All right, good job, choir. Or choir. Good job,
Jennings and Macy. It's been a long couple days,
I'm going to be honest with y 'all. After church
Sunday, I got sick. I was some kind of sick Monday,
but I'm well now. Thank y 'all for the ones of
you that prayed for me, but I'm about back to
normal. It's good to be here tonight. It's good
to see everybody. We're going to be in 2 Corinthians,
chapter 6. I almost said 1 Corinthians. I'm going
to get it straight. Maybe we can make it through
a sermon tonight. 2 Corinthians chapter 6, we've
been going through 2 Corinthians for the last
couple of months and we looked at the first two
verses of chapter 6 last week and we're just
continuing on. Kind of the same thought that
kind of propels us into this argument I think
really started... Back in the end of chapter
5, I say argument or defense. We see this in
2 Corinthians that Paul has been really defending
himself a lot. There are some false teachers
that had come into Corinth, and Paul had invested
into the people, and they seemed to be doing
pretty good on some level, but we know not doing
great from 1 Corinthians because he had wrote
some pretty stern things to them about things
that they needed to deal with. It doesn't appear
as though that they really want to listen to
Paul, or maybe their ear has been caught by someone
else who's preaching something maybe that sounds
a little better to them. And so Paul has spent
some of his time, a lot of his time up to this
point, off and on, really defending himself.
Now Paul is not, it's not like Paul here is...
is mad because there are other preachers that
are preaching, and he's not getting all the limelight.
That's not Paul's concern here. He's happy to
work alongside other brothers in Christ that
are preaching and teaching the gospel. He just
doesn't want the people to be led astray, and
he doesn't want them to go down the wrong path.
He wants to make sure that they are where they
need to be. And so he continues to say, and he'll
say it even in the Scriptures tonight, that he's
commending himself. Now, he's not commending
himself in the sense of, look at how good I am.
He's commending himself by saying, look, I want
you to see who I am so that it will point you
to Jesus Christ, not so that you can see who
I am and celebrate me. Paul's not concerned about
being celebrated in himself. He's not concerned
about, oh, I want to have the most likes of all
the other preachers in the area. What Paul wants
is for the gospel of Jesus Christ to be spread.
And that's what's important. and he's concerned
that the people are going to be led astray by
these false teachers. So Paul says, look, let
me make a defense for myself again, and that's
what we're going to see in this passage tonight.
So let's pray, and then we'll get started. God,
we come to you. We thank you for your good words.
I pray that you would just help us to seek you
tonight, that your Holy Spirit would free us
from the worries and the distractions and the
pains of this world, dear Lord. Whatever it may
be, I pray that in these few minutes, God, that
your word would restore our soul, God. That's
what we come here for. We come to grow in you.
And so help your word to correct us where we
need correcting and empower us where we need
empowering and encourage us where we need encouragement,
dear Lord, to guide us where we need guidance.
Whatever it is, God, you know where we are in
our life. And God, we need you wherever that
is. So I pray that your Holy Spirit would speak.
Through me tonight, all for your glory. In Jesus'
name I pray it. Amen. Alright, 2 Corinthians
chapter 6, verse 3. We give no opportunity for
stumbling to anyone, so that the ministry will
not be blamed. Okay, so Paul is very concerned
about his work that he's doing here. He says,
look, I don't want to be a stumbling block. Me
and those who are serving alongside me, we don't
want to be a stumbling block to you. We have
watched our lives and we have tried to live in
such a way that we have lived for the Lord, that
we have been a good example for you, and that
we have not done anything that's going to cause
you trouble. We don't want the ministry to be
blamed. We don't want you to be turned off from
the gospel of Jesus Christ because of what we
have done. Now, we need to listen to that. Because
if we leave this place tonight, and we go into
the world, and we tell people that we are a Christian,
but our actions show otherwise, then it is going
to scare people away from Jesus Christ. Praise
the Lord, Jesus is better than we are. But we
are representatives of Jesus Christ. And so we
have to live our life in a way that's different
than what the rest of the world looks like. Now
our world is full of evil. It's all kind of crazy
stuff out there. The world and the fleshly desires,
people are bombarded with them every day. And
it's dark and it's depressing and it's hopeless.
