Prodigal Church II
A series in 2 Corinthians
Severe Mercy
January 30, 2022 • Jan Vezikov • 2 Corinthians 13
Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's word? Heavenly father, please remind us that it is not possible to be incidentally a Christian, just a bit. You demand to be first or nothing, and we are not to keep you in balance with the rest of our life, but to keep you first, primary at the center, preeminent. Lord, we thank you for being merciful and gracious, slow to anger, bounding, and steadfast love and faithfulness. Keeping your steadfast love for thousands, for giving inequity and transgression for sin, and thank you that you will by no means clear the guilty unless they repent and turn to Jesus Christ and I pray this for each one of us and I pray this in Christ's name, amen. I pray that 2 Corinthians has been as much of a blessing to you as it has for me. Today, we're close closing our sermon series through 2 Corinthians. Next week we're starting our sermon series through Romans. So, I'm praying, I'm fasting. I'm preparing, I feel the weight of Romans. Romans is one of the most powerful books in all of the Bible and it's one of the most powerful books in world history. It has changed the world like very few books have, so we'll be starting that next week. The title of the sermon today, as we look at 2 Corinthians 13 is severe mercy, and the title of the sermon comes from Sheldon Vanauken's book, A Severe Mercy: A Story of Faith, Tragedy and Triumph, and the story's important because of how CS Lewis ministered to this couple and brought them to the faith, and then Sheldon wrote about it later, but it's a story of the love between Sheldon Vanauken, calls himself Van, and Jean Davis, Davy. They fell in love at 19 years old. They were both pagans and that's what they called themselves. They knew nothing of God, everything they saw, beauty in the world, everything they saw that delighted the heart, the mind, the soul, everything they saw, they just attributed to the natural realm and they loved each other as no ordinary love. They wouldn't let it be so. They even created a shining barrier to protect their love from intruders, and then they get married and they went to college, and then after college they went to grad school in Oxford. In Oxford, they met CS Lewis and with CS Lewis they met a lot of very thoughtful Christians and they were converted and they discovered that Christianity isn't compatible with this exclusivity that they promised to each other. They loved each other with a great love, but they realized that God demands a greater love than that. And, what happened is Davy started... So, Van's wife started growing her love and affection for the Lord and Van started to resent her faith. He said, "I did no, I thought, resent her for being a Christian. I resented her for acting like one, for going a church without me." He says it's practically unfaithfulness. So, while Van wrestles with his own faith, Davy contracts a virus, it destroys her liver. It led to a protracted illness, after some time she died. In the rest of the book, Van is wrestling with why would a loving God allow this to happen? Why would a loving God take his spouse? And, letters between him and CS Lewis helped him work through his faith, and in the letter, CS Lewis wrote the following. He said, "The root cause of your struggles is the fact that you've made love for a person, an idol. That's the root cause of everything, and it's killing your faith." And Lewis wrote, "You have been treated a severe mercy." And by severe mercy, he means when God deals with us harshly, just on the face of it, you look at the facts, and you're like, "You know what, that was harsh," but God does it all the time. And, God does it in order to save you from a greater severity that is to come. It's a severe mercy. It's a severe love. God does this with Moses. No, Moses, you will not see the promised land. God does it with David, no David, you will not build the temple. He does it with Jonah, severe mercy to be caught in the fish. Peter, get behind me, Satan. Paul, God just stops him and says, "You're mine." Paul had no choice in the matter. You are becoming a Christian, severe mercy could be argued. And Lewis wrote, "You have been brought to see that you were jealous of God. So from us, you've been led back to us and God, it remains to go onto God and us." And Vanauken writes toward the end, "That death, so full of suffering for us, both suffering that still overwhelmed my life was yet a severe mercy, a mercy as severe as death, a severity as merciful as love." This is the God of the Bible. If you don't understand that God often does send severe mercy for his children, for our sanctification, to strengthen us, to empower us, to cleanse us from sin, and to grow some maturity and fruitfulness, if you don't understand that, you don't understand the God of the Bible. It's everywhere. Romans 11:22, "Note then the kindness and severity of God. Severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you providing you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you too will be cut off." Those are severe words. If you reject God, there is a point where that's it, you're done and we should fear that, and we should fear coming even close to that because God will bring severe mercy. So, today we're at 2 Corinthians 13. Would you look at the text with me? 2 Corinthians 13. "This is the third time I'm coming to you. Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. I warned those who sinned before and all the others and I warn them now while absent as I did when present on my second visit that if I come again, I will not spare them. Since you seek proof that Craig is speaking in me, he's not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you for he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God, for we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you, we will live with him by the power of God." "Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith test .yourselves, or do you not realize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you fail to meet the test. I hope you'll find out that we have not failed the test, but we pray to God that you may not do wrong. Not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right though we may seem to have failed. For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth, for we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. Your restoration is what we pray for. For this reason, I write these things while I'm away from you, that when I come I may not have to be severe in my use of the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down." "Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort. Comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss and all the saints greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus and love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all." Amen. This is the reading of God's holy and infallible authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. We'll just walk through the text verse by verse, four points, the frame of our time. First, live by the power of God. Second, examine yourself, is Jesus in you? Three, do nothing against the truth, everything for the truth. And finally, the final greetings. So, number one is live by the power of God. Verse one, "This is the evidence..." Excuse me. "This is the third time I'm coming to you. Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses." Paul has written the second letter to Corinthians. He's done everything he possibly could from a pastoral perspective, inspired by the Holy Spirit. He has given them the Gospel. He's given the hard words of rebuke and warning, and now he's saying, "I'm coming and I pray that God's word will do its work and that it will lead you to repentance. If I come and the church is in order and everyone is living a repentant life in the church as members of the church, then we're going to have a wonderful time of fellowship. If not, we're going to have to put the church in order." And, here he begins to talk about church discipline, and if you don't understand church discipline and most likely it's because you haven't read the word or you've grown up in an American church, it's one or the other. Any other churches, any other colleges, they're like, "We get church discipline." Koreans get it, Russians get it, Slavs of the Ukrainians definitely get it. American churches? No, you can't discipline me. I want to be on the roles. I don't want to attend church or give or serve, but just in case this does anything and get me into heaven, I'm in, sign me up. Those are most American churches. That's not us because we love the Bible, and we actually do what the Bible says. We read it and we do it, and the Bible talks about church membership. And one of the biggest... A lot of people are like, "Give me a verse for church membership." Church discipline, Matthew 18, 1 Corinthians five, it's everywhere. The fact that Christians are to hold one another accountable, that we are in a family, and in a family when someone's not doing well, the family gets together and the family chats. That's what church membership is. If a brother sins against you, go to him and if the brother repents, you've gained your brother. And if the brother doesn't repent, now you got to bring the church in, and the whole point of church discipline is to bring a person back to a restored relationship with the Lord and with the brother and sisters with the church. That's what St. Paul here is talking about. So, if you're not a member of a church, most of you here are. If you're not a member of a church, that's the camera, you should join a church. It's in the Bible. I tell people, I don't think you're a faithful believer if you are not a member of a church. I don't. Who's keeping you accountable, your roommates? We need accountability, we need church. This is why we practice it. It's in the Holy Spirit. So, none of what's about to happen is going to make sense unless you understand that's a biblical category. We have sermons galore online. Go to the membership section. We've explained all of this. We've built the theology for it. We've done the work. We just assume it's true. So, St. Paul says, "Look, I don't want to do the church discipline part. I've already done the discipline, which is the positive discipline of telling you the truth and hopefully you get yourself in line with the truth, and if not, you repent where you're not in line with the truth and then there's order in the church." The word for evidence here, he says, "Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses." Here he's talking about the fact that in the Old Testament, if a charge is brought against a person in the community of faith, you have to have at least two or three witnesses, and it's not just witnesses who write something. Here the word for evidence is the word stoma and stoma just means mouth. And, this is really important to understand that the charge has to be brought in person. If you have a charge against someone, you go to that person in-person and you speak to them. You look at them in the eyes and you tell them the truth and like, "Hey, you're sinning here. Here's the verse that you've transgressed. Here's the commandment that you've..." You've got to look them in the eyes. This is crucial because we live in a day and age where there's a lot of keyboard warriors and both keyboard on your computer and on your phone, just keyboard warriors, where it's like, "Church discipline off my phone." No, you got to go to the person and you got to talk to him. There's something that happens when look eye to eye, when you look someone in the eye, and when there's two or three people and you speak from your mouth, that's what's going on here. And, any charges must be brought together, and the reason why Paul does this is because he's creating order in the church. An order has to be created in an orderly way, which a lot of people don't understand today. A lot of people look at the world out there and they're like, "Everything's wrong. We're going to fix it with more chaos." That doesn't work, that's not God's way. The way that God wants to fix chaos is through a very orderly way, and this is what the Lord does. The word for charge here is a word, like if you have a word against someone, don't speak it behind their back, speak it to them one on one, first of all, and then there's the two and three witnesses. Verse two, "I warned those who sinned before and all the others and I warn them now while absent, as I did when present in my second visit, that if I come again, I will not spare them." All right, what does Paul mean here? I will not spare them. Whatever he means, it's got to be something that you want to be spared of. So, whatever he's talking about, this thing, I want to spare them. I've given them a warning, a warning, a warning, a warning, but there comes a time where if you persist in your unrepentant sin, you will not be spared. He speaks about this in 1 Corinthians 4:18-21. "Some are arrogant as though I were not coming to you, but I will come to you soon if the Lord wills and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people, but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk, but in power. What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod or with love in a spirit of gentleness?" So, he's saying there's two weapons at his disposal, tools if you don't want to use the word weapon, gentleness, spirit of love and gentleness. That's the rule. That's the rule, that's how we are to pursue relationships with one another, and in particular, when it comes to a person in authority over another person, we as Christians, the general rule we operate from is this, gentleness, spirit of gentleness and love, but there's a rod here. What's he talking about with a rod? He's talking about corporal, physical punishment in the church. Most likely not, but whatever it is, it is contrasted to a spirit of gentleness. And in context, St. Paul talks about severity and not sparing, and he's talking about in the context of ecclesial authority. He is in apostle. He is one of 12. He is an apostle, and he is in a role over the church that he has planted in authority and he says, "There's a spirit of gentleness and not gentle. There's a spirit of severity." And, Paul has warned time and again that there ecclesiastical consequences for unrepentant sin, and we call that being disfellowshipped or being excommunicated. So, a person becomes a member of the church and the person begins to live in unrepentant sin. What do we do? First, we just follow Matthew 18, go to them one on one. If the person repents, then that's it. Church discipline is only for unrepentant sin. If the person does not repent, then you get the elders of the church, now you got two or three, and then you call the person to repent this again, and you go through that, and the church is praying for the person. If the person does not repent at that point as the church, we say this person is not a member of this body. This person is not walking in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We cannot say that we see the fruit of the Holy Spirit in this person's life, and we believe that membership is only for regenerated believers and regenerated believers live a repentant lifestyle. St. Paul says, "I will not spare them." And, here the word for spare, pheidomai, it's used in the following context. Acts 20:29, "I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you not sparing the flock." So Paul says, "I need to spare you from something worse." If you are living in unrepentant sin, and we leave it as is, this leads to the destruction of the church from within. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. If, the church spares unrepentant sinners, they open themselves up to not being spared by Satan and his false teachers. Romans 8:32, "He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" God did not spare his son Jesus Christ, not so that we can continue living in sin, and thanks be to Jesus. We go to heaven because he died on the cross for our sins. That's not how it works. God did not spare his one and only son to redeem you from sin, to save you from sin, to free you from sin, so that you walk in a life of freedom on a daily basis following the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, church discipline is crucial for the purity and the witness of the church and for the power of God to pour out in the church. And, I don't think enough people talk about this. In the Old Testament, it's clear. There's this clear pattern that when there's someone in the community of faith that's living in unrepentant sin, God withholds his power. Look up the of Achan, this guy in the Old Testament. God said, "I'm calling you people of Israel, kill everything. Do not take a thing." And, Achan decide to take some stuff for himself and hid it in the tent, and then the next time they go to battle people died because of this one guy's greed, and then the guy gets stoned, he and his whole family. It's in the Bible. God hates sin. God has a blazing fury against sin, and I will tell you if you want to see the power of God in this church, and a lot of people ask, why aren't there more miracles today? Why isn't God doing more miracles and healing? He is, the question is, why isn't he doing more of it? Why isn't he doing more of it? Could it be because there are Christians in his church that are secretly living in sin and loving it. So, God calls us to repentance. This is a church discipline sermon. The discipline comes proactively, first of all. If you're living in sin, repent of it. Leave that sin, draw near to the Lord. 2 Peter 2:4, "For if God did not spare angels when they sin, but cast them into hell and committed them to change of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment." So, it's better not to be spared from church discipline than to not be spared from hell. 2 Corinthians 13:3, "Since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me, he is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you." The charge against St. Paul was, "You're so weak. In person, you're just a weak dude." And St. Paul is like, "Well, because everything that I'm doing, it's not me, it's the Holy Spirit through me. It's the power of God through me." So they were like, "Where's your power? Where's your power? Where's your power?" And he's like, "Look at the church, look at the church, look at the church." And then here he's like, "Look, you think I'm weak? You don't think that Christ is speaking through me and in me? Just wait." That's that's his play. He says, "But watch God's powerful among you, watch." And, here what St. Paul is doing, this is fascinating, he is saying to everyone who's raised their hand against St. Paul, the anointed of God, he's saying, "Be careful. Be careful raising charges against me and see if God doesn't show up in power and rebuke you himself." That's what he's saying. Well, the question that he's preempting, the criticism he's preempting was, "How do we know that Christ is speaking through you, Paul? Who are you to judge us? Who are you to judge our church?" And St. Paul says, "Okay, watch Jesus bring power." And when the people of God gather and the power of Christ is among them, 1 Corinthians 5:4, "When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus, my spirit is present with the power of the Lord Jesus." This is fascinating. Paul knows who he is. He knows his calling. He knows his integrity. He knows his resume, and when people criticize him, he didn't respond to the full force defense of himself, of his skillset, instead he lifted it up to God. He follows the pattern of Romans 12:19, "Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for is written, 'Vengeance is mine. I will repay,' says the Lord." Okay, you want power? Power will come. 2 Corinthians 13:4, "For he, Christ, was crucified in weakness, but lives in the power of God for we are weak in him, but in dealing with you, we will live with him by the power of God." This is very, very, very important. This is a crucial word for the church today, crucial. I just spent a week in a doctoral class at one of those powerful seminaries in the nation, at Westminster Seminary, and I had a professor. I shall not name him, but I've already let him know everything in my papers, my final papers because I'm at the point in my life where grades don't matter. What are you going to do? You're going to give me a B? He said the following. He said, "Christians should aspire to weakness." To weakness? I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "Christians should aspire to weakness in every aspect of their life. That's what the Bible teaches." I said, "That's literally not what the Bible teaches." I was like, "Why should we pursue weakness?" He said, "Because Jesus went to the cross in weakness." I was like, "Yeah, but he didn't stay there." He didn't like that part, my professor. He also didn't like the part where I asked him if he's a pacifist, which makes sense because if you're a pacifist you write that kind of theology. Thanks, Edgar. I love the guy. It's not true, man. It's not true. Jesus isn't on the cross, he's no longer weak. He did the weakness thing. He's no longer weak, he's no longer crucified. He lives, he reigns, he rules in power and in glory. Yes, we are called the weakness in that we humble ourselves completely. Lord, I am nothing. I can do nothing apart from you, nothing. That's my weakness, and that's also my strength because now I walk in the power of God, for we are weak in him, but in dealing with you, we will live with him by the power of God. Therefore, Christian, it is your duty and you're calling to live with God in power on a daily basis. You wake up and you say, "God, fill me with power. Give me the power of the Holy Spirit. I am today more than a conqueror. You have won the ultimate war, you have, you have, you have, but there's a battle today. Lord Jesus, fill me with your power." That's our duty. Matthew, 22:29, Jesus answered them, "You are wrong," talking to the Pharisees, "Because you know neither of the scriptures nor the power of God." Know the scriptures, and by doing so, you will know the power of God. Obey the scriptures, you shall know the power of God, and only by the power of God's spirit can those who are dead in sins be regenerate, resurrected to a new life. Paul is ready to exercise his power and authority to judge the unrepentant sinners in the church. One last word before I continue to point two, because we have the kids here today, and my kids are here, my daughters. They're tremendous, they're awesome. Let me just talk about love gentleness as the rule when you have authority. I'm a father, I have authority over my children. God gave me that authority, and then there's a severity part of raising children. There absolutely is, and if they did not know that there's a severity part in the repertoire of my love for them, they would not be as delightful as they are today. Have you met my daughters? They are delightful. If people meet them, they're like, "How did you do that? How did you do that? Were they born that way?" I say, "Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. They were not born that way." They never are born that way. They're born as little degenerate sinners. They need to be parented, and the severity part, scripture does teach. So, I don't care if we're in Boston, I don't care if it's 2022. I'm just going to say it, because that's where I am in my ministry if you haven't noticed, yeah, I spank my kids, just a little bit, a little spanky-spanky on the tush. I don't call it corporal punishment it sounds too like, "What are you doing, corporal?" It sounds too corporate. It's just a little spank just in the tush, just a little bit when they're a baby, just on the diaper, they got the cushioning, just a little bit, so they know that it's in their repertoire. Baby, I love you. No, you shall not play with the knife. What's more severe, let her play with the knife or a little on the tush? The flesh all of a sudden wakes up and like, "Yeah, you're right. I don't need that knife." It's true, there is in all of authority, the rule of gentleness, love, but there is a severe part everywhere. In your job, even if you have the nicest boss, he can also fire you at any point, so it's just there. That rod part is always there. That's what St. Paul is getting at. Number two is examine yourself, is Jesus in you? Here what St Paul is doing is turning the table on these false apostles, these false teachers who accused St. Paul of not even being a believer. You're not even a Christian. So St. Paul says, look, verse five, "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves, or do you not realize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you failed to meet the test." The word for examine here is peirazó, and this is fascinating because word for exam or test is also the same word for tempt, peirazó. Sometimes it's used as Satan is the one that's tempting, sometimes it's used that God is the one that's testing. This is very important. Every time Satan sends a temptation, it's also a test from the Lord to see, are you going to pass the test? Are you going to reject the temptation? Are you going to get stronger? Are you going to learn something from this? And St. Paul here says, "Hey, examine yourselves, give yourself a test." So, watch yourself, in particular when the temptations come, am I in the faith? In particular when the tests from God come, but we ourselves are to test, test yourself to see whether you are in the faith. How would you pass if you gave yourself a little pop test right now, a pop exam whether you are on the faith? The question is, am I a Christian? The question is, am I a Christian? Well, if you were giving yourself a test, what would the questions be? What would the questions be? This is a very, very important exercise. If you think that you are a Christian, give yourself a test. First of all, you've got to figure out what questions need to be on that test. St. Paul only gives one. He doesn't say, here's this confession of faith, I want you to memorize it and I want you to articulate it. He doesn't say, here's Bible verse that I want you to memorize them. He doesn't say, here's some good works to do a test whether you're in the faith. He doesn't say, give X amount of finances or money to an organization. He doesn't do any of that. He says, test and examine yourself to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize this about yourself that Jesus Christ is in you? He's asking one question. St. Paul's, test, exam. Are you in the faith? All it says is, is Christ Jesus in you? Is Christ Jesus in you? That's the question before us. Can you answer, yes, Christ Jesus is in me? The son of God is in me by the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ is in me. Is Jesus Christ in you? The super apostles have been demanding proof and St. Paul's like, "All right, the most important proof is, is Christ in you?" If Christ is in you, well, that's verifiable proof of the fact that Paul has authority from God. And, are you a Christian? If so, you should be able to confidently say, "Yeah, Jesus Christ is in me. He is in me." I wake up and I have affections for Christ. I wake up and I want to do things for the Lord. I want to study the word. When things get hard, and when I sin, and there's temptations, all of a sudden my conscience just awakens me and says, this is wrong. Is Jesus Christ in you? Paul leaves this question up to the conscience that Jesus Christ is in the center. That's the exam. Do you live like Jesus Christ is in you? And, there should be fruit of the Holy Spirit and he says, "Unless indeed you fail to meet the test." And, that's too nice of a translation. He's like, "Oh, if Christ isn't in you, then you didn't meet the test." The word here in the Greek just means disqualified. If you do not pass this test, what hangs in the balance is not just GPA or just the letter grade, it's your eternity, your eternity, your soul hangs in the balance between heaven and hell for all of eternity. So, make sure that you are not disqualified. Make sure that you meet the test. 2 Timothy 3:8, "The word is used just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith." Titus 1:16, "They professed to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good word." That's the same word. If Christ is in you, then you should be able to point the spiritual fruit produced by God through you. That wasn't me, that was the Lord. Follow the date of your life, examine yourself to see whether your faith is genuine. And, then when you begin to examine yourself and that's Matthew seven, you start with yourself, that's the spec and the rod and all, when you begin to examine yourself, now you can begin to examine the teachers in the church. Revelation 2:12, "I know your works, your toil, your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false." So, this is a very important exercise. Do test yourself, examine yourself, ask the question, am I in the faith? Is Christ Jesus in me? It doesn't matter how long you've been a Christian, by the way. It doesn't matter how long you've been a Christian. I tell people I live like an Armenian, I might lose my salvation, I don't know. I sleep like a Calvinist. God's got me. It's all good. I study the Bible like a Baptist or a Presbyterian, I'm not sure yet. I pray like a Pentecostal, I worship as a charismatic and I do evangelism like a Jehovah's Witness. That's my that's my whole... But, we are to examine ourselves. We are to examine to see whether... Especially, church before holy communion, I don't think enough people talk about this. It's clear in scripture. When people trifle with holy communion, God sometimes kills them. That's a fact. 1 Corinthians 11:27, "Whoever therefore eats of bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and the blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why so many of you are weak and ill and some have died, but if we judge ourselves truly would not be judged, but then we are judged by the Lord. We are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world." And in that text later he says, "And that's why some of you are sick, and some of you have fallen asleep, and he's talking about death. It's when believers living in sin, a seared conscience, approach the table as if God doesn't care about sin and they remember the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what it took for God to pardon us from sin. God does not take too kindly of that. That's where severity comes in and I've seen this happen. I've seen this happen in my life in ministry. I've seen Christians who just mess with sin, mess with sin and pretend that everything's fine in their Christian life, and all of a sudden, God just takes them. So Christians, if you're wrestling with sin, wrestle it, but also win by the power of the spirit, whatever it takes. Put it to death, get accountability, share your struggles, repent of sin, turn to the Lord. Next time we partake in communion, come prepared. Verse six of 2 Corinthians 13, "I hope you'll find out that we have not failed the test." Paul says, "Examine yourself before you examine the Christian." Paul's been examined himself his whole life. So, he's not saying he's failed the test. Obviously he hasn't, he's done everything he possibly can to not disqualify himself from the race that is the Christian life and ministry. 2 Corinthians 13:7, "But we pray that God may not do wrong, not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed." St. Paul says, "If the unrepentant sinners in the church repent and turn from sin, tremendous, Paul, can't wait to bring them back." He doesn't want to use his severe authority, but if they haven't, he says, "Then they have to take action." And, the lesson here is that St. Paul is willing to do the hard thing. He doesn't want to do this, he doesn't want this emotional toll, he doesn't want people to not like him, he doesn't want to say hard things. He wants to be buddy-buddy, fellowship, everything's great, but that's not loving sometimes, and sometimes you have to speak the truth and the lesson here is that spirit-filled leaders care more about what's best for the person they're leading, the person under their care, than how the person esteems them. Third is, do nothing against the truth, everything for the truth. Verse eight, "For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth." This is an incredible verse. This is this week's memory verse. This is the one, this is the memory verse. In particular, in a day and age where there's so much fake news and lies, just lies, lies, lies, lies all around us, we should have people that care about truth. Truth from holy scripture and truth in the world, we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. Do you do anything against the truth? Is there anything you do that doesn't support the truth? And, it starts with our relationship with the Lord. Jesus is the truth, and if there's any place in your life that you are not following Jesus completely, then you are not walking in the truth. You're not abiding in the truth, and when Christians are living in sin, they're not living for the truth, but against truth and Paul is coming back to reestablish the truth. In verse nine he says, "For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. Your restoration is what we pray for." That's his whole goal. The word for restoration, it's a building term, it's a construction term. It's like if you get an old house and you got it and you restore it to its original beauty, that's what he's talking about. The restoration, now we care about the restoration of the believer. That's what St. Paul says. It has to do with a process of perfecting, maturing to make someone completely adequate for something, a cause to be fully qualified. 2 Timothy 3:7, the same word for restoration is used, "That the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." Restored, perfection, complete, that's the same language. 2 Corinthians 13:10, "For this reason I write these things while I'm away from you, that when I come I may not have to be severe in my use of the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down." He says, "I don't want to tear down. God's given me authority. I want to build you up, whatever is missing in your life. I don't want to come with severe or harsh authority." That's the same word that's used Titus 1:13, "This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith." So Paul says, it's there. I want you to know that it's in the repertoire. The severity of the authority is in the repertoire, just as long we're on the same page, so that when I come to you and gentleness, you actually appreciate it. That's what he's saying. So, how does this supply at Mosaic? Well, for most of you, if you already know me, the severity's there. It takes everything from me to not be severe sometimes because you got to do the hard work, this sinful anger is there. So, the severity is there, that's the point. The point is it's there. Most of the time it's gentleness, but once in a while when someone is in a spiritual stupor... And by the way, this is how I respond if I'm in sin and someone's like, "Hey, Jan. I think you're sinning. Here's the text." I'm like, "I don't even think you really believe I'm sinning. Do you even believe? Can you just yell at me, please? Just yell at me, God." That's the way I operate. All the most influential people in my life are people that yelled at me, from my coaches to stern teachers and... But it's there, that's what St. Paul is saying. "I don't want to use it," he says, "I want to build you up." To build someone up means to assist them with the construction, the completion of their life, whatever is missing. The goal is always to build up, not to tear down. And, God sometimes does tear down and he does inflict pain, he does bring severe mercy. Sometimes people ask me like, "Pastor Jan, why is there so much pain and suffering in the world?" My response is so that people finally ask, "Hey, how could God be allowing this?" Good, we are finally talking about God. What did it take for you to finally start talking about God, a little pain and suffering. God often sends severity here, pain here, harshness here to wake us up and see as the Lord says, God's megaphone to a deaf world. Isaiah 19:22, "The Lord will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will have return to the Lord and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them." How often does this happen? God strikes, God brings pain, inflicts pain, so finally people cry out, "God, please heal us." And, he does. And, ultimately he wants to heal us for eternity and that's through Jesus Christ. Point four is the final greeting and this is verses 11-14. Paul finishes the letter with a final charge consisting of five imperatives into promise. Beginning with verse 11, "Finally, brothers, rejoice, aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace and the God of love and peace will be with you." What a text. And then he says, "Greet one another with a holy kiss." All the saints greet you with a holy kiss. Now we got to do something with this because we live in a place where nobody wants to shake hands, holy handshake, no. The holy fist bump, can you do that, a holy elbow tap, a holy something? What's he talking about? What's going on here? Well, what's going on in the Greco-Roman world, you were not allowed to call anyone a brother or sister unless they were legally your brother and sister. So, Christians in public could not be like, "Hey, brother," because then they'd get arrested and killed. So, what they did was they created this language of like, "We're going to show affection in public with a holy kiss that we're brother and sister, we're siblings." That's the history behind that. The thought behind this is that we as Christians, we are brothers and sisters. We are brothers and sisters. So, when people try to treat church as just some corporate gathering where you you come in, you hear a lecture and nobody talk to me please, and then you bounce, and just to do it again a month later, if that's the extent of your Christian life, then you don't understand one of the most beautiful things about Christianity, is the family aspect. And when you really love another Christian and you haven't seen them in a long time, there's something inside where you want to show affection physically and they back then, they did a holy kiss. Am I saying to bring it back? I'm saying they did it. What I'm saying is they did it. What I'm also saying is it was holy. So, anyone that's a pervert and is like, "Ooh, bringing back a kiss." It was a holy kiss. I submit to you, let's start with deepening the relationship first, and then we'll get to showing the affection, okay? A lot of people are like... No, we just met. You haven't gone through the membership process yet. We just met, dude. So, we're working through that. 2 Corinthians 13:14, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all." If you have this, you have everything. Jesus Christ, our Lord procured the grace, God, the father, in love sends his son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit is the one that gives us the fellowship. He is the council of the comforter. He is the helper. He is the one that binds our souls together. We together have fellowship when we are bound by the Holy Spirit on the same mission and we are on the same ship, so to speak. In our membership meeting, we talk about the fact that church is a battleship, it's not a cruise ship. When you're on a battleship serving brothers and sisters, you experience the deepest level of fellowship that you will ever experience, thanks to the Holy Spirit. We started with Sheldon Vanauken's book, A Severe Mercy. I'll just finish with a quote from there, "Though I wouldn't have admitted it, even to myself, I didn't want God aboard." This is when his wife became a fervent believer and he was wrestling with his own faith. He said, "I didn't want God aboard. He was too heavy. I wanted him approving from a considerable distance. I didn't want to be thinking of him. I wanted to be free like a gypsy. I wanted life itself, the color and fire and loveliness of life. And Christ now and then, like a loved poem I could read when I wanted to, I didn't want us to be swallowed up in God. I wanted holidays from the school of Christ." I wonder, are you ever tempted to treat God like this? Whenever you are, I just want you to remember that it's a good thing that God did not treat us like this, that God didn't just give us just a little bit, just to have a little bit of relation. God, went all in because that's what it took to save us from our sin. There's an infinite chasm between us and God. Every sin, every transgression leads to eternal separation from God, and there's only one way for that separation to be bridged, for us to be reconciled with God, and that's through the severe decree of God the father. God the father gives a severe decree to his son Jesus Christ. Jesus, my son, my beloved son, whom I'm well pleased. I'm sending you on a mission to live that perfect life that not one of these people could have lived, and then to die a death atoning for the sins of all the elect. I'm calling you to be crucified, and that's not even the worst part. The most severe part is as Jesus is being crucified, physical anguish, he's experiencing the wrath of God being poured out on him. Severity, that's God's harshness. It's also his mercy. That's the only way for us to be saved from our sin. Jesus on the cross submits to God the father. He dies, he's buried, he's resurrected, and now for you to become a Christian, for me to become a Christian, for us to have our sins forgiven, come to the Lord, submit to him, submit your life to him, submit to Jesus for your whole life. Not just a little bit, submit your whole life to Jesus Christ. If you're a Christian, submit your whole life to Jesus Christ. If the not, I am warning you, he will send severe mercy. I'm trying to prevent you from that. Why? Because that's how much he loves you. With that said, would you please pray with me? Heavenly father, we thank you for this time and the holy word. We thank you for this rich text. Holy God, we repent of all sin. We turn from all sin, from folly, from pride, from self-righteousness, from self-sufficiency. We are nothing apart from you and we pray Holy Spirit, continue to empower us, each one of us. Continue to cleanse this church from any sin, continue to cleanse our membership from any sin, so that we can be a church that it is holy, zealous, on fire for you. And I pray through us, Holy Spirit, do mighty works here in this church and amongst this community, in this city, in this state, and beyond. And, we thank you for all of this in advance. We pray this in Christ's name, amen.
Christlike Authority
January 23, 2022 • Shane Sikkema • 2 Corinthians 12:11–21
Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Good morning and welcome again to Mosaic. If you're new, my name is Shane, one of the pastors here, and we're so glad to have you with us today. We would love to connect with you. As we mentioned earlier, if you'd like to connect with us, a great place to start is to fill out that little connection card in your worship guide. And if you turn that in at the Welcome Center out there, we've got a gift that we'd love to give to you to thank you for being with us today. One quick announcement before we begin, there is a membership class happening today right after this service. So, if you are interested in membership, we would love to have you join us for that. Lunch will be provided that's going to be happening downstairs. So, we're getting really close to the end of our sermon series, Prodigal Church. We've been going through Paul's second letter to the Corinthians. And for much of this letter, what we've seen is that Paul has been trying to win the heart, the soul of this prodigal church. That it seems in his absence that some false teachers have crept into the church and they were leading people astray. These were not just wolves in sheep's clothing. These were shepherds... wolves in shepherd's clothing that they were presenting themselves as teachers, as authorities. In the church, Paul sarcastically refers to them as super-apostles, because in reality, they were satanic apostles that the enemy had sent in to divide and to conquer the flock. And here near at the end of his letter, for the last couple of weeks, we've seen Paul is resorting to do something that he's been reluctant to do which is he begins to boast. He begins to defend his apostolic authority and present his case for why it is not only authentic but far superior to that of these false teachers, and his desire is not so much to defend himself as it is to defend this church that he loves. That these false apostles, they've won over some of the people in this church by boasting in their strengths. They've been boasting in their wins, in their gifting. And so, Paul begins to boast as well, but instead he boasts in his losses. He boasts in his sufferings. He boasts in his sacrificial love, and he wants the church to learn. He needs us to learn that you cannot judge spiritual authority by outward appearances. And these super-apostles, they were very eloquent. They were well-spoken, well-dressed. They were successful. They were influential. They were connected, highly educated. They had fans. They had money. They had charisma, but you can have all of those things and not even be a Christian. And so, don't be deceived that there are going to be plenty of people in this world, motivational speakers, spiritual gurus, leaders of false religions, who know how to draw big crowds to themselves, but this doesn't validate them as somebody truly worthy of being fouled. And so, instead of boasting in his strengths, Paul chooses to boast in the things that, from the world's perspective appear to be weaknesses, but these weaknesses are windows. They're like curtains that are being drawn back in order to show that the true power and authority of this man was not coming from himself. That Paul's power and authority, it was the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit in his life and in his ministry and this is what validated him as an apostle. And so, what we've seen is, in many ways, to the world Paul appears to be almost pitiful, foolish. And yet to those who are being saved, Paul looks like a man who loves the church, who's willing to lay down his life, sacrifice everything for this church he loves. It shows us that he's a lot like Jesus Christ. And so, we're going to be talking about authority today. Before we begin, we need to address something and that is this, how do you feel when you are told to submit? If I were to tell you, "Submit to my authority," most of us say, "Yeah, that doesn't make me feel very good." Why is that? Why is that our gut reaction is just bristle or to push back against that sentiment? Is authority inherently bad? Is submission inherently bad, or are these things inherently good? There's a scene in C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, where the children are in Narnia. And if you remember, Narnia is this place that's under the watch of this evil witch and she's caused it to be a place that's described as being always winter but never Christmas. Rumors have begun to spread that Aslan who's the Christ figure of the book was on the move, and one of the signs of this is that in some places, the snow of winter is beginning to melt. And at one point in their journey, the children are actually found by Father Christmas, and he gives them presents. To Peter, he gives a sword. To Susan, he gives a bow. He gives them these gifts, but this is what he tells them. He says, "These are your presents. And they are tools, not toys. The time to use them is perhaps near at hand. Bear them well." What's the difference between a tool and a toy? Toys are for pleasure, but tools are for a greater purpose. Toys are for our own amusement, but tools they're meant to build, to fix, to repair, to design, to create order out of chaos. So, what does this have to do with authority? Well, first of all, authority is a gift, and none of us have any legitimate authority in and of ourselves. Do you remember when Jesus was standing before Pontius Pilate, and Pilate says to him, "Don't you know that I have the power to release you or the power to crucify you, the authority to crucify you?" And Jesus answered him in John 19:11, "You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given to you from above." Authority is a gift from God, but it's not a toy. He doesn't give us authority to be used for our own pleasure, selfish ambition, or amusement. It's a tool. And as with any tool, even the very best of tools, it can be used improperly to cause harm, to cause destruction, but its intended purpose is to bring life and beauty, to create utility and value. And think of it like this, authority is like a hammer. And yeah, you can beat people over the head with it but that's not what it's made for. It isn't designed to beat people up. It's designed to build... to beat people down. It's designed to build people up. It's designed to help create a world in which things are as they ought to be where humanity is flourishing under the good authority of God, the Father. And so, Paul, throughout these letters, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, he's hammering this over and over that he wants the church to see and to acknowledge and to submit to his authority. He's hammering this not to beat them down. He's hammering it to build them up. I saw this a couple of weeks ago in 2 Corinthians 10:8, he says, "Even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be ashamed." In our passage today in Chapter 12:19, he says, "Do you think we've been all along have been defending ourselves to you? It's in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ, and all for your upbuilding, beloved." Today, we're going to be looking at 2 Corinthians 12. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and open up, we'll be looking at verses 11-21. And we're going to be talking about authority, we're going to try to glean some principles of what Christ-like authority looks like. Because we all need to learn to submit to authority, but we all need to learn how to wield authority as well. Paul's primary focus in this text has to do with authority in the church, but all of us are going to be given opportunities to wield authority in one way or another throughout our lives. And so, therefore, we all need to be prepared to do that in a Christ-like manner and so as we talk about these things today. This applies to pastors, to leaders in the church, but this also applies to husbands and wives, parents over their children, employers over their employees, managers over their teams, teachers over their students, officials over their citizens. I'd say this even applies to our own personal stewardship of the resources that God has entrusted under us, under our authority, our time, our talents, our treasures, the self-control, the discipline, that we exercise even over ourselves in order to put our own lives in order under the authority of Jesus Christ. And so, it doesn't matter how big or small, I want you to try to think and identify, "Where has God given me authority? What are those spheres of influence and authority that God has given to me and how can I be faithful in those areas? How can I be more like Christ with those responsibilities?" Because Jesus said, "If you're faithful over little, I will put you over much." So, three points for our sermon today is number one, a Christ-like authority is evidenced by the Spirit. And second Chris-like authority is expressed like a parent and third, Christ-like authority is foolish yet effective. So, if you have your Bibles, you can follow along. I'm going to pray for our sermon, and then we're going to just work through this passage one section at a time. So, if you would, let's spend some time in prayer. God, you are a good father and we thank you for your good authority over our lives. Jesus, all authority in heaven and on earth is yours, and you have shown us the power and goodness that true authority has not by domineering us but by dying for us. God, give us the faith to joyfully submit to you, to the authorities that you have placed over us, and to ourselves wield whatever authority we have been given in a godly, in a Christ-like manner. And we thank you for your word. I pray, Holy Spirit, that you would speak to us today through your word, and that by it we as your church would be strengthened, built up, and useful for you and for your kingdom and glory. We pray this all in Christ's name. Amen. Point number one, Christ-like authority is evidenced by the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 12, looking at the first couple of verses 11 and 12, Paul says this that, "I have been a fool. You forced me to it, for I ought to have been commended by you. For I was not at all inferior to these super-apostles, even though I am nothing. The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with the utmost patient, with signs and wonders and mighty works." And here in the first couple of verses, we see two signs that validate Paul's authority over this church. And the first is something that is specific to Paul and to his apostolic ministry, and the second is more general and it applies to all of us as well. And so, first of all, Paul's apostolic authority was evidenced by signs of the Spirit. And this is why Paul, he really shouldn't have had to defend himself before this church. He says, actually, in verse 11 that, "I ought to have been commended by you because you've seen the evidence of the Spirit in my ministry firsthand." Back in 1 Corinthians 9, he says, "Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? And are you not my workmanship in the Lord? If to others I'm not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. And this is my defense to those who would examine me." Now, the Corinthians had witnessed the power of the Holy Spirit in Paul's ministry firsthand and they owed their very existence as a church to it. When Paul first arrived in the city of Corinth, we see this in Acts 18. We're told in verse nine that many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, "Don't be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent for, I am with you, and no one will attack you or harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people." And he stayed there for a year and six months teaching the word of God among them. After this, Paul goes a little bit further on to the city of Ephesus, and we're told that he continued there in Acts 19:10 that he continued there for two years, so that all the residents of Asia's entire region heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. In 2 Corinthians 3, Paul says, "Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on your hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not in ink but with the Spirit of the Living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts." They had seen the Holy Spirit validate Paul in his ministry that he truly was a capital A apostle. And we need to understand this is something that was unique to the early church that there are no capital A apostles. Today, if you meet someone who claims to be one, they probably belong in that category of the super-apostles that Paul was refuting. What this means is that leadership in the church today, it doesn't need to be validated by miraculous signs and wonders like the apostles, but Christ-like authority in the church today is evidenced by how authority submits and obeys the apostles, their example, their teaching, and the writings of the New Testament. That when the apostles in the early church were writing the New Testament, they weren't just recording their opinions. This was the Holy Spirit-inspired word of God. And so, how does this apply to us? Well, first, for those in authority like myself as a pastor, any spiritual authority that I have over the church is thrown out the window the minute that I stand in defiance of Jesus Christ or stand in a place of judgment over God's word. Second, if you go to a church where the pastor is claiming to be an apostle like Paul, claiming to speak new revelation that is equal in authority to Scripture, or where the pastor is rejecting the authority of God's word, you need to call that pastor to repentance and or you need to leave that church. That legitimate authority over the church needs to be under the authority of Jesus Christ, the living word, and under the authority of Holy Scripture, the written word. So, Paul's apostolic authority was evidenced by signs, by wonders, by miracles of the Holy Spirit, and He had seen the risen Christ with his own eyes and was called by him to be an apostle. Second, Paul's Christ-like authority was evidenced by humble and confident submission to Christ. That true Christ-like authority is marked by submission to Christ's authority, and that this submission, it's a humility that leads to obedience that results in bold confidence. It's a humility that isn't harrowing. It's a confidence that isn't conceited. And that might seem paradoxical but this is why Paul can say what he says in verse 11. He says, 2 Corinthians 12:11, the second half of the verse that, "I was not at all inferior to these super-apostles," that's a very bold and confident thing to say, "even though," he continues, "even though I am nothing." He's extremely humble as well. He goes on to say that, "The signs of a true apostle were performed among you and they were done so with the utmost patience." He's confident. He was humble. In 1 Corinthians 15:9, he says, "I'm the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of the God that was with me." It's confident humility. It's humble confidence, and it's hard to describe but you know it when you see it. You see it in Jesus Christ. You see it in the apostle Paul. You see it in godly leaders who are walking in the Spirit. And the thing is, when you see it, it's usually not quite what you would expect. I'll just give you a quick example from my own life. Before we moved to Boston, my wife and I, this was actually almost 20 years ago, early on in our marriage, we volunteered at the youth group, the youth ministry of our former church. We were the young hip 20-somethings who led the worship team for this ministry of seven-year 80 high school students. One day, this guy shows up and he wants to volunteer in the youth group. And right now, we realized we have a problem, because this guy was not young and cool. He was very old and very gray. We were in the Midwest. And if you know the Midwest, everybody has a super thick news anchor accent. This guy had a very thick Southern accent which really made him a stick out. And then, on top of that, he was very overweight. He's a big guy and picture like a mixture between Santa Claus and Colonel Sanders. That's who we're dealing with. And he we found out he was actually a colonel, a retired colonel from the military. And the point is on the outside, he did not look like the kind of person that you would be looking for in a youth group volunteer. He wasn't hip, he wasn't cool, but he didn't care. So, he just starts showing up, he starts serving, starts hanging out, and he just starts engaging everybody. He loved to eat. And so, he and his wife, they just started taking people out for lunch after church, teens, the leaders, didn't matter. Pretty much anybody that they came in contact with, he'd just say, "Hey, we're going to eat. I'm buying, and you are coming with me." And my wife and I, we were on the receiving end of this a couple of times. So, you sit down to lunch with this guy. You order your food. And all of a sudden, 45 minutes go by and you feel like you just got mauled by Jesus. You feel like you just sparred with a lion, and he was so... it's hard to describe. He was tough, but he was super tender. He wasn't bringing up the teeth and the claws. He wasn't trying to be mean or intimidating, but he lets you feel his spiritual weight and strength. And so, on the one hand, he was very humble. He just exudes this deep genuine love and concern and care for every person that he talked to. And when you're with him, his presence was very comforting. It was very encouraging, and you would drop your guard and then without even asking, he would just start digging into all the details of your life. "How's your devotion time? How's your prayer time? How's your marriage? Well, let's talk about those super-secret sins that you need to repent of." And just with this incredible boldness and confidence, just starts asking all the awkward, hard questions. He was so bold, and he was so gentle at the same time. He just loves Jesus. He loved life. He loved people, and he's probably the most confident and at the same time the most humble man that I've ever met. His name was Jim. Eventually, Jim moved down to Texas. And a few years after that, unfortunately, he passed away. And you would not believe just the outpouring of people not just from our own church but from all over the country like he was in the military, he moved around a lot. You would not believe how many lives had been impacted by the confident humility of this man. Here's the thing. He was never given an official position of authority or leadership in the church but that didn't stop that Christ-like authority from just flowing out of it. It was commanding. It was powerful, and it was inspiring. On the other hand, it wasn't anything what you would expect to find if you were looking at outward appearances alone. It was clearly the power of the Holy Spirit in a man whose life was fully submitted to Christ. These false apostles, they had been boasting and winning people over with their gifting, with their eloquence, with their outward appearances of worldly success and charisma, and none of those things are bad. They're just not, any of themselves, good evidence of the Holy Spirit's power. You can have all of those things, and you can even appear to be quite godly on the outside and still be way off the mark. Paul put it like this in his first letter to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 13:1, he says, "Listen, if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have and deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind, does not envy or boast. It's not arrogant or rude. It doesn't insist in its own way. It's not irritable or resentful, does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends." If you remember the story of King Saul in the Old Testament, he was described as a man who stood head and shoulders above everyone else. He was big. He was strong. He was handsome. He looks like a king. David, on the other hand, was the least of his brothers, the youngest, the smallest, the runt, the one that was easiest to overlook. And yet, Saul was a fool, but David is described as a man after God's own heart. Soul's strength eventually failed the nation, but David's faith toppled giants. And if you remember the Prophet Samuel in 1 Samuel, 16:7, he says this, he says, "Listen, the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." When you read the New Testament, you get the impression that Paul probably wasn't much to look at. If you saw him walk into the room, you might not think, "Oh, there's the guy that's going to change the world." You might not notice him much at all. Historians have actually... an early Christian document that gives one of the only physical descriptions of Paul. This is not in the Bible, so don't take this as scriptural gospel truth, but it was probably handed down through some oral tradition. In the Acts of Paul and Thecla, Onesiphorus describes Paul like this, he says, "He was a man of small stature, with a bald head and crooked legs, in a good state of body, with eyebrows meeting and nose somewhat hooked, full of friendliness. For now, he appeared like a man, and now he had the face of an angel." On the outside, he's just a man. On the inside, he was a man after God's own heart, who loved this church, whose heart was in beat, in rhythm with the heart of the Father and He cared for this prodigal son, this prodigal church as if it were his own child. And that brings us to point number two that Christ-like authority is expressed like a parent. 2 Corinthians 12, continuing in verse 13, Paul writes, "For in what were you less favored than the rest of the churches, except that I myself did not burden you? Forgive me this wrong. Here for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be a burden, for I seek not what is yours but you. For children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less? But granting that I myself did not burden you, I was crafty, you say, and got the better of you by deceit. Did I take advantage of you through any of those whom I sent to you? I urged Titus to go, and I sent the brother with him. Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not act in the same spirit? Did we not take the same steps?" Paul's authority over the church was parental. It was like that of a father over a son. And when you compare this to the false teachers, it shows us that Paul did something really important. That Paul avoided some of the biggest temptations that authority brings and that these false apostles had fallen for. Satan hates God's authority. And so, it should be no surprise that he would aim to twist and distort and tempt people to misuse their authority and does this in a couple of ways. Satan tempts us to misuse our authority by exploiting people through flattery. Secondly, by abandoning people through abdication and thirdly, by domineering people through coercion, and Paul avoided all of these things. First of all, Paul, he refused to exploit them through flattery. 2 Peter 2 warns that false prophets arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep." Earlier in his letter, Paul described the super-apostles as peddlers of the gospel. They were driven by greed, and they were twisting the truth in order to exploit the church. Paul, on the other hand, did not come to take. He had come to give. He says, he's not after their money, he was after their hearts and after their souls. 2 Corinthians 12:14 says, "I'll not be a burden for I seek not what is yours but you. For children are not obligated to save up for their parents but parents for their children, and I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?" And Paul's playing some 4D chess here. On the one hand, he's rebuking them, but he's rebuking them by reminding them of how much he loves them, of how much he is willing to sacrifice for them that he loved them with this parental fatherly love. What this meant was he was very patient. He was gentle. He was meek, and he was generous toward them. But it also meant that he refused to flatter them with false words. He wasn't just going to tell them what they wanted to hear. He loved them enough to speak the truth, to correct them, and when necessary even to rebuke and to discipline them. What's interesting is we see Paul express this same fatherly sentiment to another church, in another letter to another church. This time it's to a church that was in pretty good standing however. They were walking in obedience and faithfulness to Paul and to his gospel. And this is 1 Thessalonians 2:5-12, and look at the similarities here. He says, "For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed. God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. For you remember, brothers, our labors and toil. We worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we were proclaimed to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory." Because we nurtured you with the gentleness of a mother, and with the strength of a father, we pleaded with you. We exhorted you. We encouraged you. We charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God. It's the same heart for both of these churches, it's just these different circumstances. I think Paul would have much rather written to the Corinthians the same encouraging words that he wrote to the Thessalonians, but unfortunately the Corinthian church was in need of a lot more correction. And this brings us to the second and third temptation of authority which is how do you respond when people aren't responding to your authority? And typically, what happens is two things. First, we're tempted to abandon them through abdication and third, to domineer them through coercion. And I'm not going to say too much about point number two, but there is this temptation that when people are resistant, when things get hard, that we just write them off, just walk away and abdicate our authority and responsibility, and Paul doesn't do that. But the other temptation is to just flex the strong arm and to dominate your people into submission. It's like fight or flight kicks in. And the question is, how does Christ-like authority respond when people are insubordinate? When they need correction, or if they are rejecting your proper God-given authority? And what we see is that Paul doesn't run away from the problem, but he doesn't come to them as a tyrant. He doesn't come to them as judge, jury and executioner. He comes to them first as a father, father whose heart is broken and aching for a wayward child. And again, this is in contrast to the false teachers, because we know that the false teachers were exploiting the church. We also know they were domineering the church, and we saw this just a few weeks ago in Chapter 11. In 2 Corinthians 11:19, Paul says that, "You gladly bear with fools being wise yourselves. For you bear it if someone makes slaves of you," he's talking about these false teachers, "you bear it if someone makes slaves of you, or devours you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or even strikes you in the face. To my shame, I must say we were too weak for that." They'd been domineering the church. And Paul knew that there was sin in the church and he knows that it needs to be confronted, but he's not going to confront it by just rolling into town and smacking people around as tempting as that is to do sometimes. Paul understood that Christ doesn't call us to domineer people through threats, through violence, through coercion. 1 Peter 5:1-4 says, "I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you. Not for shameful gain, but eagerly. Not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." On the one hand, Paul doesn't want to domineer the church. On the other hand, he can't just remain passive and indifferent, that the sin that is at the root of all of this, it's tearing the church apart, and so something needs to be done. And so, he's preparing to visit them, to come to them again. But as he does, he's coming as a good father, as a father who loves them, but also as a father who's ready to discipline them if that's what they need, ready to exercise proper church discipline toward those who refuse to repent. And we really see his heart in this matter in the last few verses of our passage today. Continuing on in Chapter 12:19-21 says, "Have you been thinking all along that we've been defending ourselves to you? It's in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ, and all for your upbuilding, beloved. For I fear that perhaps when I come I may not find you as I wish, and that you may not find me as you wish. That perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder. I fear that when I come again my God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented of their impurity, sexual immorality, sensuality, and the sensuality that they have practiced. Paul's coming, and he's coming with a heart that's breaking. Because no father enjoys disciplining their children, and yet no loving father can neglect the discipline of their children either. He needs to be tough, but he desires to be tender. He needs to be gentle, but he also needs to be truthful. And we see this over and over again. 2 Corinthians 2, he wrote and said, "I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you." He instructed the Galatians in Chapter 6:1, "If anyone is caught in any transgression, that you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness." He taught his disciple, Timothy, 2 Timothy 2:24, that the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. And God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escaped from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will." That true love and discipline, they go together. That parental authority it is patient and it is gentle, but it's not apathetic or passive or indifferent. That it confronts sin precisely because it cares. Most people are familiar with the parable of the lost sheep, right? The shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep in order to go and to search and to save the one? Fewer people are familiar with Matthew 18, where Jesus gives the instructions for how to handle matters of church discipline. Very few people are familiar with the fact that those are actually the same passage but talking about the same thing. This is in Matthew 18:12-21. "What do you think," Jesus says. "If a man has 100 sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the 99 on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the 99 that never went astray. So, it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish." And then, immediately after that, he begins going into the instructions for church discipline. "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. And if he listens to you, you have gained your brother." He says, "If not, then you take two or three witnesses. If they still won't listen, you bring it before the whole church." But you get the idea that before giving the instructions for how to do church discipline, Jesus gives us the heart of why to do church discipline. It's a shepherd's heart. Luke's gospel actually includes two more parables. He talks about the parable of the lost sheep, but then he tells the parable of the lost coin. And he concludes with the parable of the lost son, the prodigal son that this series is named for. Paul is preparing to come as a father, and he's preparing to exercise church discipline if he needs to. He's doing that precisely because he loves this church so much. He understands that these people that are walking in unrepentant sin are in danger, that they need to be brought home. A lot of people have a hard time with this. I'm talking about church discipline, talking about correcting, rebuking, things like this. It's hard because it doesn't feel good, but a good parent is never content to merely see their child feel good. A loving parent longs more than anything for their child to be good and to do good. And deep down, I think we all long for this kind of leadership. We all look for this kind of authority to be exercised over us as well. I grew up in a church that was very good at the gentle, loving part. It was not so good at the speaking the truth in love part, the calling people to repentance and challenging them to grow apart. And so, on Wednesday nights, I would go to youth group as a teenager and from very well-meaning people, I would hear this message of, "You're special. You're great. God has a wonderful plan for your life," and I would walk away just confused. I'd feel self-righteous. I'd feel unchanged, unchallenged, and uninspired, which is boring as I didn't get it. If I'm so great, then why do I need to go to church? If I'm so great, why do I need a savior? And almost every other night of the week, my best friend and I would go to taekwondo. And the instructor, just picture like a shorter, much louder version of Jean-Claude Van Damme. He was amazing, but he would lose his voice almost every night just shouting instructions at us, running us through these drills, and he wasn't afraid to really push us to the very limits and the challenges. On our very first night there, he made me spar with him. And he kicked me in the face, and I'm not proud of this. This was the late '90s. At the time, I had just a few weeks before just gotten my eyebrow pierced. He kicked me right in the face, rips at half, and there's blood everywhere. He apologized. But then he's like, "Okay. Go clean yourself up, and get back out here because we're not done." And he worked us hard. But very early on, he made it clear that he cared about us as well. He worked us hard because he saw potential in us even if we didn't see it in ourselves, and he expected us to live up to that potential. Not just at the gym, at home, in our school. He was always asking us about our grades. "Are things going well at school? Are you staying out of trouble? Are you respecting your mom and dad?" And if he found out that we were slacking at school or we were getting in trouble at home, he would discipline us. We would be doing lunges and push-ups all night long, and he came to be this authority figure in my life that I really looked up to. He was firm. He taught me respect and discipline, but he wasn't domineering or coercive. I always knew that he genuinely cared about me as a person, and he was trying to get the best out of me as his student and it inspired me. It made me want to rise up to whatever challenge that he put before us, and it helped us to accomplish a lot more than we thought that we could. Now I shouldn't have had to go outside the church to find a good example of good authority to learn humility and confidence, respect, self-discipline, things like this. But by God's common grace, I found that and it did do some good in my life. Still, it would have been so much greater if his good authority had actually been a godly authority, not just one that taught me to follow him but one that taught me to follow Christ, to submit my life to the one who is truly worth following. That's really the chief end of what our authority is all about, to lead others to follow Jesus. Christ-like authority, on the surface, it might seem backwards. But when you see it in action, even if it's imperfect, you begin to realize that it's inspiring. It's actually surprisingly powerful and effective. And this brings us to point number three that Christ-like authority is foolish, but it's also effective. I had a friend who pretty early on in their career wound up with two bosses. It was like the movie Office Space, right, the TPS reports, all of that. And they had these two bosses and the two bosses were very different as people and in their leadership style. I'm going to call the first boss, give-a-second Boss Take. Take was all about getting stuff done, very impersonal. "Here's your work. Get it done. Is it done? Okay, here's some work. Tell me when it's done." And you pretty much only heard from them if they needed something or if something was going wrong. And when things went well, they would take all the credit for themselves. If things were going poorly, they would pass all the blame on to others. The other boss was Give, and Give was always investing in them, giving them advice, helping them plot out a career path, helping them build on their strengths, and pointing out their weaknesses so that they could work on those as well. And when things went well, they would share the credit with their team. If things went poorly, they would take responsibility themselves and then use that as opportunities to help their team develop and grow. Now, which of these two bosses do you suppose produce the best results? I mean, you don't have to think about it very long. It should be pretty obvious that the best results actually came from the leader who served, from the one who gave, who sacrificed what seemed like hours of their precious time investing into the people under their authority. When you have a boss that takes, you're only going to give. You're only going to put forth enough effort to keep them off your back or to make sure that you don't get fired. But when you have a boss that gives, you get excited to give yourself. You want to give your best. You want to work hard. You want to go the extra mile. And it's authority. It might seem backwards, but it's surprisingly effective. It's powerful. This is the leadership that was modeled by Jesus Christ, and so it was imparted to his disciples. And it's really it sparked a movement that completely transformed the world. The Empire, Rome, took the world by the power of the sword through coercion, and Jesus gave his life. He took the sword for the world, the Christianity won over the world through the power of the cross. On the one hand, 2,000 years later, one of those empires fell long ago and one is still standing and will never fall. Coercion can change people's actions, but only the love of Christ can change people's hearts. Cohesion can overpower an enemy, but the gospel can make an enemy into an ally, into a brother, into a friend. So, Paul was not afraid to exercise this self-sacrificing Christ-like authority because he knew that it was powerful. He knew that this had the power to transform this prodigal church. He knew that it had the power to transform the world, and he knew this because he'd already seen it transform something far more stubborn and rebellious. It had transformed his own prodigal heart. He talks about this in his letter to his disciples, Timothy. 1 Timothy 1, beginning of verse 12. He says this, "I thank Him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service. He's called me under his authority even though formally, I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with faith and love that are in Christ Jesus." He says, "The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me as the foremost, Christ Jesus might display His perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of all ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. As we think about these things, my prayer for us today is that we would all come to have the humility of Paul, to know just how patient and merciful and gracious Jesus Christ has been toward us so that we live our lives in just gratitude and obedience to Him. My prayer is also that we would come to have the confidence of Paul, to know that we have been called and we have been appointed into the service of the only God, of the king of all ages. That all authority in heaven on earth belongs to Jesus Christ, and he has sent us out in his name with his authority to preach the gospel and to make disciples of all the nations. And my prayer for us today is that the power of God would be made perfect in our weaknesses so that we, individually and together, as a church would have more and more reason to boast not in ourselves but to boast in the Lord, but to boast in his power and all that he has done in and through us as a church. I'm going to close today by reading the words that Paul wrote at the very beginning of his first letter to the Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians 1, beginning in verse 18, Paul writes this, "For the world of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us we're being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart. Where is the one who is wise? Where's the scribe? Where's the debater of this age? Has God not made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand sign and Greek seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, 'Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.'" Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your good authority over our lives. We pray that you would humble our hearts to teach us to fully submit to you and to walk in the confidence of knowing that we've been sent in the name of the one to whom all authority and the heaven and earth belongs. God, we thank you for saving us, for appointing us into your service, for bringing us under your authority. And we pray, Lord that you would keep us from the temptation that authority brings, that the authority we have would be used for your glory. Be faithful to you that in our faithfulness, it would produce a fruitfulness that we see your power at work. So that in our weakness, the power of Christ will be on full display. So, now to you, the king of all ages, immortal, invisible, the only God be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Christ's Power Manifested in Weakness
January 16, 2022 • Andy Hoot • 2 Corinthians 12:1–10
Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Good morning. Welcome to Mosaic. My name is Andy. I'm one of the pastors here, along with Pastor Jan and Pastor Shane. I'm filling in today for Pastor Jan. Pray for him. He is off getting equipped for the sake of our congregation, doing some doctoral work this week. Pastor Shane's going to fill in next week for him. If you are new to Mosaic, just want to plug right away before I forget, there's a lot of new faces here, or half faces, at least. We're pumped that you're here. The primary way to connect on a Sunday so that we know you're here, we know you want to get plugged in, is fill out a connection card. We have them in the worship guides in the lobby. You can grab one on the way out. If you fill one out, put it in and walk to the welcome center, hand it off, we will have a gift for you just for joining us, and if you give us your address, we will send you another gift just out of excitement that you're here worshiping with us. We want to get to know you. We want to connect you and pray for you if you have any concerns or needs. Today, I just want to point out we are having one service, so that's why it's a little tighter here today. We normally have 9:15 and 11:15 service. The temple has a member of their congregation passed this week, they're having a funeral. We are expected to be out of the building by 11:00 AM, so we just have this one service, and if you can help with tear-down in the lobby afterwards, feel free to do so. Essentially, everything in the lobby goes down the stairs to the right, and if there's trash in the pews, please take it out, and also, you can recycle the pens and the papers just by putting them on the tables out there. But today, we are continuing our study in the Book of 2 Corinthians. This is a series we're called Prodigal Church 2. We've been in here 16, I think this is the 17th week. We have two more weeks after this. This is a book with a lot of church doctrine, a lot of talk about just how the church would function. What is the role of a pastor? What is the role of a leader? What does that engagement between the community and the leader look like? Paul, the greatest Christian of Jesus Christ, the most influential Christian in history, wrote most of the New Testament. He's engaging at this point in the book with teachers who have come into the Corinth Church and who are questioning his authority. They're boasting in the fact that they have experienced less suffering than him. But last week, he talks about it's his weakness, the actual fact that he suffered for the sake of the gospel that proves his authority. Furthermore, today, he's entering into a topic of spiritual experiences. In this day, the false teacher would've thought, "This is the trump card. We have this over Paul, these experiences that we were bragging about in the community." Paul, you see, he says these experiences really don't matter and he gives us lessons about power, authority, what that looks like as a leader, what that looks like for an average Christian in Jesus Christ. Let me read today's sermon. It's going to be in 2 Corinthians 12:1-10, 2 Corinthians 12:1-10, and its primary focus is on God's power manifesting in weakness. 2 Corinthians 12:1-10. "I must go on boasting, for there is nothing to be gained by it. I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was called up to the third heaven. Whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know. God knows. I know that this was caught up into paradise. Whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know. God knows. He heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. On behalf of this, man, I will boast, but on my own behalf, I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. "Even if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth, but I refrain from it so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me, so to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord out this, that it should leave me, but He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power as made perfect and weakness.' Therefore, I'll boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I'm content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities, for when I am weak, then I am strong." This is the word of our Lord. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we praise You today that we get to worship You. Lord, You have purposes that You need to accomplish and I just admit right before You that I cannot do that in my own power. Holy Spirit, we pray. Come, do your work. Convict us where we need repentance. Poke us in the side. Give us a thorn if we need to be humbled. Lord, give us conviction to pursue You more faithfully in this season, in this year. Lord, let us leave here today with a desire to see Your power at work in us and with a greater appreciation of Your daily grace provided to us in our weakness. Holy Spirit, please guide us right now. Let us enjoy your presence. In Jesus' name, I pray. Two weeks have passed in January, so it's time to ask the question, how are you doing with your New Year's resolution? Have you made it this far, January 16th? Did you even make it a day? Have you made it this far, two weeks in, but you're so exhausted from structuring your life for two weeks to maintain it that you're afraid you're going to trail off this week? Me, this year, I formulated my New Year's resolution by thinking about Psalm 1: "Blessed is a man who walks not in the council of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his light is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night. He's like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither." I want to be that tree whose leaf does not wither this year. I don't know about you, but if 2022 is going to be anything like 2020, 2021, I want to get through it without withering, and just, if the season's going to continue, I have a five-year-old, I've got an 18-month-old, we have a third baby on the way, I'm going to need something more than my own strength. I'm feeling fatigue. I'm just looking, God, where is the gas going to come from? Not enough coffee, not enough effort, not enough sleep, not added hours of the day could help me with what's ahead. Just where are you as you approach this year? As I read this epic, well-known Scripture today, I can't emphasize can't help emphasize talking about power. Verse nine, the famous verse, "But You said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me." Power. I don't know about you, but historically, in my prayer life, I tend to pray in the language of advent: Lord, let me know Your love more. Lord, give me hope that You are here with me in this moment. Lord, let Your peace feel me and satisfy me. Let my heart rejoice in Jesus Christ. I haven't, throughout my life, talked much about power. I haven't asked for it. But if you're anything like me, we can't function like that. Power is a huge part of Christianity, right? We don't just believe in a God of kind sentiment, of comforting words, of interesting teachings. We believe in an all-powerful God. Jesus had the power to rise from the dead and conquer death once and for all for us that in Him, we might have salvation in eternal life. He has the power to forgive our sins and wash us clean and sanctify us. "The gospel," Roman says, "is the power of God and to salvation to the Jew first and also the Greek." There's a power when God's word is proclaimed. One of my favorite depictions of God's power is the kind of power that goes with God's kingdom when it enters into a person. Matthew 9:16-17, "No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth in an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled, then the skins are destroyed, but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved." What this is talking about is that when the kingdom of God Christ rule and reign enters into a person's heart by faith, it tears, it bubbles up, it bursts, it destroys all parts of the old man in a person that they might become new in Jesus. God's power, His rule, His desire is going to accomplish its effect. It's a matter of, will we let it or not? Will we fight it? How much will we fight it before submit and enjoy it and embrace it? My other favorite depiction of Christ's power comes from the book of 2 Corinthians, too. Chapter two, actually. It's a passage that we've been saying for weeks. 2 Corinthians 2:14-17 says, "But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere, for we Christians are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To one, a fragrance from death to death, to the other, a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity as commissioned by God and the side of God we speak in Christ." It's this idea of God always leads us in triumphal procession. It's this imagery of a glorious, powerful Christian life. What's this line, "triumphal procession," it goes back to the lavish parades and celebrations in ancient Rome that entered the city in the arches with the columns all around. The victorious generals arrived back after winning a battle, winning a war with their captives behind them. It's this image of celebration. When you watch the Super Bowl and you see Roger Goodell get booed and then hand the Super Bowl trophy off to the MVP of the winning team, the confetti's flying around. It's this imagery. Our life is one of triumphal procession. What normally happens in a triumphal procession, the general takes those captives back, and at the end when they get into the city, they just slaughter them. But in Christianity, God is a sovereign victor. Christ is our general. He takes us back as captives into His city, and instead of slaughtering us, He forgives us, He redeems us, and He gives us a sword. He commissions us to work for His kingdom, for His cause. All the power of His authority is at our backing and that's the life that we get to live in Jesus Christ, a life of power. The sovereign Creator of the universe calls us, He saves us in Christ, and He enlists us. Though I want to say this, there's power in that life, what's the power that we exhibit? For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved among those who are perishing. To one, a fragrance from death to death. He uses us as weak vessels, He calls us "jars of clay" later in Corinthians, to save people. When we go out in the Lord's power and preach His work, share His work, live out the gospel, He uses us to save people. It's an aroma of if that draws people in, God's soldier in. But also, there is failure. It's not just one of success after success after success. When we preach the word, we share it, there will be a rejection. When we share God's word, it's a fragrance from death to death. It just doesn't smell of life to others, and so God's purpose, when we have success in sharing the gospel, when we have failure, His purpose still goes forward, and so it's just mind-boggling to think about this is just a little small glimpse into just the powerful life of a Christian. It's a life of great purpose. I just ask, do you want a life of power? Do you want a life of purpose? That's what Paul brings us to today. He talks about just ways that we can experience God's power. I have three points today. To see God's power manifest in your life, remember the works of God, be realistic about God's discipline, let Christ's power rest on you. Remember the works of God. Before I read verses, I want to remind you that the author of our passage today, this is one of a guy who, before he was saved, he's one of the greatest persecutors of Christians. Jesus saves him and the Bible tells us that he went on to become just the writer of most of the New Testament. He walked thousands of miles, planting church after church and shepherding those communities and just incredible ministry, so his words are wisdom. He's a refined old man giving us the wisdom that he's attained over the years. He says, "I must go on boasting, though there is nothing to be gained by it. I'll go into visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was called up to the third heaven. Whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know. God knows. I know that this man was caught up into paradise. Whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know. God knows. He heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter." We're just tapping, hitting the surface of this passage, but here is primarily what's going on. Paul, he's talking about a time when he has been taken up into heaven. There's this confusing language where he talks about it in the third person, but every commentator says, "This is Paul." He also says, "I don't know if I was in the body or out of my body." The thing that he's trying to say is that "God did this thing in my life. God showed up. This is the first key to have in God's power. Come into your of life, acknowledging God showed up," so you have to be able to say, at some point, God came and did something in your life. You have to be able to retell of God's works in your life if you want to experience His power. If perhaps you can't do it, perhaps you don't truly have God in your life. Just throughout Scripture, there's this practice of recounting God's deeds, the prophets in days when it was just a barren harvest in their ministry, they recounted the wondrous deeds of God, His work in their life. Isaiah 63:7, "I recount the steadfast love of the Lord, the praises of the Lord according to all that the Lord has granted us, and the great goodness to the house of Israel that He has granted them according to His compassion, according to the abundance of His steadfast love." Psalm 77:11, it's all about recollection of God's power. It says, "I will remember the deeds of the Lord. Yes, I remember Your wonders of old. I will ponder all Your work and meditate on Your mighty deeds." You see, I grew up in the church for 23 years. I attended 99% of the weeks, even through college. I liked the community. I made good friends. I liked to study Jesus as a nice guy with these interesting counter-cultural teachings, but I never really understood my sin, my need for a savior. At the age of 23 here at Mosaic, it was the first time that as I studied the Scriptures, as Pastor Jan preached them, this understanding of God as this holy, all-powerful, all-knowing, infinite, eternal, unchangeable Creator, I could not have peace with Him, and I realized that before Him, I was but a lowly sinner. That's where I saw my need. I can only have peace with God by the work of Jesus Christ, who has the perfect record that I do not have, but died on the cross for me. You see, when you talk about God's power, it gives you hope for God's power. When you talk about God's power in the past, it gives you hope for God's power in your present. That's what the apostle Paul has shown us here, and so I ask, do you remember God's work in your life? Do you remember the hope that you experience the burden and guilt that was taken away when you first truly confessed your sins and received God's grace? What year did that happen? What day? Just what was your Bible-reading like in that season? Did you tear through chapter after chapter, book after book? Did you serve a lot? Did you go to every possible service that you could get to? I know some of you are in that right now. I remember in that season for me, I was that guy in the front of the congregation in a much smaller room, about one-tenth the size of this, I was in the front row, right in Pastor Jan's face. I couldn't get enough. I wanted to be there. I wanted to hear it. I wanted to feel it. There wouldn't be anybody close to me, they'd be five rows back, and just talking about it now, it inspires hope in me. It reminds me, Lord, You moved in my life profoundly then. You gave me the power to repent of sin and truly have victory over it. You took away that guilt and shame that weighed me down for ages. I had pain and trial in that season, yet You sent people, You sent friends, You sent church community. You gave me the perspective that I needed and You can do it now. I can have Your power today. How about you? Do you know God's power in the past? Does it excite you to think about it? Does it give you hope today that you can have that? Do you feel like it's awakening this desire, this movement in your life? Just one of the greatest enemies for Christians is just not feeling anything, and so Paul shows us recollect God's work. All of that vision, he says, "This was not me. I was taken up into heaven," and so think about those times when God, He grasped you, He seized you, He shook you. Let's read on. "To keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times, I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me." What's happening? Paul talks about having one of the greatest experiences of any human being to walk the Earth, probably the greatest of anyone who is still alive, and he's in heaven and he comes down to real life. God gives him this poke, this thorn. It's like going on a February vacation through tropical destination or Florida in mid-February and then coming back to Boston. Is this not real life? Is this not what the Christian life feels like sometimes? You have these high moments where the spirit of God's just coursing through your veins. You have such clarity, such focus of mission and vision, and then you come down. What happens to me in these his moments is I have a tendance to say, "Well, that's life. C'est la vie. Just got to take the good with the bad. If things can go wrong, they will go wrong." That's not how Paul responds. Paul is realistic about God's discipline. He doesn't just see this struggle, this torment that God exposes to him as something to just accept, to just ignore. Paul, in his wisdom, he's realistic about this. Paul, he says, "God did this. God is the one who is responsible for this. This isn't just how life goes. There is a purpose. There is a meaning. This was sent from my Creator, my Father," and so what God gives him, He gives him this, this pain, this prick, this thorn that he receives, and he gives God credit. How many of you are just going up and down in your spiritual life and when the bad comes, you just ignore it, you shed it off, you don't view it as part of something that God could be bringing to your life for His purpose, for His redeeming purposes, for your growth? A lot of debate goes into what the thorn was. A lot of the theologians list out the options, but all of them say we can't fully know. What can we know? It was a pain. It was really irritating to Paul. I think this time of year, like the little cracks, the cuts that you get on your fingertips by your fingernails, in the dry, cold weather, those are the worst. The thing about them is that this little tiny cut, this little tiny prick puts a damper on your whole day. My son had this huge one on his fingernail. The whole family was feeling pain for all of December while this thing was healing and opening up and closing. That's what this thorn was like. This thorn was a pain and Paul probably viewed it as it limited his ability to do ministry well. But what's the purpose of this thorn? What's the purpose of God giving him that experience? It's to weaken Paul in order to humble him. The text makes it really clear that it's not to punish him, but to train him. This is the discipline of God, the Father. He's working out our sanctification, our growth and holiness so that we might be able to wield more of his power and his authority. Hebrews 12 talks about, five and six, "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by Him, for the Lord disciplines the one He loves and chastises every son whom He receives." This isn't God punishing him, it's God purifying him. It's not God torturing him, it's not God training him. This is not God torturing us, it's training us. We need, in order to experience His power, to wield His power, to be faithful stewards of it, we need to experience His discipline. The only time that we can actually do such training is when we are at our weakness. Think about it. Are you open to lessons when things are going well? Do you have ears to listen to God when things are smooth sailing? Do you want to hear your elders, your parents when things are going well? No, of course not. This is one of the hardest parts of discipleship in the church. You have a lot of young people, and I'm still kind of young, but I'm a little older than a majority of our congregation, you have a lot of people asking for discipleship and you provide it and it doesn't look like what they want and they don't receive it. It's only when there's falls, when the foundations are being shaking, when we're weak and when our weakness is exposed, our strength appears to be limited, that we are in a position to learn, to hear from God, to hear from His people. Thorns get our attention. When we can't shake them, when we can't in our own strength, just overcome them, we have nowhere else to go but down on our knees in prayer. God brings us to our knees intentionally to get our attention. The thorn forces us to relinquish every lofty thought, every high thinking that we have, form of thinking that we have about ourselves and our own strength. It brings us to the point of humility to ask for His help. Without this experience, we started thinking that we are strong, we're strong enough without God. We're here in positions of esteem. We have success in life and ministry apart from God. We can obtain power and wield it without Him, handle it without Him. That's what pride is. That's a sin. That's as filthy as any rebellious sin. We need to repent of that. God wants to keep us. He gives us these thorns because He wants to keep us from being conceded. He does everything He can to squeeze out, tear up, bubble out parts of our identity that lead us to think that we can get by without Him. Now, we don't know what Paul's thorn was, but we do know that he talked to God about it, and he really wanted God to take it away. I just want to point out, Paul actually took it to God in prayer. I don't know about you, but sometimes when I am unhappy with the direction of things, when I know I've got this struggle, I've got this prick, I've got this thing that I think is holding me up from accomplishing what I want, I don't like to take it to God because I know what his response is going to be. I don't like to take it to other Christian people because they're going to tell me to consider God's daily grace, to consider his sovereign purposes in the moment. Paul does that. We should follow him in that. We should not look and seek pain. We should ask the Lord to remove it. But the Lord didn't take it away. What is your thorn? What's that thing that you want God to take away? What's the thing that you're bringing to God in prayer and asking Him constantly to take away? Have you paused and say, "Lord, what are You teaching me through this? How are You humbling me through this? How am I growing through this? Lord, please show me, and please take it away," you can still keep asking. Paul, he continues, but first night he said, "I asked God to take it away from me, but He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'" Paul teaches us that in the Christian life, power is found where we least expect it, right? It's like my son, we bought the children a little kitchen for Christmas. I found my wallet in the microwave of this little kitchen. We find the riches of this life, we find the power most often in the spaces where we wouldn't think to find it. That's Christianity. That's the heart of Christianity right there, the most painstaking, most excruciating moment in history, Christ, the Righteous One's death on the cross is the means for our salvation. The Lord uses Christ weakness that we might spend the eternal glory with Him and we get to experience the richness of His love and grace and mercy. Christianity, that's the way of Christ. We might ask, why? Is there any other way that God could work? Why can't he teach just these lessons? Apparently, there's not. It's in weakness that you'll find that your power is limited. It's in weakness that Christ, we are forced to trust God more, to trust Christ more. When you get this, when you understand that Christ's power has daily grace for you. What's that mean? His daily provision. We're called to live one day at a time. Boston, a lot of type A, a lot of planners. You have to really accept this to have peace in the Christian life, to enjoy God's power. He's going to provide it for you one day at a time and it's going to satisfy. He's going to give you what you need. He's not going to call you to a trial or temptation that you cannot endure in His power, that you cannot steward faithfully. In these moments of weakness, we're forced to look to Him. When you get this, you're prepared for anything. Like a madman, kind of like Paul, you do open your mind to step into positions of weakness for sin. "For the sake of Christ, then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities, for when I am weak, then I am strong." As my children grow up, this is what I want them to get from my life. I know I'm not going to be the best example. I'm not going to be perfect. I'm going to model for them God's grace and just show them my daily need for it. But really, what I want them to see is that I took God for His word. He said, "Step out into weakness and let me act." That's any preacher of the gospel. They're not up there in their own strength. If you ever suspect that, you confront them on it. Every time we share the gospel, we're not stepping out in our own power, we're stepping out in the power of our Creator, our Lord, the sovereign ruler of the universe. Actually, when we understand it, we should understand our need for thorns. We can face anything known that He is with us. He is working for us. No power of Satan, our flesh, the world can withstand His power, and so we can accept His ways. It's kind of, we think, "He's a madman." We think, "Why do good people suffer?" We can fight it and fall into bitterness, fall into frustration and anger, but His purposes, His power, His rule and reign, it's still going to play out, and His cause is going to go forward, so we can accept his ways or we can resist it. We experience true peace in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, calamities when we take Him for His word, that He's there with us, and that His ways are better than our ways, and that His grace is sufficient. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we praise You for Your wisdom. Lord, You construct our lives. You have garnered our salvation in just a way that we could not have imagined it through the death of Your only begotten Son with You for all of eternity. Before He took on flesh, You gave Him that we might have eternal life with You, that one day we might enter into paradise, that when You make the world and the heavens anew, we can experience a bliss similar to what Paul experienced. Lord, as we await Jesus' return, let us be people who just humbly just walk in power. Give a strong remembrance of the moments that You moved and it was just like we were watching a movie. Lord, we pray. Let us see Your discipline with realism. Let us not turn aside from such moments, but look to You and see what You're teaching us, see the ways that we need to be humbled in such seasons, and Lord, just when we are at our wits, Lord, let Your grace be sufficient for us. Let the world see us stepping out in our weakness, let them see Your power first and foremost, working through us. Lord, we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
