So the 21 convention, Tampa, Florida, and we are bringing on a speaker, the man, this is something that is really going to work and what the 21 convention is all about. Changing your life as a man, making the right decisions, be able to build your own foundation and one of those is business and entrepreneurship. This is a gentleman who has worked for over five years with Matthew Hussey, I'm sure you've heard of him, best-selling author, actually former 21 convention speaker, and we're gonna be talking about how setting up a business can be like a dance. Let's bring on the stage, Edward Druse. Thank you, Pa, thank you. Good stuff, good stuff. 21 convention, hello. Hello, it's amazing to be here. I'm gonna begin this talk with a quick story. When I was 15 years old, I ran a gambling ring in school. In the UK where I grew up, the most hotly anticipated sporting events every week are the Premier League football matches. Knowing this to try and capitalize on the buzz, every Monday morning I would sneak into my dad's office and I'd print out betting slips for each of the 10 games that weekend. I would hand these out at school, lunch, during breaks, behind teachers' backs, wherever I could, marketing myself under radar, and I would tell kids that for a one-pound bet, if they could guess all 10 games correctly, I would give them 100 pounds back. Now, to a 15-year-old, these seemed like pretty incredible odds. Everyone thinks their team is gonna win, so that one's a shoe-in and it's just nine more games. And so this was hotly taken up every single week. Little did anyone know that I would gather these in and as something of a Friday afternoon ritual, I would go to an actual bookies with my brother's borrowed driving license and I'd put them on where I'd get odds of anywhere from one to 800 to one to 3,000 depending on the games. I didn't know if this would go anywhere, it was just a little scheme that I'd come up with, but I decided to run with it. I did it for a few months and I was very persistent and then one week, someone won. Someone guessed all 10 games correctly and I had a winning ticket for about 1700 pounds, so the equivalent of about two and a half thousand dollars. Now, I had to pay this guy his 100, there was no getting around that, I had to be a man of my word, but I went into the bookies, I slammed down this ticket on the counter and I was paid 1700 pounds in cash. And to this day, comparatively, I don't think I've ever felt richer. This unbelievable experience walking out with an envelope, cash in hand, I don't think I've ever felt richer. And this experience led me to think that I wanted to do something entrepreneurial. I wanted to do something different. I'd always had the mindset that I wanted to do something academic, that I could go to college, I could go to university, and I'd follow the very well-worn traditional route, but this experience led me to think I wanted to do something different. Now, it's a rather humble story when you compare it to teenagers today with the internet making tens, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars, but it's really that sense of wanting to do something different that I want to tap into today. And that's what really this talk is going to be about. In the years since, or I should say, in the following months, I was really keeping my eyes peeled for how I could break away what opportunities I could get involved with and I was just keeping my eyes peeled at all times. After a few months, I came across a guy called Matthew Hussie. And at the time, Matthew was just starting out in London as a coach and a speaker, doing events for maybe 80 or 90 people. And I was so utterly captivated with this guy, both with his message and his content, as well as his ability to command and just all a crowd. I'd seen a few of his YouTube videos and I was so compelled and so enthusiastic about what this guy was doing that I decided I would go along to one of his events. Now, being 15 at the time, this wasn't the easiest thing in the world. I had to get the 200-mile train ride from Swansea, a little town I grew up in, Wales, and I had to go to London. There, I had to navigate the London Underground, which is a treacherous thing for anyone, let alone a 15-year-old, and I ended up walking around with printouts of Google Maps. This is long before the days of everyone walking around with iPhones. But I went and I was just as awed, if not more in person, by how this guy was able to speak, how he was able to deliver, and I kept going back. Any chance I would get, I would skip the football match I would have on Saturday, playing for a football team, and I would go and see this guy speak. And I became something of a familiar face at his events. I kept going. And I was eventually able to befriend a key member of his team. With his friend, I was able to get 10 minutes on Matt's calendar to book in a phone call. The call was at five o'clock in the morning, because I knew Matt was a morning person. I wanted to say, here, I'm on the same level, I'm a similar kind of guy, and this was show I'm serious. So when the day rolled around, I woke up, I had set my alarm for 4.54, going down with six minutes to go, and I was nervous as hell to make this phone call. I didn't quite know what I was gonna say. I was gonna try and say, I would like to get involved somehow, I don't really know what I can add, but I just love what you're doing. And I would love to be a part of it. And so I'm in the garage in this freezing cold garage, so I