All right, now that all the troublemakers are gone. Can everybody look at your Sunday school lesson today? Make sure you have one that has the fill in the blanks on it, because I gave some other ones out. Has the fill in the blank? OK. I don't know what I did with those. I don't know. I don't know. There's some other ones floating around somewhere that I don't know. But let's pray real quick for our little Sunday school. OK so we're gonna start talking about about the church and and you know what God wants his church to be like You look at 1 Corinthians, and that's Paul talking to that early church. And if you study 1 Corinthians, you'll see that the same problems they had, same problems we have today. So it's very relevant. You know, the Bible's a living word, and it's a living Bible. It's relevant today just as it was 2,000 years ago. And that's what we're gonna start talking about. So Paul, this book of 1 Corinthians, Paul deals with many of the problems that the church had in Cornuth in that day, right? And the problems with the church in that day wasn't that they didn't have a good roof, or good walls, or good pews, it was the people. The people of the church was the problem, right? And there are some of these same problems that exist in our church today, and this is what we're gonna look at, right? So we're gonna study 1 Corinthians, and by studying this, it'll help us understand how to deal with issues that we have today. not only within our church but within our own lives, within our own hearts and our own minds is if you have a strong church. And the only way you can have a strong church is if you have a strong walk with Christ. Okay? Just plain and simple, guys. So we're gonna actually read the first chapter of 1 Corinthians. So let's go to 1 Corinthians. And it's 31 verses long. So you get to listen to me read, and you just hope that I pronounce all the words right. And if I don't, you know, you just gotta keep going, right? You gotta love me anyway. So, 1 Corinthians chapter 1, and I want y'all to listen to this. This is Paul talking to this church, right? It says, onto the church of god at which is that corny to them that are sanctified in christ jesus called to be saints that's us rate grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ that in everything you are enriched by him in all utterance and in all knowledge even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you so that ye come behind in no gift waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ that's what We're waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ Who shall also confirm you unto the end that you may be blameless in that day of our Lord Jesus Christ That's how you want to be found blameless God is faithful by whom and that's kind of that's a very smart I mean, that's a very important thing. God is faithful because let me tell you something. Nobody else is faithful God is God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you. This is the church, guys. But that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind, in the same judgment. That doesn't mean we're all made the same, but we're going to look at this. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Choli, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul, or I am of Apollos, or I am of Cephas. and I of Christ. Is Christ divided and Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Ganius. lest any should say that I had baptized in my own name, and I baptized also the household of Stephanas, besides I know not whether I baptized any other. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? Now, after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called, both Jew and Greek, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and that the weakness of God is stronger than men. For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. And base things of the world and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, things which are not, to bring not things that are. that no flesh should glory in his presence, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that according as it is written, he that goeth glorieth him, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Amen. Amen. But that's the church right there. That's the church today, just like it was in Cornuth, okay? That is what we're looking at, right? So the history of Cornuth, we need to understand, because we can't really under, we read about it, we go, oh, but you have to really understand what was going on, right? So Cornuth was a city, it was a Roman city, it was a colony of the country of Greece, okay? Remember, Rome had just taken over the whole world back then. They were everywhere, right? They controlled everything. And they were a Roman colony in the country of Greece. And it was an extremely wealthy city, okay? And it was also a hub of You know, they had ships, they didn't have planes back then. So all the ships coming and going, coming and going. So they were a very wealthy city, and it was known, this is what it was known for. It was known as a city of great wickedness and extreme immorality. You think about it. You think about big cities today. What are they known for? Are they known for their righteousness and gloriness? Nope. They're known for their evil. Houston, known for evil. New York, known for evil. L.A., known for evil. You find a big city that has a lot of wealth and a lot of people, it's a morality. It's horrible, right? So the very word Corinthians became a synonym for a person of loose living. So if you're from Corinth and you say, oh, I'm a Corinthian, immediately they're thinking, ah, you're a person of loose living. That's pretty bad, right? But that's where this church was planted. God wanted