Now is the Day of Salvation | 2 Corinthians 6:1-13 | 04/19/26

Have you ever had to confront someone

and then find that that person got

really really offended that you would

have the nerve to confront them?

Like afterwards your relationship wasn't

quite the same.

It it was impacted in a in a in a bad

way. They either completely shut you out

or maybe they avoid you

or maybe they're just straight up

hostile to you. Or maybe you've

experienced it the other way around.

Maybe you've been that person that's

been confronted and you've been

defensive and you've been hostile

towards the person who is confronting

you. You no longer like them very much.

You don't feel safe around them because

they criticized you. You no longer

respect them anymore. Now, to be sure,

there are people who are emotionally or

verbally abusive. There are cynics and

critics in this world. People whose

corrections and confrontations you

probably need to ignore.

Those are not legitimate corrections.

They see the bad in everything. I'm not

talking about those kinds of corrections

from those kinds of people. I'm talking

about when somebody actually cares about

you. They really love you and then they

offer you a correction. Have you ever

closed off your heart to someone who

really cares about you and wants to help

you?

With some people, it seems like every

time you correct them, you roll the dice

on the relationship. Have you have you

met people like that? Have you been a

person like that?

We've all probably been like that from

time to time because it's human nature

to get defensive when we're corrected.

Physiologically, your adrenaline starts

pumping.

Your brain becomes less rational as you

prepare for a fight or a flight.

We tense up in response to critique. We

emotionally harden because we feel like

we're about to be attacked or we are

being attacked. It's an anim animalistic

self-preservation instinct that kicks

in.

We can all be tempted to close off our

hearts to people who challenge us. And

our culture doesn't do us any favors

here, does it? Because we're taught that

we all have our own truth. We all have

our own truth. If someone corrects you,

you can just chalk it up to their truth.

I have my truth. It happens to be the

exact opposite truth of your truth.

Their truth is that you made a mistake.

But your truth is that you're an

absolutely amazing person with no

issues.

You've got nothing to learn.

And you know what? People haven't really

changed that much in 2,000 years.

This human tendency was alive and well

when the New Testament was written. Paul

encountered the same attitude that we

struggle with in Corenth.

A church that he loved with all his

heart. A church where many people heard

his corrections and repented. But then

there were also many who he was gambling

with a relationship by correcting them.

He was rolling the dice on whether they

would still listen to him. They had

closed off their hearts towards him. And

they ran to find themselves new leaders

who were who had nicer things to say

about them, who didn't correct them,

leaders who agreed with how amazing they

were, leaders who were not about to

challenge or correct or rebuke.

Today, Paul is going to plead with the

Corinthians in our text and with you.

He's going to plead with us. Don't miss

the grace of God by closing off your

heart. That's his plea in our text.

Don't miss the grace of God by closing

off your heart. And before we get into

our text this morning, let me just

remind you what we covered last week in

second Corinthians. Last week, we saw

that God is the initiator of our

salvation. He is the initiator of our

salvation. If you're in Christ, if

you're a Christian, it's because God

made you a new creation. He did it. If

you're a Christian, it's because Jesus

became sin for you and you became the

righteousness of God. We learned all of

this that all of this this great

salvation, this reconciliation with God,

this trading places between you and

Jesus, that all of it was from God. We

didn't do anything. We didn't do

anything. We did nothing to earn it. We

didn't initiate it.

All we did was receive it. That's all we

did. This week, Paul is going to talk

about the other side of the coin. There

is something that you do.

There is some ways there are some ways

that we participate in our salvation.

We have responsibility.

You might wonder after a passage like

last week, do we have any any role to

play at all in our salvation or are we

completely passive? Paul's going to

answer those questions today. So, our

text this morning is 2 Corinthians

chapter 6:es 1-13. So, if you've got

your Bibles, go ahead and make your way

over to 2 Corinthians chapter 6 and I'll

2 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

read verses 1 through13.

Paul writes, "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 a

day of salvation I have helped you.

