Struggles and Strength: Paul’s Journey of Faith and Resilience

Hello, and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast,

where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to

this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen

you in the word of God.

Now, come along.

Let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today

in the book of 2 Corinthians.

If you have your Bibles, turn there with me.

2 Corinthians.

And we're going to be in chapter number 11.

We've been following the book of 2nd Corinthians now for quite

a bit of time, and we have found ourselves here in this chapter

dealing with Paul as he deals with the Corinthian Church and how

he is defending his ministry against false teachers at this point

in time.

If you've been following us in this sermon series, you've realized

that here at this specific time frame, there have been some

false teachers who have claimed to be apostles of Christ,

move into the church at Corinth, and they're preaching something

contrary to what Paul is preaching.

And so what's happened is, is that these false teachers have allowed

themselves to get to a place that they have built the trust with

the church.

And the church at Corinth has tolerated these false teachers, and

they've come to a place where now they're accepting the message

of these false teachers and they're rejecting the message of

Paul, which.

The message of Paul is the message of truth.

The message of Paul is the message of the Gospel.

And so Paul now is defending himself, but it's not so much that

he's defending himself as much as he's defending the truth of God.

But he knows that there is a necessity here, and the necessity

is for him to prove that he is a messenger of God and therefore

prove that what he is preaching is truly from God.

And so Paul is defending the truth of God and his own ministry,

and he's matched up against false teachers who are doing their

best to get the church of Corinth to go the opposite direction

of the truth.

And we live in a world today that.

That is very similar.

We live in a world today that is trying to pull the church away

from the truth.

We have a world today that's trying to pull away the believer

from what God has clearly defined as truth in the gospel and

truth in his word, and to get us to believe things that are contrary

to his word.

And so Paul, in this case, is.

Is reluctant to defend himself in this defense.

Okay?

He he's reluctant.

Um, he actually calls it, as we saw earlier on, foolishness.

He says, this is foolishness that I have to sit here and go backwards

and, and to go back to what we've already talked about.

This is a waste.

Um, but no, he knows that this is a necessity.

So.

So he says, guys, we're wasting our time here.

We're getting distracted with things that should not be pulling

away our attention.

So he will, in this passage, boast, but he's not going to boast

like the other apostles have boasted, these false apostles.

He's going to boast in what God has been able to do through him.

And so what we can see here in Second Corinthians, chapter 11 is

2 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

that Paul is going to say, okay, I'm going to tell you what

God is doing.

And what God is doing in my life is not what God is doing through

those other people's lives.

The.

The false apostles.

We go back just in Second Corinthians, chapter 10, verse 17,

2 Corinthians 10:17

and he says, but he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

And so Paul says, these people that are glorying in themselves and

their works of the flesh, in the way that they've pulled this

audience together and how much they have in their material blessings,

these people are glorying in the wrong things.

They're boasting in the wrong things.

Really, the only thing that a believer can glory in is glorying

in what God has done for us, boasting and, and giving honor to

God for his blessings in our life.

And so Paul says, this is foolishness, but I'm going to defend

what God is doing in my life here in the church.

So look at it with me here in verse number 16.

Verse number 16, he says, I say, again, let no man think me a

fool.

So he says, even though I'm doing something foolish by lowering

myself down to defend myself and not preach the gospel, he says,

do.

Don't think I'm a fool.

If otherwise.

If you think I'm a fool, yet as a fool, receive me.

Say, what is he talking about here?

He says, well, you've received other fools.

You've received all these other people talking about their

accolades.

Just for the next few moments, he says, listen to me that I may

boast myself a little, that I might share with you what God is

doing through my life.

And so this is what Paul is talking about here.

If you read this passage out of context, it might seem like Paul

is bragging about himself.

But again, we understand that just a few verses ahead Paul says,

I don't boast in anything other than what God has done in my

life.

And so what Paul is doing is he's saying, look, if you think that

they're the true teachers, look at what God is doing through

them.

Well, he's not doing anything through them.

Look at what God is doing through me.

The proof is in the pudding, essentially, is what he's saying

here.

So he says, I need to tell you what God is doing now.

Now, what have we titled this sermon this morning?

I've entitled this the Credentials of a Certified Christ

Follower.

Okay, so Paul is giving his credentials, and he's giving his

credentials as a certified Christ follower.

He says, oh, they claim to be Christ followers.

What are their credentials?

I claim to be a Christ follower.

Here are my credentials.

And I think all of us want to be what's called a certified Christ

follower.

We all want to be those Christians who are honoring God by

the way that we live our lives.

We all want to be those believers that are are showing the

gospel to the world.

And so Paul says, you want to be like me?

You want to have my credentials?

Here it is.

And I think all of us can learn a little bit from what Paul

is sharing here in this passage.

So let's go ahead and pray, and then we're going to jump right

into our main thoughts here this morning.

Lord, I pray that you be with us.

I pray that you help us see your truth through this passage of

scripture.

I pray that we can understand that you have called us to defend

the truth.

You have called us to proclaim the truth.

You've called us to live the truth in our lives.

And so, Lord, I pray that you can help us this morning understand

that as we live for you, that there will be challenges.

As we live for you.

There will be ups, but there will be downs.

Lord, I pray that you can help us see what it means to have you

in our lives through everything.

Lord, I pray that here this morning that we can all leave here

growing in our understanding of what it means to be a Christ follower.

Lord, I pray that you can challenge our hearts, convict our

hearts, comfort our hearts.

Lord, I pray if there's someone here today that does not

know you as personal savior, that today can be that day.

Lord, I pray that you can remove me out of the way and that

your word can clearly be seen here this morning.

We thank you and we love you.

In Jesus name we pray.

Amen.

Verse 17.

Verse 17.

He says something very interesting and some people have

read this to say that this passage of scripture is not from

God.

That would be a misunderstanding of what is being

said here.

Verse 17, he says, that which I speak, that when I'm about to tell

you, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were, foolishly,

in this confidence of boasting, meaning this.

Okay, you, you would say.

So is he saying, this is not from God, this is not inspired?

No.

What is he saying here?

He's saying this.