But what our world needs to see is the light
of Jesus Christ. Now if we go into the world
and we say we are followers of Jesus Christ,
but we do not bring the light, But we do not
bring that light with us, then the world's going
to say, there's nothing that's any different
about them than about the rest of the world.
What's so appealing to Jesus Christ? But what
the world needs to see from us is grace and love
and mercy and patience and kindness and gentleness
and a loving spirit. And when the world sees
that in us, and the world says, wait a minute,
he's a Christian, she's a Christian, then guess
what's going to happen? They're going to listen
to what we have to say. Now, we don't care if
they pay attention to us. What we want is them
to pay attention to Jesus. We want to be like
a mirror that's going to reflect Jesus so that
people can see Jesus in us because that's what's
going to change their life, and that's what's
going to change our world. And so what about
our actions? Are they a stumbling block to people,
or are they a building block? Are we somebody
that says, hey, here's the building block, here's
Jesus Christ, you need to build your life on
Him? Or are we going out there saying, oh, I'm
a Christian, but we're living like the world,
and people would say, well, why do I want to
be a Christian? They're not living any different
than me. We're a stumbling block to people, and
we hinder people from coming to the kingdom of
God when we live like that. But what does Paul
say? He says, look, we haven't done that. We
haven't given any opportunity. We haven't become
a stumbling block. We've been good to love you
and to lead you and to point you to Jesus Christ.
In verse 4, he says, but as God ministers, we
commend ourselves in everything. Now, we just
talked about that. Paul's not... He's not waving
his flag here. That is not Paul's heart. It's
pretty clear in Paul's writing. That is not his
heart. He's making a defense so that people will
listen to him and acknowledge him and focus on
the Lord. Now listen to some of the things he's
about to say here. This is the way that they
have lived their life in the middle of verse
4. By great endurance. We're going to try to
get through these pretty quick. I won't make
any promises. By great endurance. Now, our life
is a life of endurance. Now, are we going to
endure or are we going to give up? That's a choice
that we have to make many times in our life,
in many situations, because life is hard. Life
is hard. Work is hard. Family is hard. Church
is hard. Everything in life is hard. And it's
not going to get any easier. But are we going
to endure or are we going to give up? That's
a choice that we're going to have to make. When
we serve the Lord, it is not always going to
be easy. Sometimes it will be. A lot of times
it will not be. It will always be a blessing.
I can guarantee you that. You will never spend
a day in your life where you've been obedient
to the Lord and served Him that you will go to
bed at night and say, boy, that wasn't a blessing.
I wish I hadn't done that. It don't matter where
you are. If you are in your bed or in a prison
cell, if you have lived your life in obedience
to God, you will go to bed blessed at night.
But we have to endure. We cannot give up. There
are plenty of days in my life that I want to
give up. I shouldn't even say this as a preacher.
There have been so many times in the last...
12, 15 years of my ministry that I said, I just
cannot do it. I just want to give up more times
than I care to admit. And God will not let me,
praise the Lord. And if it wasn't for him, I'd
have been done giving up a long time ago. And
I pray that he will continue to help me to have
endurance. That's the only way we make it through
this life is by endurance that comes from the
strength of the Lord. Paul knew what it meant
to endure. He served the Lord, and it's hard
to serve the Lord. But what did he do? He kept
serving the Lord because he knew that he needed
to endure for the Lord. So he says, look, we
have served with great endurance by afflictions,
by hardships, by difficulties, by beatings, by
imprisonments, by riots, by labors, by sleepless
nights, by times of hunger. Now look at that
list for just a second. Now you think about the
times that you have tried to serve the Lord,
and then you decided it was too hard. Were any
of those things part of the reason why you quit
serving the Lord? Did you try to do the Lord's
work and somebody beat you and imprisoned you
and a riot was formed around you and you were
hungry and you couldn't sleep at night and you
said, I just can't do this anymore? No. I'm going
to go on a limb and say that ain't been none
of our experience. What probably happens to us
is we go see somebody and we say, hey, how you
doing? I go to the church. I'd love for you to
come one Sunday. Can I pray for you? And they
say, I don't want nothing to do with your God.