a church there, right? Let's look at Acts 18. Acts chapter 18. Acts chapter 18. And let's read, we're gonna read some verses here. I'm gonna read one through 18. You gotta learn, this is very important to this Corinthians, right? So chapter 18 of Acts, starting, I'm sorry, I'm in John. That really didn't look right. Something didn't look right there Acts chapter 18 verse 1 After these things Paul departed from Athens and came to Corneth That's where we're going right and he found a certain June Jew named Aquila born in Pontius Later come to from Italy with his wife Priscilla Because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome and came unto them. That's Claudius the Emperor not my wife And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them and wrought, for by their occupation they were tentmakers. He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. And when Silas and Timothy were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. and when they opposed themselves, and blaspheme, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads, I am clean, from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles, and he departed thence, and entered into a certain man's house, named Justice, one that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue. And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house, and many of the Corinthians hearing, believed and were baptized. Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace. Remember, this isn't a city that's known for evil, okay? For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city. And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. And when Galileo was the deputy of Achaiah, the Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul and brought him to the judgment seat. saying, This fellow persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law. And when Paul was now about to open his mouth, Galileo said unto the Jews, If it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, O ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you. But if it be a question of words and names and of your law, look ye to it, for I will be no judge of such matters. And he drove them from the judgment seat. Then all the Greeks took Soscelinus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. for none of these things. And Paul, after this, tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence to Syria, with him Priscilla and Aquila, having shorn his head in Centuria, for he had a vow." So what do we see there? We see Paul planted a Corinthian church. He was there preaching to the Jews. They rejected him. So he started preaching to the Gentiles, right? He was planting a church. He was preaching and preaching. And they were gonna, you know, they took him before the judgment seat. They were gonna judge him. They were gonna beat him or throw him in prison or something. But they were against him. You look at that chapter right there. They were against him the whole time. And Jesus came to him and said, Don't worry about it. I got this. You do what I told you to do. You plant this church. And it says they came up against him, his words and his deeds, everything. They were against him a hundred percent. But Paul stayed there and he established this church in a city known for evil. OK, well, look at that chapter. Let's look at verse 11 one more time. And it says he continued there a year and six months teaching the word of God among them. He was there, Paul was there for at least 18 months, because then it says he tarried a little bit longer. He was there for at least 18 months preaching. What was he trying to do? He was planting a New Testament church. He was not planting a synagogue. He was not planting a mosque. He was planting a New Testament church. What is this church? This church is a New Testament church, okay? So let's go to Acts chapter 20. This is very important for Corinthians. We have to understand the foundation. Acts chapter 20, verses 2 through 3. The Bible says, And when he had gone over those parts, and had given them much exhortation, he came unto Greece, and there abode three months. And when the Jews laid wait for him, as he was about to sail to Syria, he proposed to return through Macedonia. Okay, so what happened? Well, Paul had went back to Cornuth, right? He had returned there on his third missionary journey. Why did he return to that church? Because he planted it, but as we're gonna see, that church had some issues. He went back there to straighten them up, to preach the gospel again, right? To get them right with God, okay? And that's the same thing in our church. This church has been planted, it's grown, it's had problems, And it's the people, it's not the church, it's not the building, it's not the wall, it's not the floor, it's the people, okay? Let's get into Corinthians now. First Corinthians, finally get to First Corinthians, chapter seven and verse one, let's look at this. Chapter seven and verse one. The Bible says, now concerning these things whereof you wrote unto me, it is good for a man not to touch a woman. So what is this they wrote? Well, we see right here this Corinthian letter, the book of Corinthians, right, was written by Paul in a response to a letter that the church wrote to him. What did they write to him? They were asking him questions. Why were they asking him questions? Because there were starting to be problems within the church. They were starting to see things that did not go along with the Word of God. And there seems to be, if you study this, there seems to be ten questions which were asked of Paul. And he answered those questions, right? That they asked. But he did not answer them immediately, right? Rather, he first addressed some