was to not wake my parents and have them wonder what the hell is this guy doing up at five o'clock in the morning. And so I dialed the number for Matt, and I met with a kind of energy and enthusiasm which suggests that this man has just been up since three. He picks up the phone, he says, hey, Edward, how you doing? I've been really looking forward to speaking with you. We chat for a little while, I tell him how many of his events I've been along to, and I say, is there any way that I can get involved? Now, to any entrepreneurs we have here in the room, you will let you will agree with me in how unattractive a prospect, a 15 year old who lives 200 miles away might be, but I really showed some energy and enthusiasm on that call. And so I was invited to come along to one of his more intensive programs, a three day event at the time that was called Make the Leap. Now I knew at the time because in my delusional young state, I'd been looking at apartment prices in London as well as hotel prices. And for you guys who might not have been to London all of you, it's a very expensive city. I knew that going along for just three days would eat into pretty much all of the winnings I had from the bookies. But my gut told me that this is something I've got to do. This is something I've got to be a part of. And so without a moment's hesitation, I said, yes, I'm in. It's now five years later and I've been working with Matthew ever since. I was able to further befriend that key member of his team. I was invited into his offices to do two or three days worth of data entry that was just so mind-numbingly boring that no one else on the team would ever otherwise have been ever to get around to do it. I really excelled. I showed that I was serious and I was invited to stay on for a few more weeks. The weeks turned into months and when my summer holiday was coming to a close, I had to sit down with Matthew and said, I love to stay on. I love to do this full time. I was 17 years old and I dropped out of high school and I've never been back. So in the last, well, in working with Matthew for the last five years, he has become a New York Times bestselling author. He has his own radio show with I Heart Radio and he's worked with celebrities the likes of Eva Longoria, Ryan Seacrest and Christina Aguilera. He's on The Today Show every other week on shows like Rachel Ray and he's most well known for a dating advice company called Get The Guy. So this is dating advice for women, the opposite of what the guys we have here speaking about today are talking about. Now I'd be lying if I said that it was strategic at this time that I thought this is the missing link. But in hindsight, this experience has led me to think that if you're in that place where you want to do something different, you want to do something entrepreneurial, you don't really know how to do so in the real world. You don't know how to do so outside of school walls and actually put something to practice. The missing piece of the jigsaw.


Okay. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Fall 2022. It's so good to see all of you all. Even as you begin this new semester, let's just begin with a word of prayer. So any one of us can please lead us in prayer. Sri Kumar, if you can lead us in prayer, please. Yes, Master. Mr. Father, we thank you and praise you, Father God, for this wonderful day which you have given to us today. We thank you for this new week which you have given to us. We submit ourselves into your mighty hand. And we pray that, Father God, not by your own understanding, but in your grace and wisdom, you lead us, Father. As we are beginning, Lord Master, this day with your word and with the work with your grace, Father, we pray that every word what is we are going to learn and listen from your servant, your God Master. Let it be from the throne room of God, Father. And, Father God, we pray that every precious word what is going to come out from his mouth, that we are able to store it in our spirit and in our soul and in our heart, God Master, so that it can lead us, it can edify us, it can increase our knowledge and wisdom so that we can be able to stand strong and bold for the kingdom of God, God Master. So that we can move ahead of Father. Those words should be from the heaven which will encourage us, heals us of Father and restore us to Father God. We submit everyone into your mighty hand, Father God, and we pray that prepare each one of our hearts of God and prepare your servant of Father God. Thank you, Father God, for this opportunity to learn, O Lord Master, we surrender everything into the hands of the Holy Spirit. We ask you to lead us and guide us and teach us in Jesus' most holy and matchless name. We pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much, Sri Kumar. Welcome once again, those who are joining us now. So excited to begin with this new semester. So this semester, I will be teaching on first and second Corinthians, BC 304, first and second Corinthians. And what we will be doing is throughout the course, we will try and complete at least a verse by verse study of each chapter from first and second Corinthians. So basically we want to learn, you know, both these letters are wonderful letters. They're possible writes. And so there's a lot of beautiful content that is available and let's pray that the Holy Spirit will minister to us even as we learn together. Just before we start, what to inform us about the grading systems. So we will have just like last semester, we will