Leave me alone. They slam the door. And then
we say, oh, I just can't do this. This is too
hard. Paul knows what it's like to have affliction.
We don't know what it's like to have a lot of
affliction in our life. But Paul knows what it's
like to have affliction. When he says we've had
affliction, he knows what affliction is. We're
blessed as Americans, praise the Lord, that we
don't have that kind of affliction. Maybe one
day we will, and I say this often, I'll continue
to say it, there are brothers and sisters in
Christ in our world that are in prison tonight
for preaching the gospel. We have the freedom
in our country, praise God, as bad as it is,
we have the freedom that we can stand here tonight
and read God's word. And we need to endure in
it. And we need to be bold in the faith. If Paul
can be bold in all of these things, then surely
we can be bold in the little difficulties we
may have in serving the Lord. Verse 6. By purity,
by knowledge, by patience. by kindness, by the
Holy Spirit, by sincere love, by the message
of truth, by the power of God, through weapons
of righteousness on the right hand and on the
left. He says, look, look at our life. We are
pure. We have knowledge of God. We have rightly
divided the Word of God. We are rightly teaching
the Word of God. Look at the patience that we
have shown to you. Look at the kindness that
we have shown to you. Isn't that a beautiful
thing? When you look at Scripture, I love it.
When you see Jesus and He comes before the crowds
and He sees them, and what does it say? That
He has compassion on them. That's a beautiful
thing. That's how you know if somebody really
loves somebody. If you come on somebody that
has a need and you can turn away from them and
not think twice about it, then you've got to
take a step back. Because when Jesus saw people,
Even if he'd been preaching all day, even if
people had been coming around him, even if he
wanted a break, even if he was trying to escape
somewhere else, he'd get off the boat, he'd go
to another place, and the people were always
there, and he would look at them like sheep without
a shepherd, and he would have compassion on them.
And when they were hungry, he would feed them,
and when they were sick, he would heal them.
Now that's a good example for us to follow. You
want to know how to have compassion, you just
read about Jesus a little bit. And I think that's
kind of the same thing that we see here with
Paul, that he has this kind of patience and this
kind of compassion, this kindness by the Holy
Spirit, by the power of the Spirit that is leading
him, that is guiding him, the same Holy Spirit
that indwells in us if we have put our faith
and trust in Jesus Christ. It is the Spirit who
dwells in us. It's the Spirit who leads us. It's
the Spirit who strengthens us. Paul says it's
by the Holy Spirit, by sincere faith. Love. Isn't
that a beautiful thing? By sincere love. Not
just a word. Love is not just a word. Oh, I love
you. Every teenage kid in the world will say
that. They're sitting there texting each other.
There'll be a million of them before I get through
with this sermon. Oh, I love you. They ain't
been dating but for a week. But they love each
other, right? And we've done that. We've all
done that. Well, y 'all wasn't texting when y
'all was kids. Y 'all was passing notes back
and forth across the classroom, sliding them
across. But people don't change. That's not love.
I mean, on some level it's a little bit of love,
but love is so much more than that. Yeah, love
comes with feelings, praise the Lord, but love
is more than feelings. Love says, today ain't
a good day. Love says, I don't like what you've
done today, but I'm going to stick with you because
I love you. That's sincere love. Love doesn't
just care for somebody when everything's going
good. Love says, I'm going to stick by you when
everything's going bad because I love you. That's
what love is. You have a kid, you know what that
is. That's what love is. Somebody that you'd
do anything for. It's not dependent on what they've
done. You say, I love you, and therefore I'm
going to be there for you. Paul says, look, you've
seen that in us. You've seen that we have sincere
love for you. Verse 7. by the message of truth,
by the power of God. What are they preaching?