The fact that he's not speaking according to the Lord is

in the sense that his defense of his credentials focuses on himself.

He's speaking about himself.

So he says, for the next few moments, I'm not talking about God

directly, I'm talking about me.

Now we know in the underlying theme, he's talking about what God

has done through him.

But he says, for the next few moments, I'm not gonna be giving

you the gospel.

I'm gonna be giving you what I have been able to do through the

power of God.

So when he says he's speaking not after the Lord, he says, I'm

not speaking about God here, I'm speaking about myself.

But, but Paul, he.

He didn't like to talk about himself.

We can see his reluctance here, his humility.

And we even know that back in Second Corinthians, chapter 4, verse

2 Corinthians 4:5

5, he says, we don't preach ourselves, but we preach Christ.

So this is pulling Paul out of his comfort zone.

The fact that he has to tell people what he's been doing for the

Lord.

It would be like me going off and, you know, as your pastor, you

guys send me off and do a short term missions trip somewhere

and I come back to you and you go, well, did you waste our money,

Pastor, or did you do something for the Lord?

I would have to get up and tell you what I was able to do through

the power of God.

But if I'm a humble minister of the gospel, it's somewhat embarrassing

to come up and say all the things that were able to get done.

You know, like, well, we did this and we did this.

What Paul's saying is, I don't want this to be about me.

I want it to be about the Lord.

But I've got to tell you what the Lord has been doing.

And so in this case, he's both seen in what God has done.

He's both seen in his accolades.

And so he says in verse 17, this is not according to the Lord.

This is not about God.

This is about what God has done through me.

And then we see verse 18, he says, seeing that many glory after

the flesh.

Now, we know that he's not glorying after the flesh because

of this next verse.

He.

He says, you know, seeing that many glory after the flesh, he says,

I will glory also.

But he says, these people are.

Glory in the flesh.

I'm going to glory, but I'm not going to glory in the flesh.

And so Paul is boasting, but it'll be nothing like the boasting

of the many that have come before him.

And so by way of understanding, we understand that

this group of false apostles, we don't know how many there that

were there, but they had been getting in front of the church and

bragging about themselves.

And Paul says, I'm gonna brag, but not in accordance to the flesh.

I'm not gonna brag like these have bragged before.

And so that's.

That's what he's talking about here.

Verse 19.

For ye suffer fools gladly, meaning this.

You guys have been allowing these fools to get up in front of

you and tell you about themselves so much, you should be

able to listen to me.

For you suffer fools gladly, seeing you yourselves are wise.

Now, Paul uses what we could possibly call Christian sarcasm here.

Okay?

That's what he's doing.

Paul says, you guys have been so wise to listen to these fools.

You need to listen to this fool for a while.

And.

And so sometimes people say, well, sarcasm is always wrong.

Well, it's not always wrong if he's making a point.

And Paul's doing this in.

In love.

And he's doing this and speaking the truth in love.

And so Paul says, here, look, listen.

He says, you guys have been listening to these people brag about

themselves.

So you need to listen to me.

You guys.

Exercise your worldly wisdom now.

Exercise your wisdom in listening to me.

So he's going to move forward here.

And he's going to say, hey, look, there are people that have

been deceiving you.

I'm coming with the truth.

Listen to the truth.

Verse 20.

For ye suffer if a man bring you into bondage.

He says you have allowed.

This is what he's saying.

You have allowed.

That word suffer in the older English means to allow something

to happen, tolerate something.

So he says, you have allowed people to bring you into bondage.

This is not bondage to Christ.

This is bondage to those false teachers.

So what we can understand is this.

Someone has come into the church at Corinth and allowed themselves

to enact bondage on the people of the church of Corinth, who basically

rule over them in a.

In a Fleshly human focus.

So he said, you've allowed people to put you into bondage.

Says if any.

If a man devour you, you've allowed people to devour you.

This is similar to what the Pharisees were doing to the widows

back at the time of Christ.

If you remember what was happening, they were abusing the

widows, and they were devouring, as it says, their.

Their homes, their money.

And so what's happening is there's abuse.

So.

So what we can take by way of context is that the false teachers

there in Corinth were abusing the people by putting them into bondage.

Or we could say legalism, right?

You've ever heard of that term?

Legalism isn't just having standards.

Legalism is putting a rule upon someone that is not based in

scripture and then charging them in that account.

So if you don't wear, you know, black pants on a Sunday morning,

you're wrong, okay?

And that's a sin.

And what's happening is, is that it's a arbitrary legalism that's

being placed upon the church.

He says, that's what's happening in your bondage.

And then secondly, you are being devoured.

So basically, these false apostles were pulling the resources

from the people for their own good.

And Paul even said, we saw this last week.

Paul says, I don't want to be a burden upon you.

I haven't taken anything from you.

And so these people are abusing them, by the way, that they're

putting them into legalism and devouring their goods.

And then what else does it say?

It says if.

If a man devour you.

If a man take of you.

So they're actually not just manipulating the situation.

They're actually stealing from the church at Corinth.

These super apostles, as we talked about before, these fake apostles

that have come in, they're stealing from the church at Corinth.

They're taking from them, says if a man exalt himself, so they're

exalting himself.

So he's putting a contrast.

He's.

He's giving what we would call the condemning credentials of the

charlatans.

Okay?

So.

So we have the credentials of a certified Christ follower.

And now he's given the.

He's condemning these credentials of these, what we would

call charlatans.

They're coming in to fake their way to influence.

They're coming in saying that they're apostles of Christ.

But we saw last week, as it says in verses 14 and 15, that these

were ministers of Satan, ministers of evil.

So he says, hey, what do they do?

They exalt themselves.

And so Paul is like, hey, you know what?

I don't want to exalt myself.

These people are like, everything that they can do is exalting

themselves.

And then what does it say there at the end?

It says, if a man smites you on the face, say, what is it?

What is he talking about here?

Is this, like, just theoretical?

No, what he's saying is you could allow one of these ministers

to come up to you, smite you in the face, and you would be like,

well, he's from God, so that's okay.

He's.

He's basically saying that the Corinthian Church were turning a

blind eye to the public displays of sin of these leaders.

