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2015-06-11 Study of 1 Corinthians Week 8


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00:00:00.000 | Alright, okay. Then what I'd like to do is read our passage together over in verse 16
00:00:13.800 | of chapter 3 down to verse 23. And it says, "Do you not know that you are a temple of
00:00:25.280 | God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God,
00:00:32.400 | God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are. Let no
00:00:37.840 | man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must
00:00:42.240 | become foolish, so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness
00:00:47.840 | before God. For it is written, 'He is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness.'
00:00:53.720 | And again, the Lord knows the reasoning of the wise, that they are useless. So then,
00:00:59.240 | let no one boast in men, for all things belong to you. Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas
00:01:05.120 | or the world or life or death or things present or things to come, all things belong to you.
00:01:12.120 | And you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God." Okay. So, in that passage, if you
00:01:22.200 | guys can tell the flow of thought, he's still talking about the issue in the church of division.
00:01:29.560 | Okay? And in addressing this topic, man, he's used so many different types of arguments
00:01:34.920 | and different types of reasoning. Okay? So today, we're going to take a look at this
00:01:39.760 | portion as one segment in that larger argument. Okay? I want to start off by giving an interesting
00:01:48.000 | introduction. I'm currently living in my father-in-law's home, and that has proven
00:01:55.600 | to be quite the interesting thing. Thank goodness he's an extremely godly man. He's like an
00:02:00.500 | elder at his church. He's actually like a member of the Korean Presbyterian Synod in
00:02:05.640 | Southern California, and he's like a really authoritative, strong individual. So, whatever
00:02:12.840 | he says kind of goes. Now, you can imagine how that could create some, even though he
00:02:18.760 | is godly and even though he's extremely generous and kind, how that can create confusion, how
00:02:23.080 | that can create perhaps awkwardness and also a sense of, "I don't know what I'm supposed
00:02:27.760 | to do." You know? Hence, I'm looking for a place to go. I'm just kidding. It's been awesome
00:02:33.480 | living there, and again, they've been so generous. It's been amazing. But being that culturally,
00:02:41.360 | there's differences too. For example, the way that I grew up, my parents, they're like
00:02:47.760 | OG Korean, first generation, everything's old school. So, essentially, the hierarchy
00:02:53.960 | amongst parents and children is pretty, pretty severe. So, when they say, "No, this is the
00:03:00.720 | way it should be," you correcting them would be like, "How dare you?" You know? It'd be
00:03:05.560 | like that. Whereas, Bia, what's really weird about it is, you know, they're Korean, but
00:03:12.920 | they grew up in Brazil. So, it's just like a completely different environment. So, there's
00:03:19.080 | all kinds of confusions. For example, you know, obviously, if we go out and maybe I
00:03:25.280 | want to pay for it, but then the father says, "No." I have to decide, do I push the issue
00:03:31.320 | and be like, "No, no, no, I'll pay. I'm so thankful for what you've been doing. Let me
00:03:34.440 | pay for the thing." Or if he says, "No," should I be respectful and be like, "Okay, you pay
00:03:39.840 | for it." You know? Other times when certain things happen, Bia recently twisted her ankle.
00:03:43.360 | She couldn't do something and then she asked for help. I saw her dad get up, but then I
00:03:48.920 | want to get up because I'm her husband and it's kind of like, "What do I do?" You know?
00:03:53.960 | And so, my mind works extremely slow and my gears have to start going. So, I sit there
00:03:58.040 | and I'm like, "What's wrong with you?" And the reason why I'm bringing these scenarios
00:04:08.200 | up is because how do you decide what to do? You know? As a matter of fact, not in just
00:04:15.000 | those scenarios, but in different scenarios, there's always a question of how do I decide
00:04:18.600 | what to do in this context, right? And sometimes, especially if there are different role-playing
00:04:25.160 | figures in the scenario, it gets really complicated, right? Well, I talked to Bia about it one
00:04:31.120 | time and I said, "Sometimes I don't know what to do." And she just straight-up looked at
00:04:34.240 | me and said, "But you're my husband." I said, "Okay." You know? Like, that just kind of
00:04:38.560 | clarifies what she expects in the moment. And that totally makes sense, right? She stubs
00:04:44.760 | her toe or breaks her ankle, who should be the one running down to help her? Well, if
00:04:49.960 | she was a single lady, it would be her father. But, now that she's married, it should be
00:04:55.040 | me. Why? Because that's who I am. I bring that up because I think Apostle Paul, in trying
00:05:01.960 | to challenge the church, like, there are certain ways you should behave in the church, okay?
00:05:07.600 | And there are certain things you shouldn't be doing in the church. And a lot of it, his
00:05:11.840 | rationale or the way that he argues with the people of the church is, "Because this is
00:05:16.680 | who you are. Live up to who you are." And if you know, you guys read other epistles
00:05:22.520 | that he's written, the letters that he's written, and a lot of times he writes in that way.