have two grading systems. So first will be a midterm assessment in September from the first week. It will be for 50 marks. And then we will have the final semester, which will be in the month of November during the last week, which will again be for 50 marks. And both of them put together will be your final grading marks. So I hope that's all right. So just divided into a midterm final assessment for the marks put together. All right. So shall we begin with first and second Corinthians? I hope you have downloaded the notes as well. The PDF is available on the stream. So feel free to download it and track along even as we go through the entire course. All right. So let's begin with the introduction. Right. Now, one of the things that we learned, you know, while we study the Bible is always look at the background. Right. Who are the people? What is the region? Or what kind of what is the audience? What is the place? What is the cultural setting, the demographic setting of a place? So when we do that, we will be able to, you know, really study the Bible in the right way. Right. So let's look at a background of Corinth. Right. Now, just to let us know that Paul went into Corinth during his second missionary journey. Right. I think we did a part of it in, you know, a couple of lessons last semester as well, how he went into Asia Minor. He went into those, you know, the Agora, the marketplace. He began to preach the gospel there and how many lives were touched. So second missionary journey. Paul goes into Corinth. Now, the city of Corinth was established in a colony. Right. Veterans, namely Julius Caesar. And they all used to live there. And it became a Roman province. Right. In early 27 BC. And over the years, it underwent construction, rebuilding, reconstruction. A lot of structures that were there in Corinth were probably either rebuilt or redemolished by the Roman Emperor. So there could have been, you know, changes made in the structures. Now, Corinth was noted for a place of luxury. It had a lot of, you know, a lot of people visiting Corinth. It was a harbor, a lot of business and people would, you know, during those days, people would come there on vacations, you know, Romans, Roman citizens, people from different parts of the country would come to spend time there because it was a place of luxury. It was a commercial space. And one thing we do know that it was a place of intense immorality. Right. There was immorality everywhere. Right.  Right. There were good sites. There were good things about Corinth, but most of them were sinful. Right. They were, you know, considered a good city because of the development they had made to the place that they are staying in. But then we see that immorality was always on the rise there. And during this time, we know that there were two goddesses, goddess Apollo and goddess Aphrodite. Right. Now let's look at what they are. What are these two? Right. Apollo was a Greek god associated with, you know, the sun, the light, knowledge, medicine, music, poetry. And this temple of Apollo was in the lower part of Corinth. Right.  It had of which seven were, seven are still standing today. Right. So if you have seen pictures of Corinth and you would have seen those pillars, maybe if you go to Google, you can see them. That is the, that is the temple of Apollo. Right. And the other goddess was goddess Aphrodite. Now this was a Greek goddess of love. And goddess Aphrodite was, was in the part of the city called Acro, let me get that right, Acro Corinth and about 1,800 feet high. Now, since this was a goddess of love, it was, it is said that there were people who, you know, even if they committed sexual immorality, right, people were married and they would indulge in sexual morality outside of marriage. It was all right. It was accepted. Why? Because it was like as if they were following goddess Aphrodite. Right. And this, this, this temple of Aphrodite had 1,000 male and female prostitutes. Right. Now, let's keep this in the background. Right. Picture this. You've got a place, Corinth, a booming sector, luxurious place. You've got the rich and the wealthy staying there. You've got a harbor. It's, it's known as the ornament of Greece, meaning that's like the center of Greece. And then you've got, you know, the, in the lower parts, you've got a temple of Apollo. And then you've got in Acro Corinth, you've got a temple of Aphrodite. So there's idol worship, there's sexual immorality, there is prostitution, and there is no sign of God, no sign of the Holy Spirit, nothing, no work at all. Right. And Paul, the apostle, goes into this place in the second missionary journey. Right. Now, in 1 Corinthians, many of the believers in the Corinthian church, Paul is already talking to them and he's telling them, you know what, there's a lot of worldliness. There's a lot of things that is around you.  The people are falling into all kinds of, you know, lustful sins. But you as a church are to impact the city. Right. And he begins that whole letter trying to firstly thank God and then, you know, also bring correction. So, so remember that where the apostle Paul is going, it's not like there was never already a church, or, you know, people were very receptive to him and people, you know, they just accepted the gospel. That's far from the truth. Right. There's a, in Corinth, there's a place called the Agora, which is the marketplace. Now, just a little bit of a background. Paul is in Corinth and there he meets Aquila and Priscilla. Right. So, AD 49, Paul visits Corinth, spends 18 months in Corinth. Right. So, the high, the most number of years he stayed was in Ephesus, which was three years. But after that it was Corinth, 18 months in Corinth. No. What was he doing there? Right. Oh, he, he was 10, he was, he was a tent maker. So, he began to work. Right. He went to the marketplace. Now, remember, it's a Corinth was a place of business.  