Through Many Tribulations
January 9, 2022 • Jan Vezikov • 1 Corinthians 11:16–33
Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Good morning, welcome to Mosaic Church. My name is Jan, one of the pastors here along with Pastor Shane and Pastor Andy. If you're new or visiting, we're so glad you're here with us. I pray that you get connected. We do that officially through the connection card and the worship card if you fill out legibly. Just redeem it at the welcome center for a little gift. And then we'll also send you another gift in the mail. A couple housekeeping things. The 16th, next Sunday, we have a baptism seminar. If you have not been baptized as an adult and you'd like to know more, it's right after the service with lunch provided. And then on the 23rd, we have a membership class. We take membership seriously. Church is a family, membership is how we know that you are in the family that is Mosaic Boston. We also have a baptism today. My daughter, Melana, she's four, she's really excited about the baptism. She came up to me yesterday, I had no idea what she was talking about, she's like, "When's the next time you're going to dunk a person in the bathtub with their clothes on?" Had no idea what she was talking about. She said, "Baptism." I told her, "There's baptism tomorrow." She's like, "Yeah." So, we have baptism after the second service. We'd love to have you join us. Also, every time it snows for the first time, I give a public service announcement about how to flourish in Boston in the winter. This is important. I don't see anyone else doing this, this is important. Here's what you need, three things to flourish in Boston in the winter. Number one, you need a nice pair of waterproof boots. Necessary, very necessary, with good grip on them, very important. Number two, you need a good winter coat, preferably with a coat that has a little fuzzy trim, which keeps the wind out. That's important. Number three, you got to take your vitamin D. You got to take your vitamin D. I don't know why, I have to say this. None of the government officials who are supposed to care about our health, for the past two and a half years, no one's talking about this. Take your vitamin D. There's not enough sunshine in Boston, take your vitamin D. And take care of your immune system. God gave you an immune system. Work out, eat good food not the processed junk. Okay, that's my public service announcement. With that said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's holy Word? Heavenly Father, thank you for this incredible word that you have prepared for us from your servant, Paul. We thank you for his personal example of being willing to sacrifice everything, go through whatever suffering to get the message out, to get the message to your elect. I pray you use us in the same way. Make us a people who no matter what the sacrifice, no matter what the suffering, we're willing to go through it because there's nothing more important than building your kingdom, than helping people be transferred from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of your beloved Son. And make us a people who are strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Strengthen us, strengthen us in every aspect of our life so when the time comes to sacrifice we have more to sacrifice and we can endure more suffering. We pray that you bless the preaching of the holy word, and I pray deep in our hearts, give us a true realization, the preeminence of Christ, that there's nothing greater than Christ. I pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen. We're in 2 Corinthians 11:16-33 today. We're continuing our Prodigal Church season two series. A few more sermons left in this series. The title of the sermon today is Through Many Tribulations. The early church understood that when you get saved, you get saved to a life of following Jesus Christ, and that life includes tribulations. Acts 14:21-22, this is where that text comes from, "When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith and saying, 'Through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God.'" As we look at what's going on in the world, one of the things that I'm praying about the Lord deepening in our body is a sense of discernment, to discern what's true and to discern what's evil, what's false, what's lies. And this is what St. Paul does in this letter, in the second part of the letter, he wants to deepen a discernment in the people of God to know, to know when they are being bamboozled. When we ask the question, "What in the world is going on?" you got to ask a few timeless, helpful questions, and this comes from ancient philosophers. The questions that come from Latin, cui bono? cui bono? Who benefits? Who's responsible for a certain event in any crime investigation or in politics, in any event? There's a high probability that it's the person standing to gain the most from it. Cui bono? Who benefits? The second one is an extension of the first is, cui prodest, who profits? We know the term, "Follow the money." It was first used by Roman philosopher, Seneca the Younger in this play Madea, were Madea says to Jason, "Cui who gains by a crime committed it." And then que malo is who suffers? Used in conjunction with que bono and que prodest, you figure out who will benefit and who will suffer as a result of a certain action. And this one who suffers is crucial to discerning in particular the motivations of our leaders. Because Jesus Christ talked about leadership. He said, "Whoever wants to be the greatest among you has to be the greatest servant." Meaning whoever wants to lead the people has to be willing to suffer the most. These are questions that are helpful of discerning a person's motivations. Why does a person do what they do? Why do you do what you do? What drives you? What motivates you? I'm not talking about hypothetically, theoretically. If you're a Christian, what motivates you, not what should motivate you? What does today, what does in the season of your life, what motivates you? If you're not a Christian, what motivates you? And will it matter in five years? Will it matter in 10 years, 20, 30? Will it matter from the perspective of eternity? These are all things we're wrestling with here from 2 Corinthians, 11:16-33. Would you look at the text with me? "I repeat, let no one think me foolish. But even if you do, accept me as a fool so that I too may boast a little. What I am saying with this boastful confidence, I say not with the Lord's authority, but as a fool. Since many boast according to the flesh, I too will boast." By the way, Saint Paul makes a lot more sense if you imagine him as an Italian. It just makes so much more sense. "What I'm saying with this boastful confidence, I say not with the Lord's authority, but as a fool. Since many boast according to the flesh, I too will boast. For you gladly bear with fools, being wise yourselves. For you bear if someone makes slaves of you, or devours you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or strikes you in the face. To my shame, I must say, we were too weak for that. But whatever anyone else dares to boast of, I'm speaking as a fool, I also dare to boast of that. "Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one. I'm talking like a madman, with far greater laborers, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the 40 lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys; and danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea danger, from false brothers, in toil and hardship through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is a daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I'm not indignant? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed forever, knows that I'm not lying. At Damascus, the governor under King Aretas was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me, but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his hands." This is a reading of God's holy and infallible, authoritative Word. May you write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame up our time. First, beware leaders who sacrificed other for self. I know it's beware of leaders, but be beware leaders sounds more ominous. Follow leaders who sacrifice self for Christ, and then emulate leaders who decrease so Christ increases. First, be aware leaders who sacrifice others for self. In the second part of the letter, Saint Paul is battling for the very soul of the Corinthian church. He's battling against false teachers. The people aren't Christians. He says earlier in the text that they're actually Satan's servants, doing everything they can to pull people away from Christ. They can't pull people away from Christ. Satan and these servants try to do everything to keep the people of God from faithfulness, which is the key to usefulness. The lesson learned in this text, they don't just apply to spiritual leaders. These lessons that we draw from the text, they apply to all leaders, anyone who you follow, anyone who you listen to, anyone who you obey, anyone who influences how you live on a day to day, who influences the decisions we make. What he's saying here is, "Beware. Beware of blind obedience to authority just because they're authority figures." And the context, this 2 Corinthians 11:13-15, "For such men are false apostles, deceitful workman, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguised himself as an angel of life. So it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds." See, the thing with Satan is he's in it for himself. He doesn't want to obey anyone. He doesn't want to take commands from God. Satan's servants, willing or unwilling, these same servants are in it for themselves just like Satan. What does Satan promise Eve and Adam at the very beginning? He promises them life without God. He says, "You'll be like God, meaning you can decide for yourself what's good and what's evil, what's right and what's wrong." These so-called super apostles came into the church after Paul left, and they started building a following boasting about their credentials, their worldly credentials. And St. Paul here answers those boasts. He answers those super false apostles. 2 Corinthians 11:16, "I repeat, let no one think me foolish. But even if you do, accept me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little." What Paul is about to do is he's about to attack the very heart of the power of the false apostles. He's going to dismantle their authority with his own "foolish boasting". Because the problem was the Corinthian church had become enamored with the idol of sophistication. The false teacher said, "Hey, Paul's not here, let's build up the church." And these people who are educated probably in Old Testament scripture, probably have even doctorates from Jerusalem, they're looking for a job and they come in, "Oh, here's some religious people. Let's make this a job. Oh, let's reach some more people. Yeah, Paul's tactics, they don't work in reaching the masses. Let's soften the gospel. Let's not talk so much about sin. We're in Corinth. Let's not talk about gender. Let's not talk about sexual boundaries. Let's not talk about marriage is one man one woman. Let's not talk about any of that. Let's just talk about that God loves you and He has a tremendous plan for your life to live any way that you want," which is coincidentally the plan of Satan. "Let's not overly focus on scripture. Let's meet people where they are. Let's present the message in a more sophisticated way where it doesn't really touch people's lives but they walk away like they got some kind of spiritual teaching." In Roman culture, they valued strength and success. So these false teachers boasted in their worldly wins, their credentials, their speaking fees, their influence, their following, their commendation and letters of recommendation. And Paul isn't about to boast in his wins, he's about to boast in his Ls, his losses. He's about to present a catalog of suffering. He uses the same rhetorical technique that his enemies used with one difference, he flips it on its head. He does the upside down of what they were doing just to show how foolish it is to say, "I've come to tell you about God, how great God is," and the whole time you're talking about how great you are. 2 Corinthians 11:17, "What I'm saying with this boastful confidence, I say not as the Lord would but as a fool." Now, this is a challenging verse, and this is really important to understand the question that's raised by godless, pagan, biblical scholars. They used this verse to build a case that Paul didn't write scripture. Therefore, we don't have to listen to Paul. Which is false. And we have another apostle who knew Jesus before Paul knew Jesus, Peter in 2 Peter 3:14-18 talking about Paul. "Therefore, beloved, since you were waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the patients of our Lord at salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matter. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures." What does he call the writings that Paul Graphe, he calls them scriptures. "You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the era of lawless people, lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now until the day of eternity. Amen." So this was scripture. So what does verse 17 mean when he says, "Look, I say not as the Lord would, but as a fool."? What he's revealing is this internal battle with the Holy Spirit. As he's writing, he knows that the Holy Spirit is flowing through him. He knows these words aren't his. He knows these ideas aren't his. He's just a vessel of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's writing through him. And the Holy Spirit gets to this verse and He's like, "Paul, this is what you're about to do. Write it." And Paul says, "No, Lord, I don't want to boast." And the Holy Spirit says, "Write it." And it pained Paul to do this because he didn't see an example of this kind of boasting from Jesus Christ. Yet, God tells Paul to do it. Paul wanted to imitate Christ in everything. Twice in the epistles of Corinthians he says, "Imitate me as I imitate Christ." But sometimes, to battle Satan's most effective strategies you must reveal how foolish these strategies are by employing the same technique just upside down. He doesn't want to fight them on their own terms, but he has to because God said so. Do we have an example of Jesus debating people in power? Yes, of course we do. But when it counted the most, Jesus Christ did not answer His accusers. 1 Peter 2:23, "When He was reviled, He had not reviled in return. When He suffered, He did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to Him who judges justly." Jesus didn't defend Himself when He stood before Pilate or Caiphus, unjustly accused, on purpose. Why? Because He was here to fulfill a very particular mission, and that mission was to die for the sins of the whole world. It had to be this way. Paul, and us sometimes, are forced to honestly, reasonably, fairly defend ourselves sometimes for the preservation of the truth. When this happens, we're not happy about it. Paul's so humble, he has no desire to defend himself. He's not doing it for himself, he's doing it for the benefit of the Corinthian church. He's so reluctant to boast even in suffering because he hates it. He resents it. But he must do it to expose just how foolish these false teachers are. Proverbs 26 is really helpful to discern what's going on in this text, verse four and five, "Answer not a fool according to his folly lest you be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes." So which one is it? Do I answer the fool, or do I not answer the fool? There's a lot of fools around me. Am I answering the fools? And he says, "There's two ways of dealing with a fool. First, ignore, rise above the fray, refuse to condescend to the level. But second, sometimes you got to answer the fool according to his folly. But do it better than they did." And Paul, he'd much rather talk about Jesus. However, since the false teachers waged personal attacks, he defends his integrity while simultaneously undermining their influence. And also, through this, he shepherds the church and teaches them how to develop discernment. Verse 18, "Since many boast according to the flesh, I too will boast. For you gladly bear with fools being wise yourselves." Now here St. Paul brings in a little sarcasm because sarcasm often is powerful. He's a big shot, super apostles. He's boasting in the worldly accomplishments. Paul had more. But they didn't know God. And they didn't know the wisdom of God. They didn't know the gospel of God. We learned earlier in the text they were preaching a different Jesus with a different spirit, with a different gospel, thinking themselves to be wise. They were fools. They present themselves as philosophers and theologians, but they didn't know God. And then Paul brings in this phrase, "being wise yourself", this biting sarcasm. Sarcasm is basically saying the opposite of what's true. What he's saying is, "Well, aren't you something? Aren't you guys so smart? I left you guys, and you are so intelligent, you are so educated that you put up with these fools. The Corinthian church thinking themselves wise were acting foolishly, and Paul publicly calls out folly when necessary. "You're saying you're so smart. You put up with fools while they exploit you and they plunder you." Verse 20, "For you bear if someone makes slaves of you or devours you or takes advantage of you or puts on airs or strikes you in the face. To my shame, I must say, we were too weak for that." The sophists and itinerant philosophers and teachers of that day were known for taking advantage of people who were less informed, less educated. And what did they do? They had the same goal in mind as Satan does, they wanted to enslave people to man-made rules. "Here's my rules, follow them." To devour them financially, to extort, to exploit, to take advantage of them using not love but entrapment, using them not loving them. The phrase "put on airs" here is these are people who push themselves forward, lifting themselves up as they push everyone else down. "Strikes you in the face," he says. Is this just humiliation, where you strike someone in the face with verbal abuse? Or is this physical abuse? Well, there are examples in the early church that these false teachers did abuse people physically. They brought that in from their understanding in Jerusalem. St. Paul later talks about the lashes that he got. He was physical abused, to dominate to humiliate. Cultish behavior. It's all typical behavior of Satan servants. They're like leaches, suck life out of the victim. This is tyranny. That's what he's addressing here. Jesus never taught us to accept that tyranny is anything other than sin. Yes, he taught us to turn the other cheek, but turn the other cheek has nothing to do with physical abuse. Turn the other cheek has to do with being willing to forgive a person who has abused you. So if you are being physically abused, it is not our duty to remain in a position where we are physically abused. Scripture teaches against that. Paul never intended to make disciples of themselves, only disciples of Jesus. And the enemies of the gospel always seek to make disciples of themselves with the intention of enslaving. Verse 21, Paul says, "To my shame, I must say we were too weak for that." Too weak for what? He said, "We were too weak to take advantage of you." Obviously, he's saying, "We didn't take advantage of you on purpose. And these people are coming in, they take our kindness as a sign of weakness." He said, "Whatever anyone else dares to boast of, I'm speaking of as a fool. I also dare to boast of that." What he's saying is in effect, "These people took advantage of you. We could have if we wanted to. We didn't. I was too weak to enslave anyone," he was basically saying, "devour your resources and abuse you." Scripture often talks about this understanding of spiritual authority as service not domination. 1 Peter 5:1-5, "So I exhort the elders among you, the pastors, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ," the apostle Peter says, "as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed. Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not dominating over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility under one another, for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Matthew 20:25-28, the words of Jesus Christ, "But Jesus called them to Him and said, 'You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. "Beware leaders that sacrifice others for themselves," Jesus says. No, the true leaders, spiritual leaders, and any true leaders, these are foundational keys to leadership. You lead by service. You lead sacrifice. And this is point two, follow leaders who sacrifice self for Christ. And 2 Corinthians 11:22, "Are they Hebrews?" So Paul here now is giving us his resume. "Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I." The false teachers made a big deal of their authentic Jewish background, their pedigree. They knew the Hebrew language. So they were religious, they knew the Old Testaments scriptures. Israelites. They brought in the theocratic name of God. This is Israel. And they are offspring of Abraham that they would inherit the messianic king. Paul is a disciple of Gamaliel. He's a Pharisee of Pharisees. He played the same card just better. He had the right ethnic, religious, educational background. He gives us this in Philippians 3:3-11. "For we are the circumcision, we worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, of Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. "But whatever gain I had, I counted as lost for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I've suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead." He continues in 2 Corinthians 11:23, "Are they servants of Christ? I'm a better one. I'm talking like a madman," he knows this, this is nuts what he's doing, "with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, countless beatings, and often near death." You see that switch, you see what he's doing? "I am a great servant of Christ." And right here he could have talked about his greatness. He could have talked about how many people became Christians through his ministry, how many churches he planted, how many political figures he spoke truth to. He could have done all... how many miracles God's done through him? "No, because I'm a better servant of Christ, now let me tell you about how much I've sacrificed: greater labors, more imprisonments, countless beatings, and often near death." Here, this isn't hyperbolic. He's giving us a true list of his sufferings. The Apostle Paul here elaborates on how much he has sacrificed for the name of Jesus Christ and the mission of Christ. The false teachers came in, they said, "You're following that guy? The hand of God is not on that guy. Obviously, God has cursed that guy, look how much pain He's gone through. If God blesses a person, if God's hand is upon a person, they're rich, and they're healthy, and they're good looking, and they never have any suffering. They never have suffering." Saint Paul says, "No that's wrong." He didn't view suffering as a curse from God, he viewed suffering as an honor, as a blessing from the Lord. That's a gift from God. Also, Paul, he is a smart guy, and the deeper you study, the more you swim in the waters of Paul's writings, you realize just how intelligent he was and how the Holy spirit's using him. The false prophets came into the church for real profits. They didn't come to the church to help the people, they came to the church to make money. And they called Paul a hack who didn't charge a speaking fee because no one would pay even if he charged. That was the accusation. And Paul says, "You want my invoice? You want to know how much you cost me? I'll give you my invoice. I'll give it to you." I've got lots of stories about my daughter. One of my daughters, I won't say, she gave me three coupons for Christmas for 15-minute massages. It was nice. It's nice. And I've got the gong thing, the T.J. Maxx version. And I got this little spikey thing that you go put in your head and you're like, "Whoa." And then she did it for 10 minutes yesterday. She's like, "You got 35 minutes left." Which is funny to me. Imagine if she was an infant and I was like, "All right, I changed your diaper once. You got two more changes left." Do you want my invoice of what it took to get you here? That's why he finds this so ludicrous. So as you read this, you got to ask what drove St. Paul to make these sacrifices. Verse 24, "Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the 40 lashes less one." The 40 lashes was the maximum allowed by the law of Moses, and the Jewish authorities of that day said, "Let's do 39," using the rabbinical principle of fencing the law so that even if you miscount, you don't go over 40. So 39, 40 minus one. So 195 times he was whipped. Was it just leather straps? We're not told. When Jesus was whipped, it wasn't just leather straps. It was leather straps, a little pieces of sharp bone at the inner rock to tear his flesh off. 195 times. Most likely, his whole back was covered in lacerations. 2 Corinthians 11:25, "Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and the day I was a drift at sea." The rods were the Roman form of beating. Paul was beaten both by the Jewish and Roman authorities. Though, he was a Roman citizen, he should have been legally protected from the physical beatings. But the local petty tyrants didn't always obey their own laws. And St. Paul did appeal to Caesar. He said, "What you're doing here is wrong." He did fight unwarranted tyranny. He spoke up against it. The beatings and lashings weren't just painful but meant to humiliate, to dishonor. Paul here boast on something that was extremely humiliating, but he doesn't mind doing it because he doesn't esteem the opinion of people that much, because he esteems the opinion of God infinitely more, is infinitely more precious. He continues, verse 26, "On frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, and danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, and danger from false brothers." In the Roman empire, because of the Pax Romana, the Roman Peace, they built tremendous roads, transportation infrastructure that sprawled all around the empire, and they had thousands of ships sailing. You could travel to most parts of the Roman empire, although accessible, the travel wasn't easy. St. Paul suffered much, especially because he had such a controversial message. Anywhere he went, he would just share the gospel. In 2 Corinthians 11:27, "In toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure." Paul poured himself out in every single way imaginable on behalf of the gospel. He left nothing in his tank. He left everything on the field. 2 Corinthians 11:28, "Apart from other things, there's a daily pressure on me of my anxiety for the churches." He just described a catalog, a litany of suffering that any one single predicament of these that he mentioned, any one of them would cause most modern Christians to throw up their hands and quit in despair and say, "No, no, no, no, no, this is not worth it. This whole Christian thing isn't worth it. Right, you said that all I have to do is repent all my sins and I go to eternity. I did not sign up for a life of suffering." Well, that's because the American church has been preaching a half gospel for decades. "You come to Jesus, all your sins are forgiven." Yeah, you come to Jesus, all your sins are forgiven. That's awesome. But now you're a servant of God, and God gets to tell you what to do. God gets to call you wherever God wants to call you. God gets to create a plan for you because He's God. And the only thing that you are allowed to say, dear Christians, is "Yes, sir. Yes, sir, where would you send me, Lord? How much do you want me to sacrifice, Lord? I'm all in." None of this, "No, I'm just going to live a comfortable life." And do nothing. Satan's servants has crept into the American church to make us flacid, just to do nothing for the Lord, nothing of consequence. Paul said, "Apart from all of this apart." You're like, "Yeah, I've been through some stuff." And the whole time he says, "I've had the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for the role the churches." Instead of despairing, Paul emerges victorious because he knew if God has allowed this suffering to happen in my life, He has a purpose for the suffering, to spread the gospel, to expand the kingdom of God. He suffered physically. He also suffered emotionally and spiritually. This is the concern for the church, for all the churches. Pastors know this. Spiritual leaders know this. It's a spiritual anxiety. In Philippians 4, he says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, present your request to God." Don't be anxious about the wrong things. Do be anxious about the right things. We should be anxious about the health of our souls. We should be anxious about the health of the souls of our loved ones. We should experience the spiritual anxiety, this heartache for the souls of the people around us. And Paul did. He was concerned with both the church planting and church vibrancy, starting churches, but then growing them in healthy maturity. Verse 29, "Who is weak, and I'm not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?" I spent all week trying to figure out what he means by the word weak. He calls himself weak here, and then in verse 30, we'll get to it. He just gave us a list of stuff that any half verse would kill most any one of us. He calls himself weak. Here he says, "Who is weak? And I'm not weak." Here he's talking about empathy. He says, "When people that he led to the Lord are weak in their faith, when they're suffering, he suffers." This is called empathy. When you feel the pain of other people, this is empathy. Is it weak to experience empathy? Is it weak to experience empathy? No, it's not. It takes an incredible strength to experience empathy, to empathize with another person in their suffering. And the more people under your care, the more strength you need to empathize with every single one of them. More strength you need to bear the weight of a beloved person's suffering. When people suffered, he suffered. And the second phrase is, "Who is made to fall? And I'm not indignant." It literally reads, "Who is entrapped into sin, and I do not burn?" When people fell from the faith, when they sinned, Paul burned with indignation for their souls. I wonder as you read this list, do you have a resume or a catalog of suffering or sacrifice for the Lord? Every faithful Christian should. Like if need be, to make a list of how much you've suffered for the Lord. Because every Christian knows that because Jesus Christ sacrificed Himself for me, He calls me to sacrifice myself for Him. You should have a catalog of suffering. You will have a catalog of suffering. If you continue to faithfully follow Jesus Christ and say yes to every single one of His commandments, you will grow this list, this resume. Every Christian will. In particular, in the time that we live. We need to be wide awake and know that persecution might be around the corner for Christians. It already is in many parts of the world. We need to be ready. Three is, "Emulate leaders who decrease so Christ increases." This phrase comes from John the Baptist. John the baptized from John 3:30 says, "He must increase, I must decrease." John was losing his disciples to Jesus Christ. And one of his disciples said, "Aren't you worried that Jesus is going to have a bigger following then you? He's like, "No. I came to point everyone to Jesus Christ. I don't care about my following. I don't care about my platform. He must increase, I must decrease. 2 Corinthians 11:30, Paul says, "If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness." Paul knew that when he is weakest Christ is strongest. When he is weakest, he can't but trust in the strength of Jesus Christ. He knew he couldn't do a thing for the Lord without the Lord's power. 2 Corinthians 3:5, "Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God. Our power comes from God." This verse I have to deal with just a little bit, because I've been wrestling all week, "What in the world does he mean by showing my weakness?" In particular, in the context, the guy got beaten how many lashes? 195. Three times beaten by rods, shipwrecked a night and a day in sea, cold, exposure. So how are you not dead, bro? That's my question. That's my question. How did you get out of this thing alive? That's my question. Obviously God. Obviously God. Obviously God. But scripture nowhere doesn't say, "Hey, hey, Christians, be strong in the Lord and the strength of His might and never do anything in your life to get stronger. Remain weak. Hey, Christians, remain weak spiritually, remain weak physically, remain weak financially, remain weak, remain weak, remain... " Do you see that in the Bible? That's nowhere in the Bible. So what does he mean by weakness? Well, it's a spectrum, right? The weakness and strength is a spectrum, and every single person, they're in a different range on the spectrum. If you lift, which you should, every Christian should be as strong as you possibly can in health wise, immune system, it's good for you. You should lift. And when you have an off day in the gym, like that off day is different for different people. I've lifted with people and they're like, Yeah, I feel really sluggish today. I've been sick for like four weeks, and I barely got out of bed." And then they put on four plates on each side, the big ones. The weakness is different for people. And the stronger you are, the stronger your weakness is. And, and this is important because in the context, what is Paul doing here? What did we start off with? He's engaging. He's doing battle with the false teachers, the servants of Satan. He's going to war with them, and he clearly wins. After this argument, he gets clear that he won. So he's using his weakness as a way to overcome his enemies. This is really important. It's really important because I do believe that there's an attack on the church today. The attack is coming from everywhere, and it's on all humans, but it's on the church in particular. The attack comes through a lie through the narrative that Christians should be weak by definition. "Oh, you're a Christian, you should be weak in every aspect of life." We should be weak physically, financially, socially, relationally, intellectually, educationally, spiritually. Weak, Christians should be weak. Should Christians be weak? No. No. Is it okay for a Christian to be weak? Yes, it's okay. Sometimes it's children, it's baby Christians. Sometimes you're sick. Yes. This is why we, the stronger, are called to help the weaker. The stronger you are, the more you can help those who are weaker. But if you are weak and you have the ability to get stronger, should you get stronger? Of course. Right, this is as clear as day. I don't even know why I have to say this. Also, don't judge a person's strength from your starting line, judge a person's strength from their starting line. You're like, "Oh, I don't know what your starting line is." Then get to know the person. But we are to grow stronger. And by the way, this attack to make people and people in the church weak, the attack is specifically targeting men. I don't know if you noticed this. Satan specifically targets men, and he specifically targets Christian men. The Christian men should be weak because Christian men don't do anything for the kingdom. What is weakness? Weakness is a lack of strength to protect yourself. That's all weakness is, it's a lack of strength. Is that what Paul means in 2 Corinthians 11:30 when he says, "If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness."? I don't think so. What's he mean by weakness? How is he weak after just giving us a catalog of suffering that would kill any of us? Is it weakness to suffer so much? No, of course not. Well, this is what the world and the false prophets, this is what they would all say, that it's we weakness that you allowed yourself to suffer so much. That's what the world says. It's weakness that you put yourself in a position to be hurt. That's what the world says. Well, the world doesn't understand what true love is. Isn't it true strength to sacrifice yourself, to be willing to suffer for the one you love? Yeah. Choosing the way of suffering for the one you love, yeah. This is the way of the cross. This is choosing the way of the cross and walking in it daily. It takes the greatest amount of strength that today I'm going to deny myself. I'm not going to do what I want. I'm going to do what's best for my beloved. Was Paul weak? No, he wasn't weak, he was meek. And there's a difference. He had the strength to choose to put himself in a vulnerable situation for the sake of others. It's not just a catalog of suffering but of sacrificed, and he sacrificed a lot. Just like Jesus Christ. Jesus standing before Pilate, was Jesus weak? No, He's not. He was meek. At that moment, He could have killed Pilate. He chose not to. "I could kill you, but I'm going to die for you instead." That's true power. In that case, He chose to lay aside His strength to take on the bigger enemy. By the way, this is how Paul started the whole argument, 2 Corinthians 10:1, he started the whole argument challenging the false teachers, he say, "I, Paul, myself entreat to you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I'm away." He said, "I am entreating you by the meekness of Jesus Christ." Not the weakness of Jesus Christ. Weakness is having no strength, meekness is focusing your strength. It's why Christians like from the outside Jesus did look weak. Many Christians from the outside, you do look weak. We look weak. But it's not weakness, it's strength under control. That's what meekness is. One of my favorite verses in all of scripture is Numbers 12:3, where it says, "Moses was very meek, more than all people who are in the face of the earth." Moses was very meek. I find that interesting because it's kind of parallel with what Paul is doing here. Who wrote the Book of Numbers? It was Moses. Moses was the most meek person. As he's writing, he's like, "Holy Spirit, you sure? He's like, "Yeah, yeah, write that." Moses also killed a guy with his bare hands and buried the corpse in a desert. Was he weak? No, of course he wasn't weak. Weak people can't be meek by definition. If you have no strength to keep in check, then you can't even be meek. Meekness assumes strength. My message is we need more meek Christians and fewer weak Christians. So if you have the ability to get stronger, get stronger in every single aspect of your life, in particular men. Women, you guys are crushing it. Keep growing in strength. Keep growing in the Lord. Keep getting stronger. Men, you need to be leading the charge and growing in strength, because it is our job to provide and to protect and to build so when the time comes we're ready to sacrifice self to protect. And the more you have to give, the greater sacrifice you could make. We're called to sacrifice self for others. Is it weakness to risk pain to self because you love one another? No, it's the greatest power. It's the greatest strength. That's why self-denial is a superpower. This is my message, I just pray that all of us gets stronger in every aspect of life. It starts with being stronger in the Lord and the strength of His might. But I've noticed that when people are strong in the Lord, every other aspect of their life just gets stronger. The closer you are to the Lord, the more filled to Spirit you are. Correlation causation, I'm not sure. Everything, you just get stronger relationally, stronger marriages, stronger parenting, stronger children, stronger finances, just stronger all around, stronger mental health, stronger physically. Because you understand when you work for the Lord, full tell all the time. You have to figure out how to get your energy up and to work as hard as you can, and so when persecution comes, you are hard to kill, just like St. Paul was. You can't kill the guy. And obviously, protected by the power of the Spirit, and then we're invincible until the day the Lord calls us home. 2 Corinthians 11:31, "The God and the Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed forever, knows that I'm not lying." St. Paul here as he's finishing the chapter brings in an oath. He preempts the story that he's about to tell, and he brings in an oath to make sure that his detractors are listening. And then he starts his story. "At Damascus, the governor under King Aretas was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me." So Paul concludes this catalog of suffering by describing one particularly humiliating experience in his life. He was a young, accomplished scholar under Gamaliel, a rising star in the religious world of the Roman Empire. He was a genius, and he was zealous, willing to do anything and everything for his God. So he took letters of recommendation and he's on the road to Damascus to go persecute Christians, to arrest them, and ultimately to execute them. And then on the way, Jesus Christ meets him on the road to Damascus, the resurrected Christ, and blinds him with His light. Paul gets saved. Now this hunter of Christians becomes hunted by his own colleagues. The dissident has to be eliminated. St. Paul here talks about the time when he was in Damascus and he knew that his colleagues were here to kill him, and that he, by the help of Christians, he's lowered in a fish basket like a child to escape his former colleagues. In the next chapter, he's going to recount how he was lifted to the third heaven. He got to experience spiritually... Very few people have ever experienced. Before he recounts how he was lifted to the heavens, he recounts how he was lowered in a fish basket, like the lowest of the low in the middle of the night, just weak and vulnerable. And 2 Corinthians 11:33, "But I was let down on the basket through a window in the wall and escaped his hands." Paul headed toward Damascus a Pharisee, and he leaves a humbled Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ. He embraces his suffering for Christ. "This is my weakness," he says. "My weakness is that I love Jesus Christ so much that I'm willing to experience whatever suffering the Lord appoints for me. That's my weakness." His weakness was his love for God, which is actually his strength. And that's why it's upside down. Is this your weakness, dear Christian, a love for God that overcomes everything? Or do you have a weakness for an idol instead? Well, then, you won't be effective. We're called to be like Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, Isaiah 53, "He is the suffering servant." Our Messiah, the king of kings comes to die in a cross for our sins. He's humiliated, scorched, beaten, bruised, bleeding on the cross to procure our salvation. The only thing you have to do is be justified. Yes, it's true, it's true, it's true. Repent of your sins and follow Jesus Christ. Repent, follow Jesus. Repent, believe. Repent, believe. Repent of your sins. But just know that if God has appointed you a salvation, He has also appointed you to make sacrifices for Him, for His kingdom. And all we who faithfully follow Jesus Christ in this life, we will suffer. That's a promise. Or wants to lead a holy life will suffer. We shouldn't seek suffering, but we also shouldn't be surprised when we do suffer. And we must resolve today to remain unflinchingly faithful in the faith of any adversity. I'll close with the words of Jesus Christ, Luke 9:23. "And He said to all, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when He comes in His glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels." Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for Jesus Christ. You called Him to live a life of holiness. You called Him to take on the ultimate enemies of Satan, sin, and death. And Jesus Christ, you wrestled in Gethsemane, and you cried out, "If there's any other way, let this cup of suffering pass from me." And there was no other way, and Jesus, you went to the cross, and you bore the wrath of God that we deserve for our sin. You bore our deaths and you took on the hell of Satan and demons. And did that so we would not have to. But then you also call us a life of following you, of taking up our cross daily, a cross of self-denial, of saying no to self, saying yes to your plan, saying yes to service and sacrifice. I pray that you strengthen us in that Holy Spirit. Empower us like you've never empowered us before, and use us to spark a revival in this region of the nation and beyond. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Pure Devotion to Christ
January 2, 2022 • Jan Vezikov • 2 Corinthians 11:1–15
Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Good morning. Welcome to Mosaic Church. My name is Jan, I'm one of the pastors here along with pastor Shane and pastor Andy. If you're new or visiting, we'd love to connect with you. We do that through the connection card and the worship guide if you fill it out legibly. Just toss it on the white box in the back or leave it at the welcome center. And if you give it to them at the welcome center, they'll give you a gift in return to say thanks for coming out. Also, we have two quick announcements. January 16th, 1:00 PM, we have a baptism seminar. So if you have not been baptized and you want to know more about what baptism is, please do attend the class. Let us know that you're coming, so we know how much food to order for lunch. And then also January 23rd, the following Sunday, we have a membership class right after the second service at 1:00 PM. And the membership class is where we talk about the identity, the vision, the history of Mosaic. And we talk about what it means to be a member of a church, a committed covenant member, which every faithful Christian should be a member of a church somewhere. But since you're here, you should be a member here. With that said would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's holy word. Heavenly Father, we thank you for a new year, a fresh start. We thank you that you have sustained us to this point. We thank you that you are a God who promises that when we cast our burdens upon you, our anxieties, our stress, our worries, you do sustain us. And you've sustained us till this moment. We thank you for that. We pray a special prayer of blessing upon this church, upon every member and attender. That you keep us close to you in this season. That you'll give us the resolve, the power of the holy spirit, a zeal to deepen our devotion to you. To fight the good fight of faith to be ever more devoted to Jesus Christ. It's a new year, but nothing's really changed. Lord, you're still on the throne. You're still sovereign. Your plans are still coming to fruition on a daily basis. And Satan is still with his whole legion of demons, trying to thwart your plans and to take as many people with him, as many souls with him. So you've called us to this place to fight the good fight. To help transfer as many people from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of the beloved son, the kingdom of light. We pray Holy Spirit, that you today from the Holy Scriptures, encourage our hearts. Help us know that Satan is real, that the adversary is real. He's come to steal, kill, destroy. He's the accuser, he's the liar. And he does everything he can to thwart us from living lives of usefulness to you. So I pray Lord, make us faithful servants of the living God, men and women of the living God. Sons and daughters of the living God. Serving you faithfully. And bless our time, the Holy Scriptures right now. And we pray all this in Christ holy name. Amen. We're continuing our sermon series through 2 Corinthians that we're calling prodigal church season two. We have a few more sermons, a few more chapters. Lord willing we'll finish it this month, or if not the beginning of February. And then we'll start a new sermon series that'll take us through Easter. Welcome to 2022, Happy New Year everyone. Happy New Year. Thank you. Thank you. 2022. It's like 2021 plus one. It's like 2020 plus two. And I pray that it's not like 2020 2.0. I pray that. But even if it is, I say this because last year I was like, "2020 is over. It's 2021, everything's different." No it wasn't. So what I'm saying is Jesus is still king. Don't worry about it. It's all going to be good. Just stay faithful to the Lord. We hear things like, "New year, new me." It's not true. I'm still the same guy. You're the same person. Same me, same you, same world. We've been hearing a lot of talk along the lines of what in the world is going on? I'll tell you, you can never make true sense of what is going on unless you know a couple things. First of all, that God is real. He exists. And so does Satan. Satan exists. God exists. Angels exists. Satan exists. Demons exists. God has human servants, His children. Adopted children. Well Satan has human servants as well. And he uses them. Often they are unwitting, unintentional servants. And regardless of religious belief, worldview opinion, there's a great battle raging in the spiritual realm that has real consequences in the physical world. Satan is a supernatural enemy and his job objective is to lie, to accuse, to steal, to kill, to destroy. He has a true power. Although it is limited. It's still dangerous. He's called the ruler of this world in John 12:31. In 2 Corinthians 4:4 says this, "In their case, in the case of those who don't follow Jesus Christ. In their case, the god of this world," small G, "has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." Meaning it doesn't matter how intelligent you are and it doesn't matter how high your IQ. It doesn't matter how well educated you are. There's a part of your mind that is blinded by Satan until the very moment that you cry out to God and say, "God, please give me eyes to see that God is real." And when you repent of our sins. How does Satan operate? With a certain spiritual hypnosis. A mass formation psychosis, where everybody just is following this narrative that there is no God. Which is the most absurd thing to believe. Though opposite of God, Satan, is nowhere near equal. He's not omniscient, he's not omnipresent, he's not omnipotent. So praise be to God that if you're a Christian, you are covered by the power of God. Two things to note here before we get into the text is if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, before you became a follower of Christ you were a follower of Satan. This is Ephesians 2:1-3. And you, he's talking to Christians, "You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world. Following the prince of the power of the air, Satan. The spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh. Carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind." And even if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you can still be tempted by Satan. You can still be influenced by Satan. He can still take the sins in your life and he can exacerbate them as if he takes his fingers, demonic finger and presses them in on your sin. That's why 1 Peter 5:8 says, "Be sober minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour." He's not talking about unbelievers. He already owns them. He's talking about believers that Satan seeks to devour Christians to make them absolutely useless to the things of God. And even pastors, even elders can be caught in the snare of Satan. This is a warning to myself. I'm preaching to myself, pastor Shane and pastor Andy. Satan seeks to take us out. That's why ministry is such difficult anguishing work because of demonic warfare. 1 Timothy 3:7, "Moreover he, the pastor, must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace, into the snare of the devil." So even if you're a Christian, Satan will tempt, lie, accuse and seek to cool your devotion to Jesus Christ. Because the battle for the soul starts with the mind. Creeps into the heart and then takes over the body. Lies for the mind, misguided affections in the heart. And pleasure, misguided, wrongful, sinful pleasure in the body. Today we're in 2 Corinthians 11: 1-15, I'll read the text and then we'll jump right in. "I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me. For I feel a divine jealousy for you since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure Virgin to Christ. But I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. Indeed, I consider that I am not in the least inferior to these super apostles. Even if I'm unskilled in speaking, I am not so in knowledge. Indeed in every way we have made this plain to you in all things. Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted because I preached God's gospel to you free of charge? I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you. And when I was with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied by need. So I refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any way. As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia. And why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do. And what I do, I will continue to do in order to undermine the claim of those who like to claim that in their boasted mission, they work on the same terms as we do. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds." This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. May you write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Seven points, and we'll talk about how to avoid serving Satan. First, don't be deceived by his cunning. Second, don't be let us stray from devotion to Christ. Three, don't proclaim another Jesus. Fourth, don't receive a different spirit. Fifth, don't accept a different gospel. Six, don't malign faithful ministers of the gospel. And seven, don't disguise yourself in righteousness. How to avoid serving Satan point one, don't be deceived by his cunning. And this, he begins in verse 1. He says, "I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me." And by foolishness, what he's doing is he finished chapter 10 talking about how the false teachers, the super apostles as he calls them, they were boasting in their credentials. They were boasting in how much they know of scripture. They were boasting in their oratory skills. And St. Paul knows that the only way to really counter this attack, where they were trying to undermine Paul's ministry with their own boasting is he's going to boast, but he's not going to boast in his credentials though he could have. He studied under Gamaliel, which is better than getting a Harvard PhD in theology. He could have boasted in his knowledge of script. He boasts in other things. He boasts in how the Lord has worked in his heart. So he is actually boasting in the Lord. He's boasting about the work that God did in his heart. So he begins verse 2 with a boast, "For I feel a divine jealousy for you, for the church in Corinth. Since I be betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure Virgin to Christ." Paul is about to boast and he's like, "All right, I'm going to boast. But I'm not going to boast about my educat.... I'm going to boast about my love for the church. I'm going to boast about my zeal, my jealousy for the church." What an interesting word to use. Because jealousy is a sin, right? Thou shalt not envy. That's a commandment. Don't do it. Don't envy. Meaning there's a sinful jealousy, a sinful envy, which is selfish. I want things for me. And there's a godly, he calls a divine jealousy. For you, I want the best thing for you. And I want the best thing for God. And he views himself, not just as a pastor, as an apostle. He views himself as the father of a bride. He views the church as the bride of Jesus Christ. And he views Christians that became Christians under his ministry as those that he has betrothed to Jesus. He's saying, "You're engaged to Jesus Christ." And at the second coming that's when we're going to have the wedding feast where a bride of Christ, the church, us, will be married to Christ, we'll become one. So he views himself as the father of the bride. And his job is to present the church as a pure virgin to Christ. And he toils for the church's purity. Paul is ready to do anything to protect the church's purity. And he sees that they're flirting with spiritual and faith, they're flirting with the Satan, with the devil. Flirting with Satan. I understand his heart here because I have four daughters. And my oldest is 13. And I look at them, I'm like, "Oh, I got a teenager in my house. That's crazy." But I view this. I dream of the wedding day of all four finally get out of the house. I'm just kidding, I love them. But I dream about that day, where it's like, all right, I'm going to walk each one down the aisle, and then I'm going to turn around and officiate the wedding. That's my dream. So my preparation right now for them as I disciple, as I raise, as I parent my daughters, is to prepare them as a bride of Christ. Clearly I want them to love Christ, to be devoted to Christ. And one day maybe a bride. But St. Paul says, "You, the bride of Christ, you're flirting with a bad boyfriend. You're engaged to Jesus. And you're flirting with some demonic teaching." Verse three. "I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ." Satan deceived Eve with his cunning, Eve was Adams wife. Adam did not protect Eve from the cunning of Satan. The cunning, what is the cunning? It's plausible lies. On the surface level they make sense until you start digging deeper and they're never consistent. He says, "Cunning. Satan is cunning." You know Satan is the second smartest being in the universe. And he became Satan only because he thought he was first. He a created being, created by God thought he was smarter than God. And unfortunately he's a lot of people today. They just think they're smarter than God. They think they're smarter than God's holy scriptures. Oh, smart people don't believe in Satan. Well, if that's what you believe, you've already been deceived. Satan's smarter than you are. If you don't believe he exists, you've been deceived. If you don't believe he's smarter than you, you've been deceived. I used to have to make the case for the existence of Satan. And then 2020 happened and 2021 happened. I'm like, "All right, everyone knows there's evil out there. There's a cabal of demonic forces out there trying to destroy absolutely everything and everyone." If you don't believe that, the burden of proof is on you. You got to make the case for what... How do you explain all the evil in the world? All the lies, all of the coordinated deception in the world. How can you anticipate Satan's attacks if you don't think he's even real? Genesis 3:1, look at Satan's attack as he comes to Eve. "Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord had made. He said to the woman, 'Did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree and the garden? Did God actually say.'" Satan is so cunning he convinced Eve that God, the creator of everything, God the creator of Adam and Eve is a liar. That's his greatest lie. Is he hoodwinked people to believe that God is the one who's lying. In the Corinthian church Satan convinced the Corinthian Christians through the false teachers, that Paul was the cunning one. That Paul who planted the church, shared the gospel, these people became Christians because of his ministry. That Paul is the liar. And this, by the way is the same technique that he uses in places like Boston. Satan did the same with the church in Boston historically speaking. He came in here, a place where the revival started. He convinced people that the church is the one propagating the lies. He convinced people that God is the liar. That holy scripture is a book of myths. Satan to Eve. He convinced that God's liar, Satan to Boston he convinced us that God is a lie. Not us, our neighbors. Did God actually speak through Paul? That's what the false teachers asked. Did Jesus really appear? Why would we listen to him? Don't listen to Paul. Listen to us. Watch our YouTube channel. Don't forget to like and hit the subscribe button and comment below and share it with your friends. Subscribe to our newsletter, buy our books. Don't listen to them. Don't read this book, read our book. That's how it works. How do you prevent yourself from being deceived, from having your thoughts led astray by Satan? You have to know God's word. You have to know God's word. And here just a challenge. If you're not a Christian and you don't believe in Satan, I challenge you, read this whole thing. 1,189 chapters, read every single word. Four chapters a day, 20 minutes a day. You can get through within a year. Read this thing and see if Satan doesn't exist. And I will tell... I guarantee you, you will feel Satan's clammy hands pulling you away from even reading this book. You will get up, Genesis you might make your way through. Exodus is fun. You'll get to Numbers and you're like... Skip Numbers, okay, you can skip Numbers. Just keep going. Just like, okay, just keep going. I'm telling you, there will be demonic warfare on you getting you to read anything else. For Christians you got to read the word. With my daughter we did a devotional on new year's, and this is what we said, "2022 read, listen, do. 2022 read, listen, do." You got to read the word. You got to listen to God's voice. And then you got to do what it says. Prayerfully read, listen to the holy spirit, obey God's word as if he had just shown up and told you, spoken to you. Timewise, my challenge to you dear Christians. For every hour that you watch Netflix, every single hour, you got to counter it with an hour of Bible reading. And even if you're like, "That's not realistic." Why not? Why? Hold on. Why is that unrealistic? You can sit there and veg out. Watching these shows most likely written by pagans, godless pagans, just bringing a worldview into your living room, into your mind. That has nothing to do with... You got to counter. You got to counter. And even on busy days, this is what I'll say. On busy days, for as much time as you spend grooming yourself, showering, taking a bath, preparing yourself to go out in public, spend as much time washing yourself with the water of the word as Ephesians 5 says. I call it taking a Bible bath. Every day, just take Bible, just get into the word. If you don't have time, a Psalm, a Proverb, a chapter from the New Testament and watch how the Lord will transform your life. Second, don't be led astray from devotion to Christ. And this is really the key verse in verse three. Once Satan gets your mind, then he begins to attack your devotion. Your love for God. This is verse three, "But I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts," he gets your thoughts, "will be led astray from sincere and pure devotion to Christ." Deception in the mind always leads the loss of devotion to Christ in the heart, which ultimately leads to a desertion of Christ. I've never seen someone pulled away from Christ, from the Bible with lies like a book they read or a podcast that sowed doubt into their heart. I've never seen someone do that where they begin to believe the Bible less, but love Jesus more. I've never seen that in my whole life. Lies from Satan always pull your heart away from Jesus. Satan does everything in his power to keep people from getting saved, everything in his power. But once God does save a person, Satan immediately changes his strategy to pull Christians away from a sincere and pure devotion to Jesus Christ. Literally here in the Greek, the word for sincere is the word for simplicity from the simplicity and purity which is in Christ. Another translation just combines the two and says from the simplicity that is in Christ. See following Jesus Christ there's a simplicity to it. That God exists. He sent us His word through His son Jesus Christ. Confirm everything through His life, His death, His burial, His resurrection. It's all true. And if you take God's word, if you repent of your sin, you follow Jesus Christ. You take God's word. You apply it to your life on a daily basis. Everything in your life begins to flourish. When you love God above all else, your marriage gets better. Your relationship with friends get better, with family gets better, parenting gets better. Everything gets better when your heart is connected to the heart of God. It's very simple. Satan complicates everything because Satan can't create. Satan can't create, he counterfeits and he complicates. The further you get from God, the more complicated life gets. Maybe not initially, but after a while, everything just gets a lot more complicated. The true Christian life is always a simple life of loving Jesus Christ and loving people and honoring God. Thomas à Kempis says, "By two wings, man is lifted from the things of earth, simplicity and purity." What is the Christian life? It's sincere and pure devotion to Jesus Christ, a daily abiding with Christ. It's a companionship with Christ. That Christ is always with you. His presence is always accessible to you. It's a powerful word, fellowship. You can have fellowship with the God of the universe anywhere you are. 1 Corinthians 1:9, "God is faithful by whom you were called." Called into what? "Into the fellowship with his son, Jesus Christ our Lord." So dear Christian be on guard against anything and everything that pulls you away from this sincere and pure devotion to Jesus Christ. The word tells us whatever you do, whether food or drink, do everything to the glory of God. Well, here's the test for how do you know that you're doing everything to the glory of God. That whatever you do to the glory of God deepens your devotion for Christ. Your love for Jesus Christ. Jesus is alive. He isn't just for Sunday mornings. He's for every single moment. To live is Christ and to die is, again, nothing matters more than this fellowship with Christ. If you don't like the direction your life is sailing, well, you got to write the fellowship of your life. The fellowship with Christ. And watch everything change. Three is don't proclaim another Jesus. In verse four, "For if anyone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed." Why are so many church buildings in Boston empty? They're empty. They're empty of life because they're empty of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we go to some of these buildings and we're like, "Hey, would you sell your building to us?" And they find out who we are and that we actually believe in the Bible, just like the people who started those churches believe in the Bible. And then they're like, "Nah, we'd rather sell to a real estate developer." Christians got here in Boston, in New England, in the United States, we got here, churches got here because Christians readily put up with heresy. Usually what a lot of people don't understand is heresy isn't just outright denial of scripture. That's not how heresy begins. Heresy takes a doctrine of Christianity and it just mixes it with human philosophy. And it always has to do with the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus was a tremendous moral teacher. Is that true? Yes. Jesus was only a moral teacher. That's not true. Jesus Christ came back from the dead spiritually speaking. Is that true? Yeah. But he also came back from the dead physically speaking. He literally came back from the dead. Denying that truth is to deny Christ. No heretical teaching ever presents a Jesus Christ that stands up, a historical Jesus of history and scripture. The Jesus who transformed the world like no one else. In these heretical churches and these churches that reject Jesus, they never preach to Jesus that calls people to a repentance of sin. It's always, Jesus loves you. And He has a plan for you and just keep coming and everything's going to be fine. No, Jesus began his ministry literally with two words, He says, "Repent and believe, the kingdom of God is here. Repent and believe, repent." That's the first word that He ever utters as he begins his ministry. So when you listen to teachers, be they spiritual teachers, or actually any person in authority over you, be a professor, be it a government official, whoever it is, you always got to ask the following. Does this person love Jesus? Does this person love the true Jesus Christ of Holy Scripture and of history? If so, there's fruit bearing with repentance that they are children of God. If they do not love Jesus Christ, these people are children of Satan. This is how I look at politicians. This is how I look at just anyone in authority. If you don't love Jesus Christ, you're a child of Satan. There's only two categories. Children of God, adopted into his family through repentance and faith. Or you're a child of Satan. It's a cold hard fact if you're a child of Satan. And the reason why we tell you this, and the reason why Jesus tells you this, is so that you don't stay a child of Satan. Because being a child of God is so much better here now and in the future. This isn't my teaching this is teaching of Christ. In John 8:42-45, Jesus said to them, to the Pharisees who thought... They claim that God is their father. "If Gog were your father, you would love me for I came from God and I'm here. I came not of my own accord, but He sent me, why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father, the devil. And your will is to do your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me." The true Jesus Christ preaches things like this. To awaken people and call people to repentance so that they are transformed from being children of Satan to children of God. By God's grace. Four is don't receive a different spirit. He continues here. For someone comes and proclaims another Jesus, then the one will be proclaimed. Or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received. The spirit here he's talking about is usually false teachers. They do come with a spiritual power. The fact that there is a spiritual power is not defining proof that this person is from God. Because Satan has demons as well and Satan can do all kinds of work, spiritual work, because Satan is in the spiritual realm as well. So 1 John tells us, "Hey, be careful. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world by this, the Spirit of God, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, the one who was against Christ. Which you heard was coming now is in the world already." The spirit of the antichrist is in the world already. "Little children you are from God and have overcome them for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world therefore they speak from the world and the world listens to them. We are from God and whoever knows God listens to us. Whether whoever is not from God does not listen to us by this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error." Even if there is spiritual work in a church and in a denomination, what have you. You need to ask, "What do they believe about Jesus? Or what do they teach about Jesus Christ? Does it line up with Holy Scripture? And then also you got to look at the fruit of the ministry. Only the Holy Spirit can bear fruit of the spirit and this is Galatians 5. You can tell that someone's filled with the Holy Spirit if they have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Five is don't accept a different gospel. So he says, "Don't proclaim another Jesus, receive a different spirit." And he continues, "Or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough." The gospel of Jesus Christ is that God created everything we rebelled against him. God didn't leave us in our sins, he sends Jesus Christ who lives the perfect life that we were supposed to live. Fulfills all of God's commandments on our behalf. And then He is crucified. And on the cross, He doesn't just bear the physical anguish of crucifixion. He also bears the wrath of God and the onslaught of Satan. And He does all of that to bear the curse, pay the penalty for our sins. And then He dies and He's buried. On the third day He rises triumphantly in victory over Satan's sin and death. And the very second He does all that. So that at the very second that any human being asks for forgiveness, asks for pardon, asks for, "God, please forgive me of my sin." That's what we're repentance, that God please forgive me of ever everything I've done. At that very moment you're saved by grace through faith. And all of your sins are forgiven in past present and future. Your eternity is secure. You're sealed with the Holy Spirit and power to do his work. What can you do to be saved? There's nothing you can do. There's no work. There's no gift that you can give. There's nothing you can do or say, all you can do is cry out to God. And this is where false teachers come in. They view this as an opportunity and they say, "No. You have to do something to get saved." And they begin to add works and manmade philosophy usually works this way. They add works to the gospel and they say, "Oh, hey, you're a Christian. Then why aren't you voting like us? Why aren't you marching with us? Why aren't you obeying like we are? Why aren't you a good person as defined by us?" My response is always, "Are you a Christian?" They said, "No, but I know what a good Christian should be." "Well, how do you know?" And usually they grow up and go into Catholic church or church once in a while. Most people just think this is how you're made right with God. You just have to be a good person. And a lot of churches teach that. And then after a while, people are like, "Well, I am a good person." So they stop going to church. And that's why those churches that stop preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ lose the power of God because the gospel is the power of God unto salvation for anyone who believes. Adding any work to the truth that salvation is free. It's by free grace through faith alone is demonic. Also one of the things that's going just a lot of people talking about this online and people are talking about the deconstruction of Christianity. I'm deconstructing my faith. I'm deconstructing the faith that was taught unto me and the Christianity that was taught. And then I'm going to reconstruct it. What usually happens as I've been watching this little thing going on is they stop at the deconstruction. Okay, deconstruct my faith and then there's no devotion of Christ. And then you leave the faith. Usually what I say about for the most part, scripture says, "They went out from us because they were not of us." What scripture teaches is you can't do that if you're a real Christian. Once you become a child of God, God is a good father and he doesn't lose a child. Once you become a child of God, you can't deconstruct your being a child of God. I have four daughters. If one of my daughters, God forbid, if they ever come to me, I remember Macaulay Culkin from Home Alone. He divorced his parents after he became millionaire. He divorced his parents, terrible story. If one of my daughter ever came to and said, "Okay, I'm divorcing myself from this family." God forbid. "I'm getting rid of the last name." I would say, "You can get rid of the last name, but you can't deconstruct your face. Because you look just like me." Every single one of them. You have a new nature as a Christian. You're a new creation. You can't deconstruct that nature. And that whole idea of deconstructing Christian it's demonic. And it's never, okay, I'm going to deconstruct the wrong parts of my faith by looking at scripture. That's not called deconstruct that's called reformation. We believe in that, not deconstruction. Galatians 1:6-9 Paul says, "I'm astonished that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel." Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed. It's a powerful word. That's in the precatory prayer. Let this person be cursed. What are you saying is if someone comes to you and preaches a false gospel, even if it's an angel, you say to that angel, "God damn you. May you be accursed." As we have said before so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you receive, let him be accursed. And then point six is don't malign faithful ministers of the gospel. And here St. Paul, he speaks directly to these people who've been undermining his ministry. Verse five, "Indeed I consider that I am not in the least inferior to these super apostles." So these false teachers had to come in. St. Paul had already left the church in Corinth. And they said, "Okay, Paul left. He's an apostle. Well now where are the apostles? And we're actually better than Paul because we're better speakers than Paul with better credentials than Paul and our speaking fees are higher than Paul's. Which means that we're a lot better than he is." And St. Paul heard all of this and using sarcasm, his words drip with sarcasm here. He doesn't just call them apostle, he calls them super apostles. Because they irrigated themselves over him. Verse six, "Even if I'm unskilled in speaking, I'm not so in knowledge. Indeed in every way we have made this plain to you and all things." They accused him of not having oratory skills according to Greco-Roman rhetoric. St. Paul, obviously he was trained in all of this, but he intentionally did not use the artificial synthetic stylized standards of Greco-Roman rhetoric because he didn't come to give a speech. He came to preach about the knowledge of God. That's what he said. "I might be unskilled in the speaking, not in knowledge because I know God and I know his word." And that's why he made this plain. That's what preaching is supposed to be. Preaching is supposed to be revelation, sharing of the knowledge of God. This is who God is. This is what God says. Spoken plainly, simply so people can understand. But on fire because you're devoted to Christ. Here at Mosaic, we as pastors and everyone that preaches, we take this seriously. We work hard to present the sermon, the word as skillfully as possible. But the power's not in the skilled dear friend, the power is not a skill. The power is in the Holy Spirit stirring your heart and stirring your devotion to the Lord. I say this to myself. When I listen to a sermon, my job isn't to judge the skill level, my job is to receive the blessing that is the knowledge of God. And be on guard. Make sure there's no heresy, the content. My job is to focus on the content, not the skill. The skill... You work hard, but once in a while you wake up and you have four daughters and one of them gets sick or something. That stuff. Focus on the content. That's what St. Paul he here says. And these people came in and they begin to accuse St. Paul because they're servants of Satan. Sometimes Satan accuses with lies. Sometimes with the truth but more often with lies. These super apostles became proxy accusers. And this is usually how it works. They heard something that he said, a point of disagreement, a point of confusion. They interpret as suspiciously as possible. No benefit of the doubt. Motives are questioned and speculations are issued. And these super apostles couldn't argue with Paul on the basis of scripture. So they begin to make personal attacks, ad hominem attacks on him. Verse seven, "Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted because I preached God's gospel to you free of charge." St. Paul came and he preached the gospel for free. Why? Because he wanted to lower every single barrier for absolutely everyone to know the gospel. I want everyone to hear the gospel. I want everyone to know the gospel. This is why we don't charge admission at Mosaic. Some churches honestly do. They sell tickets. We don't do any of that. If someone wants to give to the Lord and the Lord's work tremendous, but it's free. It's free because someone else paid for it. Paul did the same thing. He preached free of charge. And here's what the super apostles, the fake teachers, false teacher, they came in and they actually accused him that because he was speaking for free, that his message was subpar to their message. Because in the Greco-Roman world, the greatest speakers had the heftiest honorariums, the heftiest fees. Just like today, if you're a person of status and you're invited to speak at a conference or something like that, or at a school, at a college, at a company, there's an honorarium, there's a fee. And I remember I found out about this for the first time I was in college and they invited Bill Clinton to come speak. And I'll never forget his speech. His speech was... His whole was no one's going to monopoly on the truth, which sounded nice at the time. And then upon reflection, I realized that he himself was trying to monopolize the truth. And in his attempt to monopolize the truth, he charged the school $200,000 to speak for 45 minutes. Those are speaking fees. And this is what the false teachers did. And they accused St. Paul of presenting a gospel that's really not worth paying for because he wasn't charging money. Obviously they were. And one of the lessons here is sometimes there's some people you just can't win with. If St. Paul came in and he charged for the speaking of the gospel, he'd be accused of profiteering. Oh, he's got the wrong motives. And he doesn't charge. And now they accuse him of being a hack. If your whole goal in life is to please everybody, you'll never succeed and you always be a little saddened because unfortunately there's a category of people that are just haters. Haters going to hate. And it is what it is. And St. Paul knew that and he responds to them. Verse eight, "I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you." He didn't rob them, hyperbolic language meaning they gave money to the ministry of the church, of the gospel where they were. And then St. Paul came in and he said, "Hey, in Corinth there's a need, would you give there?" And they did give. "And when I was with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my need. So I will refrain from burdening you in any way as the truth of Christ is in me. This boasting of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia and why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do." I'll pause here for just a second. What he's saying here is wherever I go, I'm going to boast about the way God worked in Corinth through Paul. But then also about His love for the church. He's said, "I love the Corinth so much. I want so many people come to faith. I didn't take any money. I'm boasting in my love for the bride of Christ. I'm going to tell everyone. I know everyone that would listen so that they would be inspired to sacrifice in a similar way to love the church of Jesus Christ in a similar way." Because He says, "I love you. God knows I do." In the verse 12, "What am I doing, I will continue to do in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boast admission they work on the same terms as we do." He's saying, "These super apostles who are questioning my motives, I'm preaching the gospel because I love God and I love people. They're preaching the gospel for money. Check their motives, follow the money and then you realize who's faithful to Lord and who's not." The super apostles are motivated to preach for self-gain. Paul was preaching for the gain of the Corinthians. Point seven is don't disguise yourself in righteousness. This is 2 Corinthians 11:13-15. This is where Paul takes his gloves off. "For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder for even Satan disguised himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, their end will correspond to their deeds. These self-made super apostles with no calling or authority from God." Paul says, "They weren't sent by God. They were sent by Satan. Satan disguises himself as an angel. He disguises himself as an angel. An angel of light. And he works through human servants who also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. So two lessons here. Number one, be careful when someone comes to you and they look outwardly righteous. Don't be fooled by an outward righteousness unless it's confirmed from their life. That's number one. Number two, you, me, don't pretend to be more righteous than you really are. May this be the year where you and I, we're truly honest before God. Real before God. God, this is who I am. This is where I lack righteousness. True with your brothers and sisters. In your community groups and brothers and sisters you're walking with. "Pray for me, I am working on being more righteous in this area of my life." Don't masquerade. That's the easy way. But when you masquerade in righteousness and you do that over and over and over for a long time, after a while, you might become a servant of Satan. Satan is scary. Satan comes not often as a roaring lion, not physically. He doesn't reveal himself. Because if he came as he truly is, we'd be grossed out. He's too ugly, grotesque, repulsive, nauseating. He never says, "Good morning, everyone. I'm Satan, and I'm here to ruin your life. I'm going to lie. Everything I'm going to say to you is a lie. I just want to kill you. And I want to steal your joy. I want to steal your satisfaction. I want to steal your health. And ultimately I want to take you to hell. There's a lake of fire and sulfur for all of eternity I want you to burn with me. I'm going anyway so I want more people to keep me company." He doesn't do that. He comes and he says, "Good morning. I'm your friend. I want the best for you. I want you to be so happy. God doesn't want you to be as happy as I want you to be. God is the killjoy, I'm not. Don't follow his rules, they're burdensome. Forget the rules, follow me. I've got something so alluring, so exciting, so fulfilling. You can't afford to miss it." And then he pulls you into his kingdom and your life falls apart. And you end up an eternity apart from God. Thanks be to God that Jesus Christ came and He gave us a way to resist Satan by the power of the gospel through the holy spirit. James 4:7, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil." Meaning Satan is resistible. "Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded." Thanks to be Jesus Christ the great conqueror of Satan. Colossians 2:13-15, "When you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him having forgiven us all our trespass by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with His legal demands. This He set side nailing to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in Him. We await the second coming of Jesus Christ when He will have final and absolute victory over Satan and will throw them to the lake of fire and sulfur and there he'll be tormented day after day forever and ever. And in the meantime, we are to fight the good fight of faith for pure devotion to Jesus Christ." I challenge you to read Ephesians 6:10-18, meditate on that. Today and this week, Ephesians 6:10-18 memorize it, memorize it. Very easy. It's not even that big of a text. Ephesians 6:10-18 will equip you like nothing else to stand firm in the Lord and in the strength of his might.