00:05:27.760 | "Be who you are. Live up to your calling. Function, behave, believe according to what
00:05:34.880 | God has made you now." Right? And so it makes sense that from the beginning of the letter,
00:05:39.600 | how did he begin? "Come on, saints!" You know? You almost hear the frustration, but he begins
00:05:46.240 | with saying, "Saints, brothers!" And then so he'll start arguing. Well, this section
00:05:52.120 | to me is really one of those sections where he says, "Live up to who you are." And so
00:05:58.480 | he begins by saying, "Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit
00:06:06.800 | of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him. For
00:06:11.800 | the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are." See that? So there's an emphatic
00:06:18.800 | point, him saying, "This is who you are. Think about it." So let's think. First section,
00:06:25.160 | little phrase, "You are the temple of God." Right? Now I want to just get this out of
00:06:30.000 | the way. When he says, "You are the temple of God," is it you? So it's like, "Hey, don't
00:06:34.640 | get that tattoo, because you're the temple of God." Or is it you, as in y'all? Y'all
00:06:40.600 | are the temple of God. So don't fight each other in the church. Don't do this and this
00:06:46.520 | and this stuff in the church. I don't know. So for you guys, what do you guys think? Just
00:06:57.280 | getting this out of the way of what's the more, I guess, best way to look at that? Plural
00:07:03.120 | or singular? I see him pointing. Plural. Okay. So how do you kind of conclude to, "Hey, I
00:07:12.200 | think he's talking about the plural here." Awesome. So you can look at the Greek. So
00:07:22.600 | here's the interesting thing, okay? So I personally believe that obviously sometimes I mention
00:07:28.640 | the Greek and I don't. I think it's good for us to realize obviously the Bible is written
00:07:33.520 | in Greek and we should go to the Greek because, number one, that's the way it was written.
00:07:38.760 | Number two, the Greek is a much more precise language. And because we believe in this inspiration
00:07:45.900 | and inerrancy of scripture, we believe that in the original manuscripts there's just no
00:07:50.040 | error. It's not going to mislead us. It's going to trick us. So jot this down just for
00:07:54.840 | your reference. There's a website called blueletterbible.com. You don't have to be a professor in Greek
00:08:00.800 | to use that because it just tells you, you look at a word and it'll do the whole parsing
00:08:04.640 | for you. Parsing just saying, it'll tell you what kind of word it is. Plural, singular,
00:08:09.920 | what case. Now, I don't think you should try to make huge theological movements from like
00:08:17.200 | one word or one Greek letter, all that kind of stuff. But it's good for us to know, okay?
00:08:22.760 | And we don't want to, again, make more than it is of it. But this is something good to
00:08:26.080 | know. The passage, yes, in the Greek it's plural, okay? And so not only that, but from
00:08:32.240 | the context we understand that he is addressing the church at large and he's addressing the
00:08:37.360 | church writing this letter saying, you guys have division in the church. You are the temple,
00:08:44.360 | okay? So in addressing the church together then, it helps us think about the analogy,
00:08:51.160 | right? And so my question to you is, what about this analogy then as a temple correlates
00:08:57.160 | to y'all, the church at large? What did you guys discuss at the beginning of that? Yes?
00:09:06.160 | >> [INAUDIBLE]
00:09:16.160 | >> Okay.
00:09:23.160 | >> [INAUDIBLE]
00:09:35.160 | >> Okay.
00:09:36.160 | >> [INAUDIBLE]
00:09:48.160 | >> Great. That's a great case for looking at the context and then how he's addressing
00:09:53.160 | the church. Awesome. What other things did you kind of deduce about, okay, how is this
00:09:59.160 | analogy working? Meaning, what elements of the temple or the church is he correlating
00:10:05.160 | to say, hey, you're the temple? What sort of things did you guys talk about in your
00:10:18.160 | groups? How about calling on somebody? Hmm. Jen Chung.
00:10:44.160 | Okay. Thank you. All right. Anything else you guys want to highlight? Okay. Let's do
00:10:57.160 | some more observation and then we're going to try to look at this stuff, okay? The next
00:11:02.160 | question I have is, okay, thinking about this whole temple analogy, for me, meditating about
00:11:08.160 | this analogy is going to make for a lot of application. It's going to make for a lot
00:11:13.160 | of evaluation of how we function as a church, what we do, right? And so kind of giving more
00:11:19.160 | detail to that, I want to ask you, when Apostle Paul is writing to this church, remember at
00:11:24.160 | the beginning I said this church has a mixture, okay? There's probably a good presence of
00:11:28.160 | Jews. There's obviously being in Corinth, it has a great presence of Gentiles and whatnot.
00:11:33.160 | But how would the Jews think about the temple when Apostle Paul brings this up and kind
00:11:40.160 | of emphatically says, well, you guys are the temple. And he's now talking to this, you
00:11:45.160 | know, new covenant after Christ church, but he's pointing back and saying, you're the
00:11:51.160 | temple. How would the Jews perceive that? What are some of the first impressions and
00:11:57.160 | thoughts that they would have? Aspect of holiness. Okay. So definitely for like a Jewish, Jewish
00:12:09.160 | individual, they're thinking about temple. Everything has to be holy. Everything has
00:12:14.160 | to be consecrated. Everything has to be cleansed. Right? So definitely a Jew would be thinking
00:12:19.160 | like this place is holy. Okay. What else? What kind of things would they, would they
00:12:25.160 | think of it when they think of the temple? God's presence, right? Because historically,
00:12:37.160 | where do you go to meet God? The temple. You don't go on a random place. As a matter of
00:12:44.160 | fact, if you did, you get judged. You don't go whenever you want to. You don't go to different
00:12:48.160 | hilltops. You don't go just make a little ditch at your home. You have to make that
00:12:53.160 | pilgrimage to the temple. Why? Because that's where God has ordained to meet his people.