Right. And it also, we also see in the book of Acts, it says that he went to the marketplace and he was ministering to the Jews and the Gentiles. Right. Right. Now, while he was ministering, he met this couple, Aquila and Priscilla. They were Jewish couples. They were Jewish couples. Now, what were they doing in Corinth? The Roman Emperor Claudius ordered that all Jews from, were supposed to leave Rome, all Jews from Rome were supposed to leave and go to another place. Right. So, that's why Aquila and Priscilla chose to come to Corinth. Right. And so, now we've got three people. Right. You've got Paul, got the couple, Aquila and Priscilla. And of course, Apostle Paul may have, you know, shared the Gospel with Aquila and Priscilla and, you know, invited them to accept Jesus and they readily accept it. But they began to work together as a team. Right. Now, it is during this time, during this 18 months where Apostle Paul was working as a tent maker that he received help from the Philippian church. Now, maybe it's a little confusing, but just remember these important nuggets of information. Right. So, 18 months he's in Corinth. Aquila, Priscilla are there. They three are working in the marketplace as tent makers. And now, you've got the Philippian church who he visited just before this. They are supporting Paul by sending money or sending gifts to Paul. Right. Later on, what happens is during the second missionary journey, Silas and Timothy arrive from Macedonia. Right. Oh, Silas and Timothy arrive from Macedonia and they join Paul, Aquila and Priscilla. Right. So, now you've got the three who are Apostle Paul, Aquila, Priscilla and then Silas and Timothy joins them. So, you've got five people there. And then later on, we see that even Luke comes there. So, you've got a team of six people right now in Corinth. That's wonderful to see the work of the Holy Spirit. Right. How the Lord just connected with people and brought people to Paul. Because the Lord knew that, you know, this place needs to hear the gospel. This place needs to, there needs to be a change. And so, wonderfully, now there are six people proclaiming, ministering to people in Corinth. Right. I hope you're tracking along. Right. Now, Paul began to proclaim the gospel in the marketplace outside of homes, outside of peoples, outside of the temples. And many of the God-fearing Jews, they accepted the gospel and so did many Gentiles. Right. And some of the people who are saved is mentioned there, you know, justice, Christmas, Stefanus, Sostenus, Erastus. You know, while I was preparing this, I was so, you know, I was so moved because Paul is just mentioning it so, you know, it is so natural to him. He's saying, these are the people who got saved when we ministered to them. Now, remember the background. These are people who are living in sexual immorality. There is, there is all kinds of things that are happening in Corinth. You see the power of the Holy Spirit touching these people's lives. Right. They probably have never heard of Jesus. Maybe they, you know, so many of them are Gentiles on this list. They don't know who Jesus is or probably they would have heard of a man named Jesus who was crucified or they didn't even hear about him. But you see how Paul and his team were able to touch lives. Right. And I let Corinth during those 18 months, Paul heard about the Thessalonian church. Right. Because prior to this, he was also in Thessalonica and he heard and they planted a good church there. But what did he hear about the church in Thessalonica? They were scared. They said, you know, what if Jesus has already come and gone? And so Paul hears that report. He says, okay, let me write to them. And when we read first and second Thessalonians, we see that he is encouraging them and he's telling the church, oh, when the rapture happens, this is what is going to happen. The twinkling of an eye. But you be aware, there's godlessness. There are people who are, you know, pretending to be God and pretending to be the Messiah. So he writes first and second Thessalonians there. Yes, Mangi, please go ahead. Mangi. Thank you, sir. Yes. I just want to ask Priscilla and Aquila. Yes. Were they in Corinth on Paul's second visit or was just the first visit when he first kept Wednesday? Yes. So, yes. Thank you. Thank you, Mangi. So what happened was the Roman emperor, there was a Roman emperor Claudius. He ordered the Jews to go to leave Rome. So Aquila and Priscilla leave Rome and go to Corinth. Now, in Corinth, it was during that time, Paul has come in for his second missionary journey. So they're meeting for the first time there. And if we see later on also, Paul leaves Aquila and Priscilla at Corinth. So they're meeting for the first time. It's just God appointed. And even more interesting is both of them had the same profession, tent makers. So Aquila and Priscilla were tent makers. Paul was also a tent maker. So probably, I'm just imagining this whole picture of what would have happened. Probably Paul is there. Now, in Paul's mind, I need to reach out. I need to do something here. So, which is the best place to go? What is the marketplace? You have hundreds of thousands of people coming there.  