They're preaching the message of truth. Now,
there's a lot of false teachers that's coming
on the scene, and what are they preaching? Well,
I don't know what they were preaching, but I
can guess maybe, just based on what you see a
lot of preachers preaching today is, send me
some money and God will give you everything you
want, or send me some money and you'll get healed.
Just send me some money and whatever, fill in
the blank, just send me the money. That's what
they're saying, a lot of them are saying. But
Paul says, look, we're not here preaching for
ourselves. We're not here trying to get a medal.
I'm not here trying to get missionary of the
year from you guys. I don't care what you think
about me if you just know that I'm preaching
the message of the truth of the gospel to you.
So don't be led astray by this fake teaching.
Paul says, we have preached a good word to you.
We have preached to you the message of truth.
Don't be led astray by a lie. What do they preach
by? The power of God. The power of God. Now that's
good preaching when it's from the power of God.
That's a lot of preachers that don't preach from
the power of God. But preaching that comes from
the power of God, from the Word of God, is preaching
that we can grow by, that we can be filled with
if it comes from the Word of God. By the power
of God. And that's what Paul says. You've seen
God's power through the way that he's worked
through us and the messages we've preached and
the truth that we've preached. Paul is saying
in all of this, we are trustworthy. Look at our
life. Look at our example and pay attention to
our words. Verse 8. Through glory and dishonor,
through slander and good rapport, as deceivers
yet true. Now, He's covering both ends of the
spectrum here. Because when you do the Lord's
work, you are not going to please everybody.
That's a fact. Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
did not please everybody. That's a very reassuring
thing for me as a preacher. Because you think,
man, what did I do wrong? What didn't I get right
about this sermon? What didn't I do right trying
to help this person? What didn't I do right?
Where did I mess up? How come I wasn't able to
reach him? How come I wasn't able to help him?
And then I had to remember, well, maybe I did
something wrong or maybe I didn't because Jesus
didn't do a thing wrong. And so Paul, he did
what was right, and some people were going to
follow him and acknowledge him, and some were
not. And that's the way it still is today. All
that can be done is that the gospel can be presented.
People have their own free will and their own
choice to decide if they are going to accept
Jesus Christ or not. And so for some, it was
a glorious thing for Paul to preach. For others,
it was a horrible thing. They didn't want to
hear him preach. Through slander, through good
rapport. Some thought he was a good man. Some
talked bad about him. Some didn't think very
highly of Paul at all. Some considered him a
deceiver, yet even though they were considered
a deceiver, he was considered a deceiver, or
those with him were deceivers, what they were
speaking was true. Now, you can call something
a lie all you want to, but truth is truth, whether
you accept it or not. Jesus Christ is the truth.
The Word of God is the truth. Now, our world
may not want to accept it, but it is the truth.
And so even if the world calls us a bunch of
crazy folks, We're going to preach the truth
just the same. We are not going to stop. That's
what Paul's saying here. As unknown, yet recognized.
To some, Paul was unknown. Others recognized
Paul. As dying, and look, we live. So Paul is
on the verge of death. Some think that he's dying.
Some are trying to kill him. And in the midst
of all of it, he's still alive. He's still doing
the work of the gospel. As being disciplined.
yet not killed. It hadn't been easy. He'd been
disciplined in a lot of ways. We looked at some
of those ways, the imprisonments and the beatings
and all these things, yet through all of this,
God was with him. It wasn't easy. It was not
an easy life for Paul, but through every bit
of this, God was with him. As grieving, yet always
rejoicing. Isn't that a beautiful thought right
there? As grieving, yet always rejoicing. There
are days in our life that are full of grief.