Behold, now is the favorable 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 not yet 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. Our heart is open wide is

wide open. You are not restricted by us

but you are restricted in your own

affections. In return I speak to you as

children. Widen your hearts also. This

is the word of God.

So let's get into our text this morning.

right after saying last week that we are

ambassadors for Christ. God making his

appeal to the world through you

saying be reconciled to God. Then Paul

keeps going with that thought in our

text. And I want you to notice how he

began verse one. He says working

together with him. Now who is he talking

about? Who is working together with

whom? Well, the subject of the sentence

is Paul and his co-workers.

the people he said last week who are

ambassadors for Christ.

But it's not just limited to Paul and

his co-workers. As we said last week,

all Christians are ambassadors for

Christ. That means you. He's talking

about you in this text.

Who is working together with whom? You

are working together with someone. Who

is the himymn? Who is the himymn that

you're working together with that the

sentence is referring to? It's referring

to God. The one who initiates salvation,

the one who makes people a new creation.

You can see this clearly if you go back

to 2 Corinthians chapter 5 21 and then

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

read through chapter 6 verse one. He

says, "For our sake he," that's God made

him who knew no sin to become sin that

we might become the righteousness of

God. working together with him. Working

together. We work together with God. So

this is us and Paul and the Corinthians

and all Christians working together with

God on something.

Paul is saying we work alongside the one

who did all the work in our salvation.

Did you catch that? We work alongside

the one who did all the work in our

salvation.

Now what is this work that we do

together?

Finish verse one. Working together with

him. Then we appeal to you not to

receive the grace of God in vain. This

is how Paul and you and me and all

Christians work together with God. We

appeal to people. He appealed to the

Corinthians not to receive the grace of

God in vain. Now, I'll I'll explain in a

little bit what receiving the grace of

God in vain means, but let me just

unpack that first part. That Paul's work

and his ministry partners' work and your

work is to appeal to people. We saw this

last week too in 2 Corinthians 5:20

2 Corinthians 5:20

where Paul wrote, "Therefore, we are

ambassadors for Christ. God making his

appeal through us. We implore you on

behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God."

So that's the first kind of appeal that

we are doing that we are working with

God on. We're the messengers taking that

message of reconciliation to the people

who have not yet heard it or who have

not yet believed.

The work we do with God is we appeal on

God's behalf. We plead with people. We

challenge them to first be reconciled to

God by receiving his grace, his

forgiveness, his peace. And then we

appeal to them. This is important. And

then we appeal to them to not receive it

in vain, to keep on receiving it, to

keep on receiving that grace.

That means pleading with people not to

lose faith.

That's how Christians work together with

God. He does the saving. He does the

reconciling. He makes the new creation.

He gives the grace. And all we do and

what we do most importantly is we beg

people to receive it.

That's our job

to receive it and keep on receiving it.

Now, back to this very important phrase

in verse one. We appeal to you not to

receive the grace of God in vain.

Vain means empty.

How can you receive the grace of God in

vain?

Vain is something that comes to nothing

in the end. It was worthless. It was a

waste of time in the end.

How can the grace of God in our lives

amount to nothing in the end? How is

that possible? How can you be saved by

grace and then not have it end in

salvation?

Well, the Bible has a category for this.

There are many places where the New

Testament is especially clear about how

we can receive the grace of God in vain.

how we can receive the grace of God and

have it not actually end in our

salvation. I'll mention a few of these

passages. The first is Jesus's parable

of the sewer and the seeds. We we read

this in Matthew 13:es 3-23.