And.

And.

And what we would say?

Would they really hit them?

Well, well, they probably would have, because it wasn't uncommon

for religious authorities of that day to command those people

that they considered ungodly to actually be struck on the face

by the leaders.

Okay.

It was a way of disciplining them.

So it would be like, okay, you guys acted up this week.

Line up.

You guys are going to get your discipline.

And so this was literally something that they were probably

doing, physically hitting these people in the Church of Corinth.

And we know that through the concept of.

In First Timothy, when it's talking about a pastor and the qualifications

of a pastor, it says not to be a striker or a brawler.

And a lot of times people think that means just going out and

fighting in public.

That also can mean striking and hitting their own followers because

of that discipline.

And there is godly discipline, but the Bible never says that that's

physical discipline within the church.

Okay, so that's what we're seeing here in this case, Paul says,

you're tolerating things that are evil.

You're tolerating things that are contrary to the message of God.

And so Paul says, if you've tolerated this, tolerate the truth,

how much of a church, as a church, have we tolerated false teaching?

How much of a.

As a church have we tolerated the ways of this world?

And he says, hey, you know what?

You need to turn from that and turn back to the truth.

But why were they comfortable with this?

Sadly, many people are more comfortable with authoritarian, authoritarian

leadership than they are with the freedom that is found in Jesus.

So what I would say is this.

Sometimes in church, people want to be bossed around with legalism

because it makes more sense.

Right?

Give me a list, Pastor.

Tell me what's good, tell me what's bad.

And I can go home and I can check off my list.

But the Bible says that the Christian life is more than just

listening.

There is right and wrong, but there is the issue of the heart.

And what Paul has said is, look, you have tolerated this authoritarian

leadership because you like the structure, because you like the

way that it is.

Because it's like every other religion out there.

Every other religion out there had this system of, hey, follow your

leaders.

And the leader, leaders are going to lead with an iron fist and

you're going to be punished.

And it's all about condemnation.

And what Paul says is, hey, yes, there is condemnation, there

is judgment, but that comes through the Lord.

That comes through faith.

That comes through conviction.

And so he says here, hey, look, you have gotten the wrong way

of thinking when it comes to the church.

And he says, you're following the way of the pagans.

You're following the way of the world.

And so he goes on to say this.

Verse 21, I speak as concerning reproach, as though we

had been weak.

So again, he's using sarcasm here.

He says, we were so weak that we didn't do these things to you.

So by way of context, what the people of Corinth were saying is,

we like strong leadership.

Paul, you guys are weak.

We want strong leadership.

And Paul says, sorry that we were so weak that we didn't abuse

you.

So sorry that we let you make decisions in Christ.

Sorry we came alongside of you.

And we're meek and we're gentle and.

And he says here, he says this.

Don't take meekness and compassion as weakness.

That's essentially what he's saying here.

He says, sorry that you think that we were weak, but it was a weakness.

It was compassion.

It was.

It was meekness.

Meekness is different than weakness.

But he says this, verse 21, how be it wherein soever any is bold,

I speak foolishly.

I am bold also.

See, what is.

What is he saying here?

He's saying this.

Though you might think that we are weak, we have been patient with

you.

We have been compassionate with you.

But now I'm going to speak boldly.

There's a time and a place, even in humility, to speak boldly

the truth of Christ to those that are seeking after the truth,

right?

So if I got up here today and I said, well, I can't tell you really

the truth because it might offend some of you.

If you want to know the truth, hopefully you will tolerate the truth

in boldness.

I hope that you're hope.

I.

I hope that this.

I hope this.

I hope that the church here at Middletown Baptist wants to hear

the truth boldly, whether it's contrary to culture or not, whether

it's contrary to your feelings or not.

I.

I might get up here, and maybe not today, maybe, maybe not next

week, but there's gonna be some point when I preach something

from this book that's gonna rub you the wrong way.

You're gonna say, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Who is he to say that again?

Remember, it's not me.

It's the word of God.

And so what we can see here in this case is Paul says, okay, we've

been quote, unquote weak to you.

Now we're going to be bold and we're gonna tell you the truth, and

you need to receive this truth.

And, folks, I.

I think that Paul has proven himself through all this.

And we're gonna see this at the end of this passage, that he

does all of this in love.

He loves the church at Corinth.

And so it's speaking the truth in love.

It's boldness in love.

And so Paul is going to say, okay, I'm going to tell you what

these people are really like.

So Paul tells them not to take compassion as weakness.

Here comes the boldness.

And so he's going to give his credentials right here.

These are the things that Paul says.

You want to see a true Christ follower?

This is a true Christ follower, verse 22.

Are they Hebrews?

So he speaks to their ancestry.

So am I.

So he says, I've got that taken care of, okay?

I've got my ancestry taken care of.

We're not going to get into Paul's ancestry here.

There's other passages of scripture where Paul speaks to his

past and his credentials when it comes to that side of things,

but he's going to speak more to what he has gone through in this

case.

Are they Israelites?

So am I.

Are they the seed of Abraham?

So am I.

So he says, I'm similar to them in that concept, in my ancestry.

But there's more.

He says, there's more to your pedigree.

There's more than just your ancestry.

It's more than just your tradition.

It's more than just your past and where you come from.

And I think that's important for us to see as well.

Like, what if I got up here today and I said, well, don't you

know that my dad and my grandpa, my great grandpa were pastors

so that everything I say is okay?

No, that's not necessarily the case.

Now, my dad wasn't a pastor, my grandpa wasn't pastor, so you

don't have to worry about that.

They're deacons, so that's another whole thing.

But the idea would be this.

There have been people in Corinth, and there's been people

today that have said, look at where I have been.

So I must be preaching the truth.

Problem is, is that doesn't always equate to being truth.

Right.

You gauge what's being preached from what they're saying,

what they're doing, and how does that match up with the word

of God?

And so he says, oh, yeah, I've got the ancestry.

We're the same on that.

But he asked a question in verse 23.

This is a heavier question than what you might expect.

He says this.

Are they ministers of Christ?

Okay, now that seems like basic.

Well, are they ministers of Christ?

