5 Minutes with Jesus is a daily devotional series for people in the midst of real life, whether facing anxiety, grief, questions of purpose, or simply needing encouragement and connection. Hosted by Sheila Walsh, each five-minute episode offers Biblical truth, honest reflections on faith and emotions, and closes with a moment of prayer.
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| Sheila Walsh: Comparison Kills Calling | 5 Minutes with Jesus | March 5, 2026
- Emotions themselves are not sinful.
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- It's what we do with them that matters.
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- Social media has made this so much worse.
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- We look at where someone is and who they're with.
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- We want to know why we weren't invited.
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- What do we do to be excluded from this group?
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- Why is their following so much bigger than ours?
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- The truth is
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- That we are not called to compare ourselves to others.
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- We're called to lift each other up.
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- In paul's first
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- Letter to the church in corinth, which is in southern greece.
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- He's writing to try and straighten out a few things.
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- There's a lot of comparison,
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- Jealousy and division in the church
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- That's stunting its growth.
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- Corinth was a very wealthy, flashy city,
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- A bit like las vegas.
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- It was known as a place where you could rightly say,
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- Whatever happens in corinth stays in corinth.
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- What was a very busy seaport, but it was known for immorality,
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- Idol worship, particularly of the goddess of love,
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- Aphrodite, and a very blasé attitude of anything goes here.
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- Strabo, who was a greek historian at that time, wrote
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- This about corinth,
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- And the temple of aphrodite was so rich that it owned more
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- Than a thousand temple slaves, courtesans whom
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- Both men and women had dedicated to the goddess,
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- And therefore it was also on account of these women
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- That the city was crowded with people and grew rich.
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- For instance, the ship captains freely
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- Squandered their money, and hence the proverb
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- Not for every man is a voyage to corinth.
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- You know, it's tempting to
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- Look at the world we live in right now
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- And think things have never been this bad.
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- We are living in the evilest of days.
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- But history would speak to that.
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- Yes, there are biblical signs
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- That point to the reality that we're living in the last days.
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- But human history tells a compellingly similar story
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- Through the centuries about our fallen human nature.
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- Without christ, without the grace of god.
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- Culture falls apart
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- And anything is possible and becomes permissible.
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- One of the first issues that paul addresses
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- Is the division that's happening in the church.
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- The church has become polarized.
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- Some members are saying they're not following paul,
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- They're following apollos, and vice versa.
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- Apollos was a friend, a contemporary of paul, a
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- Fellow evangelist who carried on paul's work in corinth.
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- Paul spent 18 months getting the church established,
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- And after he moved on, apollos followed up,
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- While others in the church were saying,
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- They're not a policies people.
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- They're paul's.
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- I have to believe that being a church pastor
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- Has got to be one of the most challenging callings ever.
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- Let's face it.
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- We, the church, were hard work at times.
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- What paul is trying to help them see here
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- Is that it's all the same work, no matter who starts it
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- Or who carries it on.
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- Some of us plant seeds, some get to water them, but
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- The only one who can take credit for the growth is god.
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- These issues are still rampant in our churches.
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- Someone starts a church,
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- And then a new team
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- Comes along and follows up and sees great growth.
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- It's in our fallen human
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- Nature to take sides and decide who should get the credit.
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- Only one should get the credit.
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- Christ alone.
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- Or have you ever had to wrestle with issues like that?
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- Perhaps you've served in your church for a long time,
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- And then someone else comes along
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- And gets a position that you feel you're
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- Entitled to, or in your career, or in your small group.
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- It's very easy for jealousy to fester.
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- It's not a sin to feel that way,
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- But it is a sin to allow it to take root.
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- Emotions themselves are not sinful.
- 00:03:47.450 --> 00:03:50.053
- It's what we do with them that matters.
- 00:03:50.053 --> 00:03:52.522
- Social media has made this so much worse.
- 00:03:52.522 --> 00:03:55.591
- We look at where someone is and who they're with,
- 00:03:55.591 --> 00:03:58.661
- And we want to know why we weren't invited.
- 00:03:58.661 --> 00:04:01.331
- What do we do to be excluded from this group?
- 00:04:01.331 --> 00:04:04.067
- Why is their following so much bigger than ours?
- 00:04:04.067 --> 00:04:06.769
- The truth is
- 00:04:06.769 --> 00:04:07.870
- That we are not called to compare ourselves to others.
- 00:04:07.870 --> 00:04:11.341
- We're called to lift each other up.
- 00:04:11.341 --> 00:04:14.043
- In first corinthians chapter 12, verses 14 through 17.
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- Paul writes,
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- Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part.
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- If the foot says,
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- I am not a part of the body because i'm not a hand,
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- That does not make it any less a part of the body.
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- And if the ear says,
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- I'm not part of the body because i am not an eye.
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- Would that make it any less a part of the body?
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- If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear?
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- Or if the whole body were an ear?
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- How would you smell anything?
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- Comparison kills calling.
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- When we compare our lives to others and feel
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- We've missed out.
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- Well, we're actually missing is the unique, beautiful
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- Servant of god.
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- We are created to be.
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- You have unique gifts,
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- And when you look to someone else
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- And think,
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- I wish i had that gift, you are missing
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- The fact that god has created you to be unique.
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- And when you find what god has gifted you
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- And then you begin to move, we're all built up.
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- Let's pray. lord.
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- Thank you that you've given us all different gifts.
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- And lord, we live in a world that compares things
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- All the time.
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- We're always comparing to someone else
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- Or how somebody else seems to be doing.
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- You have not called us to live that way.
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- You have called us to be committed to you
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- And be to build up our brothers and sisters.
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- So whatever the gifts you have placed in us, lord,
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- Help us to to love that gift and to share that gift
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- And to build up your body because you, jesus,
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- Are worth it all and you are the giver of the gifts.
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- And we thank you and jesus precious name.
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- Amen.
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