There are days in our life that are full of grief.
You have got them. I have got them. Every one
of us have got them. There are days that we grieve.
But even in our grief, we can always rejoice.
Even in our grief, we can rejoice and say, God,
you are good. God, I am hurting today. God, I
am broken today. God, I am sick today. God, I
am struggling with work today. God, whatever
it is today, God, I just have grief over my family,
over my friends, over my church, over my country.
God, I am full of grief. But even still, God,
I rejoice because you are good. It takes a strong
faith to be able to say that because our lives
are trying. And we can say we have faith in God,
but the only way that that's proved is when we
really go through the trials. That's where the
rubber meets the road. And sometimes when we
think our faith is strong, we realize that maybe
our faith is not as strong as we thought it was.
Sometimes it's hard as far as to praise God most
when we're in the midst of the pain and in the
midst of the grief, but that's probably what
we need to do most. is to praise God and rejoice
in Him. And say, God, I can't hardly lift my
voice to You right now, but I'm going to call
to You. Because God, where else does my help
come from? It only comes from the Lord. So Paul
says, even in my grief, I still rejoice in the
Lord. As poor, yet enriching many. Paul says,
we didn't have much, but man, what we were given
then was better than money. They wasn't giving
them much, but they were giving them the Word
of God. They were giving them Jesus Christ. They
were giving them eternal life. We don't have
much, but what we were doing was enriching to
them as having nothing yet possessing everything.
Whether hungry or well -fed, I have learned to
be content. In all situations, I can do all things
through Jesus Christ who strengthens me. What
a beautiful verse. I think that's another way
of saying what Paul is saying here. I ain't got
nothing by the world standards, but I got everything
in Jesus Christ. What a beautiful, beautiful
verse. Verse 11. We have spoken openly to you,
Corinthians. Our heart has been opened wide.
You are not limited by us, but you are limited
by your own affections. I speak. As to my children,
as a proper response, you should also be open
to us. So he finishes up his commendation of
himself here, his defense of himself here, but
it's all for a purpose. He says, look, I've told
you all these things. You know who I am. You've
seen how I live my life. Now would you listen
to us? Would you listen to the message that we
are trying to tell you? If you're turning a deaf
ear to us, if it's not getting through, it's
not because we're not leading you right. It's
because you're not willing to listen to us anymore.
But what Paul wants is for them to listen to
him. And why? If you flip back to the last verse
of the last chapter, what is this key point that's
so important for Paul and for us and for everybody?
In 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, He made the one
who did not know sin to be sin for us so that
we might become the righteousness of God through
Him. This is the message of the gospel of Jesus
Christ. This is the hope of the Corinthians.
It's the hope of you and I. This is the message
that Paul wants his audience to know, to not
stray away from. Don't listen to the false teachers,
but listen to us and listen to this message.
What did he say in verse 2 last week? Today is
the day of salvation. Look, Jesus has come. We
don't deserve God's love, but through Jesus Christ,
we can receive it. Jesus has took our punishment
so that we can receive his righteousness. Today,
salvation has come. Will you hear the message
of the gospel today and accept that message?
And then he proceeds to tell them what he just
told them, what we looked at tonight. So listen
to what I say. Look at who I am. Look at how
I've lived and know that I'm trustworthy and
know that I want you to find Jesus Christ and
to love Jesus Christ and to hold fast to Jesus
Christ and to not give up on Jesus Christ and
to not be led away by false teachings. And that's
a good word for us today. There are lots of false
teachings in this world. There are lots of things
in this world. that can lead us away from Jesus
Christ, that can pull us in other directions,
that can get us sidetracked. But we need to make
sure our focus is in the right place and on the
right person, and that is the person of Jesus
Christ. There's a lot of false teachers in our
world, a lot of false teachings. We have to be
in the Word of God, and we have to know the Word
of God so that we will not fall into the same
trap as the Corinthians. so that we will not
be led astray, and we will not replace the truth
with a lie, but we will stand firm on the truth
of Jesus Christ. Let's pray. God, we thank you
for these good words, and I pray that we look
at our own life. Maybe we can't be so bold as
Paul tonight and say that we've done right by
you in all these areas, dear Lord. Maybe if we're
honest, we have been a stumbling block. And maybe
there are some stumbling blocks in our life that
we just need you to help just crush them for
us tonight, dear Lord, to help us to grow in
you so that we can help others to grow in you,
dear Lord. Help us to be good examples to you.
