The Paradox Church

Wanting less isn't the same as being holy.

In week 9 of our 1 Corinthians series, Pastor Jim Essian teaches from 1 Corinthians 7:1-6 on intimacy in marriage.

The Corinthians had a surprising problem. Not too much desire. Too little. They believed the body was lower than the spirit, so the truly holy thing was to want less. Paul says the opposite. God made the pleasures. God decides what is holy.

Don't deprive one another. Have the conversation. Not selfish, but servant.

In a culture where men took whatever they wanted, Paul said something revolutionary: husbands and wives are equal.

The sexually broken can be sexually restored. "Behold, I am making all things new." (Revelation 21:5)

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 7:1-6

Preached by Jim Essian in Fort Worth, TX

We saturate Fort Worth and beyond with the glory and grace of Jesus by praying heaven down, preaching the gospel, planting churches, and pushing back darkness.

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Your body was God's idea. The nerve endings, the desires, your DNA. All of it was his idea.

In week 8 of our 1 Corinthians series, Pastor Jim Essian teaches from 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 on what Christians actually believe about the body.

The Corinthians had a slogan: "All things are lawful for me." Underneath it was a cheap view of grace and an even cheaper view of themselves. Paul takes that apart in three verses.

Your body has a Lord. Your body has a future. Your body is united to Christ.

Flee sexual immorality. Not because sex is bad. Because it's amazing.

I am a great sinner, but I have a great savior.

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 6:12-20

Preached by Jim Essian in Fort Worth, TX

We saturate Fort Worth and beyond with the glory and grace of Jesus by praying heaven down, preaching the gospel, planting churches, and pushing back darkness.

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Full series: https://www.theparadoxchurch.com/1-corinthians

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In 1861 a retired grocer named Wilmer McLean watched the first major battle of the Civil War start on his land near Bull Run. So he packed up his family and moved 120 miles south to a quiet crossroads called Appomattox Courthouse. Four years later, Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant in McLean's front parlor. "The war began in my front yard and ended in my parlor."

He spent four years trying to stay neutral. And the whole time, he was selling sugar to the Confederate army.

This week we took a one-week break from 1 Corinthians to go back to the very beginning: the Garden of Eden and Genesis 3:14-15, the first time the gospel shows up in the Bible. It's a message about the second of our four mission pillars, Preach the Gospel.

- Adam was a priest-king. God put him in the garden "to work it and keep it" (Genesis 2:15): to serve and to guard.

- Adam was there. When the serpent asked "Did God actually say?", Adam had the word of God and kept his mouth shut. Two people were there, but only one was preaching. His silence was rebellion.

- There's no neutral ground. "By one man's disobedience the many were made sinners" (Romans 5:19). We didn't choose this war. We were born on the wrong side of it.

- The first gospel is a declaration of war. "He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel" (Genesis 3:15). A bruised heel hurts. A crushed head is the end.

- Jesus is the last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45). Where Adam took from the tree and brought death, Jesus hung on the tree and brought life.

- So we don't get to sit this out. The Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) is Adam's job restored under a better Adam. We're not salesmen for Jesus. Our job is to tell people what he has done in us.

Before you close this video, think of one name: a coworker, a neighbor, a family member who doesn't know Jesus. Pray for them by name this week, then invite them to join you next Sunday. Plan a visit: prdx.ch/sunday-gatherings

Scripture: Genesis 3:14-15

Preached by Joel at The Paradox Church in Fort Worth, TX

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We saturate Fort Worth and beyond with the glory and grace of Jesus — by praying heaven down, preaching the gospel, planting churches, and pushing back darkness.

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Twenty years ago a man cleared out Pastor Nathan's savings account, and there was no way to recover it — no case the police could take, and no church to bring it to, because the man wasn't a believer. The Corinthians had what he didn't: a brotherhood. They went to the courthouse instead.

Preaching from 1 Corinthians 6:1-11, Nathan walks through three things that church forgot. Their future, since people who will judge angels ought to manage their own disputes. Their family, since a lawsuit between brothers is already a defeat no matter who wins. And their righteousness.

That last one is the turn. The whole passage is courtrooms and verdicts, and people are seeking their day in court. Paul tells them they have already had it.

In week six of our 1 Corinthians series, Pastor Jim Essian teaches from 1 Corinthians 5 on taking sin seriously — and on why the church’s response to sin troubled Paul more than the sin itself.

We don’t kill sin in order to get free. We kill sin because we already are.

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 5:1-13

Preached by Jim Essian in Fort Worth, TX

We saturate Fort Worth and beyond with the glory and grace of Jesus — by praying heaven down, preaching the gospel, planting churches, and pushing back darkness.

Plan a visit: prdx.ch/sunday-gatherings 

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Full series: https://www.theparadoxchurch.com/1-corinthians 

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Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-paradox-church/id1126059565 

Pastor James Lepine and Pastor Jim Essian host longtime Paradox Partner and TCU Chaplin Coleman Maxwell to the podcast as they recap the first mini-series of our 1 Corinthians Sermon Series and look ahead at what's next.