Войнa и Мир (War & Peace)
November 28, 2021 • 2 Corinthians 10
Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Good morning, church. I will explain my t-shirt in my conclusion so you have to keep listening. As I was worshiping, I remembered that even just a little while ago, I used to rate our house bands. I used to rate them. In my mind, there was the A team. There was the B team. Once in a while, there was a C team. I think all our events are A team now. And that's saying a lot. I'm not a musician but like music, it's saying a lot because Caleb's not here and that was just tremendous so praise God. If you watch online, you don't come in person. Let me just tell you what you're missing. You're missing the live band. When you go to a party, there's good parties and there's better parties and the good parties have a DJ. The better parties have a band. It's a live band. And what I'm saying is if you watch online, you don't come in person. I am calling you to repentance. If you're in sin, if you're in sin. If there's other reasons, we can talk. I'm calling everyone. Everyone should go to church. How's your Thanksgiving? I had a really good Thanksgiving. My Thanksgiving just to tell you perspective, every single Sunday, I don't know why the time works like this but I get a notification from Apple that tells me about my screen time and it's always right before I go up to preach. My screen time for this week was one hour and 27 minutes which is significant to me because it went down by 71% from last week. So I'm saying I had a tremendous Thanksgiving, spent time with family at my dad's house, there's 21 of us, 21 eternal souls. My sister, Aida, brought her dog Zuma. So now my daughters want a dog. I'm praying for the Lord to change everyone's heart in the house to want a dog. So I ask that you pray with me. I like Thanksgiving. This is why I like Thanksgiving. I like Thanksgiving because everyone now has to be thankful. Unfortunately, most of the nation doesn't know who to be thankful to and I just want to tell everyone, you got to thank Jesus. You got to thank the Lord. The Lord is so good to us. So with that said, would you please pray with me? I prepared a little pastoral prayer. Lord, we're thankful. We thank you for being the best God ever. Thanks for being so loving. Thanks for being so forgiving. Thanks for being so merciful and thanks for ever being present with us. And thanks for giving us the greatest gifts, love, grace, wisdom, strength, courage, family, friends. And we're thankful for this church. If we didn't have this church, I have no idea where I'd go to church. We've got the best worship music. We've got the best kids in youth ministry. We've got the friendliest greeting. The hospitality is tremendous. This church has helped me raised my daughters. This church has grown my faith like no other, like no other. Thank you, Lord. Heavenly Father, we pray that you give each one of us a heart for the lost, break our hearts over the fact that we have siblings or parents or children or spouses or friends who don't know Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior. Lord Jesus, give us courage to do everything we possibly can to help them finally see how awesome you are, that there's nothing more meaningful, there's nothing more significant, more transformed, more exhilarating, more joy filled, more hope filled, more peace filled, more love filled than to believe in you and obey you. Obedience of faith. What a gift. Thank you, Jesus. Holy Spirit, we welcome. You magnify God, the father, God the son and God, the Holy Spirit. Amen. So I was at my dad's. He lives in Jamestown. It's an island which is a boss thing to do like I'm just going to live in an island. He does. And while we were in his backyard and he had not a fire pit because he's Russian, we had a bonfire just in his backyard and I was like, "Hey, is that even legal?" He's like, "Well actually I went to the town hall and I asked can I have a bonfire and they said no one's ever asked the question." So he just took that as an answer that he can. We're sitting around the bonfire and it's tremendous and he decided to start burning just broken branches and leaves and as he is doing it, he's making fun of Americans for bagging leaves. That's my dad. We're sitting there. It's him, it's me, and it's my daughter, Sophia, we're sitting there. Every once in a while, my dad just out of nowhere, he just starts reciting poetry, Russian poetry. He likes this guy Yevgeny Yevtushenko and he likes the guy because the guy wrote in Soviet times and the guy was a genius. No one knew that he was a genius until actually the Soviet Union fell apart because as then he could actually put his name on his stuff to get it published so he would publish everything anonymously. One of the things that he published anonymously was he wrote a poem but he couldn't call it the monologue of a Russian or a Soviet writer so he called it a Monologue of an American Writer as if he's making fun of Americans. It's an American writer making fun of Americans but it's really a Soviet writer making fun of the Soviet Union. It's tremendous, it's genius. It's genius. So you should look it up. But I'm going to cite a little bit to you in Russian and then I'll translate. And so you get the point, okay? Мне говорят — ты смелый человек. Неправда. Никогда я не был смелым. Считал я просто недостойным делом унизиться до трусости коллег. It's a poem about courage and people tell him, "You have courage," they tell me it's not true. I was never courageous. I simply felt it unbecoming to stoop to the cowardice of my colleagues. Устоев никаких не потрясал. Смеялся просто над фальшивым, дутым. Писал стихи. Доносов не писал. И говорить старался всё, что думал. I like that because it says, "I've shaken no foundations. I simply mock that pretense and inflation. I wrote articles, scribbled no denunciations. And I tried to speak all on my mind." Liked that. О, вспомнят с чувством горького стыда потомки наши, расправляясь с мерзостью, то время очень странное, когда простую честность называли смелостью! And that's his punchline and it goes like this. "Oh, our descendants will burn with bitter shame to remember when punishing vile acts at most peculiar time when plain honesty was labeled courage." I want to meditate today on the word courage. Boldness. Are you courageous? Can you stand up and speak the truth to people who don't agree with you? Actually, people who despise the fact that there are even any people who believe what you believe. Imagine true Christian courage. Like when the Pope... Bro, you are the boss of all the church, you're the Pope. You're the head guy and then you meet with the leader of the free world, the President of the United States, Joe Biden, and you do not call him to repentance. Bro, that's the easiest... That's your only job. And he didn't. So I'm calling the Pope to repentance. Both of them. And I'm calling Joe Biden to repentance. And Trump for that matter. Here's how I view a good president. You know what my test is. Would I let this guy babysit my daughters? We haven't had a good one in a while. I want a president that cares about children, that cares about families, that cares about what's most important in life. So I'm calling everyone to repentance. I'm on a mission. I'm calling the whole nation to repentance. Everybody. We all need to repent of our selfishness and our self-absorption because every single one of us we live as if this movie called life is about us, that you're the main character of the movie, of life. You're not the main character. Maybe you're in the supporting cast. Jesus is the main. He's the point. He is the point of everything. We need to repent and follow Him. Many of you are courageous when it comes to secondary issues. No, I just wrote a few down. Politics, COVID vaccines, the economy, deep state, big food, big pharma, big tech, big banks, all that stuff. You're very passionate about it which is good and I respect passion. I really do. Whatever your passion, I respect it. But I'm also passionate and let's have a conversation. But the main thing I want to talk about is Jesus Christ. I wish you would channel some of that courage of speaking truth. I wish you would channel to speak a truth to yourself. Speaking truth to your family members. I have a dream. You know what my dream is. I have a dream that every single man and woman in this church on a daily basis gets up wherever you live in your house, you take out a Bible, a really big one, not on the phone because your kids think you're watching YouTube. You take out a Bible visually, it's important, and you read something and you read it with conviction and you explain it to the people that you live with. "This is what it means." And then you talk about it and then you pray for each other. If every single one of us did that in our homes on a daily basis, everything will change. This is how I parent my children. And then I turn on my little Bose speaker and then we have a worship dance party. That's what we do. That's how I teach my girls that worshiping Jesus is awesome. Why wouldn't you? So courage. Imagine if every single one of us viewed ourselves as missionaries, full-time missionaries, not mercenaries, missionaries who transform the world. Practically, what am I saying? What am I saying? I am saying everyone should start throwing tremendous parties, house parties. This has been on my heart for a while because I wanted to do this thing where I want to invite the whole neighborhood to party so we have tremendous food and there's live band and then I get up and just tell a few jokes and call people to repentance. I have that dream. But I do that in my house already. I invite people in and you say, "Do you have a verse, Jan?" Yeah. Look at Luke 14, 12 through 14. He said also to the man, this is Jesus. He said also to the man who had invited him. So some rich guy invited Jesus to a party and Jesus, it's kind of savage, because the guy invites Jesus to a party and then Jesus is preaching to the guy that invited Him to a party and this is what Jesus said. "When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you'll be repaid. But when you give a feast..." When. What's the assumption, dear church? "When you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just." Did you even know that was in the Bible? If someone told me when I was a kid, "Hey, Jesus, just wanted everyone to have a good time. Jesus just wanted everyone to have fellowship, friendship. You will be blessed." I challenge you, church, resolved to throw great parties. You know who's really good at this? Tyler. Tyler and Allison Burns. I was at their party for Thanksgiving. You got to talk to Tyler. You know what the first thing he said when I came to his house? You know what the first thing he said. He said, "The fridge's over there, the bathroom's over there. Make yourself at home." That's all I needed to hear. Oh, and he has this couch that reclines. That was awesome. And we watched football and we had fellowship. Music, food, drink, dessert conversation, warmth, love, destruction of strongholds, fire pits, bonfire, scripture, laughter, reflection. Let the word of God flow like wine. Make memories, bless people. And you say, "Oh, that's expensive." I know. I throw parties and whenever I throw a party, I got to feed at least six human beings to begin with. Have you taken five females to the movies for a date? Have you ever done the calculation of how much that comes out to? With two tubs of popcorn? Have you ever? We watched Clifford The Big Red Dog. It was awesome. That's how my daughter at Ekaterina is sneaking a dog into our house. This is how I grew up. The best part of church for me was the parties. The sermons were all in Russian. I didn't understand half of what was going on and we had a choir, which I... You know what? I've been thinking about choirs. Choirs are awesome. I think we should bring them back. I don't know. I'm just thinking out loud. Nate Young doesn't like that. The parties were the best part of church. Every time we'd go to the park, we'd go to Lincoln woods. We throw a party after church. That was the best part because I was like, "Oh, this is what church is." But they didn't call it a party. They call it общение, which is the most buzzkill kind of word that you can think of, which means fellowship. But it was actually a party. If you remember the church when we got started, this is how we started the church we threw parties. We did apologetics the way apologetics was supposed to be done in the context of fellowship and friendship. When you could have a long conversation with someone, when I'm not just trying to win a debate and lose a friend, I want to continue the conversation at the next party where we can have full hearts of fellowship. Dear Christian, people like to hang out with you. I say that because we live in a city of nerds which is awesome. When the nerds... You ever watched those old movies from the eighties when the nerds do awesome things? That's what I want this church to start doing. When the nerds start having a good time. Where was I going? Oh, yeah. I want to call you to repent of your being introverted, church. "Oh, I'm so introverted." I am too. If you really know me, this is hard work for me. And then I have to go home and sit in a room by myself and listen to Russian Orthodox chants. There's no Bible verse being an introvert. Jesus literally said love people and have conversations with them. Get to know them, have parties. So I never want to hear the word introvert-extrovert ever again. I'm just going to gauge people about how faithful they are as Christians. Okay. Now it's time for the text. 2 Corinthians chapter 10. And I assume you've done all the homework. I've created another study guide this week and if you follow along the study guide, everything else will just make so much more sense. If you didn't get the study guide, go to http://mosaicboston.com. There's a blog section. I've got the study guide in there in a link as well. It's in the newsletter. If you haven't subscribed. I did all the exegesis and now we'll just talk through the text. 2 Corinthians chapter 10:1. "I, Paul," St. Paul, "I treat you," the church that he started, "by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. I who am humble when face to face with you but bold toward you when I am away. Exclamation mark." What's going on here? What's going on here is that St. Paul has changed his tone because sometimes if you want to be heard, you have to switch things up. You have to switch up your tone especially if you're talking to different people. In chapters eight and nine of 2 Corinthians, he was talking about generosity. He was talking about gathering, a collection, finances for the herding church in Jerusalem. And so he was talking of faithful Christians because that's who loves to hear about giving. And now he switches his tone because now he's talking to the wolves in the church, the wolves who crept in in sheep's clothing and he's speaking differently to them because they are trying to undermine everything that he has faithfully done. So that's the tone change. He starts by saying... Before he talks about boldness. He says, "I entreat you, I plead with you, I compel you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ." I want to come to you with gentleness. I want to come to you with meekness. I don't want to come with boldness, I can and boldness is the rail to have certainty in a matter, be confident, be courageous. Courageous to do what? What's Paul doing? He's taking on the wolves in sheep clothing. In Clifford The Big Red Dog, I will allude to that movie because I just watched it and it's a classic. But there's a mean sheep. There's a sheep that looks really nice but it wants to kill you. It's a mean sheep. Well, St. Paul biblically speaking that's wolf in sheep's clothing, but St. Paul, this is fascinating to me, he doesn't just shoot the wolf. He pleads with the wolf. He tries to convert the wolf from being a mean sheep to a holy sheep. That's what he's trying to do. Paul was meek and he was a gentle guy. Why? Because meekness and gentleness was Jesus' natural demeanor. Jesus was just a chill guy. He had a calm masculine presence that brought order to a chaotic world. People like this when you're with them, just their presence calms everything in here. You have peace inside and you can create peace around you. That's why people wanted to hang out with Jesus. He was gentle. He was meek. That's why kids wanted to hang out with Jesus. Kids all the time saw that guy and say, "That guy's having a good time. I want to be close to him." There's something about being a man of God or a woman of God where kids just want to hang out with you. You know me. I have a spiritual gift called being a baby whisperer. I said, "Give me a baby. I will put it to sleep." It's a calm presence. But Jesus Christ could like... When Jesus would hug people, you knew that he really meant it and he could also suplex you. That's why the hug actually meant something more. Jesus is bold. He is bold because he's gentle and when he sees someone hurting, the weak, he's bold in speaking and standing against it even to the point of death and that's why Jesus Christ died on across for us. He went to war. Look, in a perfect world, you wouldn't need courage. But we don't live in a perfect world. If everyone was just a navy seal Christian, we could all just relax and just have a good time. They wouldn't have to be... This is why I tell my girls. I'm like, "Can you just grow up a little? Because I can be more of myself around you if you just grow up a little, if I don't feel like I have to parent you all the time." That's what St. Paul here is doing. He's like, "I want to come with meekness and humility and gentleness so we can just have fellowship. I don't want to come bringing discipline." Meekness, gentle, humility. They weren't seen as virtues in Paul's day and the same today. But if you combine meekness and gentleness and humility and you also... A lot of us have that. But if you also add courage to actually say what everybody is thinking, to actually address the elephants in the room. If you know me, this is how I operate. I was at Cane's Chicken yesterday, Raising Cane's. I wanted to finish off Thanksgiving well so I took my girls on a walk. Mom didn't know. I took them on a walk. "We're going on a walk. It's exercise, it's healthy." And then we got fried chicken. But as we're in Raising Cane's, it's tremendous and the sauce, ah, slaps every time. I'm in line for 45 minutes because apparently you got to do the mobile order thing and people coming in and out and just grabbing stuff for mobile order. I'm like, "I should have... ahhh. Now I know." Finally, the lines I move, I go up to the guy. I'm like, "Hey, man, can I help? Anything I can help with? I can't cook chicken, but I can pray for you. Can I..." And the guy's like, "Oh, the girl cashier, she just started." Oh my God. Okay. But there was a guy next to me who had three kids and he was waiting for an hour and he was like, "Hey man, you just said out loud what everyone's thinking?" Like, "Yeah, that's what I do." It's my job to speak the truth with love and then I gave her a tip after. It's hard, I know. But the point is you need courage. That's what he's saying. Verse two. "I beg of you that when I'm present I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some of you who suspect us of walking, according to the flesh." He's like, "You've seen the boldness. I can be bold. I don't want to use that tone. So please put your lives in order. Please put the church in order." That's what he's saying. And the more you submit, dear church and dear Christian, the more you submit your life to Christ, the less energy your spiritual leaders have to invest in leading you to follow Christ and the more energy we can focus on reaching the lost. I view much of what we do here as defense. Defense. Defense. COVID, it was all defense, defense, defense. Can we just protect the church, protect the church, protect the... Defense, defense, def... I'm sick of playing not to lose. Can we actually score? Can we actually throw some touchdowns? You know what I'm saying? Can we actually run the ball? Can we actually see our relatives get saved? Can we see our colleagues, our neighbors, everybody, everybody around us, people we interact with? Can we just share the gospel with them? Throw a party. And the reason why we could do a lot more being on the offense if people just didn't get so offended, no offense. Imagine how sick our offense could be if people in the church didn't get offended when Pastor Jan with his t-shirt. I don't know. "What was he saying? Is that political statement?" If you know me, that's not a political statement. But if you know me really well, you're like, "Yeah, that's probably a political statement, double meaning. I don't know. I'll get to it." I am doing this intentionally. I want to ruffle all your feathers. I want offense so we can finally get past defense and we can actually go on offense. Yeah, you see Hebrews 13:17. "Obey your leaders." I love this verse. I really do. Would you pray this verse over me and you? "Obey your leaders and submit to them." What a word. Americans don't understand this verse. Slavic people understand this verse. Basically, people from any other part of the world except for America, they get this verse because we don't do honor here. "Obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping over your souls as those who will have to give an account." Pastor Shane, Pastor Andy and I, we take this seriously. I know I will stand before God and God will say, "Jan Vezikov, did you care for the souls, those I've entrusted to you?" I pray for you every day. I pray for you every day. And if you have a prayer request, text me, email me. I will pray specifically. I pray for you every day. I pour... My whole life, it revolves around this. My whole life. Every single waking second. Even when I sleep, I dream about church. Every single second, I'm like, "Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, please bless your church. Let them..." Yeah, we'll go there. So if you have criticism, critical spirit, you can bring constructive criticism. You can coach... Coach me, coach me. I welcome the coach. If you want to criticize my question is, are you responsible for the church? Will you give an account to God for the church? And if you want to be in that position, I can help you get there. If not, well, no offense. Let's see some people get saved and then you continue to let them do this with joy and not with groaning for that would be no advantage to you. That last part really blesses my soul because there've been seasons in my ministry where there's been a lot of groaning like, "Ah." People that know me now realize I have so much joy in this season of life. I think this is my favorite time of my whole life. I think if Jesus came back today and be like, "You know what? Good. Okay, my screen time was only an hour 27. Sweet. I think I'm ready to go, Jesus." The point is just follow the Lord. And if false teachers continue to bring destructive diabolical, demonic, critical spirit into the church undermining, St. Paul says, "My reputation, my integrity. I'll come at them with spirit filled power and boldness. Courage." Do you have courage? Hebrews... I'll do 2 Corinthians. There's the same word for boldness he uses earlier in the letter, 2 Corinthians 6:6 through 10 where he talks about dying. He says this. "So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body," while we're still here, "we are away from the Lord for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord." Because I'd rather be dead because I'd be with Jesus, but I still have work to do. "So whether we are home or away, we make it our aim to please Him for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body whether the good or evil." Have you done enough for the Lord in the body that you're like, "Yes, Lord, I am ready for that second judgment?" First judgment is, did you believe in Jesus Christ? That's the first judgment. If you believe in Jesus Christ, repent of your sins, you will spend eternity in the house of God and a feast. And there's a work as well, but it's a party. Heaven is a party. Joy. If you reject Jesus Christ, you will spend eternity in a place called hell. Hell, eternal, conscious suffering. I don't know how to make it even more clear than that. Fire and brimstone is that... Are you a Bible thumper? Fire, brimstone. Yeah, I am. It's in the Bible. I believe in hell. This is why I weep over my lost friends. I weep over my lost family member. I weep. I weep because hell is real. People die on a daily basis and they're eternity apart from God. So have we done enough to get as many people in the house of God as we can? Hebrews 13:6. "So we can confidently say," that's the same word, confidence, courage, it's confidence in the Lord and His word, "The Lord is my helper. I will not fear what can man do to me?" I haven't done a C.S. Lewis quote in a while. So C.S. Lewis in Screwtape Letter says, "This courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality. A chastity or honesty or mercy which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions." Pilot was merciful till it became risky. Lot of you are tremendous Christians in church and then you forget when you leave church. By the way, I think church would make a lot more sense if people thought about church as like I was thinking about this as we were worshiping as an Irish bar. You ever been to a good Irish bar where they have a live band and a violin? They literally sing and there's people at the bar who are... Men sing from their bellies. I was listening to Mark Driscoll. So I do this every single Saturday night. If you want to know what rhythm Pastor Jan gets, I listen to Mark Driscoll servant, every single... Because I'm in the ministry because of that guy. If you don't like that guy, he... I'm a church planter because of that guy because that guy is like, "Hey young men of the nation, we should plant churches to take over the nation." I was like, "Oh, that sounds like a good idea." And that's why I went to ministry. I listened to that guy. He's in Arizona and he was talking about men in worship, men singing, and he said, "Men who can't sing at worship, they don't sing because they're emotionally constipated." I like, "Oh, that's a good way of thinking about it." You can't express what's in here unless there's other spirits. Well, we have the Holy Spirit so why can't we express? And Martin Luther says this, "If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition, every portion of the truth of God except that little point which the world and the devil are at the moment attacking. I'm not confessing Christ however boldly, I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved. They have to be steady on all the battlefield besides is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point." This is why I do not get why people go to seminary and then go take pastoral jobs down south. I don't get that. Why aren't the best of the be... I'm not even... I'm trying to be better. I'm not even that good at it. There's people who are so much better at preaching. There's people, there's some Christians who are so just phenomenally talented and they're in places where it's saturated with churches. There's more churches down south than there are Dunkin Donuts in Rhode Island. I just want everyone to move to Boston, that's what I'm saying. 2 Corinthians 10:3, "For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh." That's what the critics were saying, the false teachers. They would come in and St. Paul here is saying, "They think I'm walking according to the flesh. They, my critics, think that what is happening, what I'm doing in my ministry is according to the flesh because they have in their mind, this idea of what it means to be a spirit filled person." Oh, yeah, my dad told me to wear a tie today. I told him I'm going to wear a t-shirt. He said, "You got to wear a tie." Say, "I'm not going to wear a tie because it points people to hell. I want to point people to heaven." If I'm going to wear anything, it's going to be a bow tie. It's funny. He said, "No, it's a noose. It's a noose that you are in submission of Jesus Christ." I said, "Oh, in that case, I'm going to put a yoke on me," because Jesus said, "Take my yoke upon you." Literally, he said that. So what I'm saying is there's no picture in the Bible of what it means to be a spiritual person. That's why these false teachers who had an idea of a religious person, they've got the garb, they've got special hairstyle, and then you see someone who's not like that and you're like, "Ah, you're probably in the flesh and you're just doing what every other person does. You judge a book by its cover." St. Paul uses the word flesh, sarx, and he's like, "I'm not living a rebellious life. I'm living a spirit filled life." And yes, St. Paul did have a sinful flesh and he would ask himself every morning, he'd get up and he'd say, "Am I in the spirit right now? Am I in the flesh or am I in the Holy Spirit?" And then from the outside, he just looked like a regular guy. I think if St. Paul walked in, you look at him. Oh, that's a nice congenial gentleman. You would not think this is the guy who influenced the world like no one else after Jesus Christ. He just looked like a normal dude and that's why his words, written word, was more compelling to people because he communicated with such depth that it takes time, energy, humility, prayer, and meditation to understand and receive. And the only way to win spiritual battles, this is a lesson here, is not to wage war with the flesh. A lot of us, we see everything that's going on around us. They're like, "Yeah, I'm going gun shopping." That's a different conversation for a different day. That's not the real war. The real war is men and women of God on their knees, begging God for the Holy Spirit, studying scripture, just eating up... A lot of you don't understand scripture I've realized because you're not a big eater because you don't really expend a lot of energy. There's a lot of people like that. I've never had... My kids, they just eat everything. Everything you put in front of them and then they go and expend all the energy, studying and running and playing music, making jokes, writing. They just work all day. I like living like that. Well, when you actually do the Christian stuff, you expend energy and then you get really hungry and then you take the scriptures and you devour it, chapters at a time. You devour sermons, you devour worship music. You are in the spirit all the time. I was re-listening to last week's sermon and I realized in the same way that I have typos in my newsletters. That's why I send them to my brother who caught two typos and then one he missed. But I realize when I preach, when I verbal process, I have typos that come out sometimes and I need to edit them. I said that David took on Goliath and 1 Kings 17, it's actually 1 Samuel 17. But in my mind, I mix them up 1 Samuel, 1 Kings because in the Russian Bible, there's no Samuel. There's 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 3 Kings, 4 Kings that's why. What I'm saying is you got to be in the word. You got to study the word. I dare you. I want you to know the word better than I do. I want you to know the word better than I do. I challenge you. 2 Corinthians 10:4 and 5, "For the weapons of our warfare," weapons, strateia in the Greek, we get the word strategy from it. We get stratagem from it, strateia, warfare. He uses that word, warfare. It's a military campaign designed to achieve a specific objective in a foreign country. Huh? That's interesting. In a foreign country. And then he uses the word power. "For the weapons of our warfare, not of the flesh, but have divine power, dunatos..." You know what power is in the Greek? Skills or qualification to do something well. Power is skills or qualifications to do something well. I pray, dear church, that you developed a skillset to dismantle strongholds that people have against believing in Jesus Christ. power to destroy. Destroy. This is a fascinating word, katharsis, because we get cathartic from it. It's interesting because the word destroy is cathartic and that doesn't really make sense to you if you've never did demolition. You ever watch like HDTV and they demo a house? I've demoed a house where I live. I demoed it. I know the satisfaction that you feel when you have a sledgehammer in your hands. I think the church would really bond if we bought a big house that we demoed together. I think we would really bond over that just to see how people work together. "So destroy strongholds," he says. A stronghold is a strongly fortified defensive military structure. So he says, "People have in their minds strongholds, in their hearts strongholds to keep them from obeying Jesus Christ, following Jesus Christ." So we, Christians, need to go to war against the strongholds. We need to destroy them with divine power. That's what he said. "We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ." What a rich text. He's saying, "The strongholds are any idea, any opinion, any ideology, any world view that stands against Christ, that keeps people from obeying Christ, knowing God. Anything that gets in the way, anything that obfuscates faith in God." To do this, we must know the word of God inside and out. "Wield the holy sword of God's word against the demonic ideas." Some ideas are fully true, those ideas are from God. Some things are fully true. A lot of things are partially true and those things are from Satan because Satan presents half-truth as a full truth which makes it a sinister lie. Lessons start with yourself on a daily basis. "Take every single thought captive." You're listening to the radio. A song comes on. You're like, "What is that song about?" Just imagine if one of my daughters was in the car when you're listening to that song and my daughters very inquisitive and they say, "Dad, what is that song about?" They listen to the words or a show or a movie or a book or your favorite pundit. Be very careful of who you let influence you, of what voices you let into your house or what voices your children are listening to or what voices your spouse is listening to. Adam. Adam, you should have been careful. You shouldn't have let Eve listen to that podcast run by Satan. That's what he's saying. And let me give you a weapon real quick. It's an Uzi. This is a submachine gun. Warren W. Wiersbe, 699. That's the price in the back. It's probably cheap on Amazon. Read this. The Strategy of Satan: How to Detect and Defeat Him. This book is really, really tremendous. This lady from my CG, nice sweet lady, gave this to me. Chapter one, the deceiver. Satan's target, your mind. Satan's weapon, lies. Satan's purpose, to make you ignorant of God's word. Your defense, the inspired word of God. It's everything I'm saying. He just says it better. So I challenge you to read this and talk about it at your CG. You know what's a fun game to play? I play this game all the time. One second. Hydration's really important. I play this game all the time of I think through non-Christians in my life who have influenced me like no one else. I think about the strongholds in their mind and in their heart and I think about how I would dismantle those strongholds. I think about that. I think about that with my best friends. One of the reasons I became a church planner is because I wanted a church that I could invite my friends to and my best friends growing up... Let's start with my roommate from college, Dave. I won't say his last name. But we lived in a Jewish fraternity together. He was a brother and I was a cousin because I'm not Jewish. So Dave and I, we lived together for three years in college and I would share the gospel with him all the time. I still do. Whenever he calls, I'm like, "Dave, can you just repent and we can be brothers for eternity please?" I want to say to Dave, "Dave, man, you're not really Jewish. You're Jew-ish. You don't even know your own scriptures, man. If you're really Jewish, can you please read your own scriptures so I can talk to you about Isaiah 53? So I can talk to you about Psalm 22, about Psalm 110, about Psalm 16, that they all point to Christ. Can we just talk about that? Dave, you are the smartest person I've ever met but can you please do some homework about the most important question that there is." So that's why I would say to Dave. My friend, Keith, we grew up together. We wrestled together and we were co-captains of the wrestling team together. When you wrestle a man, you really get to know him. You feel their power. Keith, he was always the man. This guy grew a beard in sixth grade. He was Irish. I always coveted that and I broke all kinds of commandments. I was like, "I want a beard..." He looks like Matt Damon. He looks like Matt Damon Good Will Hunting. So I would say... Now he lives in California. I watch him on Instagram. He does CrossFit workouts. He's got two beautiful boys. I pray for his family. And all I want to say to him is like, "Keith, you're the man. You are such a good person. You are a better person than I am in many ways." I'm working on it. "Imagine how effective, how powerful you would be if you submitted your sword to Jesus Christ." Craig, my boy, Craig, we grew up together. Another Jewish guy who... A big heart. Loves people. Just loves people. And I just want to tell him, "Craig, you're almost there. You just need to welcome in Jesus Christ into your life. That's the missing piece." My friend, Narath, Narath is funny because Narath made me the president of the national honors society as a joke. I'd say this because Narath, we gathered together senior class and the teacher just got up and she said, "Who you nominate to be president of the national honors society?" Narath just got up. He said, "I nominate Jan Vezikov." I was like, "What?" And then all my friends were like, "Yeah, Jan would be a great pre..." And that's how I got into college. So Narath, thank you. Narath is the kindest guy I've ever met. He's so kind. I just want to say, "Narath, you're not the kindest person in the world. Jesus Christ is. You need to repent of your sin." I think about my cousin, Serge. He's the smartest guy I've ever met. If Elon Musk for Russian, that's my cousin, Serge. I pray for him. I pray... He's such a great guy. He bakes bread. Just a great guy. He works for Amazon. I want to tell Serge, "Hey man, if you came to church, man, we probably could figure out a way to take over the world for Jesus Christ. You got to set your ambitions higher. You got to get in the word." I think about other voices that influence me, Jordan Peterson. I figure out if I sat with him how could I help disciple him. I don't know if he's a Christian. I heard he recently became... Dave Chappelle. Dave Chappelle is a Muslim. He's a Muslim. He's a genius. I want to sit down with him and like, "Hey man, can you just be a true Muslim? Because you know what the Quran says, the Quran says to actually listen to what Jesus Christ said. Can you just do that? You can't be a true Muslim if do not read the New Testament. You can't do it. You can't do it, Dave." Biden, I wonder what I would say to Biden. Let's not get too political. Tom Brady. This is what I'd say to Tom Brady. Maybe like, "Hey man, how's your marriage? Because I get it, man. You're married to a beautiful strong-willed international woman. She doesn't want you to play football anymore and you just keep..." That's the angle that would take. The thing is I do this all the time. I do this just for fun. Last one, last one. I've got a whole list here. My favorite Russian rapper is Oxxxymiron because he's actually a philosopher. He went to Oxford and he got a degree in literature and then he just started doing philosophy with rap, Russian rap, which is really difficult to do. I've known him. I followed his work. He stopped producing in 2015 and then two months ago or a month ago, he came up with a 10-minute song talking about the past 10 years of his life and that was meaningful to me because I was reflecting on the past 10 years of my life in ministry at Mosaic and I was like, "That's weird." He has this song where he's got this one line and first of all, this is how I share the gospel with him. His dad's name is Jan and I'd be like, "Yo, Oxxxy, Jan Vezikov Ян, как твоего батью. Слышь." He's got one line in that song where he says, "Я так не хотел стоять десять секунд на коленях Что в итоге стоял на них десять лет ." He talks about the fact that because he didn't want to stand on his knees for 10 seconds he's been standing on his knees for 10 years. I just want to be like, "Hey man, can you just get on your knees for 10 seconds, repent of your sins, and then you can get up. Jesus just forgives you all of your sins, shame, guilt, everything." I think about these people and I'm like, "What would it take for them to hear me out? What would it take for me to end up on a Joe Rogan podcast, tell them about Jesus Christ and have three hours to do it?" That's what I pray about. This is the things I think about. This is how much I care about evangelism. So I've got home work for you. Your homework is this church. Send me an email with how you would share the gospel with the most influential non-Christians in your life. Would you do that for me in the email with one, two, three, I don't know. It doesn't matter. Non-Christians in your life and how you would share the gospel with them. This is serious. This is really serious so that I can start speaking to them with your language so that you can actually start bringing your friends to church. You got it? Write that down. Homework. Okay. 2 Corinthians 10:6, "Being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete." He talks about church discipline here. I don't have time to get into it. But church discipline, there's positive church discipline. This is what we're doing, teaching, exhorting from the scripture. We're teaching, teaching, teaching. And then there's negative. There's negative discipline. There's actions that spiritual fathers need to take because they love their spiritual children. A lot of fathers don't understand fathering, if you don't understand the concept of discipline, but there have to be consequences for rebellious behavior. Meditate on Hebrews 12 where he talks about God being a loving father who disciplines His children. That's an important category. 2 Corinthians 10:7, "Look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ, let him remind himself that just as he is Christ so also are we." He's saying, "Look at the data. I'm a Christian, you're a Christian. Don't just judge me by looks, skin color, ethnicity, background." The whole world wants to do that. He's like, "Can you just look at the heart like God does not at the outward appearances?" 2 Corinthians 10:8-9, "For even if boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be ashamed. I do not want to appear to be frightening with my letters." This is fascinating because he talks about influence and he talks about authority that God gives spiritual influence, God gives spiritual authority and we are to use it to build people up, to build up their souls, to build up their faith, to build up their heart, to build up their families, to build up their life. We're called to be builders. A lot of Christians don't understand Christianity because they don't understand building. The gospel is like demo. You go in, you demo everything, and then you rebuild that. A lot of Christians stop there and they're like, "Okay, we did the demo. Now we're going to live in a house that's down to the studs." You can't live in a house like that. That's not comfortable. And then you rebuild. That's what he's talking about, that we are given authority, we are given influence. Over whom has God given you influence? There are people that you can speak to that I can never speak to, there are people that you just know their language. You're just on the same wavelength with them in waves that I will never be so use that influence to destroy strongholds. Do you use the authority God has given you to build up those under your authority? 2 Corinthians 13:10, "For this reason, I write these things while I am away from you that when I come I may not have to be severed in my use of the authority that the Lord has given me for the building up and not for tearing down." So what he says at the end of the letter? He's like, "I want to build you up. I want to build you up." 2 Corinthians 10:10, "For they say, 'His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech of no account." What's fascinating here is they judged his power by his looks and that's not how the Holy Spirit works. He says, "Don't look at my outward... Listen to the words, listen to the heart. Focus on the ideas. Focus on the truth." Verse 11, "Let such a person understand that what we say by letter when absent we do when present. Not that we dare classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding." Saint Paul says, "I do not care what people think about me." That's where his courage came from. "I don't care. I don't care what people think of me. All I care is about what God thinks of me. I want to submit completely to the God of the universe, the king of king." St. Paul just says, "I'm good soldier. I don't care about self-commendation because self-commendation is self-condemnation." Or you look for praise from people. "What are people going to think? What are people..." Who cares? Who cares? When you worship, I pray that you, at Mosaic, you worship the way you worship at home. If you want to get on your knees, get on your knees. If you want to just exuberantly worship, exuberant... If you want to just scream at the top of your lungs, you just tone it down a little bit or come up here and then the music rounds you out and it's awesome. That's what he's saying. 2 Corinthians 10:13, "But we will not boast beyond limits, but we'll boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us to reach even you." So God assigns the influence. Many of you haven't asked for more influence. "God send me more influence. God make me a person that when I speak, people hear my words, they hear my heart so I can communicate from my heart to their heart." Verse 14, "For we are not overextending ourselves as though we did not reach you, for we were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Jesus Christ." What's fascinating is that St. Paul every once in a while reminds people of how much he sacrificed for them to become Christians. You know what kind of church I want to go to? I want to go to church where the guy up there is the guy who sacrifices the most for the church. I want to go to church like that. "Oh. Oh, you really believe in stuff?" Yeah. "Oh, you made life decisions where you sacrificed things." Yeah. 2 Corinthians 10:15, "We do not boast beyond on limits in the labors of others. But our hope is that your faith increases and our area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged." That's all. He's like, "All I want is your faith to grow. I just want your faith to grow. I want your faith in God to grow. And when your faith in God grows, then the influence of spirit filled Christians grows in your life because you begin to sense that when they speak, they speak from a place where they're filled with the Holy Spirit, spiritual influence grows to the degree that you help people grow in their faith." Verse 16, "So that we may preach the gospel and lands beyond you without boasting of work already done in another's area of influence. Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord." Historically, St. Paul wanted to go to Spain. That was his great ambition. He was ambitious to go preach the gospel where it was never preached and he wanted to go to absolutely the Western point of Europe and Clement of Rome. Writing at the end of the first century claims that Paul traveled to the furthest point limit of the west which is how people refer to Spain in those days. He's just want to do something great for God. 2 Corinthians 10:18, "For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends." So the only approval that matters is the Lord's. I read from Luke 14, I'm coming in for a landing, I'm doing a text and then conclusion. Luke 14, we read that in the beginning, verse 15, "When one of those," Jesus at the feast, "who reclined at table with Him heard these things. He said, 'Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.' But he said to him, 'A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time..." it's like if we threw a member's party for Christmas on December 4th and we got brisket and all that and it's like if the members just don't come, it's like that. That's a nice plug for that members' party and for you to come. It's going to be tremendous. "At that time for the banquet, he sent a servant to say to those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything's now ready,' but they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I bought a field. I bought a field and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused." I don't know what the real estate market was back then but maybe it's like today where it's like you like a place and there's 14 offers on the first open house. So like he bought a field and he didn't even go see the field which is a terrible excuse. So that's the first thing he did. "Please have me excused." "And another said, 'I've bought five yoke of oxen. I go to examine them. Please have me excused." Buying a car that you've never seen? "And another said, 'I've married a wife and therefore I cannot come." That one I get, I understand that one. I don't want to go to that party. Okay. All right. "So the servant came and reported these things to the master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, 'Go out quickly to the streets and the lanes of the city and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.' And the servant said, 'Sir, what you commanded has been done and still there is room.' And the master said to the servant, 'Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in," Compel, persuade people to come in, "that my house may be filled for I tell you none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet." That's how Jesus Christ talks about evangelism. He talks about evangelists throwing a feast and inviting everyone who can never return the favor. Imagine if we caught that vision. I challenge you this week. Invite someone over who cannot return the fa... And let me just say a word. If you live in Boston, a lot of us, we struggle with this thing called real estate shame. You're ashamed of your place. You're ashamed of your kitchen. You're ashamed of your bathroom. You wish it was bigger. You wish it was nicer. Let me tell you something. I was talking to an old brother this week and he said, "None of that matters." I was like, "Oh." He's like, "Yeah, yeah. It's just a fellowship that matters." Like, "Oh." "Yeah. Yeah. Who cares?" Okay. Now I'm going to, in conclusion, explain my t-shirt. It's not a political statement because I'm a pastor. It's a prayer. I can't do this. Make America born again? I can't do it. So I'm begging God. Lord, send Your Holy Spirit. Regenerate souls. Lord, make everyone a Christian. You've done it before. You've done on a day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit just comes. Fire from heaven. Lord, make America born again. And so this is my campaign. If I were ever president, I would run a campaign called make America born again. I can't be president because I wasn't born here so unless we change some rules, if you know some people. This would be my campaign speech. I would say this. I'd say, "America, we're not having a good time. A lot of you just aren't very fun. America, can we all just be people that people want to hang out with? Can we all just be kind and gentle and humble? Can we all just hang out together?" That's what I'm saying. I was watching an Asian comedian this week. He was hilarious and he said that his mission was to reconcile white people and black people and that's meaningful to me because God said our job is to reconcile all people with God and that's where world peace begins, where people repent of sin, and they stand before God, they humble themselves and God fills your heart with love and then you can love people. You know who I like to hang out with? I like to hang out with people who let me be myself but they don't keep me there. They challenge me to grow, to grow in my love for God, understanding of God, love for people, love for the gospel, love for the kingdom of God. I like to hang out with people who have the courage to challenge me and whenever anyone does, I say the Russian word davai. Davai means let's go because I want to feel your power. I want to feel your influence. I do want you to change my mind. That's why I like parties where you can just talk about everything. Politics, religion, everything, just everything. You love the people. You talk about family, how to raise son and daughters, how to invest, how to increase your bench, how to build a business, how to build empires and submission to the king. So if I were running for president, my only agenda would be America, would you do me a favor and invite your neighbor over for a party. That's my only agenda and invite Jesus too. Some of you are great at throwing parties but you forget Jesus. So invite Jesus too and have Jesus be the king of that party and pray for the people that do come before the meal. It doesn't have to be awkward. Just get up and say, "You know what? In this house we worship Jesus Christ and we love you so much that we invite..." They're going to eat your food so they're going to bear with you for a little bit and you say, "Don't hold the hands thing." I get sweaty palms when people... Just raise your hands man of God and women of God and just pray for you, pray for everybody by name. You came to my house. Yeah, I'm going to pray for you. I'm going to pray for you to get saved. You can repent of your sin. And if it comes in a prayer, it doesn't feel like it's evangelism so you can go as long as you want. And you like, "Lord, I know that this person's stronghold and they don't believe in Jesus Christ because they have all these issues," and you just dismantle them in the prayer and you're saying Jesus' name and then you eat the meal and they're like, "Hey, what did you just do in that prayer?" And you're like, "Oh, let's talk about it." That's my only agenda. How do we make America born again by making America pray again, getting on our knees as a nation, on both knees, and begging God, please forgive us of our sins and when you do, God forgives you and He's awesome and following Him is tremendous, but it's also the hardest thing you'll ever do because anything worth doing is difficult. But by the divine power of God, you can do it. I believe in you. If I can be a Christian, anyone can be a Christian. That's what I'm saying. And it's a miracle. And the Holy Spirit is with you. Would you rather hang out with someone who makes things sad or do you want to hang out with someone who makes things fun? There's a lot of people that can make fun things sad but Jesus Christ is the king of making sad things fun. Satan takes fun things, he just ruins them. He ruins sex. He ruins money. He ruins a good tie. He just ruins everything. He makes good things sad. Jesus Christ makes sad things fun. He's the king of it. Jesus is the master of taking the saddest moment. Good Friday, Jesus Christ dies on a cross and he's put in a tomb, cold, dark, dank tomb and He turns Good Friday into Easter Sunday. He's the king of turning sadness into fun. He turned the cross into conquering power, conquering death with resurrection power. He's the master of turning what is meant for evil into good. He's the master of turning sinners into saints. He is the master. He's the boss of turning destruction into rebuilding. And he's the only doctor who can heal our broken heart. Let's pray for healing. Heavenly Father, we thank You for this time and the holy word. Jesus, we love You. We thank You. You gave everything to love people so that they could meet God, have their sins forgiven. I pray for our city. I pray for our state. I pray for our nation. I pray for the world. Pour out your spirit in a way that You have never poured it out and use us in the process. Ignite a fire in our hearts, burning zeal, to share the gospel, share our lives, and share our hearts with the people that You have given us into our lives, under our influence. And we thank You in advance. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Jesus Take My Life (Savings)
November 21, 2021 • 2 Corinthians 9
Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston, and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Good morning and welcome to Mosaic. I'm Jan one of the pastors here at Mosaic, along with Pastor Shane and Pastor Andy. We're so glad that you are with us. A couple things if you're new or even if you're not, I worshiped from the front today, and I did that... I usually worship from the back, because I'm like, I'm distracting and all this. But then Raquel who's on staff here. My girl Raquel, she said, "Do you want to teach the men at the church to worship God, and start worshiping God from the front?" And then she sent me a haka dance. She's like, "That's the way you're supposed to worship God." I'll be doing that once in a while. I'll switch things up. Second thing I want to communicate is my T-shirt. I've been trying to speak from the heart and it's hard. So I'm going to wear what I want to say. I'm going to wear it on my heart, and I'm going to switch this up. If you've got a T-shirt that you're like, "Pastor Jan, this should be on your heart." Just give me that T-shirt. So this one, the Holy Spirit sent me this week. It's an astronaut and he's holding the Earth and it says love. And it's meaningful to me because Elon Musk believes that the world is so broken, that the only way to save humanity is to go to Mars. And I want to call Elon to repentance and to tithe. But repentance in particular because no, if God hasn't given up yet, then we shouldn't either. And there's power to fixing, the power is the love of God poured out through the Holy Spirit. With that said, would you please pray with me. And I wrote up prayer, a pastoral prayer. Heavenly Father we come to you in the name of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. We pray that you stir our hearts to love, and stir our hearts for good works. Make us a church that seeks to stir up one another lovingly, but courageously to live lives of absurd generosity. The kingdom of God, the Gospel work in this region of the nation. Lord, I pray that you stir up every member of this church, every Christian attender, every former member, and every former attender, anyone who loves and cares for this church, and for this spiritually dark part of the nation. Lord stir us up to be ridiculously, nonsensically, extravagantly, holistically, generous, and only your Holy Spirit can do this. And Jesus, we look to your sacrifice on our behalf. We see that you sacrificed everything in obedience to the Father to save us, to pay our debts, to give us access to the throne room of God, access to the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints. And we pray turn our theological, our theoretical generosity into true, practical, genuine, real generosity. Where we are ready to cut fat checks, where we are ready to make sizable wire transfers, where we truly go all in. Burn in sin, greed, and covetist, and selfishness, and fear of future out of our hearts, engulf our hearts with the Holy Spirit. God you are a giver. You have everything. And you have given everything to save us because you love us. So make us Godly givers who are ready to give everything to you because everything is yours to begin with. And we pray all this in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit. Amen. I've sent out a study guide. It was seven pages. I wrote it from the heart. I wrote my own commentary. I did all the exegesis. Chloe was so kind as to format it and make it look pretty. I also have a 13-page manuscript of all my thoughts and they're coherent. If you'd like the whole thing, I'll send that to you as well. And I'm just going to speak from the heart today. We'll see how it goes. I pray the Holy Spirit stirs your heart as well. My wife told me, Tanya, she came to church today, praise God. We had a little situation because I wore a T-shirt last week. But she liked this T-shirt, she liked the sermon. It was tremendous. And she said to me, "What are you preaching on?" I said, "I'm preaching on money. I'm preaching on..." She said, "Don't preach about money. So you're stirring stuff up already. Why are you preaching on?" I'm like, "It's the next text? I'm just going verse by verse." And she said, "But everyone is going to think that you're trying to get them to give you their money." And I went like this because I go like this when I'm trying to explain something. When I get really sad, and then I'm angry, and then I pray for the Holy Spirit of baptize the anger and turn it into the zeal. And when I explain it, I was like, "Tanya, do you know what opportunity cost is?" Opportunity cost is when you're 23 making 75 grand a year in 2006, and you quit everything because you came up with a crazy idea that God called you, but God called you. And then you're like, "The CIA can't win the battle for hearts and mind, so let's do it. So we are going to do it ourselves." And opportunity cost is like all the income that you give up because you go to seminary, and then you got to pay for the seminar. You got to live while you're in seminary, you can have a baby in seminary, and then you go another seminary, and then you go third seminary. Opportunity cost. The point is, I'm not doing it for the money. It doesn't pay that well. I am doing this to be faithful to the Lord. He called me and He said, "I got a word for you and I will prophesy from this word." Whatever the fallout, I care, but I don't. I care too much about what's best for you, so I don't care about ruffling just some of the feelings because no one has ever hurt your feelings. To tell you the truth I'm here to hurt some feelings. So okay, you get the point. We are in a tremendously... Oh, the other thing I was going to say, I forgot this in the first service. If you don't get anything that I say read the study guide, and read the text, and then re-listen to the sermon because I realized that I make a much better second impression. Sometimes I make a better third impression. So just listen and just hear my heart. That's the first thing. The other thing I told Tanya, I was like, "Hey Jesus, talked more about money than about hell because if you love money more than God you are going to hell." So I'm calling every one of us to repent of greed and covetness. That we're a tremendously filled, Holy Spirit filled sermon series through 2nd Corinthians, if you don't believe me go back and listen to it. It's really tremendous. I've been really blessed by Holy Spirit stirring something in my heart. And so the context of this book is, and we called it prodigal church because St Paul plants this church in court, they get saved. And they get saved miraculously. They live in a very pagan town, sexually immoral, driven by greed and money, money, money, money, money is at the center of everything. These people get saved. St. Paul leaves, and what happens is the church goes prodigal. They were in the Father's house. They were enjoying the Father's riches, His lavish grace, His lavish forgiveness, His lavish generosity. And then they decided to take God's grace, His riches, and then go live a life of sorted sin because they believe, "Well, God forgives me anyway." And they took God's genuine lavish grace, and they made it cheap grace. So St. Paul writes them and he calls them back to repentance. And he is like, "Hey, you don't understand grace. Grace isn't just a get out of hell free card, so you can sin as much as you want, live any way you want. You come back to Jesus whenever you choose." So God allows the prodigal sometimes to end up in a pig stay, to come to his senses, to run back to God. God is waiting, arms wide open. And he welcomes the guy in, His younger son into a party. So that's at the heart of everything St. Paul is saying. So he writes them again in 2nd Corinthians, and he is like, "It's time church that we grow up from being takers." Take, take, take, take, take, mooches, and turn into givers. From being prodigal children taking from the father to prodigal children, the true definition of the word giving. Giving to the work of God. My wife and I, we have four daughters. And anytime we meet anyone who has fewer than four children, we usually hear a comment like this. "Oh, they're going to be so happy when they grow up, because they're going to have each other." And it's true and I try to teach my girls, "Hey, you got to be generous with one another." Bible story last night, before we pray and go to sleep, it was this. God loves a cheerful giver. "Be cheerful givers to one another girls, because there'll be a time that mom and dad are not here. Be generous to one another." Well, the family of God is just like that. So if you are an only child, and you join this church family, we will love you like family, like siblings. You're my brother. You're my sister. You have needs. Let us help. That's what the family of God is. We're a family after all, aren't we? So that's where St. Paul starts. And he starts with the assumption that you've been saved because of Jesus Christ. He though being rich became poor so that you might become rich for his name sake, rich in every way that matters. We're going to walk through the text together verse by verse. 2nd Corinthians chapter nine, verse one. "Now it is superfluous for me to write to you about the ministry for the saints." Superfluous means redundant, means unnecessary. If you don't know what that word means, go on my Facebook or Instagram. I got a picture where I wear... In 2011 where my neck was really thin, and I used to hide it with a scarf, and they called it, and you wrap it around. They called a superfluous scarf. You don't need that. It's redundant. And he says, "I don't have to write to you about the ministry for the saints. You already know. You already know." This is what I'm trying to communicate to the church, Mosaic, you know so much. And if you're like, "I don't think I know enough." There's 10 years of sermons online where I pour my heart and soul, Pastor Shane, Pastor Andy, we pour our heart and soul into those sermons. You want to know more, go listen. That's why in the newsletter I did that sermon from Nehemiah from 2012. It blessed my heart. I was listening to it, and my daughters Sophia came downstairs and she's like, "Hey, can you put the pastor down because I'm trying to sleep?" I was like, "Sophia. Who is that?" She's like, "Oh no, dad. No. Tell me that's not you." "Yeah, that's me." I talk like this now, because that's what Boston does to you. "It's superfluous for me to write to you about the ministry for the saints." Ministry is the service. And he's talking about generosity, that's ministry. So if people are like, "Well, you're in ministry, your..." Every single one of us, every member ministry. And he's talking about for the needs of the saints, ministry for the saints. Who is he talking about? He's talking about the church in Jerusalem. The church in Jerusalem where it all started. Where the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost poured out his Holy Spirit upon the church, transformed their lives. They started selling real estate. They started selling their land. They started selling everything, and bringing it to the apostle's feet. Because they're like, "It changed my life. The world needs the Gospel. Here you go." And I'm not saying you should sell everything and bring it to the feet of Christ, but I am. Because if every single one of us, we actually sold everything that we have and pulled our money together we'd finally get the church building that we need, with a school. It's a campus now. The vision is growing in my heart. It's a campus. It's like Harvard. We just own the whole thing. And we have housing for every member. If you're a member of the church, this is just my dream, bear with me, where it's free housing for couples, for singles. But if you are a married couple and if you want to live here, well you have to adopt an orphan from the city, and you have to raise them in the Lord, and you have to disciple them, and you have to send them to our school. The MBA, Mosaic Boston Academy. That's what I call it. Where did you go? I got an MBA from MBA. It's in my heart. Imagine if we actually believed that the Gospel changes everything. You know what I was thinking of this week? If everybody became a Christian, we could fix all the problems in the world. And Christian is the only one that can do it. The only one. If you imagine any other world religion. Okay. Everybody is a member of that religion. Is that a world I want to live in? Everyone is a spirit filled Christian. So men are spirit filled, so that dad don't have to worry about you doing something to one of their daughters. My daughter Sophia was telling me about health class. And the teacher, her health teacher was teaching them about date rape drugs. Like, "Hey class, if you ever go to a party and someone gives you a drink, say no thank you, because they might have slipped a drug in it." I was like, "Sophia, get me in the class please. And I'm going to tell, "Girls, how about this? How about we don't go to parties where someone might offer you a drink with a drug to then rape you."" I used to say, I don't believe in litigating morality. I don't believe that anymore. I don't believe that anymore. Because everyone is litigating morality. I believe in litigating morality because God gave us 10 commandments to litigate everyone's morality. They're right there. They're in the Hebrew. Look it up. Exodus. I want everyone to become a Christian. That's what I want. I evangelize to absolutely everyone I meet. Everyone I call them to Jesus. Please. I'm at the point where I've been attending the Brookline town meetings on Zoom. And they were three meetings and I went to two of them. The first one, they let me speak what was on my heart. And they showed everyone in the room and I was just going and everyone is like, yeah, on the screen. So I can see the people are with me. I'm a man of the people. The second one, they blocked all of the screens, so I couldn't get that energy. The third one, they wouldn't let me speak because they can't handle the smoke. So now I'm at the point where it's like, "You know what? I think I'm going to run for the town board. I think I'm going to run for it." Because there's got to be a dad on the board who thinks like a dad and cares for the children of the town. Because the town members do not have children. They don't care about. They're making decisions that are impacting my children. So the point is, the ministry for the saints we should care about. What's the saint? What is he talking about? He's not talking about people who are absolutely holy, but the very second you become a Christian, you are a saint. It's an office. He moves you into that office on the outside door. It says you are saint, and that is your ministry. The saints need help where the Gospel actually got started. Verse two, "For I know your readiness of which I boast you to the people of Macedonia saying that Achaia has been ready since last year, and your zeal has stirred up most of them." I know your readiness. The readiness here is a military term. But you are soldiers of God. You know what the mission is. When you live like that, you begin to understand... A lot of people don't even understand Christianity because they think, "All right, I get saved. And now I have a book and I have to learn it, and I just got to be a nerd. And I got to be a scholar, a biblical scholar. That's what a Christian is." Pastor Andy, who I love with my whole heart. He called me today. Was the biggest compliment. It was kind of talking trash, but he loves me, so it was a compliment because when you really love someone, you tell them what you think. He called me a Russian Rhode Island, Guido, nerd, bro. And I used to think of Christianity, yeah, it's very nerdy. You got to be a nerd to be a Christian. You got to study the Greek and the Hebrew, you got to do all this. And then I realized nerds don't change the world. Nerds do not transform the world unless you're Elon Musk. But even he started taking testosterone. What I'm saying is, you really have to believe. For Christianity to makes sense, you really have to believe that the very second you become a Christian you get thrown into the arena as a gladiator and God gives you a sword. You're not thrown into a lecture hall. You're thrown a world where this only makes sense if you were actually doing it, if you're trying to do it and you realize how helpless you are apart from God. So your readiness of which I boast about you to the people of Macedonian. St. Paul knew their generosity, they got saved, and they were giving everything away. He goes to Macedonian plants the church there, and he tells them, "Hey, you know what happened in Corinth?" And no one could believe it because Corinth was like Boston. Whenever anyone comes to visit Mosaic from another part of the country, I always tell them, "Hey, when you go home, can you please send greetings from the saints in Boston?" And they always laugh. Because it's absurd to think of Bostonians as saints. You don't think of Bostonians as saints unless they got a gun to your head. Saint Paul is saying, "I went to Macedonia. I told everyone you're saints. I told everyone you're generous, now please make sure that you actually live up to the zeal. Your zeal has stirred up most of them." You know what zeal is. It's a fiery passion for God. You're just on fire for God. Lord I really do want to be used by you. Lord I'm all in. Lord fill me with the spirit. Lord there's no part of my life that I am holding back from you. You take it all, take it. That's zeal. And when people see someone with zeal, you know I have happens? They're like, "Oh, maybe I should actually like care a little bit." You feel the zeal, and you're like... The thing is when you feel zeal, you're not going to stir everyone. And this is fascinating. Your zeal has stirred up most of them. You're not going to stir everyone up. So this is why I say move with the movers and shake with the shakers. Jesus said that you go into a town and people reject the Gospel. He said dust off your boots and go to the next one. Don't let the haters kill your zeal. So zeal, stir each other up. That's what we're trying to do here. But I'm sending the brothers. He sends the men to go on mission, do the most dangerous work. I'm sending the brothers, so that are boasting about you may not prove empty, vain in this matter, so that you may be ready as I said you would be. And he does this in chapter eight where he talks about the brothers. And one of the brothers is Titus. One of the brothers is the brother who was famous for preaching the Gospel. Which is fascinating because St. Paul doesn't name the guy. And I think he doesn't name the guy on purpose. So the guy doesn't get a big head because he's already famous for preaching the Gospel. So he's sending these brothers to go and to pick up the generous gift from the Corinthian church. And he says, "So that it wouldn't prove empty. My boasting about you." Continues that same thought in verse four. "Otherwise if some Macedonians come with me, and find that you are not ready, not military ready, you're not ready for the mission. We would be humiliated to say nothing of you for being so confident." St. Paul thinks about humiliation, not in terms of fear of man. He thinks about humiliation in terms of, you didn't keep your promise. That's how you humiliated yourself. You promised to give and you didn't keep your promise. You broke your promise. And now because you broke your promise, people are going to suffer because you are not a man or a woman of your word. Don't humiliate me. Don't humiliate yourself. It's like when someone fathers a son or a daughter, and doesn't father them. That's humiliating. I heard of a guy who when his wife... This week his wife was pregnant with a fourth child and he just left her. And he left the children. He humiliated himself. And then he came back. He repented of a sin and he came back. St. Paul says, don't humiliate yourself by presenting yourself a facade, a mask of being a Christian when your heart is not in it. What would people think if they found out how much you give? I don't know how much anyone gives here. Would you be humiliated if people found out how much you give to the work of the Lord? That's what he's saying. So I thought at verse five, I thought it necessary to urge the brothers, urge, stir, to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for the gift you have promised. The word gift here is blessing, evlogía in the Greek so that it may be ready as a willing gift, not as an exaction. Because before they come, I want you to prepare in your hearts what you're going to give and prepare the gift. Actually set the money aside. So if it's in crypto, if it's in stocks, and if it's in whatever. That's what he's saying. When the time comes, have it ready, so that the presence of these brothers doesn't force you into generosity. Then you won't do it willingly. And it's going to feel like an exaction. And it's going to feel like you're extorting them. St. Paul says, "No, no, prepare it ahead of time." And verse six is the point is this... And I love when pastors get to the point. It took him nine and a half chapters to get to the point. But he is like, finally, I get to the point. Here's the point. This is verse six. The point is this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So he talks about, and this is fascinating. He talks about giving, not as losing. And this is so different than how the world talks about giving. You give and then it's lost. No, no. He views giving, giving by faith. He views giving as investing. And the image that he brings in is a farmer with a bag of grain, and he knows the winter is coming. And he can take the bag and eat off of it, eat well for the winter, or he can eat not as well, good enough, get by, and take the excess and invest it into his own future. So he takes the bag of grain and he goes, and it doesn't take a generous farmer, a generous planter does not penny pinch, pinch the seed. He takes a full handful, swinging arm, and just cast it, just lavishly, generously because he knows the more he sows, the more bountiful the harvest will be. Is that how you view giving? Do you view giving as like penny pinching toward God and toward people? Well, Yeshua of Nazareth was not a penny pincher. As the great rapper said, I forgot his name. Who said that Vlad? Huh? That guy. Yeah. So that's what he's saying. He's like, "Do you invest like this into relationships? Do you invest like this into brothers and sisters?" And I'm telling you, I'm trying to grow in this. I'm not naturally like this. I come from an immigrant family. My dad, he's growing in generosity, I'm growing in generosity. Because I'm good at math, and I'm good at numbers. And I'm like, "Yeah, if I give then I can't invest. And this gift of 100 bucks, isn't really 100 bucks, it's also... If I put in Shiba coin, in a year, it could be a lot more." And then I go through all of that, but the Lord is like, "But I give it to you now to give this person and meet this need." And it's not even yours Jan. That's the point. Do you give this generously? Two texts that I was thinking about today. Luke 19 you get the story of Zaccaeus. And I say this because giving doesn't get you saved. A lot of people think that if you come to the church and you cut God a check, you get God off your back. And now you can go and sin and live any way you want. And you think you have atoned for your sin. And doesn't work like that. So if someone brings in the check, and they're like, "This is to atone for my sins." Would I take the check? We'd have to pray about it. I would call the person like, "Hey, this doesn't save you. This doesn't save you. You know what saves you? Repenting of your sins and trusting in Jesus Christ. God, please forgive me of all my sins." At the very second you submit your life to God, and you believe in him. You trust in Jesus. He died on the cross for your sin. And he didn't penny pinch his blood. He didn't tie this blood. He gave all of his blood to save you. The richness of his blood, of his... He died on a cross for you. Brutal. Was executed for you. Crown of thorns instead of a crown of gold. He did that for you. When you realize that he did that, Jesus died on the cross for my sin to pay all my debts, all of my trespasses, that changes your heart. And then when you read the text, and God tells you to be generous, and you say, "How?" And He says, "As I've been generous to you." Jesus went all in and calls us to do the same. So Luke 19, I was thinking about Zaccaeus. He gets saved and after he gets saved, he was a tax collector. He extorted people, his own people. And he got exorbitantly rich. And then he finally hears the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Jesus was preaching. He was on a tree. And then he gets saved. He gets radically saved. God elects him sovereign regeneration. Zaccaeus comes down and says, "Lord, whatever I've stolen from anybody I'm going to return fourfold. And then from my wealth, I'm going to give away half." Have you ever considered giving away half to the Lord? I have. I do. You know when? When I'm having fun, when church is fun, when ministry is fun, when life is fun, I'm like, "Yeah. Give it all way. This is so much fun." Because it's more blessed to give than to receive. So like you give and God sends blessing, and you're like, "Oh, this stuff is real. Yeah, it's real." And church has been tremendously fun recently. Pastor Shane and Pastor Andy came over my house two and a half hours. I grill them five steaks ribeye black angus from Maine. I grilled them up. They come down into my man cave, and Pastor Andy brought me a bottle of wine. And the reason why he bought that particular bottle of wine is because it had a cross on it as a sign from God. So what I'm saying is, when you're having fun, you're like, "Yeah. Life is so much more bigger, more enjoyable than just stuff, than just money." Verse seven, "Each one must give as he has decided in his heart. Generosity is decided in the heart not reluctantly, not under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. God loves a cheerful giver." You want to give. And God loves when you want to give. Not under compulsion. You're not forced. Not reluctantly, like, "I don't really want to give this." Cheerful giver, because God is a cheerful giver, Jesus Christ is a cheerful giver, for the joy that was set before him, he went to the cross. All right, for God so loved the world that He, what? Let's say it together. He gave. God so loved the world that He gave his begotten son. He gave his son for us. God is loving, generous, giving God, so whosoever believes in him. If you're not a Christian, believe in him. It's just that simple. Just believe in God. He changes your heart, and our sins are forgiven. Your eternity is secure. So why wouldn't we live generously for him? God loves a cheerful giver. Here I want to pause, and I want to talk about your favorite topic, tithing. And if it's not your favorite topic, hopefully it will be after I'm done. Read Matthew 23:23, dear Christian. This is a word for Christians. If you're not a Christian, I'm not talking to you. I mean I kind of are, so you know what you're getting yourself into. But Malachi three, read Malachi three. Read about how God feels when his people do not tithe. What is tithing? He calls it, you're robbing me. You robbed me. God commands that we are to give him 10% of our income. The principle remains. It's like the principle of the Sabbath. We are to give one seventh of our time to the Lord, to devote one seventh of our time to Lord. That's why I'm giving you homework. Because I want you to take a Sabbath where you do homework and you study scripture. And that's why I'm preaching for a lot longer than you perhaps want me to preach. But I have the mic, and unless someone turns it off I'm going to keep going. But my favorite lectures in college were three hours. My favorite lecture in college was a guy named Serge Nikita Khrushchev, Serge Khrushchev, Nikita Khrushchev's son. And he taught for three hours once a week. And he assumed you did all the reading. He assumed you did all the writing. He assumed you thought. And the lecture was just him speaking from his heart. It changed my life, the way I viewed the world. So yeah, I'm calling you to do that. I'm calling you to give your time. I'm calling you to give your life, and I'm calling you dear church to give your tithes. Why? Because... And I'm speaking to Mosaic, obviously I already expect this. I believe in you. That's why. So I expect things from you. The American church on average gives 2.3% of their income to the Lord. Like how can I talk about generosity when we're not even doing the basics. The basics. Read your Bible, pray, silence, solitude, fasting, share the Gospel, give 10%. Before we talk about generosity. It's 10% of what? 10% of my take home. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. The tithe has enough thing to do with Uncle Sam. Uncle Sam is a pagan and I call him to repentance. Uncle Sam, I do. I don't trust Uncle Sam with my money. I don't trust Joe Biden with my money. I don't trust he's going to do the right thing with my money. I'd rather give it to the Lord, and see what the Lord does. So I'm saying taxes that's another conversation for another day. I'm talking about the tithe. It's all the Lords before it's FICAs. So it's 10% of what you earn. And also it's 10% of what you earn off of your real estate, off of your stocks, off of your crypto, off of your side hustles, off of your Uber, off of your everything. So if you're going to tithe, you're going to sit down and you're going to say, "Okay, how much did God give me? How much did I earn? I'm going to give 10% of that." Imagine if the whole church, United States, imagine if the whole church tithed, we would change the world, would transform absolutely everything. And imagine if the church repented of not tithing, and said, "Lord, I've been robbing you for years, and now here's everything that I robbed you of with interest and inflation. Here you go, Lord." Is he serious? Yeah, maybe, I don't know. I'm saying it would change the world. And God loves a cheerful giver. He loves cheerful giving to his work, to his ministry. So we talked about tithe. And then it's anything you give above tithe that's generosity. So I know of believers, members of the church who give to foreign missions, which is awesome. Give to foreign missions after you've given to foreign missions here, because this is a foreign mission field. The whole world is sending their children here to get brainwashed, and then we export the brainwashing to the rest of the world. Well, why don't we take Boston, and do it in such a way where we actually do impact the world. But what have you decided to give to the Lord in your heart? That's verse seven. Verse eight, "And God is able to make all grace abound to you." That's fascinating because there's grace that God is withholding from you. There's blessings that God is withholding from you because you're not ready for it. If God blesses you right now and you don't have a generous heart, if God blesses you, and you don't have a generous heart, that blessing is going to turn into a curse. So yeah, God does withhold grace from some of his children who are disobedient. God does withhold some of his power, some of his presence from you because you're not ready for it. God is able to make all the grace abound so that having all sufficiency in all things and all times. Just satisfaction in everything. You may abound in every good work. You have all sufficiency in... Can you say that right now, and dear Christian? Because sufficiency is not a number, sufficiency is a state of heart. Is your heart right now satisfied in the Lord? Is it satisfied with what he has provided to you? And I wrestle with this, because I'm rich, but I'm Boston poor. You know what I'm saying? Where it's like anywhere else I'd live, I'd have the car I want, I'd have a parking spot, I'd have a garage, but I live in Boston. So like I wrestle with the sufficiency part, and the satisfaction part. So this week I've been wrestling with this text, and I realized I am filthy rich. I am so rich. I have two washer dryers. I have two. I have not one fridge, I have two and a half. I have two full fridges. And I always thought, you know you've made it in life when you have a second full fridge. Because I go to my friend's house and they're like, "Yeah. There's a fridge in the kitchen, there's a fridge in the garage." I'm like, "You got a fridge in the garage." "Yeah." And I also have, on top of my two and a fridge, I have a freezer chock-full of black angus meat. I bought a half a cow from Maine. It's my love language. So if I love you, I'm going to give you a pound of ground beef, or whatever is at the top. I'd give you the ribeye. I'm saying this is a sphere of generosity you want to cultivate here. My community group this week, we have a lot of people who don't have family around here. We're going to have a Thanksgiving meal. I hate turkey. I just despise turkey. If you know me, I got stories about turkeys. But it's what you got to do. And I'm like, "Yeah. But there's a reason why they had a Thanksgiving turkey because they couldn't catch anything else. Yeah." We're going to have turkey, but if it were up to me, we'd have steak. What I'm saying is, this is the season to be generous. This is the season to say, "God thank you. God thank you for the people in my life. I want to bless people. I want to be generous with everything that God has given me." Verse nine, "As it is written, He has distributed freely, He has given to the poor. His righteousness endured forever." He's quoting from Psalm 112, which is... It's a song. It's a poem about a Christian philanthropist. About a person who is generous in everything that they do. Generous with their life. Generous with their children, generous with their spouse, generous with their neighbors. I met with a... Long story. I met with a realtor yesterday and she said, "We're looking for some space for a church." Long story. She said, she was talking about the neighbors, and she's like, "Ah, there's a spirit of generosity." She said. "There's a spirit of generosity in this neighborhood." And I was like, "Oh, isn't that something?" Imagine if there was a spirit of generosity in Massachusetts, the spirit of America. Imagine we could change the nation. Verse 10. "And He, God, supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing, and increase the harvest of your righteousness." God supplies the seed, God supplies the bread. God will, if we're generous, if we're faithful, He will multiply your seeds for sowing, and increase the harvest of your righteousness. I pray about you all week. I pray this all week. I pray, "Lord bless the people of Mosaic. Bless them this week. Bless their souls. Bless their families. Lord provide for all of their... Provide them seed, provide than food. And Lord multiply. Lord God multiply the work of their hands. Lord God, every single bank account of every single person who goes to Mosaic, is a member, Lord multiply. I prophesy that over you. Lord multiply." And you're like, "Is this a name and claim church?" No. It's a biblical church. Come back next week. We're going to talk about church membership and church discipline. But today we're talking about generosity. I pray God blesses your investments. I pray God blesses your crypto coins. I pray God blesses your businesses, your startups, your career, everything so that you can be even more generous to the world. And that changes things. And I love verse 11. This is a promise, friends. Like you can take God up on his promises. Look at this. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way. Who doesn't want that? Do you want to be enriched in every single way? I do. Well, God promised, God says, "I want to enrich you in every single way. It starts with the Gospel. It starts with repenting of your sins." Including greed, friends. When is the last time you got on your knees and said, "God, please forgive me for greed, for being greedy, stingy."? For just mooching off of God. We are to repent. That's a sin. That's a sin. We are to repent of it. And I'm calling the church of the United States to repent. I'm calling everybody to repent. That's my job. And myself, I've had to wrestle with this. I've had to repent of all kinds of brokenness in here when it comes to the sin of being greedy, of worrying that God will not provide. And then what happens when I start worrying, I start working more. And I start working now 40, 50, 80. I start working 100 hours because it doesn't look like the Lord is providing, so I'm going to do everything I possibly can with my own efforts. And that's not really helpful. And then things shut down. What I'm saying is the Lord is bringing healing in here, and I pray that he does the same with you, so that with our hearts together we can be generous toward God. Verse 12, "For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God." This ministry is not just to meet needs, He says, but it's to bring a crescendo of an orchestra of people worshiping God, just overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. That's the point. So when we serve, when we give to God, it's not to get a thank you from people. I ask that you pray, but it's to thank God. "God, thank you." And by the way, I do want to thank you for your generosity. Or those who faithfully give, and for those who faithfully serve, praise God. I don't know how much you give, but I can tell who is giving because they care. Because when you're invested in a place, when you invest in a church, you show up, and you actually want to serve, and you want to do evangelism. You want to do... I had a couple come to me and they're like, "I'm so glad you talk about Thanksgiving dinner because we had Thanksgiving dinner yesterday." And she showed me a picture, and she said, "We had a turk, duck, chicken." It was a turkey stuffed with a duck, stuffed with a chicken. That blessed my heart. Like it's so absurd. That's how generous it is. So I'm saying, church, thank you for your generosity. "By their approval of the service, they will glorify God because of your submission." So the people that you bless glorify God because you submitted your submission. And what does the submission flow from? Flowing from your confession of the Gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for others. They're going to glorify... God is going to get more glory. God is going to get the glory he deserves if you don't just confess Jesus Christ with your mouth, but actually submit your life to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to the word of Jesus Christ. And when you submit your life to Jesus Christ, everything changes. People actually glorify God. You know why David went against Goliath. Read the text. 1st Kings, I think 17. Because for 40 days and 40 nights Goliath would get up and defame the name of God. He would just get up and mock, and curse God, just cursed and... And it's like in Boston when people using the name of Jesus Christ, it's usually to curse someone out. And then David finally, he's like, "Enough is enough. I'd rather die than this continue." And with generosity of his life, he put his life on the altar, and like, "God, all right, I got some stones, can you please direct one of them?" And God did it. This is the generosity of heart, where if you have this, if your heart is in the right place, if your heart is in it, everything changes. Verse 14, "While they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God upon you, thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift." And he ends here and this is fascinating. A sister from the church texted me yesterday and she's like, "Hey, you talked about evlogía, in the study guide it means blessing or gift, and it's used twice. Hey, what about the word at the very end? It says gift. It's a different Greek word. Why does St Paul do this? Is it just a synonym?" Well, the gift here, the blessing that gift means. Focus on the gift. Focus on the gift, don't focus on the giver because where people give God the glory, here's the gift. This one focuses on the giver. It's an inexpressible gift because the gift giver is God Himself, that's why it's inexpressible. And he's talking about the gift of Jesus Christ. He's talking about the gift of God, the Father sending His son Jesus Christ to die for our sins. It's an inexpressible gift. Jesus Christ lived the most generous life that anyone has ever lived. And on top of that, he wasn't just generous in his life, he was generous in his death. Jesus Christ allowed himself to be crucified. He allowed himself to be flogged, scourged. He allowed that crown of thorns. He allowed himself to be put on a Roman cross that he carried. Now they put him on it, and they drove nail. They hammered nails through the most sensitive parts of his hands and his feet. He allowed all of that to happen. His blood poured out, his body broken for us. And then he gets put in a grave, and we think it's all over. And then he comes back from the dead. And the reason why there's Christianity today. And if you don't believe this, I dare you to explain how Christianity grew. Other religions grew by the sword, Christianity grew despite the sword. What would make the early believers go to their death testifying to the Gospel? It's the same thing. What happened? It's the same thing that moved them to sell their real estate. It's the same thing that moved them to sell their land and bring it to the feet of the apostles. What moved them? They saw the resurrected Christ, and they felt the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. It changed absolutely everything. That's why Acts 2 is so important. Acts two says the following, Acts 2:42 through 47. "And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching." They, the early church after day Pentecost. And the breaking of bread, and the prayers, and all came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles, and all who believed were together, and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings, and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their home. They received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day. Those who were being saved. We believe in this so much, we sold everything to be together. We sold everything, get the Gospel out. And by the way, this is the craziest stuff ever, so we're having a good time. And when we're having a good time, other people want to have a good time, and that's how people got saved. I'm working on the theology of fun. I'm working on it. So just bear with me, I'm verbal processing right now. Let me know what you think. I'm working on theology of fun because I've never heard anyone write about this. And the theology of fun goes like this. Who is more fun, God or Satan? And that's the battle over your heart. And what I'm here to tell you is, sin isn't fun. It's fun for like three seconds, and then you wake up the next morning. You know what is fun? It's a lot harder, but what is fun is following Jesus. There's nothing like it. There's nothing like the Holy Spirit stirring you, just miracle day after day, after day. There's nothing more fun. So what I'm saying is the Jerusalem church did that so that the Gospel could get out, and the Gospel got where? To Corinth, and now Corinthian believers have finances that the Jerusalem church needs, and Corinth gives back to where the Gospel came from. So this is my appeal to you church, and my appeal to the church of the United States, which I do not understand. I don't understand the church in America. I don't understand the church in America because we're not thinking about the Gospel right. We're not thinking about the kingdom. We're not thinking strategically. We're not. If we were thinking strategically, and this is a global church as a whole, if we were thinking strategically about how to get the Gospel out, and how to fix the world, this is how we'd be thinking. We'd say, "As America goes, so goes the world." How does America go? America goes as Boston goes. Boston is only a decade ahead of everyone else. And the American church sends their children here to get brainwashed and then export demonic ideologies to the churches of the United States. So what I'm saying is, it's time to take the head off the beast. Why doesn't the American church pull their finances together and say, "You know what? We're actually going to take Boston the way that we should have taken Boston. And we're going to send resources, and Pastor Jan is a nut, but he's effective." And so we together, we're going to build that campus. We're going to build Harvard the way it should be with a church in the middle, and a school, and the Mosaic Boston Academy, and an orphanage. And I want a cafeteria to feed absolutely everyone. And you get free meal if you listen to a 15-minute talk by me. And then when you get saved, you start actually joining the church, and joining the community. This is my call to the church. And also, and by the way if you live here, stay here. And I am talking to all the former members of Mosaic. I'm talking to you. I know you guys listen. You text me. I know Drew. Yeah. You know. Yeah. I can call out the name. I'm calling you back. I'm calling all of you back, and I want every single the seat filled so that we're talking about third and fourth services. I'm calling you back. And if you don't come back, at least send your tithes and offerings to the church. But first give tithes to your local church, then be generous here. And then here's what I also want to... All the time when I say Boston, we're going to take this city. And people are like, "Yeah. Real state is too expensive." Don't live in Boston. I'm not talking about Boston proper, I'm talking about Boston the idea. If you ask anyone from Worcester, where are you from? And they go to Texas. Where are you from? They're not going to say Worcester. No one knows what Worcester is. No one knows how to spell it. Everyone says Boston. Where are you from? Rhode Island, Long island? No, no, no. I'm from Boston. Everyone says Boston. So if you're from Boston, New Hampshire, Maine. And Maine's only an hour away. I don't even... Just drive here. If you drive here like taking the T from the north end takes longer to get here than driving from Rhode Island. You know what I'm saying? So if you come here on a Sunday, if you can get here on a Sunday, start a commuting group wherever you at. We're taking the city. That's what I'm saying. And then if you're like, I don't have a fancy degree to live up here. Hey, do you know how to build anything? Because no one up here knows how to do anything with their hands. The only thing they do with their hands is type, that's it. So if you're a builder in the United States or from outside, if you're an immigrant, if you're from Russia, I'm calling all the builders, and we're going to rebuild the city together. I'm going to help you establish your business. I know how. And then we're going to build a family home for the church. Have I said everything on my heart? Yes. 2nd Corinthians 9:15. Oh, by the way, if you're not a Christian today, would you become a Christian? Just repent your sin. Come on. Welcome to the team already. I've been doing this for too long to be like... That's why I'm switching up my style because I realized I don't want any barriers between who I am in my life, and when I get up here. I don't want to be like the different guy. This is how I live my life. I share the Gospel. I love the Lord. I read the word. I love my wife. We get in fights. She came to church today. We forgive each other. I love my daughters. I just want everyone to be a Christian. And if you are a Christian, let's grow up together. That's what I'm saying, and haka dance to the Lord as we worship. 2nd Corinthians 9:15, "Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift." Amen. Let's pray. Lord God please pour out your holy fire upon the hearts of your people. Burn in our hearts a desire to take the head off the beast like David took Goliath's in Jesus holy name. Amen.
The Heart of a Man of God
November 14, 2021 • 2 Corinthians 8:16–24
Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Good morning, church. Welcome to Mosaic. My name is Jan, one of the pastors along with Pastor Shane and Pastor Andy. If you're new or visiting, we'd love to connect with you through the Connection card. If you fill it out legibly, just leave it at the welcome center. With that said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's word? Heavenly Father, I pray that you reveal your heart to us, the Father's heart, that everything you do and everything you say comes from a place of love. Because you love so much, you allow yourself to be grieved. You do experience anger. There is a jealousy. There is a wrath, but it's all there because of your love. I pray that you make us a people that understand your heart, a people who are willing to share our hearts with you and share our hearts with one another. Only when we can do that can we encourage each other's hearts, infuse faith in hearts. Then Lord, I pray as you knit our hearts of faith together, set our hearts ablaze with your faith for the work that you have called us to, to proclaim Jesus Christ, who because of His great love for us came, lived, and died, and said, "Whoever would believe in the heart, have faith in the heart, not in the mind but in the heart." I pray, Holy Spirit, stir our hearts. I pray, engulf our hearts. We pray for anointing, a special faith, a faith for revival because we love you, because we love each other, and because we love the world, because we love people. We pray all this in Jesus name. Amen. Title of the sermon is The Heart of a Man. I am going to primarily focus on 2 Corinthians, chapter 2, 8 through 16, from our text from last week. Then as I was preparing the message for this week, I realized, "Yeah, I preached an expository sermon that exposed the text, but I didn't show you how the text exposes my heart." If you don't know how the text exposes my heart, you don't know my heart. If you don't know my heart, you can't know my faith and my vision. I'm going to read 2 Corinthians 2, 8:16. Then I'm going to meditate on what it means to share what God put in your heart. I had a question from a brother after the sermon. He said, "What do you want us to talk about in CG? The sermon was so different." I said, "2 Corinthians 2:8 through 16. Talk about what God has put in your heart." One verse... I'll go as far as I make it. "But thanks be to God, who put into the heart of Titus the same earnest care I have for you." This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. May He write these eternal truths upon our hearts. If you have been at Mosaic the last month or so, you realized things are different. It's because God has something put on my heart that I don't even know what I... It took a lot of time just reflecting. It's like, what is going on in here? Because I'm naturally wired to get up here with a huge machine gun of biblical truth, and just shoot you up, sit down, worship Jesus, go home, because that's the way I'm wired. It's all mind, mind, mind, mind, mind. My mind thinks a million things at the same time. That's why I'm all about know God. SDG, Soli Deo Gloria. It's all for God's glory. Get to know God, get to know God, get to know God. Then I'm like, once you know God, GSD, GSD, GSD. Get stuff done. SDG, GSD. This is like, it's on my heart. In order to live like this, you got to know what's in there. This week, I got hacked or something. I don't know. Someone set up a fake email and a fake Facebook and asking people for money. I had to send out a newsletter. I did that. I didn't want to do that because I don't like sharing all of the demonic attack that happens over the course of the week on me, on my marriage, on my family, on the staff. It's like ah. We're moving the church toward real talk as part of our culture. Well, you got to talk. I did that. I kind of exposed. Then I was like, all right. Saturday comes along. I'm like, "Gosh, everyone knows something's up. Everyone knows something different. I'm going to send a newsletter, and no one's going to know what's up." I'm going to write a joke that's only funny to me and God, partially because I'm trying to speak from the heart, expand the heart, and no one really knows who I am unless I speak from the heart. I was talking to my wife about this. I was like, "Why can't I bring humor into the church, laughter into this church, sad times? People need to... " She's like, "Because you have a crazy laugh. You have a maniacal laugh." I laugh like that. Then she's like, "Don't do that, please." My laugh comes from the heart. What I'm saying is no one got that joke except for the people that really, really, really know me. Tyler, who runs our youth ministry... He came up to me after one of the sermon. Holy war, I think. He's like, "Bro, you freaked everyone out." He's like, "I know what you meant, but they don't know you." That really stuck with me. I'm like, "Oh, why don't they know me? Why don't they know that everything I do, is I do it because I have a big heart. I love this church. I love my family. I love my wife. I love my daughters. It's all coming out of here." I got a verse this week, John 5:4. I was like, "Yeah, that's what I'm doing. God, thank you for the anointing." John 5:4... It says an angel comes down to stir water, just stir things up. I was like, "Yeah, that's what I'm doing. I'm stirring things up, getting the church to a place of authenticity. It's just real talk all the time." Then it says for healing. I was like, oh, I've been wielding my sword. Everyone walks out of here just caught up. They're like, "What just happened to me?" I am here today just to expose a little of my heart. I've been trying to do that in this season. It's hard. It's not natural to me. I've branded myself as a Russian from New England. It's a miracle that I have any emotions at all, but I have so much in here. It's just that when I begin to share, my brain begins to glitch out. Then also, my wife doesn't like that I show emotion. I'll get into that. To really get 2 Corinthians and then why I have been doing it because St. Paul... Verse by verse by verse, he's like, "I love you. I'm proud of you. I boast about you. You're the greatest church that I have ever planted. I have so many big visions for you. I believe in you." It only makes sense because they know that he loves them. You can't have direct talk, real talk to people unless they know it's coming from a place of love because this is how I disciple my daughters. I get down to their level. When I do this, when I do this, and you're like, "He's freaking me out again," I'm just saying, I want to have a one-on-one conversation with every single one of you. I know, logistically, it's Boston. I've got an opening in February. I'm just going to pretend this is the one on one. I want to bring this voice into the culture of the church where we bare our hearts. St. Paul is speaking as a good father. He wants to be helpful. He's not criticizing to criticize. He's coaching them. If you ever played sports, even kid sports... I was at my daughter's soccer game yesterday, Elizabeth. The coach is yelling at them. He called my daughter angry Elizabeth. That's her nickname because when she's angry, she scores goals. I'm like, angry Elizabeth. She's like, "Dad, don't scream. Don't scream. You're freaking me out. You're embarrassing me." I'm like, "I'm screaming because I love you. Put your heart into your foot." She scored two goals yesterday, and her team won 5 and 0. They went undefeated in the whole year. Praise God. When I'm speaking like this, it's not because I am mad at you. I'm trying to stir your heart up for great work for God. Without real talk, there's no real life change. We can theoretically talk about God and the scriptures. We walk away, nothing changed. It's just information, information, information. That's how the world works. Scripture isn't given for information. It's given to change the heart. Scripture is supposed to change the heart. True expository preaching is exposing everything in here. Stir it up. Yes, there's sin. Yes, there's sadness. Yes, there's grieving. Yes, there's anger. There's all kinds of stuff going on in here. To really read scripture, you got to allow it to read you and to respond. People are like, "Is this different than what Mosaic is about?" Mosaic was always about this. We put it in our core values. Love Jesus, simple. By the simple, the heart... When we started the church, simple was never simplistic. It's not baby food. It's not breastfeeding. It's get to the heart of the matter because the matters of the heart are what matter. You can't get to the simplicity of Christianity if you do not know each other's heart. I know the challenge is in the city. I feel like every time I get up here, we don't know each other. There used to be a song called We Don't Talk Anymore. I used to sing it all the time. Whenever something would happen in the church, I would be like, "We don't talk anymore." That's what COVID felt like. We just stopped talking heart to heart. I would get up here. I'm like, "This is what God said. That's what God said. Just do that, do that, do that. SDG, GSD." I'm like, "How do they understand what I'm saying if they don't understand the heart?" I got to take it from God's heart. I got to download it into my heart. I got to do the hard. This is hard. This is hard. This is hard. I don't even know what I'm doing. I'm going to write. I wrote. I wrote 14 pages. Then I was like, you know what? I'm just going to stand up here and speak from the heart because I want to connect not just with your mind, but with your heart, because true faith isn't in the mind. A lot of you know God with your mind inside and out. You have books of the Bible memorized, but do you believe in your heart? Scripture says, "Confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe," where? With your heart. Believe with your... from the depth. God, I love you. I talk about the love part. I'm like, love, love, love, love, love, love, love. I just assume you believe. I assume you believe. You don't truly believe unless you believe with your heart. There's stuff in the way of true faith. Sometimes I get up, and I talk about faith. I talk about the vision. My vision for the church, my vision for the world... I just want to fix everything because that's how dads think. I have fears in my heart that I don't want to be there. I have fears in my heart about my daughters. I have fears about my daughters going outside and things happening to them. Then I say, that makes me sad. That grieves my heart. It transitions to anger. Unless you stop there and say, "Is this from God? Holy Spirit, sanctify all these emotions. Holy Spirit, baptize these tears. Baptize these feelings. Baptize whatever I'm feeling." Only then can it turn into zeal and resolve to fix things. One of the reasons why I am doing what I'm doing is because I knew this was coming when we were like, okay. The 10th anniversary party... I got to meditate on what just happened the last 10 years. I'm like, I don't want to even go to... I got up. I was like, there's years of my life missing. 2017, I have no idea. Part of it is that this is the way I work. If a year is painful, if a moment is painful, if it's a moment that I'm... It feels awkward. I don't want to be here. I shut the heart off. I turn on the mind. I turn on the strength. What are we going to do about it? Then I do that for a while. Then a year goes by. I'm like, "What just happened?" For me to get back into the heart, it's very painful because it forces me to feel what I didn't feel at that very moment. Then I'm like, "What just happened, 2017? I don't want to feel any of that. I don't want to feel any of that." Partially, this is the way I work because this is the way I got through my childhood. I never bring up my childhood. I never bring up my mom because there's a lot of very sad memories in my life that shaped me to be who I am. My mom and dad moved here when my dad was 30, my mom was 27. My mom got married at 19 just to get out of her house because she was the ninth of 11 children. She's like, "This is crazy. I'm out." She just got married. She had me at 20. In her heart, I know. She had pain from her childhood. She brought that into child rearing. Then we moved to the States. Now she's a foreigner. A lot is going on there. I grew up as an immigrant kid in an inner city public school system in Rhode Island, which is how... When people talk about race and things like that, one of the things that people don't realize is I was the minority, always, in every single sense. The way I see the world is very unique than other people. My wife told me. She's like, "Why did you write that you love people? I love you so much." She was like, "Why are you using that language?" She's like, "No one believes you anyway." The reason why she says, she knows I love... The people that know me, they know I'm a loving person. Everything that I do, it comes from here. She says, "Because you walked on the street, and you're scary. You laugh like a maniac. You like to growl and things." I'm like, "Oh." My personality doesn't make sense to anyone unless they really understand the missing link. The missing link is I love Jesus. As crazy as that, I love God. I believe in God. I really believe in the God of the Bible. You don't understand how I read holy scripture unless you understand how I love, how much I love God. When I read scripture, I read scripture in 4D. I read scripture, and I see the movie in my mind as I read the words. I don't just understand the ideas. I see it. I see myself in the role. Whatever role, whatever story, I'm there. I'm inside. I always want to do the greatest thing. In the story of King David, I want to take Goliath down. In my commissioning sermon to become a pastor, I got up. I was like, "I am going to take Boston." You hear me say that right now, and you're like, "Oh yeah. That makes sense." Back then, if I could go back in time in a time machine, I would go back and eat that guy. Very different because Boston changes a man, because war changes a man. Where was I going? I called my mom. This is really important because I do not call my mom, because my mom wants to talk about feelings. I call my dad because my dad just wants to talk about stuff, get stuff done. He just wants facts. I called my mom. I haven't called my mom in so long that I didn't even know her number. Changed her number. She was in my speed dial. I was like, "Ah man. That's why." I called her. We had a nice conversation. It just felt good. I'm here to encourage you. If you want to work on heart things, call your mom. Call your mom. I called her. I missed her. I told her I missed her. We talked. We could talk for 33 minutes and 30 seconds. That's meaningful to me because I think that's the longest we've ever talked. Had a really heart conversation. She watches my sermons. She's like, "Something is off." This is why I called her. She sent me a sermon, and she's like, "This is my favorite sermon. You should listen to it." I'm like, "Oh." What did she say? I'm listening to the sermon. I'm like, "I don't even know what this guy is talking." It's a Russian sermon. He's not expositing anything. I'm all technical analysis. I'm like, "This is a terrible sermon. Get that sermon out of here." I called her. I was like, "Why did you like that sermon?" She's like, "Well, he said good things." I said, "What did he say?" She's like, "I have no idea." Then I went back, and I listened to him. I'm like, "Oh, he was just speaking from the heart, and it connected to her heart." I'm like, "Oh wow." Then I was like, "Mom, look. I'm changing things up in the church. It's kind of crazy. Everyone thinks I'm a nut, Mom. Can you please speak into this?" I'm not crazy. I just want to say. Some of you are psychiatrists. You're like, "Well, I am analyzing Pastor Jan. What is wrong with this guy?" Especially if you listen to last four or five sermons, you see just a different person up here every single time. I talked to Pastor Shane. Pastor Shane's like, "Hey, man. Everyone's freaked out. Can you just connect everything and do it in one thing?" That's what my wife says. I'm like, "All right." I called my mom. I said, "Mom, what would you recommend I do?" She said two things. She said, "Tell everyone, especially the sisters in the church, that you're not fighting them. You're fighting for them. You're fighting for their faith." I was like, "Oh, that's a good thing to say." I'm not fighting. This is what Adam should have said. "Hey, Eve, baby. You're offering me an apple. I'm going to go have a steak. I don't want to fight you about it. I'm going to go to war against the serpent who's offering you," right? That's what should have happened. Then she said this. She said, "Also, can you slow down your pace because I no speak English good." That's true. Just bear with me. I'm trying to expand. I got a big heart. I'm trying to find my range of voice. I have all kinds of something. 2 Corinthians 8:16. It's the heart. "Thanks be to God." God, thank you. Paul believes in God. When Paul talks about faith, we're saved by grace through faith. He understands. Yes, I believe in God. Yes, I believe that God puts things into a person's heart, things to do for God. "Thanks be to God, who put into the heart of Titus the same earnest care I have for you." When God saves a person, He puts into their heart not just salvation, not just forgiveness of sins. Unfortunately, that's where a lot of Christians stay. This is my challenge to you, church, my appeal to you. Do not just stay at the place of, my sins are forgiven. If your sins are truly forgiven, your heart is transformed. You have a deep passion and love for God, for people. You care. You care for people. When God saved me, He... This is why I found the newsletter so funny, because I find my life so funny. I find it ridiculous that God has placed me in the position that He's placed me. Whenever I talk about wins in my past, I'm not saying it because I'm awesome or because I'm so capable. I'm telling you those wins are important to me because it was a miracle. It was a miracle that I ended up in this country. It was a miracle that I grew up in a Christian household. It was a miracle that I got into college. Anytime I share any of that, I'm like... If you knew little pepperoni-faced me in middle school, you'd be like, "Oh." It's all a miracle. When I see things that I hope for the church in the future and they sound crazy to you, well, it's because I've seen miracles of God in my past. I've seen God work over, and over, and over. When we started the church, Pastor Andy reminded me of this in staff meeting. He's like, "Remember that time you got up in the library of the YMCA, and you said that we are starting a church that one day is going to fill Fenway Park with a worship service?" I was like, "Oh yeah, I did say that." Here's why that hit me. I'm already past that. This is the way my heart works. Because I really love, I just assume that God is going to bless us so incredibly because God loves us so much. I'm like, "Of course, we're going to fill Fenway Park." I'm already onto the church building. When are we going to build the church building for everybody? This is the way my faith works. When I said, "Hey, everyone, can you please just catch up?" I said that last week. Everyone's like, "Oh, chill out, bro." I'm saying not just catch up in knowledge. I'm saying catch up in faith, but for you to catch up in faith, you got to catch up with your heart, not just with your mind. To do that, I got to share what's on my heart. When God saved me, He really made me work to love, love Him, love His word, and love His mission. I want to do something really significant with my life because I read the Bible. It's like, I see Christians nowadays. They live biblical lives, with small, small B, small letters, biblical. If you read the Bible, the reason why that word is used in other contexts, it's like biblical... This is biblical. I'm reading the Bible. I'm like, "Why isn't my life biblical? Am I leading a life that could truly be a chapter in the Bible which is legendary?" Well, how do you live a legendary life? You do what Jesus Christ did, the greatest legend, the greatest man, the Son of God, the Son of man. He lived for people. He cared for people. He sacrificed for people. I knew I was called into ministry. I was training up for it, and then I met Tanya. I explained the legend part. One of the things that I do to live a legendary life is I live a life that would... when I tell the story so that people would just be so amazed that it's beyond. I do things where I'm like, "That wasn't me. That was the Lord. That wasn't me. That was the Lord." I'm like, "All right, Lord. I need a pastor's wife. Can you send me a pastor's wife?" I gave God a list of things, a requirement, a list. She needs to be a woman of God. She needs to know the Bible better than me. She needs to actually care about evangelism because that's what real Christians do. I threw in freckles and green eyes just for fun, just to see what the Lord would do with it. I met Tanya. I'm like, that's the one. That's the one. She didn't know it yet. I had to convince her. I did. We were called together to ministry. We went to seminary. In seminary, I thought I was going to go to Russia. From seminary, I realized Lord stirring something in my heart to go to Boston. I'm from the area. I want to go to Boston. I want to plant a church. Tanya didn't want to go. She didn't want to go. She cried. She cried her first vision trip. Well then, she's like, "You know what, baby? If you believe, I'm going to pray about it. Our hearts are bound together." Just to show you how we love each other, this is why when everyone is freaking out, when my wife and I... We just go at it. We go at it because we love each other. There's no exit ramp. There's no... It's like, we're going go duke it out because we're got to live together anyway. At home, it's the culture of real talk most of the time. I have one story to explain how different we are. Everyone assumes that Jan and Tanya are Slavic. Therefore, they're exactly the same because everyone assumes that if you're Russian, Ukrainian, whatever, from all these countries, that you're just Russian, which is kind of racist. No offense. None taken. She's from Ukraine. I'm from Estonia. I grew up here. We are very different, including our senses of humor. When I was trying to communicate with the joke thing, it's like, you really got to love someone to know what makes them laugh. She's found out what makes me truly laugh. I'll give you one example of when she made me laugh harder than I've ever laughed in my whole life. It was my 38th birthday. She got me a little gift. I take it out of the little gift bag. It's a T-shirt. It's a black T-shirt. On the front is a picture of Michael Scott. She's going to hate this story. I love the story. Under the picture, it's a very famous phrase that he says. I was dying. I was like, "This is the funniest thing I've... " to the point where she's like, "What's going on? Why is this that funny?" I was like, "Do you know what it says? Do you know what that means?" She said, "It's like when I tell you to do something and then you go do... " That's what she said. She has no idea, but she knew that was going to be funny for me. What that showed me is that woman does not get me at all, but she gets me on a level that nobody does. That's what love is. That's what love in a family is. You get to know each other's idiosyncrasies, just things that are weird about you. I say that because we have this at staff meeting. The staff of Mosaic... We have a group chat that is absolutely hilarious. None of you will get it. We get it because we have a language that connects our hearts. St. Paul says, "Look. Before you tell people about care you have for them, hey, can you tell them what's in your heart? Can you tell them how much you love before you tell them information about God?" Here, I just want to pause and talk particularly to men because this sermon is about a heart of a man. I want to address, specifically, gentlemen. Hey, I don't know if you notice, we have hearts. Ladies, just as FYI, we have hearts. We have feelings, a broad range of feelings. I have to mention that because we... Number one, we live in a culture where that's not that important. Men aren't welcome to share their feelings because that doesn't do anything because it's all about skills, and what you can do, and making money, and executing. What is the heart? It's the center of emotion. Men have emotions. We have to process and feel things. Men do it differently than ladies. Men, when we're really growing together, we're growing together because we connect our hearts. For men, it's different. Ladies... They go out for tea. They go for a walk. They read a book together or things like that. Gentlemen... We don't really connect like that. We connect, like, "Hey, man. You want to do something? What do you do? Do you build something? Hey, teach me how to build. Show me your skills. Show me what you're good at." Then shoulder to shoulder, as we're learning, our hearts are connected. We connect at a much deeper level than we would otherwise. That's why for gentlemen, community groups, sitting around the circle... I tell people that community groups are kind of the... It's the gateway drug to the church. Maybe worship service is, but what I'm saying is to go really deeper, community group is just there for you. Open the Bible. You pray together. You get connected with your hearts on mission for the Lord. Don't just share wins because if you share wins... This is a lesson I'm learning, is if you keep sharing wins, just, people think you're just super human. As a believer, we believe in the Holy Spirit, don't we? We believe that the Holy Spirit sometimes anoints people. When you share wins, when you share a vision, when you share faith, when you share from the heart, you're not saying, "I'm awesome." You're saying, "This is very important. This is very different. I want to explain this to you because that's not me. I'm actually kind of pathetic, but it's the Spirit of God in me." I'll just give you one story of when my mom... Since I'm on this throne. My mom really ministered my soul. The very first time I was called to preach the gospel, to preach God's word, I preached in my home Russian church in a tie. I got up there with a Bible. I didn't want to preach. I'm like, "God, did you want me to preach? I don't want to preach. What am I going to preach on if I don't want to preach?" I preached on Jonah because Jonah didn't want to preach either. I got up there. I had the sermon memorized because I had to preach in Russian. I got paralyzed. I turned beet red, cotton mouth, everything. If you don't understand that point, you don't understand why this is hilarious. I got down. It was the most uncomfortable sermon for everyone in the church. I got down. My mom's like, "Hey. Hey, what happened?" My dad's like, "This is what you should fix next time." Then my mom is like, "Oh, what happened?" She's like, "Oh, you're afraid. You're afraid of people." Then this is the way she does. She called everyone is село, which is a village. She's like, "They're just people. They're just people. You're a person. They're a person. Just share what's on your heart." I was like, "Oh, you can't share what's on your heart if there's fear of how you will be misinterpreted." That's the day and age that we live in. It's all just information, information, information, mind, mind, mind, mind. That's where we go to war. We don't really share what's on our heart, what's really going on because we're not sure that people will understand. One thing men don't do enough is to really talk about how they feel things. In this season where I'm trying to reshape the culture of the church, what I'm trying to do is just to bring more people in. I have a really big heart. I love all people, all kinds of people. I can relate to all kinds of people. That's why people that know me know I can connect because of my very diverse experience. I can connect with people from everywhere. That's why at this church, we have people from all over the world because one on one, I know how to speak to different people. When I get up here, all of you are in the room at the same time. I'm trying to have a one-on-one conversation. My mind just breaks. What I'm doing is I'm trying to expand the culture of the church to include speaking from the heart. To speak from the heart, you got to be honest about what's going on inside. How are you? You know what? Things kind of did not go on well. There were seasons in my life where there's deep, deep sadness, grieving, that I'm like, "Yeah, this isn't helpful to anybody. I just need to encourage everyone from God's word when I don't really want to feel." Did I get to the Tanya story yet? I've got a lot of Tanya stories. I'll tell you one story. During COVID, I choked up for the first time in a sermon because I'm like, "This." I'm preaching to a camera downstairs. Pastor Shane, Chloe handling logistics. I'm looking at the camera, empty room. It hit me, just overwhelm hit me, how long this is going to be. I just saw that this is going to be part of our life for a long time and that the church was going to be gutted through it. I got choked up. Then I went home. I forgot about it because that's what I do. I went back to work. Then Sunday comes. I preach on Thursday. Sunday comes. My wife and I... We watched the livestream in different rooms because we tried watching the livestream once together, and my wife is like, "Oh finally, I have an opportunity. I'll finally tell you everything that you should have fixed in real time." I'm like, "This isn't helping, baby. I'm going to another room." Then she saw me get choked up. Then she's like, "Never do that again. People need strong leader." If you know my wife, that's what she says. I was like, all right. I packed on 50 pounds of muscle and figured out how to grow a beard. Here I am. You're welcome, Tanya. Thank you, Tanya. This week, I had time to process. I went back to that moment. I was like, "You know what? That's messed up, that you can't share what's on your heart. How am I supposed to lead people into battle if they don't know I care so much that I'm willing to lead the charge and die? How can I say that from the heart if people don't know I really love them?" It does grieve me when sad things happen. That was a sad time in my life. I remember Julie Busby came up to me. She's like, "Hey, man. Wow. Pastor Jan does get sad." That really hit me. I'm like, "Why don't people know that?" Oh, because I'm a tremendous actor, by the way. I can get up here, and I can do the whole joyful thing. Every once in a while, men, we have to share what's on our heart, and we have to connect at a heart level because no one really cares how much you know until they know how much you care. If you care, then you can give them what you know. If you care, if they know your heart, then when you speak of what faith God puts in your heart... That's really my gift. A lot of people don't know that. My spiritual gift is faith. That's my superpower, very illogical faith. When none of the data makes sense and everyone's like, "Why are you doing what you're doing?" I'm like, "It makes me sense to me because the Holy Spirit made it make sense to me." It doesn't make sense to anyone else around until I really share my heart. That's what St. Paul says in verse 16. We're talking about Titus. Titus is his disciple. Titus became a Christian because St. Paul shared his life and heart with Titus. He's like, "Hey, Titus. Let me tell you my story." That's the most powerful way of doing evangelism, is just telling your story. Let me tell you about all the miracles God did in my life. Let me tell you who I was before I met Jesus on the road to Damascus. Let me tell you what Jesus did. He revolutionized my life. He put me in a place where I am supposed to do the same for other people, share the gospel in a way that connects to their hearts so their hearts are changed. I'm thankful for St. Paul for preaching the gospel and sharing his heart. I'm thankful for Titus for sharing what God put in his heart. I'm thankful for Jesus Christ, with whom it all starts, for coming and sharing his heart, what's on his heart, speaking truth in love because everybody knew that He loved them. Everything that He did was motivated by love to the point that He was willing to die, and He sacrificed Himself on the cross. He's like, "This is how big my heart is. Everything I do, I do it because I love God and people." Paul influences Titus, and the influence is not just with truth but with love, with his heart. He says to Titus, "Hey, Titus. Do you understand the world?" Do you understand who your master is because if you don't understand that Jesus Christ is your king, that Jesus Christ is your master, you don't understand anything. If you think you are your own master, that's when you will understand that you're not a very good master. Either you become a despite to yourself and just drive yourself to produce, produce, produce, or you allow your flesh to take over. You allow your passions, and your lust, and your greed, and everything inside that's sinful, all the evil in here, to take over, Titus. You need a master who can put everything in here in order and tell you what to do, give you marching orders. Young man, do you know who your master is? Do you know who your king is? Do you know who your God is? If not, you don't know what your purpose is in life. It's definitely not just, have a good time until you die. That's a very meaningless way to live. Movies are not made about people like that, that inspire. We're inspired by legends, by legendary movies where people submit to a greater, higher calling. Who's your master, Titus? Then once you know who your master is, hey, Titus, young man, what's God calling you to do? What's the very specific mission that God has placed in your heart? It's very specific. God does have a very specific plan for every single person. To understand your mission, you got to share that with people. You say, "I feel like this is... God was place." Share it with your community because I have people that come to me all the time. They're like, "I feel like I'm called to international missions." I ask them, and I talk about it. Then I say, "Okay, why don't you start now in the city where there's people from all over the world?" We are together, are to shape each other's mission, whatever that mission is. Before you think, gentlemen, especially young, single gentlemen... Before you get to know someone to marry, before you find a mate, you got to know who your master is. You got to know who your mission is. Then once you know your mission, then you know how to meet someone that can help you in that mission, that we're partners together, someone you can lead in that mission. Too many men are lost, young men in the nation. That's why we look to voices, young men, like Joe Rogan and Jordan Peterson, to teach you about manhood instead of looking to Jesus Christ. Those voices are helpful as long as you know that Jesus Christ is the master giving you a mission. Before you think about dating, get that ironed out. Then when you meet a girl, you're not just saying, "Hey, I'm looking for a 10, physically." I'm looking for a 10, holistically, so that we can be on mission together and be as effective as possible. Let's do another verse. We're on a run. Verse 17, "For he not only accepted our appeal, but being himself very earnest he is going to you of his own accord." His own accord because God put it on his heart. God, I'm ready. I'm ready. Put me in. Put me in. What do you want me to do? St. Paul says, "Seasoned, mature Christian." "Hey, Titus, you have eagerness to serve God. Now I got a job for you." He appeals. One of the things I noticed is that I make appeals. I'm like, "I have this vision for a church building with a school." No one really understands because no one really understands the heart. That's why I'm trying to share the heart of the Father. Before I appeal, I need you to be on the same page of, "Hey, are you asking God, 'Hey, God. What did you put on my heart? What do you want me to do? What do you want me to do?'" Then when I stand up and I make appeals, it makes sense. Church, I will make appeals. I will challenge you and not because I'm mad at you, but because I believe in you. I want the absolute best for you. If you're not sure of your specific mission, well, until God calls you elsewhere, I am here to tell you. Your mission is to take Boston. This is our town. This is what it means to be a man of God. You walk into a place. You say, "You know what? God has placed me here. I'm taking responsibility for this town." We're going to change things from the inside out. Lord really spoke to me this week when I read... For the very first time, it hit me, what's at the bottom of our license plates. What's at the bottom of our license plates? Spirit of America, Massachusetts. How's that going? Kind of demonic, if you ask me. It's a demonic spirit that's coming out of here, a spirit of criticism and condemnation, judgementalism. Certainly not a spirit of true, sacrificial, authentic, real love. God is calling us into this place to change the spirit. To change the spirit, we got to plead with God, "God, anoint us by the power of the Holy Spirit to exercise the demon," that is the spirit of America, that is Massachusetts. I welcome you into that mission. Verse 18, "With him we are sending the brother who is famous among all the churches for his preaching of the gospel." It's Titus. This brother is famous for preaching the gospel. There's no need to be famous for preaching the gospel. Some people do preach the gospel, and they're more famous for it, but that's not really the point at all. The point is always to make the gospel famous because Jesus Christ is to be famous. We are to worship and glorify Him. There's lots of lessons in that text, but the point that I want to bring out is when God calls you to something, He's going to build a team around you, brothers and sisters. The bigger the calling, the more people God is going to bring into the call. It's just a matter of finding your position on the team. Being in one position doesn't make you better or more significant than any other. Some positions are more visible than others, but they're all equally important. One person is the quarterback. Another person has to be the lineman. They're friends at the end. The wins are wins for the team. We are to be hard workers at whatever we do. This gentleman wanted to preach the gospel. He was famous for it because he did it well. One of the things that I'm telling you I'm doing is in this season, I'm pushing myself to become a better communicator of the gospel, that after 10 years, I look back, I'm like, we did some great things. We did some great things. I'm so proud of this church. I'm so proud of what we've accomplished together. I'm so proud of your sacrifice, and your service, and your generosity, of your faith, of your selflessness. I'm so proud of you. I'm doing soul-searching. For me, I'm like, "There's things I should have done differently." I'm saddened by the fact that I did not stir hard enough, partially because when I stir the church, the church stirs back, because when I switch things up, people get freaked out. They're like, "Are you crazy?" I'm switching things up. I'm stirring things up because I want more healing. One of the things I wish I had done, I wish I had stirred people up sooner. I wish I had invited people into the heart, into the vision of what we're trying to do at this church and calling people to make hard sacrifices. I'm making heart sacrifices. Staff is making heart sacrifices. People have planted their life here. I'm stirring you up, church, to make those sacrifices, to look into the heart. I stir myself up. That's what I'm trying to say. I preach the sermon. Then every Sunday night, I watch it. The last four have been riveting for me. The reason why I started switching stuff up is I got to a point where my preaching, where I would get bored watching myself. No one wants a sermon like that because it wasn't from the heart. I've been sharing what's on my heart, but I'm freaking people out because they're not used to what's on my heart. That's why this is different. I watch the game tape, what I did well. I invite feedback, but here I just want to mention something. I have concentric circles of feedback. When people send me feedback, I have a question. Are you a fellow soldier? Are you here for the long haul? Do you have vision in your heart to help us raise sons and daughters of God? Are we in this together? What are we doing? To the level that you're like, "Yeah, I'm in... " My wife... Yeah, I'm here. I'm here. I don't like when you switch things. I'll tell you. Tanya believes. She's got the gift of faith just like I do. The thing is she hears a sermon, and then she's got to go back to the guy who preached it and live with that guy. It's not that she doesn't believe in what God's doing. She's just not ready for the man that I'm becoming. If you know anything about me, I go through a season where I'm just different. I just change. There's things that never change. You get an anointing. You got a vision to do something great. She's like, "Oh, I got to live with that guy. He thinks he's going to rebuild the world." We're here. We love each other. When you give me feedback, I ask, how close are we? Tanya, Pastor Shane, Pastor Andy, Raquel, Chloe, Tyler, Caleb, my friends, my CG, my family... I receive the feedback. I receive when you coach me. I know it's hard to get through to a person like me, but I receive it, and I welcome it. I want you to know, I process all of it with the Holy Spirit and the holy scriptures. At the end of the day, I got to put it altogether. I do receive it. I do love you. We're doing this together. I receive the feedback. One thing about the staff, I just want to say. A lot of people don't understand how much we love each other. When we got beef, and you're like, "Something's up between Pastor Shane and Pastor Andy... " I'll say that hypothetical because that's not real. I just want to say the reason why we do what we do is because we love each other. We're like, "Yeah, we're called. We're called. All right." You can be direct. You can say what you need to say. You can knife battle it out sword to sword. As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. You got to duke it out. I say, I love it. The Holy Spirit courses through our meetings. We love each other. We're just going at it a thousand miles an hour. If you were in the room, you wouldn't even understand what's going on because we have years together of relationship and love. We just communicate in ways that a lot of people do not understand. Then we pray. We hug it out. We go home zonked because if you've ever spent four hours in a room with me, you get zonked. That's just how we work. We're in this together. Verse 19, "Not only that, but he has been appointed by the churches to travel with us as we carry out this act of grace that is being ministered by us, for the glory of the Lord himself and to show our good will." Last week, we were talking about this act of grace, this generosity. The generosity isn't just money. It's being generous with your life, with your home, with your lessons. There's people in the church that... You know Christianity. You know life better than younger people or people younger in their faith. We're to share life with brothers and sisters and minister to them. Verse 20, "We take this course so that no one should blame us about this generous gift that is being administered by us, for we aim at what is honorable not only in the Lord's sight but also in the sight of man." St. Paul says everything we do, we want to honor people. We want to honor God, honor people. He's taking precautions to do that. Here, I just want to pause and say, yes, we want people to honor everything we do. They don't have to understand what we do, but they have to honor it. Honor is a very cultural aspect. Different people from different cultures come in, and they show honor in different ways. Thus, the challenge of planting a church in Boston, Massachusetts, in 2021. We come in, and we don't really know how we are to honor. What is honorable in other cultures is not honorable here. There's a melting pot even within the church as the church continues to grow, and as new people come in, and as people move away. The only way that this melting pot works is if there's someone here just stirring the pot, stirring the pot, stirring the pot, so we understand each other. That's my calling. I want to stir in a way that brings healing. I want you to know that I'm cooking with love. Everything that we're cooking here, we're cooking with love. Verse 22, "And with them we are sending our brother whom we have often tested and found earnest in many matters, but who is now more earnest than ever because of his great confidence in you." He talks about this guy who comes. He has a vision. He has a plan. St. Paul is... Let me test you. Are you ready? We in the church need to have real talk, to have hard, tough conversations because we're testing each other. We want to strengthen each other to be a church where we experience life together, have real life and have real talk because that's what leads to real faith and real love. Don't be soft-minded and hardhearted. That's what the world wants for everybody. Soft-minded... This is what you're to think, not how to think. That's being soft-minded. Hardhearted... If you don't agree with me, I don't love you. We're to be tough-minded in that, hey, is this true? Is this really true? Is this true from the perspective of God's word? Be tenderhearted even to people that we disagree with. The pushback is always, but there's always two sides to the issue. You got to equally represent both sides of the issue. Why? One person has to. The truth has to be truth. We are to be willing to engage and say, "You know what? I might be wrong. Hey, change my line. Hey, can you convince me? Show me the data? Where from scripture is what you're saying true?" There's two sides to whatever issue, but there's only one truth. I found that this is Satan's current strategy. Just keep everybody divided, divided, divided. They never talk. They never really connect on a heart level, so no one ever really understands each other. Instead of being united and building together, we are being divided and destroying each other in relationships, in families, in the nation. I've really grown in this awareness of what is happening in the world. I used to never pay attention to the politics and all this stuff partially because I'm a child of the '90s. I grew up in the United States in the '90s. You know what? I didn't even know who president was most of the time. Freshman year of college was 2001, which is absolutely different from the world today. Today everybody knows everything that is going on everywhere. Then you never want to talk about it because you don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. Then we never really take time to figure out, "Hey, what is true? Hey, what resources are you reading? What sources are you reading? Hey, let's have difficult conversation." I used to do this. I used to say, "What's the left saying? What's the right saying?" Yeah, the truth is kind of probably in the middle, until I realized, "Oh, nothing ever gets better." It's kind of all moving in the same direction. Now this is my working theory of politics in the United States. It's like fake wrestling. I grew up watching fake wrestling. This is where they hit people in the head with a chair, and drop them on a table, and things like that. You're like, "I think they're hurting each other." Well, little bit. They're a little hurting each other. They're kind of duking it out, but then they go into the locker room. They shake hands. They hug. They pick up their checks. The checks are all signed by the same person: Satan or someone. I don't know, whoever's funding them. I'm saying this to say, now that we are creating a culture of real talk from the front, I want to share something that still grieves my heart. It still grieves my heart that I have not spoken directly into difficult situations in our nation as they were happening. Primarily, I didn't do that because I was like, "They're not going to get me. The church doesn't understand." You just won't understand the perspective that is in my heart because I don't just analyze what's happening with my heart. I analyze everything that's happening with my heart, with my soul. Yeah, it grieves my soul, what happened to George Floyd. That grieves my heart. I put a lot of thought into this newsletter because I sent it at 8:46 AM. Well, 8:46 was long as the knee was on George Floyd's neck. I never really spoke into it because it wasn't really clear what was happening out there in my heart, so I never really addressed it the way I should have addressed it and said, "Hey, hey, nation, church. You can't just think about this from a position of feelings. That's what the enemy wants. The enemy wants to get you to feel something so that then you act on those feelings, and you destroy things." From a biblical perspective, we got to... Yes, that's what we feel. Let's sit here. Let's lament. Let's grieve together and then process what is it that's going on in the world. Then from perspective of the soul... You do the heart. You do the mind. Then from the soul, it's like, what does this do in my soul? Oh, that's what matters. It's people's souls. Well, that's what Satan wants us to not think about, is people's souls. Before we muster all of our strength, we got to say, "Look. We got to think about this from four-dimensional love." Love God with all your heart, soul, strength, mind. From each perspective, you look at the issue. Once you start doing that, once you start realizing that this is how God wants us to process things, through the heart, through the soul, through the strength, through the mind, and then you meld those together. After a while, you begin to see things differently than perhaps others. God's really been working this in my life because God sent me four little Tanya's who help me process things very differently. Sophia processes things with her mind. Elizabeth, with her heart. Ekaterina... It's all strength. Can I outrun you? Am I stronger than you? Can I out-eat you? We lift weights together. She loves when I pick her up from school because she's like, "My dad's stronger than the rest of the dads. Yeah." Then there's Milana who's all soul, all soul, all soul. She just wants to have a good time. She doesn't even pay attention in community group unless you mention the word fun at least once. At least you laugh at least once. I have to learn how to love each one very differently, but then when we're in the car together or at home together, they're all speaking at the same time. I have to do all of this all at the same time. That's why I have a hard time sharing what's on my heart. I have gotten better at the four-dimensional loving, of loving holistically. This is what the Lord calls us to. I'll close with this. My wife and I were having a conversation this week. The conversation was like this because I had this vision from the Lord. The vision was very, very clear. I was like, where am I going to be in 10 years? I'm going to be here. Well, if I'm going to be here, my family is going to be here. How old's my daughter? She's going to be 23. My oldest daughter is going to be 23. I asked my wife. I was like, "Where are the husbands coming from of these men? Where are the men coming from that these ladies are going to marry?" They might have the gift of singleness. Statistically, probably get married. I'd like for them to get married because I want grandkids. My wife said, "Probably coming from Russian church where they produce real men." I said, "First of all, do they? Apparently, we still have to nail that one down. Number two, why aren't they coming from Mosaic? Why aren't these sons coming from Mosaic?" She said, "They can't handle down." Mosaic, I'm welcoming you into my Father's heart so you understand what's going on in here because I think by God's grace, I have been anointed to raise daughters, spiritually. Because I've been raising daughters, I know how to raise sons. You're like, "Why do you say that?" I say, "Because most American men are raised like daughters." I'm sharing. I said it lovingly, so you can't do anything. I bring up this topic because it does stir stuff in my heart because I really wanted a son. This is why Tanya and I... With our fourth, we were like, "All right. This is a son." It was Milana. This week, I wrote a letter to my future son. When I'm speaking, I'm speaking to the spiritual sons. If you are a spiritual father, this is the vision that I'm casting. We're to raise spiritual son and spiritual daughters, men and women of God. This is what I wrote. I wrote, "Dear Son, I love you. I'm proud of you. I loved you before you were even born. I longed for you. I love you with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my strength, with all my mind. I tried to raise you the way I wish I had been raised. I revealed truths to you that have taken many hard years to learn. Here's just a few. SDG, Soli Deo Gloria. Live for God's glory alone. Only when you live for God's glory alone, audience of one, following Jesus Christ who is the man you'll become, the man, because your faith, your love casts out fear so the opinions of people are just the opinions of people. DBG... Love someone more than yourself. Don't be greedy. That's the world tell you to live for yourself. Pleasurize yourself. Just do whatever's fun. Good times. No, no, no, Son. That's not a legendary life. LFG is let's fervently go, fervently. Just everything you got. GSD is get stuff done. Actually work with your hands. We are men to serve God with our head, heart, and hands. What are we doing with our hands? DBAB is don't be a baby, brah, because to be a man of God that actually does something of significance, you got to be able to take pain. A lot of this is spiritual war that's going on. Just, body is falling left and right because you don't have the pain tolerance, so do things that are hard. Deadlift or squat, just things that are like, wow, yeah, I've been through something. Son, play games, sports. Learn strategies. Apply them to real life and real battle. Pick up your sword. Learn it inside and out. Wield it powerfully against the enemy in here, in here, Son, and then out there. I'm here to help. With love... I mean it. It's how I lost. Dad." Let's pray to our Heavenly Father. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you love us with a Father's heart. Jesus, we thank you that you are the Son of God. You came to reveal the heart of God the Father. Holy Spirit, we thank you for these holy scriptures. We thank you for the many lessons that are here. We thank you, Holy Spirit, that you don't just want us to exposit the scriptures, but you want the scriptures to expose what's going on in our hearts, in our souls, in our minds. I pray that you continue to make us a church, Lord, that's real, where we can have real talk about real life to develop real faith and all from a heart of real love, the love of Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.