Jesus said, "And he told them many

things in parables, saying, a sewer went

out to sew, and as he sowed, some seeds

fell along the path, and the birds came

and devoured them. Other seeds fell on

rocky ground where they did not have

much soil, and immediately they sprang

up since they had no depth of soil. But

when the sun rose, they were scorched,

and since they had no root, they

withered away. Other seeds fell among

the thorns, and the thorns grew up and

choked them. Other seeds fell on good

soil and produced grain, some hundfold,

some 60, some 30. Then skip to verse 18

where we read Jesus's explanation of

this parable. Hear then the parable of

the swer. When anyone hears the word of

the kingdom and does not understand it,

the evil one comes and snatches away

what has been swn in his heart. This is

what was sown along the path. As for

what was sown on rocky ground, this is

the one who hears the word and

immediately receives it with joy.

someone who's tasting grace and yet he

has no root in himself but endures for a

while and when tribulation or

persecution arises on account of the

word immediately he falls away. As for

what was sown among thorns, this is the

one who hears the word but the cares of

the world and the deceitfulness of

riches choke the word and it proves

unfruitful.

As for what was sown on good soil, this

is the one who hears the word and

understands it. He indeed bears fruit

and yields in one case a hundfold in

another case 60 in another 30.

Jesus explains that the seeds in this

story are the gospel. This is the

message of reconciliation that we are

taking to the world as ambassadors for

Christ and we're begging people to

receive it. And then there are four

kinds of seeds that he mentions there.

One kind does not receive the message at

all. You've met many people like this.

You were a person kind of like this at

one point until God softened your heart

and made you new. You hear the gospel

and you don't receive it. You just

reject it. You can't believe it.

That there are many people in the world

like that. But there are three other

kinds of seeds that do receive it. I

think we misunderstand this parable

sometimes. They do receive. They take

root for a little while. Unfortunately,

two of those three receive the grace in

vain. The grace comes to nothing in the

end. Those who receive the grace and

start to grow, but then they begin to

suffer for Christ and they abandon the

grace. They abandon Christ.

They have received the grace of God in

vain.

or the others that receive the grace and

they start to grow but then they get

distracted by the comforts of this life

and they forget about the grace of God.

They lose their first love and then

their grace also comes to nothing in the

end. They have received it in vain.

So Jesus explains through the parable

how one receives the grace of God in

vain. Namely, you fail to endure. You

fail to end. You don't grow up. You

don't grow up. You die out.

something causes you to give up.

Excessive discomfort or excessive

comfort

or something else causes some to not

endure in the grace that God has given.

Here's a second New Testament passage

that speaks to receiving the grace of

God in vain. Receiving the grace of God

and it ends up being wasted.

Hebrews chapter 6 verses 4-8

Hebrews 6:4–8

the author of Hebrews writes for it is

impossible in the case of those who have

once been enlightened who have tasted

the heavenly gift who have shared in the

Holy Spirit and have tasted the goodness

of the word of God and the powers of the

age to come and then have fallen away.

It's impossible to restore them again to

repentance since they are crucifying

once again the son of God to their own

harm and holding him up in contempt. For

the land has drunk the rain that often

falls on it and produces a crop useful

to those for whose sake it is cultivated

receives a blessing from God. But if it

bears thorns and thistles, it is

worthless and near to being cursed, and

its end is to be burned.

Now, this is not talking about

Christians who lose their salvation.

This is talking about those seeds which

spring up. They do grow. They do receive

grace.

They taste the gifts and the goodness of

Christ, but they are not new creations.

They are not born again. They seem like

it at first. They look like, you know,

these little sprigs of plants. They all

look the same at first.

They look just like Christians, but in

the end they get choked out or scorched

out. This is what the Apostle John was

writing about when he said in 1 John

1 John 2:19

2:19, "They went out from us, but they

were not of us. For if they had been of

us, they would have continued with us,

but they went out that it might become

plain that they all are not of us."

Those who do not endure in the faith do

not lose their salvation.

I can't I can't say this carefully

enough.

Those who do not endure in their faith

do not lose their salvation.

Rather, they prove that they receive the

grace of God in vain. They were never

among us.

They prove that they were never among

us.

This is the whole point of the book of

Revelation. This is the whole point of

the book of Revelation.

The one who conquers will inherit the

new heavens and the new earth. The one

who conquers will eat of the tree of

life. The one who conquers will be

delivered from the second death. The one

who conquers will receive a new name.