extreme failures within the church, right? Some extreme failures within the members of the church that they were having. He had to address those first before he could start addressing the church, right? Because if people are in sin, they're not listening to God. And if they're not listening to God, how are they going to be a productive part of the church? And that's what he was addressing. And we look at that verse one right there. It says, what is it he said is good for a man not to touch a woman. You have to tell somebody in church that? Really? That's a problem. But he opened with that. He didn't say, you know, it's good that you know, maybe you should read your Bible more. Maybe she prayed more. His first point to this church was, it's good for a man not to touch a woman. So what do you think was going on within this church? Some pretty bad stuff, right? So Paul established his authority for being able to write this book, right? Hold on. He established his authority by being able to write this book. Let's go back to chapter one. And it says, Paul, here's how he establishes it, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. through the will of God and Sassanides, our brother. So Paul tells you right now, why am I able to plant this church and come back and correct this church? Because I was called by Jesus Christ to be an apostle. And we all know the story. He was put on his face on the road, right? And then he was blind. He was called by Jesus Christ, not called by somebody else, not called by his mommy or daddy, not called by, you know, he just grows up and he thinks it's a good job to be a preacher because that's a good career, right? That's what a lot of preachers do today. Their mommy or daddy tells them to be a preacher or they think it's a good career. No, he was called by Jesus Christ. And right there it says, called by Jesus Christ through who? Through the will of God. So if you're a preacher and you're not called by Jesus Christ through the will of God, you're not a preacher. You're a motivational speaker. That's all you got, okay? So we see here, he established his authority for being able to write this book because he was an apostle. An apostle, now, there's a lot of people nowadays that claim to be an apostle, but here's the problem. An apostle, to be an apostle, you had to be alive and actually see Jesus Christ face-to-face, okay? So you had to be somebody that saw him face-to-face, and you had to be a person that was taught by Jesus Christ. Okay? Face-to-face. Okay? And you had to be selected by God. Those are your things for an apostle. So if you haven't been selected by God, you didn't see Jesus Christ face-to-face, and he didn't get to actually speak to you in person and teach you, you're not an apostle. Okay? There's no apostles today. Sorry. That's why there's no speaking in tongues, and there's no healing. That doesn't happen. Okay? God did that for a certain reason for a certain time. But let's go to Mark. Mark chapter 3. Let's continue looking at this church and how it started and how it's going so mark chapter 3 let's read verses 13 to 19 Bible says and he that goeth up into a mountain And called unto him whom he would and this is Jesus right and they came unto him and he ordained 12 that they should be with him and that they might he might send them forth to preach and preach what to preach the word of God to build churches and to have power to heal sickness and to cast out devils and Simon sorry that's cast out devils and Simon he surnamed Peter and James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James and he surnamed them for Gornis which is the sons of thunder and and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, which also betrayed him, and they went into a house. These are the first twelve apostles right there. Okay, Jesus Christ personally called them, he personally taught them, and we see at that time, he did give them what we consider superhero powers, right? That would be superhero powers. Casting out demons and healing and, you know, but all that was made, all that was given to them for a limited time to build the church, to prove Christ's authority, because the world didn't believe Christ was Christ. Okay? So we see that these apostles were a special group. Jesus chose them. Anyone can be a follower of Jesus. Anyone can be a disciple of Jesus, right? But only those that were selected by Jesus himself are apostles. And the apostles were given supreme authority over the New Testament churches, right? They were building those churches. They were the head of those churches. Because why? Because they were selected by God to go out and build His church. That's where Corinthians comes in. Paul was selected to build that church. And the book of Corinthians, if we look at it, is basically divide into two major sections, and that's what we're gonna be talking about, these two major sections. First, if we look at chapters 1-1 through chapter 6-20, that deals with Christian living, a life, a Christian living a life in carnality, which is sin, right? And it talks about the foundation of the church and the consequences of this sin and worldliness that's mixed in with the church, okay? And then Paul, he also applies the remedy to those failures in the Christian's life, right? And we'll talk about that. And what is the remedy to all your failures in Christ? I mean, failures in life? It's Christ. It's pretty simple. You know, if we look at every problem we have in this world, it could all be fixed with one thing, Christ. World hunger? Fixed with Christ. World war? Fixed with Christ. You know, poverty, homelessness, it all can be fixed with Christ. But people want to live in their sin instead of obey Christ. So, you want to