Are they serving Jesus?

Well, they claim to be.

But if you go back to verse 15, it says, therefore it is no great

thing if his ministers, talking about Satan's ministers,

are also be transformed as ministers of righteousness whose

end shall be according to their works.

And so he says, these people claim to be ministers of Christ,

but what makes them ministers of Christ actually serving Christ?

That word minister means to serve.

It means to be part of the message of the truth of Christ.

And so therefore they're not ministers of Christ.

He says, I speak as a fool, meaning I'm.

I am the one who understands this.

He says, I am more.

I am more of a servant of Christ.

And he starts to talk about his credentials, and he doesn't say,

well, this is where I went to school.

He doesn't say where he's preached.

He doesn't say how many churches he started.

He doesn't.

He doesn't, you know, I'm a PhD.

No.

What does he say here?

He does something that is not what we expect.

He begins to talk about a different element of his credentials.

So again, we gotta go back to what a minister means.

A minister means, and literally in the Greek, it's deakinos.

We get the word deacon from it.

It describes a humble servant of basic work, everyday work.

So Paul says, are they servants of Christ?

Are they workers for Christ?

Even.

Even what we would consider in this case, the.

The most elevated apostles had inflated their idea of ministry to

basically be a title of exaltation.

What do I mean by that?

They, they.

They would come up and say this.

The.

The false teachers there in.

In Corinth, they would say, we're ministers of Christ now serve

us do you see if you understand what that word minister

means, how that's, that's contrary to what is being taught,

right?

So if I got up here and it says, I'm, I'm but just a minister

of Christ, I just want to serve the Lord now let me sit in

my high place and everyone serve me.

That's the opposite of what we're called to do as ministers of

Christ.

And so what had happened in the church at Corinth were these

individuals were looking at that term minister of Christ, and

putting that as a title, putting that as their credential,

just my title.

So I came up to you and say, don't you know who I am?

I'm, I'm the lead pastor of Middletown Baptist Church.

That makes me a good person.

No, that means nothing.

It's a title.

A title is just something that we give someone.

It's what you do is really your credentials is what Paul is

saying here.

So he says, hey, I am a minister.

They are not ministers.

They became very highly regarded, quote, unquote, ministers.

Essentially, what they're doing is they're abusing you.

And so in the following section, Paul explains what qualifies

him to be called a minister of Christ.

And we should hopefully, in our own lives, claim this for our

own credentials.

We, we would expect it to be different, but these qualifications

are, are totally opposite of what we would think.

So let's look at those credentials.

First one, in Labors.

This is the middle of verse 23.

He says, in labors more abundant.

What is he talking about here?

Labors are essentially working, toiling, sweating, the way

I wrote down in my notes here, sweat equity.

He's, he's, he's, he's working for the Lord.

He's toiling.

Some of you understand what that means.

You know, maybe you, you're, maybe you work outside all day and

you're out there and you're sweating and you're working, you're

sore.

That's, that's the idea that Paul is talking about here.

He's not talking about, well, I work for the Lord.

I, you know, I, I, I walked into church today and I sat down,

I walked out.

That was a lot of work for the Lord today.

I'm not saying that that's a bad thing, but what I'm saying is

he's talking about something more like, I've, I've struggled.

I, I, I, blood, sweat and tears for the Lord.

He says that's, that's what it means to be a Christ follower.

He goes on to Say more.

In stripes, above measure.

Say what?

What are.

What is he talking about, stripes?

He's talking about wounds.

He's talking about people taking a whip and striking him with

that and leaving scars and marks.

We could go back and we could look at many of the stories that

Paul talks about.

He talks about being whipped by the Jews, being whipped by these

people that are against him in.

In what he's preaching.

And so he says, hey, in stripes, in wounds above measure.

I can't even count how many times that I've been wounded for

the cause of the Gospel.

You say, what does that mean for me?

That means this.

To be a certified Christ Father, we must be willing to take

wounds for the Lord.

We must be willing to go through pain for the Lord.

You would say, well, that's what it's about.

I don't want to be there, folks.

The truth is, is that if we want to be servants of God, we must

be willing to get out of our comfort zone and be willing to take

the wounds that we face from this world.

Paul says, I'll preach.

And it doesn't matter how much I'll preach.

I'm still gonna face this.

He says, in prisons more frequent, he says, I've worked harder

than them.

I've been beat more than them.

I've been in prison more for them, more of them.

And the idea would be this.

Paul went to prison, but Paul didn't go to prison for, you know,

trying to evade the Roman tax.

Paul didn't go to prison for speeding on his chariot.

He went to prison for preaching the gospel.

He went to prison for obeying God.

So.

So he was persecuted essentially for his faith.

And the question would be that in America today, and I know this

is really heavy, and I know that this is convicting and I am

convicted, but how many people would be where they are today if

there was more persecution?

How many of us would be willing to say, yeah, I'll publicly

be a Christian.

If that meant that we would be in prison, if that meant we would

be hurt, if that meant we would have to pay a price with our

blood, sweat, and tears.

You know what we see in second Timothy, chapter three, verse 12,

it says, Yea, all.

All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

So it's actually an expectation that if we live boldly

enough for Christ, we will face some element of persecution.

And what Paul is saying is, is that a certified Christian, a certified

Christ follower, which means they're serving God, it's not just

by what they say, but Also by what they believe and by what they

do.

Someone who is willing to be a minister of Christ is going to be

willing to do all of these things.

They're going to be willing to be ostracized.

They're going to be willing to be mocked.

You know what the truth is, is that most of us will never have to

go through physical torment for being a Christian.

I hope not.

And that's not a guarantee.

But maybe you'll live your whole life and not be physically

hurt for being a Christian.

But you know what also comes with that?

There's a lot of persecution when it comes to mocking, when it

comes to ostracizing.

Maybe you living as a Christian has made your family forget

about you.

I don't know.

And that's painful, I get that.

But what it says here is that we, if we want to be ministers for

Christ, we must be willing to go through and these difficulties

for the Lord.

And so he says here in prisons, more frequent, in deaths

oft meaning.

Now you say he's died multiple times.