Grace is Generous Gift Giving
November 7, 2021 • 2 Corinthians 8
Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Welcome dear church to Communion Sunday. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are a generous God. In the small things, you gave us an extra hour to sleep, and in the big things, you gave us your son. And Jesus, we thank you that you gave us yourself and the Holy Spirit we thank you for your presence here with us and we thank you for writing this book. Words that define reality, define love, define sacrifice, define generosity. We love your word and we thank you that you're the author of this book. You're in the room. And I pray as we hear from your word that you interpret to us what it means, to us where we are and how to apply this. I pray that you give us a vision for generosity. The same vision that's in your heart and I pray that you bless our time in the holy word. Amen. Grace is generous gift giving. That's the title of the sermon. That's the big idea. Grace is generous gift giving. I've realized recently that a lot of Christians miss out, a lot of people miss out on some of God's greatest blessings because they don't listen to God's word the way you should. A lot of people read God's word, listen to God's word. Some things said to some people by some people a long time ago. And if that's how you approach scripture, it's always going to be theoretical, it's always going to be, this is what it means to me, it's always going to be standing over in judgment over God's word. I do not listen to scripture like that. I do not read scripture like that. I know the God who wrote it and I walk with Him on a daily basis. I'm just so thankful that God is so gracious to me as to speak to me, as to communicate with me and He cares about me. Someone said that no one cares how much until they know how much you care. And God cares about me so I listened to His word. I sit there with God and I say, "You're the author, you're in the room." What does it mean? Here's how I view preaching. I view preaching as me living vicariously through Cameron Hanes. If you don't know Cameron Hanes, he's living the life that I would be living if I were not called to be a pastor. He's a hunter. You can find him on Instagram. He's got 1.2 million followers. He's a hunter and he hunts humanely. He's a bow and arrow guy. So I view myself as I go hunting into the mountain to get the moose and then I carry it back on my back and then I dress it up, and then I cut it up, and I slice it up and then I throw it on the grill. And that's what this is, that's what preaching is. And I do not chew it for you. You have to chew it yourself or else you choke on it. I made a conscious decision to change the way I preach because I'm tired of doing the homework for you. I'm tired of regurgitating to you what you can get in the ESV Study Bible. You want historical context, literary context, you want a definition of the Greek or the Hebrew word? Open an ESV Study Bible, read it. From now on, I just assume that every single one of you has read every single word in the Bible and if there's something that you do not understand, you go into the bottom of ESV, there's cheat codes to explain it to you. I say you got to do your own homework. I say this because I send out a newsletter every Saturday and at the bottom I put the text a link to the chapter. So what am I doing? I assume that you have read it but the data shows that you have not because then I see the click through-rate in MailChimp, which is 2.3%. Having is only 2.3% of the churches with me when I am... I assume you have read. So do your homework. It's like in college where the lecture makes so much more sense if you've read the material the night before. You know what I'm saying? And then you're like, "Oh, the professor got it from the book." That's what I'm saying. I told you a couple weeks ago that we're at war. And the reason why I said that is because a lot of people don't realize that we're at war and the weapons of the enemy are weapons of mass distraction to just get you distracted from what matters. Just hours of your day, you're thinking about the Metaverse, just something out there instead of real life. That's why you need to know the sword of the Spirit, you need to know this word. So it's a conscious decision because I want to spend more time in the sermon doing application and testimony. Because when I listen to a sermon, my favorite part of the sermon is where the guy up there is like, "Before he tells me how to live, I want to know that he actually lived it." So you need testimony to do that. And today, a lot of the sermons give me testimony of the blessing that it is to be generous. And I've thought about this for a very long time. I'm 38 years old and I've experienced life from the perspective of meeting generosity and I've experienced generosity from the perspective of giving and living generously. My parents emigrated to the States in 1989. My dad was 30, my mom was 27. They have three kids, fourth on the way, $700 net worth. We were recipients of generosity. And I watched my dad from this place where he received generosity grow into a place of tremendous generosity. It's hard to be generous in a day like ours. And when I talk about generosity, I'm not just talking about money, I'm talking about wealth. And wealth consists of two parts. They sound the same; presence and presents. That's wealth. Presents. Let's talk about money, presents, with a ts at the end. Presents, this is money, this is gifts, this is things, this is services. It's hard to be generous in a time where inflation, hyperinflation. Now we're going into recession so security payments are going up by 5.9%. If you look at us car market, it's a lot higher. I think we just printed another trillion dollars. Is there going to be recession? Yeah. What else are you worried about? Gas prices, job turmoil, you might have to pick up and move. Real estate, who knows? Kids, you might have to switch schools. You're talking about generosity, you want me to give money. And then there's presence. This is your time. That's our greatest commodity. It's time, it's words, it's ideas, it's encouragement, it's discipleship. It's hard to be generous with that presence in the day when there's members in the church who haven't seen their family in two years. And just being with people is just awkward right now. And then what's the alternative? It's video meetings. And if I have to sit through one more video meeting I will get Bell's palsy. That tic, the nervous tic I get when I'm in a video meeting, that's probably going to be permanent. Okay with people, okay presence, you don't know where they stand on COVID. You do know where they stand on COVID. It's hard to be generous with words when you haven't complimented a person in years. This is my philosophy of complimenting someone. When I see that they're trying, you did something different, I'm going to notice, if I notice it. Usually I have a million things in my mind but if I notice it like, "Hey, you got a haircut? Hey man, happy haircut." If a girl is like, I just know how much it costs to do your hair. I'm like, "Oh, man. That looks good." It's hard to compliment people in a day where... It's awkward. Masks make communicating so hard, especially for internationals or someone with a speech impediment. You want to text. My gift game is through the charts. I got all kinds of pictures on already. That's why we have to talk about driven generosity because no one costs into generosity. You have to talk about a vision for generosity now, here and now, but also in your life. Are you on a trajectory? Do you have a vision in your heart to be generous because that's what love is. It's generosity. That's what grace is. Grace is unmerited favor. And you can't talk about love if you can't talk about treasure. This is why Jesus said, "Wherever your heart is, that's where your treasure is." You can't talk about love if you do not talk about wealth. So that's why we're talking about it. 2nd Corinthians chapter eight. I'm going to assume you have read it. As I mentioned, this is the reading of God's holy and infallible authoritative word. May you write these eternal truths on your heart. And also if you have not read it, I challenge you after to go and read the whole chapter. I'm going to read this as we go along and relisten to the sermon because that's another thing, I assume that if you're a member or if you go here, you do not miss sermons because we pour our life, our heart into these sermon, and we're leading the church through the preaching of God's word. We're leading. So if you're a member and you're on vacation... The average member of this church goes to church half the time, half the Sundays. Stuff just comes up. You got to take a weekend trip. "Yeah, I can't live in the city." You got to go New Hampshire, you go to the White Mountains. You just travel the world and you miss and you come back, you're like, "This is a different church. I didn't go to this church. I became a member of this church?" Yeah, keep up. That's what I'm saying. All right. 1st Corinthians 16, this is the context, verses one through four. It's there if you want. St. Paul said this, he said, "The Gospel was planted in Jerusalem through Jesus Christ." Now there's a church in Jerusalem, Jesus' brother, his younger brother, half brother James, becomes a pastor. And then God sends the Holy Spirit upon the church and then God said to them, "Go and preach the gospel in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, to the ends of the earth." They didn't so God sends persecution so they start actually doing their job. And because of the persecution in Jerusalem and because there's a famine at the time, the church isn't doing well, they can't even work, they can't find jobs because people find out that you're a Christian, now all of a sudden you're fired. So St. Paul then, he hears about the church of Jerusalem, and then he's been planting churches in Ephesus, Colossi, Philippi, in Corinth. He plants these churches and he knows that they are prospering financially. And he says, "Hey, the church in Jerusalem has a need so I'm going to ask you to collect finances and then send one representative from your church. Don't give me the money." He says, "Send one representative to Jerusalem with the finances. I will accompany you." And by accompanying you, that shows us that he has no mercenary interest in the matter. It's not for him at all but he's risking life and limb to accompany them to go to Jerusalem and he actually ends up in prison because... So it shows that he's generous with his life to be generous to the church of Jerusalem. And also what he's doing is he's healing tension, racial tension between the Jewish church and the Gentile churches. What he's saying is, "We're one big family." That's the context. Three points. Grace is generous gift giving. Grace is generous gift giving. First of all Grace is, and that's what he starts with. This the first one. We want you to know brothers about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia. Grace, unmerited favor, God saved them. They added nothing to their salvation. Grace, God predestined them before the foundation of the world. Draws them, elects them, they become Christians, it's all grace, all their sins forgiven, by the grace of God that has been given among the churches, Macedonia for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy so they're experiencing affliction as well. They're persecuted as well. Their abundance of joy. They have so much joy that God saved them. And they're extreme poverty, they don't have much money. They're afflicted, they have extreme poverty in Macedonia that have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. He's saying, "The church is poor." And if that tiny little church plant in Macedonia, that church plant is younger than the church in Corinth, if they were generous because they're wealthy in generosity, shouldn't you be more generous than a baby church?" That's what he's saying. And he's talking about grace. There's a difference between grace and mercy. Mercy is you don't get what you deserve, you don't get help. Grace says you get what you don't deserve. You get pulled over, you're doing 79 and 35 and the cop says you deserve a $450 speeding ticket. If you don't know what I'm alluding to, listen to last week's sermon. And the cop shows up and he's like, "Here's your ticket, $450." But then he tears it up and he says, "Oh, well. Why are you speeding?" And you say, "I'm speeding because my dad set my curfew at 10:00 PM." And he said, "I'm going to take your keys away because my dad said that nothing good happens after 10:00 PM." And I'm like, "Ah, that's when the good stuff started happening." And then the cop says, "I get it. I had a dad like that." And then the cop gives you $450. That's great. Did you deserve that gift? You did not. So St. Paul says, generosity starts on knowing. I deserve hell, but God promises me heaven. Jesus paid all my debts and He redeemed me. I have access to the treasures of Jesus Christ because I belong to him. Once you receive the forgiveness, you are willing to give whatever God causes you to give. They're dirt poor but the rich enjoy their overflow and wealth of generosity. Do you have a vision? Are you driven with a vision for generosity? Are you driven for this? I'm not talking about just working enough to meet your needs. I'm talking about work enough to meet someone else's needs. I once heard that Rick Warren, who wrote The Purpose Driven Life, now it's a different title. What on Earth Am I Here For? It was the best selling book of all time. Hardback books after the Bible. Best selling. He made bank. And then I heard that he turned into a reverse tither where he didn't just give 10%, he gave 90%. I remember hearing that and thinking, "Oh my. Imagine doing that." And I had this desire, I'm like, "Lord, I would love to one day to be the reverse tither." And then I became a pastor. I became a church planter in Boston. How big does your 10% have to be? But I haven't lost the vision because I believe in a God of miracles. If your crypto investments go to $10 million overnight, are you going to tithe? Are you going to give a million dollars to the church? And if you can't be generous with theoretical money. This is absolute real talk because in the same way that 2.3% of the church actually clicks the link, 2.3% of the church actually gives. So there's 10 people that give most of the giving. We'll get to the tithing. I'm just going to plant this here, make you feel a little uncomfortable knowing that we'll get there. By the time we get there you're going to forget that you were uncomfortable, okay? And what are you doing to make the vision a reality? Whoever doesn't work shouldn't eat, Scripture says. And if you do work, you're going to work hard enough to have something else to share. You work hard enough to put yourself in a position where you can be exorbitantly, lavishly, liberally generous. Not conserving, just conserving everything that you're given. So you got to ask your yourself whenever you're making... I just want to plant the vision in your heart and then it's going to be you and the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit. Once you add, "Lord, how can I be driven to be more generous? Will this decision helped me become more generous?" And then you weight decision. Even when you're young, you weigh which school to go to and what to major in, how many loans to take out and how long it's going to take you to pay off the loans so that you can be lavishly generous. This vision it's not how you change your life today. It's a philosophy of life. Verse three continues, for they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means like the widow with the two mites and Jesus watched her give money to the Temple of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints and this not as we expected but they gave themselves first to the Lord. And then by the will of God to us. They first gave and said, "God, I'm yours. You did everything to make me yours. I'm yours and everything I have is yours so Lord, what would you have me do with what you have given me, both my dollars in my days? My time, my treasure, my talent. Everything, Lord, it's all yours." And when you have that mindset and you hear of a need, you say, "Please, let me help you." He uses the word beg. They begged. You don't think of beggars as giving, as generous. And he says, "They're begging me to take their finances to help this other church." What a vision. It's like when you start a company and it's tremendous, and the idea is tremendous. It's going to help so many people, and then someone hears it's a great idea and they're like, "Please, let me invest. Let me invest. I'm begging you, let me invest." Because you know that this investment is going to turn into something a lot more. That's what it means to give in this world. It's an investment for heaven. God keeps track of everything. I've given money away I don't even remember, I don't remember. And then somebody writes to me like, "Hey, you changed my life that one time." My family is from Ukraine and Estonia. I remember we went to visit a family member Ukraine. Their annual salary, she was an engineer, she makes $500 a year. $500, here you go, cash. It changed her life. What's $500 here? Three days of rent? You know what I'm saying? Generosity has to be precise. If you really want to be generous, you always you have extra. You're waiting for the opportunity. You hear of a need and you're like, "Yeah. What's your Venmo?" I'm going to meet the need because God has met mine. Timing is everything. How can I help? And not just finances. If you're in college, you don't have much to finances but you have time. You can be present with people. Timing is everything. How can I help with this posture of heart? What would change your day today? What do you need from me right now? How can I help? And you got to get to know people and practically this is why community groups are so important because in community group you get to know people and then at prayer request time, they're like, "Hey, can you pray for this situation? I need help." So it takes humility to get to know people, it takes humility to pray for people, and it takes humility to actually voice your need. And then it takes humility to receive the gift because there's always this mentality of, yeah. But then I owe you. No. You don't. This is a gift. You didn't deserve it. Just don't forget it. Just say thank you. Just thank you. Are you adding value to someone's life with your wealth? That's true generosity. You can't meet everyone's every need but you can at least pray. That's the bare minimum. I'll think about you. I'll expand my brain energy to actually pray for you and continue to pray for you. For example for me, what do I need? My wife hates buying prisons for me because she's like, "What can you give a man who has everything?" And I hate buying presents for her, different reason. She's not hearing this service, praise God. I can be transparent. I bought her a purse one time. Nice. Leather. Big. She doesn't like big purses. I had no idea so I gave it to her. She took it back. She took it back. Don't take it back. If it was a gift just pretend you like it, okay? So what do I need? I need prayer. I ask that you pray for me, I ask that you pray for me by name. I ask that you pray for my family, I ask that you pray for the Sikkemas and the Hoots, Pastor Shane and Pastor Andy. I ask that you pray for the staff. I ask you pray for the members of this church, and I ask you to pray for a building. I was at a pastor's meeting and they're like, "Hey, can you fill out the survey?" And it's all your personal information. They said, "What's the greatest need in your town, in your city?" I wrote church building with a school. I've been here for 12 years and if people had not moved away at the rate that they were moving away, we would have a church of thousands. It'd be a different conversation. So in the back of my mind, I'm always thinking subconsciously, what will make this a church that you're like, "I will not move away." What would that take? And in my mind, I imagine a church building so nice that you're like, "Why would I go anywhere else? I'm going to figure out how to stay here." So I ask that you pray for that. St. Paul talks about this. He talks about his generosity, the generosity with his people Macedonians and then he brings in Titus. Accordingly we urge Titus that as he had started so he should complete among you this act of grace. So Titus is there and he's like "You started the collection. Let's finish the collection so that Titus with representatives from your church can go bring this to Jerusalem. Second is generous verses seven through nine. He uses the phrase excel in generosity. 2nd Corinthians 8:7, But as you excel, you excel. Does that word do anything to you emotionally? Well, if you work with Excel, it does. He says, "In the same way that you excel in faith." I know a lot of Christians like this. "I just want to know about God, I just want to know God's word, I want to memorize the whole thing." Yeah. Keep going, "Excel in speech, excel in knowledge, in all earnestness, in our love for you-- see that you excel in this act of grace also." I went to seminary with these people who have never really done anything in... I went to seminary after working for two years in the business world and I worked in government and I realized I got to seminary, none of these people know life. They don't understand how the real world works and that's why the pastors are like, "I don't want to talk about money." This is what people think about all the time. This is what you do at your job all the time. In some sense, you're thinking about creating value and getting value. He says, "Excel in this act of grace." Not just the faith part. A lot of people they take faith so seriously that it never becomes real so it's just theoretical and works. And some people are all about works theoretically. Some people somewhere should give something. That's why the government should tax everybody and the government should figure out how to be generous so that I don't have to be. That's why whenever I hear Elon Musk gave this amount of money and then all these haters show up and they're like, "Yeah, but that's only 0.001% of his net worth." What if we made your generosity public? I want to come on in on that tweet. He's talking about generosity. Giving, excelling, liberal giving. It's as important to the faith as works is it is works, it's faith with works. It's all intertwined. And by the way, generosity is not tithing. Tithing is giving 10% of your income to your local church before uncle Sam or FICA takes their cut. That's tithing. Giving 10%. Tithing is not generosity. Tithing is just not stealing from God. It's Malachi three. You look it up. He says we are to give, and I will go against any theologian who says otherwise with the like, oh, new covenant, it was the Old Testament, not the New Testament. In the old Testament the tithe remains and then they had temple tax and all kinds of stuff. It was actually computed it was 27 and a half percent, whatever it is. Did Jesus Christ talk about tithing? He just assumed it. He assumed if you love your local church, you will give to your local church because you believe in it. And do you have a verse? Yeah, Matthew, 23:23. Jesus condemning the Pharisees. Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites. They were the conservatives. The sad you sees were the liberals. These are the conservatives and Jesus hits both sides. "You're so conservative with your money." He's saying, "Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites for you tithe mint, dill, cumin. They had a little garden. They get 10 leaves of mint. One goes to the temple." They neglected the weightier matters of the law. Justice, mercy, faithfulness. These, you ought to have done the justice, the mercy, faithfulness, the most important stuff without neglecting the others, the tithe. Do we care about justice and mercy and faithfulness? We do. Do we care about justice? I stand against any form of oppression, any form of oppression. Any form of oppression I stand against so should you, but also you got to care about giving because money flows when you love something, when you believe in something. You invest in what you believe naturally, you invest in what you love naturally. Take my money, take my wealth. Let me just apply this to dating. So all the single people, but also the married people you listen too because I'm teaching generosity here. So young men, I'm going to start with young men. You like a girl, you like a girl. She's a Christian because why would you marry a non-Christian? Marriage is hard enough. You like a girl and you know that she likes you, that's important because a lot of people just assume, you're single, I'm single, I'm of the other gender so you definitely like me. No. If you can't even read that she likes you or not, you definitely aren't ready for marriage because women communicate very differently than men do. So you got to read her, you got to read the signs. You can't be oblivious to the stuff. And if you are, you come talk to me and I will tell you, "Bro, she literally emailed me and said, Pastor Jan, please tell this person to stop. I don't like him." And then Pastor Jan is going to say, "You know what? Here's a few things that you can work on." Okay. You like a girl. She likes you. You ask her out on a date. You ask her out for dinner and you go somewhere nice. Not too nice. Not too swanky. Good food, good ambiance. You're having good conversation. Lead with the questions. Lead the conversation. You ask her about her life, about her dreams, about her vision, her beliefs, what she likes, you're a student because that's what marriage is. And then the check comes, how are we paying for this? Bro if there's any hesitation in your heart, I didn't expect her to order appetizers. If you have to do that, you're not ready. You're in the wrong place. You should be at your job, at your second job. You should be at your side hustle. There's 16 hours in the day and you're single. What else do you do with your time? Now, also you got to tip. You pay for it and you tip well, not based on, ooh, if they didn't serve me right. Have you ever been in the food industry? Some of the hardest work ever. You tip and you tip well and you'll let her know I'm a boss because that's what a girl wants. Split the bill. Let me just analyze this. It's such a cultural issue because I come in with Slavic bag. On Slavic back it's completely different. Completely. If I said I had to talk about this at church, if I said that to any of my Russian brothers, they'd be like, "Why?" They'll be like, "Oh, Americans. They don't know." You don't know. Tanya, my wife Tanya, in the first sermon, I said that she dated a guy who gave her a gift then she texted me during the sermon. She's like, I never dated him. It was just a birthday present. But this guy shows up and he wanted a date or she didn't go on a date yet. She thought he was boring because girls like to laugh and he had no sense of humor, but he had money. So he bought her a gold watch on her birthday. It didn't work. She kept the watch and she gave it to my daughter, Sophia, who still has the watch. But I had to ask, I'm like, "She's high maintenance because how big does a rock have to be to marry a girl like that?" Back to the cultural analysis, the splitting the bill you're hedging bets. And if you're hedging bets this might not work out. So I don't want to take a hit on my net worth. If you're hedging bets and you don't view this as I'm investing, if you're hedging your bets, you're in the wrong spot. You should have been at community group with her, getting to know her. Because when you get married, you got one bank account anyway so get married and your chances are higher if you pay for the bill, that's one thing. The phrase, let's go Dutch, is splitting the bill. Do you know that phrase? Let's go Dutch. Pastor Shane, who is Dutch told me that that's inaccurate. He said, "No. True Dutch people do not go Dutch in the restaurant because true Dutch people do not go out to eat. They go fishing, which is a much better date." What I'm saying is, if you really love, there's got to be generosity. And ladies, just a word, please have the humility to let the guy pay because marriage is getting an order. There's an order to creation. There's God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, husband, wife, children, angels, demons and demons became demon Satan became Satan because he wouldn't get an order where you as the wife, as a woman, you're saying is, I will follow you. I will follow your lead if you're going to lead like that, if you're going to lead with generosity. No one wants to be married to a stingy person. No one wants to be married to a mooch. No one wants to be friends with the mooch. A person who all the do is mooch off of you. They go to your house and they always come with empty hands. And you're like, at some point I'm going to stop inviting you into my house. And usually those mooches are theoretically very generous. In their heart they're like, I'm bringing my presence. Yeah bro but you got to bring presence to. This is the act of grace. That's what St. Paul is talking about. You excel in the act of grace. Do you have a vision to Excel? I say this, not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. Love can be proven. It can be tested. And you can tell if you love when your time and your talents and treasure, everything just flows into the direction of the one whom you love. And Paul uses the example of generosity, Macedonians to inspire the Corinthians verse nine, for you know the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ. This is what it's all rooted in. You know the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, that though He was rich yet for your sake He became poor so that you by His poverty might become rich. This is the greatest act of generosity in the universe. The God of this universe, the son of God who always existed, there was never a time that He was not. He did not start being when he was born. No, no. When He was born and He took on flesh. That's His incarnation. That's when His humanity started, but Jesus always was. So you've got the whole doctrine Jesus Christ. He was the Christ here in a nutshell, one person, two natures. And we have the greatest motive. We have the greatest motive for the greatest act to ever happened. Why did Jesus do this? Because He loves us and He wants to make us rich. Jesus wants to make you wealthy so He bankrupts himself to make you wealthy. Jesus Christ was poor on purpose. I've heard of people get really rich and then they get poor but it's never on purpose unless you're dying and then you're a philanthropist and you give everything away. My dad says that money is like oxygen. You only need it when you're alive. But Jesus Christ did this intentionally. And by the way, people looked at Jesus Christ and they're like, "Bro, you're poor." And He's like, "But I own everything." And by the way He could have also used, He had a very particular set of skills that He could have used to enrich Himself on earth. He could have started a tremendous wine business or a baker but he chose not to. He chose to bring a different kind of wealth into the world, a wealth that really matters. That's what he did so He loved and He died. So Jesus Christ was rich. We live in a world that demonizes wealth because we idolize it. Jonathan Edwards has this thing where he talks about the cycle of idolization and demonization where you idolize something, this is my savior and you realize it can't save you, you begin to demonize it. The world does this with money. We do this with people. And this is why one of the things I say as a pastor all the time, do not idolize me. I'm not the guy. I'm not Jesus. I'm just here literally just talking about Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. It's not about me. It's about Jesus. I walk with Jesus and I'm going to tell you how I walk with Jesus but it's not about me. So do not idolize me because I've seen and then all of a sudden we're not friends. Same thing the world does with money. Is it inherently wrong to be rich? No, of course not. Is it inherently wrong to be poor? No. Jesus was both. There's righteous rich and righteous poor and there's unrighteous rich and unrighteous poor. And Jesus Christ said, "I came in here. I look poor but I was wealthy." Because you can be poor and wealthy at the same time. You go to countries that are not as materially prosperous as ours and you look at their life and they live a richer life. I was reading Solzhenitsyn this week. Solzhenitsyn he is famous for The Gulag Archipelago, where he was imprisoned. And by the way, if you want to really understand what the world is going through, read him. And one of the things that he said was when he got out of The Gulag, out of the prison for speaking truth, he got out of the prison and he would write in prison and he would memorize everything that he wrote and then he would burn the papers and then when he got out, he wrote it all down and he brought his best friends into his little cabin with a dirt floor and he for five hours recited his work because that's all he could give them. And their life was changed because they were enriched. That's what Jesus is saying. What does Jesus want in return for his word? For his work? He wants gratitude. Just like each one of us when we're generous to someone just say, thank you. Romans one, they didn't thank God, we didn't thank God. That's what sin is. Sin is in gratitude toward God. Jesus says, worship me, glorify me. Verse five, and this not as we expected but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. Generosity to others as the embodiment of Christ incarnation of his embodiment. What's the most generous thing that you can do to someone? The highest level of generosity. What is the absolute generous thing you can do to someone is help them understand the greatest act of generosity for them, help them understand that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins, my sins, everybody. And He wants to forgive you so that you will have life with Him now, eternal life that begins now and for all of eternity. There is no greater gift that you can give anybody than the word of the gospel. There's no greatest act of generosity and that's why I need to say the following. A very famous quote was thrown around in the church all the time and it goes like this, preach gospel at all times and use words if necessary. Francis of Assisi, it's attributed to him but he never wrote it. It's actually very anachronistic. (silence) It's an oxymoronic quote because how did you get that quote in my mind? Did you come up to me and put your hand on my shoulder and infuse and inject those words into my mind. Did you buy me lunch and through that sandwich or just in my mind? No, you use words. And I hear what you're saying. I understand what you're saying but you're saying, you're using words. The problem is that quote, a lot of people use it as an excuse to justify the fact that they have never shared the gospel with another human being. Well you're being a mooch. You're being stingy with your greatest gift. So share the gospel. That's the point. Speaking the gospel's the most compassionate, the most empathetic, the most kind generous thing you can do. It's also the most savage thing you can do. In a world that says, "No, you can't talk about that." You're like, "Oh yeah, I'm going to talk about that." You need to believe in Jesus, repent of your sin because you're going to hell. I don't want you to. Let's go to heaven instead together. Savage. Savage love. So what I'm trying to say is don't Assisi-fy Christianity. Let's do what Jesus did. Jesus didn't just give us fruit from the tree of life. He welcomes us into the garden and shows us where to get it. Three is gift giving. And this is 2nd Corinthians 8:10 through 11. These verses are just an application of St. Paul of these principles. So I'm going to read them fast and I might skip some. In this matter I give my judgment. This benefits you who a year ago started not only to do this work, but also desire to do it so now finish doing it as well. So that your readiness and desire may be mashed by your completing it out of what you have. They had begun to gather lapsed, perhaps false teachers came in, perhaps they won the money themselves, but he says, I want you to give now because everyone's generous theoretically until you have to cut the check, until you have to hit the send button, until you have to actually take from yourself and give to another. Verse 12, for if the readiness is there it is acceptable according to what a person has not according to what he does not have. What he's saying is it's not about the amount, it's about your desire to give. He doesn't care who gives what. I have no idea who gives what at Mosaic. I have no idea. I don't have access to any of the finances. I have no idea. I only know how much one family gives. That's my family. And I look at that number every once in a while. I'm like, is this commensurate with how much I love? Verse 13, for I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened but that as a matter of fairness, your abundance at the present time should supply their need so their abundance may supply your need that there may be fairness. What he's saying is, right now, you are more prosperous than those people, so you should share. We teach little kids at home, hey, you guys share. It's not your Legos and it's not her Legos. It's my Legos. This is how you know that a child is maturing because a child actually turns around at mom who your whole life and I'm saying, did you eat? Are you hungry? Did you eat? Did you eat? You try and say, "Mom, did you eat?" There's a maturity in generosity. Verse 15. This is really a principle and he gets it from the old Testament. As it is written, whoever gathered much had nothing left over and whoever gathered little had no lack. And here he goes to when Israel is in the wilderness freed from captivity but they don't have access to food because they're in a desert. They ask God, God sends manna. So every day manna would fall from heaven. I think of manna as a Los Amigos burrito. That's how I think of manna from heaven, the surf and turf, praise God. So burritos are falling from heaven every single morning. And people they go up to grab their burrito. How many burritos are you going to eat? And you know that this burrito is actually going to go bad tomorrow so you can't save it. And you have a decision to make you grab your three burritos for the day, a very nutritious meal. There's a lot of burritos on the floor. You have decision to make. If you are an able bodied, healthy human being. The question, am I going to gather more for whom? Well, it's not for me because it's going to go bad. Am I going to gather for someone else? Perhaps was weak or frail or perhaps it was responsibilities at home like a single parent where I don't have time to go out and gather burritos. And the most industrious, the most driven would say, "You know what? This is an opportunity for me to serve my brothers and sisters. I am going to gather as much as I can to be as helpful as I can." Well that kind of vision for your life, it changes a person. It changes your capacity. One day you gathered 10 burritos, the next day you gathered 12. A year goes by and you're gathering 400 because you need to figure out how to organize people. Now you're managing other gatherers of burritos and after a while you develop the skillset of how the world works, leadership, et cetera, et cetera and then you get into the promised land and you have a certain skill set that other people do not. And this is where the gleaning laws come in. God knew this and he knew that the most industrious, the most diligent, the most self-driven and most ambitious are going to build businesses. So God says, "Look, when you build a business, when you got a farm, do not harvest absolutely every single bit. Don't maximize your profits." I want you to start a business from the perspective of generosity. And he says, "Leave things on the outskirts for the widow, the orphan and the immigrant." The American church today has lost the vision of the gleaning laws. So if you start a company, are you driven by generosity? Are you driven by greed like Facebook is, like Google is, like Apple is. If you publish an app in the app store or Google play, you know how much they take? They take 30%. They didn't build it. Let me speak to my fellow entrepreneurs. My culture creators, influencers, hustlers. Let me speak to founders. I know the heart of a founder, a heart of a founder is like a heart of a father. You are always thinking about your baby consciously or subconsciously. You have dreams about your baby. Build with generosity. To my fellow employees who work for bosses, I want you to understand that when you clock out, your boss does not. You stop thinking. You're like, "I don't get paid to think about this. I don't get paid to answer this email." Well your boss does not. So there's got to be generosity. A generous employees, generous bosses, generous CEOs, managers, generous consumers. I know a guy who's the most generous guy I have ever met. I'm going to tell you a story about him after. He's generous toward everybody except for Chipotle. They mess up his order and he is on the customer service line demanding extra burritos. Bro, generous tip. You got to tip. Most basic thing you can do. Generous lawyers, generous nurses and doctors, generous scientists, generous teachers, politicians, developers, builders, executive consultants, analysts, students, professors, generous in the food industry, generous in the international relations, generous bankers, investors, VCs, designers, artists, musicians, architects, childcare professionals. I've said pastors, athletes, comedians, and everyone I left out. And I want to speak here about someone that everyone leaves out, stay at home moms. My wife was a stay at home mom. You know in Russian what they say? What is your wife doing? And they say doma sidit. She sits at home? Come in my house for a day. Sits at home. My wife is a homemaker. That's her full-time job. That was a conscious decision. We live on one income. Why is it her full-time job? Because it's a full-time job to be my wife. So husbands if your wife works a full-time job, do not demand from her that being a mom and a wife is a full-time job. If you want it to be a full-time job, make it her full-time job. This sermon I like because this topic I like because it throws everyone for a loop. Where's Pastor Jan politically on? Let me just explain where I am politically, because the last few sermons when I go real talk people are like, "Where is he politically?" I went to Brown University. Even in the Ivy leagues it's the most liberal one. Everyone's like, "Oh, you went to Brown. Oh, that's weird. That's just weird." They don't have a business school on purpose. It doesn't help the endowment. So I went to Brown University, but I will go to church on Sundays at a Russian Baptist church as conservative in every perspective as possible. They were Republicans before they even learned English to know that they're Republicans. They're Republicans before they learned the word. So at church, I am the lib and at Brown everyone's like, "What is wrong with you?" There were tree huggers before that became a thing. And Bush was President and I bashed Bush and my dad called me a lib for bashing Bush. And then the libs love Bush now so was my dad a lib? That's where I am politically. Here's my analysis of being in these two worlds. Liberals are strong in works theoretically. The ideas when they hit the pavement, they don't work. They want someone else to be generous. Let's talk about your generosity. And conservatives, they're theoretical in the faith part. God, faith, family, freedom. Great. Let's talk about the faith. All of you need to repent. All of you. Satan sometimes comes as a Republican and sometimes he comes as a Democrat. And I'm an equal opportunity preacher. All of them need to repent, everybody. Trust in Jesus. That's what I'm saying. 2nd Corinthians, I say that because on the one hand, I'm like, generosity. On the other hand, I'm thinking about homeschooling my kids. So where am I politically? I don't look at things through political lenses. I look at things through biblical lenses which makes it hard for people to make sense sometimes. 2nd Corinthians 8:16 through 18. But thanks be to God who put into the heart of Titus. So now he's talking about Titus generosity. The same earnest care I have for you for he not only accepted our appeal, but being himself very earnest, he's going to you of his own accord so Titus is generous with his time. With him we're sending the brother who is famous among all the churches for his preaching of the gospel. Great thing to be famous for. Was Paul generous? Of course he was, but he's not talking about his generosity here. He talks about Titus. The brother of preach the gospel. He's talking about the Macedonians. Being generous specifically when people do not deserve it. That's what we're talking about. My friend Walt is one of the most generous people I've ever met. He was our video guy so I'm going to talk about Walt for a second. I bought new couches for my basement from Bob's Furniture. Tremendous place. I bought these new couches. They're supposed to get delivered. So I'm waiting. I'm supposed to get delivered 3:00 PM. They got delivered at 10:30 PM so I'm like, these guys do not deserve anything. It was raining. I saw the guys, they pulled up to my place. I'm like, "Hey, why are you guys late?" And they said, "We got Storrow-ed." You know what that means? Yeah, look it up. They got Storrow-ed. I look at the truck. Yeah, they got Storrow-ed. The truck was too tall for the bridges on the Storrow. I'm like, oh, okay. This is the first time. And then it's raining. They're bringing the couches in. They scratched the mop. Either take my doors off. They wouldn't do that and I brought half the couch in and then Walt comes to me, there's three guys and he's like, "Hey, do you have any cash?" I was like, "For what?" Cash. "To tip them." I said, "Number one, it's not your couch. Number two, they didn't deserve it." And he said, "Yeah, that's why it's a gift." He gave each guy 20 bucks. 20 bucks and I gave him diet Cokes after. That's generosity. 2nd Corinthians 8:19, not only that but he has been appointed by the churches to travel with us as we carry out the act of grace as being ministered by us for the glory of himself in the show of good will. And then he continues in verse 20. We take this course meaning Paul himself is going to be with them, but he's not holding the money, representatives from each church are going so that no one's asking questions. That's verse 20. We take this course so that no one should blame us about this generous gift that's being administered by us for we aim at what is honorable, not only in the Lord's sight, but also in the sight of man. So he's saying, I'm taking extra precautions so that no one has any questions. So there's no malfeasance. That's what he's doing. So this is very unique because St. Paul has an open heart. I want to be generous but he's got an open mind. He understands the way this fallen world works and he understands that there's measures to take to make sure that no one's asking questions. It's a discerning generosity. Jesus said, "Be gentle as doves but shrewd as serpents." Because what is generosity? What is grace? It's giving people a gift that they do not deserve but if you are a generous person, what can happen is people just start expecting you. You're supposed to be generous to me. And if they're expecting it, now it's not a gift. It's cheap grace, you paid for it, but it's cheap because they don't value it because they feel entitled to it. And this is why a lot of Christians get taken advantage of because you are not discerning that a lot of people are still sinners. You're a sinner, they're a sinner, all's a sinner. So there's an aspect of total depravity. So sometimes to these people, the most loving thing you can do is say, "Hey, get a job and I'll help you get a job." Because sometimes helping actually hurts and the most generous thing to do is not help. Let me just give you an illustration from one of my least favorite things to do in the world, washing dishes. I do not do it often but when I do wash the dishes, I expect everyone to notice. Because as soon as you've stopped noticing, I stop washing. And here in lie, the source of so much of the gender role struggles. It's a secret, I'm here to reveal the secret to you. Men and women view dishwashing differently. Women washed the dishes after they eat, men wash the dishes before they eat. Because man if you washing the dishes just gave you a lot of things, supply and demand. If I supplied too much then the price goes down. So this is the way, why wash the dishes every day and my wife might stop noticing when I can wash the dishes once a week and she's ecstatic? And the point is notice when people are generous to you. Just say thank you. Don't take it for granted because then it's not a gift anymore. St. Paul view generosity through concentric circles, generous to the Lord, generous to the church. He wasn't married. So I got to bring in a few concentric circles. I'm generous to the Lord. That's my first circle. My second circle is, how can I be generous to my wife? My third circle is, how can be generous to my daughters? My fourth circle is, how can I be generous to my grandchildren? Then I say, how can we generous to my parents, siblings, friends, coworkers, community group, church members, attenders, neighbors and I want to be a reverse tither. So how much we need? God's got it. Verse 23, as for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker. For your benefit as for our brothers, they're messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ. So the churches are the glory of Christ so why wouldn't we invest? So prove before the churches of your love and of your boasting about you to these men. Give proof of your love in the context of finances. I'll close with the story before we go into communion, a story of Doyva and Rufina Angira. Rufina was from Siberia. Doyva was from Finland. They met in Narva, Estonia in the '80s. My dad was Doyva's manager at a factory that my dad worked at. And one of my dad's jobs was to give out bonuses at the end of the month, depending on who worked the best. Well there were drunks in the factory because everyone had to work. So if you got fired on one job, you just get another job and it's not about performance by you just showing up so they wouldn't really work. So he would take their bonuses and give it the Doyva. Salary was 200 rubles a month. My dad would make sure that it's an extra 50, 60 rubles a month extra for Doyva. The reason why that's important is because Doyva had eight kids and they were so poor that the whole family could not go outside for a walk because they didn't have enough sets of clothing. So my dad was generous to this guy. My dad shared with me this week, he said, one time, the first time he did it, Doyva will get his check-in and he's looking at it and he had bad eyesight. He's trying to figure out why is the number wrong? And then it finally hit him and he looks at my dad and he says, "May God bless you for that generosity." Well, one of the things that Doyva did was he was writing to the US Senate for a decade. He had been writing since the late '80s for a decade. Hey, I can't live in the Soviet Union as a Christian. I can't feed my family. I need refugee status to come to the United States. And he was granted it and he moved to Providence, Rhode Island. And he's the one that actually invited my family. He forced my dad to give them all the information. And then when my sister Aida was born, she was born in '88. My dad got the invitation and then finally he applied and he got a visa. So our family, with $700 in my dad's pocket, my family immigrated to the United States in Providence, Rhode Island and Doyva, I'll never forget, he came to pick us up in his beater and he was so happy to be in the land of milk and honey. That generosity, alleged generosity but then the cycle continued. My dad made it a mission in his life to help immigrants. How many times have you heard of immigrants coming? There was always finances. There was always groceries. He would help them and he would hire them. We live in a country where everyone's talking about theoretical generosity. We have 11 million undocumented immigrants living here amongst us. Are you generous to your neighbor? Receive the grace of Jesus Christ. If you haven't, grace is a generous gift giving. This isn't just a phrase, it's philosophy of life. Jesus lived like this so let us live like this.