fix the world? Find Christ. So we look. In this section, Paul not only addresses these failures, but he also gives them instructions on how to resolve these failures. And that's what we need in our lives today. We need to learn how to resolve these failures, right? And his teaching was that until they repent and change and correct their failures, okay? So there's the key right there. You have to admit you're a sinner. You have to admit you're doing something wrong. You have to fess up to your sin. You have to repent, right? And you have to correct these failures. Okay? And that's what he was telling them. He says you cannot possibly travel that road from carnality, from sinfulness, to spirituality without confession. You just ain't going to cut it. Okay? You can call yourself a Christian all day long. It ain't going to happen, right? They must have the biblical foundation to be able to travel this road, and that's what Paul was given the Church of Corinth. He was given them a biblical foundation. That's what your pastor gives you, a biblical foundation, okay? And that kind of sounds like the church today, doesn't it? We need to have a biblical foundation, or we're sinful. It's that simple. there's not much to it, okay? You don't have a biblical-sound foundation, there's no way you're gonna know what sin is, and it's not gonna bother you, and you're just gonna continue down that road. That's why people can go to churches today, and go to service, and they're in service right now, and in a little bit, they'll be out for lunch, and they'll go have a, you know, some fajitas and a beer, and it won't bother them, okay? Because they're not saved, they're living in their sin, right? But, let's look at the second half of this we're going to look at is chapter 7 verse 1 all the way through 1624. And that deals with a Christian living a spiritual life. So that's the good part we want to get to, right? So in these same chapters, Paul explains how a sinful Christian, or a carnal Christian as he calls them, can rebuild and have a spiritual life. So there is a way, if you're a Christian and you dip off into sin and you get off the path, you can get back, okay? That's called forgiveness. Good thing God gives us that, right? And Paul gives us a remedy for every single failure. Every single failure, not some. And that's the same thing he was giving them. He was giving them the remedy for every single failure that the Corinthian Christians had at that time. And you know what that remedy was? It's Christ. We've already talked about it. It's pretty simple. Very small word, but that's all you need. You don't need aspirin. You don't need, you know, a fast car. It's kind of cool, but, you know, you need Christ, right? So, we study, as we study 1 Corinthians, we must see that it's possible, it is possible for you to be saved, and repent of your sins, and get saved, and then sin. Okay? We all sin. Okay? It is possible to be a Christian and to get so far off the path that you're just staying in your sin. Okay? And you've broken that fellowship with Christ, and you're in a bad spot. Okay? And we've talked about this before. The longer you stay there, the worse it gets for you. It's like you just got drug down the dirt road, okay? And the dirt road is eventually going to turn into gravel. And the gravel is going to turn into concrete. It's only going to get worse, okay? And that's where you're going. You're in a hole, right? And and you'll be a most miserable person. You won't get along with anybody. Your mental facilities are going to fail. Your body physically is going to fail. Sin will eat you alive. OK. And that's what you do when you break that fellowship with God. Right. So let's go back to first Corinthians chapter one. First Corinthians chapter one, kind of laid the foundation here. And we're just going to be looking at verses one through nine, but we've already read them, right? So we're just going to talk about one through nine that we've already read. But we see these right here in these verses. We see that Paul challenges the Corinthian Christians, right? He challenges them to live like Christ called them to live. Why did he do that? Because he saw that they were living, as he says, carnal, which is sinful. Okay, this is the church. This is the church of the planet. People believed in Christ. They got saved. It says they got baptized. But they drifted. They stepped off. Why? Because they liked that sin that they used to live in. They liked the worldliness that Christ saved them from, and they stepped back into it. It might not have been, well, some of them was pretty bad. It says, man, don't touch a woman. That's pretty rough. But it could have been something as little as, you know, having anger, holding on to anger. you know, holding a grudge, little things, something that nobody else sees, you know, something that's in your heart, right? But it's still a sin. And that's what he's doing, he's challenging them, right? And this carnality, this sin in the church was very apparent. Why? Because it was causing this early church to fail in many ways. That's why he wrote this book of Corinthians. And you may have secret sin in your life, right? But your sins, here's the key about sin, and this is kind of a test question, if you will, Your sins will always come out, and guess what? Your sin will always be visible to another Christian. Eventually, it'll show. Eventually, it'll show. You'll be the most miserable person. You'll be that person who comes in just barely moving into church because God is hammering on you every Sunday to get right. It will come out, okay? So, what was the church at Corinth like? What was it like? Let's see 1st Corinthians chapter 3 1st Corinthians chapter 3 and let's read 