It just means this.

He's been left for dead.

He's been seen as dead, meaning he has gone almost to the

point where he's taken his last breath.

And some have even said that Paul did die and he was resurrected.

But nonetheless we know that he says, I've been willing to die,

I'm willing to die.

That's what he's saying.

Verse 24 of the Jews, five times received thy 40 stripes, save

one.

25, verse 25, thrice three times was I beaten with rods.

Say, what is he doing here?

He's giving his credentials.

Like that's not what I expected him to say.

I thought he was going to say that he went to school, he was a

Pharisee, that, that he knew the Bible backwards and forwards.

No, what is he saying here?

He's saying these are the things that he has gone through.

Once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck a night and a

day.

I have been in the deep, in journeyings, often in perils of waters,

in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen.

He's been betrayed by his own people, in perils by the heathen.

Okay, so that's persecution from the non believers going forward.

Here he says imperils in the city and perils in the wilderness.

He's saying there's been struggles everywhere.

I couldn't run from those struggles.

I went to the city, I found struggles.

I went to the country, I found struggles.

It was everywhere.

Imperils in the sea.

I couldn't even avoid it out in the ocean.

There was perils out there in perils among false brethren, in weariness

and painfulness, in watchings, often meaning lack of sleep, not

sleeping, in hunger and thirst, in fastings, often in cold

and nakedness.

He says, these are all the things that I have done as a Christ

follower.

These are all the things that I have done that I continue to do

and that I'm willing to do as long as God has me to live.

That's a pretty strong testimony.

I don't know if any of us here today would say, I'm in.

And, and, and the truth is, is that I don't think that God asked

every single believer to go through this.

Paul had a specific purpose in a specific time.

But he calls all of us to some degree to give up something in our

life, to give up our comfort, to give up our will to give, to give

up our desires, our agendas, and say, lord, if it takes me to

be shipwrecked, if it takes me to go through this struggle, if it

takes me to go through this loss, if it takes me to go through

this pain, if it takes me to go through this sickness for other

people to see you, so be it.

I'm willing to do that.

That is a certified Christ follower.

You want to be a disciple?

That word disciple means committed follower of Christ.

A committed follower of Christ says, lord, I'll follow you anywhere.

I won't just follow you in the good.

I won't just follow you in the easy.

I won't just follow you when everything's smooth sailing.

I will follow you when it goes bad, when everything seems to be

going astray, when our country is this way, when our country is

that way, when my family is this way, when I'm this way, when

I have bad news from the doctor, when I get to work and I

realize that I've lost my job.

That's where I will say, lord, I am with you no matter what.

And even further, I will proclaim your word and face the backlash

of proclaiming your word publicly.

There are people in this world that are okay with us being in church

here because we're like every other church in America, right?

They me and they leave.

But there's a lot of people in this world that would be upset if

we take the gospel message and send it out.

That's when the opposition comes.

They don't care what's happening within these four walls.

Every other church in America meets.

It's when we publicly, publicly Proclaim the change of the

gospel when we publicly proclaim that Jesus is the only way.

And Paul says, hey, you know what?

There was a lot of religious people that are okay with what we

were doing until we started preaching Jesus.

And that's when everyone came against us.

And so he says, I've gone through so much.

I've had so many burdens, but I'm doing it for Christ.

But then here.

Here is what blew my mind when I was reading this passage.

He.

He talks about in weariness and painfulness, in lack of sleep

and hunger and thirst and fastings and cold and nakedness.

But then we see his biggest burden, verse 28.

And this is not what we would think his biggest burden is.

If I was him, my biggest burden would be getting beaten multiple

times.

Okay?

I'd be like, I don't want to do that anymore.

But this is Paul's biggest burden here, and this is a mark of

a believer focused on the cause of the gospel.

Verse 28.

He says, Besides those things that are without, that which cometh

upon me daily, the care of all the churches.

Say, what is he saying here?

He's saying this.

Paul's biggest burden was the ministry to the church, the people

of the church.

He says, whip me all you want.

My biggest burden is the people and the souls that are there

in Corinth, the souls that are there in Ephesus.

I want them to come to Christ.

I don't want them to be misled.

He says, my biggest burden is not the physical that's coming down

on me.

My biggest burden is the church.

My biggest burden is your spiritual growth.

My biggest burden is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And so Paul's deepest concern, his deepest burden was not for himself.

Man, if I, If.

If I had the testimony of Paul, I'd be wanting people to like,

oh, I'm so sorry, Pastor.

What can we do for you?

And come alongside.

Paul says, don't worry about me.

I'm more worried about you.

It was for others, for the week, for those who were stumbling

in the false teaching.

He's sitting there like, you know, we're.

We're gonna see next chapter.

I don't want to give you too much of a spoiler for next week.

Paul has a.

Has a thorn in his flesh, and it.

It.

It holds him back in his mind.

It holds him back from doing what he can do for the Lord.

He says, there's something holding me back, and he wants God

to take that away.

But you know what?

Because of all these burdens that are upon him.

He could have felt sorry for himself.

But what does he say?

He says, I'm more concerned about that false teaching that's

leading you astray, that's making you stumble.

A true mark of a certified Christ follower would be someone

who was concerned about others instead of themselves.

Paul had many burdens, but ultimate burden that he had would

be the burdens of the souls of those around him.

Now, not in a perfect way.

We know who did that in a perfect way.

That was Jesus.

Jesus was the perfect example of someone who was other centered.

He came to this world, he was mocked, he was beaten, he was rejected

by his own people.

He was put on a cross, but yet he did it.

As we read this morning.

Romans, chapter 5, verse 8.

Romans 5:8

But God commandeth or demonstrated his love towards us.

And now, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

He was willing to do that for us because of his love for us.

Paul was willing to do that for the church of Corinth, for his

love of the church of Corinth.

Are you willing to love others enough to go through the difficulties

of this world?

The persecutions of those that are against the gospel, the pain

that you might face with others?

And sometimes the wounds are not.

Sometimes we'd rather have a physical wound.

I don't know about you, but sometimes we know that those in.

In your heart wounds are more painful than the ones that are on

the outside.

And sometimes those wounds don't heal.

But are we willing to be wounded for the cause of the gospel?

You say, well, I've never been a part of a church service that asked

that question.

If you go through second Corinthians, it's pretty clear that

that is the call to action here.

Am I willing to be hurt for the gospel?

Am I willing to be, in most cases in America, just discomforted

for the gospel?

Am.

Am I willing to have someone look at me and turn a side eye just

because I'm a Christian?

That's really what mostly what we're facing in our world today.

Well, someone at work might call me a crazy person.

Well, be called a crazy person.

Okay, so someone might.

Might call me, you know, weird because I don't do the things that

they do at work.

Let them call you weird for the gospel.

That's the point.

The point is to live differently.

The point is to follow something differently.

The point is to say, lord, I'm willing to go through this for you

because of the greatest act of love.

Romans 5, 8.

He went to the cross for us.

We all have an opportunity to reciprocate that love by obeying

him in every way that we can.

So going forward here, he says verse number 29, who is weak and

I am not weak, who is offended and I burn not meaning.

His concern is for those who are weaker than him.

His concern is for those who are offended in the false teaching

of those people there in Corinth.

He says, I'm concerned for your souls.

I.

I'm concerned for your weakness.

Verse 30.

If I must needs glory if I'm going to boast.

He says, if I'm going to boast in anything in my life, I will glory

or boast of the things which concern my infirmities.

What is he saying here?

He says, the only thing that I'm going to boast in is what I have

gone through for Christ.

My weaknesses.

Now that's like, that's totally contrary to what we think.

We think, let me, let me boast in all the things I'm strong in.

He says God has allowed me to go through struggles and pain so

that he is seen, so that he is elevated again.

I don't want to get too far ahead, but he's going to talk in

Second Corinthians, chapter 12, about what happens when we are

2 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

weak.

I'll give you a little hint.

God is able to work.

God is the one who is seen strong, folks.

I can tell you what it means.

And all of you know what it means to be helpless.

I mentioned this last week and it's real to me.

It's fresh on my mind when I'm looking at my one year old son and

he's in pain and he's screaming and I can't take that pain

away from him.

As a dad, I want to just take that pain away.

I felt so weak.

I felt like such an inadequate father.

Like, why would I let this happen?

I know that the surgery was there to help him, but as a dad,

you never want to see your children in pain.

I want to take my children's pain.

I would take, I take a bullet for my children.

Like I would take anything for my children.

I love them so much.

And the truth is, is that in, in that opportunity, in, in that

moment, I realized how helpless I was.

But in that helplessness, it made me more reliant on God's power.

Right?

And I didn't feel lost because I felt that even though I'm helpless

here, the one who I trust in is more powerful than I could ever

be.

And so what we can see here is Paul says, look, I'm Gonna glory

when I go through struggles.

When you have that perspective, it's an amazing perspective

because Paul always talks about win, wins.

Remember his other win, win.

I wanna go to heaven to be with God, but if I don't die, I'm

here to serve him.

So it's a win, win.

I go to heaven, I be with him.

If I'm here, I'm serving him here.

It's an awesome way to think about life.

It's the same way when it comes to struggles and pains and

persecutions.

Well, if things are going well, I can give glory to God for

the blessings.

If things are going difficult, I can just rely on him more.

And that's the idea that Paul is trying to get across here.

So he goes on to say more here.

Verse 31.

The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed forevermore,

knoweth that I lie not meaning.

He's like, God knows my heart.

God knows I'm not just going through the motions here.

God knows my heart.

I don't care if you believe because you.

Why?

Why would he say that?

He would say that because everyone's like, yeah, right, Paul,

you like your infirmities.

Yeah, right, okay.

That's what everyone says when you read those passages of scripture.

Come on.

We all say, you know, you're that passage of scripture.

I glory in my infirmities.

I'm thankful, I count it all joy.

When I fall into diverse temptation, we all go, yeah, right.

That.

He didn't really mean that.

Paul says, God knows my heart.

God knows I'm not lying, I'm true about this.

Then he goes on to say more about.

Really?

It's one of his first trials of persecution.

Verse 32.

In Damascus, the governor under Eratas, the king, kept the

city of Damascus with a garrison desirous to apprehend me.

And through a window in a basket, I was let down by the wall

and escaped his hands.

You say, why does he bring that up?

Well, back in Acts, chapter nine, that was one of the first times

that God gave him provision.

God gave him salvation.

Not in spiritual salvation, but in his physical.

And so what I would say here in this case is that Paul is pointing

to the provisions of God through the difficulties.

You would say, so.

So we're supposed to just go through pain and grin and bear it?

No, we go back.

I want you to go back with me.

We're gonna kind of wrap this up in Second Corinthians, chapter

four.

We need to have a review.

When I was a teacher, I would go back and have to review things

that we built upon.

We've been going through Second Corinthians, and that's why

we do book studies.

The reason why we do book studies is because when we're going

through Second Corinthians, something in chapter four might be

built on in chapter 11.

And if we don't go back to chapter four, we might not connect

the dots.

That's why we do book studies.

If I just read this passage of Scripture to you, you might think,

well, so I'm just.

Life is all just gonna be about pain, and now I just have to

grin and bear it.

No.

What does Paul say in 2nd Corinthians, chapter 4?

2 Corinthians, chapter 4, verse 8.

2 Corinthians 4:8

This is amazing.

This is.

This is how the dots are connected.

This is how we can move forward.

He says, we are troubled on every side.

Paul says, hey, look, we've got trouble all around us.

In front of us, beside us, behind us, above us, below us.

There's trouble around us, yet not distressed.

He's like, I can have trouble all around me, but it doesn't distress

me.

We are perplexed.

That means confused, but not in despair.

You ever been confused so much that you just like, I give up, got

no hope.

I don't know what to do.

Paul says, I'm perplexed, but I'm not in despair.

Persecuted.

There's our word that we were talking about.

Persecuted, but not forsaken.

People will come against me, but God's not forgotten about me.

Cast down, but not destroyed.

Reminds me of the psalm that says, though he fall, the man of

God.

Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord

upholds him with his hand.

So the Bible says here that though we will be cast down, we are

not destroyed.

Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus.

Meaning we're carrying with us the gospel message of Jesus sacrifice,

that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

Meaning we carry Jesus around with us.

And what we do and how we respond reflects Jesus to those around

us.

So how we respond to good reflects Jesus.

How we respond to bad, how we respond to difficulty reflects Jesus.

Going further.

For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus sake,

that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal

flesh.

We go through struggles to show people Jesus through our flesh,

through our body, through our life.

So then death worketh in us, but life in you.

Paul says, it's all about the message of the gospel.

It's all about glorifying.

God.

If I have to go through difficulties, I will for the cause

of the gospel, so that people will know him, so that people can

understand his goodness, so that people can understand his love,

his grace, his patience, his forgiveness all across the board.

It's a beautiful thing that we have in Christ and that is his love

and his presence working in us and through us.

And so what we can see here is Paul says, hey, the struggles are

not just a waste.

The struggles are not just something that we tolerate.

The struggles are used to point people to Jesus.

And so Paul goes through all those credentials to say this.

I'm willing to go through these pains and sorrows.

I'm willing to point people to Christ through this.

Are the true apostles that are claiming to be apostles in your midst,

are they willing to say this?

Are they willing to do this?

No.

They want to be exalted.

They want to be removed from all the problems.

They want to be the ones that are stealing from you and taking

from you and abusing you.

And here's the case.

Paul says it really boils down to this.

Those false teachers point the people to themselves.

A true Christ follower points people to Christ.

That's, that's where it's summed up.

And so Paul fights and he fights and he fights against these

false teachers.

And we know that ultimately he's going to talk in the next chapter

about, about the biggest picture, and that is the biggest

picture of God's grace is sufficient.

He, he, he ends this thought at the where we're going to start

next week.

And that is God's grace is sufficient.

And if you don't come back next week, I want to tell you God's

grace is sufficient.

I hope that you come back for next week.

This is a building point to the place where Paul is going to

give us his thesis.

You know what your thesis is?

Your thesis is your main thought.

And Paul is basically going to tell us that it doesn't matter what's

happening to you, because God's grace is all you need.

Good, bad, easy, hard, persecuted, exalted.

All we ever need is God's grace.

You go to Romans chapter 5.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 5 speaks of glorying in tribulations, counting

Romans 5 · chapter mention

all joy when we fall into different tribulations.

Why?

Because those tribulations work.

Patience.

That's endurance.

Taught patience through struggles.

Patience, experience and experience.

Hope.

Don't we all want hope?

I want hope.

The world's looking for hope.

So we say, oh, hope, what do we do?

Hope.

Hope is not.

Some of my Sunday school Class knows this.

I'm about to call them up here and they can quote you the definition

of hope.

It's not, lord, please do this.

It's a confident expectation that God is going to keep his word.

The more trials we go through, the more we're willing to say, lord,

I know you're going to keep your word.

I know it.

I don't care what's going to happen.

I don't care.

I don't care if my life is taken away.

Because you know what?

At the end of the day, this is, and this is not something we

want to talk about in American Christianity.

But if your life is taken, guess what?

What's the worst that can happen?

What's the where, where am I?

If I'm a Christian?

If I'm a Christian and someone comes in here and they say, don't

you preach Jesus?

If you preach Jesus, you're, you're going to be dead.

Okay, what's the worst that can happen?

Get to go to be with my Savior.

No one wants to talk about that.

No one wants to talk about that.

But the truth is, is that we're, as Christians, we are living,

we're living not on our, our benefits, right?

We're living on Christ's benefits.

Every moment that we have is a gift.

That, that, that breath you just took in was a gift.

Right?

The fact that we can meet together is a gift.

And so the fact is today is that God has given you time.

We don't know how much time.

The Bible says to redeem the time because the days are evil.

And so what do we do?

We utilize that time for what's at hand.

Paul could have said, I need to go.

Just take a break and go out to the Mediterranean Sea and probably

try to.

He would have a shipwreck or something like, remember Jonah?

Jonah tried to run the opposite direction and a bunch of

bad stuff happens.

The best place to be is in the will of God.

So what I would tell you is this.

There's nothing wrong with taking a break.

There's nothing wrong with taking a season of rest.

But what I will say is that let's not get weary and well doing.

Let's keep pushing forward, redeeming the time, because the days

are equal.

And I would encourage you to think about you, you would say, well,

hey, Pastor, what, what's the call to action here?

Are we supposed to just go out and be persecuted?

Don't worry about the persecution that will come.

Live for Christ, live publicly for Christ, live boldly for Christ,

live different in Your families live different in your.

In your workplaces.

Live different everywhere you are.

And ultimately there will be struggles and.

And struggles come from many different places.

Struggles come from the enemy, the attacks of the enemy.

Struggles come with our own bad decisions.

Struggles come from the world.

And then God allows struggles to happen.

I.

I do firmly believe that God allows difficulties to happen to

test us in our faith.

You don't believe that.

Read the book of Job, right?

None of us want what Job had, but all of us must be willing and

ready to say, you know what?

If it takes a wound, so be it.

If it takes shipwreck, so be it.

If it takes hunger, so be it.

If it takes sleeplessness, so be it.

I want to do what I can for Christ.

I'm not saying all of us are capable of doing the same things.

Some of you are like, you know what?

My days of going out and conquering the world are over.

But I'm going to tell you, folks, it's not over.

God has given you what he has given you for a purpose and a time

at hand.

You'd say, I'm not able to get out the way that I used to get out.

God has given you opportunities.

I know he has.

Every one of us come across people that we can influence for

the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Paul says, I'm more concerned about them.

But you know what happens?

What happens is this.

This is what happens in my life.

I get so busy with me and my struggle and my issues that I lose

sight of those around me that need the grace of God.

So life's all about me.

And.

And I say, well, you know what?

I'll get to that when my life is straight out.

It's kind of like when Alicia and I first got married.

We said, we're gonna have kids when we're ready.

We're gonna have kids when we have enough money.

And someone came up to me in love and said, brother, let me tell

you something.

You're never gonna be ready.

You're never gonna have enough money.

You're never gonna have enough stuff.

So here's the thing.

We're never gonna get our lives to a place where we can say,

hey, you know what?

I got no more problems.

Now I can help other people.

Thing is, is now we just take what God has given us and graced

us with and help others.

And Lord willing, God allows others to come help us.

And it's that process of edification.

And so walk.

The Bible says walk circumspectly.

It's a weird word.

Circum.

What circumspectly means, just means like, walking around.

And when we played football, some of you aren't a sports person,

but you'll get it.

So we play football.

If you keep your eyes focused on one thing all the time, you might

not see what's coming from the side.

I can tell you a story.

There was a time where I had a job.

I was to tackle this guy, and I was running towards him.

He was running this way, and I was running this way, and I was running

like this.

All of a sudden, I felt like a train hit me.

Some guy came in full speed from the other way, and I had no

clue he was there.

And I got up.

I don't know how many minutes it was later, I tried to walk to

the wrong sideline.

I didn't know where I was.

I didn't wake up to, like, we were eating at Burger King.

And I'm like, oh, why am I here?

It's weird.

But the reason why that happened is I wasn't walking with

my head looking for things around me.

I was looking at the one thing in front of me.

And as Christian sons, we can get so focused on the blinders of

life that I'm so focused on my own life that I don't see people

hurting beside me.

So when the Bible says walk circumspectly, it means look around

for opportunities to extend the grace of God to other people.

And that's really the picture of what Paul is saying here is, I'm

concerned about you.

Paul could have been sitting there concerned about his own life.

He could have been complaining, but he didn't.

He said, I want to help you.

And I'm reluctant to tell you what I've gone through, but I need

to tell you what I've gone through to show you that I'm the

real deal.

And that's.

That's the story of Second Corinthians, chapter 11.

2 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

So I'm going to ask you if you're able to stand with me, every

head bowed, every eye closed, as the music plays today.

It's a.

The difficult message.

It's not a passage of scripture that we would just pull

out of a hat, as a passage of scripture that would be used to encourage

each other.

But here's the thing.

When we get to these passages of Scripture, they're there for a

purpose.

And it's there to show us that the Christ follower, the one.

The one who is following Christ with everything, is willing

to go through the struggles of life for him because of the greatest

gift of love in his sacrifice for us.

How dare we?

How selfish is it that we say, lord, I don't want to do that for

you?

When we look at what he has done for us, he hasn't called everyone

to do everything, but he's called everyone to do something for

him.

You have a purpose in your life.

If you're breathing here today.

You have a purpose for the gospel.

You have a ministry, as the Bible says, that ministry of Christ.

How are you serving Christ today?

Say, well, I serve Christ by, you know, not yelling at my neighbor.

That's a good start.

But what are you doing for the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

It's one thing to stop doing the wrong, right?

We all should stop doing wrong in our life.

We should all strive not to fall into sin.

But the Bible says it's so much more than just not doing bad

things.

It's not doing bad things and replacing that with the things of

the Gospel to elevate Christ, to elevate his message.

And so, folks, I'm glad that you are a good citizen.

I'm glad that you are an honor honoring person that goes to church

and follows the best that you can.

But the second part of that is, what are you doing for the furtherance

of the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

Because the truth is, is that if we stay stagnant, if we stay still,

many times before we know it, we've drifted back the other way.

And encourage you to stand strong and say, you know what, I

might not be Paul, but.

But I can say that I'm willing to go through discomfort for him.

I'm willing to be stretched for him.

I'm willing to go somewhere that he has called me to go.

I'm willing to move somewhere where he's calling me to move.

I'm willing to change something in my life.

And this is a point that I wanted to bring up before, but I'll

say it again here in this time of invitation, maybe God is calling

you to change something in your life or take something out of

your life.

And you're like, you know what?

I can't give that up, that one thing, Lord, I just can't give that

up for you folks.

I don't know what that is.

I don't know what that is in your life.

I know what it is for my life.

And there's a time and a place where we all have to say, lord, I'm

willing to give that up for you.

Well, it's not a bad thing.

But if a good thing becomes the first thing, it becomes the worst

thing.

Don't allow something to come between you and the Lord.

If it's something between you and the Lord right now, if it's a

good thing, it's an entertainment thing, it's a hobby

thing, it's a security thing.

You know what?

Be willing to say, lord, I will give you everything.

I will give you my all.

So here this morning, the call for invitation is this.

Are you willing to come forward and dedicate your life to

being one of those ministers of Christ, like Paul was willing

to do?

If so, during the next few moments, you can come kneel and commit

yourself to him.

Not looking forward to the bad things that'll happen, but being

ready when the bad things happen, to know that, that God's

going to get me through this, that I can look to Him.

But secondly, it's this.

You can't be a minister of Christ if you don't know him in a

personal way.

You need Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.

If you've been trusting in all the wrong things, if you've been

trusting in your works, in your church, in your, your money,

in your health, whatever it is, anything outside of trusting

in Jesus Christ and Him alone for your salvation is empty.

The Bible says he is the way the Bible says it is him who died

on the cross for our sins.

And so therefore, without trusting in him, we do not have salvation.

If you need salvation here today, if you need forgiveness, if

you need to know what it means to have everlasting life with him

in heaven, come forward.

We'll show you in the word of God what it means to know Jesus and

to have salvation and to live eternally with him.

Lord, I pray that you be in this time of invitation, working

hearts and lives.

I encourage, Lord, these people to trust in your grace.

Lord.

I know that five encouraged them even more.

So you're encouraging them through the preaching and teaching

of the Word.

So Lord, I pray that you be in this time of invitation.

Help us to be committed to you as Christ followers.

We thank you and we love you for what you've done in our lives,

most importantly for salvation.

So we trust in you for that.

In Jesus name, amen.

As the music plays, follow as the Lord leads here today.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church

podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

If you would like to find out more information about our church

or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org

or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

You can also email me directly at joshmissaroiddletownbaptistchurch

dot com if you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and follow

along for future podcasts and updates.

Thank you so much.

God Bless.

Have a wonderful day.