And he would have probably seen Aquila and Priscilla. He said, hey, you're not Jews. And you've got that common ground. Remember, lifestyle evangelism. We spoke about it as well. How wonderfully Paul, you know, he ministered to the people there. So both were tent makers. So they probably found common ground and Paul would have told them, hey, you know, the Messiah we are talking about. This is what it was Jesus. And he would have shared the whole gospel and they became a team. And when you read on in the book of Acts, it shows that they were there together. Paul considered them as leaders. So it was not like, you know, Paul chose Aquila and Priscilla and told them, no, you do this only, only what I tell you to do. No, they were leaders in many places. He says, my fellow brethren, he says, my fellow brother, brothers in Christ, Aquila and Priscilla. So it was the first time that they met. But there was this, you know, wonderful bonding that happened immediately. We'll see, even as we go down, we will see what happens to Paul and Paul, what happens to Aquila and Priscilla as well. Right. So remember, the team was six, right? So all six are there ministering together. Mangi, I hope that answers your question. Yes. Thank you. If I may ask again, sir, what happened in his first visits to Corinth? Did he mind to establish a church or community or only in his second visit when the church was built? Thank you. Yes. So what happens is, Mangi, during the first visit itself, the people who accepted the gospel, we saw a list of people, right? Justice, Christmas, Tiffana, Sostenas, they formed the church, right? So in the first visit itself, most of the places where also Paul, when they were believers, it was mostly a house church, right? Now, we must remember, we must understand that, you know, it's not like what we have now, right? Okay. Believers get together. To start a church, you have to have those legal things. You open a trust, you open up all these things. You need to get permission from police. All that was not there. So they became believers. They gathered together in houses, probably every week once or twice, and that was the church, right? So it was the first visit itself. Even Galatia, if you see, the church was in Galatia. They were formed immediately. Prior to this, prior to Corinth, he was at Thessalonica and he was at Philippi. The church has already begun there and they are already sending gifts to Paul, right? So it was the first, the woman believers began, Paul knew, okay, because they needed to be that community, right? So let's get together and that was the church, right? Right. So during this ministry around Corinth, Paul also evangelized in neighboring towns and cities, right? So there was Centuria, there's Achaia, and remember in Achaia, the woman named Phoebe, who was a rich lady, a purple merchant. That was Libya, but Phoebe was also there. She was also a rich woman and many lives were touched there as well, right? Now, Paul was here for 18 months towards the end of 18 months. Paul said, okay, now the church is plundered, they've got some leaders, I need to go to Jerusalem. And so he cuts off his hair because he takes a vow. He says, I'm going to go back to Jerusalem and take part in the feast. Now, why does he do this? It was because people started to complain and say, Paul is only ministering to the Gentiles and he's talking only about all these, the Holy Spirit about Jesus and he's gone away from the law, right? So Paul wanted to show them, hey, it's not that I've gone away from the law, I'm fulfilling the law. So he wanted to show the people, the leaders as well, that he still obeys all of this, right? But what the Lord Jesus did was more important than the law, right?  So from Centurion, that is where he was ministering, near Corinth, the town near Corinth, he went to Ephesus. Now, here's where, now the team was six, right? In Ephesus, Paul leaves Aquila and Priscilla there. He says, Aquila, Priscilla, I've been with you for probably 18 months now. We've worked together, we've done ministry together, we've planted a church together, we've raised up leaders together. Now it's time to move on. I need to move on. But you stay back in the church in Ephesus. So as a couple, they stay back there, they're in Ephesus and Apostle Paul goes on to Jerusalem, right? Now here's something interesting that happened in Ephesus. And we read that in the book of Acts as well, right? Where this wonderful man named Apollos comes into the picture. Remember Paul is writing to the letter and Corinthians, he says, is Christ divided? He says, who was crucified? Was it Cephas? Was it Apollos? So it's interesting to see that the Apostle Paul mentions Apollos's name as he becomes a great leader. So who is this Apollos? Now Apollos was from Alexandria, Egypt, and he comes to Ephesus. Now he was a good man, an honorable man, and he was preaching. He was an eloquent preacher, gifted orator. So what he was doing was he was preaching on John's baptism. He started preaching, you know, you all have to get water baptized. Because once you get water baptized, you'll find forgiveness of sins. That is the message of John the Baptist. Now Apollos heard this. Apollos and Priscilla heard him, said okay, Apollos come. What you're preaching is good, it's right. But let me keep you updated. After John the Baptist came the Lord Jesus, he was the Messiah. He died on the cross. He rose again