Ride or Die
October 31, 2021 • Psalm 51:1–4, John 16:25, Genesis 6:5–6, 2 Corinthians 7:2–16, Zechariah 12:10
Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Morning. Welcome to Mosaic Church, my name is Jan, one of the pastors here along with Pastor Shane and Pastor Andy. If you're new or visiting, we'd love to connect with you. We do that through the connection card that you should have gotten at the back at the welcome table. If you fill it out legibly, and then redeem it at the welcome table, you'll get a gift there. And then if you give us your mailing address, we'll send you another gift in the mail to say thank you for coming out. With that said... Oh, also we have a membership class today. So if you're not a member, you're interested in membership, and if you're not interested you should be, we have a class with lunch provided with I think Burritos. Burritos, heavenly manna. And so we usually order more, so if you didn't sign up, you're still welcome to come, I'll give you mine. With that said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's Holy Word? Heavenly Father, we thank you that you created a place for us, a space for us, you created this earth, and you gave it to us to rule over under your dominion. And Lord, we rebelled against you, we like the prodigal son ran from you because we thought life would be more enjoyable without you, without your love and it's not. Jesus, we thank you that you the older brother, you did came looking for us, you lived with us and you loved us, and you loved us enough to speak the truth to us, and the truth got you crucified. Our sin got you crucified. We thank you Holy Spirit that you are with us and we repent of the fact that often we have grieved you, we repent. I pray that you bless our time in the Holy Scriptures, I pray that you make us the people who know the truth and love the truth, repent when we transgress against the truth, people who know your love as you define, and people who carry a culture of speaking truth and love anywhere we go. We speak what needs to be said, we have the courage to say it, but it's only because we love. We pray that you bless our time in the Holy Scriptures and show us that you call us to make room for people who disagree with us, to engage with them, to have hard conversations. I pray you remove any spirit of self-censorship from our church, from our homes. Bless our time in the Holy Scriptures, we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. My last sermon two weeks ago, I said some things that ruffled feathers, and I will address those comments today at the end of my sermon, so you have to pay attention until we get there. I've learned from my mistake, don't do it in the introduction. The title of the sermon is Ride or Die. I come from a big family, I have four siblings. And my extended family is also large, my dad has five siblings, my mom has 10 siblings. So I have family all over the world. And one of the things that our family, or one of the culture or core values of our family is we're ride or die. If you're part of my family and you text me when you're in a bind, I am there and I roll deep. I'll give you just a story from my own family. I remember when I was 13 years old, my goal in life, my American Dream, other people want picket fences, my American Dream was to get a car. So at age 17 I finally saved up enough for a car, I got my license. I bought a stick shift but I didn't know how to drive a stick shift, but it was cheaper than the not. So I got this car and I loved it. It was an Audi 80, just old, nasty, just problems all the time, but it was fast. And one time I got pulled over by a cop for doing 79 in a 35. It was a speed trap. I was doing 79 in a 55 but it turned to 35 downhill. And so my ticket was $450, I go to my dad and I say, "Paps, help me out." He said, "You bought the car, all the bills with the car are your bills." So I had to get a job, and I got a job. The only job I could get was delivering newspapers. So I'd wake up at 3:30 AM, and go to the place and fold up the newspapers. And then this is back in the day. This is people used to read newspapers. This is back like AOL, like Juno, like http://jan.vezikov@juno.com. You know what I'm saying? AIM, my name was Jantheman. Way back. Way back. So I realized it's hard to drive stick shift and deliver newspapers, so I would just stall all the time and it was terrible, late for school that first day. I come home, I tell my sister, "I can't deliver newspapers in my car." She said, "What time are we waking up?" 3:30 AM she's with me. I'm driving, she's tossing. And we did that for a month, just long enough to get $450. Ride or die. This text doesn't make any sense unless you understand that St. Paul views church like that, many of us don't. Many of us don't understand church like that. Many of us view church as it's like the movies. How often do you go to the movies when something good is playing? St. Paul viewed as family. He was like, "I'm a spiritual father, and I'm going to say things that are going to grieve you because I love you. And I'm doing it for your good, for your benefit because we're ride or die." That's the heart. And if you know me, I preach expositional message, I go verse by verse, and we explain. This one's a little different. I'm going to cover all the verses, but this one is kind of like an onion. You don't really understand the heart of what's going on unless you go layer by layer, by layer, by layer and then you get into the heart, and that's what we'll do today. 2nd Corinthians 7:12-16, would you look at the text with me? "Make room in your hearts for us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one. I do not say this to condemn you for I said before that you are in our hearts to die together and to live together. I'm acting with great boldness toward you, I have great pride in you. I'm filled with comfort. In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy. For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest but we were afflicted at every turn, fighting without and fear within. But God who comforts the downcast comforted us by the coming of Titus. And not only by his coming but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoice still more. For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it, for I see that the letter grieved you though only for a while. As it is I rejoice, not because you are aggrieved, but because you were aggrieved into repenting, for you felt a Godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. For see what earnestness this Godly grief has produced anew but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing with zeal or punishment, at every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter. So although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the one who did the wrong nor for the sake of the one who suffered the wrong but in order that your earnestness for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God. Therefore, we are comforted. And besides our own comfort, we rejoice still more at the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all. For whatever boasts I made to him about you, I was not put to shame, but just as everything we said to you was true, so also our boasting before Titus has proved true. And his affection for you is even greater as he remembers the obedience of you all, how you received him with fear and trembling. I rejoice because I have perfect confidence in you." This is the reading of God's Holy and infallible, authoritative word may write these eternal truths upon our hearts. St. Paul starts with this phrase, this metaphor, this image of making room. "Make room for us," he says. He started the language. 2nd Corinthians 6:11-13, he said, "We've spoken freely to you Corinthians, our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. In return, I speak as to children, widen your hearts also." St. Paul is speaking as a spiritual father. This is Papa Paul. I love you, that's why I've spoken hard words to soften your hearts. It was only because of love. My heart's wide open, is yours toward me? And then in 7:2 he says, "Make room in your hearts for us." In the Greek it just says, "Make room for us in your hearts." In the English translation, they put that in because the parallel is in your hearts, but he's saying, "Make room. Is there a room at the church that I planted? Is there room for me?" St. Paul is saying. "We have wronged no one and we've corrupted no one, and we have taken advantage of no one. In Mark chapter two, Jesus Christ goes back to his hometown of Capernaum, and he starts preaching, he starts preaching in the house. And the house is filled with religious leaders, they want to know what Jesus is teaching. And then the gentleman that gets to the door he gets carried there by his four friends, and his friends want this gentleman to be healed by Jesus, but the religious leaders won't let him in. They won't make room for a person who is different than them. They don't make room for a person who needs Jesus more than they need Jesus. And then finally, the friends were like, "All right." They climbed to the top of the house, they dismantled the roof, so I always feel bad for the owner of that house, but what are you going to do? The guy is more important. Lo and Jesus heals and forgives his sins. Jesus makes room for him. Jesus knows what it feels like to be rejected, and so Jesus really does care about making room for those on the fringes, those who have been ostracized. And that's what St. Paul is saying is that, "I make room in the church. I love you." He said, "You have room in my heart, now let's reciprocate." And this is how we'll frame up our time. You know someone is in your heart when you're willing to be grieved by them. You're willing to grieve them, you're bold around them, you're willing to eagerly repent, you're willing to joyfully forgive, you're comforted by them, and you die or live with them. This applies to every relationship. First, you're willing to be grieved by them, this is what it means to love. What it means to love is you open your heart to someone else. You let them in, you make them family, and you make yourself susceptible, you make yourself vulnerable to being hurt by them. That's what it means to love. It's the same thing God did, he creates us. And he's not aloof. He's not just transcended, he's also imminent, he's with us and he feels when we offend. Genesis 6:5-6, this is right before the flood, "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, and the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth and had grieved him in his heart." He saw what was happening. Where is God when there's evil in the world? He's right there. He feels it. Just like Jesus Christ, he made himself vulnerable, God becoming man. He let those whom he loved crucify him. Isaiah says that Jesus was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He was despised and we esteemed him not. This explains why St. Paul is so worried about this church. He planted the church, he's in Ephesus planting another church, he hears the church isn't doing well. They've allowed unrepentant sin in the church. They're actually celebrating the sin. And he hears about it, writes 1st Corinthians, hard words for hard hearts. And then he's grieved. How are the words accepted? Did they receive them and did they repent? And he says in verse four, he's worried, "I'm acting with great boldness toward you, I have great pride in you, I'm filled with comfort in all our affliction. I'm overflowing with joy for even when we came to Macedonia, our bodies had no rest. We were afflicted at every turn, fighting without and fear within." He's anxious for the church. He's afflicted with thoughts about the church. How many of you think about church outside of church? How many of you think about church on vacation? I had last Sunday off, I could do anything I want. I could have slept in till 2:00 PM. I came to church. On my day off? Yeah. It's my favorite thing in the world. Which service did you? I went to both. I was the last person out of the room. You know what I do for fun? I study other churches. You know what I do? Honestly, you know what? I listen to sermons. I watch football, but I listen to sermons while watching football. I redeem the time. Tanya and I went to a marriage retreat to Maine, the Cliff Hotel. It's awesome. We had an oceanfront room and I didn't think about church once. We were there Monday through Wednesday. Didn't think about church once for like an hour. Then I got texts and emails and phone calls, and then I realized, "Yeah, it's family." If your mom calls you when you're on vacation, will you pick up? It's family. That's how he feels. St. Paul here picks up from the excursus. In chapter 2:13 what he did was, he was telling us about why he's writing, how he felt. He was writing about the fact that he's in Ephesus and he sends Titus to Corinth, and Titus then is supposed to bring a message back to Paul, but Paul waited. Titus didn't come, he goes to Troas hoping to meet Titus there, and then he goes to Macedonia's church planting, and still thinking about the church the whole time. He's exhausted. He said, "Our bodies had no rest." I once heard a pastor say, "Don't complain about how hard your job is to your people." He said, "Everyone thinks you work one hour a week and you play golf the rest of the time." He said, "What do you want? A violin? What do you want?" Well, St. Paul knows, he's comforted by the fact that God knows. God knows. This is verse six. "But God who comforts the downcast," the word downcast here is depressed. St. Paul experienced a spiritual depression. Not a physical depression, a spiritual depression over his concerns about the church. He said, "But God comforts the downcast. Comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal, so that I rejoice still more." His joy is so wrapped up in the joy of the church and their health and their maturity and their growth, that he doesn't experience joy until they experience joy. Any parent knows when your baby is sick at night, you can't sleep normally. You can't. You're riddled with anxiety because you love this little human being. You're allowing that person's pain to be your own pain. You're allowing them to grieve you. Phillips Brooks was a pastor in Boston, you see his statues Downtown. He said this and he wrote a work called The Influence of Jesus. He said, "To be a true minister to man is always to accept new happiness and new distress. The man who gives himself to other men can never be a holy sad man, but no more can he be a man of unclouded gladness. To him shall come with every deeper consecration of before untasted joy, but in the same cup shall be mixed a sorrow that it was beyond his power to feel before." That's how deeply St. Paul loved. He's willing to be grieved. God knows this, God's experienced that kind of love. Titus finally arrived, brought encouragement to Paul, and Paul experiences immense relief. That the message was received, the people repented, the relationship has been reconciled with God. They showed Titus hospitality, communicated their eagerness to see Paul. But it wasn't until that moment that he could rest. 2nd Corinthians 2:13 before the excursus he said, "My spirit was not at rest, because I did not find my brother Titus there so I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia." Parallel language, 2nd Corinthians 7:5, meaning this is the end of the excursus. "For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest but we were afflicted at every turn, fighting without and fear within." Do you love your brothers and sisters like this? Do you love brothers and sisters in the church like this, where you're willing to be grieved by them? And I say this specifically to a church in Boston. I mean a lot of people, they just come to Boston, this is just a pit stop. This is just, "I'm here. I'm going to get what I need, and then I'm out. I'm going to Florida." "Can I come with you?" But while you're here, love like this. 2nd Corinthians 7:13, "Therefore we are comforted." This is the whole idea of like he's comforted by them, meaning he was grieving over them, meaning he wraps up his joy with them. "And besides our own comfort, we rejoice still more at the joy of Titus because his spirit has been refreshed by you all." You can't love without opening yourself up to being grieved. God loves God. Jesus loves Jesus. Holy Spirit loves us. As Christians, we are filled with the Holy Spirit, and Ephesians 4:30 says, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit with your sin. Don't grieve the Holy Spirit." Second is you're willing to grieve them. If you really love them, you're willing to grieve them. 2nd Corinthians 7:8, "For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it. For I see that the letter grieved you, though only for a while." What's going on here? "I regret writing what I wrote, but I don't regret writing what I wrote. I'm sorry that it made you feel sorry, but I'm not really sorry because you're sorry." That's what he's saying. And sometimes I do this where I say something, and I'm like, "Oh, I'm so sorry." And they're like, "Are you really?" I'm like, "No, because we're finally talking about the thing." That's what he's saying. He loves them enough to have the hard conversation, the uncomfortable conversation. That's what it means to love. You want the best for the person. This is what it means to love a child, to parent a child. You want the best for the child, so every once in a while you get down and you look your child in the eyes and you say, "I love you more than anyone else on earth. I love you more than your mom does. I love you more than anyone else on earth." And listen to me, I need to tell you something. This is not a comfortable conversation. Do you think I want to have this? No, I don't. But I love you more than I love my comfort so I'm going to speak. No one likes a surgeon's knife, but pain is worth it if it cuts out the disease. Unpleasant truth, life-altering truths. This is what it means to preach the gospel and to teach how to live a life in a manner worthy of the gospel. You tell people, "Hey, your life is not in step with the gospel of Jesus Christ. You're not living as someone who is saved." To have that conversation, you tell people that they need to change their life. That's not easy. Life-altering, lifestyle implication truths. Sit down with someone and say, "Hey, we got to talk. I know where you were this weekend. I saw from your Instagram story. It wasn't even your story, you got tagged in it, and I know exactly where you were. And that story didn't stay in Vegas." A conversation like that. Lifestyle conversations. St. Paul says, "If you love, you speak directly." Jesus was willing to grieve the people closest to him. His closest friends. Who Was Jesus' best friend? It was Peter. John thinks it was John, but he wrote down in the Gospel of John, a little biased I think. I think Jesus was like, "John, you're my best friend," and then, "Peter, you know you're my best friend." He goes to Peter, he's like Peter, "You're my rock, you're my foundation. I will build my church using you as you proclaim the Gospel." And sometimes Peter was dumb as a rock too. So in the very next breath, he says to Jesus, Jesus just told him, "Hey, I'm going to die to save you." And Jesus says, "No." "Jesus, I will go to war for you." And Jesus says, "Get behind me," and what does he call him? Satan. "Get behind me Satan." That's offensive. And at that moment, Peter could have written Jesus an email and said, "Jesus, you're not a good pastor. I'm leaving this church. I'm going to find another one of our pastors that doesn't call me Satan." He doesn't deal with the state of friends like, "Yeah, all right, my bad. Hug it out." Truth, love. You can speak truth when you know you love each other no matter what." I got a sister who's a vegan. She's done all the analysis and she says she believes that this is the healthiest way to live. I always tell her, "You got a supplement. If you got a supplement and stuff, then you're not getting that stuff." "Oh, yeah..." I make fun of her all the time for it, she makes fun of me for eating meat. We're still family. On her birthday, I got her a vegan sweatshirt. It's pink. It's made with vegan materials. Because that's what families do. You speak about uncomfortable things because you know you're not going anywhere. You're not going anywhere. That's love. And three is you're bold around them, because you're not afraid of offending them because they're not going anywhere. You're bold around them. 2nd Corinthians 7:4, "I am acting with great boldness toward you. I have great pride in you. I'm filled with comfort. In all our affliction, I'm overflowing with joy." So look how, "I love you, I am proud of you, I take comfort in you. You know that. And I'm going to speak with great boldness." And all this is in the Greek is freedom to speak. Cut to the chase, speak plainly. Jesus used the same phrase in John 16:25. He said, "I have said these things to you in figures of speech, the hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech, but will tell you plainly about the Father." I'm going to speak plain. I'm going to speak plain to you. The more you love a person, the more you're willing to just cut to the chase, and I respect that. That's when I know you really love me. When you have to sit down with someone and you have to say, "All right, this meeting is going to be an hour. We'll spend the first 45 minutes talking about how I really appreciate this person and I love this person, and then finally, I'm going to say what needs to be said. And the whole time I'm like, "I know what you're doing. Just get to the point." The longer you know each other, my wife and I, 16 years. October 23rd was 16 years from the day that we met. We're at a point where she was sitting in the first service up top. She sits up top when she thinks it's going to be controversial sermon, and she communicates with me through the air. If you've been married for a while, you know. "I know exactly what you're saying." She didn't like my sermon last week, or two weeks ago. I said, "Why didn't you?" I said, "Did I say anything untrue?" She said, "No." She said, "I'm just afraid people are going to hate you and you're going to end up in prison." I said, "Oh, so you get it. We're on the same page." She's like, "Yeah." She said, "Also, can you stop freaking people out with General Jan?" I was like, "I was talking about holy war. What do you want?" So today I'm, "This is Papa Jan." This is more. I even wore a different shirt. This is my dad bod shirt. Just I didn't even do anything to my hair. I'm like, "This is dad. We're going to have dad jokes and we're going to talk about what matters." You're bold, you can speak. What the Holy Spirit has laid on you, you can speak that with people that you truly love. And I'm afraid, I'm afraid that we're losing that at this church. We're definitely losing in the culture, I'm afraid we're losing it. One of my jobs as lead pastor and founder of this church, one of my jobs is I am a culture creator. Whenever I see something in the church, where I don't like the culture, I speak and we change things. For me, it's really important to have tremendous music. I love... I wish http://so...we have one of the best worship bands in all of the nation. And I know it because I watch other church services for fun. We do. They crush it, they crush it. Even on the livestream like, "Yeah." It's better in person, but even in a live stream, meeting it up. That's culture. Good coffee, its culture. If we have food, we're going to have good food. We're going to have a brisket and there's going to be enough brisket for everyone. I kind of laid an egg last time, I take ownership. Next time we're going to have more brisket. Culture. And I want a culture, I dream about a culture of being able to speak truth however uncomfortable, because we love each other that much. Where there is no self-censorship, where there are no topics off the table, bring whatever topic, free liberal exchange of ideas. Harvard University was started with that at the heart by the Puritans. They said, "This is how we are going to reclaim, recreate culture. We're going to take every single idea, whatever subject, and we're going to analyze it through the lens of Holy Scripture. If the idea is God glorified, we test the spirit, it glorifies God, it's going to further the common good, it's a good true beautiful idea, yes, we take it." "No, we reject it." We'll say it has gone to war against truth, and it does that with postmodern, there is no truth. And then censorship, people aren't speaking about what's true. St. Paul here says no. Like Jesus who is truth, we don't tiptoe around the truth. I get emails and texts and calls every once in a while with good friends of mine listening online, they're like, "I can't believe you said that thing." And I always, I like, "Why? Is it not true?" Like, "No, it's true, you just can't say in Boston." I say, "Why not? Is there some force field around Boston where there's things you can't say?" Apparently there is. And you know this force field, I experienced this force field. I just spent three days with my wife in Maine, we had our room was ocean view. I've never had that in my life. I spent three hours on the balcony just staring at the ocean, talking to God. My wife's like, "You going crazy?" I was like, "No, I'm praying." Because I like praying, I'm going to keep worshiping God, turn on music. And then I'm driving home on Store Road, my wife and I we weren't even talking. We were talking but not talking. As soon as I hit Store Road, I go, "Oh." Just angst, pain, ennui, the Russian word called toska, and you should look it up, T-O-S-K-A, toska. Tolstoy wrote about it, and Solzhenitsyn did. My soul was crushed. My wife is like, "What's happening to you? Can we go back to Maine?" I was like, "Please." Going honestly four hours. I had a brother who stopped by my place and he's like, he didn't say anything but he knew. And then three days later, he's like, "Yeah, you were just weird." It was like depressed, I was depressed. It's spiritual war, and it manifests itself where you can't say things. No, we're going to speak truth in Boston as it is in heaven. And we need to fight for that culture. Four is you're willing to eagerly repent when someone speaks truth to you. And you say, "Yeah, this is true. It's from the Holy Scriptures. I'm not lying. My life isn't in line with the scriptures." Verse two he says, "Make room in your hearts." For us, we've wronged no one, we've corrupted no one, we've taken advantage of no one. So before St. Paul, the great St. Paul starts poking around in other people's eyes to take our specs, he checks his own eyes. He looks at the Holy Scripture as a mirror and he said, "I got a log." Do I? If I got a spec. He says, "Show me where I'm wrong. Show me where I've sinned. Change my mind. I'm willing to repent." The false teachers accused him of lying, of being unreliable, because he didn't come for a visit. He couldn't control those things, he's not a sovereign. He's asking, "Did we sin against you?" He's saying, "I have a clear conscience to you." We don't believe, I don't believe in sinlessness. Only Jesus was sinless. So we don't believe in sinlessness, but we do believe as Christians in sinning less. As you grow in your faith, you are to be more sanctified. You are to grow in holiness. With day by day, a year goes by, you should be more holy then you were a year ago. And when people see you they should say, "What happened? You're different." Too many of you are managing sin, the same sin over and over. You commit the sin and then you go repent, you take communion, you go commit the sin. Just a cycle of wasted life, wasted talents, wasted zeal. My wife told me last week, she's like, "You're talking about holy war? There's people in the church who have not won the war over porn." Holy War. We'll win that war first, win that battle. I'm tired of pastors getting up and talking about, "Oh, we're so broken. Oh, yeah, we're so sinful," and talking about it with a defeatist spirit as if true freedom can't be experienced from a sin. Jesus Christ said, "If you struggle with sexual sin, cut off your arm and pluck out your eye." Savage. I'm going to write a book called Savage Jesus. And I'm saying that out loud just so no one steals the title. Stop. Stop sinning. Stop sinning. True freedom can be found, and it feels so much better than sin management. So we repent when we are called out? Jesus never repented so we can't look to him and say, "What does repentance look like?" But he did repent on our behalf. On the cross he said, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." Meaning ignorance is not a defense against God. At the judgment, you can't say, "I didn't know." Because you know what Jesus says? It doesn't matter, you're still guilty, and you're still guilty because you didn't know. You didn't know. You did know that was a sin, you did know. And God knows that you know. So we are to repent, and we are to believe, and this is how we grow in the Christian life. We repent and we believe, we repent and we believe and we got blind spots brothers and sisters next to us. They tell us speak truth in love. The first of Martin Luther's 95 theses, he says this, "When our Lord and master Jesus Christ said repent, he will the entire life of believers be one of repentance." Real. That's your whole life. Every day repent, believe, repent, believe. What is repentance? How can we know that it's real repentance? How can we know that it's true, and can it be distinguished from its imitations? Yes. And that's what St. Paul continues. He says, "I'm willing to joyfully forgive," and that's point five, "because I know that this is a real, true repentance." Verse nine, "As it is, I rejoice not because you were grieved but because you were grieved into repenting. For you fairly Godly grieved so that you suffered no loss through us, for Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret. Whereas worldly grief produces death." Now he's differentiating, he's qualifying repentance. There's true repentance and there's false repentance. There's true repentance that starts with a Godly grief, and there's false repentance that starts with a worldly grief and it only ends in death. This one ends in salvation without regret. The reason why he needs to differentiate is because they look the same in the very beginning. In the early stages, it's hard to differentiate which one's real and which one isn't. Because they're sorrow. Both of them are grief. When you sin and you experience the consequences of that sin, you don't have to be a Christian to be miserable about messing up your life. You ask anyone in prison, if they're grieved, they'll tell you they're grieved at being there, at their situation. When the debts run up and the bills come in, and they can't be paid and bankruptcy looms. Played around with a sin, all of a sudden you got addicted to it, and it seems like you can't live without it. You're unmarried and there's a baby on the way. Words are spoken and there's no taking them back. Marital infidelity, the damage is done, you try to rebuild but things will never be as they were completely before. A lie was told, found out, theft, impure. Whatever the sin, troubled pain, heartbreak, grief and sorrow follow in the wake. And tears flow, self-accusation, emotional wounds, but the question is, are you convicted of the sin? Is it grief over the sin or is it grief over being exposed? Worldly grief is what people will experience at the judgment. It's when you're weeping and gnashing of teeth as they're sent to hell. That's grief. It's not Godly grief. You feel bad for yourself. You feel bad that you've sinned against yourself. You don't feel bad that you've sinned against God. You're not grieved that you grieved God. You're grieved that you're grieving. Issa, the Scripture says saw repentance with tears and never found. Judas Iscariot, three years with Jesus Christ, and then finally he realizes what he did. It's not real repentance. Peter and David, they weren't just sorry that they got caught, Peter and David were sorry that they sinned against the Holy God. And St. Paul does this, and I think he does this intentionally because I've seen him do it before. Before he gets to the word that he really wants to use, repentance, he uses a word that's very similar to it but it's very different. Verse eight, "For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it though I did regret it. For I see that letter grieved you, though not only for a while." The line between heaven and hell is the line between remorse and repentance. Regret, remorse, you feel sad on account of how things ended up. If you got on a time machine, you went back, you might change things. But it's my bad, I shouldn't have done that, it's my mistake. That's remorse. And it doesn't matter how deep your remorse, if it doesn't turn into repentance, it's not going to do anything. Matthew 27:3-5, the story of Judas, "Then when Judas his betrayer saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and the others saying, "I've sinned by betraying innocent blood. I've sinned. I've sinned." They said, "What is that to us? See to it yourself." And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed and he went hanged himself. "I've sinned. I've changed my mind. I shouldn't have done that." And he didn't repent to Jesus Christ for betraying him. He could have and Jesus would have forgiven him. 2nd Corinthians 7:9, "As it is, I rejoice, not because you are grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. You were grieved into repenting for you felt a Godly grief so that you suffered no loss through us." Repent. This is metanoia. Turning around, it's a change of mind that leads to a change of heart. And the change of mind, change of heart leads to a change of life. You change how you live. Your pattern of life changes. The things you do change. Luke 22:54-62, Peter who denied Jesus shows us what true repentance looks like. "Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest's house and Peter was following at a distance. They had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them. Then a servant girl seeing him as he sat in the light, and looking closely at him said, "This man also was with him." But he denied it saying, "Woman, I do not know him." And a little later, someone else saw him and said, "You also are one of them." But Peter said, "Man, I am not." And after an interval of about an hour, still another insisted saying, "Certainly this man also was with him for he too is a Galilean." But Peter said, "Man, I do not know what you're talking about." And immediately as he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter, and Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, "Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times. He went out and wept bitterly." Judas was grieved over the fact that he sinned. Period. Peter, as he was sitting, looks and sees the eyes of Jesus Christ looking at him, blood, sweat, tears, crown of thorns. He realized that he didn't just sin, he sinned against Christ. That's true repentance. "God, I'm sorry, I've sinned against you. I grieve over the fact that I've sinned against you. I grieve over the fact that I've grieved your heart." Sin isn't just breaking commandment, sin is breaking the heart of God. "Yes, I shouldn't have but I did. I repent." There's no lawyering up, there's no self-justification. We've sinned against God. Our sin doesn't just offend God, it pierces God. Zechariah 12:10, "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy so that when they look on me, on whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly for him as one weeps over a firstborn." So when caught in sin, repent to Jesus, for your sin against Jesus. And even better, repent before getting caught. And better yet, mortify your sin. When repenting, repent with the spirit of King David who when the prophet comes and the prophet Nathan comes to him and convicts him of sin, David repents. Psalm 51:1-4, "Have mercy on me oh God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy. Blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly for my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin, for I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me against you. You only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment." Against you only. He sinned against Bathsheba, he sinned against Uriah, but he said, "Yeah, I've sinned against them, but the most egregious sin, the reason why I sinned against them is because I already sinned against you." That's where true repentance starts. Jesus Christ told us to mourn over our sin, that it's a blessing. Matthew 5:3-4, "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted." Verse 11, "For see what earnestness this Godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves with indignation, with fear, with longing, with zeal, with punishment. At every point you've proved yourself innocent in the matter. Remorse led to true repentance and true repentance leads to reconciliation, restoration, relationship with God and relationship with people. This is why repentance leads to action. Westminster Shorter Catechism defines repentance like this. What is repentance unto life? Repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin, an apprehension of the mercy of God and Christ does with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God. Full purpose endeavor after new obedience. True repentance, "And God forgive me, and God I'm yours. How do you want me to live? What do you want me to change? It leads to a change of life. And St. Paul, I just love his heart. They've hurt him, they've hurt God, but when he hears about their repentance, the first thing, he doesn't gloat, he's not like, "I told you so. You wicked sinners." They repent and he's like, "Come on. You're back in the family. You're back in the house. We'll make room for you." When people repent, we don't gloat. Just like God doesn't gloat. God is so willing to forgive. God is standing at the door and he's waiting. He's waiting for the prodigals to come home. He's right there. And Scripture says that there's more joy in heaven over the repentance of one sinner than over 99 who are no need of repentance. The fact that God rejoices when we repent should make us eager to repent. Six says, "You know you love someone when you're comforted by them. When just their presence brings you comfort, that's when you know you really love them. 2nd Corinthians 7:12-16, "So although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the one who did the wrong nor for the sake of the one who suffered the wrong but in order that your earnestness for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God." I'll deal with that verse. "Therefore, we are comforted, and besides our own comfort, we rejoice still more the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all, for whatever boast I made to him about you, I was not put to shame. But just as everything we said to you was true, so also our boasting for Titus has proved true, and his affection for you is even greater as he remembers the obedience of you all and how you received him with fear and trembling. I rejoice because I have complete confidence in you." He's saying, I didn't write just because of the one who did the wrong, that's the man who committed an incestuous relationship with his dad's wife. I'm not writing just because of the man that was wronged and suffered the wrongness of his dad. He said, "I wrote so that you would change." The culture of the church would change. And when they repented, he rejoices with those who rejoice, he takes comfort in them, delight from them just like God does in us. 2nd Corinthians 7:6, "But God who comforts the downcast comforted us by the coming of Titus." And point seven is you know you love someone when you die or live with them. 2nd Corinthians 7:3, "I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together." What a strange way to talk to Christians. Have you ever talked to a Christian like this? We're ride or die. He spent 18 months with them. I would die with you and I'd live with you. There's some people I would die for, living with? Oh. It's like die and live. And he starts with die to show us how deadly serious he is. He's saying, "I'm not condemning you, we're family, we're brothers and sisters." And this is really the heart of the whole text. Every other verse is just a layer of the onion. Paul never lost confidence of the fact that they were Christians, and they proved Paul right. He says, "You're already in our hearts, and we know that we are in your heart as well. We saw that from your repentance." This is what he does in verse 12. "So although I wrote to you, it wasn't for the sake of the one who did the wrong, nor for the sake of the one who suffered the wrong, but in order that your earnestness for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God." He's saying, I wrote those hard things not just to deal with a particular situation, I wrote it so that you see just how much you love the family of God already. You've made room for us. Continue to do so. We're already in your hearts, just like you are in our hearts. What he says is, "Live together and die together." He uses that language so flippantly because he's like, "It doesn't matter." We're going to spend eternity together, brothers and sisters so we might as well start getting along now. You will spend eternity with people who got vaccinated and you will spend eternity with people who did not. If you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, repent of your sins, then you will say at the family table. You will have dinner together for all of eternity. If you don't believe in Jesus, you will spend eternity in hell, which is just like COVID but for eternity. The COVID tension, you know that? That's what hell is. Quarantine here and isolation, that's hell. So trust in Jesus. That's my simplest way of contextualizing the gospel. So since we're on the topic, my wife has three trigger words that turn off her mind. COVID, vaccine and masks. As soon as she hears them, mind off. It's just like something trips and that's it. So I'm going to say a few things right now that will be hard to hear for two reasons that I see. The first reason is the sensitivity of the topic, the second is the simplicity of the analysis. Sensitivity of the topic. People have died. People have lost and people have suffered. I know I've lived through it. It doesn't mean that we shouldn't talk about a hard topic, so don't let the sensitivity of the topic check you out right now. Keep listening, please. And the simplicity of the analysis, I'm going to tell you words that you've heard before. And perhaps it's just the order of the words just slightly different and I don't want you to miss the profundity of the concept because the words are so simple. "Pastor Jan, why did you mention the politically charged topic that you did two weeks ago? Emotionally charged topic? Why did you mention? You usually don't." That's right. I usually don't. Because the things we deal with here are so much more important. Whenever something out there happens, just love each other, love God. Make sure you're going to heaven. But this thing is different. This thing is different because it's not going away. I waited, and I waited and I waited, and I was like, "A vaccine is going to come and we're stuffed. It's going." It's not. Because we have been so caught up in the details of our disrupted lives in the last 20 months, we perhaps have not understood the historical significance of what we have lived through. We have just lived through one of the greatest turning points in all of world history. Climactic. Things have changed. We're talking about the before times, and the new normal. Like an epoch has changed. We're talking about the New World Order. This one's different, and you say, "What about love, Jesus, simple? Isn't that what we focus on?" This has everything to do with love, Jesus, simple because the battle right now, the battle is being waged over the definition of love itself, of what it means to love, of what it means to be a loving person. That's under question right now. Jesus Christ gave us the great commandment, he said, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind and love your neighbor as yourself." I see my neighbor is hurting. You say, "But Pastor Jan, the reason I got the vaccine is because this is how I love God and how I love my neighbor." So should you. See, the first part I don't have issue with. That first part, you did the risk analysis. You got informed, educated, and this is how you choose to love yourself and how you choose to love your neighbor. It's a conscience issue. Okay, great. We're in the family of God together, that's... The very second you say, "So should you," you have entered different territory. You are adding rules to the commandment of God. It's called legalism. It's what the Pharisees did. Jesus Christ didn't tell me to love my neighbor as you love your neighbor, or as you love yourself. Jesus Christ didn't tell me, "Love my neighbor as the government tells me to love my neighbor. CDC, WHO, Fauci, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna." Jesus Christ told me to love my neighbor as I love whom? Love your neighbor as you love whom? Say it together, yourself. Well, that one word changes things. As you love yourself. So I put myself in the shoes of the person in my community group, she has antibodies. But she's being forced to get injected to keep her job, her livelihood. And I said, "Would I want to be put in that situation? No, I would not." And God forbid if the church ever put me in that situation. I'd have two questions, the first to myself, "Jan, why didn't you lead better? Why didn't you have the hard conversation? How did we get here?" And I'd ask, "Lord, is this a sign that I need to go plant a new church in Idaho, on a volcano with an airstrip, or Florida? Make America Florida again. Or Russia, that last bastion of freedom?" I just want to share my heart. And I know I'm an outlier here, I know, but just bear with me for just a little bit. I see out there creation of two classes, and I can't change that out there. I can't. I see it creeping in here. That's what concerns me. Point to one time in world history that this has been done, the creation of two classes and it hasn't led to bloodshed. The Nazis had their Untermensch, the underclass, the inferior people, Jews, gypsies, slobs, Black people, and people with physical disabilities, political prisoners. You're subhuman, you're not even human. And then there's the Übermensch, that's what it means to be a true human. That's what a loving human being is. Now we're living through, "Get the vaccine, enjoy society. Don't get it, but if you don't get it, it's your fault." Phrase, the pandemic of the unvaccinated? You're creating scapegoats and I know how this ends. I've seen this movie before. Two classes clean, unclean, obedient, stubborn, in, out, righteous, unrighteous, good, evil, loving, hateful. I know, I know. I'm one of the only people in the nation whose doing this. I was on a marriage retreat, 70 pastors and their wives. That was Monday. Tuesday we have breakfast, we have breakfast. All the pastors are in one room, all the pastor's wives are in the other room. And it's Q&A. "I got a Q&A, all right, I'll go." So I go. I sit in the back. I always sit in the back. I know I'm weird, and I start talking and people are like, "This guy is weird. What's he talking about?" I just know. There's not many rooms I walk into I'm like, "All right. I belong." I'm just weird. So I walk in and I sit in the back, I'm drinking my coffee, and the head guy comes up to me. He's like, "Hey, Jan, I want you to sit in the front. I got three seats up there and I want the room to look a little more full, so would you please sit there?" I hate when people do that. I never do that to anybody. Whatever. I respect the guy, I go to the front, I sit down, there's question and answer. "How do you lead your wife? How do you love your wife?" I'm like, "You guys are all pastors. Just love her. Talk about Scripture together. pray together, eat good food together. Have fun together. Tell her a joke. Make her laugh. That works." I'm sitting there, I'm like, "All right." Okay, now we're half an hour in, we got another half an hour to go, people stop asking questions. And I'm like, "All right, I got nothing else to do." And I said, "Are all questions allowed?" They're like, "Sure." The guy who was leading is from Brooklyn, the guy who was ahead of church planting here in Greater Boston, and the guy who's a megachurch pastor in Georgia, those were the three guys. First guy says, "Oh, here's my question." I said, "How do you minister to people in your church who are getting fired from their jobs for not getting the vaccine, and the religious exemption isn't accepted?" First guy says, "Religious exemption? I didn't know we have two different religions." I know. What he's saying is, Christians don't even ask this question, because the loving thing to do is to get the vaccine. In his mind, this isn't even a category. It's like these Christians aren't even welcome to the conversation. The second guy said, "I have never even thought about that." The third guy said, "We just decided not to give out religious exemptions." I know. I'm one of the only people that's ringing the bell. Do you realize what is happening here? This is an ungodly worldly sentiment that's creeping. There's churches. I used to deeply respect these pastors. On their website it says, "We have seating arrangements. On the first floor, it's for vaccinated people. For everyone else, you can sit over there." Okay, verses in James that says not to do that. What concerns me is this ungodly sentiment creeping in here where there's people in the church and I hear things, walk around asking, "Are you vaccinated so I know whether I can hug you?" No, no, no, get that out of here. Do what the rest of us do. We don't hug. We awkward fist bomb just like, "Yeah, I'll hug you with my eyes." Do that. Don't bring... I don't check for vaccination status at the door of my house. I don't do that. I'll close with this. I was at another pastors meeting this week in Truman Temple, and they had chicken and rice guys, it was so good. And they had trays of food, really, really good. And so I heaping plate, annihilated it, and then see there's more food. I'm like, "Which tray am I taking home?" But they didn't do that. But they gave us styrofoam little things that you can take food home, so I pile it up. And just I'm pumped, I'm bringing food home for my girls. How do you love your wife? You bring food home. Hunters and gatherers. So I'm walking down the street, walking Park Street into the T, and as I'm on Park Street there's a gentleman sitting there in front of the Park Street, and he says, "Do you have money?" "I don't have cash." I wish he had a sign with those little Venmo. I wanted to give him that tip. Then he looked at, he's like, "Food. Give me your food." I was like, "All right." I gave it to him. He opens it up, and he says, "My man." It looked that good. And then I walk into the T and I have so much joy on my heart and I'm thinking, "Why do I have so much joy?" It's not because I did this thing because it wasn't my food, it was just like, God. And I was like, it hit me, "He treated me like a human being not as a disease carrier." He looked at me and he said, "You're a human being. I'm a human being, you got food, can I have some?" "Yeah, okay." That's love. That's love. That's what it means to love each other. You see the humanity in the person. And this is my fear, it's only lasted 20 months. We stopped seeing the humanity in each other. We stopped loving each other the way Jesus called us. In the church of God, it's a family and there's no partiality. There's no prejudice, there's no discrimination. It doesn't matter what you look like, it doesn't matter how you dress, it doesn't matter how you smell, it doesn't matter where you're from, it doesn't matter to me your vaccination status, I will love you either way. And also you're not made righteous through your vaccine, you're not made righteous through not getting vax. So this spirit of judgmentalism, of classifying in your mind who are the right Christians and who are the wrong Christians, no, no. We're made righteous by the blood of Jesus Christ. His blood gives us immunity from Satan, sin and death. Have you repented to Jesus Christ? Well, welcome to the family. "I'd live with the family," St. Paul says, "I'd die with the family." Jesus lived with the family, died for his family. He makes room for us. Have you made room for him and have you made room in your hearts for those whom he has accepted, even if their perspective is different than yours? Make room in your hearts for us just like Jesus made room in his heart for you. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you for this word. We thank you for the fact that in this church we can have hard conversations because we love each other and we want to make room for more people here. Holy Spirit continue to use us in that. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.
Get Yoked
October 24, 2021 • Shane Sikkema • 2 Corinthians 6:14—7:1
Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Good morning. And welcome again to Mosaic. If you're new, my name is Shane, I'm one of the pastors here at Mosaic, and we're so glad to have you with us this morning. We would love to connect with you. And if you would like to connect with us, we mentioned this earlier, we do that through a little connection card in your worship guide, you can fill that out and just drop it in the little white box back there at the back of the room. We have a little gift we'd love to send you in the mail. Or if you turn it in at the welcome center out front, we have another gift that we'd love to give to you just to thank you for being our guest here this morning. We can get you some more information about the church there if you're interested in that as well. Last weekend, my family did the stereotypical New England fall drive. We went out across Massachusetts, up to Vermont and around and saw all the colors and that. And really the highlight of the trip though was along the way we came across some sky divers. And they were actually pretty low, they were kind of coming in for a landing and we're all looking, watching out the window as they're coming in. All of a sudden I hear my daughter Nora, from the back set just scream out, "Why on earth would anybody do that? That's so dangerous." And I'm like, "Okay, that's fair enough." I don't know, what's the most dangerous situation that you've ever been in? Have you ever been in a situation where the distance between you and death was thin, thin like the string attached to your parachute, thin like the foothold that you take when you're peering over the edge of a cliff and you get that kind of uneasy feeling in your stomach? My friends and I in college, we were kind of thrill seekers. We liked to go snow boarding and rock climbing. But one of the things that we really got into early in college was spelunking. You know what spelunking is? You put on helmets and knee pads and headlamps, and then you crawl and you climb and you sometimes even swim to go through exploring these underground cave systems. And really, normally, usually in order to explore an actual wild cave, a cave that hasn't been commercialized for the public, you're supposed to belong to an official caving organization. And you have to oftentimes go downtown to the city hall and they'll have a key that lets you get access to the property that the caves are on. We weren't in one of those. But my friend somehow this one mythical place in Southern Indiana that was completely off the grid, under the radar. So we made this trek from Northwest Illinois to Southern Indiana. And we get there and you're going down this country road, all of a sudden you hit this T intersection and there's just some woods and a small little opening in the trees, just big enough to drive your car through. And so we drive it down this old dirt road until we get to this rusty metal gate and next to the gate, there's a box and a sign and the sign says basically, "Drop $20 in the box, sign this piece of paper and enter at your own risk. If you die, you die." And as college students, this sounded amazing. This was the adventure that we were looking for. And so we go, we set up a little campsite and we spend a couple days exploring these caves. And some of them had these big, big, beautiful openings, like stereotypical caves. I've got a picture of one of them. Most of them were really just a hole in the ground. If you weren't looking for it, you could easily walk right past it and not even know that they were there. You'd come across this hole just barely big enough to shimmy your way down inside and then you'd army crawl for 10, 20, 30 yards. But then eventually they would open up into these big cavernous rooms and literally inside there would be miles of tunnels to explore. And so what's the point? The point is, I remember a moment when we were probably over a mile deep into one of these caves and it really finally hit me. I knew it going in, but it hit me in a real way, that if for some reason the batteries on our headlamps were to die, then we were to die. The only light that we had was the light that we had brought in with us. And if we were to lose that light, we would be lost. We would be left to grope through the darkness, never knowing if we were getting any closer to where we were going or only further and further into the darkness. It's a dreadful feeling, which is why we brought extra headlamps, extra batteries, extra everything just to be safe. But the danger was real. We have been going through a sermon series on 2 Corinthians. And Paul has been repeatedly pleading with this church to remember the darkness that they were saved out of, that they were lost, dead in their sins, lost in the darkness and pleading with them not to go back into that darkness. A couple weeks ago in chapter four, he told them this, he said, "Listen, the God of this world...", 2 Corinthians 4:4, "... has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness.', has shown our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." "Corinthians, remember you were in that darkness, you had no light. You had no life. You had no hope. And you got yourself into that darkness with no way of getting yourself back out. But while you were lost, while you were dead in your sins, blinded by the false God of this world, the true God of this world, because of the great love with which he loved you, he sent us to you with the light of the gospel to save you out of darkness. Now, whatever you do, don't go back." This is his plea. Why? Because some of them were. What we see is that false teachers, unbelievers were creeping into the church, gaining influence over people's hearts and minds and like wolves in sheeps' clothing, they were leading them away from their savior, away from the safety of the flock and ravaging the church. If you have your Bibles, open up to 2 Corinthians, chapter six, we're going to be looking at 2 Corinthians 6:14 through to 7:1 And what we're going to see is that Paul is again, he's giving us a warning to not return from where we came. He's giving us a reminder of who we are and he's giving us a vision of where we're going. So if you have your Bibles, you can open up. If not, the words will be up here on the screen, but would you please look at our text with me this morning? This is 2 Corinthians chapter six, beginning in verse 14. "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an believer? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of living God. As God said, 'I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you and I will be a father to you and you shall be sons and daughters to me.', says the Lord almighty.' Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion and the fear of God." This is the reading of God's word for us this morning. Would you please join me in prayer for our sermon today? God, we thank you for your word. Your word is holy. It is an errand. It is infallible. It is authoritative. It is a light for our path. It is a lamp for our feet. I pray that you would write the truth of your word upon our hearts to know it, to understand it, to believe it, to love it and to apply it to our lives in obedience and faith. My father, I pray that you would give me grace now and the power of your spirit to speak as I ought to faithfully preach, and to teach your word to your people this morning. I ask this in Christ's name, amen. Three points today. Point number one, completely cast off the yoke of slavery. Point two, completely take up the yoke of salvation. Point three, get completely yoked with your savior. Arm pump emojis all around, we're going to talk about what that means in point three. But point number one, Paul begins right off the bat, verse 14, "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers." Four, what partnership has righteousness with lawness or what fellowship has light with darkness? What a court has Christ with Belial, with the worthless one, with Satan? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of with idols?" This metaphor of being yoked, it's used in a few places throughout scripture, but there's only two other places in the New Testament where it's used in this negative sense. The New Testament uses it a few times literally. Jesus uses it one time as a positive metaphor. And we're going to talk about that later. But it's only used three times in this negative sense. It's used here and it's used in Acts 15 and it's used in Galatians 5. And we're going to take a look at these two other passages because they help us to understand what Paul is talking about and give us a good commentary on what this means. But in summary, both of these passages, they're addressing two things. On the one hand, both of these other passages, they are warning the church to not be yoked to false teachers and to false teachings that were telling them that in order for you, Gentile Christians to be saved, you first need to be circumcised and to keep the Mosaic Law. Not just the moral law, but the ceremonial law and the civic law as well. And it's warning them that that you don't need to earn your righteousness through works of the law. And it's warning them there on the one hand. But on the other side, both of these passages also come with a warning against being slaves to the flesh, of living in immorality and sexual immorality and idolatry, as you did in your former lives as pagans. And so Acts 15, this is what we see. We see in Acts 15:1 that some men came down from Judea and they were teaching the brothers unless, "You are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." And so verse six, the apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and he said to them, "Brothers, you know that in the early days, God made a choice among you that by my mouth the Gentile should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us. And he made no distinction between us and them having cleansed their hearts by what? By works of the law? No, by faith. Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither are fathers, nor we have been able to bear, but we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus just as they will." And so, in response to this at the end of the chapter, the apostles decide they're going to send a letter to this church to clarify their stance on the issue. And this is the letter in Acts 15:23, it says this, "To the brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings. Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourself from these things, you will do well. Farewell." So he's saying, "You don't need to earn your righteousness through these works of the law. You don't need to be circumcised to be saved. But this is also not giving you a license to continue to live in your former pagan lifestyle." These things at the end, they're describing practices of idolatry and sexual immorality. We see the same thing in Galatians, chapter five and Galatians 5 is just such a great commentary on this issue that I'm actually going to read this entire chapter, because it really helps us to grasp the fullness of what Paul is talking about. And this is how he begins Galatians chapter five. He says this, "For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look, I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law." If you think that that is going to save you, you need to keep the entire law perfectly. He says, "You were severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law. You have fallen way from grace. For through the spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision or uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. "You were running so well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and that the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case, the offense of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettled you would emasculate themselves." That's a Bible verse. "For you are called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one in word, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. But I say, walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh, for the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. These opposed to each other to keep you from doing the thing you want to do. But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. "Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." You see, both. On the one hand, you can't save yourself through the law. And the other hand, this grace that we have in Christ does not give us a license to continue living an unchanged life in the flesh, continue practicing the idolatry and the immorality of our former lives. He's saying, "You once lived in that darkness." But then the gospel came and the light of the gospel revealed that salvation comes by grace alone, through faith alone, in the work of Jesus Christ alone, to the glory of God the Father alone. So therefore do not be yoked to anyone who teaches you that you need to add anything to the work of Jesus in order to be saved. And do not be yoked to anyone who says that your freedom in Christ is a license to sin and to live an unchanged life as a slave to your flesh. And do not be yoked to anyone who practices or promotes permits idolatry in any form. That's who we are not to be yoked to. Now, what does that mean? What does it mean to be unequally yoked to these things? Well, Paul gives us five descriptors in the text. And he frames them in these five rhetorical questions. "What partnership has righteousness with lawlessness?" It's a rhetorical question. There is none. "What fellowship has light and darkness?" They can't exist in the same place at the same time. "What accord has Christ with Belial??" It means the worthless one. He's talking about Satan, the devil. "What portion has the believer with the unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of God." James 4:4 says this, "You adulterous people. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." What's going on here? What does this mean? Does this mean that we as Christians need to completely separate ourselves, cut off every we have with every unbeliever in our life? That we need to just completely isolate ourselves from the world? Does this mean that Mosaic needs to go buy some property in rural Pennsylvania and build a homestead with a lake and a garden? And the longer I live in Boston, the more I think I'd be a really great monk. I'd be a married monk, but still. Is that what he's talking about? No, if that's what he was talking about, James would be contradicting Jesus. Paul would be contradicting himself. Jesus says this in his high priestly prayer. He's praying to the father in John 17. He says, "I have given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake, I consecrate myself that they also may be sanctified in the truth. Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians addressed this issue as well. 1 Corinthians 5:9, he says this, "I wrote to you in my letter..." His former letter, 1 Corinthians is actually kind of 2 Corinthians, but we don't... The first letter was not part of scripture, it was not part of canon. We don't have that. But he's referring to a previous letter that he'd written the church. "I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. Not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and the swindler or the idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler, not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church who you are to judge? God judges those outside. Purge the evil person from among you." And so it is not commanding us to leave the world. He's not telling us that we need to cut off all relationships with unbelievers. We need to reach them with the gospel. But he is saying that Christians need to remain sanctified, set apart and utterly distinct from the world around us. The church needs to be in the world, but the church can't allow the waves of the world to creep into the church, into the lives of believers. We talked about this a few weeks ago. This is not our home. We don't belong here. We are ambassadors here for Christ's kingdom. Our citizenship is in heaven. God has placed us here and called us here to change the world, not for the world to change us. And so what that means is that as we carry out this ministry, we can't build the kingdom of light using the tools of darkness. We can't fight the good fight using the enemy's weapons. We can't ,arch into battle allied with the enemy's soldiers. It's not that we're fighting against them, we're fighting for them. We want them to be saved, delivered from that darkness. But we're not on the same team. We can't partner in the gospel with those who have yet to repent and receive that gospel. And I believe that is primarily what Paul has in mind here when he says, "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers." Now, most of you, if you have heard this passage before, if you're familiar with it, you've heard it used in what context? In the context of marriage, right? This is why a believer can't pursue marriage to an unbeliever. Now, is that what Paul is talking about here? And when you read the text, this text has nothing to do with marriage on the surface, but it has everything to do with marriage when you properly understand it. Because what Paul is talking about here is a partnership in ministry and marriage is ministry. If you don't understand that, you don't understand marriage. Marriage, Christian marriage, is a missional covenant between one man and one woman in submission to one God. It is two people coming together to say that from this day forward, we until, death do us part, are going to be partners in gospel ministry together. Marriage is a commitment to work together toward the shared goal, of building a relationship, building a family, building a home that glorifies God, and that intentionally reflects the gospel out into the world around us. And we see this very clearly in Ephesians chapter five. And read this chapter with this in mind, and look at this, Ephesians 5:22, "Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands." Why? To give the world a glimpse of the gospel, to reflect the truth of the gospel to the world around us. Likewise, "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that, she might be holy and without blemish. "In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes it and cherishes, it just as Christ does the church, because we're members of his body." Husbands cherish your wives, lay your lives down for the sake of your wives. Why? To give the world a glimpse of the gospel. He roots this in the gospel. He also roots this in creation, that this is how it was meant to be from the beginning, verse 31, this is quoting Genesis, "Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband." And then he continues, "Children...", in chapter six, "... obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, this is the first commandment with a promise, that it may go well with you and you may live long in the land. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." This is God's purpose, this is God's vision for marriage and family. And so therefore, before you yoke yourself to someone for the rest of your life, the most important question that you need to be asking and answering is, "Is this person going to help me plow in that direction?" If not, you need to take off that yoke. You need to break off that relationship. Now, one caveat here, does this mean that if a Christian is for some reason already married to an unbeliever that they need to seek a divorce? No. Paul made that clear in 1 Corinthians, you can look up instructions for that. It's 1 Corinthians 7:12-16. But the big idea is that going into marriage, that this is God's desire, this is God's vision, it should be ours as well that marriage is ministry, ministry to one another, ministry to our children, and ministry to the world around us. So while the text is not talking about that, it is a proper application of the text. What are some other ways that this principle of being unequally yoked applies to us? The most direct application of this, that Paul is talking about primarily in the text, has to do with ministry in the church. He says, "You are the temple of God. And what agreement has the temple of God with idols?" Paul's writing to a church that had been deceived. They'd begun yoking themselves to false teachers and false ideas. And he wants them to see that behind these false teachers, these false ideas were false gods, were false idols. And so some of them were embracing legalism, a self righteous works righteousness. Others were tolerating paganism. Most of them were probably mixing the two together. And Paul wants them to see. As good as these teachers might look on the surface, they come to you and say, "Oh no, we're just trying to help people be more holy, or we're trying to make sure that people are really committed, and that's why we're demanding these works of the law. Or we're trying to be more tolerant, we're trying to make things more palatable so that more people will come." He says, "However good. It might look on the outside, inside these teachers and these teachers aren't just different, they aren't just bad, they're demonic." And he gets to this later on, we'll get here eventually in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, but just to give us a glimpse of where he's going, this is what he says. He says, "Such men are false apostles." An apostle is someone who's sent, so if these are false apostles who sent these apostles? They're, "Deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it's no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds." The New Testament warns us over and over and over against the deadliness of false teaching and false teachers. Because they so often come to us in disguise. They don't always appear as these hideous demonic forces on the surface. They come and it almost seems good if you don't have discerning eye, if you aren't looking through the eyes of faith. But it warns us because we need to keep these false teachings, these false teachers out of the church. Don't give them a platform, don't give them influence, don't give them any kind of foothold. This means we need to know God's word and understand where it is that Jesus, our good shepherd, is leading us. We need to avoid partnering with these false teachers, but we also need to understand the positive side of this as well, what the application is there for, what you should be doing is you should be partnering yourself. You should be yoking yourself with other believers who you know are going to pull strong and straight and steady after the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is why church membership is so important. This is why we take church membership very seriously here at Mosaic. It's people coming together and committing and saying, "We are committing together to pull strong and straight and steady after our Lord Jesus Christ. And if one of us wanders to the right or one of us wanders to the left, we're there to encourage and to correct and hold each other accountable to staying on this straight and narrow path." If you're interested in a membership, we're actually having a membership class next week, you can get signed up for that. But that's how this applies inside the church. There needs to be purity inside the church. But where else does this apply? Because obviously ministry happens in the church, but ministry happens in all areas of our lives as well. And so we read this passage, we begin to think, "What are some of the other ways that this is fleshed out in our lives?" And this is where things get a little more dicey. This is where you got to really rely on the Holy Spirit and have a discerning mind. And there's so many variables involved that it's hard to give a one size fits all response to, "How do we apply this in all the other areas of our life?" I'm going to give a few examples, but before we do just, we need to start by just asking ourselves honestly, in your friendships, in your relationships and in your partnerships at work, at school, wherever life takes you outside of the church, is there something there that is pulling you away from Christ? Are you there as an ambassador, bringing the values of Christ's kingdom into the world? Or if you're honest, is the world winning? Is the world instilling its values in you? So college students, many of you are paying a lot of money to sit through courses. And some of these courses are education. Some of these courses are indoctrination. Are you discerning enough to know the difference? And are you strong enough to stand firm in what you believe? If you're going to a school, if you're sitting in a class where you are always being told what to think and never being taught how to think, if you're going to a class, to a school where it's not safe to ask questions about God, about origins, about purpose, about destiny, about morality, where everyone is expected to hold this same opinion and terrified to speak their mind, you're not in a classroom. You're in a cult. A very expensive cult. Now be honest. How is your soul? Are you there as a light in the darkness? Or are you becoming one with the darkness? If you are yoked to an institution, a person, idea, anything that is pulling you away from Christ, you either need to be strong enough to pull back and stand your ground against that at force or you need to be wise enough and humble enough to cut your losses to cast off that yoke before it drags you away. Parents, you need to ask questions of your kids. What are they hearing? What are they seeing? What are they feeling? What are they reading? What are they being told in the books that they read and the TV shows and the movies that they watch? Even at school. Our son was four years old the first time he had to stand his ground against a teacher at school. He was in a classroom of 19 boys and they were told it was time to play dress up. And Owen said, "I don't want to play dress up." The teacher said, "Why?" "Because all of the costumes are for girls, and boys shouldn't wear dresses." And his teacher scolded him. Now, if you know Owen, he's a very thoughtful and sensitive kid. He took this really hard. He felt ashamed. He thought he had done something wrong. So we talked about it that night at dinner. We assured him that he did the right thing, and we talked about why. We talked about why boys need to present themselves as boys and girls need to present themselves as girls, because God made us different, that those differences matter. And that as a son of God, God calls his sons to stand up to defend and to make sacrifices for his daughters, just like his son, Jesus Christ, did for his church. It matters. And so we told him, "The next time that this comes up, you look at your teacher and you say, 'Miss teacher, the facts don't care about your feelings.' And then take a long drink out of your mug of leftist tears." No, we said, "You tell this teacher, 'I love you, but we don't agree.'" Within a week, it came up again and he did exactly what we taught him. And you know what he found out? His teacher didn't get mad this time. He found out that actually I think he caught her totally off guard and we noticed a change in her, that from that day forward, she looked at him with a new respect. And she actually voiced that to us at some of our conferences. But when he said, "Teacher, I love you." He meant it. And when he said, "I don't agree." He meant that as well. But as it turned out, she turned out to be one of his favorite teachers. But the point is your kids need to know what they believe and they need to know why they believe it. And they also need to know how to lovingly, but firmly stand their ground. And so as parents, you need to ask questions, you need to debrief and you need to disciple your kids. You need to shepherd their hearts and you need to sharpen their minds or the world will do it for you. What about the workplace? When I read this passage, that's one of the things that comes to mind, because there's partnerships that are formed in work, in career. And how does this play out? Well, there are some occupations and some organizations that are so at odds with Christ's kingdom, that a Christian cannot patronize, cannot partner with them in any way at all, period. But by God's grace, most work can be done to the glory of God as it contributes to the common good under God's common grace. And so assuming that that's the case, if you're the boss, praise God, I hope you're tithing. I know you are. I don't even need to say it. But your goal as the boss, hopefully, is you're trying to build a business and an organization and a culture that honors Christ. And so therefore you need to be careful about who you hire, who you partner with, who you yoke yourself to, who you give leadership and influence to. Because if you want to build a business that honors Christ, you need to be yoked with people who are going to help you pull in that direction and not pull things off course. Most of you aren't the boss, and maybe you don't have much say or sway at work. Some of you might be asked in the workplace to push forward to support agenda, immoral, unethical agendas that conflict with the agenda of Christ. Are you going to be able to stand up in those moments and speak for what is right, even if that means risking your position, your promotion, even your presence in the workplace? What does it profit a person if they rise to the top organizational hierarchy and yet forfeit their soul? We need to be careful about what we attach our hearts and our goals and ourselves to in this world, to make sure that we are pulling after Christ and that these things aren't pulling us off course. So we need to completely cast off the old yoke of slavery, that's point number one. But in order to do that, we need to completely take up the yoke of salvation. Now, verse 16, "What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God said, 'I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord almighty.'" To completely take up the yoke of salvation is to completely understand God as a father, a father who loves you, has loved you, has loved you to such an extent that he paid a price. He sent his son to redeem you out of slavery and to adopt you into his family. When you understand this, it changes everything in your life. We called this series Prodigal Church, because the Corinthians had so much in common with the two brothers from The Parable of the Prodigal Sons. I say prodigal sons, because the point of Jesus' parable is really that both sons were lost. Both sons had recklessly abandoned the love of the father. The younger brother abandoned the father to pursue sex and drugs and pagan parties. The older brother abandoned the father, he didn't abandon the father physically, but he abandoned the father in his heart. He honored the father with his actions, he was a slave to the father's laws, but his heart was far from him. And both sons were miserable. Both sons were yoked to a false understanding of God. They knew him only as a force to either be avoided or to be appeased. And they failed to see him for who he was, which was a father to be loved and embraced. Now, Jesus calls out in Matthew 11:28, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yo upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." To completely take off the old yoke, you need to yoke yourself to Christ. In Christ, you are no longer a slave to sin. You are no longer a slave to the law. You are a son, a daughter adopted into the family of God. And so you need to take up that new yoke, take up that new identity. And then Jesus says, "And learn from me. Learn to follow my lead. Learn to pull in the direction that I am going in every area of your life." So whether you're more like the younger brother or more like the older brother, Jesus is the better brother. Jesus is the brother who was sent to find us, to save us and to bring us back home to find a father who was waiting, not to scold us, not to cast us away, but to embrace us and to welcome us home with open arms. So completely cast off the yoke of slavery, completely take up the yoke of salvation. Point number three, get completely yoked with your savior, arm pump emoji. This is chapter seven, verse one. "Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God." People cringe at this idea of holiness. But deep down, everybody wants it. Everybody wants holiness. Everybody wants people to treat them that they would want to be treated. Nobody wants people to lie or to cheat or to steal or to sin against them. Deep down, everyone wants holiness for others. Just not so much for themselves. Now as Christians, this cannot be the case. We desire holiness and we desire holiness because holiness is our destiny. As Christians, we look forward to an eternity without sin, no selfishness, no pride, everyone is working in the best interest of others. People are humble, selfless, they're full of peace, full of joy, no rivalry, no jealousy, just happiness for one another and the Lord. We look forward to that, that is our destiny, and therefore that holiness is our desire. To take that glorious future that we are waiting for and to do what we can to make it a reality right now. And so read that verse again, "Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion and the fear of God." Bring holiness to completion. In other words, we all are going to be completely holy. We're going to be spiritually yoked in eternity. Therefore, start working out right now. What do I mean? I mean if holiness had muscle, if holiness had mass, then God's desire would be for all of his children to be completely yoked like professional baseball players. Not like today's professional baseball players, like the players of the 1990s when steroids were still mandatory, that's what we're talking about. When people look at your spiritual gains, they should say, "There's no way that's natural." Because it's not. You're not natural. You're supernatural. You are a new creation in Christ. The Holy Spirit of God lives in you. Therefore, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of the body and spirit, not just the outside, but the inside as well, and bring holiness to completion in the fear of God. The reason that Jesus could say that his yoke was easy and that his burden was light was not because there wasn't a heavy burden to bear. There was. But he took that burden alone. What was the yoke that Jesus took? What was the burden placed on his back? It was the cross of salvation for sinners to be saved. Long before Christ was born, the prophet Isaiah looking forward to that day, he wrote an Isaiah 53, "Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our inequities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed." We all like sheep have gone astray/ we've turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Jesus took the soul crushing weight of our sin upon himself. And he carried that to the cross. He did that for us. And now he invites us to come, to take his yoke, to take up our crosses daily and to follow after him. Not because we need to bear the burden of our salvation again, not because there's more atonement yet to be made for our sin, but in order to bring holiness to completion and to carry this good news of his cross to the ends of the earth. If you are a Christian, you're here this morning, are you yoked fully to your savior Jesus Christ? And if you're not, if you've been trying to carry this burden, if you've been trying to prove yourself through your own righteousness or run from God into slavery, to sin, come and lay that burden at the foot of the cross. Take the yoke of Christ upon you and know that he loves you. He died for you so that you could be saved. You can do that today. Just repent, put your faith in him. Let's pray. Jesus, you are the light of the world. You are the light that will never grow dim, the light that will never go out. Your words says that you shine in the darkness and that the darkness will not overcome you. And you've also told us, you have called us the light of this world, a city on a hill that cannot be hidden. God give us the grace and the power to shine this light without compromise, without fear. God give us the grace to be the holiness that we long to see in the world. Fill us as beacons of light, the beacons of your hope to a world that is run by darkness. God, I pray that you just help us to grasp the gravity of what is at stake, so that we're never tempted to run from this responsibility or to try to push forward in the works of our own flesh, but to rely fully on you, on your spirit, every step in submission to your word. God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your spirit. We thank you for your son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, our savior. It is in his name that we stand before you and pray. Amen.