1 through 4 and just listen to this and I brethren could not speak unto you as unto spiritual but as unto carnal, that's sinful, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, not with meat, for hitherto you were not able to bear it, neither yet are you now able. For ye are yet carnal, for whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are ye not carnal? He's slapping him down there, isn't he? He is. He says, I can't come talk to you about spirituality. He said, when I started this church, I fed you as babes, because you couldn't handle the word of God. But you failed to grow. And why is that? He said right there, you're not able to bear it yet. You're not able to bear the true word of God yet, because you're still sinful. You're still sinful. He says, and then right here, he says you're full of envying. The church was full of envying. Do we have envying in this church? I don't know. Think about your own hearts, guys. Do you envy? Right here, strife. Do we have strife? I bet we do. Do we have divisions? Yeah. Do you have strife? Strife just means you're a troublemaker. You're always never happy and you're always just complaining and fighting and arguing. Divisions is what you cause, right? That's because you're walking sinful. It says you're carnal. You're walking as men. You're not walking as Christians. This is what he's telling us. And they were a church. This is what this church was like. They were a church of extremely, extremely sinful believers, right? That's sad. That's a mess. That is a mess. People who heard the Word of God, many of them believed the Word of God, and they attended church. Yet, they were worldly. What? But they were. They could not leave their sins behind. Do you think there's people in this church like that? Do you think there's people in church today? This is a New Testament church, I guarantee you. I guarantee you there's people today that just can't leave their sins behind, whatever it is. It's still there. And you know what Satan will do? He'll use it. Oh yes, I guarantee you he'll use it. When he feels weakness in you, maybe you're depressed, maybe you're down, that's when he's gonna come along and stick it right there in that little chink in your armor. We talked about that. That chink in your armor, he's gonna stab you right through it. He's gonna win, because you're not prepared, right? So look at the church today, okay? You think our church is not like theirs? We see they had many problems, right? Let's look at Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 20. Don't you think about this. He's already told them they had strife, they had envying, they had divisions. He told them. He started off telling them, it's not good for a man to touch a woman. That's a wow! This is a church he started. And the first thing he tells them is, hey, men shouldn't be touching women. That's how we start in this church, so we know some things are going wrong in this church, right? There's some sin in this church, right? Well, you think you're coming to church today and it's a perfect church? No. If people were perfect, we wouldn't need church, okay? We need church and we need the Word of God because we're imperfect, because we're sinful, and that's why we're here. And we need to point it out so we can get it right. So let's look at Proverbs. This is looking at the church today. Proverbs 20, verse 1. Listen to this one. Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." Okay, so any Christian that tells you it's okay to drink as long as I don't get drunk, it's okay to drink in moderation, it's okay to drink just a little bit, says you're not wise. You're a fool, because God knows we're what? We're sinful. We're born in sin. We have a sin nature. You add wine, or you add alcohol to a sin nature, and you fail. Okay? It's just that easy. Don't drink. Okay? But, you think, look at this, and this is some stats I pulled up for you. So among Christians today, Catholics are more likely than Protestants to say they've consumed alcohol in the past 30 days. 60% versus 51%. 60% of Catholics, 51% of Protestants have consumed alcohol in the last 30 days. Adults that don't belong to any religion, right, they're only 24% higher than the Christians in drinking. That's sad, okay? Here's another one. So this one, in the last 30 days, 24% of Catholics and 17% of Protestants have said that they engage in binge drinking. Okay, that means when you start off with one, you just keep rolling, right? And it may last 24 hours, it may last a few days. Okay, so you think the church has some problems? I think the church has some problems. Since the 20th century, most mainline Protestants, where am I at? Nope, we ain't gonna read that one yet, hold on. That's in the wrong place, but okay. So, here's another one I found. This is just Americans, okay? This doesn't go by religion. This is just by human beings. 9.6% of Americans drink every day. Okay? Proverbs 6. Let's go there. Proverbs 6. I want you to see that the church has some problems today, guys. Church, I mean church. Proverbs 6. And we're going to read 16 to 19. 