In week five of our 1 Corinthians series, Pastor Jim Essian teaches from 1 Corinthians 4:14-21 on toxic shame and spiritual fathers.

Guilt says I was wrong. Shame goes a level deeper and says you are wrong — it assaults your identity. But there's a good shame too, the kind that says that's not you, and a toxic shame that insists that is exactly who you are.

Shame makes you compare yourself to everyone around you. It makes you hide, the way Adam hid in the garden. And strangely, it makes you boast — because arrogance is just a fig leaf over how a person really feels about themselves.

Paul's answer isn't more information. You have ten thousand guides, he tells them, and almost no fathers. What you need is someone who will walk with you, know your story and your shame, and show you the way.

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 4:14-21

Preached by Jim Essian in Fort Worth, TX

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We saturate Fort Worth and beyond with the glory and grace of Jesus — by praying heaven down, preaching the gospel, planting churches, and pushing back darkness.

An infant in Christ isn't a new Christian who hasn't been to enough Bible studies. An infant in Christ is someone who's been to a dozen and they haven't changed you.

In week four of our 1 Corinthians series, Jim Essian preaches from 1 Corinthians 3 on two words in verse 2 that he says everything has to orbit around: even now.

Paul tells a church full of spiritual people that he can't address them as spiritual people. Not because of where they are, but because of where they aren't headed. You walked into a supernatural gathering with zero expectation that God might call you to more today. Even now, you're not ready.

Then Paul reminds them who they are. The Father's field, where faithfulness is our job and fruitfulness is his. The Son's building, laid on a foundation that cannot fail, where the only question left is what materials you're using. The Spirit's temple, which means you are already holy — and holiness does not give sin a closet in the house.

Your greatest problem isn't that you're evil. It's that you forgot who you are.

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 3:1-23

Preached by Jim Essian in Fort Worth, TX

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We saturate Fort Worth and beyond with the glory and grace of Jesus — by praying heaven down, preaching the gospel, planting churches, and pushing back darkness.

Plan a visit: prdx.ch/sunday-gatherings

Join a city group: prdx.ch/citygroups

Give: prdx.ch/give

Subscribe for new messages every week.

Full series: https://www.theparadoxchurch.com/1-corinthians

Prdx — Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paradoxftworth

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Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-paradox-church/id1126059565

AI knows everything ever written about God. It doesn't know God, and it doesn't know you.

In week three of our 1 Corinthians series, Pastor Jim Essian teaches from 1 Corinthians 2:6-16 on knowledge, artificial intelligence, and the Holy Spirit.

John Calvin opened the Institutes by saying true wisdom is the knowledge of God and the knowledge of yourself. Every generation has asked the first question. Ours is asking the second one — who am I? — and we're asking machines.

Paul's point to Corinth was that the rulers of his age had Torah, the temple, rabbinical training, and Jesus himself standing in front of them, and they still crucified the Lord of glory. You can have eyes, ears, and a heart that hopes, and still lack the capacity to know God. All the knowledge in the world can't get you there.

But the Spirit searches the depths of God. And the Spirit was given to us for a purpose — that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

A food chemist can describe a strawberry to you in full. You still haven't tasted it. Ask AI a question about God and you'll get a correct answer in four seconds and be no closer to him than before you asked.

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 2:6-16

Preached by Jim Essian in Fort Worth, TX

Lecrae went to his first Grammy party — a mansion, famous people everywhere, and in the middle a gazebo where the really famous people were, with everyone else edging closer hoping for a photo. His read on it: this is high school in a bigger house.

In week two of our 1 Corinthians series, Pastor Jim Essian teaches from 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5 on the heart issue underneath every division — and the three questions Paul uses to expose it.

Where are you getting your wisdom? You've absorbed more expert opinion in the last week than your grandparents did in a lifetime, and we're asking computers for relationship advice. How's that going?

Where are you getting your confidence? To boast is to point at something so you can feel secure. And boasting always needs an enemy — which is exactly where division comes from.

What is your faith actually in? Here's the diagnostic: what would have to fall apart before you stopped believing?

Paul's answer to all three is a person, not a philosophy. God chose the foolish, the weak, the low, the despised — not because they were impressive, but because they were nothing. Which means his love isn't based on you, and you can't lose it.

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5

Preached by Jim Essian in Fort Worth, TX

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We saturate Fort Worth and beyond with the glory and grace of Jesus — by praying heaven down, preaching the gospel, planting churches, and pushing back darkness.

Plan a visit: [prdx.ch/sunday-gatherings]

Join a city group: prdx.ch/citygroups 

Give: prdx.ch/give 

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Full series: https://www.theparadoxchurch.com/the-multiplying-church

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Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-paradox-church/id1126059565