00:12:58.160 | Right? So that's a lot of interesting things we can, we can think about. And so here, um,
00:13:05.160 | this is what I'm talking about. If you were to take the time to meditate as to he's building
00:13:11.160 | a metaphor. Now, typically anytime the scriptures use a metaphor, we can't necessarily sit there
00:13:20.160 | and make all kinds of extrapolations from one metaphor. Why? Because typically the metaphor
00:13:26.160 | is trying to prove a point. A parable, a story, an illustration is typically trying to what?
00:13:32.160 | Prove a point. Right? So here I believe there's a sense in which he says you're the temple
00:13:37.160 | and the spirit dwells in you. Okay? And that's highlighting a point. But first I want to
00:13:44.160 | ask in what way does the spirit dwell in us? Well, let me have some of you guys read some
00:13:49.160 | of the cross references that are listed there. If I can have Isaac, can you look up first
00:13:54.160 | Peter chapter two verse five? Andy, can you look up the next one? Ephesians 22. Okay.
00:14:02.160 | And then Alex, a kindle. Can you look up second Corinthians six 16 Jason, can you look up
00:14:08.160 | Romans chapter eight, first nine and 11 and then going down the line, maybe 10. Can you
00:14:17.160 | look up second Timothy one 14 and then Martin, if you can look up Ezekiel chapter 37 verse
00:14:24.160 | 27 as they're looking that up, I want to encourage you guys when you do your Bible studies,
00:14:29.160 | you know, there's a lot you can learn just from like a Bible that just has references
00:14:35.160 | and you don't have to, you know, buy all the commentaries and you don't have to buy all
00:14:41.160 | the latest like study Bibles. Why? Because sometimes you're studying a passage and you
00:14:47.160 | look up other areas in the scriptures that teach the same thing. You look up cross references
00:14:51.160 | and it helps just a lot. Okay. So starting from Isaac. Okay. So if we were to summarize
00:15:09.160 | that, I would say spiritual house for worship. Sorry, I know the line's kind of short, spiritual
00:15:15.160 | house for worship. Is that sufficient? Right? Like who are we? He says, you're being built
00:15:20.160 | up like a spiritual house for worship. You're a bunch of priests offering up sacrifices.
00:15:25.160 | Right? Kind of interesting that Peter would also give old Testament analogy for what we're
00:15:31.160 | doing in the new Testament church. Next one. Ephesians 22 or 222. Okay. So dwelling place
00:15:45.160 | of God. Okay. The church has being built up. Is it built up? You know, sometimes we use
00:15:52.160 | the analogy that the church is the extension, the church is the vehicle, the church is the
00:15:57.160 | hand of God, church is the ministry, the program. We use all different types of terms to describe
00:16:02.160 | the church. Here it's emphasizing this fact that God is building a dwelling place for
00:16:07.160 | his presence. Next one. Second Corinthians. Who did I ask? Alex. Okay. What version are
00:16:24.160 | you reading? ESV? Okay. You guys can write in there again. Holy temple. Just temple.
00:16:33.160 | Next one. Romans eight. Okay. Thank you. So this passage we're talking about dwelling.
00:17:02.160 | Like how does the spirit dwell in you? And here, rather than the collective, he is talking
00:17:07.160 | about the individual. So you can write dwells individually. Okay. The spirit dwells individually
00:17:16.160 | as well. Okay. Second Timothy chapter one verse 14. Go ahead. Okay. Thank you. So it
00:17:29.160 | says by the spirit, you guard the good deposit. So in many ways, this idea of dwelling is
00:17:36.160 | also protective. Okay. So you can write as a shelter or just protective. Okay. And the
00:17:44.160 | last one. Ezekiel. Okay. Thank you. That passage in Ezekiel is a pretty astounding one. It's
00:17:56.160 | talking about the new covenant and the change of heart that God is going to enact. Now I
00:18:00.160 | know that was kind of a, somewhat of a tedious exercise, like looking up different verses,
00:18:05.160 | but for me, I just want us to sit and meditate and think about this truth. That God so desired
00:18:15.160 | this emphatic truth to be repeated so many times, which is that the spirit dwells in
00:18:22.160 | you, right? The spirit dwells in you. So meditate about this, that the spirit dwells in you
00:18:31.160 | in a sense in which through the offering, through the worship, through, through who
00:18:36.160 | we are, the spirit dwells in you as a, as a sanctifying, Holy presence. The spirit dwells
00:18:43.160 | in us collectively that we talked about already as a temple, but individually, the spirit
00:18:48.160 | dwells in order to protect and guard. The spirit dwells just to emphasize this point.
00:18:55.160 | His presence is with us, right? Okay. So as we think about that, I want you to think back
00:19:05.160 | to this idea again, to a Jew, the temple meant presence of God. So by ramification, what
00:19:15.160 | would it, what would it translate to if they brought unholy animal, if they brought sin
00:19:22.160 | into the temple, how would they view that? Again, I'm at, sometimes I just ask obvious
00:19:36.160 | questions that it's just, you know, you know, the answer just want someone to say it, you
00:19:42.160 | know, how would someone view bringing anything unholy into the temple for a Jew? Yeah. Like
00:19:55.160 | flat out just defilement, right? Something like completely sacrilege and, and towards
00:20:01.160 | God, they would feel what? Sense of this like, wow, this is blasphemous, you know, they would
00:20:11.160 | have a sense of, oh my gosh, we're offending God, you know, and just meditate on that for
00:20:16.160 | a second. Apostle Paul is bringing an analogy and this analogy or this metaphor is supposed
00:20:21.160 | to have its effect. You're a temple. Remember all that your fathers, forefathers had gone
00:20:27.160 | through? Remember all that was taught to your forefathers through the law? Remember all
00:20:31.160 | the experiences? Remember the people who offered strange sacrifices? Remember the people who
00:20:36.160 | brought in prostitutes to the temple? What did God do? You are this temple and it is
00:20:42.160 | emphatic point is the Holy Spirit is in there among you, in you, therefore, therefore what?