16 to 19. These are seven deadly sins here. These six things doth the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination unto him. A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that may be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord of brother and brethren. Those are things that God calls an abomination. Do you sow discord among your brethren? So if you're gossiping in church, or you're back talking to the pastor or something, that's sowing discord, guys. There's other ways to sow discord, but the one I want us to focus on is hands that shed innocent blood. Hands that shed innocent blood. That's an abomination in the church. Okay? Well, since the 20th century, most mainline Protestant dominations have supported the legalization of abortion. That's innocent blood. That child's done nothing. It's not even born yet. It's created, created by the hand of God. That is an innocent blood. And the Catholic Church and the Ether Orthodoxy condemn abortion under almost all circumstances, right? But look at this, in 2015, it's the most recent study I could find, 33% of evangelical Protestants, which would be a fundamental independent Baptist church, we fall under the evangelical Protestants, right? Guess what? 33% of those churches support legalized abortion. Don't shed innocent blood, it's an abomination. Okay, you want to keep going, look at this one. So, 48% of Catholics support legalized abortion. You ready for the Jewish? Jews, 83% support legalized abortion. Wow. Now, mainline Protestants, that's the ones that are not like us, fundamental. That's the rest of the Southern Baptists and the Methodists and all those other ists, right? Mainline Protestants, 60% support legalized abortion. And this is in 2015. Think about it. That's 10 years ago almost. You think its numbers have changed? Oh, I bet they have. The media and Satan is having his way to push legalized abortion. And you've ever thought, you know, a lot of people say, that's just an unborn baby. But what is it? It's God's creation. Satan is trying to kill God's creation. And why is that? Because what did God do? What is the first thing he did after creation? He made marriage between a man and a woman to have children. So if we can kill them off, we can destroy. The marriage. And what is the marriage an example of? It's the same... God gave us marriage between a husband and a wife as an example of us marrying Christ. The church will marry Christ. We are his bride. Satan's doing his best to destroy it, guys. He is doing his best. Let's go to one more. If you think there's not problems in the church. Romans, chapter 1. Ready to make everybody mad? Here we go. Romans chapter 1 verses 26 and 27 and the Bible says for this cause God gave them up to unto vile affections vile affections not normal affections vile affections for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature and likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lusts one toward another, men with men, working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meat. Is there any other way to interpret that? That's homosexuality. That's same-sex marriage, okay? And I've heard people, I've seen arguments where they, on YouTube, where they're arguing with street preachers, and they're trying to justify this. Oh, no, no, God loves everybody. He does love you. He doesn't love your sin. And they can't differentiate that. Because they try to use it against Christians. They say, so you're supposed to love everybody. So you're supposed to love me no matter how I am. Wrong. I love you. That's why I'm going to tell you about the gospel of Jesus Christ so you get saved and you get out of your sin. Okay? But, so here we go. This is another recent study. 44% of Christians today approve of same-sex marriage. 44% of people that call themselves Christians say it's okay. It's not what the Bible says, right? Not what the Bible says. See, there was problems in Corinth. Remember the first thing Paul said to him? The first thing he said when he was going to go back and correct him. It's not good for a man to touch a woman. You think they had problems? Well, we just looked at, we looked at drinking in the church, we looked at abortion in the church, and we looked at homosexuality, same-sex marriage that's accepted in the church. You think this church doesn't have problems today? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And we need to get right, guys. We need to get right. It would appear that the church at Corneth that Paul was addressing, guess what, is very, very similar to the church you're in today. So I ask you guys, search your hearts, search your minds. If you have something, some sin, you need to get it right. You need to clear it up, and you need to just cling to God as hard as you can. Okay? Because Satan is doing his best to destroy you, and destroy your family, and destroy your kids, and destroy your grandkids, and destroy this church. That is his goal. That's why these pews are empty, right now. It's because he's doing his best. Remember, we're not, we're not in, this is Satan's world. We're just visiting. Right? And he can do anything he wants to us. He can beat us. He can put us in a crash and we can get destroyed and lose an arm, lose a leg. We can get cancer and die. And we win. I'm all, I win. You know, a few weeks ago, I was really sick and I ended up in the hospital. And I was thinking, man, you know, what if I died? You know, I'd miss my wife, my family. I'm not ready to die. But man, I would win. I would win. I would be a winner because I wouldn't be sick no more. and I wouldn't have to pay taxes, and I wouldn't have to go to work! It'd be awesome! No more mowing the yard in 100 degree heat! So, guys, just draw close to God, because we win. We win, guys. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, I come to you today, Lord, I hope that... God, I hope this made sense today, Lord, and people understood it, Lord, that we just need to get right, and as we study through Corinthians, we're gonna see more and more that... they were just like us they were people ever say that they were simple morning and we just have to keep our eyes focused on you and keep their relationship with you and and if there be a heart in here that's hardened and more that doesn't know you and just fighting against you more than maybe has a spirit of antichrist or to ask you to just