 12:12-31(12) Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. (13) For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. (14) Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.(15) Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. (16) And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. (17) If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? (18) But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. (19) If they were all one part, where would the body be? (20) As it is, there are many parts, but one body.(21) The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” (22) On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, (23) and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, (24) while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, (25) so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. (26) If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.(27) Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. (28) And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. (29) Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? (30) Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? (31) Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.
Ephesians 4:22-24(22) You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; (23) to be made new in the attitude of your minds; (24) and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.Romans 6:11-14(11) In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (12) Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. (13) Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. (14) For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
Romans 5:1-11(1) Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, (2) through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. (3) Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; (4) perseverance, character; and character, hope. (5) And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.(6) You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. (7) Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. (8) But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.(9) Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! (10) For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! (11) Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.2 Corinthians 5:21(21) God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Ephesians 1:3-6(3) Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. (4) For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love (5) he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— (6) to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.1 John 3:1-3(3) See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. (2) Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (3) All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
Genesis 1:26-27(26) Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”(27) So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.Romans 5: 12-21(12) Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—(13) To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law. (14) Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.(15) But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! (16) Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. (17) For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!(18) Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. (19) For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.(20) The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, (21) so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
1 Corinthians 7:17-40(17) Nevertheless, each person should live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to them, just as God has called them. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches. (18) Was a man already circumcised when he was called? He should not become uncircumcised. Was a man uncircumcised when he was called? He should not be circumcised. (19) Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God’s commands is what counts. (20) Each person should remain in the situation they were in when God called them.(21) Were you a slave when you were called? Don’t let it trouble you—although if you can gain your freedom, do so. (22) For the one who was a slave when called to faith in the Lord is the Lord’s freed person; similarly, the one who was free when called is Christ’s slave. (23) You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of human beings. (24) Brothers and sisters, each person, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation they were in when God called them.(25) Now about virgins: I have no command from the Lord, but I give a judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy. (26) Because of the present crisis, I think that it is good for a man to remain as he is. (27) Are you pledged to a woman? Do not seek to be released. Are you free from such a commitment? Do not look for a wife. (28) But if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But those who marry will face many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this.(29) What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; (30) those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; (31) those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.(32) I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs—how he can please the Lord. (33) But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife— (34) and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband. (35) I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord.(36) If anyone is worried that he might not be acting honorably toward the virgin he is engaged to, and if his passions are too strong and he feels he ought to marry, he should do as he wants. He is not sinning. They should get married. (37) But the man who has settled the matter in his own mind, who is under no compulsion but has control over his own will, and who has made up his mind not to marry the virgin—this man also does the right thing. (38) So then, he who marries the virgin does right, but he who does not marry her does better.(39) A woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, but he must belong to the Lord. (40) In my judgment, she is happier if she stays as she is—and I think that I too have the Spirit of God.
1 Corinthians 7:1-16(1) Now for the matters you wrote about: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” (2) But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband. (3) The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. (4) The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. (5) Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. (6) I say this as a concession, not as a command. (7) I wish that all of you were as I am. But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.(8) Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do. (9) But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.(10) To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. (11) But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.(12) To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. (13) And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him. (14) For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.(15) But if the unbeliever leaves, let it be so. The brother or the sister is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace. (16) How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?
1 Corinthians 6:1-11(1) If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord’s people? (2) Or do you not know that the Lord’s people will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? (3) Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! (4) Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, do you ask for a ruling from those whose way of life is scorned in the church? (5) I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? (6) But instead, one brother takes another to court—and this in front of unbelievers!(7) The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? (8) Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sisters. (9) Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men (10) nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. (11) And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
2 Corinthians 5:14-21(14) For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. (15) And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.(16) So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. (17) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! (18) All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: (19) that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. (20) We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. (21) God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
1 Corinthians 5:1-13(1) It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. (2) And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this? (3) For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this. (4) So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, (5) hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.(6) Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? (7) Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. (8) Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.(9) I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— (10) not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. (11) But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.(12) What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? (13) God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”
1 Corinthians 4:1-21(1) This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed. (2) Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. (3) I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. (4) My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. (5) Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.(6) Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.” Then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other. (7) For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?(8) Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have begun to reign—and that without us! How I wish that you really had begun to reign so that we also might reign with you! (9) For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings. (10) We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! (11) To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. (12) We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; (13) when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment.Paul’s Appeal and Warning(14) I am writing this not to shame you but to warn you as my dear children. (15) Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. (16) Therefore I urge you to imitate me. (17) For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.(18) Some of you have become arrogant, as if I were not coming to you. (19) But I will come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking, but what power they have. (20) For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. (21) What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a rod of discipline, or shall I come in love and with a gentle spirit?
