Daily Bread Pastor Mike Anderson

Daily Bread 2010 1 Corinthians 14 Gifts of Prophecy and Tongues 1Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy. 2For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit. 3But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort. 4He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. 5I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. He who prophesies is greater than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may be edified. Sometimes we get very uneasy in the church with the idea of “prophesy”, or those who would say they are a “prophet”! Usually we align this idea with someone who makes a prediction about something God is going to do in the future, often catastrophic. But Paul gives us some valuable teaching in 1 Corinthians 14, w...

Daily Bread 2010 – 1 Corinthians 13 4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8Love never fails. We all remember Tina Turner’s song in the 80’s (well at least most of us), “What’s love got to do, got to do…” Given her track record in her love life, one can see how she might be a little jaded on the idea of Love. It is interesting that Paul puts these verses right in the middle of 3 chapters that explain the nature and use of spiritual gifts. Why? Because he realized how we love people is more important than the things/tasks we do. Especially in the realm of using our spiritual gifts Paul says we can do all kinds of cool and supernatural stuff, like speaking in tongues, but without love it is worthless. And then he...

Daily Bread 2010 – 1 Corinthians 12 “1Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant.” We live in a very educated society in North America. Where I live in Irvine, CA, people move here in order to get the best possible education. The home values are significantly higher here because of the highly ranked school system. And, of course, being educated is a good thing. It is a gift and one we don’t appreciate enough. In today’s text, Paul wants to educate the believers in Corinth about something that is essential for the body of Christ. He wants them to understand the role and use of spiritual gifts. He doesn’t want them to be ignorant of them. Why? Because without an understanding of them the church will never be able to function the way God intended it to. How is that? God gives each believer a spiritual gift to help build the church so it can be fully functioning. He uses the metaphor of a body to show that the eye can’t say to the ear, “I don’t nee...

Daily Bread 2010 1 Corinthians 11 1Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. As I read this verse I said to myself, “This verse says it all!” It is Paul’s most succinct definition of leadership in the bible. As we read about his own life, we know he backed this statement. Another version says, “Imitate me as I imitate Christ.” We learn how to copy things all the time. We have expensive machines to copy images, and fax machines to digitize the info we want to send off. But do we have a plan to imitate Christ. Is the church creating imitators of Christ? A good question to ask oneself is who am I trying to imitate? We pay to see good impersonators, but do we impersonate Christ in a real way, not just acting. We see kids copying sports stars all the time. Whether it be Koby or Tiger, or the latest icon in the entertainment industry. But the question is does the church have those who are worthy of copying? Or more personally, is my life something I would want someon...

Daily Bread 2010 – 1 Corinthians 10 12So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! 13No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. As Paul gives the Corinthians warning from Israel’s past and how they were tempted to worship other gods, he gives them a promise. This is a promise that is worth remembering. It is one of the verses I put to memory many years ago and I can assure you it works if you use it. To quote a saying from the 12 steps, “It works if you work it!” The verse starts out by saying that you need to be careful because if you think you are immune to temptation or falling, you are in big trouble. Instead remember that we will all be tempted as it says in James, “When you are faced with many kinds of trials.” Meaning it is not if you will be tempted, but when...

Daily Bread 2010 – 1 Corinthians 9 19Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. 22To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. 23I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. 24Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26The...

Daily Bread 2010 - 1 Corinthians 8 Food Sacrificed to Idols 1Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge.[a] Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 2The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. 3But the man who loves God is known by God. 4So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one. 5For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many "gods" and many "lords"), 6yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. 7But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. 8But food does not b...

Daily 2010 - 1 Corinthians 7 Marriage 1Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good for a man not to marry. 2But since there is so much immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband. 3The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. 4The wife's body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband's body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife. 5Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. 6I say this as a concession, not as a command. 7I wish that all men were as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that. And you thought the bible wasn’t practical? Apparently the Corinthians had lots of questions about marriage and the role of sexuality within marriage....

Daily Bread 2010 – 1 Corinthians 6 Sexual Immorality12"Everything is permissible for me"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"—but I will not be mastered by anything. 13"Food for the stomach and the stomach for food"—but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. 15Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 16Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh." 17But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit. 18Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. 19Do you not know that you...

Daily Bread 2010 – 1 Corinthians 5 9I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. 12What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you." One of the problems Paul confronts in the Corinthian church is sexual immorality. As Paul confronts some of the various ways in which this is happening, he points out the difference between this sin happening inside vs. outside of the church. When Paul tells them not to associate with immoral people, he is talking about people i...

Daily Bread 2010 – 1 Corinthians 4 “14I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you, as my dear children. 15Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. 16Therefore I urge you to imitate me. 17For this reason I am sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.” Although Paul has to do some correcting in the church at Corinth, he reminds them that he is not being harsh or trying to shame them, but to warn them. His desire is that as believers they will be ready on the Day Jesus returns. He reminds them that being entrusted with the secret things of God (the Gospel), also brings with it responsibility. To whom much is given, much is required. Paul feels a responsibility to this church because he led many of them to Christ. And rather than ju...

Daily Bread 2010 – 1 Corinthians 3 On Divisions in the Church 1Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? 4For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not mere men? 5What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. 7So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. 9For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building. One of t...

Daily Bread 2010 – 1 Corinthians 2 Wisdom From the Spirit 6We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9However, as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him"— 10but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13This...

Daily Bread 2010 – 1 Corinthians 1 Christ the Wisdom and Power of God 18For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate." 20Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man...

Daily Bread 2010 - Romans 16 Personal Greetings 1I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church in Cenchrea. 2I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been a great help to many people, including me. 3Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus. 4They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them. 5Greet also the church that meets at their house. Greet my dear friend Epenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in the province of Asia. 6Greet Mary, who worked very hard for you. 7Greet Andronicus and Junias, my relatives who have been in prison with me. They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was. 8Greet Ampliatus, whom I love in the Lord. 9Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and my dear friend Stachys. 10Greet Apelles, tested and approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the ...

Daily Bread 2010 – Romans 15 Paul the Minister to the Gentiles 14I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another. 15I have written you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me 16to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. 17Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. 18I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done— 19by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ. 20It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I...