00:20:51.160 | It must be holy. And so to me, the metaphor and how he builds it up is it all makes sense.
00:20:58.160 | It all connects. And so as you meditate on that, think, think about that, the ramifications
00:21:05.160 | of the church being the temple. Okay. And let that be a moment of just this kind of
00:21:11.160 | explosion of self-evaluation, evaluation, even over our church and application right
00:21:15.160 | away. Like if we truly believe we're the church, I mean, sorry, we're the temple. The church
00:21:19.160 | is a temple of God, the primary place in which God manifests his presence. What sort of place
00:21:27.160 | should we be? You know, that's what Paul's getting at. Be who you are. You are the temple.
00:21:35.160 | And so he gives this warning. Number four, which is verse 17. If any man destroys the
00:21:44.160 | temple, God will destroy him. Now he is speaking metaphorically and stuff like that, but the
00:21:53.160 | reality is we do do stuff to destroy the temple, destroy the church. Aside from what we've
00:22:01.160 | been talking about the whole time, which is causing division, what are the more specific
00:22:08.160 | and tangible ways do we harm our local body, our church? I think I might have asked this
00:22:20.160 | before on a discussion question. Let's just talk about it a little bit. Okay. He says,
00:22:25.160 | I give you this warning. If any man destroys the church, think about this. How do we harm
00:22:36.160 | the church and the people in the church? Yes?
00:22:51.160 | Okay.
00:23:12.160 | Okay. Thank you. So he said, we've been talking about a lot of it before. It's all kind of
00:23:17.160 | rooted in your envy and strife and stuff like that. And then it's kind of breeds all this
00:23:21.160 | other stuff we do. But I just wanted to, again, for the sake of following his trail of thought,
00:23:26.160 | it's like, if any man destroys the temple, you know, and essentially he's like rebuking
00:23:31.160 | them. It's like, you're destroying the temple. But what sort of things do we do in our modern
00:23:37.160 | day, perhaps just identifying some of those things that we harm the church? Gossip. Okay.
00:23:52.160 | Gossip and strife.
00:24:11.160 | Yes. Disconnecting.
00:24:40.160 | You guys hear what he said, right? That's really good. You know, for me, I think about
00:24:45.160 | the Hebrews passage that do not neglect, you know, gathering together. And there's this
00:24:51.160 | idea of just kind of neglecting the church. And I remember, you know, being told many,
00:24:57.160 | many times that, you know, we don't, there's nothing that just stays the same. You're either
00:25:02.160 | decaying, you're either like decreasing or you're increasing, you know, it's just nothing
00:25:06.160 | really ever stays the same. So you neglect it. It's not just staying the same. It's decaying,
00:25:10.160 | you know, that kind of stuff. Great. Other things? Becoming lukewarm. Pride. Okay.
00:25:28.160 | Compromising.
00:25:32.160 | There's a lot, you know, if you think about each letter that Apostle Paul writes, sometimes
00:25:36.160 | he addresses some of these issues. He addresses the issues also of just simply judging each
00:25:41.160 | other, prematurely judging each other, judging each other with arbitrary standards, hypocritical
00:25:48.160 | standards, all kinds of stuff, you know. There's a lot of things that can happen in the church
00:25:55.160 | where we can kind of destroy both the integrity, both the standard, the fellowship, and every
00:26:01.160 | aspect. Remember that whole analogy of the building to me, it's like, yeah, it is a building,
00:26:06.160 | you know. There's infrastructure, there's like, you know, outside stuff, there's programs
00:26:11.160 | and all that kind of stuff. So think about that a little bit. Yes?
00:26:14.160 | [inaudible]
00:26:25.160 | Great questions. Yeah. So that's kind of what we're, um, thank you for asking the question.
00:26:33.160 | Good segue. Okay. We're going to move forward. And Rachel asked a really good question. So
00:26:37.160 | we're talking about this stuff and I just asked, like, just throw out any examples of
00:26:42.160 | stuff that we do to destroy the church. But how are we defining destroy? That's a great
00:26:47.160 | question. Okay. Now, in order to answer this question, this is another point at which we
00:26:53.160 | kind of have to understand the term destroy. Right? And this is where it's kind of good
00:26:59.160 | again to go to websites like blueletterbible.com, biblestudytools.com also gives you Greek and
00:27:04.160 | stuff like that. Again, I want to give you a warning. What will happen is it'll give
00:27:09.160 | you a word. So it'll give you the English and the Greek word. And you want to click
00:27:13.160 | on it. It'll give you like a gloss of definitions and the gloss of definitions for the term
00:27:18.160 | destroy includes everything from ruin, corrupt, injure or hurt. Okay. Now, the danger we can
00:27:25.160 | have is, Oh, I'll pick one that I think kind of fits, you know, but you have to kind of
00:27:32.160 | put it in context. So this is why I asked you a question. Do you think God will destroy
00:27:37.160 | a Christian? Because there's a sense in which, so there's the church that's being metaphorically
00:27:47.160 | spoken of as a temple. And then there's a guy who ends up either one of those glosses,
00:27:53.160 | ruining, destroying, hurting, injuring the church. But in like manner, God is going to
00:27:59.160 | do the same thing to him. What do you think about that? So context sometimes will help
00:28:06.160 | you kind of put parameters as to what that term might mean. Any thoughts? Okay. Well,
00:28:26.160 | in thinking about this, I'm going to do this. I'll leave it to you to work out your faith
00:28:35.160 | with fear and trembling and study that a little bit. What does God mean when he says I will
00:28:40.160 | destroy him? What does it mean that we destroy the temple? Obviously it has a negative connotation.
00:28:45.160 | We do a lot of stuff that has negative impact influence on the church, right? And we have
00:28:50.160 | to be wary of it. I'm going to move on to this next point. Why? Why does God make this
00:28:57.160 | threat? I asked, is this a legitimate threat? Of course it is. God says in the scriptures,
00:29:02.160 | it just says flat out, if you destroy the temple, God will destroy him. Right? Is that
00:29:08.160 | a legitimate threat? Yes, I do believe it is a legitimate threat. Not a threat, a warning
00:29:14.160 | because it's not just an empty threat. It's going to happen. If an individual is hurting
00:29:19.160 | that precious thing for which he sent his son, that precious thing to which he has raised
00:29:24.160 | his under shepherds and that precious things to which he has given structure and he's going
00:29:28.160 | to ensure its success. If any man tries to thwart that plan of God, if any man tries
00:29:34.160 | to destroy that church, what do you think God will do? He's giving fair warning. But
00:29:40.160 | in this passage, what does he say? He says, for the temple of God is holy. And you can
00:29:55.160 | read that for as though it's basically saying because. Because the temple of God is holy
00:30:02.160 | and that is what you are, that is why God is taking so seriously any attack, any defilement,
00:30:12.160 | any deconstructive efforts towards the church, God is going to take incredibly seriously.
00:30:19.160 | And so this is one of the ramifications that we're seeing. This is one of the ramifications
00:30:23.160 | that we're seeing. If we think about this fact, if we truly believe the church to be
00:30:28.160 | a temple, how careful should we be? We should be as careful as those who believe God will.
00:30:36.160 | Yes, all right. Now we haven't defined necessarily what destroy means, but the fact of the matter
00:30:41.160 | is God is going to give a just repercussion for the kind of destructive work an individual
00:30:47.160 | does. Right? In my mind, God is always just and God is one who is going to give a just
00:30:55.160 | recompense for what takes place in the church. And that's what I talked about the last week
00:31:00.160 | on Sunday, right? So think about that. If we believe truly the church to be the temple,
00:31:06.160 | how should we behave? All right. Any questions so far about those first verses? Yes.
00:31:32.160 | Although it doesn't make sense, I do believe it can include Christians. So that gives you
00:31:37.160 | a hint for me. I don't believe when he says destroy, he means like destroy as an utterly
00:31:42.160 | ruin or like destroy as in like there's a for us, we believe there are people in the
00:31:48.160 | church that look like Christians, but they're not. And in terms of destroying them, then
00:31:53.160 | God will in kind of final judgment reveal who they are and they're not going to be saved.
00:31:58.160 | The reason being is because again, there is this reality that the division that's happening
00:32:07.160 | now from the division, Apostle Paul does not automatically judge and conclude you guys
00:32:13.160 | are not Christian, but rather he still calls them saints and says, I'm very convinced of
00:32:18.160 | it. I'm thankful for it, but you guys are behaving very fleshly. So can that exist for
00:32:24.160 | a genuine Christian is struggling with the stain of his sin and he is acting like a man
00:32:29.160 | in the flesh, it can happen.
00:32:45.160 | I think that's a very possible way to think about it. Yeah. You know, there's a sense
00:32:52.160 | in which, um, you know, individuals who it's still, it's to me, it's, it's always a, remember
00:32:59.160 | that one week I wrote that phrase, just desserts and people had a weird, hard time understanding
00:33:04.160 | what I was saying. Just desserts is just a way of saying that whatever the crime, the
00:33:11.160 | judgment always fits with God. God has a sense of poetic justice and God has a sense of this
00:33:17.160 | giving to people exactly what they need, you know, and so they deserve a guy sitting there.
00:33:23.160 | He wants to inflate his ego and he just wants to look real nice. What ends up happening?
00:33:28.160 | He ends up looking completely opposite and he just gets completely humiliated. You know,
00:33:33.160 | remember Eve, she wants to overthrow and overpower the husband. God says, you're going to rule.
00:33:38.160 | Oh, you're going to be ruled over by your husband. The husband is going to rule over
00:33:41.160 | you. You know, remember Jacob, he's deceives. Who does he get deceived by? LeBron. And then
00:33:46.160 | now he's deceived and Jacob's saying, you know, why'd you deceive me? And then he has
00:33:50.160 | to go work many, many years for the wife that he wants. God always has a sense of poetic
00:33:54.160 | justice and he kind of, you know, matches the crime. I think in many ways, sometimes
00:33:58.160 | that happens. When God in church sticks up his big old, you know, head thinking he's
00:34:03.160 | all that, God's going to be like right on top of that, right on top of that head. And
00:34:08.160 | so, yeah.