from the dead. And now he baptizes us with the fire of the Holy Spirit. Share the gospel. Apollos, brilliant man, he knew the law, he knew everything except for the gospel. And now Apollos and Priscilla tell Apollos, you go back to Corinth. We've got some leaders there. We've started a church there. We've got some leaders there. Sostenas is a leader there. He was a chief ruler of the Jews. He's also there. Go back to Corinth and lead the church there. You see how wonderfully everything this comes into place. It's like God is taking people from different places, different areas, putting the whole puzzle together. Paul meets Apollos and Priscilla, shares the gospel with them. Apollos and Priscilla become wonderful leaders. They come on to Ephesus. They're leading the church in Ephesus. Meet this man named Apollos. Apollos is wonderfully a great man, a great orator. They share the gospel with Apollos. And Apollos and Priscilla says go to Corinth. The church that we were in, we started together. Go there and look after the believers. And he goes there. And I'm sure when he went to Corinth, he would have done a great work there. That is why Paul mentions him as a leader. He mentions him between Peter himself and Paulos' name. So that is the end of the second missionary journey. Quickly we'll go to the third missionary journey. Look at what happens in the church of Corinth. Then we'll begin with chapter one. So Paul spends three years in Ephesus. Three years in Ephesus, there he wrote Galatians. And then in Ephesus, during those three years, he writes first Corinthians. Now basically what happens is, Apollos is in church. He's leading the people in Corinth and he's seeing what's happening. All these things are happening. So probably he sends a letter saying these are the things that are happening. There is division. It's a good church, a spiritual church, wonderful people. But there's no order. There's chaos. There's division. There's strife. There's pride. And it's hard. And so Paul hears about this. And he says, okay, I need to sit and write to the Corinthian church. So he writes first Corinthians. He says, he's in Ephesus right now. He begins to write first Corinthians. I heard about these problems in the church. Division, there's a whole list of problems. So Paul is writing in response to those problems. That's what first Corinthians is. And while at Ephesus, he also receives information from Galatians. What is that from? In Galatia they're saying, no, no need all of this. We'll go back to the law. Paul is serious. In his first missionary journey, he went to Galatia. He planted those churches. They're saying, no, we'll go back to the law. And so he writes there. Galatians, why? People of Galatia, why are you doing this? You were saved by grace through faith. And he writes the whole letter of Galatians as well. Now, just think about the apostle Paul. He's in Ephesus.  Sexual morality. He's planted a church there. But things are not going right. He's being beaten. He's been almost killed. There's a death threat on him. Everything is going wrong for him. And on top of that, additional to that, he's getting these letters saying, oh, Galatia, people are going back to the law. And here are Corinth. People are, you know, there's division. They're doing whatever they want to do. Now, what would you and I do? Sometimes we may feel, God, how do I make these people understand? Why are these people doing this? Where did I go wrong? But we don't see that in Paul. What a wonderful leader. We see the heart of restoration in the apostle Paul. What does he do? He chooses one of his best men, Titus. He says, OK, Titus, you go to Corinth and look after the people there. Join with him. Take this letter, make them, you know, read it and make them understand this. So Titus goes with the letter to Corinth to, you know, and to help out Apollos. Now, what did Apostle Paul do from Ephesus? He gets the Macedonian call. So he goes into Macedonia, Philippi, Thessalonica, Peria. And while in Macedonia, he writes Second Corinthians, right? So again, another letter. But again, he's trying to bring correction, but he's also exerting the church. So he's right now in Macedonia, ministering to people. Macedonia was where Paul received the most amount of persecution. They wanted to kill him. He was beaten. He was bruised. He was put into prison and people ridiculed him, mocked him. But he stays on there in Macedonia and he writes Second Corinthians. Titus arrives at Macedonia. So Titus was in Corinth. He stays there for some time. He finds out where Paul is. Paul is in Macedonia. He comes and, you know, when Titus comes, his heart is rejoiced. His heart is, you know, in the book of Acts, it says that he was rejoicing in his heart. He was so pleased to see his brother in Christ. And then Paul writes, you know, Titus probably came back with, you know, their questions or their thoughts from the Corinthian church. And Paul writes the second letter of Corinthian. So that comes to an end of the third missionary journey as well. So with this in the background, right? Let's go to chapter one, right? So it's always good to keep these things in the back of our mind, right? It's not an easy place. Now we must also remember Paul is well advanced in years. He started his missionary journey probably when he was around 50 years old. Now he's probably about, you know, maybe 60, early, maybe 62, 63, about 12 years down. So he's old. Now we must remember that he has gone through so much of difficulties. Each and every missionary journey was a physical mental strain upon. He was put into prison, beaten, bruised. So mentally, physically, he was weak as well, right? So let's look at chapter one. Paul begins chapter one with this amazing salutation. I'll just read that. Yes. Chapter one. Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God and sauciness our brother. Remember sauciness? He was a chief ruler, right? So now probably he's become a leader in the church, right? To the church of God, which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints with all who in every place call in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours. So verse one and two is Paul's customary greeting. Now the church in Corinth is about seven years old during this time when Paul is writing 1 Corinthians. Seven years old. So I'm sure there were a lot of believers added into the church and I'm sure there would have been as there are many people, there would have been also many prophets, right? But the wonderful thing is that the work of the Holy Spirit did not stop. You see the grace of God there. Sometimes when we are doing wrong things, when we may not be in line with God's word, yet the Holy Spirit, God is favorable to us. He shows His grace upon us and He continues to pour out His Spirit upon us and we see the best example here. There was division, there was chaos in the church, yet people were flowing the gifts, prophecies, word of knowledge and all of that. So He starts off by saying, Paul called to be an apostle. The word called, the Greek word, means Kletos, which is invited or appointed. You and I are the ones who are appointed to be an ambassador, messenger of Christ. So our calling is because of the will of God. It is God's calling upon our life. We don't get to choose. That's so encouraging. The moment we are fulfilling what God wants us to do, we are fulfilling the will of God. Now it does not need to be only ministry. Some of us may be in business or in work or homemakers. The moment we are doing what God has called us to do, we are fulfilling God's ministry. Sostenius in Acts 18 was the chief ruler of the synagogue and he becomes part of Paul's pastoral team here on the second missionary journey. And he goes on to say to the church of God, which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified. I like that word sanctified. The word, as a church, you and I are sanctified. The word sanctified means to be set apart, to be holy in God's eyes. And we know this, right? Imagine, Paul is now, we must, you know, sometimes we use these words and it becomes just fancy jargons that we use, right? Hey, I'm sanctified, I'm justified. But picture the background that Paul is to the people who he's writing to. See the background of the people, and Paul is saying, hey, you are not like the others.  So, they may be majority outside, but you are greater than them. You are called to impact them. Saying, you are sanctified. Corinth was known as a sin city, but the church was to influence the city of Corinth. And eventually it did. The reason that we are talking about Corinth even right now is because the church has impacted the city of Corinth. Paul's letter has impacted the city of Corinth. Imagine, so many years later, we are talking about a city in Corinth where maybe many of us have never even gone there. It is because the church is greater than the people there. Nobody is talking about God as Apollo. Nobody is talking about God as Aphrodite. You have to go to Google to search about them. But everyone know about Jesus. Everyone know about the church. Right? We are sanctified in Christ Jesus. And let's go to verse 3. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace, the Greek word is Charis. It's an encompassing word again. Divine favor, divine empowerment, divine virtues, divine gifts. Grace, unmerited favor. You see the blessing that Paul is pronouncing on his people here. And this is grace and peace. Greek word is called Irene. It refers to tranquility, harmony, safety. And later on in Timothy he says, May the God of peace be with you. He also says, may the God of peace crush the work of the devil underneath your feet. As believers, grace and peace is from God and it's ours. We can work in it. We can work in God's grace. We can work in God's peace. Are they going to be storms? Are they going to be challenges? Difficulties? Definitely yes. Remember Paul is writing this letter that he used when he was later mentally, physically stressed. But he says grace and peace to you. Right? What about the church in Philippi? He says rejoice in the Lord always. He's sitting in prison. He's saying rejoice in the Lord. Right? So grace and peace is ours. And it's from God. And we can work in this. Let's go to verse 4. I love this verse. God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus. That you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge. Verse 4. I thank my God always concerning you. Now it's interesting to see this. Right? And it's a very, very important lesson that we must learn as leaders why is Paul writing this letter? He is writing this letter because he's going to bring correction on the people. Right? Probably Paul also said there's division. They don't know how to... They have the gifts of the Spirit. They're not using it rightly. They're having communion. The Lord's stable. One is eating here. One is doing something else there. And maybe Paul was furious about all of this. He must have got angry. Why is this happening? But see