Pray the word with David Platt is a resource from Radical.net.

1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 17.

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, and not with words of

eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. There's a lot we could

talk about here in 1 Corinthians 1, 17 and 11. The context and light of how Paul is addressing

division in the church at Corinth from the very beginning and pointing them to the unity they

have in Jesus. But what I want to land on and pray according to is this last part of verse 17

when he says, Christ sent me to preach the gospel, not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the

cross of Christ be emptied of its power. And I just want to ask you to think about how many times

have you not shared the gospel with someone else because you thought you were not competent

to do that. You didn't feel comfortable sharing the gospel. You thought you might say the wrong

thing. You weren't sure how the conversation would go. And so you stayed quiet. And maybe you thought

to yourself, well, if I was this person or that person who really knows the Bible really well

is really good at this, then I would be more likely to share the gospel. And this is where Paul

is reminding us and not Paul. The Holy Spirit of God is reminding us that the spread of the

gospel is actually not dependent on us having eloquent words and eloquent wisdom that we're

sharing. All it's dependent on is us sharing the simple truth of who Jesus is and what Jesus

has done. And every Christian knows this simple truth. And that simple truth, just talking about

the cross of Christ, 1 Corinthians 117 says that's where the power is. In fact, if you were to share

with words of eloquent wisdom, you would empty the cross of its power. That's what 1 Corinthians

117 is saying. Now that obviously doesn't mean that if if someone is actually a good speaker or has

particular gifts with words, it doesn't mean that person can't share the gospel or is emptying

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