Help us to have that love and compassion and
to be unto others as Jesus was unto us, dear
Lord. I pray that you would help us to be able
to endure, dear Lord. This life is so hard. And
maybe there are others like me that just want
to give up with their jobs or with their families
or with their school or with their whatever it
is, dear Lord. I mean, it's just so many things
in life. And I pray that you give us endurance,
that you would restore us, dear Lord, that you
would build us up, that you would help us to
continue to serve you and to do your work in
the same way that Paul has done. I pray that
we would... grow in the knowledge of your word.
I pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ
that are in prison and beaten and that are under
threats of persecution just for doing what we're
doing. I pray that you would strengthen them.
I pray that they would feel your peace and love.
I pray, God, that should we ever get in situations
that extreme, that you'd give us the faith and
the strength to stand up for you. God, I pray
that you would help us not to lose our focus,
that we wouldn't be led astray by the things
of the world and by false teachings, but that
we would look to the example of Paul and, most
importantly, to the example of Jesus Christ,
that we would stand firm in him tonight. And
I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. All
right, we'll go over our prayer list right quick.
Today was a bad day for this country. We had
Charlie Kirk. I don't know if you know him or
not. Regardless of your political standings,
it's tragedy when you see somebody that is killed
just for speaking the truth. One of the last
things he was speaking before he was killed was
he was talking about Jesus Christ. And it's a
sad... sad state of affairs that our country
is in. There's a lot of evil in this world but
God is still good and God can change the hearts
of people and that is the only thing that is
going to change our world. And so we need to
continually be in prayer for our country and
for our leaders that they would make good decisions
for people that they would wake up to realize
that they're There are serious problems in our
country that we've got to address. And by address
them, I mean turn to Jesus. That's what I mean.
I don't mean elect a different party to serve.
I mean we've got to call on Jesus to fix our
problems. And so we need to be in prayer for
that. It's a sad day for us. We need to continue
to pray for Michael Riddle. He had a heart ablation
today to get his heart back in rhythm. It was
an AFib, and everything went good. He's probably
home by now. They were on the way a while ago,
and so I want to pray for him. He's going to
be down for a couple days. He's got to rest up,
so pray that he'll do what the doctor says and
not overdo it. But if you all get a chance, you
can call him or text him and check on him. He'd
probably appreciate to know that you're praying
for him. But everything went good there today,
so that's a good praise report. Miss Pat's son
-in -law, Michael, he had his other knee done
today. Oh, okay. I was thinking it was knee for
some reason. Huh. Yeah. Well, hopefully he'll
heal up now that he's got both of them done.
Miss Debbie Reed, sister, she's still not doing
good. Ginger Ard, we mentioned her. I think Fran
mentioned her Sunday. Debbie texted me a couple
days ago, said she was in a coma, and so I hadn't
heard anything since then. So we need to continue
to pray for her. And then got word the other
day that Richard Tia's grandson had a little
problem. They had to take him to the hospital,
but didn't find anything, sent him back home.
So hopefully it wasn't nothing serious, but just
want to pray that he's going. Be okay. Well,
good. Good. Does anybody else have any prayer
requests or praise reports tonight? Yeah, I've
had a lot of deaths in the community in the last
week. Oh, no. All right, anybody else? All right.
If there are no others, if you'd like to pray,
you can pray out loud. We'll take a few moments,
and when everybody's finished up, I'll close
us up.