Holy War
October 17, 2021 • 2 Corinthians 6:1–11
Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are a good god. You created everything and you've said it's good, it's very good. Yet Satan rebelled against you, a third of the angels rebelled against you, and we, in tow, rebelled against you. We declared war and instead of vanquishing us as you could in a second, you sent your son Jesus Christ. Jesus, we thank you that you are truth. Everything you ever spoke was true, and you've stood up against the lies and the accusations and the perversions of the evil one and the evil one's manifestation in this world. You've stood up to Caesar. You've stood up to Herod. You stood for the truth, and you were killed for it. So how can we expect the faith to be safe? When the author and perfecter, the champion of our faith was killed for it? I pray today, Jesus Christ, that you send us a steely backbone, a backbone of ... Infuse us with courage. To know what's true and to stand up for it no matter the cost. Just like many who have come before us. We pray that you continue to expand your kingdom and King Jesus, our swords are yours. As we open up the sword of the spirit, the word of God, I pray today, do a powerful work in each one of our hearts, we pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen. The title of the sermon is Holy War. If you want to live a life of safety, do not become a Christian. God is a good god, but he is not safe. The biggest competing god of our day and age, god competing for our affections and our allegiance is not the god of money or the god of sex or the god of leisure. It's the god of safety, and the most power-hungry amongst us know this, so they promise us safety if we give them our power. What is our power? It is our freedom to do that which God has called us to do. So as we give them our power, we are rendered powerless, which is the most dangerous place to be, and they conquer us by planting fear in our hearts. And then they promise to relieve our fear. If we would just put our faith in them, they plant fear and demand faith. They make us sick and then they promise to keep us safe, but they only make us sicker, yet we keep believing for safety's sake. They promise us safety, then they lead us to the slaughter. God isn't safe, he's petrifying, he's wild, he's anything but tame, and that's why he's the safest place to be, because he's good. C.S. Lewis in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe has this one quote, "Aslan is the lion, the lion, the great lion. "Oh," said Susan, "I thought he was a man. Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion." "Safe," said Mr. Beaver, "Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn't safe, but he's good. He's the king I tell you."" A lot of people get nervous when you talk about politics at church. Get really nervous. Is he really going there? Oh yeah he is. He's been going there for a while now. I take my points from church history. We all love C.S. Lewis. Even pagans love C.S. Lewis until they understand what he's talking about. C.S. Lewis thought a lot about tyranny. He's got a lot of great work about freedom and standing up for freedom. One of the quotes that has been circulating around posted by Joe Rogan on his Instagram. Joe Rogan, the one who took the horse dewormer, that Joe Rogan. Well he posted this, a quote from C.S. Lewis, "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victim may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some times be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." Well that's all Joe Rogan posted, and I wish he had kept reading. Because that would have made for even a better quote. C.S. Lewis goes onto say, "They may be more likely to go to heaven, yet at the same time, likelier to make a hell of Earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be "cured" against one's will and cured of states which may not regard as disease is to be put on the level of those who have not yet reached the age of reasons or those who never will to be classed with infants, imbeciles and domestic animals." God in the Dock. Why does C.S. Lewis go there? He went there because he as a minister of the gospel, us as believers in the truth, stand up for the truth, and when lies begin to encroach upon reality, we must push back. God, save us from this tyranny of safety. God doesn't offer us safety, he offers us salvation. Then he sends us to war. He frees us for war, so what does the enemy want to do? The enemy wants to take away our freedom to fight. I will fight for my freedom to fight. Will you? I'm not talking about guns. The biggest battles aren't won with guns. They're won with words, and that's why it should shock every single one of us, believer or not, that we have entered a time when you can't fight with words anymore. You can't fight with ideas anymore because some ideas are forbidden. They've taken away our freedom to fight ideas with ideas, and just to ask the question now, you're banned. Instead of debate, they deplatform, and now you're banished to the hell of silence for asking the question, for thinking the thought. For the idea itself. Here is your muzzle. Put it on all the way. You can't fight for truth anymore. We went from there is no truth to you can't question the truth real quick. Hey, what happened to live and let live? What happened to live your truth? What happened to that? How fast can you go from postmodernism to communism? 18 months. 18 months ago, I was talking about radical individualism. It's not about you, it's not about you, you got to care about the church, you got to join the church, you got to care about other people. Radical individual, and now I'm like there is no more radical individualism. It's all collectivism. It's what best for the herd, what's best for everybody, even at the expense of the individual. You don't follow the orders? You're fired. No matter how much you've poured into your career, you don't follow the orders, no education for you. You can apply for religious exemption, it's against my religion. No, your faith doesn't matter. Heretic. No jab, no job, no school, no what else? What's next? No travel anywhere? No grocery stories? No hospitals? Can I go to the morgue? Or is that only for those who follow the orders? Suffering is coming if you stand up for the truth. So brace yourself. For what? For war. A holy war, and that's what we're talking about today from 2 Corinthians 6:1-11, would you look at the text with me? "Working together with him, then we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says in the favorable time I listen to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you. Behold now is the fabled time, behold now is the day of salvation. We put no obstacle in anyone's way so that no fault may be found with our ministry. But as servants of God, we commend ourselves in every way by great endurance in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger, by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit. Genuine love. By truthful speech and the power of God with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left. Through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise, we are treated as imposters and yet are true. As unknown and yet well-known, as dying and behold we live as punished and yet not killed. As sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing everything. We have spoken freely to you Corinthians in our heart. Corinthians, our heart is wide open, you are not restricted by us but you are restricted in your own affections. In return, I speak as the children widen your hearts also." 2 Corinthians 6:1-13, this is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word, may you write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points, you are at war. To win, suffer loss. And fight with a smile. First you are at war. If you didn't know this, it's probably the reason why your life is so boring. If you aren't fighting, you live a domesticated life. Only because someone else is fighting for you. It's passive and ultimately pathetic, leading lives of quiet desperation someone said. If you don't know we're at war, then you're losing, and if you're losing, then the enemy isn't going to waste time actually attacking you, and probably, that's why God isn't using you because you haven't pledged your sword to him. You haven't offered to work together with him, the king. You are too busy building your own little kingdom to worry about his. That's why Saint Paul in Verse 1, he says, "Working together with him. I'm working together with God, I'm working together with the king of kings, who's expanding his kingdom. Working together with him, then we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain." The context is that this is one of the truly beautiful passages in all of scripture, in all of Paul's letters in the original Greek, it's particularly impressive, bears some resemblance to famous specimens of Greco-Roman rhetoric. Socrates, the fourth century B.C. Greek orator, he said that, "The most powerful way to be persuasive is to argue from one's own life and experience, to share from your own battles because you have had your own battles." That's what Paul is doing here. What does he give us here? He gives us his own life, he shows us how he has faithfully endured suffering and hardship for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of the salvation of others. He's an ambassador. He said, "I've been commissioned by the king to go and to set the captives free. We're in enemy territory and that's our job, and we're warning everyone that the king is coming, and unless you're reconciled with the king, he is coming to devour. He is coming to bring the sword." So see, we see Paul's devotion, his sincerity, his focus, commitment to what? To the holy war of God. He says, "We appeal to you. We're working together with God," so it's actually God who's making that appeal through us. It's the words of God. 2 Corinthians 5:20, the text before this one, "Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us, we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. God stands behind the gospel, behind this message, God who is speaking," and as Paul spoke, as the minister of the gospel spoke, the power of God unto salvation came through, coursed through their veins, and now they got saved. They've been given grace and Saint Paul says, "Make sure that the grace was not in vain." What is he talking about? It's in the same breath as he says we're working with God, we're working with God. Don't let the grace of God be in vain. Meaning he's saying, "Are you working with God?" How is it even possible to receive grace and do nothing with it? It's like God has commissioned you, he's given you a sword at the commissioning, and you go home and you say, "That's awesome," and instead of unsheathing the sword, you put it over the mantle and you say, "That's a tremendous decorative sword." And it starts to accumulate dust upon it. That's taking the grace in vain. In 1 Corinthians 15:19-10, the words of Paul, "For I'm the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. By the grace of God, I am what I am and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is in me." Saint Paul always viewed the grace of God as power, as fuel, as energy. Not just a get out of hell free card. It's energy to do the work of God. Once you receive it, follow God with every fiber of your being. Just to give you a little perspective. You know how special it is to have received the grace of God? You did not force God's hand in giving you grace. Your name was written in the book of life if you're a Christian. Before the foundation of the world. God says, "I picked that guy for my army before that guy's even born. And I know you're going to sin, and I'm going to regenerate your heart and you are going to be commissioned. It's special," and as you're commissioned, God says, "I give you grace which is strength, and you never know how strong you are until the strength is tested." Well God says, "I'm going to send you a test. It's a blessing. I'm going to send you suffering so that you yourself see how much strength I've put in you. You must understand what you've been chosen for. You've been chosen for war. War against sin, the temptations of ... " Every time you say no to a temptation, it hurts. Every time. The more you do it, the easier it gets. Kind of, but you just got used to the pain. You've got pain tolerance. Every time you say no to temptation, the flesh, the world, Satan, that's war. War against personal complacency, war against lesser loves, grace isn't cheap so stop treating it as if it is. Don't be a waste of grace. 2 Corinthians 6:2, he continues, for he says, "In the favorable time I listen to you and in a day of salvation I have helped you. Behold now is the favorable time. Behold now is the day of salvation." God has visited with these people with salvation and the mission and he did it through Paul's ministry. Through Paul's battle, through Paul's warfare, and Paul's authority here is demonstrated by the work of God among them and he says, "Now is it favorable to now, now." God is summoning us, if you're not a Christian, to receive the salvation, to be reconciled, to stop being an enemy of God. Because you're not going to win. Your arms are too short to box with God, and if you are a believer, will you continue to bring the message of salvation. As Isaiah said, "Seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon his name while he is near." We are at war, and point two is to win, you got to suffer loss. You can't win anything worth winning without suffering. 2 Corinthians 6:3, "We put no obstacle in anyone's way so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God, as slaves of God, we commend ourselves in every way." We commend ourselves in every way and Paul denies the charges the false teachers have made, we've talked about that, and asserts the faithfulness of his ministry and how does he assert the faithfulness of his ministry? He gives us later on a whole list of his suffering and he continues that same thought in 2 Corinthians 11 and 12, and here he just outlines how much he has suffered on behalf of the ministry, and also he suffered in not putting any obstacles in anyone's way. He suffered to live a life that is unimpeachable. When ministers of the gospel act shamefully, there's always great damage. There's always fallout in the wake and a damage to the credibility of the gospel and the reputation of Christianity, so Paul says, "I scrupulously, carefully avoid giving any offense so I suffer." It takes suffering to be obedient. Hebrews talks about Jesus Christ. Learn obedience through suffering. It takes suffering to be obedient. 1 Corinthians 9:26-27, Saint Paul says, "So I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified." That's self-discipline, to be ready to be used by God it takes work, it takes suffering, and there's also an enemy within us, it's the flesh, the sinful nature. There's an enemy out there, Satan, there's the enemy in the world, that's all of the systems built up against God and there's the enemy inside, the flesh, the sinful desire. 1 Peter 2:9-12, "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy beloved I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation." Fight the good fight and that fight begins in your soul. A lot of people want to fight out there. A lot of people want to change everybody. I want everyone to change. You want to start with yourself. Men of God, women of God, we start with ourselves and to live a life that exhibits the power of the gospel, that your life is an exhibit, is a testimony, is a sign to the power of God, it's a life lived in the thick of battle. You look around at the world today and you're like, "What is going on? I can't make sense of anything." Because you don't understand that we're at war, and once you understand that there's a spiritual war raging, everything makes so much more sense. So let me just speak to you directly. Let me speak to men, and I want to speak with men directly. King David had 30 men of war. Any time, he sends one text in that group chart. "We're going to war." You got the Tom Brady emojis, you got the Arnold emojis from Rambo. No, that's Sylvester Stallone. You know, you have any group chats like that? Going to war. You share your battles and you share victories over Satan's sin in the world. Too many men are wasting too much time playing fake war. We love war. I love movies about war. I love it. If I wasn't married, I'd be fighting somewhere, something. My wife said, "You're going to put on your green shirt today?" I was like, "Yeah." Was like "Ahh no. I'm not going to that sermon." Stop wasting time, that's what I want to say to men. There's a real war waging, and you're losing if you spend all your time playing fake war. You're losing. That's why in the culture you're known as a loser unless you're monetizing off of it and then that's a gray issue, but are you tithing that money? The real battle is waging. There's a real war and it's not enough to just study a war or play a war. You got to fight for your soul, for the freedom of your soul. For you to do what God has called you to do, you got to fight the sin inside. You got to fight the evil desires with good desires, you've got to fight for freedom, freedom from what? To begin with, freedom from sin. Through spending all day, connected to a screen, consuming content that someone has curated for you. You get enslaved to it and you lose because you become passive. You got to fight for the truth by knowing the truth, by studying the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, by speaking the truth. And men, yeah we should be on the front lines. "Pastor Jan, how do you stand on the issue of women getting drafted into the military?" I've got four daughters... Women getting drafted in the military? I will be on the front lines. I'm on the front lines. They can be there with me, but I will protect them to the death. That's how I stand. Ladies, the real war isn't against men. That's not the real war. So stop trying to fight us. That's what I'm trying to say. Stop trying to be the, "I'm a watchdog for all the men." That's not your job. We're fighting together. So let's fight the enemy together. Marriage, husbands and wives. Next time you're in a fight, you say, "Baby, baby, baby, I'm not the enemy." That's a tremendous trick. "It's not me. I didn't do that. That was Satan." No, but seriously. Let's fight Satan together, that what I'm saying. You're not too young to fight, you're not too old to fight. The war continues. If you're alive, you're in the battle. That's what Saint Paul is saying here. He later goes in Verse 4 and 5, people, the false teachers came in and they accused him, "Where is your letters of recommendation? Where's your credentials, St. Paul? And also your suffering, what kind of servant of God suffers?" Bro, we look at you and we're like, "God's favor is definitely not upon that guy. He's got a unibrow." Those are the accusations. But he says in Verse 4 and 5, "As servants of God, we command ourselves in every way by great endurance and afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger." The list of hardships here has been called the apostolic identification card. Did the Apostle Paul idolize safety? No, he didn't. Did any of the disciples idolize safety? Yeah, one guy, it didn't work out for him. Saint Paul knew, he knew that God isn't calling me to safety. He's calling me to a life of courage. Which is courageous. We don't see movies about heroes and legends, making all the right moves to keep themselves as safe as possible. That's not a movie that's captivating. Heroes and legends aren't forged by sacrificing everything for safety. They're forged by sacrificing safety for God and for people, and if you can't point to scars that you've obtained to living selflessly, then have you been in the war? Something's very wrong if we follow a guy who got murdered and he said, "Follow me and take up your cross daily," and if you can't point to scars and wounds. If any of this sounds strange to you, if you're like, "I've been in the church my whole life and I'm just church shopping and I walked in today and I wasn't ready for this." If you have never experienced spiritual combat, if you have never experienced the struggle, the exertions in the face of difficulties, then you've got to do some hard self-assessment, which side am I on? Am I even a Christian? Am I living a life of virtue and not one of the virtues are self-protective. Therefore safety is not a virtue. Every single one of the virtues are self-sacrificing. Saint Paul says, "With great endurance." Paul knew what it meant to keep going when you feel the pain. Will you keep going when things get tough? This must be settled in your mind and your soul now before it does get tough. Saint Paul here gives us three triplets of his endurance. Things he had to go through to build up endurance. Afflictions, hardship, calamities, just general terms to difficulties. Second triplet is beatings, imprisonments, riots, more specific instances of trouble. You see the clear accounts in the Book of Acts, and the third triplet is labors, sleepless nights and hunger. It sounds like he's having a baby. Like he's giving life, it's difficulties that are voluntary in nature. He labored, he preached all day, he goes home, he writes the sermon for tomorrow, and then he works with his hands to provide for himself and to have enough to share with others. Sleepless nights, that's why, and hunger, he's talking about hunger, yeah, he didn't eat in order to work during the day. He's also talking about fasting. Prayer and fasting, discipline himself to strengthen his prayers before God. This whole passage is intended to challenge every single of us to re-examine our commitment to God. To the Lord Jesus Christ, to the king of kings. Am I following him like this? It's to get us to a point where we renew, rededicate every power, every talent, every moment of our lives to the single-minded pursuit of the will, the purpose, the pleasure of God through spiritual war. We must be aware that this kind of level of commitment is going to bring suffering. The scriptures are clear that anyone that wants to live a holy, righteous, godly life will suffer in this day and age. It's the way. Because Jesus is in the business of expanding his kingdom. He uses that language all the time and how do you expand a kingdom? Do you go to your enemy and say, "Hi, I'd like my real estate back, please." No, you don't do that. You sneak in. Covertly into the enemy's territory. You say, "Yeah, I'm just like you. Yeah, I live amongst you. Yeah, I look like you, I talk like you. My kids go to the same school as you," and then I send my kids in there like little spies. Learn their little worldview tricks, and here's how you counter them. When your teacher stops calling on you because you have mic dropped her so many times, then in the next class, you got to do it even more covertly. You don't tell anyone you're a Christian. You just ask questions. That's how. With words and ideas. It's that kind of war, but it's war. How do you expand the kingdom? Through war. How do you take what belongs to another? Through war, and is this is a just war? Yes of course it is because everything belongs to Jesus Christ. He's just reclaiming it and he's calling us to do it, and to reclaim what belongs to the king, you have to go to war. Being a Christian, following Jesus, that's easy. Isn't it? No. Becoming a Christian is easy. You repent of your sin, you turn to Jesus Christ and you trust in him, and then he gives you a sword and you're like, "What?" Other churches aren't honest. Other churches are like, "Come to Jesus. He's going to make everything better," and then everything gets worse, and you come to Mosaic and we'll just tell you the truth. There will be days where you will question whether it's worth it. Where is Jesus? Jesus is fighting on the front lines, he says, "Follow me," that's where he is. What kind of war is this? It's not a war of flesh and blood, it's a spiritual war in the spiritual realm. But how is that spiritual war manifested in the physical realm, and this you need to know. It's manifested with words and ideas and thoughts and ideologies and narratives and stories and these things are invisible basically, but we know their power, we see their power. It's a war of ideas, it's a war of information, it's a battle for hearts and mind. I come at this with a very particular perspective. I'm from the Soviet Union, I've been studying communism for 30 years. I know the tactics of the enemy and on top of that I worked for the government, and you know what the project was that we were working on? How do we capture hearts and minds. Hearts and minds. That's spiritual warfare conversations, and the way you ... You can't do it with force. You can't force people to believe an ideology. You can try, but even after a while, people are going to start asking questions. Which now is happening. It's not with force, you do it with either fear or faith, and that's where they fear, fear, fear, fear from one thing to another. Fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear. Because when you live in fear, you're paralyzed of critical thinking. You lose sight of what these words are, what are they saying? You lose sight, you get this amnesia of, "Wait, what did they say a year ago? What did they promise a year ago and what's happening now? And what are they promising now and we believe it?" The battle can't be won with force. It can only be won with fear or faith and the enemy wages war with fear, and we wage war with faith because we believe in God. Jesus Christ is our Lord and savior. We kneel before God. That's why we can stand before tyrants. We fear God and we fear not. Like Jesus Christ, and you're like, "Is any of this Christian? This isn't even in the Bible." Yeah it is. Let me give you a couple texts. John 18:33-38, "So Pilate, representative of the Roman Empire, entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, "Are you the king of the Jews?" Jesus answered, "Do you say this of your own accord or did others say it to you about me?" Pilate answered, "Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?" Jesus answered, "My kingdom."" Jesus, what are you doing? We don't want you to die. You feed people, you turn water into wine, come on. That's why we followed you. Let's not talk about your kingdom. Not here, not now. Let's ... Just tell them what he wants to hear and live to fight another day. ""My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I may not be delivered over to the Jews but my kingdom is not from the world." Then Pilate said to him, "So you are king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am king. For this purpose I was born, for this purpose I have come into the world. To bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice." Pilate said to him, "What is truth?"" You see what's going on? Jesus is like, "I'm the king of truth," and Pilate says, "Are you? Are you? What is truth? Truth is whatever I say it is because I have all the force." What does that kind of talk do to a person? It gets you crucified. John 19, "Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him, and the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to him saying, "Hail King of the Jews," and struck him with their hands. Pilate went out again and said to him, "See I am bringing him out to you, but you may know that I find no guilt in him."" So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe and Pilate said to him, "Behold the man." When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, "Crucify him. Crucify him." Pilate said to them, "Take him yourselves and crucify, for I find no guilt in him." The Jews answered, "We have a law and according to that law, he ought to die because he has made himself the son of God." When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, "Where are you from?" But Jesus gave him no answer, so Pilate said to him, "You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you," and Jesus answered him, "You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given to you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin." From then on Pilate sought to release him but the Jews cried out, "If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend." Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar, so when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic, Gabbatha. That was the day of preparation of the Passover, it was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, "Behold your king." They cried out, "Away with him. Away with him. Crucify him." Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your king?" The chief priest answered, "We have no king but Caesar." So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. Pilate knew who stood before him. He also knew the cost of following the truth, and he did the math and decided it wasn't worth it. It wasn't worth following the true king. His wife had a dream the night before and she said, "Don't do anything to him. I know who this man is." But he had too much to lose, too much to sacrifice. So Jesus was crucified. The most godly always become the most dangerous to whom to those who love evil. That's why tyrants hate the king of kings, and the greatest Christians are deemed the greatest heretics in the church of Satan, and scripture is clear that if you're going to follow Jesus, you will suffer and we must be prepared, don't get caught off guard." The most dangerous shots in every fight are the ones you don't see coming, the spiritual battle rages, and the battlefield is strewn with the wounded and dead. I've seen this happen where someone's like, "I want to follow Jesus." And then difficulty comes, struggle comes, war comes. Like, "I didn't sign up for this," and they walk away and they get mad at God for the war. Well if you're mad at God for the pain, for the suffering, then how can you receive his pain and suffering? That's what it took. There's no such thing as battle scars without wounds and our Lord and savior fought, bled, died on the battlefield. He told us we're going to have the same battles. John 15:18, "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world love you as its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. They persecuted me, they will persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things, they will due to you on account of my name because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin but now they have seen and hated both me and my father. But the word that is written in their law must be fulfilled. They hated me without cause. But when the helper comes, who I will send to you from the Father, the spirit of truth, who proceeds from the father. He will bear witness about me and you also will bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning." You are at war, and to win, you have to suffer loss. But fight with a smile. You know why? Because no one wants to fight the guy who's happy about it. No one wants to fight the guy who's like, "Come on. Thanks for giving me the excuse." You look at that guy and you're like, "You're a nut. You're absolutely crazy, you're enjoying this? You're not afraid of death?" "No." I think about Jack Nicholson, you know when he's like that? That's kind of what I'm talking about, it's like, "Yes, come at me." That's what he's saying. You know why? Because fear is actually a sin. You know the commandment that's repeated more than any other commandment in all of the scripture? Just over and over and over and over, do not fear. That's a commandment, that's in the imperative voice. The only fear that's not a sin is fear of God. So yes, if God said, "Go into battle," and you say, "Yes, sir, where's my sword? I don't have one. Where's my shield? I don't have one. Where's my armor? I don't have one. Take a stone, okay, let's go." But we do, we have the armor of Ephesians 6, you should read that. A happy fighter is a dangerous fighter. Matthew 5:11-12, "Blessed are you when others reviled you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account." Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You see this with the disciples, the disciples get up, they preach the gospel, and then the people in charge at the temple, they're like, "Yeah, that's not going to happen. You shouldn't do that anymore. Yep, canceled, you're banned." They come back the next day and they're preaching the gospel, and they're like, "All right." They arrest them and then they beat them. What do the apostles do? They come out of there and they're like, "God gave us the honor. God loves me so much that he allowed me to get beaten for him." What a perspective. If you feel like you're going through hell, rejoice, because we know someone who saves people from hell. By the way, this is why the greatest Christians have the best risk tolerance. Because God already saved me from the greatest hell, and you'd been through so much hell, you can take more. That's pain tolerance and this is why the strongest Christians are also the boldest Christians because they're like, "I can't lose. If I stand up and I do what God tells me to do, if I say what God tells me to say, and then they kill me for it. I'll go to heaven. What am I doing here? If I say what I need to say, people get saved and others get mad but I go to sleep but honoring the Lord, reward's in heaven. Then if they kill me I go and get to enjoy the rewards. It's a win-win, you can't lose." That's why. 2 Corinthians 6:6, he says, "By purity, I went through all that stuff. By purity, knowledge, patience, kindness and the Holy Spirit in genuine love." He turns from sufferings he endured for the gospel's sake to the virtues of the Christian life, which take suffering. The false teachers pointed to his hardship and said, "God's not with you," and Saint Paul says, "No, I go through the hardship because God is with me." In Verse 7 "by truthful speech and the power of the God with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left." The truthful speech, he's talking about in the word of truth. It's not just a reference to the way Paul speaks, but what he proclaims, which is the gospel. He preached the gospel with the power of God. Because he always knew it's a truth war. The Holy War, if you boil it down, it's a truth war. With weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left. He said "I proclaim the truth and that I live the truth." Verse 8, "Through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise, we are treated as imposters and yet are true." This is the first of seven antitheses, opposite things, in which the perception, he's like, "This is what people see. They see dishonor." He's like, "But it's actually honor. They see slander but we see praise. They see imposters but we are true," and he just keeps going. This is what people see with worldly judgment, this is actually what's going on in the spiritual realm. Verse 9, "As unknown and yet well-known, as dying and behold we live, as punished and yet not killed, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing. As poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing everything." If you study church history, the more faithful a Christian is, the more difficulties they accumulate, the more burdens they carry. Becoming a Christian is easy, living the Christian life is not. From Abraham to the patriarchs, from Moses to the judges, from David to the prophets, the story is same. Beaten not killed, sorrowful yet always rejoicing, poor yet making many rich, having nothing yet possessing everything, great endurance, troubles, hardships and distresses. The most amazing thing as you read this is there's not even a whimper of complaint, and if you've been through difficulty for Christ's name's sake, you know this. You know how hard it was, but you're thankful for it. Both battles imposed by others on us and those we impose on ourselves. We wear that with a badge of honor. It's what following Jesus means. It's how we live lives of loyalty to him. It's in the battles that we see him most clearly. We feel his presence most near." Everyone that's been through a battle with Jesus Christ knows this. "That was hard. Jesus, we almost died, yeah." Imagine sitting with Jesus at the campfire? "Jesus, we almost died today, yeah. But we didn't." Delicious meal by the campfire. Jesus is in the battle with us. He will honor those who do battle. "He who honors me," he said, "I will honor." Do you want more of God's presence in your life? Do you want more of God in your life? Do you want to feel him more near? So many of you experience so little of God because you won't fight. Joseph Conrad, the American novelist, wrote The Mirror of the Sea and he quotes a letter of Sir Robert Stopford who was one of Horatio Nelson's captains, Horatio Nelson is a world-renowned commandeer of ships, and Nelson chased the West Indies and enemy fleet, et cetera, et cetera. But this is what Stopford said about serving with Nelson, he said, "We're half-starved and otherwise inconvenienced by being so long out of port. But our reward is we are with Nelson." Our reward is that we are with Jesus in the thick of battle, he gives us more of himself. Living life behind the lines where it's comfortable, where it's safe, where you remain unwounded, yeah, okay. It's not the fullness of life. Ask any soldier that comes back from battle. They live their life of safety, okay. "Yeah, I got to mow my lawn. I got to paint my white picket fence. Do a little barbecue." And never risk another thing in your life? Who wants to live like that? If you live for safety, you're actually always going to live in fear, I got to protect this, I got to protect this, I got to protect this. So many of us have been so focused on how we're going to die, how, how, how, that we lost sight of the fact that we're going to die. We're all going to die. We're all going to die. Every single one of us. I'd rather die fighting. I'd rather die swinging. This is the Christian life. Soldiers fight for the king, fighting a bloody spiritual battle, displaying strength, courage, honor, no matter the heat of the battle, no matter the strength of the foe, no matter how exhausted you are. Keep going and sometimes the battles are public. Most of the time, they're private, they're in your soul. Some of you will get up on stage and you will have to stand up for what you believe in. Some of you have to stand up at your job. Some of you have to stand up to a colleague, to a neighbor and say, "You know what? That's not true. What you're saying right now isn't true. This is all a charade. Let me speak truth, no matter the cost." 2 Corinthians 6:11-13, "We have spoken freely to you Corinthians, our heart is wide open. You're not restricted by us but you are restricted in your own affections. In return I speak as the children, widen your hearts, also." What's going on with this text? We were just talking about war and spiritual war and saying all kinds of stuff that's making everyone feel uncomfortable. What's going on here? Then he's talking about love, then he's talking about widening your hearts. Yeah. Saint Paul is demonstrating his fatherly affection. I love you, that's why I'm speaking the way I am. Because he knows what he's fighting for. What's he fighting for? He's fighting for love, he wants to love God and be faithful to him. God said do this, and what's God telling him? God is saying, "Love God, go tell people love God. Stop loving passion, stop loving sin, stop loving temptations. Love God." He's motivated by love, so if he's fighting for love, then how is he fighting? What are his weapons? You can't fight for love unless you're fighting with love. You can't fight for love unless you're fighting with love. "Be more tolerant. You're not tolerant enough. Be kinder. Do good. Stop being so judgmental. Be more empathetic or else." That's how they wage war. They try to force you into submission. I'm going to make you a better person. Then Jesus Christ comes and he's like, "All right. These people? For Pilate? For Herod? All right. For Jan? For you? Give me the cross." He carries the cross, gets on that cross. He fought with love. For love. To get you to love God, to get you to love neighbor. Because the more you love, actually the better of a soldier you are. You have more to fight for, the more you love, the better soldier you become. The more you love, the more you're willing to sacrifice like Jesus Christ, for God so loved the world that he gave, Galatians 2:20, "I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith and the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me." So a Christian, how can you live a life of fear if you love God? Because the scriptures say that perfect love, what does it do, what does it do? It casts out fear. It casts out fear. What are you afraid of? Let the love of God cast that demon out. Cast out fear. I'll close with this. Do you have any war stories? You can't say that you lived a life of spiritual warfare if you don't have war stories. What war stories do you want to tell your grandkids? How do you want them to remember you? Do you have scars to show them? Well if you want scar, if you have scars, then that means you have wounds. Those are our war trophies. You have them if you fought, and how can you say you followed Jesus Christ if you don't have wounds and scars? I'll close with this. Amy Carmichael wrote the following. "Hast thou no scar, no hidden scar on foot or side or hand, I hear thee song as mighty in the land. I hear them hail thy bright ascendant star. Hast thou no scar? Hast thou no wound? Yet I was wounded by the archers, spent, lean me against the tree to die and rent by ravening beasts that compassed me I swooned. Hast thou no wound? No wound, no scar, yet as the master, shall the servant be. And pierced are the feet that follow me. But thine are whole? Can he have followed far who has no wound or scar?" Let's pray. Lord Jesus, you are truth, and they killed you for being true, and you allowed it because you love them, us. Jesus, we thank you that you didn't allow Satan's sin and death to conquer you. You rose from the dead and that you are right now the king of kings, the Lord of Lords. We thank you Lord for saving us, selecting us, commissioning us into your army, and we thank you for this call to speak truth. To fight for truth, to stand for truth. To wage the good fight as we stand in your presence. Lord, we thank you that you are good and that you're great, and we thank you that you are not safe. I pray that you make us a people who would do absolutely everything to be in the center of your will, the safest place to be. We pray this in the beautiful name of Jesus Christ, amen. Please stand and let's sing.
Don't Live For Yourself
October 10, 2021 • 2 Corinthians 5:11–21
Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. We're going through a sermon series through II Corinthians that we're calling prodigal church. Why prodigal church? Because every church goes prodigal in one way or another. So we need to focus on the scriptures, go back to the scriptures to reorient our focus on what's most important. This week reminded me of one of my favorite things about living here is that Boston is a city of champions. And I was reminded of this last Sunday night when Tom Brady came back to Gillette Stadium. And I grew up watching Tom. Tom Brady won his first Super Bowl when I was still in high school. And so the immensity of the moment didn't really hit me until I sat down like, "Oh wow. My childhood hero is playing against my favorite team. Who am I rooting for?" And I rooted for both. And every single play of the game was awesome because it felt like two of my favorite teams were, the bucks I don't care about, but it's Tom Brady. He's a team in of himself against the... And it was tremendous. And then Mack Jones went 19 for 19 completions in a row tying Tom Brady's long. So I remembered that. Awesome. And the reason why Tom Brady, he orients his whole life around this one goal of winning championships. And then Tuesday comes around and it was Sox, Yankees, oh my. And the Sox pulled it out. It was probably the best game they played all season. And then now that with the Rays. This is all in one week. This just happened this week. And then the Rays, okay, we blew that first game, but the second one we snagged the second one. Now, it's one on one. And so that's all to say this is a great city living. And we know about winning and we know what it takes to win in life. It takes short term pain to win for long term gain. Every athlete knows this. And we just lose sight of the fact of what is the finish line? The finish line isn't it when you get a championship, the finish line isn't when you cross the marathon finish line, that's not the finish line. The finish line is when you die and you stand before God. That's the only race that ultimately matters. And when we talk about Christianity, why is there suffering in the world, it's because in order to have the ability to love, in order for love to exist, sacrifice has to be part of reality, because you can't love without sacrifice. So how can we talk about loving God and loving people if we don't talk about the pain that you have to go through to do that. It takes pain to live a revolutionary life. I'm so fed up with this narrative of kids growing up in a good solid Christian home, and then finally they turn 18 and they go off to college and they rebel against their parents. And by rebel, we're taught the rebellion is you get drunk, you get high, you live any way that you want. That's rebellion. That's not rebellion. That's what everyone does. You know what true revolutionary living is, you love God, you love Jesus Christ, you love the holy scriptures. If you were single, you commit yourself to chastity. If you're married, you commit to yourself to this one person. If you have kids, you do not abandon them. You proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ with your words and with your life. That's the only revolutionary life that's left. And that's the only way of living that actually matters in terms of eternity. Living a revolutionary life means you do not live for yourself. Look at everyone in scripture and live a revolutionary life. Jesus Christ comes to hung out with 12 dudes, just regular dudes. And he taught them, "Look, don't live for yourself and I'm going to throw you transform the world." They turned the world upside down. Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Nathaniel, Matthew, Thomas, James, Simon, Judas, not Iscariot, and then Paul replaced Judas Iscariot. As you got Sarah, Rahab, Ruth, Hannah, Mary, Anna, Samaritan woman, Martha and Mary, Mary Magdalene and Lydia, all people that changed the world, but not living for themselves. So today we're going to look at the keys to living a revolutionary life from II Corinthians 5:11-21. Would you look at the text with me? Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God and I hope it is known also to your conscience. We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. This is the reading of God's holy in our infallible, authoritative word may write these eternal truths upon our hearts. The bigger the mission, the bigger the goal, the more sacrifice it takes. So if you have a big vision for life, if you have a big goal for life, you need a why that is iron clad. Why am I doing this? What motivated Paul to orient his whole life run the gospel. What was it? What were the keys to a revolutionary life? And I'll give you four from this text. It was fear of judgment, love of Christ, gospel, respect and reconciliation. First is fear. I missed out one, but that's okay. Fear of judgment. The context here is one of the greatest summaries of the message of scripture. It's all about salvation and St. Paul saved. You need to understand what happens after. Once you are saved, a lot of people think that you're saved and Jesus saves you from your sin. And then all of a sudden, you are in the waiting room. Like in a hospital, you're in a waiting room. Like yeah, you got better, but you're in a waiting room until you die. And that's now what happens, what happens is when you become a Christian, you get thrown in gladiator and God gives you a sword. And now lions and tigers and soldiers are coming at you. That's what the Christian life is. And Saint Paul says, there will be a ceremony, there will be a podium, a medal ceremony when we die. There's the first judgment. We talked about that last week before the White Throne of Christ, where Jesus Christ is going to judge us, did we believe in him, did we trust... Out medals. And St. Paul says, "This drives me." II Corinthians 5:9-10: So whether we are at home or away, whether we're alive or not, we make our aim to please him. That's our goal. That's our finish line. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Saint Paul says, "I've been saying, I know I'm saved." Now, I'm running with every fiber of my being to get to the finish line. And I want to win as much as possible for God, for God's glory. And verse 11" Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. He's saying since we are going to give an account to God, I fear, I stand in fear in awe of the awesomeness of the Holy God before whom I stand. Fear of God is what fuels me, he says. He's not terrified or afraid that God won't accept him. He knows he's accepted because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He just knows that he's going to stand before a Holy God who is morally superior in every way. So removed from evil in every way and in his awesome presence, all human pride, all selfishness, boasting, arrogance, all of it vanishes. And as you stand before, you got nothing to say, you're a humble speechlessness. God, you saved me, thank you. And you equipped me and you gave me time and you gave me talents, you gave me treasure and I will give an account to you for that. And as an apostle, St. Paul felt the fearful way on his soul, that he will give a strict account, the judgment, see, for how he fulfilled his apostleship. James 3:1 says, "Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know, that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness." I do not take that verse lightly. And if you are a leader, if you're a Christian, you should be teaching somebody. It's called discipleship. You should be learning from somebody and you should be teaching somebody. And you should know that when you teach someone something that you do not live out yourself, God will judge you for that hypocrisy. There's a verse in Hebrews that says, "Elders will give an account for the souls that God has entrusted to them." I do not take that lightly. That's why we take membership seriously. Who's part of the church? Who are the souls that I will give an account to God for? Knowing the fear of the Lord, he says, that's why we persuade others. Knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. Fear evokes in him persuasion. Fear of God releases him from fear of people so now he can persuade people about the gospel of Jesus Christ. I was at the park yesterday. There's a gentleman that we've just known for years. He's got two daughters who are the same age as my two youngest daughters. And we got to talking. And he's like, "Do you want to slice it? We're birthday parties. Like do you want to slice pizza?" I said, "No, I'm saving room." He said, "Saving room for what?" I said, "I'm saving room for barbecue. I got our 10th anniversary. Our church is doing our 10th anniversary birthday party today. I'm saving room for the brisket," which I did not have any of. So if you had brisket, I want to emphasize that fact, that leaders eat last. And I sacrificed my love for brisket, because I love you guys so much more. And so he said, "Oh, your church 10th anniversary. Wow." He's like, "Oh, have you been going there for a while?" I was like, "Yeah, kind of. Yeah." He said, "Why did you start a church, because you like community or because you're religious?" Where are we going with this one? If a fear for the Lord does is like... I was like, I can't reveal all the cards right away, because I still got to see him every week. But I said, "Yeah, because we believe in God. That's why. We believe that there's a God that created everything and you haven't said thank you to him." So that's how I planted that seed. Fear of God helps you get over the awkwardness of telling people, hey, we really believe this. We believe this is true. We believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to be saved from the wrath of God that we deserve for our spiritual insurrection before God is the only way. Fear of God. Do you share the gospel with people in your life? Do you speak words of the truth of the gospel? Not just talking about living in a way where people see that you're a good person. Everyone's so self absorbed, they're not even going to notice. Do you speak the truth of the gospel to people in your life? That Jesus Christ is God, that Jesus Christ is the way and the truth and he is life. He's the only way to God. Do you speak truth of the gospel? If not, what's holding you back? I know what's holding you back. Oh, what are they going to think? Who cares? Who cares? Who cares what people think about you? Only one person's opinion matters, and that's God's. Saint Paul says that fear evokes persuasion. He's persuaded. He persuades people of the gospel. You know that someone said something and you definitely disagree with them, but you do the math of is it worth it? Is it worth to have this conversation right now? Is it worth the emotional toll it's going to take? And St. Paul says it is when it comes to God. And Saint Paul doesn't need to persuade God. He says what we are is known to God. And I hope it's also known to your conscience. Paul says, "I don't need to persuade God, God knows my life, character, motives." All of that is laid bare before God. And Paul's character has been assailed with these poisonous slurs by critics that come in and they've criticized him for not being an apostle, not seeing Jesus Christ, not really being anointed, not being filled with the Holy Spirit. And Saint Paul appeals to the Lord. The Lord knows. So does your conscience. He speaks to their heart. Your heart testifies what the critics are saying is a lie. Deep down, the Corinthians were aware of Paul's character and the character of his ministry and the moral faculties of their conscience would connect the dots. He's sure of that. And in expressing himself like this, that God knows who I am, he knows my character, you know in your heart. He's aware that his detractors are going to accuse him of boasting in a dubious manner. So he covers himself. Verse 12 he says, "We're not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you a cause to boast about us so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance, not about what is in the heart." So as critics are boasting about outward appearance, literally, about the face, about their image. And it's a conscious reference here to God's advice to Samuel. When Samuel goes in and he's about to choose a king, and he goes into David's family, he sees all older brothers and God says, "No, I'm not picking people based on height or based on what they look like or based on their athletic ability or leadership skills or anything like that." He's like, "I will choose a leader based on the heart." I Samuel 16:7: But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, that's face and the Septuagint, but the Lord looks on the heart." So Paul's opponents come in and they boasted in the face on their sheer externalities, perhaps about their skills or about the rhetorical eloquence that they had or extravagant letters of recommendation or where they went to school. The Paul's saying, "I'll give you cause to boast about me." My heart is in this. I love the Lord, I love you, I love the gospel. What's most important was written in the heart by God's spirit says I'm giving you cause to boast about us. I remember when I was a new Christian, I was enamored with... So I grew up in a church where no one went to seminary. And I grew up in a church where if you showed up to church 15 minutes early with a Bible, you're probably preaching. Especially, if you wore a tie, the pastor would come up to you and he was like, "I think you have a word from the Lord." You're like, "I do." Yes, you're going to preach them. And the reluctant preacher, you're going to preach on Jonah. And that's why. So no one really knew what was going on. Guys would just read the text and they're like, "Yeah, I think this is what it's talking about." And another guy would be like, "No, that guy is totally wrong." And then once in a while you get into these debates. And at the end, the pastor would get up and correct everything and then you go home. And it was a four hour service. So I was enamored with pastors who had degrees. Like, "Oh, that pastor went to Cambridge university. He's got a PhD in church history. He really beezes better. He knows more." But if that pastor doesn't preach from the holy scripture, it doesn't matter. That pastor doesn't love God with all his heart, soul, strength, mind, love Jesus Christ, love the cause, love the gospel, love his family. And none of that. Saint Paul says those are fine, skills are fine, degrees are fine, all of that. Influence of a pastor or how well known a pastor is, that doesn't matter, what matters is what's in the heart. Boast about the fact that God's spirit is in or upon a person and ever weary and attuned to his critics. He continues verse 13. He says, "For we are beside, if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. If we are not in our right mind, is for you." What's going on here? When he talks about being beside ourselves, he's talking about spiritually ecstatic experiences, where you have an experienced vision from God or a prophetic dream or you have a prophetic word or ecstatics. That's what he's talking about, that's being outside the body. And he's like, "If we want to go there, if we want to establish credibility for spiritual work there," he's like, "I could do that." Paul was taken up to the third heaven. He talks about this in II Corinthians 12:4. And heard things that cannot be told. He's talking about himself. I heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. He says, "I've seen, I've experienced things I can't even communicate to you, but that's not, I don't want you to base your spiritual walk on my spiritual experiences." I have spiritual experience, some kooky spiritual experiences, I don't share. I never share. Sometimes I share once in a while, maybe I'll share. I'll share right now. My wife wakes me up in the middle of the night this week. She wakes me up in the middle of the night. She's like, "What were you doing?" I said, "I was wrestling." She said, "Who were you wrestling?" I said, "I was wrestling a demon." She said, "What did it look like?" I was like, "I didn't see it. The demon, don't see demons, but I've felt it." See, that's why I don't share because that's kooky. You're like this guy's a nut. That's what I'm saying Paul doesn't share any of this stuff. The spiritual realm is real. It's as real as everything that we see. A spiritual warfare is absolutely real. But Saint Paul says, I don't want you to ground your walk with the Lord. I don't want you to ground on that stuff. He said, "I want to reason with you." He said that if we are beside ourselves is for God; if we are in our right mind, it's for you. He's like I want to be in my right mind because I want to argue with you, persuade you from the holy scriptures because that's the only foundation that we really have. II Corinthians 5:18-19, Paul told the Corinthians earlier. It's in I Corinthians and it's not second Corinthians 5:18. I don't know why I put that in there. I Corinthians chapter 14. I thank my God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. Nevertheless, in church, I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others than 10,000 words in a tongue. St. Paul says, "I spoke in tongue. I pray in tongues, he says that." But in church, I want to speak words with my mind in order to instruct mark of authentic ministry is an ecstatic experience is public ministry, where you persuade others passionately, soberly. Martin Lloyd Jones called this logic on fire. It's just truth and logic and you're persuading and you're doing it passionately. And that was Paul's consuming passion to persuade others from scriptures. So he was motivated by the fear of God and that he's motivated by the love of Christ. This is the opposing side of the paradoxical power of Paul's revolutionary life. It was fear of God. On the one hand that I will give an account to God, fear of God, love of Christ on the other. II Corinthians 5:14: For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died. Love of Christ controls us. And how is Christ's love demonstrated to us, not just in sentimental words. He says, "This is the love of Christ that he died," because we have concluded that he has died for all, therefore all have died. And that's curious logic here. Why does he say therefore all have died? Wouldn't it make more sense to say Jesus died for all, therefore all did not die? Or Jesus died for all, therefore all live. That would make more sense. But he says one has died for all, therefore all have died. How does that compute? Well, from the scope of scripture, the math is rigorously logical and it's also sublime. What does this mean that we have all died? Christ died for all, therefore all died. He's talking about the fact that Christ died, not just the personal death, he died a substitutionary death. He didn't die for his own sins, he's pure and blameless. He died for the sins of the elect. The all here doesn't mean all. It doesn't mean that Jesus Christ died for the sins of everybody alive ever. That's not what it means. Christ's sacrifice is sufficient for everybody, but ultimately it's only efficient, it's only going to count for those who repent of their sin and trust in Jesus Christ. Because if Jesus Christ, by the way, that's where universalism starts that Jesus Christ died for everybody. And then they say, well, Jesus Christ died for everybody. And then how is there a hell? Because it's like double jeopardy of Jesus paid for your sins on the cross and why would he make you pay for your sins in hell? So that's where that goes. That's not what scripture teaches. You have to respond. It counts to you, but you have to respond. Christ's death is the death of all the elect. In a sense, he died the death that we each one of us should have died. He bore the penalty for our sins. He died in our place. So when Christ died on the cross, I died on the cross. When Christ died on the cross, you died on the cross if you are follower of Jesus Christ. I died on the cross outside the walls of Jerusalem. That's what he's saying. I deserved that, but Jesus did that for me. This is the unmitigated love of Jesus Christ. This is the love St. Paul says that controls us. Christ love is the controlling force in his life. It's what keeps us tethered, keeps us in bounds, hams us in. Fear of the Lord negatively controls us. Although that could be argued that it's actually positive control, because you want a reward. But then love is what propels us, overpowering love of Christ demonstrated when he died in the cross for us. This is what led Paul to live a revolutionary life and seeing this great love. How in the world could you live for yourself? That's what he says. II Corinthians 5:15: And he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised. Do you live for yourself? I think this is why I'm going to start asking people. Are you a Christian? Like yeah, I believe in Jesus. I repent of my sin. I want to start, do you believe in Jesus? Yeah. Do you live for yourself? Because Christians do not live for themselves. If you're like, I'm a Christian, but I still live for myself, you're probably not a Christian. Back in the day, I used to think there was different levels of Christians. Like if you're a Christian, you just got to pray this prayer and you're a Christian. And then you got to grow to get to the point where actually you're a revolutionary Christian and you do not live for yourself. That's not true. It's not true. Like that point of when you live for Christ revolutionary life, that's you become a Christian. Jesus literally says, "Take up your cross and follow me daily." That means every single day you got to die to something that you really, really want. That's what it means to follow Jesus. You wake up and you pray a prayer, "Lord, Jesus, what would you have me do today? And in order to do that, what would you have me sacrifice on my personal cross that I'm carrying around?" Jesus died for you. So it's unfathomable to live primarily for yourself. If you're a lukewarm Christian, Jesus is having a conversation with you as he's doing an assessment of your current life. And Jesus will sit down and say, "I died for you." And in response, you show up to worship service once a month at best twice a month, once a month, when there's a long weekend. That's once a month. When there's a holiday weekend, okay, I'm gone, I'm going to go worship God, doing something else. Well, worshiping God just isn't even a priority. And you show up once in a while, you give God some half hearted worship on Sunday and then you tip God and pray to him whenever you're in a bind. How does that math make any sense? Jesus says, "I gave everything for you and you give me lip service and the tip? I died for so much more than what you're giving me and I didn't die so you could live a small life focused on possessions and earthly passions." Jesus, didn't die just to save us from sin, he died to save us from a pathetic life. Pathetic life is a small life is when you live for yourself. You just live for yourself and you can get older and older and older, and it's just you. You're just living for yourself. There's no joy in that. Jesus died to free you from yourself to live for him to give you freedom and joy. What good? And then ultimately, is there anything better? Is there anything better than serving people, seeing them rejoice and that fills your whole heart with so much joy. Is there anything better? Romans 8:31 says, "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?" He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Every athlete knows this. It's like short term pain, but that's actually the best thing for you. Deny yourself in the short term, but then the feeling of completions, the satisfaction of crossing the finish, I did this. There's nothing greater than that when you do it for the Lord and God fills your heart with joy and satisfaction and just his delight. This is the energy cell and Paul's revolutionary heart is charged both negative and positive fear of Christ and love of Christ. And the combination was explosive. Point three is gospel respect. Verse 16, from now on, therefore we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. The word regard means to be cognizant of or aware of something, understand something, but also means honor something. So when he's talking about regarding Christ and regarding the gospel, he's talking about a level of respect. I Thessalonians 5:12, he uses the same word with the same Greek word. We ask you brothers to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you. St. Paul here is saying, he said, "I knew of Jesus before I was..." Paul was a Pharisee. He was a high ranking Pharisee. I don't know. We're not told if he heard Jesus preach or saw Jesus or had conversation with Jesus before his crucifixion, burial and resurrection. We don't know if he saw his miracles. It's easier to assume he didn't, some theologians say, because he doesn't mention it anywhere. But perhaps he doesn't mention it anywhere because he viewed Jesus through the flesh. He saw Jesus and he just did the analysis. And in his mind, Jesus was a messianic pretender who pushed too far and got exactly what was coming to him. And when Jesus was condemned by the Sanhedrin, crucified by the Roman, Saint Paul was in agreement with that, so much so that he then persecuted the church because in his mind, from the old Testament, it was clear that Jesus Christ was cursed. The scripture in Deuteronomy says, "Cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree." Jesus was hung on the cross, the tree, but something changed. Jesus changed all that by appearing in splendor, the splendor of his glory. And something happened in Paul's life where the thing that Paul had despise became the center of his life. And he realized that he had been viewing Jesus through the flesh. Therefore, he wasn't respecting Jesus and giving him the respect that he deserved. In personal irony, Paul, now is being regarded in the same way by certain people in the Corinthian church, where they are regarding him according to the flesh and judging him on his looks, on the way he speaks, judging him on his credentials, judging him on letters of recommendation. And Saint Paul is saying, there's two ways of looking at Jesus Christ. Some people evaluate Jesus Christ on his historic significance, historically, and they just look at the stats, everything he's accomplished. And there's a different way of looking at Jesus Christ. And that's through the eyes of the spirit. Many know Christ only in worldly ways. They know about him and judge him without a true understanding of who he is. And St. Paul talked about this in the past chapter, it takes the holy spirit to come in and change your heart. Put the lights on. And because of Christ, St. Paul says, "Because he did that, now I have respect for him, respect for the gospel. I honor him. And also because of Christ, he says, we regard no one according to the flesh. He says, "I'm done with judging people by what they look like. I'm done with judging a book according to its cover. I'm done with judging people in the shallow, external carnal way, especially those of the household of God." Stop judging people according to the flesh. That's what the whole world is doing. The whole world wants everybody focused on what you look like. The whole world wants, because image is everything. So let's focus on image. And Saint Paul says, "Instead of judging people by image, we should view them as image bearers and look at everyone through the eyes of Christ's love." This changes everything. Imagine we viewed each other like that, like children of God, image bearers of God, it doesn't matter what your skin color is, it doesn't matter what your nationality, none of that matters. We're children of God, the whole world's trying to divide and conquer. That's what they're trying to do. And Saint Paul says, "No, we are to be unified, unified as one human race, unified in our need for Christ. And then unified once we're in Christ as the body of Christ. Why? Because anyone in Christ is a new creation. This is verse 17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The oldest passed away, behold, the newest come. This is a biography of every single Christian. There's many metaphors in scripture to describe becoming a Christian, receiving a new heart, a new birth, being born again, becoming a new person. And one of the main results of being United with Christ in his death, burial and resurrection is that you change. There's a profound and radical change that happens when you become a Christian. Salvation isn't just Jesus forgiving you of your sins, it's Jesus changing your nature, it's a radical change. You've changed at the core, change so profound, it makes you a different person than you were. Jesus had this conversation with Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a Pharisee. He shows up to Jesus at night because he didn't want the other Pharisees to know that he's having a conversation with Jesus. And he says, "How do I inherit the kingdom of God? How do I get into heaven?" And Jesus said, "You got to be born again." And Nicodemus says that's not even a category in his mind, because he thought he was good enough. I was born this way and Jesus says you have to be born again. You need a new heart, you need a new nature, you need new affections, new desire. You must be changed. The presupposition to you must be changed. This is why it's highly offensive. The presupposition is something so wrong with you and me. In of ourselves, there's something wrong with us and God is offering to make you new, make you all over again, wants to make you a new creation from the inside out. So what's the prerequisite to becoming a new creation. You've got to accept, acknowledge your need. This is the gospel respect. I need the gospel. God, I need transformation. There's something wrong with me. I can't fix it. Yes, God. I agree with the fact that I'm so bad that God had to save me, that Jesus Christ had to die for me. I'm helpless without his work. But then when you are in Christ, there's a security and acceptance and insurance for the future. Inheritance of glory of participation in the divine nature that you now are a new creation. And the fourth thing that motivated him to live revolutionary life was reconciliation. II Corinthians 5:18: All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. There's three models of Christ's work in scripture. There's redemption, which is Christ buys us out of bondage by a payment of ransom. There's propitiation, which is turning away of wrath by offering a sacrifice, redemption, propitiation. And then there's reconciliation, which is the restoration of a relationship, a restoration of a friendship or a harmony of Shalom between two parties between two persons, who've been estranged or alienated. And obviously if Christ reconciles us, offers us reconciliation, it means that we need reconciliation, it means that we are profoundly as strange and alien and from whom. Everyone around us is telling us that our biggest problem is that people are at odds with one another, that we need reconciliation between people. Is that our biggest problem? St. Paul says, "No, our biggest problem is that we're separated from God that we are at war with God." Our problem with God isn't some minor misunderstanding that can be easily put right with just a conversation, God, can we work it out? No, we're at war with God. Then of ourselves is a mutiny against God, a rebellion, an insurrection, a true insurrection. There's no human rebellion that can compare to this insurrection. It's an insurrection against the God of the universe. That's the essence of sin that you put yourself in the place of God, that you become the arbiter of truth, that you become a controller of all things. And this desire obviously leads to self absorption, self love, self worship. But this isn't the only factor on alienation from God. Some of us don't understand because we're like, "Oh, we sinned against God. Okay." But the greater the party, the more honorable the party against whom you've sinned, the more egregious that same sin is. If you go up to a person on the street and you spit in their face, that person is no body. Yeah. You might get a ticket or something. If you go up to a person and the person is the governor of state, well, then there's deeper consequences. If you do that to the president of a nation, well, now that's insurrection. Well, what if you spit in the face of the God of the universe? And you know what insurrection is? It's basically flipping God off. Who are you? Who are you? You're nobody to me. That's what insurrection is. It's not just sin. It's sin against the holy just God. And we deserve his wrath until God's holiness has been satisfied, terms of his justice met. There is no reconciliation. Romans 1:18-23: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, having clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So we are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchange the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Basically says, everyone knows that God exists everybody, deep in your heart. You know it. To believe that everything came out of nothing, takes more faith than believing in a God who created everything out of nothing by speaking. Deep in our hearts we know that we are not here just by accident, we know this, our heart testifies to it. And he says, "This sin is that we didn't honor him. We didn't respect him. And we didn't give him thanks. Didn't give him thanks." I was listening to a comedian who was talking about the fact that he can't be a veterinarian. He's like, I couldn't be a veterinarian. And I didn't really understand what he was talking about. He's like, because animals don't really say thank you. And then I saw this video clip of this guy driving down the street, I don't know where it is, like in Australia or something, and he's driving down and there's sheep, a big fat sheep. And it's stuck in barbed wire fence. And he pulls over and this thing's massive. This thing's like 100, 150 pounds huge. He gets out of the car and he tries to wrangle it free from this fence. And he's wrestling with it. The thing is fighting back. He's wrestling with it and it's inflicting pain on him, but he finally pulls it out and he understands he can't just leave it, because it's a dumb sheep and it's going to jump into the fence again. So then he musters all his strength and with tremendous deadlift form, he hoisted upon himself and toes it over and then the sheep just runs away. It just runs as fast as it possibly can. And I'm watching this thing run the whole time. And I'm watching it run to a tree and then it turn. And in my heart, I see it go, "Thank you." But it didn't. And the guy's crestfallen and he is like, "You're welcome." And he gets back in the car, like I did all of this for you, dumb sheep, all I want is a thank you. And that's what I was telling the guy at the playground. If you want to have a gospel conversation, you want to start over here. That's basically what we're saying is everybody owes thank you to God. No one is saying thank you to God. And what we're telling people is you should say thank you to God. And then they're like for what? For the fact that he provided a way for you not to go to hell through the reconciliation and the work of Christ on the cross. That's what Paul's saying. This is precisely what makes Christ sacrifice so important. Jesus died in our place, the just for the unjust, precisely meet the mans of God's holiness and his justice. We've rebelled and we deserve God's wrath, but God matches our rebellion with his love. Verse 19: That is in Christ, God is reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespass against them and trusting to us the message of reconciliation. This is the message. The message of reconciliation isn't telling people, hey, you got to make peace with God. That's not what we're saying. You can't make peace with God. If right now, from this moment on to the rest of your life you live like Mother Teresa, that would not be enough to atone for your past sins. That's not how the holiness of God works. Ministry reconciliation is telling people, look, Christ has made peace. Christ is offering us amnesty, but you have to accept it. That's why the gospel isn't just good advice, it's good news, is tremendous news, but you need to act upon it. Verse 10. Romans 5:10-11: For while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more, now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Salvation isn't achieved, reconciliation isn't achieved, it's received. You have to just take it. Just ask for it. And he says in Christ, God doesn't count our trespasses against us. So apart from Christ, this is the assumption that God does count our trespass against us, which dooms us. We're sinners deeply, constantly comprehensively. We're guilty and liable to be punished for our sins. Therefore, we're in desperate need of salvation. What is the most important information that I can give anybody? What is the absolute most important information I can give anybody at any point? This is it, Christ is offering reconciliation with God. And also there's no information, more offensive, because every time you say that, you're telling the person they've been living wrong. And that never feels good. That never feels good for someone to show up, and you're like, you're wrong. But I'm saying we're all wrong. That's what I'm saying. We're all unified and being wrong. It doesn't matter how you see yourself, it doesn't matter how others see you, all that matters is that God sees you based on his standards, not the worlds. And a lot of people push back and are like this is so out of date. Speaking of sin is so out of date. Is it speaking about evil is so out of date. We see evil all around us. There's nothing out of date about sin or evil. And because there's nothing out of date about sin or evil, there's nothing out of date about God's grace. We live in a world where there's so many just logical inconsistencies with the worldview outside of Christianity. One of them is we're told in school that everything came from nothing meaning we got here by accident. Primordial soup and all of that, we just got here by accident. It's all just a lucky accident. So here we are. So there was no creator, no designer, no benevolent God. We are insignificant. If you came from nothing, then you're not significant. That's on the one hand. On the flip side, everyone thinks they're awesome. Everyone thinks they're just amazing. Everyone thinks that you are God's gift to the world. There's no kid that is born and he's like, "Oh, I'm just really insignificant." No, every kid that's born is like I own the place. I am awesome. And I am going to be a tyrant of this house. And that's why you got to parent them actively, parent them. So that's on the one hand. And then Christianity shows up and says, No little human being. You're not awesome. You are, but you're not." You're sinful. We're all sinful. And we're all alienated from God. We all need to be remade. And at the same time, we are magnificently significant to God because he gave his greatest treasure to save us. We're the object of the most amazing thing that ever happened. The son of God came into the world as a man to suffer and die in our place to reconcile us. Now, Blaise Pascal said, there are only two kinds of men, the righteous who believe themselves sinners and the rest sinners who believe themselves righteous. It's all it takes to be a Christian. Just recognize your need. I Peter 2:24: He himself bore our sins in the body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. How are people reconciled with God through the proclamation of this message, the belief of this message and this changes everything. Verse 20, therefore we are ambassadors of Christ. God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God. And St. Paul uses a bold analogy here to describe this ministry and the ministry of each Christians that were ambassadors, that you are a representative for him. Ambassador was your representative of the Roman empire. So you walk into towns with immense authority, you don't speak for yourself. You don't act on your own behalf. It's not your authority. It's not your message. It's the sovereigns authority. It's his words. And this is the message is be reconciled to God. Receive the offer of reconciliation except the amnesty. Isaiah 53:5: But he, Jesus, was pierced for our transgression; he was crushed for our inequities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds, we are healed. Dear Christian do not drift from this message. This is the center of the message that we proclaim, the message of reconciliation between God and human beings. Don't drift like the church in the United States has been drifting for a while. Quick test. What's more important to the world today, reconciliation between the races or reconciliation between the one human race and God? That's a battle that's waging in the church right now. What's more important? What's more important? What's in the position of primacy? There's nothing more important than talking about reconciliation between the one human race, all of us and God. Talk about unifying and healing, racial tensions. We are all united in the fact that we need to be reconciled with God. There's no greater need. And therefore there's no greater power for unity. You want to be United, I'll do my best to unite this Mosaic. You're all sinners. That's what I do every Sunday. We're all united in that. We have all fallen short of the glory of God, no matter your skin color, nothing. You know what? I was meditating on this week. We got a couple minutes. I was meditating, my wife noticed recently and she's like, "How come wherever you go, you always find enemies." She's like whatever room you walk into, there's always someone shows up that just doesn't like you before they have ever met. I'm like, "Yeah, why is that?" And then you probably already know. But then this was a revelation to me. Well, first of all, I'm a man, I'm a big man, I'm like 6, 2, 240. I'm a big dude. And I'm a big white man. And I'm a big white Christian man. And then I'm a big white Christian heterosexual man. And on top of that, I'm rushing. So it's like every one of those adjectives just times 10, whatever room I walk into, I just already know hater's going to hate and how's the Lord going to use this? What's the point? The point is, we're all sinners. That's the point and me too. So we all need Jesus. And II Corinthians 5:21, this is how he sums it up. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God. This is one of the greatest verses in holy scripture, 15 words in the Greek. This is our foundation. This is how salvation comes to sinners. Knows how careful the language is. He doesn't say that Jesus became a sinner, he says that Jesus became sin. The sinless became sin. God didn't make us righteous, but he made us righteousness. It's imputed. It's not our righteousness. So our sin was imputed to Jesus and Jesus righteousness is imputed to us. Imputed means counted. Jesus never sinned. He committed no sin. Neither was deceit found in his mouth. 33 years, zero sins. Remained sinless until he became sin for us. The sinless one becomes our sin, our substitute, our sacrifice. All of our sins were poured over Christ on the cross wave after wave, after wave, after wave, he was robed. And all that was heinous and hateful and evil and corrupt lies, hatred, jealousy, pride, lust, gluttony, greed, all poured on his sinless soul. And it wasn't just that. It's not only that our sin is poured on him, it's our sin is poured on him and he's robed in it. And then God's wrath is poured on our sin, which is upon Christ. Jesus died the death that we deserve to die so that we can live the life that he deserved to live. And John three, that conversation about Nicodemus. And I'll close with this. Everyone knows John 3:16: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Everyone knows that, but not most people just, they don't know the context. And I'll give you the context. The context is verse 14. And as Moses, John 3, lifted up the serpent and the wilderness. Yeah, there was plague. God set in a plague upon the people of God because they sinned. They rebelled against him. And then he tells Moses, "Hey, Moses, I want you to take a serpent and I want you to lift it up high." And whoever looked upon the serpent got saved. Serpent. So as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of God be lifted up that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name, the only son of God. Jesus Christ here compares himself with the serpent. Serpent. Jesus died the death the serpent deserves to die, to extend to us the life that the son deserves. He did that so we might be the righteousness of God both legally and practically. This is our justification. And then II Corinthians 6:1-2: Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, "In a favorable time, I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I've helped you." Behold, now as a favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. If you yourself right now, do not know that you are a Christian, that you do not live for yourself, that you are eternally secure, today is a day of salvation, repent from sin and turn to him. And for the rest of us, what motivates us to live revolutionary life should be fear of judgment, love of Christ, gospel, respect and reconciliation. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you that you paid everything. You paid the full price. And therefore Lord, we owe everything to you. And I pray that you make us people who are motivated by fear of you and love of you, people who respect the gospel and take the gospel to those who need to be reconciled with you. And bless us as we go and fulfill the mission you've called us to. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
Homesick For Heaven
October 3, 2021 • 2 Corinthians 5:1–10
Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Good morning. Welcome to Mosaic Church on this wonderful communion Sunday, the beginning of October. If you're new or visiting, we're so glad you're here. And we'd love to connect with you that through the connection card that you can pick up in the back, if you fill it out legibly, just leave it at the Welcome Center, you'll actually get a gift there and get a gift mail. And if you don't want to talk to anybody, which we understand, social anxiety is a real thing, then you can fill out the connection card in the app or on the website, and we'll reach out during the week. With that said... oh, one quick announcement. I've been highlighting this for the last couple of weeks. Next Saturday, we are celebrating our 10th anniversary as a church. It's our birthday party. It's also a banquet. You can't have... it's not a party without food. So, we will be getting delicious food, we're getting catered. We just need to know how many people are going, so do please RSVP if you are coming. Who's invited? Anybody who loves Mosaic Church and anybody who wants to be part of the next season of building the church, and building the church for centuries to come. You're welcome to join us. With that said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's Holy Word? Heavenly Father, we pray that you today impress upon our hearts the brevity of our life. Life is but a breath, your Word tells us, we're here, we live, we love, and then we're gone. And I prayed today that you show us that we do not die, that our soul does not ultimately die. Our soul is eternal. And I pray, Lord Jesus, that you save any soul listening to these words that is not yet redeemed, has not yet reconciled, by grace through faith, draw them to yourself. Lord, show us that when we do die, as believers, we go into your presence. And in your presence, we long for the day when you return to earth in the Second Coming, and you redeem everything, and you resurrect us and give us glorified bodies. Right now, our bodies are just tents, but tents. And we long for that building that house of the glorified body that is immortal, that is perfect. Just like Christ has a redeemed body now. And I pray, Lord, that you impress upon our hearts that a vision for Heaven isn't just Heaven as a destination. But the more clear we see Heaven, and we see the future, it's a motivation for us to live with every fiber of our being for Your glory and service to You and in service to our neighbors. Pray, fill us with the Holy Spirit. Give us a vision for our lives to aim and to please you, live lives that you command. And when you welcome us into our eternal homes, you will say, "Well done, good and faithful servant. This is the son or the daughter in whom I am well pleased." Give us that vision for our lives. And we pray all this in Jesus' name, amen. We're going through a sermon series through 2 Corinthians. We are calling this Prodigal Church Season Two. Why we're calling it Prodigal Church? Because every church in some sense is prodigal. And that they walk away, we waver from the Holy Scripture. So, we turn our attention week after week to the Holy Scriptures to remind ourselves where we wavered and to hold fast to the way that God has for us. The title of the sermon today is, Homesick for Heaven. We'll start with some facts. Fact number one, you were born. Fact number two, you are alive. And fact number three, you are going to die. Just here to encourage you a little bit with the truth. That's true. So, we as believers, we need to meditate on that fact. And when we die, our bodies die, our souls do not. Our heart testifies the fact. And also, anytime you go to a funeral and you look at the body, the first thought that comes to mind is, "Oh my, it's not the person I knew. Where do they go?" Well, that's because the soul is gone. And honest life, any honest life should be lived in the frank acknowledgement that this is true. Therefore, we need a theology or framework of death. We must think about death now and often and always. And our theology of death must shape our outlook of life. If you don't know what happens when you die, then you don't know how to live. The meaning of life lies in our understanding of death. So, we need to meditate on death. Ecclesiastes, he says, "There's more wisdom that is gleaned in the house of sorrow than the house of joy." Most people don't think about it, most people don't even really believe in their own death. Everyone's somehow convinced of immortality, or we just push it off. We just pretend it doesn't exist. And that's why we're always surprised when someone that we knew or know or someone from our social network dies. And it's just a stark reminder that this isn't home, that people do die. Our loved ones die, our bodies wear out, society changes and rose on with time. And the text before us today gives us one of the most complete views of death, what happens to the believer when they die? Yes, Christ has vanquished death in all its powers. Therefore, we as Christians have a completely different perspective on death than non-believers. There is a joy even in it, but it's still changed with sorrow. St. Paul here looks death straight in the eye. And he lives with expectation of it. And this realism, instead of making him morbid or depressed, actually changes the way that he lived. Because he understood that Heaven wasn't just a destination, it's a motivation for living now in service to God and neighbor. It stimulated, galvanized him to be most fruitful and most useful. And this view should have the same effect on us. So, St. Paul in this text was trying to do, is cultivate a homesickness for home, for Heaven. We're just sojourners. We're just pilgrims. We're just travelers, we're passing through. But as we do, we are also agents of change, ambassadors of God. We are to work for reconciliation and redemption. So, today, we're looking at 2 Corinthians 5:1-10. Would you look at the text with me? "For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our Heavenly dwelling. If indeed by putting it on, we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan being burdened, not that we should be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the spirit as a guarantee. So, we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil." This is the realm, God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word may write these eternal truths about upon our hearts. Five points to frame up our time, and this is St. Paul, is using all of these operative verbs to help cultivate in us homesickness for Heaven. Verse point one is we long, second is we groan, third is we know, fourth is we aim, and fifth is we appear. If you're a little OCD like I am, you're asking how come points four and five don't have an O sound. I need to either articulation or rhyming, or similar sounds or something, and I'm right there with you. I wrestled all week, and English just wouldn't let me do it. In the Greek, the verbs is to end with the same O sound, and I wanted to give you Greek points, but not everyone speaks Greek. So, it's just a sign that English is a fallen language, really is. And all the international said, "Amen, that's true." So, point one is we long, and that's verses one through three. Here in the context, St. Paul has been outlining some of his hardships as an apostle of Jesus Christ. He has suffered in order to do the work of the ministry in order to plant the gospel in the city centers, and he would go from city center, city center, proclaim the gospel, evangelize, and then get a core group together and plant churches. And as he did, there was a physical toll from physical persecution from opponents of the gospel. And on top, so Satan tries to destroy the church from without, but Saint also tries to destroy the church from within. And he said, "From within, critics arose." Critics who added, exacerbated his physical hardships with psychological, emotional and mental hardships through criticism. These critics came in, they weren't believers, and they saw something that God had built using St. Paul and the other ministers of the gospel. And these are people who, instead of taking their time to build something of their own, building is hard, spent their time destroying, or criticize or deconstructing, or dismantling, or dividing. And this spirit of destruction or deconstruction comes from the evil one. Because Satan does not build, God creates, Satan counterfeits. And sometimes, when Satan can't counterfeit perfectly, he also wants to destroy what God builds. So, St. Paul is dealing with that, and he's talking about this as a momentary affliction. So, he ends chapter four with this text, and I'm going to read it because it seamlessly transitions into our text. He says in 4:16, "So, we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." It says, "We live in a body that's wasting away. There's death in us and there's death around us. Outwardly," he says, "everything we see on the surface, it passes." But he, it finds encouragement the fact that there will be glory. In the momentary affliction is outweighed by the glory. So, St. Paul strengthens his soul, fortifies himself by the hope of what is coming, hope for the future reality sustains him to endure present troubles. Present troubles that will soon come to an end, because everything that is seen is transient. It passes, it's ephemeral. And everything unseen is eternal. So, he says, "I've focused my whole life, I build my life around what is unseen." Now this for many people is a very foreign concept. Because most people, well, all of us, we live in the physical realm, we see with our eyes, and whatever we see, that's what we focus on. Most of us live most of our lives focused on what's seen. But he's saying... he's not saying, "Don't live like that." He's saying, "Don't live for that. Don't live for that which is seen. Because if you live for that which is seen, it will all pass and you will end up with nothing. Live for what is unseen." And what is unseen? It's God, it's his glory. It's the kingdom of God is eternal souls, live for that which is unseen. John 6:27, "Do not work," Jesus says, "for the food that perishes." "Don't only work for food," that's what he say. "But for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has set his seal." So, dear Christians, don't buy into this lie of the world that we are here to accumulate as much stuff as possible, or have as many experiences in the physical realm as possible. The more stuff you get, the more you actually have to lose when you pass. Instead, focus more of your energy, attention, your thoughts, your energy on the unseen. Focusing your attention on Jesus Christ, who is life, who is our greatest treasure. Because if Jesus is your greatest treasure, then nothing can touch your greatest treasure. So, nothing, no one can do anything to you in this life to take what's most important away. So, when you even, even if you sacrifice the ultimate sacrifice, which is your life, for the sake of Christ, you actually don't lose anything, you gain everything. And then, he transitions to verse one. He says, "For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens." So, the tent he's saying is our physical body. Our physical body is like a tent. And in Heaven, God is going to give us a building. It's a building from God, when the earthly home, the tent your body is destroyed, God is going to give you a building. It's a house not made with hands, it's eternal in the Heavens. And he uses the word, "If here," it's only a matter of speaking, he's not saying, "Maybe this is going to happen," because then he brings in the present tents that we already have, we have present tents, a building from God. He's so sure the future reality, he used the present tents. But if this allows for the possibility that if Jesus comes back when St. Paul is alive, then things are a little different. So, the Heavenly home, he's not going to receive, the glorified body, he's not going to receive. In Heaven, he's going to receive it when Christ returns. But here, this distinction is made between this body and the body that we will get, a glorified body. A lot of people have a hard time wrapping their minds around this because they think Heaven is just a spiritual reality. It's not. Heaven is a physical reality. It's as physical as this world is. That's what Heaven will be. Eternity is in the new Heavens, in the new earth. It's a physical reality. We will have physical bodies that will be different, they will be updated. They were the greatest versions of our bodies, the bodies that we were supposed to have before the world fell into sin. But he says, "We have this temple, and then this temple will be destroyed." So, what he's doing in the very beginning is bemoaning the fact that our bodies are our tent. Who wants to live in a tent? Nobody, no one in their mind. The American dream is not to have a tent with a white picket fence. That's not the American dream. No one imagines, "I want to live in a tent." And this is why I don't even understand camping. I don't get it. My wife and I, we've been married for 15 years, and we approached our first anniversary. I said, "Honey, let's do whatever you want. What do you want to do on our first anniversary? Where do you want to go?" And she said, "I love nature. I've never been camping, but I heard it's great. Let's go camping on our first anniversary." I was like, "All right, baby, happy wife, happy life. Let's do it." And we were living in Virginia. We got the tent. And we drive over the camping ground which you have to pay money for. I still don't understand that. So, we go there. It started off great. She made some lamb kebab. We had some Yuengling juice. It was tremendous. And then, it started getting a little dark. We get the campfire going. It's romantic. I love it. And then, we pitched the tent. And as soon as I got on the tent, I'm like, "The ground is pretty hard." We didn't bring a mat or anything. I was like, "All right. Okay. All right, go on and sleep." And I fell asleep, sleeping like a bear in the middle. And I hear shriek piercing through the night, and it was my wife. "We should wake up." I said, "What?" She said, "There's bears outside." I was like, "I know. We're in the middle of nowhere. And our only protection is a little piece of plastic." And then, she's kept me up the whole night. And it was terrible. And then, it started raining. It was awful. It was all... I still have a little PTSD from that. We didn't even save any pictures. I was like, "I don't want to remember that. Let's do this all over again." So, when people tell me, "Hey, Jan, let's go camping." My response is, "Do you know how much I pay per month not to?" There's just, "Why would I go camping? I have a home. There's a bed in my house. There's a mattress, my favorite place in the whole world." And that's what St. Paul is saying. He's like, "This body is just a tent." There's no foundation. It's vulnerable. We're susceptible to disease. We're susceptible to the aging process. We're susceptible to death. That's what he's saying. St. Paul knew tents. He knew tents. He spent every night after preaching the gospel, he would go home, and he would make tents. He's like, "This is all the body is. It's not permanent. It's not built to withstand the elements long term. It can't take storms." Just like our bodies, it will not take the ultimate storm which is death. And St. Paul always knew the theology of tents. In the Old Testament, Moses and the people of Israel, after Lord, had led them out of Egypt. They had a tabernacle, it was basically a tent. It was a setup and teardown church service. They had this tent, it was impermanent, and they would go there, worship God. They would carry it with them. And then, that was just a foretaste of something permanent. And that was the temple. And St. Paul says, "In the same way that the tent, our body is impermanent. Building the God will give us of our glorified body will be that much better." Philippians 3:20-21, "But our citizenship is in Heaven. And from it, we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body," the tent, "to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to themselves." So, when a Christian loses his body, when a Christian dies, there's a hope that God will send an upgraded version of the body. And that's expounded in 1 Corinthians 15. So, in the meantime, we long for Heaven. And this is verse two and three, "For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our Heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on, and we may not be found naked." He's using the word longed here. The same word that he uses in his letters, when he says, "I yearn to be with you. All these churches that you planted, I longed to be with you. I longed to be in a reality that I'm not in right now." He says, "In the same way, we longed to put on our Heavenly dwelling a redeemed body." He longs for Heaven, he longs for the new Heavens, new earth because it will be that much better. And we as Christians, one of the reasons why we're not Heavenly minded enough, is because we don't think about Heaven enough. You can't be Heavenly minded if your mind isn't occupied with Heaven. And one of the ways to do this, really, practically, is you walk around life, and you just look at things as they are. And you imagine the best version, the absolute best version. And if you're a perfectionist, you already do this. You just imagine, you see all the things that are wrong with whatever, and use to imagine the best version, that is Heaven. The best version of food there will be food, the best work version of work that will be work, the best version of friendships that will be friend, the best version of our bodies. We know when we look in the mirror, our bodies are not perfect. And we work hard. But in Heaven, everything is perfect. Everything about you that you want to change, it will be perfect. You will be the perfect weight. You will be the perfect percent body fat, no imperfections, no wrinkles, no pimples. Hair day, always perfect, always perfect. And if you're like, "I don't have hair," then you will have a perfect bald head. I don't know. I don't know. I was meditating on the height thing. How tall are we going to be in Heaven? I don't know. I don't know. But there won't be planes. So, 6'2 could be a possibility because 6'2 here is a fallen height, because you can't fit in a seat. But in there, there's none of that. St. Paul says, "We are to think about Heaven." It's like, we're building in this world with Legos. And then, in Heaven, you have is the new earth, God just builds everything, and He builds it perfectly. Colossians 3:1-4, "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory." Do you want to go to Heaven? Do you want to go to Heaven? Do you want to be in the presence of God? Do you want to be in eternal bliss where everything is perfect? Do you want to be there? Do you want to be there now? "Oh, I'm ready for Heaven, just not quite yet. I just want to have a little more fun. I just want to have more experiences. Just not quite yet." Well, if there's any hesitation to your sake, as shows that there is an attachment to the physical realm, that perhaps it's misorder. St. Paul says, "Look, I'm here. I'd rather be with Jesus, but I know I still have work to do. But I can't wait for the day." I was meditating on that this week. I'm like, "Am I ready right now? I think I am. I will have to preach a sermon on death, just be in the presence of Jesus where now my faith is turn to sight. I see the face of Jesus Christ, you can reach out and touch His face. I can't wait. All of your problems go away. No more bills. No more taxes. No more government. Praise God." No more of that, just the practical questions of like, "What is happening in this world that I don't even recognize in the past 18 months?" I can't wait. And that's what St. Paul here is saying. He's like, "I can't wait to go to Heaven." And he starts mixing metaphors. He says, "The tent is our body, and we will get a building home." He's talking about the body. So, your body is like a home. So, in Heaven, you're not just given a home, your body is a home. And what he's saying with this imagery, he says, "You put on this body." It's like a clothing. It's like, wherever you go, your body gives you everything you would get at home. All the best things you get at home, which is rest. You can refresh yourself with food. Everything you have, you have security of provision, you have protect. You have everything. He says, "You will have that in your body because your body is perfect, your body is immortal. Your body won't have any needs. Yes, there will be food, but you won't need to eat food to exist. There won't be threats to your body. Everything will just be perfect." And he goes into this language about nakedness and being unclothed. And we'll get into that, but what he's talking about is in the meantime from this death, the tent dies, the soul goes to the presence of God. Before we get glorified bodies, we're in this intermediate state. But that's point two. Point two, we groan... verse four and then verse five. Verse four, "For a while we are still in this tent, we groan." Why? Because we're burdened. "Being burdened, not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life." What's he talking about here? He's saying, "There is the state before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, where when you die, your body goes in the grave, your soul goes into the presence of God. But that's not your final state. That's not your fullness of life, you are still disembodied. You're in the presence of Jesus Christ who has a glorified body. And then, at the resurrection and Second Coming of Jesus Christ, you will get a glorified body, but you have to wait for it. And because you have to wait for, he says, "We groan," because we know that's not the ultimate state. What is groan? It's an involuntary expression in face of undesirable circumstances. And to really understand what he means, because he's infusing this word groan with theology. And we can glean that theology from elsewhere. What does he mean by this word groan? In Romans 8, we have three instances of groaning. We have the groaning of creation, we have the groaning of the Christian, we have the groaning of the Holy Spirit. Look at the text with me, Romans 8:18-23, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation is subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now." Creation is sick with sin. And he says, "It's groaning, because it doesn't want to be subjected to futility. It doesn't want to be subjected to sin and evil, and sickness, and disease, and corruption. It longs to be redeemed to its initial state before the fall." And then, he uses the imagery of childbirth, in the pains of childbirth. So, it says, "If creation is pregnant with a new creation, and the closer you get to the moment of the birth, the more powerful the contractions are." So, anyone who's had a child understands this process. You get a contraction. You're like, "Oh, baby's coming soon," and time elapses. And there's another contraction. And then, you watch the time between the contractions. And the shorter that window becomes, the closer you are to the birth of the child. So, this is the imagery of, in the end times, you feel contractions. A little time goes by, and you feel contractions again. And then, less time goes by, and you feel more contractions. So, you have one cataclysmic event that changes everyone's lives, that changes the whole world. And then, you have another one, and then you have another one, and then you have another one. And you don't even realize how the world has changed within 18 months. Does that sound familiar? I'm not saying this is the end times. Well, I'm not saying it isn't. It might be. The creation is groaning. And with creation, we are as well. Verse 23, "Not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit," we have the Holy Spirit, but we ourselves are groaning, "groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies." Yes, we are adopted as children of God. We are redeemed in our souls and our hearts and our spirits, but our body has not yet been redeemed. When you repent of your sin, and you trust in Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior, you have a brand-new heart, you are filled with the Holy Spirit and dwelling the spirit, but your body is still fallen. Your body is still sinful. Your body is still prone to death. This is why Christians get sick. This is why Christians die. And that shouldn't come as a surprise. And there are heretical, errant streams of Christianity that teach otherwise. That if you come to Jesus, and if you have enough faith, you will never have sickness. That's just not true. The followers of Jesus Christ got sick, followers of Jesus Christ died. Romans 8:26-27, this is the third groaning. "Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is in the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God." He says, "The Holy Spirit groans as he is praying for us." We have the Spirit in us. You ever have a moment where you sit down and you're about to pray, you just don't know what to pray for. You don't know what to pray for. You have a situation in life, it's like, "Lord, I don't know which way to even approach this. I know all my will is, but I don't even... let's just skip to your will, Lord." And the Holy Spirit groans and prays on our behalf, with groanings too deep for words. And by the way, this is a very important practice. And once in a while, you should actually practice this in your own prayer life. Where you go into your prayer closet, you close the door, and you're just one on one, you find silence, you find solitude, and you say, "Lord, I don't know what to pray for. I'm still before you, I know that you are God. You are my refuge. You are my strength. Holy Spirit, pray on my behalf." And he does. This language about the being unclothed, and this is where we see that St. Paul himself is groaning about the prospect of not having a body for his soul. And one of the things that he's doing here is, he's answering the heretical teaching of the Gnostics. Gnosticism is that anything physical is wrong, it's evil, is tinged with evil. Therefore, we just forget the physical. We can't wait till our spirit and our soul is freed. And St. Paul says, "No, no, no, I want a body. God created everything. He created everything as physical, as material. I want a body. We're created to be body and soul, psycho and physical. So, believers in Christ will be made perfect forever, in perfect union, body and soul." And St. Paul says, "I can't wait for that. But if I die now, I will be in this intermediate state, and it feels like nakedness." And this is the part of death that actually causes St. Paul some turmoil. Because this is the part I do not look forward to, that there will be time. If I die now before the Second Coming of Christ, there will be time, which I won't have a body. I don't know how time passes in Heaven. I don't know if it's the same as here. I don't know if it's in the blink of an eye. Who knows? But there will be appear, and St. Paul, what's fascinating is, he faces death in a very matter of fact way. There's no sentimental sappiness here. He understands that there will be a time where he's in a state that's not final, that he's not looking forward to. And what he does is, he points out that Christians should view death as an enemy. A lot of Christians, they would pass, "Oh, if the person was a Christian, they died, they went to Heaven." That's true. That's true. But his death is still painful. And death until the Second Coming of Christ, it does take away strength and vitality and energy, and it does break homes. It does break families until everything is swallowed up in death. So, he views death as an intruder. He understands that until the Second Coming of Christ, we get a half-life. So, in the meantime, we regret that our souls will be in one place where our bodies are in other place. And the reason why he has this tension in his heart is because he loves life, because Christianity loves life. God loves life. Christians life affirming, not death affirming. And we see just a glimpse of this in the heart of Jesus Christ. When his friend Lazarus dies, and Jesus knew that Lazarus was sick, and he intentionally didn't come when Lazarus was sick because he wanted to resurrect him to glorify God. So, he knows Lazarus is going to be resurrected. He comes and he meets with Martha and Mary, and you get the scene where he knows exactly what's about to do. But it says, "He wept." He knows that he's about to bring Lazarus back from the dead, and says, "Jesus wept." And the verb there for weep is the same word that's used when Mary Magdalene washes the feet of Jesus Christ with her tears. He's just weeping, these tears streaming down his face, not because Lazarus was going to stay dead, but because Jesus feels in himself. He feels in his heart the pain that death causes to all of humanity. 2 Corinthians 5:4, "For while we are still in this tenant, we groan being burdened, not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life." St. Paul talks about death as death swallows up everything that is living. It's as if, death is a monster, a huge monster swallows up the living. So, St. Paul says, "There will come a time when the mortal that which dies will be swallowed up by life." Just to give you a graphic image, we'll go to the animal kingdom, the animal. A lot of people just have a very rosy perspective on life. And if you do, I just want you to study nature a little bit. And I followed this one account on IG called, Nature is Metal. And it's just little videos of animals devouring each other. There's one of a snake that just swallows up a bunny. And all you see is a little cotton tail. Lions just descending on gazelles, which isn't very different from nature. I was thinking about it. Whenever I bring the rotisserie home, or rotisserie chicken home, my daughters just descend upon it like little lionesses. And I'm like, "Where'd the chicken go?" She's gone, hardly a bone left. So, that's when he's talking about, life will come and swallow up everything that is mortal. So, now everything that remains becomes immortal. We get an articulation of this in 1 Corinthians 15:50-58, "I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, 'Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?' The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain." So, if you die as a Christian, to die as a Christian, as a believer in Jesus Christ, a follower of Jesus Christ, your soul goes to be with God in His presence. And then, when Christ returns, your body will be resurrected, no matter how you died, no matter how you were buried, no matter if you were buried in the ground, or if you were cremated, or if you dry. No matter what happened to your body, God will resurrect it, the same God that breathed life into us. There's nothing impossible for him. He resurrects your body. If you're alive at the Second Coming, and by the way, I pray that's what happens to me. Because I think it shows me so much better. So, what happens is, everyone that's dead is raised to life. So, you watch this, you're like, "Oh, my. Hey, Grandpa," it's like, "everyone's getting raised to life in a glorified body." So, at some point, your grandpa actually looks better than you do because he's got a glorified body. And you're like, "Hey, Jesus, where's my glorified body?" And then, you're brought up with him. And this is the 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. "But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep," dead, "that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that those who are alive, who are left until the coming of Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from Heaven with the cry of command and the voice of an archangel, and the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words." So, Jesus is coming back in a glorified body. And in the process, he raises the dead, gives them glorified body, catches us up and gives us a glorified body. What will the glorified body be like? We can learn some attributes of the glorified body from the glorified body of Jesus Christ. He has a body that's glorified. It's a perfect body. And in the perfect body, Jesus came back and he ate with his disciples. He had Easter breakfast, in John 21 he has. He eats his breakfast with the disciples on the beach, he has broiled fish. He met with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and he shaped shifts. So, they didn't recognize who he was. And then, he goes, "He has dinner with them." Another time, the disciples all in the room, he walked, the door is close, the windows are close, he walks through the door so he can walk through physical objects, and then he just disappears, which is awesome. And I think we might be able to fly in our glorified bodies. Because Jesus ascends to Heaven as glorified body. I'm not sure, but that would be awesome. And this is how God operates. He imagines the greatest possible thing. So, what I'm saying is, Heaven is going to be awesome, and you need to be there. So, if you don't believe in Jesus Christ, just believe in Jesus Christ, repent of your sins, and you get to go to Heaven for eternity. The glorified body is the new improved version of you. It's a redeemed body. Whatever it was meant to be, you'll be clothed the beauty and power forever. 2 Corinthians 5:5, "He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the spirit as a guarantee." So, the moment you repent of your sins and trust in Jesus, he gives you the Holy Spirit. In dwelling the spirit, it's a guarantee. The Greek word means down payment. Not just like a down payment a house, like this is what you have to pay in order to get a mortgage, what he's saying is, it's like a down payment, if you go buy a car, used car, you go and you say, "Okay, I'm going to buy this car. Here's some money as a down payment to show you that I'm serious about coming and bringing the balance." Another instance of this word is used, it's talking about inheritance ring, where a father gives an inheritance ring to a son, and he says, "When I die, you get a portion of my inheritance." Another instance of this word is used, is talking about an engagement ring. When a young man falls in love with a woman, and he wants to marry her, he proposes. And he proposes with something, this is a cultural thing that we do. He proposes it with something. He proposes with a ring. "I guarantee that I will marry you, that I will be faithful to you, that I will love you and serve you, and lead you, and provide for you, and protect you. I am guaranteeing something." And if you don't understand the guarantee part of marriage, then that's probably why you're single. Young men, there's a guarantee, a woman wants to know, he's going to guarantee something. And the Holy Spirit is the guarantee that God is going to redeem us, give us a glorified body. He's going to bring us into Heaven, and he's going to give us eternal life. This fulfillment of life, body, soul together is God's purpose. And it passes because of the Holy Spirit. We know it will pass because of the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:11, "If the spirit of Him who raised Jesus," the Holy Spirit raised Jesus, "from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you." Third is we know. 2 Corinthians 5:6-8, "So, we are always have good courage." We're confident, we know this truth. "We know that while we are at home in the body," in the tent, "we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage," same phrase, again, we're confident, "we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord." We know this with certainty that when I die, I will be with the Lord. Same phrase he used in verse one. "For we know that the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands." Do you have the same certainty? Do you have the same certainty that if you die today you will be in the presence of God, you will be at home? Do you have that certainty? The reason I ask is because you can have that certainty. And if you are believer, you should have that certainty. You know this is a fact, this is the foundation that I'm building my whole life on it. If I die, I will be in the presence of God. How can we be certain? We can be certain because our salvation does not hinge on our performance. Our salvation is found in the performance of Jesus Christ on our behalf. A lot of Christians in the world, in churches where the Bible isn't open, where it's not expansive, where it's not explained, a lot of Christians, you ask them, be a Catholic background or Russian Orthodox or Greek Orthodox background, if you ask them, "Hey, if you die today, do you know that you are going to Heaven?" And the response usually is, "I hope so. If I do more good works than bad, perhaps." Well, friend, that's not how God operates. One sin is enough to banish you from the presence of God for all of eternity. That's how Holy God is. Just pick one of the commandments, you break it once. That's it, you're guilty. And there's nothing you can do to atone for even that one sin, well, friends, each one of us, we've broken all of the commandments, all of them, because Jesus summarizes the commandment by, "Love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself." No one's done that perfectly. We've all sinned, we've all fallen short of the glory of God. We've all misaimed. What is the word sin means? Just missing the mark. You have missed the mark, you have missed the point of life. One thing, as I was meditating on this week, anyway, I come to the second service, it just gets more material. I was meditating on the fact that most people shape their worldview, shaped when they're young in school, maybe in college, you read a little philosophy, you read a little of the word religions. And then, as soon as you start working, you're like, "I have a couple days a week to do what I'd like, and I'm not going to read world religions." Most people don't do that. So, you just inherit this worldview that you've been given. And by age 22, it's like solidified, and then you never go back to it to question if what they taught you was even true. What I'm telling you is, you need to question what you were taught. And if you're alive today, you got to be asking, "Is what I believe about everything isn't true?" And I know that cognitive dissonance. I know the emotional pain, psychological pain, the trauma that you feel when you get to a point where you're like, "Oh my goodness, I was wrong." It's like what Bill Belichick is going to feel today when Tom Brady's back. "I was wrong. I was so wrong." But times 10 million, you know I'm saying? So, what I'm saying is, it's never too late to reassess things. "Does God exist? Who's he like? Is this guy, Jesus Christ, who impacted the world like nobody else is Jesus Christ. True, is he God? And then, what do I need to do with it?" And when you... Jesus Christ say, "You can know. If you trust in Jesus Christ, you repent of your sins." Jesus said, "Whoever believes in me has eternal life. You have it now. You can know that you are going to Heaven because you already have the guarantee within you." And he says, "Look, I rather be at home with the Lord." I know if I pass away, I will be at home with the Lord. For me to live is Christ, to die is gain because I get more of Christ. St. Paul is in this limbo of like, "Okay, I want to need to do as much as I can for Jesus, but not for you because I want you to know Jesus, but I'd rather be with the Lord. I'd rather be home." Do you know the feeling of homesickness? Like the ache deep inside? There's not even a good word. In Russian, there's a word called toska, which is just this annoying. It's just, it's like an anxiety, it's kind of a depression. It's kind of, "I don't belong." It's kind of a loneliness. It's like a homesickness or homelessness. You just don't belong. I felt this my whole life, this whole thing of not really belonging here. I'm from the Soviet Union. My parents immigrated here in 1989. I grew up in a public-school system where English was my second language. I was an ESL until third grade. Because it was more fun than regular classes, so I just pretended I have a Russian accent. I still don't understand what's going on. I just didn't belong. And in the United States, everyone's like, "You're Russian. Now go back to Russia." You're like, "You're American." I just never belonged. But Christians, we know our citizenship isn't here. We belong in Heaven. St. Paul says, "I want to go home. I've been here longer, I want to go home." Because he's been in ministry for so long, most of his friends probably passed. And the longer you live, you get to a point where you have more friends in Heaven than you do here. Where you have more family members in Heaven than you do here. And you're like, "I think I'm ready to go." Three of my best friends died tragically in a very formative years of my life. My best friend growing up was a guy named Pete, he died. His brother was driving, they're both driving on the... They were driving to my house for bible study, and they hit black ice, and crashed. Pete died. And then, right after that, I went to Moscow for a study abroad, and my best friend there was Constantine. And Constantine and I went to a prayer meeting together. And we do this every Wednesday. It was the two of us and three older ladies, and we had a tremendous prayer meeting. But when you pray for someone, and you do that repeatedly, you get really close to them. After I left, Constantine got married, and he and his wife, couple years later, died in a car crash coming from a Christian conference. Then, at seminary, my best friend there was a guy who struggled with mental illness, for love of the Lord. And then, after he graduated seminary, he had a deep, deep doubt bout with his mental illness and died. And I'm meditating on like, "Why? Oh, God, what lessons are you teaching? What are you teaching me through that?" In those years, was particular really is, I think number one is this, "Jan, you got to learn to love people that are going to be gone. It's the only way to truly love someone without stiff arming them, without hedging your emotional bets." Like, "I will love you to an extent, but you might leave." Oh, Jesus Christ love to the death. We have to love people even knowing that they die. And it's easier when you're Christians, because when you leave, if you die, we're going to see each other again. It's the only way also to stay in Boston long term, because people that you love move away. And that's a form of death. And maybe they'll come visit every once in a while. But you'll see them in Heaven. But it's also the only way to live where you understand that God gives you this gift. You love these people while they're here. And then, you'll see them again. St. Paul says, "While we're not at home with the body, we'll be with Jesus." And that's why he says, "I'm ready to die, are you?" And you're not really ready to understand life and how to live life unless you're ready to die. And so, Paul understood this because he understood the theology of being a pilgrim or sojourner. We're just traveling through. Heaven is the destination. Because Heaven is destination, it's the motivation for us to live for the glory of God here. And the key to travel is learn to travel light. Everyone knows how miserable travel is with suitcases. And it's miserable even with carry-ons. Travel light. Take things with you that you don't mind losing. And it makes things more enjoyable. Point four is we aim. 2 Corinthians 5:9, "So, whether we are home or away, we make it our aim to please him." He says, "This is my purpose in life. This is what gives me passion. I don't live for myself. A lot of people are so miserable in life." Are they bored in life because they think that the point of life is to live for yourself? That's too small of an aim, too small of a goal. And St. Paul says, "I have an aim to please God. I want to get to a point where God sees me. He walked with me into Heaven." He says, "Well done, good and faithful servant." He says, "It's my aim. Sin is when we missed the mark. We missed the aim. Living for the glory of God is, I want to please God." Some of you have heard that, if someone's Heavenly minded, they're of no earthly good, which is true in some cases. Some people when they hear, but the reality of Heaven or Jesus coming back, they check out from life. I had an uncle like this, who racked up credit card debt and would just pay the minimum because he's like, "Jesus is coming back soon, why am I going to pay?" So, I don't think he understood what Heaven is. Heaven is a physical reality. We're going to work there. And so, we might as well start working now here. Honestly, the most spiritual people I know, the most Heavenly minded people I know have also been the most practical. The most Heavenly minded people I know understand that this world is just passing. So, they manage and steward their finances well, they understand relationships, how love people really well because they do it from perspective of eternity. They just understand life better. And that's what St. Paul is talking about here. A lot of us, we need to transition from just praying, "Please God." You know you haven't matured yet and you're still a baby Christian where all of your prayers are, "Please God, please God, please God," and you give God your wish list. You know you begin to mature in the faith where instead of praying, "Please God," you start praying, "God, how can I please you? God, what can I do to please you? What can I do to obey you? What can I do to bless you and bless the name of Lord?" And finally, point five is we appear. And this is verse 10, "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil." Every Christian needs to understand that there's two judgments. The first judgment is, when we die, we're going to stand before the white throne of Jesus Christ. And the judgment there is, what did you do with Jesus? Did you obey Jesus? Do you repent of your sins and believe in Jesus? If so, then you enter the presence of God. If not, you are banished from the presence of God, and you go to a place called eternal Hell of eternal conscious suffering. I had a conversation recently where the person was like, "I don't like all these churches. I talked about Hell because they tried to scare people into loving Jesus." It's not the intention. But you don't get mad at meteorologists, when they say, "Hey, a storm is coming. Prepare." Thank them. There's a storm of God's judgment coming. And the good news doesn't make any sense at all, unless you understand the bad news. There is Hell, there is eternal damnation. Jesus Christ went through Hell so you don't have to. You just need to trust in Jesus Christ, and you are saved. And you go and spend eternity with the Lord. Now, if you... and the first judgment, if you're a Christian, you now are moved to the second judgment. And it's called the bema, or the judgment seat of Christ. It's like a court date where you give an account for the life that you lived. You're getting account for what you did with your time, your talent and your treasure. It's not about salvation because you're already saved, but it's about service. What did you do for the Lord? It's like a performance review at work, where you get evaluated for how you work in the past quarter. And if you are nervous about your performance review, there's probably a reason that you are. You didn't work so good. But if you're excited about, you're like, "Finally, my boss recognizes how hard I worked. I worked more than 15 hours a week like my co-workers. I actually worked, and I want to be recognized for." That's what St. Paul said. So, the second judgment is like the podium in the Olympics. It's just, "Okay, now we discern who did the most gold, silver and bronze." In God's angels, there's distinction, there's rank between the angels. Same with us in Heaven, depending on how we live, depending on how we build. 1 Corinthians 3:10-15, "According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw," he's talking about building materials in value in descending order, depending on value. "Each one's work will become manifest, for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burnt up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire." They're saying, "What are you... are you giving God your best? Or are you giving God your leftovers?" You're just a Christian because the fire insurance, "I don't want to go to Hell." Or do you actually care about God, his glory, his work/ And what's the most important work in the world? It's glorifying God, serving him, loving him, serving our neighbors, helping them meet God, helping them learn. Your home, it can be fixed with the glory of God. Your family, your relationship, everything can be fixed. God is helpful for all of that. But your home is not the ultimate home. The ultimate home is in Heaven. Jesus Christ left his Heavenly home. John 1 said that he tabernacled with us. He took on the tent of mortal human flesh. Live the life where Jesus didn't even have a house. He didn't have a place to place his head. He didn't have a place of his own. So, he lived in this homeless state here on earth that he created. Everything is his. And then, he goes to the cross. And on the cross, he experienced this cosmic homelessness, cosmic homesickness, cosmic loneliness where he cries out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Jesus went through all of that to provide a way home for us. And all you have to do to know that you are going home is repent of your sin, "God forgive me," confess your sin, and ask for the Lord Jesus Christ to save you, and submit your life to him as your Lord and Savior. This time we're going to transition to celebrating Holy Communion. And Holy Communion is given to us as a tangible reminder that we are to partake in a regular cadence. Jesus said, "Do this in remembrance of me." To remind ourselves that we need a savior. That we're sinners. And that Jesus is that Savior. He provides the means for our salvation. For home is Holy Communion. Holy Communion is for repentant Christians. So, meaning, you have to be a Christian first, you have to repent of your sin and trust in Jesus. If you're not a Christian, we ask that you refrain from this part of the service, or become a Christian today by repenting and believing. Welcome, partake. It's also for repenting Christian. So, if there's unrepentant sin in your life, right now is the chance for you to repent. Ask God for forgiveness, ask God to free you from that sin and to give you power over it. And if you don't, we ask that you refrain from this part of the service as well. I'm going to pray. And then, we'll partake together. As I'm praying, if you want to partake in communion, and you haven't received a cup and the bread, raise your hand. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this reminder that life is temporal, that we're femoral. We thank you for the remainder of the brevity of life, that we're here, then we're gone. Everything we see will pass, and only that which is done for the name of Jesus will last. We thank you for that remind. Jesus, we thank you for living the perfect life and then going to the cross to pay the penalty for our sin. Thank you that you died, that you bore the wrath of God. And we thank you that you didn't stay dead. We thank you that you came back from the dead, victoriously over death. Jesus, we thank you that your body was broken, and it was broken to heal us. We thank you that your blood was shed, and your blood was shed to cleanse us from our shame and our guilt. We pray that you bless our time in Holy Communion, and we pray that you bring to mind any sins right now that we haven't repented of. We take some time to repent of pride, of selfishness, of folly, of rebellion, of self-reliance. And we thank you, Jesus, that you did everything to accomplish our salvation. Bless our time in the Holy Communion. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.
7 Rules For Life
September 26, 2021 • 2 Corinthians 4
Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood Churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Good morning. Welcome to Mosaic Church. My name is Jan. I'm one of the Pastors here, along with Pastor Shane and Pastor Andy. We're so glad you're here and we'd love, especially if it's your first time, we'd love to connect. We do that through the connection card. That's how we officially do it. You can also unofficially just introduce yourself after the service, we can chat. But officially, if you fill out the connection card and then redeem it at the welcome center, we'll give you a gift and then if your mailing address is on there legibly, we'll send you another gift in the mail just to say, thanks for coming out. One announcement I will emphasize, is our 10th birthday is coming up and birthday parties are fun, if you make them fun and we're going to make this fun. It's Saturday, October 9th, 4:00 PM. You do have to RSVP, so we know how much barbecue to order. There's also vegan option. So everyone's invited. One caveat, you have to love the Church because we're investing barbecue in you. And I also need to know how many people are coming, because we like to feed people well. You know it's a good party when everyone had their fill and you're sending people home with food. And I'm not promising, we're going to send everyone home with food. I just want to make sure that I go home with food, that's because I've got four daughters that eat like adults, so that's ... Yeah. Let's pray, over the preaching of God's Holy Word. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the reminder that you are God and we are not. You are God and we are not our own, yet we lived like it and many was still of like it. Therefore, we've sinned against you, but you sent your son, Jesus Christ, the perfect image of God. Father, you sent the Son. He is your perfect image. And Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit, you reminded us, you showed us what it means to truly be human. How to live a true life, a life of love toward God and people, a life of service toward God and people. And then you showed what love is. Love is sacrifice, and you showed that on the cross by dying for us to redeem us, to bring us back into this relationship with the Father, by the power of the Spirit, to show us that who we are. We are yours. You put your name Jesus on us. We are Christians. And I pray that you remind us of that identity today, because we live in a city where everyone wants to define us with labels about what we do, what we look like, how we speak, where we're from, what we have. That's not who we are. The essence of who we are is who you say that we are, and in Christ we are yours. I pray that you remind us of that and that you fill our hearts with joy to live that out and fulfill the mission that you have for us. We pray all this in Christ's beautiful name. Amen. We're going through our sermon series through 2 Corinthians, that we're calling Prodigal Church Season Two. Season one is online. And what we're doing is we're just going verse by verse through this incredible Book of the Bible. The title of the sermon today is, Seven Rules For Life, and I'm not just talking about for success in life or happiness in life. I'm talking about fullness of life, of finding life, the meaning of life, the purpose of life and eternal life. But to do that, you got to know who you are. I think the culture of our relationships, the culture of our marriages, the culture of our families, the culture of our community groups, of our Church would change radically, if instead of stopping at the question of how are you, we continued and asked the question, who are you? Who are you? What's your essence? Not the facade, not who you pretend to be. Who are you? Because how can I love you if I don't know who you are. A Pastor at Church here and bless the Pastors of this Church, it's a Church full of people trying to find themselves. We live in a city of people trying to find themselves. You don't know who you are and the more you look for yourself, the more lost you get, the more you lose yourself. And I get up here every single week and basically say the same thing, "Stop looking for yourself, because you won't find yourself by looking for yourself. You only find yourself by looking for God, finding God." And you're like, "Oh great. I need to go find God. I'm going on a year long trip backpacking Europe." No, that's not how you find God. You find God by looking for God. God said, "Whoever seeks me shall find me." That's how you find God, and as you find him, you'll realize that he's been looking for you the whole time. Jesus said, "I came to seek and save that which is lost." By finding God you'll find yourself. John Calvin wrote one of the most important works, not just in Church history, but in all of history, The Institutes Of The Christian Faith, and this is chapter one, "The knowledge of God and of ourselves mutually connected nature of this connection." So he's saying, basically here's what you need to know about God and knowledge of God and he has two points in chapter one. Read the whole thing. I was tempted to read the whole chapter today. I was tempted to do that. That's how I used to preach. When we started the Church, I was like, "I'm 26 years old. I don't know a thing. I'm just going to read chapters out of tremendous books." And I would get up, I remember I've read a whole thing from Knowing God and people like that's ... If you want to succeed in life, I'm going to give you rules before I give you rules. You got to read the whole Bible. You have to. If you have never read the whole Bible, I don't know if you're saved. Not that that saves you, you're saved by grace through faith, but you got to read the whole Bible. That's number one. Then you got to read, Mere Christianity, you have to read that. Then you have to read, Knowing God by J.I. Packer and you have to read The Institutes Of The Christian Faith by John Calvin, to really understand Christianity. So in this chapter, he says knowledge of God and he's got two points. The first is without knowledge of self, there is no knowledge of God. If you don't know yourself, you will never know God. He starts with the self. He says, "Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid Wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But as these are connected together by many ties, it's not easy to determine which of the two proceeds and gives birth to the other." And the second point is, without knowledge of God, there is no knowledge of self. Just meditate on that. I challenge you, just meditate on that today. You won't know yourself till you know God. You won't know God until you know yourself. That's true knowledge, and this is what St. Paul has been doing in this letter. And he began this argument in chapter two, verse 14, in which he says, "Hey, you can only know God, if God reveals himself to you. And he reveals himself to you through the piercing truth of the gospel into your heart." So yeah, we preach the gospel because that's the only way that people are going to get saved, that's God's method, that's God's means. We do God's work God's way. But as we preach the gospel, you just need to know. Some people hear it's the aroma of life, from life to life. It's a fragrance. You hear it, you're like, "Oh yes, Jesus is my Lord and Savior. Yes, I'm going to heaven. It just makes sense." Other people hear it and it's the aroma of death. Not because it's uninteresting, irrelevant, distasteful, offensive, but because by refusing to believe the gospel, people seal their fate of being separated from God for all eternity. And if you today are here and you're not sure, the gospel just doesn't make sense, you don't know if you're a believer and you're here for a reason and you're listening to this message for a reason. And I believe you are here because God put you here and you're listening to this message because God foreordained, preordained this to happen. I believe you're elect. I'm preaching to you like you're elect. So if you're not a yet a Christian, I dare you. God, if you're there, please remove the veil. I want to see you. I dare you. During this sermon, just do it. Just do it. I dare you. And then, come up to me after if you did it and we'll baptize you. We'll schedule a baptism service. That's how we do ministry at Mosaic. So today we're looking at 2 Corinthians 4. Would you look at the text with me. "Therefore having this ministry, by the mercy of God, we did not lose heart, but we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word. But by the open statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it's veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake." "For God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed. Always carrying in the body, the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you." "Since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what has been written, I believed and so I spoke, we also believe and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people and may increase Thanksgiving to the glory of God." "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day for this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. As we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." This is the reading of God's Holy, inherent, infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths about our hearts. The reason I was smiling as I'm reading that is, does your mind hurt after listening to that? Some of you have such incredible minds that your minds have never really been challenged. If you want your mind to be challenged, read this book and understand what's going on. When you do, you will come to know God and if you come to know God, you come to know yourself. You'll find your voice. You'll learn how to communicate. You'll learn how to speak the Word of God, because you finally found your voice and you speak for God and you speak for good. And to do that, you need Seven Rules For Life. I don't do the Seven Rules For Life usually, because I've seen other Preachers do this and they build mega Churches, like Rick Warren would come up and he's like, Five Keys To Happiness," and everyone's writing them down. And he gives them a little piece of paper where you got to fill in the key. It's like number one blank, and you got to fill it in. The reason why they do that is to keep everyone engaged during the sermon. I'm like, if you got to use a trick like that, then you're not engaging enough, but I am going to do a trick like that, to understand this text. Okay, Seven Rules For Life and it's to find real life ... Live with heart. Live with integrity. Live with spiritual perception. Live to exalt Jesus Christ. Live with creation and confidence. Live with paradoxical power. And live with daily renewal. First, live with heart. 2 Corinthians 4:1, he says, "Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart." Why does he say, we do not lose heart, if he wasn't driven to the brink of losing heart? You know what it means to lose heart? It means you quit. You lose the fighting spirit. Your heart's not in it anymore. You know what Ministry is? Ministry is just loving people. So I'm not just talking about ministry, vocationally speaking. Ministry is loving people. Have you ever had a relationship where you got to a point with a person that you loved and you say, "I just can't do this anymore. I quit. I'm out." That's what it means to lose heart. You lose heart for this person and it's tempting, because ministry is hard because loving people is hard. Charles Spurgeon's classic, Lectures To My Students, writes a chapter to new Pastors, Preachers, Ministers and he entitles this chapter, The Minister's Fainting Fits, in which he describes the pressures put on any minister to lose heart. He says, "Our work when earnestly undertaken lays us open to attacks and the direction of depression. Who can bear the weight of souls without sometimes sinking to the dust? Passionate longings after men's conversion, if not fully satisfied and when are they, consume the soul with anxiety and disappointment, to see the hopeful turn aside, waxing more bold in sin. Are not these sight enough to crush us to the earth?" "The Kingdom comes not as we would. The Reverend name is not hollowed as we desire, and for this, we must weep. How can we be otherwise than sorrowful while men believe not our report and the divine arm is not revealed? All mental work tends to be weary and to depress for much study as a wariness of the flesh, but ours is more the mental work. It is heart work. The labor of our inmost soul. Such soul travail is at the heart of the faithful minister and will bring an occasional season of exhaustion, when heart and flesh will fail." Anyone who is loved knows the cost of loving and no one experienced more of what Spurgeon describes than the Apostle Paul, specifically the personal attacks in Corinth, the Church that he started. These people came to faith through his ministry, that's why they were especially galling because he loved them. The attacks come from people that he loved. Namely, they were attacking him, accusing him that his ministry's weak, it was fading. That he was dishonest in some way, that he had effectually corrupted God's word in some way, that he hindered the preaching of the gospel. And in light of Paul's sincerity and integrity, these accusations were hurtful and they were wicked and unfounded and what's fascinating is he doesn't shrink away. They're attacking him and he could have gotten to the point where like, "Fine. I'm out. I'm going to different city." But he doesn't. He remains and he engages. "Let's duke it out. You want facts? I'm bringing facts and I got receipts," because his heart's still in it. He's duking it out. So the question is, how's your heart? How's your heart for ministry? How's your heart for loving people? If you lose heart, you lose everything. Michael Jordan, when he won three championships, after winning three championships, he retired and he went to play baseball. And everyone's like, "You went to play baseball. You stink at baseball." And he stunk at baseball. He was terrible. And they asked him, "Why aren't you playing basketball anymore?" He said, "My heart's not in it anymore." Because his dad had passed the way and he was driven to play it for his dad. And it took him to take some time away to find his heart again. No heart, no energy. You lose heart, you lose everything. You know what heart is? It's courage. It's courage. So when you get discouraged, you lose courage for the fight. So when you're encouraged, you're infused with courage for the fight. And he says, "My heart is in the ... I haven't lost my heart." A lot of you, you haven't loved enough to get to the point where you know what that line is. A lot of you don't know what it means to love so much that it hurts and it shows, because a lot of you, it's been easy to be loved, because you're so talented. You're like, "It's easy to be loved and it's easy to love because people don't really push you." But it's really, when you love hard people that you understand the toll it takes to love and that's when you want to quit. And a lot of you haven't loved that much, so you don't know what it means to feel the pain. The reason why many of you don't win is because you don't know how to lose. Let me explain. A lot of you have just won in life and because you've won so often in life, when the L comes, you don't know how to deal with it and then you quit. That doesn't work in relationships, I'll just give one example. I remember freshman year in high school. I started wrestling in eighth grade because Keith McGinley was sitting next to me and Keith McGinley turns around. He's like, "Jan, you're Russian. Russians aren't good at soccer. You should wrestle." And that's all it took because I wasn't good at soccer. So I signed up for the wrestling. I only had one year of experience, eighth grade. And then ninth grade, I show up and my coach is like, "Jan, how much do you weigh?" He weighed me. I weighed 140 pounds. I was 6'1" and 140 pounds, freshman year of high school, crazy. My left leg is 140 pounds right now. So 140 pounds and he's like, "Great, we don't have anyone at 140 pounds. You're varsity. Welcome to the team." Well, I stunk, I was terrible. And I had a history teacher that really liked wrestling and he was proud of the fact that I was on varsity. And then my first match, I got pinned in 10 seconds. And then the next morning, so that was published in the Cranston Herald. I'm from Cranston, Rhode Island. It was published in the Cranston Herald, all the stats. And then next day, I'm sitting in history class. My history teacher comes up to the table and smacked it. Pinned. And that was funny. I'm like, "All right, he did that." I'm like, "Okay, I can handle it." Except he did that the following week. And he did that for 15 weeks straight, because I went O and 15. And I'm thinking back now, I'm like, I think he would be fired for doing that. That's inflicting some kind of trauma on ... I look back now, I still have PTSD. I still hear that thing. And you know what I'll tell you? That was a gift. That was a gift, because the off season, I trained like an animal and then I became the Crushing Russian. But I thank him, I thank him for that and I say that because we live in Brookline and in Brookline people don't know how ... They've won so much, they don't know how to lose and that's why they quit. They lose heart. I remember my second daughter started playing soccer and I think she was like five or six. She started playing soccer and her team was just so much better than any other team, because the girls on the team were more robust. They were a little bigger, a little stronger. They was more robust and they didn't just win, they trounced other teams, just obliterated scores like 15 to nothing. And I loved it, of course. I'm like, "Yeah." Parents from the other teams would take their kids out of the game and take them home, because they say, "You're not winning this game anyway." That's a disservice. In order to learn how to win and not quit, you got to know how to lose. And the way you know how to lose is by realizing, it's just a game. It doesn't matter. It's just a game. So if you win, don't let it go to your head. And if you lose, don't let it get to your heart. And when you know that none of this matters, none of what we do really, really matters in the great scheme of things for the perspective of eternity, the only thing that matters is what we do for God, for his glory. The only thing that matters is what we do for eternal souls. That's the only thing that matters. Well that gives you the spiritual fortitude, when you are pushed to the brink to not quit and to not lose heart. And St. Paul says, "We've been given this ministry. It's hard work and it's a surpassingly glorious ministry of the new covenant, that when we proclaim the gospel, people get saved by grace through faith. The Holy Spirit removes the veil of unbelief, brings liberation of the Holy Spirit, brings transformation to the image of the Lord's glorious work." Matthew Simpson talks about the ministry like this. "He, the person bringing the gospel message, he stands in Christ stead. His message is the word of God. Around him are immortal souls. The Savior unseen is beside him. The Holy Spirit broods over the congregation. Angels gaze upon the scene and heaven and hell await the issue." It's hard work, but it's worth it. It's hard work, but it's worth it so he doesn't lose heart. Having a ministry of such splendor, leaves Paul with no place for faint hardness, but only for boldness. You know what I say to myself right before I have to do something really hard? If I'm lifting, it's like say, "Oh. Squats, deadlift." Or like having a hard conversation with someone. You know what I say? I say, "DBAB. Don't Be A Baby, bro. Don't be a baby, bro." I preach it to myself. What I do here, I do to myself all week, "Don't be a baby. Suck it up." This life is full of pain. There's no pain, no gain. No life without sacrifice. Every person, every woman that has ... Oh man, I was going to say, every person that gives birth. No, only women give birth. Every woman that gives birth knows this. To bring life into the world, you go through pain. That's what St. Paul is talking about and then what gives power to do it? He never forgot God's mercy on him. He never forgot that God saved him. Every time he shared his ministry, his testimony, he never could get over the fact that Jesus saved him, that God chose him, chose him for work, chose him for suffering. And he focused on God's mercy and that energized his ministry. It heartened him, encouraged him. He continues, 2 Corinthians 4:16, these are the two parallels. The two book ends of the text, "So we do not lose heart." Verse 16, "Though, our out outer self is wasting away. Our inner self is being renewed day by day." Point two, is live with integrity. St. Paul lived with integrity. In addition to being heart and energized by God's gift of salvation, he also embraced integrity in how he did the ministry. God gave him a word. He kept the word. He focused on the word. He didn't edit the word. He didn't change the word. He didn't tamper with the word to make his life easier. 2 Corinthians 4:2, "But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word. But by the open statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God." He said, I reject all deceit, I reject all subterfuge. I reject cutting any corners to make things easier. I reject any kind of thing that's only done when no one's looking, shameful things. He says, because I do everything in the sight of God. I live for an audience of one. Yes, your opinion, it kind of matters. You know whose opinion matters more than anyone else's opinion? What does God think about my life? What does God think about how I live? You want to live a life that truly matters, a meaningful life and purposeful, live as if God is always watching you. That's what he's saying in the sight of God and he rejects. He's like, so why would I change the gospel? Even if the end is altruistic and that's what the false teachers were doing. False teachers would come in. They're like, "Hey, Let's not preach about sin, hell, damnation, all that stuff because that scares people away. Let's talk about God loves you. God wants to bless you. God has big plans. Let's talk about that stuff. And then once we got them in, then we'll be like, "Hey, there's other stuff too, like if you didn't believe this, you're going to go to hell." And I know Churches that do that. I literally know a Church where the guy said, "We don't preach the gospel on Sundays." He said that. He said, "We teach life principles on Sundays, because we want to help people's lives. And then once they're in the Church, then we're like, all right, then we'll open the Bible." He uses the word cunning. We don't use cunning. Does that make sense? It kind of makes sense. He uses the word cunning. It's the same word that he used to describe Satan's schemes. 2 Corinthians 11:3, "But I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion of Christ." The Church down the street, St. Paul's Church in St. Paul's Street, they're blessing bicycles this week. So if you ride your bicycle in Boston, you should go there. What I will tell you is the hard truth, that you should not ride your bicycle in Boston, because you'll die. I know because I got hit by a car on my moped one time. The week we started the Church, I got hit by a car, I almost died. Good thing, I was wearing a motorcycle helmet and then that's why I didn't die. And then that week, the first Sunday on our inauguration service, I got up with a cast and I'm like, "You know? Satan almost killed me this week. Here's proof." That really happened. I know a Church in Texas that on Easter, they gave away Ferraris. They had a raffle. If you show up to the Church, you might win a Ferrari. And you know what my first thought was, and this is the fall of human nature? "I should go there, just in case. Just in case I get to drive out of the Church parking lot with a car, almost as nice as that Pastor's. Just in case." And St. Paul says, "No, we don't tamper with God's word. We don't do that." A lot of people do that today. Ways that people do that to today, first is they approach Scripture with fallen presuppositions that they take from somewhere else. Presuppositions that your professors give you. They literally have New Testament classes in universities all around us and the presupposition, day one, is none of this is true. There is no God. Jesus wasn't God. So now you're reading a text with a presupposition of disbelief. So obviously you're never going to understand the meaning of that text. The only presuppositions that we can read Scripture with are presuppositions that we take out of Scripture. Some people do this today by removing texts from context. Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." That's not talking about, because of Jesus I'm always going to win. It's talking about because of Jesus, I can win and lose. I can be brought high or low, by moralizing the text, reducing the Bible just to ethics. Christianity is just about being a good person? No, it's not. Christianity is literally about one good person and everybody else needs him. No, one's a good person. Jesus is a good person. That's what the Bible's about. Using the text to promote hobby horses or dogmatic insistence that the text says something that it doesn't, and this is a desire to be clever or popular, relevant or intellectually respectable. But the most often way that God's Word is tampered with is, it's watered down because of preacher's laziness. Preaching the gospel is hard work. You know why? To understand this, is hard work. Just to wrap your mind around this and then figure out how to present it in a way where people actually listen, because this is the most important message in the universe. So how can I present in a way that you are paying attention the whole time? But before I even get there, I have to live it. I have to read it. I have to understand it and I have to do it. And I live with five females, who think that they have been commissioned by God to make sure that I'm living this out. My wife thinks it's her calling in life to make sure that I do it perfectly. And then I have four daughters that sit in the back seat as I'm driving and they, once in a while, throw in, "Hey, you can't say that Pastor Jan." This is the hardest job in the universe. I know your job's hard. Come do my job. I dare you. Let's plant Churches. So that's what he's saying. Where are we? Okay, yeah. Oh, 2 Corinthians 2:15, "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth." Rightly handling in the Greek is ortho straight. Paul's charging Timothy, "Hey, I want you to get the text straight and to give it straight. The undiluted word of God, with boldness and simplicity and clarity." Three, live with spiritual perception. St. Paul preached a simple gospel to physical people, but he understood that there was spiritual realm above everything. So when he preaches the gospel, he's aware that this is spiritual warfare. He's aware that he's preaching to eternal souls. So he looks through people, through bodies, through flesh, and he speaks to their soul, speaks to their heart. 2 Corinthians 4:3-4, "Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." For some people, the gospel is veiled to them because there's a veil in them, a veil over their hearts and minds, a covering where the gospel, it doesn't make any sense. And St. Paul here is responding to the question. If the gospel's so powerful and glorious, how come so many people don't believe? How come more people, the majority of people aren't saved? And St. Paul says, "There's a veil over their hearts and minds. They can't see the glory of Jesus Christ, because the God of this world ..." Who's he talking about? Who's the God of this world? Satan. Satan. For God was the God of this world. God relegates authority to Satan. You will never understand the world. You will never understand geopolitics. You won't understand economics. You won't understand anything in the world unless you understand that Satan has authority over people and Jesus Christ breaks through that authority, one person at a time through the preaching of the gospel. Paul knew this first hand. He knew how blind he was to the gospel. He knew how blind he was to the dazzling glory of Christ and it wasn't until Jesus Christ revealed himself to Paul, that Paul finally saw spiritual perception. You have to live a spiritual perception. You need to understand that there's spiritual realities above us that we do not see, and the only way to understand that is Scripture. And then once you see that it changes the way you live. It changes the way you relate to people, where you start learning how speak to people's souls, but you have to look through the body. Do it right now. Do it right now. Look at me. Look past my hair. What's he doing with his hair? I don't know, can't figure it out. I think he's getting curly with the humidity. Look past my beard. Is that a beard? What's he doing? He needs to trim that. Look past my crooked glasses. Look past the fact that my name is Jan, Yan. That's weird, this is so much weird. But I'm telling you, look. Is he wearing a Carhartt shirt? Is hee trying to be a lumberjack. Look past this. I'm telling you, this changes the way you live. Look at people in the eyes. Look at people in the eyes. I dare you for a week, look only in their eyes. It'll solve so many of your problems. Don't let your eyes gravitate where they should not. It changes the way you live, if you view every single human being as eternal soul, it changes things. That's what he's saying. He's saying, "If you really want to find life, you got to live a spiritual perception." Four is lift and exalt Jesus Christ. The antidote to the veil blindness is lifting Christ up, so focus on that. In verse five, "For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ is Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake." He's not building my ministry. I'm not proclaiming myself. I proclaim Jesus Christ is Lord, and that's the gospel. That's the fullness of the gospel right there, in a nutshell. Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus' name means salvation. Salvation. Luke 2:29-32. This is Simeon as he takes baby Jesus in his hands. He says, "Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation." Takes Jesus, he's salvation. Jesus is salvation. Christ means anointed. When he's the Messiah, God has chosen him for this ministry and Jesus Christ is Lord. He's Lord of Lords, King of Kings. He's King of the cosmos, that's what we believe. Jesus is salvation. I need to be saved. Jesus is the Messiah, that was prophesied centuries, millennia before he came. And Jesus Christ, King of Kings, Lord of Lords and all you have to do to be saved is to confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord. So everybody repeat after me. Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus Christ is Lord. Let's do it again. I hate when people do that, but I love ... Let's do it again. Jesus Christ is Lord. See, now all of you are saved. If you also believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is Lord and that he was raised from the dead, that's all it takes to be a Christian. That's all it takes to be a child of God. That's all it takes to find eternal life. That's the gospel. Five is, live with creation and confidence. Verse six, "For God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." He's saying Satan may have blinded people, but Jesus Christ gives sight to people. Divine grace is more powerful, pierces the heart with light and understanding. So obviously in our ministries, there's no place for self glorification. We don't do it. We don't save people. Jesus Christ saves people with the same power that God created everything. How did God create everything? He spoke everything into existence. That's what he is doing in this verse, "Let light shine out of darkness." God spoke it. God created everything through the Word. God created everything through Jesus Christ. And then God recreates everything through the Word through Jesus Christ, but it's the same creative power. So when we proclaim the gospel, proclaim God's word, we have access to this divine creative power and God creates and recreates through each one of us, creation of power. St. Paul knew this. He knew firsthand what it means to hear the message. He was a contemporary of Jesus, did you know that? They may have crossed paths. If not, then he definitely crossed paths with his disciples or people that met Jesus, eyewitnesses of his miracles and Paul didn't believe. He actually persecuted believers in Christ and then everything changed when Jesus Christ revealed himself to Paul. We live in a world where people even, especially smart people, believe almost anything except God's word, except the gospel. People believe anything and it's just crazy to me, how they don't see the lies. There's still people in the world that believe the government loves them and wants to do the best thing for them. There's still people in the world that believe politics is the solution and they vote. Crazy. There's still people that believe that the media tells the truth, the full truth, nothing but the truth. They just believe crazy, crazy things. But you mention Scripture and you mention a gospel and they think you're wearing a tin hat. You know it used to be a virtue to go to Church. It used to be a good thing. You would tell people you're a good person, if you go to Church with your family. It's not a virtue, not here. So I told my daughter, she's 13. I told her, I said, "Sophia, you are a missionary. None of your friends know another Christian. None of your friends in school know another Christian. You're the only Christian that they have ever met." And she said, "Well, I tried to invite my friend to Church." I said, "Okay, you got to tell your friend that if you are educated, if you are an intelligent person, how can you understand the world if you have never read the most influential book in world history?" This book has impacted world history like no other book and that's why they don't want you to read it. And that's why you should, I dare you. Point six, live with paradoxical power. 2 Corinthians 4:7, "But we have this treasure." Treasure, this gospel, this treasure, "In jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us." This verse was ruined for so many of us by a band named Jars Of clay. And you know, I made fun of them in the first service and I feel kind of bad, because then I talked to a guy who's like, "Hey, they slept over my friend's house, because they were at a show and then after the show, they didn't have a place to sleep. And the guy's like, "Aren't you going to a hotel?" And they were like, "Yeah, no, it's too much money." So the guy invited them to sleep in his place. You know what he said? He's like, "They're just regular dudes." I was like, "Oh, so they are Jars Of Clay." So that's what he is talking about, Jars Of Clay. On the outside, you just look normal. You look inexpensive, easily broken. It's a throw-away container. It's Earthenware pots. It's when you go to the restaurant, this is what they give you leftovers in that container. You don't put anything valuable in them. And God says, "This is how the ministry works." God chooses to reveal his treasure by putting it in jars of clay and then the jar of clay goes and tells everyone, "Hey, there is treasure inside my heart. I have the spirit of God. I know God. I know the God of the universe. I have salvation. I have the Holy Spirit." And people are like, "You're a kook." And then they get saved. And then they're like, "But you're a jar of clay. How did I get saved?" And then you're like, "Yeah, it's a surpassing power that belongs not to me but to God." So that no one mistakes about the source of the power, God chooses this method so that no one gets glory other than God. Who gets any of the glory? And St. Paul says, "It's all God." And when St. Paul says he's weak, he's a jar of clay, he's not posing. He was a great writer, but in person, he was just awkward. He was just an awkward guy. Have you ever worked with someone like this? They say hello and you say hello, and that's it. It's like, you're playing basketball with someone that never passes. St. Paul was just an awkward dude and he had a uni-brow. So in person, no one understood and he couldn't speak. It wasn't a good order and he was Jewish in a time where the Corinthians were anti-Semitic, the whole empire was. And what St. Paul is saying is, my weakness is actually why God chose me. I am weak. He is strong. I'm a jar of clay. He is the treasure. And this is where a lot of Christians get this strong. They think, if I demean myself or deprecate myself, that's how I increase my power. No. It's not about your power. It's never about your power. It's not about how you get more powerful. It's about how you get out of the way and let God be more powerful. So it's my weakness that releases the power of God, as long as I don't get in the way. Someone asked St. Francis, how he was able to accomplish so much in his life. And he said this, "The Lord looked down from heaven and said, "Where can I find the weakest littlest man on earth?" Then he saw me said, "I found him and he won't be proud of it. He'll see that I am only using him because of his insignificance." I love that. It's so ironical. That's the ironic way of saying ironic. It's so ironical and so you never lose the humor of it. I can't believe that God saved me and God called me to do this. And then you have just ... There's an air of joyful playfulness, "Yeah, okay. I'm doing the most important work in the world, but I didn't sign up for this. So let's see what God can do." And it's entertaining too and your life becomes like a movie. It's tremendous. This is what happened on the day of Pentecost. The Apostles got up, filled with the Holy Spirit. These guys were fishermen and tax collectors, regular dudes and they start proclaiming the gospel and 3000 people got saved. And they got saved because they realized there was just this discrepancy between the guys speaking and the power with which they're speaking. And people were like, "Oh, this is borrowed power. It's not their power. God is really with them." The other challenge here about jars of clay ministry is you get ... What do they say? Familiarity breeds contempt. You know what that mean? It's like when you get to know someone ... That's why they say, never meet your heroes. Like when you think this person's so great and then you meet them in person and you're like, "Oh, you're just a normal person." Yeah." "Oh, you too have to use deodorant and brush your teeth?" "Yeah, just a regular dude." "Oh, you get hangry?" "Yeah, I do. It's almost lunchtime." The challenge is you never see the treasure. The longer you're with a person, the hardest to see the treasure through the clay pot. This is what Jesus said, "There's no prophet in his hometown." Because if you grow up with a Jesus and you're playing baseball with him and you strike out Jesus, it's kind of hard to believe this guy when he says, he's the Son of God. "You're the Son of God and I struck you out." And he's like, "I let you strike me out, to boost yourself confidence." Something like that happened with Paul. Paul was with them. They got saved. After a while, they get to know him and they're like, "Oh, you're not that great." Then Apollos comes in. They're like, "Apollos is a polished speaker. We like that guy better. And we like these false teachers better." And then after a while, they're like, "Paul, maybe you're not that great." And Paul's like, "Yeah, now you see why God used me because it's the same thing John The Baptist did with Jesus. He must increase, I must decrease." So I'm saying in your relationships with people, never lose sight of the fact that if they're a Christian, they got to treasure inside of them and you got to look for that treasure. You got to look past the jar. This is why some of you are still single. I mean, when you're trying to get married, sorry ... You can't it see past the clay pot. You're looking for the treasure. You're looking for the 11. Jesus is the only 11. So the clay pot, get to know it. Get to know the pot. Get to know the cracks in the pot and you see what the ... The pot is still here and then fall in love with that pot and then I'll do your wedding, if you're a member of Mosaic. 2 Corinthians 4:8-10, and this is what he says, "We're afflicted in every way, but not crushed. Perplexed, but not driven to despair. Prosecuted, but not forsaken. Struck down, but down destroyed. Always carrying the body, the death of Jesus, that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies." He's like, "You clearly see that we've been getting knocked down, knocked down, knocked down, but we're not getting knocked out because the Spirit of God is with us." 2 Corinthians 4:11-12, "For we who live are always being given over death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also maybe manifested our moral flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you." For two reasons, the same hostility of the demonic realm that was brought down on Jesus, the same hostility we feel when we proclaim the truth, because this is spiritual warfare. It's not informational warfare. It's spiritual warfare, so that's why you experience the persecution, the suffering, et cetera but then also, he says, it's because it's the way of the cross. Christ's life for us. Jesus to give us life, he had to die. Jesus died on the cross for our sins. True love always takes death. Sacrifice to self, death to self. Every married person knows this. You die the self. You die to owning your calendar. When you have kids, you die to owning anything. They own everything. This is what he's talking about. George Muller was a great pastor and he set up orphanages for tens of thousands of children. He was asked at the end of his life about his secret, he hung his head and he said, "There was a day when I died." And then he hung his head lower and he said, "I died to George Muller. I died to myself." And this is what Jesus said, if you want to find true life, die the self. "Take up your cross and follow me." 2 Corinthians 4:13-14, "Since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what has been written, I believe and so I spoke, we also believe. And so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence." And here you don't really understand what's going on, unless you understand that he's quoting from Psalm 116:10, in which David was on the brink of death. He almost died and God gave him a word and he said, "You're not going to die." And David said, "I believed and so I spoke. I believe the word of God." And he didn't die. And then St. Paul says, "Well, we also know that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us from the dead." So even if I die, even if I die, I'm still in God's presence. So I'm going to live every single day as if this is my last day, doing the most important thing that I can, which is preaching the word of God. And then verse 15 forward, "It's all for your sake. So that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God." He's saying I'm willing to take the hits. I'm willing to take the suffering, and I'm willing to get knocked down so that more people can actually hear the gospel and not to build up my own ministry, but so there's more people worshiping God. So more people are giving God the glory that he is due. So more people are thanking him and loving him and worshiping him because he deserves it. Then points seven is, you live with daily renewal and that's verse 16, "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary infliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. As we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." I don't focus on this moment, because when you focus, when you're going through pain and you focus on the moment, the moment feels like an eternity. But when you focus on eternity, I'm going to spend eternity with God and God has a house and his house is so big that the rooms in it feel like mansions. Jesus said, "I'm going to go my father's house and prepare room for you." In King James' version, mansions. I'm going to spend eternity in bliss. There is no pain. There is no suffering. There is no sin. There is no evil. There is no warfare. It's just life. And this momentary affliction from the perspective of eternity, it just feels like a moment. So I'll get through it. That's how he does it and that's what gives him energy to not lose heart, not lose heart. My family does this thing where ... We have a big family. So I have four siblings and I have four kids. My sister has four kids and Alyssa has two kids. So there's a lot of us. So my dad and my mom, they invite us over and we're celebrating five people's birthdays. We have five people in our family that have birthday in September. It was tremendous. And we got a bouncy house, it was epic. It was epic. We're getting better at parties. And we had steak and pizza and Olivye, which is my favorite Russian salad. It was tremendous. My dad calls me ahead of time. He's like, "Hey, you got to prepare a word. Before we pray, you got to prepare a word." I was like, "Fine, I'll prepare a word." And I was like, "What am I preaching on?" So I prepared this word and I read this, verse 16, "Though our outer self is wasting away." Happy Birthday everyone. You're wasting away, but it's true. You are. No offense, none taken." Pastor Shane, if you met Pastor Shane. Pastor Shane ages like Tom Brady. I age like Bill Belichick, wasting away, but you know what? I'm having a good time, because every day I get renewed on the inside. Every day, I get renewed by the Spirit of God who reminds me that God is Father. I'm just a kid. I'm just a child of God, and this responsibility that God's given me that aren't mine completely to shoulder, so I don't need to get bogged down with depression and anxiety. God's got it. I just got to do my job, have fun while I'm doing it and God fills my heart joy. And the more joy I have in my heart, the stronger I am. So what's the point of losing heart? In conclusion, you don't find yourself by looking for yourself. You find yourself by losing yourself, in the moment. Eminem was close, he was so close. It's not just about losing yourself in the moment. You got to lose yourself in God, and when you lose yourself in God, that's when you find yourself because you find yourself in God. J.I. Packer, Knowing God, "Once you become that the main business that you are here for is to know God, most of life's problems fall into place of their own accord." So do you know God? If so, rejoice, and if not get to know him in prayer right now. I dare you. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you for an incredible word, a dense word, a rich word, a substantive word. We thank you Holy spirit that you were with us. We thank you for the treasure that you have deposited in our hearts. And I pray that we, as jars of clay, bring this treasure to world. I pray Lord powerfully work through us, so the world sees that it's not our power, it's your surpassing power. Your glorious power to reveal Jesus Christ, to unveil hearts and to reveal your glorious face. I pray, you do that to many in and through this Church, build this Church and expand your Kingdom from it. And we pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen.