This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to not only day five of our look through First
Corinthians chapter 16, but also our last day of our look together through First
Corinthians. And I have to begin by saying congratulations. Congratulations for
coming to the end of this study.

And in the end of this study, I'm praying God's going to refresh your spirit. It's
not just we're coming to the end and we sort of lose our energy towards the end.
But instead, ending with a bang, how does God want to refresh my spirit for this
day and the days to come?

We've been talking this week about the kind of spirit that God wants us to have.
And we've talked about living with an expectant spirit and a giving spirit.
We've talked about living in our daily lives with a spirit of strength and
power, victorious spirit that comes from him.

The idea of living with a humble and submissive spirit. The fifth spirit, kind
of spirit that Paul talks about, I see indicated in this chapter, is a refreshed
spirit. Paul talks about his spirit being refreshed.

And he talks about his spirit being refreshed through his relationships with
other believers, his fellowship with others. The experience of Christian
fellowship refreshes our spirit like nothing else can. If your spiritual feet
need a retread, if your spiritual spring needs to be refreshed, if your
spiritual life needs to be renewed, God will often use the fellowship of other
believers.

Now you're thinking, well, not for me, other believers wear me out sometimes.
Then stick with this chapter. Stick with these verses.

God has something to say to all of us about how he wants to refresh our spirits.
Listen to what Paul says in verses 17 to 20. I was glad when Stephanus and
Fortunatus and Achaicus arrived because they've supplied what was lacking from
you.

For they refreshed my spirit and yours also. Such men deserve recognition. The
churches in the province of Asia send you greetings.

Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord. And so does the church that
meets in their house. All the brothers here send you greetings.

Greet one another with a holy kiss. Now look at this list of people. Paul talks
about Stephanus, which we mentioned earlier, that man who had been the first of
Achaus to be able to be reached for the Lord.

And because of that, he had reached others. And now he talks about Fortunatus
and Achaicus, who obviously to me it seems are others who have been reached out
of the city of Corinth for the Lord. He talks about all the churches of Asia.

He talks about Aquila and Priscilla. He talks about teacher friends. These
friends, Aquila and Priscilla, are friends that Paul had met when he first came
to Corinth.

So they tied into the Corinthian church. And then he says at the end, everybody
sends you a greeting. There's this refreshing sense of fellowship in these
verses.

And then down in verse 21 and 22, Paul says, "I, Paul, write this greeting with
my own hand. "If anyone does not love the Lord, a curse be on him. "Come, O
Lord.

"The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. "My love to all of you in Christ
Jesus, amen. " Now, before we dig in a little bit more to what it means to have
a refreshed spirit, I just love Paul's spirit in these verses.

It's the typical Mercurial Paul, just flashing from one side of the emotion to
the other. He says, "If anyone doesn't love the Lord, "a curse be on him. "Come,
O Lord.

" "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. " That's Paul. In fact, it's even
stronger in the Greek language.

In the Greek language, the word curse is anathema, and the word come, O Lord, is
one word, maranatha. And they're put together in this sentence. So what he says
is anathema, maranatha.

He's got both of them right beside each other. That's Paul. That's Paul.

"A curse be on those who are not following Jesus Christ, "and come, O Lord
Jesus, quickly, "because we need you to save this world. " He lived with both of
those attitudes in his life. He was a bad of man.

He was able to really go out there and gain some victories for Christ, but
because he was also a man filled with faith. Jesus is coming. He is able to
sustain his faith through all the opposition that he had to face.

And instead of his life becoming about the opposition, his life continued to be
about the Lord Jesus. You never want your life to become about the opposition.
You're going to face opposition, but don't let them identify and mark your life.

Let the love of Jesus determine your life. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with
you. Now, when it comes to living with new energy, Paul, as he talks about all
these friends, he uses two phrases in these verses that remind you and I about
where we get new energy, a refreshed spirit in our lives.

He says, "There are those who came "who supplied what is lacking. " And he says,
"There are those who came "who refreshed my spirit. " You need both in your
life.

It might be the same person. People who supply what is lacking, and people who
refresh your spirit. You need people in your life who supply what is lacking.

Look for people in your life who supply what you don't already have in your
life. There are times in your life when you just lack the faith, maybe even to
take the next step. Then look for someone else who can help you to have that
kind of faith.

The temptation we have many times as believers is to think, I don't have enough
faith right now, so I gotta just get closer to Jesus. And then maybe when I have
enough faith, then I can get around to other believers again 'cause I'll have
something to share with them. Well, the truth of the matter is, oftentimes when
you're lacking something in your life, it's a sign that you need another person
in your life.

Now, it's Jesus who's going to meet that need, no doubt, but he often wants to meet
that need through another person. This could be about something material. You
lack something materially to make the next step in your life or to have the
needs of your family met.

God wants to use another person. It could also be about something spiritual.
You're lacking the ability to do what you believe God wants you to do.

Maybe it's a new ministry you want to get started. God wants to put new people in
your life to supply what is lacking in your life. Now, Paul says it was lacking
from you.

The Corinthians weren't able to be there, so these friends came instead. You
need to look for people in your life who supply what is lacking. And then he
says they refreshed my spirit.

You need to look for people to refresh your spirit. Now, not everyone you're
around in life is going to refresh your spirit. There are people in life that drain
you.

There are situations and circumstances in life that drain you. But if you find
yourself putting yourself only in circumstances that drain you, then you're not
taking the lesson from the apostle Paul. You're not taking the lesson even from
Jesus.

Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. He spent time with the Father.
He often spent time with his disciples.

You need to find the people in your life who actually refresh your spirit and
spend time with them. Because most likely, you also refresh their spirit. It's
amazing how iron sharpens iron in that.

There are people in your life who are the, we sometimes call them the EGR
people, the Extra Grace Required People. Every time you're with them, and it may
not be this way for everybody else, but especially for you, every time you're
with them, you have to work hard at being a Christian. Well, keep being with
them and keep serving them.

But also find the other kind of people in your life. The kind of people in your
life who are applauding you along the way, who are giving you strength.
Somebody's called these balcony people at one time.

They stand on the balcony, and when God's doing good things in your life, they
are on your side. They are the kind of people who refresh your spirit. Do you
have those kind of people in your life?

If not, get 'em in your life. Maybe you had 'em in the past, and those
relationships, for some reason, they've moved away, something has happened, and
you find yourself feeling drained more and more in the faith. Who do you need to
get back into your life that refreshes your spirit, who supplies what is lacking
in your life?

And so, with this, my love to you all and Christ Jesus, amen, we come to the end
of 1 Corinthians. And I pray that spending this time with Paul has refreshed
your spirit. This is the question and answer book of the New Testament.

And it's my prayer that as he's answered their questions, he's given you a
picture of what God wants to be doing in your life. As Paul answers their
questions, has answered their questions about the divisions in the church, he
gave us a picture of practical Christian unity. As he answered their questions
about the struggles that they were having in worship, he gave us a picture of
outstanding worship in our own lives.

As he answered their questions about the struggles they were having with hope
and life after death, he gave us a picture of the resurrected body that we can
all look forward to. And that gets to the main lesson of 1 Corinthians. These
believers were struggling, but God had answers.

And because they told Paul they were struggling, God showed them the answers.
The lesson of 1 Corinthians is we all struggle as believers. Don't pretend that
you don't.

So you can either pretend that you don't and never get God's answers, or you can
tell God and you can tell others what you're struggling with. You tell God and
you tell others what you're struggling with because he has answers. He has
answers to those struggles that will fill you with faith, hope, and love.

Let's pray together. Jesus, help us to talk about it. Help us to talk about the
struggles that we have with other believers, the struggles that we have with
worship, the struggles that we have with faith, the struggles that we have with
doubt, the struggles that we have even with you.

Help us to talk about it and then listen for your answers. To talk about it with
you in prayer, to talk about it with others, and then listen to your answers.
You're a God who is more than willing to listen to our struggles, but you're
also a God who's more than willing to show up with answers in our lives.

Lord, we don't want to live in the place of struggle, but we also don't want to
live pretending that we never struggle. We struggle as believers. We admit it.

We need your answers. So thank you for this book, through this book, for giving
us so many answers. And thank you for the further answers that you have as we
share with you our heart in day-to-day life.

Thank you for the truth of 1 Corinthians. Thank you for the truth of faith,
hope, and love. Let it sink its way into our lives.

We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. I'm glad that you joined us for this study of
1 Corinthians. As you may know, we have a lot of other studies in Drive Time
Devotions.

You can go to drivetimedevotions. com, and there you can look up many of our
other studies, take any of the other books that we've already done, or you can
just stick in with us for next week with this daily podcast. We'll be looking
forward to the next book that we're going to study together.

Thanks for being part of studying God's word in Drive Time Devotions.