00:34:09.160 | [inaudible]
00:34:26.160 | It's true. Yeah. I guess you're right. I wouldn't limit it to say, okay, destruction
00:34:32.160 | only means humbling or like slight disciplines or whatnot. Could it mean physical death?
00:34:39.160 | Yeah. Could it mean physical sickness and come to a sense of ruin? Yeah. So, okay.
00:34:46.160 | [inaudible]
00:34:49.160 | Right. Okay. Okay. Good questions. Yeah. And so thinking about this, for me, I feel like
00:34:59.160 | learning about this as a perspective changer, isn't it? This is one of those like China
00:35:04.160 | of have your mind frame, like how you think and function in the church. And that's what
00:35:09.160 | apostle Paul is doing. You are the temple and God cares so much about this place, these
00:35:15.160 | people, you dividing it and causing fractions. Like it's, it's not without consequences,
00:35:23.160 | you know, it's a frame of thinking. All right. So in so doing, I'm going to jump into the
00:35:30.160 | next section. If you notice in your Bibles, there's going to be probably a, um, you know,
00:35:36.160 | verse 16 through 17 and verse 18 has that bolded number that kind of shows you that
00:35:41.160 | in the Greek it's a start of a new paragraph. Is it completely divided? The, that section
00:35:46.160 | in the next section? No, I still think he's having the people examine their perspective,
00:35:52.160 | but he's really driving home the point. So in chapter three, he's giving a couple summaries,
00:35:57.160 | a couple of those exert exhortation points. That's going to really move the people to
00:36:03.160 | feel, you know, that conviction like, Oh, this is a temple. I shouldn't be prideful.
00:36:07.160 | I shouldn't be, you know, doing this and that. And that's kind of how I read the last section
00:36:12.160 | of chapter three. Okay. And that's why I asked you highlight some of the main verbs.
00:36:17.160 | Did you guys do that? Okay. Be in the practice of doing that, especially commands like jot
00:36:23.160 | those down in the Bible. It's if it's command in the Bible, sometimes you just have to sit
00:36:28.160 | there and be like, I'm not going to sit here and try to define, okay, what does this mean?
00:36:32.160 | How do I define it? What are the examples? I'm just going to read it and ask myself,
00:36:36.160 | did I obey? Sometimes I do that, you know, not to clutter, not to confuse the scriptures,
00:36:43.160 | but some of it's just really, really clear. So that's the command I highlighted in bold.
00:36:47.160 | I like put arrows on it and I say, do I obey that? It's a good practice. Okay. But let
00:36:52.160 | me begin with this first 18 through 20. It says, let no man deceive himself. If any man
00:36:57.160 | among you thinks he is wise in this age, he must become foolish so that he may become
00:37:04.160 | wise for the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written. He is the one
00:37:10.160 | who catches the wise and their craftiness. And again, the Lord knows the reasoning of
00:37:16.160 | the wise that they are useless. Okay. So I want to ask you, what's the plain command
00:37:24.160 | here? How would you state like, okay, someone's reading this last segment. I want to know
00:37:31.160 | what is the command of God here? How would you summarize it for you? You know, for them?
00:37:38.160 | Okay. Good. Be foolish. If you think you're wise.
00:38:07.160 | Okay. Is there any other kind of command sounding verb? Great. So you got two fold. The first
00:38:17.160 | fold is don't deceive yourself. Okay. Don't be deluded. Second part, become foolish. Okay.
00:38:26.160 | So he says, you know, um, he's giving this picture of the types of individuals we are
00:38:35.160 | not to become. He's giving a command by way of saying, basically, let us not deceive ourselves.
00:38:43.160 | Okay. And in so thinking about that, I want you guys to think about this whole issue.
00:38:51.160 | If I can ask you guys, you know, sometimes it's good to do this too, is kind of picture
00:38:55.160 | that man. Okay. Picture that man who is somewhat deluded because he just thinks way too highly
00:39:04.160 | of himself. You know, um, picture that guy whose self esteem is, you know, as big as
00:39:11.160 | the entire room and there's space for nobody else. Okay. Picture that guy who thinks he's
00:39:17.160 | incredibly wise. Yeah. And, and describe the way that he thinks. How does a man who is
00:39:27.160 | like that, how does he think? Cause, uh, in, in picturing that sometimes it helps us if
00:39:34.160 | the command is don't do this in picturing that man and it helps us, uh, and don't put
00:39:38.160 | a name to it and be like, Oh yeah, that guy at church. I'm just saying like picture the
00:39:43.160 | guy in general. All right. Just think about it for a second. How would that individual
00:39:51.160 | think? I mean, I wrote down a bunch of statements. I was like, I pictured him and I started writing
00:40:00.160 | down some statements that he would say and um, yeah. All right. Thought about it. Throw
00:40:15.160 | some out to me. How does a cocky, arrogant guy who thinks he knows everything, what,
00:40:20.160 | in what way does he think, what sort of things does he typically say? What sort of things
00:40:24.160 | does he typically do? I know I'm asking for kind of like a broad general thing, but again,
00:40:29.160 | how would that individual think? Talk about themselves a lot. I did this and did you know
00:40:37.160 | I did that? And when I was your age I was like this and if I were you, I would do that
00:40:42.160 | and okay do so maybe you do that what else would he say and think he won't
00:40:52.420 | listen to anybody else okay it's like no no no no no no no no because people off
00:40:58.860 | jumps in what else
00:41:02.480 | not teachable okay yeah always thinks he actually knows better it's like yeah
00:41:12.120 | but you know what else
00:41:17.360 | trust me trust me I know what's best you know no just listen just okay yeah
00:41:33.160 | sometimes we have some of these things and you know some of the things that I
00:41:37.760 | sometimes want to catch myself before I say this stuff like oh they're not
00:41:43.400 | listening to me like nobody ever listens to me you know you know complaining
00:41:47.240 | about how nobody you know like how everybody's so stupid or how nobody you
00:41:51.880 | know has reason anymore like so sometimes I'm like nobody has common
00:41:55.320 | sense anymore gosh you know and you know is that is that the kind of practical
00:41:59.800 | statement I want to say where by far obviously I have common sense but nobody
00:42:03.160 | ever thinks like me you know stuff like maybe people who come in and they just
00:42:08.120 | want to teach like I'm here to disciple people you know like who wants to get
00:42:12.680 | discipled I've got four slots come on by and I'll include you into my little
00:42:17.640 | posse there are people like that they come in they don't want to get
00:42:20.880 | discipled by the church they want to come in they want to teach yeah so there
00:42:25.040 | are other stuff yeah
00:42:30.720 | yeah that one's really good and I think to tell you honestly I think that's
00:42:36.400 | primarily what Apostle Paul is getting at when he says like you guys rest on
00:42:40.880 | your worldly wisdom you know it's your knowledge and your experience that
00:42:45.280 | dictates for you what you think about God it's your knowledge and your
00:42:48.920 | experience that dictates for you what you think about church so the pastor
00:42:52.240 | might be teaching one when you're like no no no that's not how I learned it or
00:42:54.880 | that's not what I experienced so that's not what I think they're just not
00:42:57.880 | willing to say my whole entire experience might be wrong compared to
00:43:03.000 | scripture they're just not willing to say that why because they have a sense
00:43:06.240 | of pride you know this is the guy who thinks he is wise this is a guy who
00:43:13.480 | needs who needs to become first foolish in order to be wise okay and to tell you
00:43:21.200 | honestly I have to be careful because those type of thoughts that way of
00:43:24.760 | thinking those types of attitudes exist you know and I try to catch myself
00:43:29.360 | before I say something like that yeah and so scripture teaches us in 1st
00:43:35.440 | Corinthians chapter 10 verse 12 it's a good passage for us 1st Corinthians 10
00:43:39.200 | 12 therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall
00:43:44.520 | that in our own estimation we're so confident that we're absolutely right
00:43:48.600 | that in our own estimation I can't possibly be wrong you know take heed
00:43:53.880 | because you're just gonna fall you're not aware of your weaknesses and the
00:43:57.600 | people who said to me plenty of times if I said hey you guys when you're dating
00:44:01.680 | relationship be careful because that's so dangerous you know even the godliest
00:44:05.680 | of men and the godliest of women who are really really careful fell it's like
00:44:08.640 | don't worry about it don't worry about it arrogant little
00:44:13.200 | but there's a sense of like that's not you know you're not playing humble to
00:44:17.800 | think that oh we're okay you're being arrogant to think you know I don't have
00:44:22.080 | that weakness an individual who is wise is very well aware that a well aware of
00:44:27.880 | their weakness of an individual who is wise and humble is very well over there
00:44:31.920 | of their sin how susceptible they are they're absolutely aware that without
00:44:36.720 | the Holy Spirit's presence without discipline of the word and prayer and
00:44:40.520 | God and his word but they're absolutely weak those are the marks of the humble
00:44:46.440 | one so God repeats these ideas that we've mentioned before so I'm not gonna
00:44:51.960 | belabor them but that the wisdom of the world is absolutely foolish before God
00:44:55.840 | compared to God's revelation compared to God's truth compared to the way God
00:44:59.600 | thinks compared to how God has planned how God has ordained things to be the
00:45:05.280 | craftiness of the wise is nothing God has already caught them the reasoning of
00:45:10.120 | the wise are useless God has already observed how they reason right so his
00:45:17.160 | exhortation is so all you guys sitting here thinking is wise to elevate a human
00:45:23.640 | leader and say I pledge allegiance to Paul who planted this church you know
00:45:29.880 | and I am of Paul those of you who thinks is wise to do that somehow thinks is
00:45:35.000 | glorious that it's gonna elevate you he says let no one boast in men so I'm
00:45:40.360 | reading verse 21 through 23 for all things belong to you whether Paul or
00:45:45.480 | Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to
00:45:49.560 | come all things belong to you and you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to
00:45:55.560 | God to me these verses are a little bit confusing but there again perspective
00:46:01.080 | changers there are like ways of thinking about the world right and I want to ask
00:46:08.600 | you this question the command is pretty clear don't boast in men for all things
00:46:13.400 | belong to you that's where all the sudden is like well till he took me off
00:46:16.920 | guard I got a little confusing so okay I get this idea don't be cocky don't be
00:46:21.160 | prideful don't you know put men on a pedestal because in in the end that's
00:46:26.840 | just in our own pride our own fanciful thinking of like want to be like him I
00:46:31.560 | want to be glorified like him right but his rationale is hard to comprehend
00:46:37.400 | because he says for all things belong to you okay all things belong to you
00:46:44.200 | obviously we have to ask the question what does that mean all things belong to
00:46:50.000 | you okay not all things belong to me right now and how are we to understand
00:46:59.600 | how that connects with us not boasting in men that's another good question
00:47:04.600 | right so I'm looking at it for two parts one he says don't both the men for all
00:47:10.840 | things belong to you first question what is that what does it mean for not what
00:47:14.880 | does it mean to have all things belong to me secondly how does that connect to
00:47:19.680 | don't boast in men let's take a look at some of the details here he says don't
00:47:26.960 | boast in men for all things belong to you and then he starts describing
00:47:31.680 | describing them and I categorized I categorized those just those items that
00:47:38.840 | belong in the entire category of all things first you have some leaders and
00:47:44.600 | they are Paul Apollos and Cephas so you can write those in the blank then you
00:47:50.120 | have powers and possessions the world and all that it possesses life or death
00:47:56.320 | okay you also have time things present things to come right so for me I just
00:48:05.160 | kind of categorize it like that those categories are not ordained by God so I
00:48:09.280 | might change them but essentially that's kind of the way it feels like right he's
00:48:13.640 | like hey don't boast in men because you own everything you see these leaders
00:48:17.520 | they're yours you see that all the world and all that it possesses you know yours
00:48:22.680 | life the power of life power over death yours time now in the future things to
00:48:30.640 | come yours what is he saying how does it even belong to you do you guys perhaps
00:48:37.120 | have any ideas as to how that would all work now that's a hard question to
00:48:41.600 | answer you guys can just take a crack at it how does that work
00:48:48.000 | you
00:49:04.200 | got a good one I just know okay all right how about yeah oh I forgot your
00:49:16.440 | name already hey John that's right same last name Jonathan all right
00:49:24.360 | I think the Bible talks about
00:49:27.800 | excellence you guys hear his question so you would agree with MacArthur in his
00:49:41.160 | commentary that in a sense we own it all why because with Christ we are heirs
00:49:46.520 | we're heirs with Christ and there's a sense in which kind of already but not
00:49:51.760 | yet into the future we're gonna possess the world you know so by position by
00:49:58.680 | standing like already now as an heir I'm entitled to everything okay and so if
00:50:07.240 | you think about it that way this kind of places you on a position where it's like
00:50:11.760 | what are you shooting for when you're competing with each other when you
00:50:17.040 | already own the world right so one can think of the logic like that it's like
00:50:22.040 | don't sit there elevating men like you fancifully and why do we elevate like
00:50:27.040 | basketball star superstars and stuff like that and a lot of times because
00:50:30.680 | what we vicariously win through them we lift them up fancifully thinking I just
00:50:37.160 | want to dunk it so bad you know I want to shoot that shot or whatnot and it's a
00:50:42.280 | lot of this fantasy of like vicariously you are winning through them their glory
00:50:46.600 | is your glory when you elevate people like that you know but if you own the
00:50:51.160 | world like if you are the heir of the world like what is that you know but you
00:50:58.160 | know there's actually other ways to look at this kind of slight differences of
00:51:02.860 | nuance and other commentators would differ on the position on this any other
00:51:10.600 | ideas how does all that belong to you and how does it connect with don't boast
00:51:16.440 | and men
00:51:18.840 | yes
00:51:44.040 | okay
00:51:46.920 | uh-huh
00:51:49.920 | okay good
00:51:52.920 | you know that's an excellent one if another commentator would say that
00:51:57.920 | you know I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of
00:52:02.920 | the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about
00:52:07.920 | it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of
00:52:12.920 | the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about
00:52:17.920 | it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of
00:52:22.920 | the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about
00:52:27.920 | it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of
00:52:32.920 | the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about
00:52:37.920 | it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of
00:52:42.920 | the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about
00:52:47.920 | it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of
00:52:52.920 | the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about
00:52:57.920 | it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of
00:53:02.920 | the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about
00:53:07.920 | it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:53:12.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:53:17.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:53:22.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:53:27.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:53:32.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:53:37.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:53:42.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:53:47.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:53:52.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:53:57.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:54:02.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:54:07.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:54:12.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:54:17.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:54:22.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:54:27.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:54:32.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:54:37.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:54:42.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:54:47.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:54:52.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:54:57.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:55:02.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:55:07.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:55:12.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:55:17.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:55:22.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:55:27.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:55:32.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:55:37.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:55:42.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:55:47.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:55:52.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:55:57.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:56:02.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:56:07.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:56:12.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:56:17.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:56:22.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:56:27.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:56:32.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:56:37.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:56:42.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:56:47.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:56:52.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:56:57.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:57:02.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:57:07.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:57:12.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:57:17.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:57:22.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:57:27.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:57:32.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:57:37.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:57:42.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:57:47.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:57:52.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:57:57.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:58:02.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:58:07.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:58:12.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:58:17.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:58:22.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:58:27.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:58:32.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:58:37.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:58:42.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:58:47.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:58:52.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:58:57.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:59:02.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:59:07.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:59:12.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:59:17.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:59:22.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:59:27.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:59:32.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:59:37.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:59:42.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:59:47.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
00:59:52.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
00:59:57.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
01:00:02.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
01:00:07.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
01:00:12.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
01:00:17.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
01:00:22.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
01:00:27.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
01:00:32.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
01:00:37.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the
01:00:42.920 | way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it
01:00:47.920 | but I'm not a fan of the way you're talking about it but I'm not a fan of the