1 Corinthians 3:1-23(1) Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. (2) I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. (3) You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? (4) For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?(5) What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. (6) I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. (7) So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. (8) The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. (9) For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.(10) By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. (11) For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. (12) If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, (13) their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. (14) If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. (15) If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.(16) Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? (17) If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.(18) Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. (19) For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; (20) and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” (21) So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, (22) whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, (23) and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.
1 Corinthians 2:6-16(6) We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. (7) No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. (8) None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (9) However, as it is written:“What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard,and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him—(10) these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. (11) For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. (12) What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. (13) This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. (14) The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. (15) The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, (16) for,“Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?”But we have the mind of Christ.
1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5(18) For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (19) For it is written:“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”(20) Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? (21) For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. (22) Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, (23) but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, (24) but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (25) For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.(26) Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. (27) But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. (28) God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, (29) so that no one may boast before him. (30) It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. (31) Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”(2:1) And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. (2) For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. (3) I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. (4) My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, (5) so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.
A Certain Identity: Secure, United and Centred in Christ1 Corinthians 1:1-17(1) Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,(2) To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:(3) Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.(4) I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. (5) For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge— (6) God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. (7) Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. (8) He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. (9) God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.(10) I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. (11) My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. (12) What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”(13) Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? (14) I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, (15) so no one can say that you were baptized in my name. (16) (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.) (17) For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
Philippians 2:1-18(1) Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, (2) then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. (3) Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, (4) not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.(5) In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:(6) Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;(7) rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.(8) And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!(9) Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,(10) that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,(11) and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.(12) Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, (13) for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.(14) Do everything without grumbling or arguing, (15) so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky (16) as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain. (17) But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. (18) So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.
Matthew 4:17-25(17) From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”(18) As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. (19) “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” (20) At once they left their nets and followed him.(21) Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, (22) and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.(23) Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. (24) News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them. (25) Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.
Matthew 4:12-17(12) When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee. (13) Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali— (14) to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah:(15) “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—(16) the people living in darkness have seen a great light;on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”(17) From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
Matthew 4: 1-11(1) Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. (2) After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. (3) The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”(4) Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”(5) Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. (6) “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:“‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”(7) Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”(8) Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. (9) “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”(10) Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”(11) Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
Matthew 3: 1-17(1) In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea (2) and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (3) This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’”(4) John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. (5) People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. (6) Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.(7) But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? (8) Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. (9) And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. (10) The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.(11) “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. (12) His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”(13) Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. (14) But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”(15) Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.(16) As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. (17) And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
Matthew 2: 13-23(13) When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”(14) So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, (15) where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”(16) When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. (17) Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:(18) “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning,Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”The Return to Nazareth(19) After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt (20) and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”(21) So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. (22) But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, (23) and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.
Genesis 12: 1-3(1) The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.(2) “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you;I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.(3) I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”Matthew 2: 1-12(1) After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem (2) and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”(3) When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. (4) When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. (5) “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:(6) “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”(7) Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. (8) He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”(9) After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. (10) When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. (11) On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. (12) And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
Matthew 1:18-25(18) This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. (19) Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.(20) But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. (21) She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”(22) All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: (23) “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).(24) When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. (25) But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
Matthew 1: 1-17(1) This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:(2) Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, (3) Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, (4) Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, (5) Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, (6) and Jesse the father of King David.David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife, (7) Solomon the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa, (8) Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram, Jehoram the father of Uzziah, (9) Uzziah the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, (10) Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, Amon the father of Josiah, (11) and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.(12) After the exile to Babylon: Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, (13) Zerubbabel the father of Abihud, Abihud the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor, (14) Azor the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, Akim the father of Elihud, (15) Elihud the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, (16) and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.(17) Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.
Matthew 25: 14-30(14) “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. (15) To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. (16) The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. (17) So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. (18) But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.(19) “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. (20) The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’(21) “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’(22) “The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’(23) “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’(24) “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. (25) So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’(26) “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? (27) Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.(28) “‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. (29) For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. (30) And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Matthew 6: 19-24(19) “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. (20) But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. (21) For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.(22) “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. (23) But if your eyes are unhealthy,[b] your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!(24) “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
Mark 10:17-31(17) As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”(18) “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. (19) You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”(20) “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”(21) Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”(22) At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.(23) Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”(24) The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! (25) It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”(26) The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”(27) Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”(28) Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!”(29) “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel (30) will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. (31) But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
Luke 8: 1-15(1) After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, (2) and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; (3) Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.(4) While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: (5) “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. (6) Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. (7) Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. (8) Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.”When he said this, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”(9) His disciples asked him what this parable meant. (10) He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,“‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.’(11) “This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. (12) Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. (13) Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. (14) The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. (15) But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop."
Luke 8: 1-15(1) After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, (2) and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; (3) Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.(4) While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: (5) “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. (6) Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. (7) Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. (8) Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.”When he said this, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”(9) His disciples asked him what this parable meant. (10) He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,“‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.’(11) “This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. (12) Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. (13) Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. (14) The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. (15) But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop."