A Commendable Servant

All right, good job, choir. Or choir. Good job,

Jennings and Macy. It's been a long couple days,

I'm going to be honest with y 'all. After church

Sunday, I got sick. I was some kind of sick Monday,

but I'm well now. Thank y 'all for the ones of

you that prayed for me, but I'm about back to

normal. It's good to be here tonight. It's good

to see everybody. We're going to be in 2 Corinthians,

2 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6. I almost said 1 Corinthians. I'm going

to get it straight. Maybe we can make it through

a sermon tonight. 2 Corinthians chapter 6, we've

2 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

been going through 2 Corinthians for the last

couple of months and we looked at the first two

verses of chapter 6 last week and we're just

continuing on. Kind of the same thought that

kind of propels us into this argument I think

really started... Back in the end of chapter

5, I say argument or defense. We see this in

2 Corinthians that Paul has been really defending

himself a lot. There are some false teachers

that had come into Corinth, and Paul had invested

into the people, and they seemed to be doing

pretty good on some level, but we know not doing

great from 1 Corinthians because he had wrote

some pretty stern things to them about things

that they needed to deal with. It doesn't appear

as though that they really want to listen to

Paul, or maybe their ear has been caught by someone

else who's preaching something maybe that sounds

a little better to them. And so Paul has spent

some of his time, a lot of his time up to this

point, off and on, really defending himself.

Now Paul is not, it's not like Paul here is...

is mad because there are other preachers that

are preaching, and he's not getting all the limelight.

That's not Paul's concern here. He's happy to

work alongside other brothers in Christ that

are preaching and teaching the gospel. He just

doesn't want the people to be led astray, and

he doesn't want them to go down the wrong path.

He wants to make sure that they are where they

need to be. And so he continues to say, and he'll

say it even in the Scriptures tonight, that he's

commending himself. Now, he's not commending

himself in the sense of, look at how good I am.

He's commending himself by saying, look, I want

you to see who I am so that it will point you

to Jesus Christ, not so that you can see who

I am and celebrate me. Paul's not concerned about

being celebrated in himself. He's not concerned

about, oh, I want to have the most likes of all

the other preachers in the area. What Paul wants

is for the gospel of Jesus Christ to be spread.

And that's what's important. and he's concerned

that the people are going to be led astray by

these false teachers. So Paul says, look, let

me make a defense for myself again, and that's

what we're going to see in this passage tonight.

So let's pray, and then we'll get started. God,

we come to you. We thank you for your good words.

I pray that you would just help us to seek you

tonight, that your Holy Spirit would free us

from the worries and the distractions and the

pains of this world, dear Lord. Whatever it may

be, I pray that in these few minutes, God, that

your word would restore our soul, God. That's

what we come here for. We come to grow in you.

And so help your word to correct us where we

need correcting and empower us where we need

empowering and encourage us where we need encouragement,

dear Lord, to guide us where we need guidance.

Whatever it is, God, you know where we are in

our life. And God, we need you wherever that

is. So I pray that your Holy Spirit would speak.

Through me tonight, all for your glory. In Jesus'

name I pray it. Amen. Alright, 2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 6:3

chapter 6, verse 3. We give no opportunity for

stumbling to anyone, so that the ministry will

not be blamed. Okay, so Paul is very concerned

about his work that he's doing here. He says,

look, I don't want to be a stumbling block. Me

and those who are serving alongside me, we don't

want to be a stumbling block to you. We have

watched our lives and we have tried to live in

such a way that we have lived for the Lord, that

we have been a good example for you, and that

we have not done anything that's going to cause

you trouble. We don't want the ministry to be

blamed. We don't want you to be turned off from

the gospel of Jesus Christ because of what we

have done. Now, we need to listen to that. Because

if we leave this place tonight, and we go into

the world, and we tell people that we are a Christian,

but our actions show otherwise, then it is going

to scare people away from Jesus Christ. Praise

the Lord, Jesus is better than we are. But we

are representatives of Jesus Christ. And so we

have to live our life in a way that's different

than what the rest of the world looks like. Now

our world is full of evil. It's all kind of crazy

stuff out there. The world and the fleshly desires,

people are bombarded with them every day. And

it's dark and it's depressing and it's hopeless.

But what our world needs to see is the light

of Jesus Christ. Now if we go into the world

and we say we are followers of Jesus Christ,

but we do not bring the light, But we do not

bring that light with us, then the world's going

to say, there's nothing that's any different

about them than about the rest of the world.

What's so appealing to Jesus Christ? But what

the world needs to see from us is grace and love

and mercy and patience and kindness and gentleness

and a loving spirit. And when the world sees

that in us, and the world says, wait a minute,

he's a Christian, she's a Christian, then guess

what's going to happen? They're going to listen

to what we have to say. Now, we don't care if

they pay attention to us. What we want is them

to pay attention to Jesus. We want to be like

a mirror that's going to reflect Jesus so that

people can see Jesus in us because that's what's

going to change their life, and that's what's

going to change our world. And so what about

our actions? Are they a stumbling block to people,

or are they a building block? Are we somebody

that says, hey, here's the building block, here's

Jesus Christ, you need to build your life on

Him? Or are we going out there saying, oh, I'm

a Christian, but we're living like the world,

and people would say, well, why do I want to

be a Christian? They're not living any different

than me. We're a stumbling block to people, and

we hinder people from coming to the kingdom of

God when we live like that. But what does Paul

say? He says, look, we haven't done that. We

haven't given any opportunity. We haven't become

a stumbling block. We've been good to love you

and to lead you and to point you to Jesus Christ.

In verse 4, he says, but as God ministers, we

commend ourselves in everything. Now, we just

talked about that. Paul's not... He's not waving

his flag here. That is not Paul's heart. It's

pretty clear in Paul's writing. That is not his

heart. He's making a defense so that people will

listen to him and acknowledge him and focus on

the Lord. Now listen to some of the things he's

about to say here. This is the way that they

have lived their life in the middle of verse

4. By great endurance. We're going to try to

get through these pretty quick. I won't make

any promises. By great endurance. Now, our life

is a life of endurance. Now, are we going to

endure or are we going to give up? That's a choice

that we have to make many times in our life,

in many situations, because life is hard. Life

is hard. Work is hard. Family is hard. Church

is hard. Everything in life is hard. And it's

not going to get any easier. But are we going

to endure or are we going to give up? That's

a choice that we're going to have to make. When

we serve the Lord, it is not always going to

be easy. Sometimes it will be. A lot of times

it will not be. It will always be a blessing.

I can guarantee you that. You will never spend

a day in your life where you've been obedient

to the Lord and served Him that you will go to

bed at night and say, boy, that wasn't a blessing.

I wish I hadn't done that. It don't matter where

you are. If you are in your bed or in a prison

cell, if you have lived your life in obedience

to God, you will go to bed blessed at night.

But we have to endure. We cannot give up. There

are plenty of days in my life that I want to

give up. I shouldn't even say this as a preacher.

There have been so many times in the last...

12, 15 years of my ministry that I said, I just

cannot do it. I just want to give up more times

than I care to admit. And God will not let me,

praise the Lord. And if it wasn't for him, I'd

have been done giving up a long time ago. And

I pray that he will continue to help me to have

endurance. That's the only way we make it through

this life is by endurance that comes from the

strength of the Lord. Paul knew what it meant

to endure. He served the Lord, and it's hard

to serve the Lord. But what did he do? He kept

serving the Lord because he knew that he needed

to endure for the Lord. So he says, look, we

have served with great endurance by afflictions,

by hardships, by difficulties, by beatings, by

imprisonments, by riots, by labors, by sleepless

nights, by times of hunger. Now look at that

list for just a second. Now you think about the

times that you have tried to serve the Lord,

and then you decided it was too hard. Were any

of those things part of the reason why you quit

serving the Lord? Did you try to do the Lord's

work and somebody beat you and imprisoned you

and a riot was formed around you and you were

hungry and you couldn't sleep at night and you

said, I just can't do this anymore? No. I'm going

to go on a limb and say that ain't been none

of our experience. What probably happens to us

is we go see somebody and we say, hey, how you

doing? I go to the church. I'd love for you to

come one Sunday. Can I pray for you? And they

say, I don't want nothing to do with your God.

Leave me alone. They slam the door. And then

we say, oh, I just can't do this. This is too

hard. Paul knows what it's like to have affliction.

We don't know what it's like to have a lot of

affliction in our life. But Paul knows what it's

like to have affliction. When he says we've had

affliction, he knows what affliction is. We're

blessed as Americans, praise the Lord, that we

don't have that kind of affliction. Maybe one

day we will, and I say this often, I'll continue

to say it, there are brothers and sisters in

Christ in our world that are in prison tonight

for preaching the gospel. We have the freedom

in our country, praise God, as bad as it is,

we have the freedom that we can stand here tonight

and read God's word. And we need to endure in

it. And we need to be bold in the faith. If Paul

can be bold in all of these things, then surely

we can be bold in the little difficulties we

may have in serving the Lord. Verse 6. By purity,

by knowledge, by patience. by kindness, by the

Holy Spirit, by sincere love, by the message

of truth, by the power of God, through weapons

of righteousness on the right hand and on the

left. He says, look, look at our life. We are

pure. We have knowledge of God. We have rightly

divided the Word of God. We are rightly teaching

the Word of God. Look at the patience that we

have shown to you. Look at the kindness that

we have shown to you. Isn't that a beautiful

thing? When you look at Scripture, I love it.

When you see Jesus and He comes before the crowds

and He sees them, and what does it say? That

He has compassion on them. That's a beautiful

thing. That's how you know if somebody really

loves somebody. If you come on somebody that

has a need and you can turn away from them and

not think twice about it, then you've got to

take a step back. Because when Jesus saw people,

Even if he'd been preaching all day, even if

people had been coming around him, even if he

wanted a break, even if he was trying to escape

somewhere else, he'd get off the boat, he'd go

to another place, and the people were always

there, and he would look at them like sheep without

a shepherd, and he would have compassion on them.

And when they were hungry, he would feed them,

and when they were sick, he would heal them.

Now that's a good example for us to follow. You

want to know how to have compassion, you just

read about Jesus a little bit. And I think that's

kind of the same thing that we see here with

Paul, that he has this kind of patience and this

kind of compassion, this kindness by the Holy

Spirit, by the power of the Spirit that is leading

him, that is guiding him, the same Holy Spirit

that indwells in us if we have put our faith

and trust in Jesus Christ. It is the Spirit who

dwells in us. It's the Spirit who leads us. It's

the Spirit who strengthens us. Paul says it's

by the Holy Spirit, by sincere faith. Love. Isn't

that a beautiful thing? By sincere love. Not

just a word. Love is not just a word. Oh, I love

you. Every teenage kid in the world will say

that. They're sitting there texting each other.

There'll be a million of them before I get through

with this sermon. Oh, I love you. They ain't

been dating but for a week. But they love each

other, right? And we've done that. We've all

done that. Well, y 'all wasn't texting when y

'all was kids. Y 'all was passing notes back

and forth across the classroom, sliding them

across. But people don't change. That's not love.

I mean, on some level it's a little bit of love,

but love is so much more than that. Yeah, love

comes with feelings, praise the Lord, but love

is more than feelings. Love says, today ain't

a good day. Love says, I don't like what you've

done today, but I'm going to stick with you because

I love you. That's sincere love. Love doesn't

just care for somebody when everything's going

good. Love says, I'm going to stick by you when

everything's going bad because I love you. That's

what love is. You have a kid, you know what that

is. That's what love is. Somebody that you'd

do anything for. It's not dependent on what they've

done. You say, I love you, and therefore I'm

going to be there for you. Paul says, look, you've

seen that in us. You've seen that we have sincere

love for you. Verse 7. by the message of truth,

by the power of God. What are they preaching?

They're preaching the message of truth. Now,

there's a lot of false teachers that's coming

on the scene, and what are they preaching? Well,

I don't know what they were preaching, but I

can guess maybe, just based on what you see a

lot of preachers preaching today is, send me

some money and God will give you everything you

want, or send me some money and you'll get healed.

Just send me some money and whatever, fill in

the blank, just send me the money. That's what

they're saying, a lot of them are saying. But

Paul says, look, we're not here preaching for

ourselves. We're not here trying to get a medal.

I'm not here trying to get missionary of the

year from you guys. I don't care what you think

about me if you just know that I'm preaching

the message of the truth of the gospel to you.

So don't be led astray by this fake teaching.

Paul says, we have preached a good word to you.

We have preached to you the message of truth.

Don't be led astray by a lie. What do they preach

by? The power of God. The power of God. Now that's

good preaching when it's from the power of God.

That's a lot of preachers that don't preach from

the power of God. But preaching that comes from

the power of God, from the Word of God, is preaching

that we can grow by, that we can be filled with

if it comes from the Word of God. By the power

of God. And that's what Paul says. You've seen

God's power through the way that he's worked

through us and the messages we've preached and

the truth that we've preached. Paul is saying

in all of this, we are trustworthy. Look at our

life. Look at our example and pay attention to

our words. Verse 8. Through glory and dishonor,

through slander and good rapport, as deceivers

yet true. Now, He's covering both ends of the

spectrum here. Because when you do the Lord's

work, you are not going to please everybody.

That's a fact. Jesus Christ, the Son of God,

did not please everybody. That's a very reassuring

thing for me as a preacher. Because you think,

man, what did I do wrong? What didn't I get right

about this sermon? What didn't I do right trying

to help this person? What didn't I do right?

Where did I mess up? How come I wasn't able to

reach him? How come I wasn't able to help him?

And then I had to remember, well, maybe I did

something wrong or maybe I didn't because Jesus

didn't do a thing wrong. And so Paul, he did

what was right, and some people were going to

follow him and acknowledge him, and some were

not. And that's the way it still is today. All

that can be done is that the gospel can be presented.

People have their own free will and their own

choice to decide if they are going to accept

Jesus Christ or not. And so for some, it was

a glorious thing for Paul to preach. For others,

it was a horrible thing. They didn't want to

hear him preach. Through slander, through good

rapport. Some thought he was a good man. Some

talked bad about him. Some didn't think very

highly of Paul at all. Some considered him a

deceiver, yet even though they were considered

a deceiver, he was considered a deceiver, or

those with him were deceivers, what they were

speaking was true. Now, you can call something

a lie all you want to, but truth is truth, whether

you accept it or not. Jesus Christ is the truth.

The Word of God is the truth. Now, our world

may not want to accept it, but it is the truth.

And so even if the world calls us a bunch of

crazy folks, We're going to preach the truth

just the same. We are not going to stop. That's

what Paul's saying here. As unknown, yet recognized.

To some, Paul was unknown. Others recognized

Paul. As dying, and look, we live. So Paul is

on the verge of death. Some think that he's dying.

Some are trying to kill him. And in the midst

of all of it, he's still alive. He's still doing

the work of the gospel. As being disciplined.

yet not killed. It hadn't been easy. He'd been

disciplined in a lot of ways. We looked at some

of those ways, the imprisonments and the beatings

and all these things, yet through all of this,

God was with him. It wasn't easy. It was not

an easy life for Paul, but through every bit

of this, God was with him. As grieving, yet always

rejoicing. Isn't that a beautiful thought right

there? As grieving, yet always rejoicing. There

are days in our life that are full of grief.

There are days in our life that are full of grief.

You have got them. I have got them. Every one

of us have got them. There are days that we grieve.

But even in our grief, we can always rejoice.

Even in our grief, we can rejoice and say, God,

you are good. God, I am hurting today. God, I

am broken today. God, I am sick today. God, I

am struggling with work today. God, whatever

it is today, God, I just have grief over my family,

over my friends, over my church, over my country.

God, I am full of grief. But even still, God,

I rejoice because you are good. It takes a strong

faith to be able to say that because our lives

are trying. And we can say we have faith in God,

but the only way that that's proved is when we

really go through the trials. That's where the

rubber meets the road. And sometimes when we

think our faith is strong, we realize that maybe

our faith is not as strong as we thought it was.

Sometimes it's hard as far as to praise God most

when we're in the midst of the pain and in the

midst of the grief, but that's probably what

we need to do most. is to praise God and rejoice

in Him. And say, God, I can't hardly lift my

voice to You right now, but I'm going to call

to You. Because God, where else does my help

come from? It only comes from the Lord. So Paul

says, even in my grief, I still rejoice in the

Lord. As poor, yet enriching many. Paul says,

we didn't have much, but man, what we were given

then was better than money. They wasn't giving

them much, but they were giving them the Word

of God. They were giving them Jesus Christ. They

were giving them eternal life. We don't have

much, but what we were doing was enriching to

them as having nothing yet possessing everything.

Whether hungry or well -fed, I have learned to

be content. In all situations, I can do all things

through Jesus Christ who strengthens me. What

a beautiful verse. I think that's another way

of saying what Paul is saying here. I ain't got

nothing by the world standards, but I got everything

in Jesus Christ. What a beautiful, beautiful

verse. Verse 11. We have spoken openly to you,

Corinthians. Our heart has been opened wide.

You are not limited by us, but you are limited

by your own affections. I speak. As to my children,

as a proper response, you should also be open

to us. So he finishes up his commendation of

himself here, his defense of himself here, but

it's all for a purpose. He says, look, I've told

you all these things. You know who I am. You've

seen how I live my life. Now would you listen

to us? Would you listen to the message that we

are trying to tell you? If you're turning a deaf

ear to us, if it's not getting through, it's

not because we're not leading you right. It's

because you're not willing to listen to us anymore.

But what Paul wants is for them to listen to

him. And why? If you flip back to the last verse

of the last chapter, what is this key point that's

so important for Paul and for us and for everybody?

In 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, He made the one

2 Corinthians 5:21

who did not know sin to be sin for us so that

we might become the righteousness of God through

Him. This is the message of the gospel of Jesus

Christ. This is the hope of the Corinthians.

It's the hope of you and I. This is the message

that Paul wants his audience to know, to not

stray away from. Don't listen to the false teachers,

but listen to us and listen to this message.

What did he say in verse 2 last week? Today is

the day of salvation. Look, Jesus has come. We

don't deserve God's love, but through Jesus Christ,

we can receive it. Jesus has took our punishment

so that we can receive his righteousness. Today,

salvation has come. Will you hear the message

of the gospel today and accept that message?

And then he proceeds to tell them what he just

told them, what we looked at tonight. So listen

to what I say. Look at who I am. Look at how

I've lived and know that I'm trustworthy and

know that I want you to find Jesus Christ and

to love Jesus Christ and to hold fast to Jesus

Christ and to not give up on Jesus Christ and

to not be led away by false teachings. And that's

a good word for us today. There are lots of false

teachings in this world. There are lots of things

in this world. that can lead us away from Jesus

Christ, that can pull us in other directions,

that can get us sidetracked. But we need to make

sure our focus is in the right place and on the

right person, and that is the person of Jesus

Christ. There's a lot of false teachers in our

world, a lot of false teachings. We have to be

in the Word of God, and we have to know the Word

of God so that we will not fall into the same

trap as the Corinthians. so that we will not

be led astray, and we will not replace the truth

with a lie, but we will stand firm on the truth

of Jesus Christ. Let's pray. God, we thank you

for these good words, and I pray that we look

at our own life. Maybe we can't be so bold as

Paul tonight and say that we've done right by

you in all these areas, dear Lord. Maybe if we're

honest, we have been a stumbling block. And maybe

there are some stumbling blocks in our life that

we just need you to help just crush them for

us tonight, dear Lord, to help us to grow in

you so that we can help others to grow in you,

dear Lord. Help us to be good examples to you.

Help us to have that love and compassion and

to be unto others as Jesus was unto us, dear

Lord. I pray that you would help us to be able

to endure, dear Lord. This life is so hard. And

maybe there are others like me that just want

to give up with their jobs or with their families

or with their school or with their whatever it

is, dear Lord. I mean, it's just so many things

in life. And I pray that you give us endurance,

that you would restore us, dear Lord, that you

would build us up, that you would help us to

continue to serve you and to do your work in

the same way that Paul has done. I pray that

we would... grow in the knowledge of your word.

I pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ

that are in prison and beaten and that are under

threats of persecution just for doing what we're

doing. I pray that you would strengthen them.

I pray that they would feel your peace and love.

I pray, God, that should we ever get in situations

that extreme, that you'd give us the faith and

the strength to stand up for you. God, I pray

that you would help us not to lose our focus,

that we wouldn't be led astray by the things

of the world and by false teachings, but that

we would look to the example of Paul and, most

importantly, to the example of Jesus Christ,

that we would stand firm in him tonight. And

I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. All

right, we'll go over our prayer list right quick.

Today was a bad day for this country. We had

Charlie Kirk. I don't know if you know him or

not. Regardless of your political standings,

it's tragedy when you see somebody that is killed

just for speaking the truth. One of the last

things he was speaking before he was killed was

he was talking about Jesus Christ. And it's a

sad... sad state of affairs that our country

is in. There's a lot of evil in this world but

God is still good and God can change the hearts

of people and that is the only thing that is

going to change our world. And so we need to

continually be in prayer for our country and

for our leaders that they would make good decisions

for people that they would wake up to realize

that they're There are serious problems in our

country that we've got to address. And by address

them, I mean turn to Jesus. That's what I mean.

I don't mean elect a different party to serve.

I mean we've got to call on Jesus to fix our

problems. And so we need to be in prayer for

that. It's a sad day for us. We need to continue

to pray for Michael Riddle. He had a heart ablation

today to get his heart back in rhythm. It was

an AFib, and everything went good. He's probably

home by now. They were on the way a while ago,

and so I want to pray for him. He's going to

be down for a couple days. He's got to rest up,

so pray that he'll do what the doctor says and

not overdo it. But if you all get a chance, you

can call him or text him and check on him. He'd

probably appreciate to know that you're praying

for him. But everything went good there today,

so that's a good praise report. Miss Pat's son

-in -law, Michael, he had his other knee done

today. Oh, okay. I was thinking it was knee for

some reason. Huh. Yeah. Well, hopefully he'll

heal up now that he's got both of them done.

Miss Debbie Reed, sister, she's still not doing

good. Ginger Ard, we mentioned her. I think Fran

mentioned her Sunday. Debbie texted me a couple

days ago, said she was in a coma, and so I hadn't

heard anything since then. So we need to continue

to pray for her. And then got word the other

day that Richard Tia's grandson had a little

problem. They had to take him to the hospital,

but didn't find anything, sent him back home.

So hopefully it wasn't nothing serious, but just

want to pray that he's going. Be okay. Well,

good. Good. Does anybody else have any prayer

requests or praise reports tonight? Yeah, I've

had a lot of deaths in the community in the last

week. Oh, no. All right, anybody else? All right.

If there are no others, if you'd like to pray,

you can pray out loud. We'll take a few moments,

and when everybody's finished up, I'll close

us up.