how wonderfully Paul starts off. He says, I thank God always concerning you. We see that later on in the episode. He brings up all the points. Right? All the things that need to be corrected. Paul brings it up. But he begins by saying I thank God for you. An important life lesson for us. Recognize what God has done for us. See the good things and give thanks. It's very easy for us to... When we want to bring correction, we want to correct... It could be even correcting our children. Right? Sometimes we may just say hey, don't do it this way. Or, you know, you were supposed to do it this way. But you didn't do it like this. And we may end up hurting the child or hurting your friend or family member. But here's a very important lesson. Yes, Paul doesn't stop correcting, bringing correction. But he starts off by thanking God. Right? So we can be thankful for people, for situations that come our way. Right? Maybe some of us are going through a difficult season and say, God, I want to thank you for the previous seasons that you were always there with me. You have been faithful.  And I know that you will continue to be with me in the season that I'm going through now. It makes such a big difference, right? But imagine we're going through a season of difficulty and we say, God, not again. You know, last time also I went through the same season. Now you're taking me through a different season and this looks worse than the other one. You know, it's not a right attitude to carry. Give thanks. Give thanks for what he has done, what he has given us. And then, yes, as leaders, as people who maybe leading people, leading ministries, leading teams, workplace, we have to bring correction. The Lord Jesus himself did that. But this is a good attitude to have to first, you know, recognize the good things God has done. Thank God for it. And then address challenges that come our way. Right? Let's read the next verse. For the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus. Right? Now we must understand this. There's a general grace of God which is available to all believers.  Right? Now, let me give you this example. We pray, say, God forgive me of my sins make me a new person. We receive the grace of God we receive forgiveness. We walk in the general grace of God. God's grace upon our lives. But the special grace of God is, say, God I want to be this businessman I need to start my own business or I want to start my own school or I want to start my own company or I want to start my own ministry I need your grace. That is a special endowment of grace that God will put upon us. Where people will get connected. People will capture our vision. God's grace will be upon our lives. Let me go speak to people. We'll find a special grace upon our lives. And so here there is a special grace over the church community of believers in Corinth. Paul recognizes the special grace and acknowledges the special grace in this church. I believe that the special grace is the whole aspect of being able to flown the gifts of the spirit. They are people who are still yet to understand many things. Paul writes to them are you still babies are you still infants? No, it's been seven years. You can't be drinking milk. You need to be eating solid food. But I see that you are still immature yet by God's grace the gifts of the spirit is working. The work of the Holy Spirit is going on increasing probably to bring many lives to Christ. It's not like the Corinthian church did everything wrong. No. I'm sure they would have ever good leaders who are going out, reaching out, ministering to people. But they needed this whole guidance on how to manage a church. Now we have several tools available on leadership and how to make teams and all these things. We have several tools. They don't know. They don't even know the concept of church. Maybe that special grace was there because God was just beginning to work in their lives and beginning to do a work in the city of Corinth. That special grace had to be there especially for a city like Corinth because otherwise things of the world outside of the church would have come into the church and really caused damage. Thank God for his special grace right. Last it's 9.50. Let's take a break. We'll come back. We'll continue with verse 5. Any questions up to now? Any questions? I hope I was not too fast. I hope you were able to track along. Please feel free to stop me and ask questions if you haven't. Any questions? Nothing as of now. If you do remember Yes. Shrikumar, can we probably take your question and come back after the 10 minutes break? Yes. Thank you so much. Let's take a 10 minute break. We'll be back at 10 o'clock.


He was one of the most celebrated photojournalists of his generation, Michael Pito, the Hungarian who made the UK his home and who broke the mould in his portrayal of politicians and artists in the turbulent 1950s and 60s. Now some of Pito's photographs, many previously unseen, are going on display at the Scottish Parliament, with the emphasis on the political personalities Pito immortalised through his lines. The exhibition, Michael Pito Photographs, Politics and Focus, is being held in partnership with the University of Dundee which holds the archive of Pito's negatives and prints. Admission is free. It runs from Wednesday the 22nd of July, until Saturday the 22nd of August, taking place in tandem with an exhibition of images from this year's World Press Photo Competition and coinciding with the Scottish Parliament's Festival of Politics.