The one who conquers will have authority

over the nations. The one who conquers

will have their names written in the

book of life. The one who conquers will

be a pillar in the temple of God. And

the one who conquers will sit on

Christ's throne with him. That's what

the book of Revelation is about. So you

believed in Jesus. You received the

grace of God. Good for you. Keep on

believing. That is the appeal of the

Christian ambassador. You must keep on

receiving. You must endure to the very

end.

Church, let this be a warning for you.

Some of you may have tasted the heavenly

gift.

You may have godly parents. Maybe you've

shared in the Holy Spirit at church.

You've you've sampled it. You've sampled

things that belong to eternity

and it was good and you loved it.

You have to endure to the end. You have

to conquer.

Now, you won't do that in your own

strength. You won't do that in your own

strength.

But ambassadors, what we do is we work

together with God. We appeal to people

to receive the grace of God in the first

place and then to keep on receiving it.

That's how you make it to the end. You

keep on receiving grace all the way to

the very end.

We teach people to persevere, to

conquer,

and sometimes that requires correction.

Sometimes that requires correction. If

you see a little

a little sprig of life about to be

choked out

by thorns,

you do something about it. You call it

out.

Sometimes it necessitates a rebuke.

Okay, we understand what Paul is doing

with this text. So, we can move on. He's

making an appeal to the people who are

in danger, the Corinthians, who are in

danger of not making it to the end. He

sees them surrounded by thorns. He sees

them being scorched by false teachers.

And he's like, "You're in danger. I'm

trying to help you. I'm trying to make

sure you make it to the end."

So next, Paul makes a passionate appeal

by quoting the Old Testament book of

Isaiah. Look at verse two with me.

For he says, that is God says in Isaiah,

"In a 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.

Paul is quoting from a section in Isaiah

49. In that part of Isaiah, God is

speaking to his people, Israel, when

they were in utter rebellion against

him. They were so defiant in this phase

of their history. And so he brought in

foreign nations to discipline them, to

bring them back to himself, to humble

them

that they might repent and turn back to

God. And Israel heard, they heard, they

got the message and they asked God for

deliverance. They asked him for help.

And he writes Isaiah 49 in response. And

he promises help will come. He promises

a Messiah. He promises a day of

salvation.

He promises to deliver them to remove

Israel's sins from her and to purify

her. Not just her, but the whole world

through a suffering servant. Now, we

know that person to be Jesus Christ.

They didn't have a name for him yet. But

they knew there was somebody who was

going to come. Some Messiah, some Christ

would come into this world and he would

rescue us from our sins and he would

deliver us.

We know who that is.

The second half of the verse, Paul says,

"Today is the day. Today is the day of

salvation.

Today is the day where you can find

favor with God."

He's telling the Corinthians, "If you

have a chance to repent, if you can hear

my words,

today is the day to repent. Today is the

day to to come back to God."

in West Hills. The truth of the matter

is that the day to repent is always

today. It's never when I'm done having

fun. It's not later when I'll get my

life together. It's never then. It's not

tomorrow. It's today. It's always today.

Today, if you have a chance, it's today.

This is what the author of Hebrews means

in Hebrews 3:12-15.

Hebrews 3:12–15

He says, "Take care, brothers, lest

there be in any of you an evil,

unbelieving heart leading you to fall

away from the living God, but exhort one

another every day as long as it is

called today, that none of you may be

hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

For we have come to share in Christ if

indeed we hold our original confidence

firm to the end. As it is said today, if

you hear his voice, do not harden your

hearts as in the rebellion.

I got to move on. We're through two

verses.

Don't worry, we're going to go much

faster through the rest of this. So,

what's happened in our text so far?

Paul has said that the job of

ambassadors for Christ is to appeal to

people to receive the grace of God and

to keep on receiving it.

They need to he we need to appeal to

people to receive God's reconciliation

and then not waste it by falling away

but to keep on believing it all the way

to the end to endure, to conquer, to

persevere.

Now Paul shifts gears a bit in verse

three. He says, "We put no obstacle in

anyone's way so that no fault may be

found with us or with our ministry."

Now, Paul is about to defend himself for

what feels like the 10th time in second

Corinthians. He's had to say some pretty

hard things to the Corinthians so far in

this book and in First Corinthians as

well. He's had to rebuke them because

some of them are closed off to hearing

from him. Some of them are rejecting him

as an apostle and as a leader. And

they're in danger of falling away from

the gospel and receiving the grace of

God in vain. So Paul is trying to

explain how his ministry was an attempt

to serve the Corinthians, not hurt them.

He's like, "Everything I've done for

you, I know it was painful, but it was

for your good."

So in verse three, he's essentially

saying, "Look, our ministry is above

reproach.

You may have been offended by me, but we

were trying to help you.

And then in verse four, he begins this

long list of proofs that his ministry

towards them was sincere. Notice what he

says in verses four and five. 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. Here Paul

lists some of the many things he's had

to endure to bring this message of

salvation to the Corinthians. He'll go

into even greater detail about these

sufferings in chapter 11, but for now

he's bringing it up just to make an

important point. He's trying to prove

his love for them.

When you know someone has suffered

tremendously for your sake, it's a

little easier to receive rebukes. Or it

should be it should be easier. It should

be easier to take correction from

somebody that you know loves you.

The more someone loves you, the more we

should hear them when they challenge us.

The more seriously we should take their

charges, their corrections, their

criticisms because we know they're

trying to help us.

Paul is saying, "Look at what I have

done. Look at what I have done for you,

Corinthians. Don't reject me. Don't

close off your hearts to me. My heart

was broken for you so many times.

The proof of someone's love for you is

their willingness to suffer for you.

Whenever I do premarital counseling with

couples, I always talk to the the woman,

the female fiance about what it's like

to submit to a husband.

And then I talk to the man about what

it's like much harder job for the man.

what it's like to love your wife like

Christ loves the church, giving himself

up for her.

And I and I tell these guys, you know,

you're you're going to be willing to

take a bullet for your wife. At least

you should be. You have no business

getting married if you won't take a

bullet for your wife.

And they're like, yeah, I'll take a

bullet. And I'm like, great. You'll

never have to do that. That's never

going to happen in Morgan Hill,

California. Like,

and and sure, if it does happen, great.

you'll have a great opportunity.

But

what you will, you can't just trade I'm

willing to take a bullet for her for all

of the thousand little deaths that you

should be dying every single day to love

your wife. It is much harder to every

single day change diapers, wash dishes,

take out the trash. That is harder than

one time maybe probably not ever taking

a bullet.

You suffer

for the person you love. That is

Christlike.

That is what Paul did for the

Corinthians. Paul proves his love by his

willingness to suffer for them. He goes

on with his list in verse six, but his

list changes tone a bit. His list shifts

from what he endured for their sake to

how he endured it. Look with me at

verses six and seven. 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 the left. Here Paul is

highlighting the positive marks of his

ministry. Yes, he suffered greatly for

the sake of the Corinthians, but his

ministry was also marked by purity and

knowledge and patience. So many good

things accompanied his ministry. It

wasn't all hard. It wasn't all negative.

But Paul's not done with his list.

His next list shows how much the

Corinthians have misunderstood him. They

have missed the love that he has tried

to convey, that he has tried to prove

over and over again. Look at verses 8

through10. Through honor and dishonor,

through slander and praise, we are

treated as impostors and yet are true.

As unknown yet well-known, as dying and

behold, we live. As punished and yet are

and not killed, as sorrowful yet always

rejoicing. As poor yet making many rich,

as having nothing yet possessing

everything.

To paraphrase Paul, he's saying, "You

Corinthians are rejecting my apostilhip

and the gospel that I proclaim to you.

You treat me like an impostor, but I am

sincere. You act like you don't know me,

but you know me very well. You treat me

like I'm about to die, like I'm about to

become irrelevant, but I'm still very

much alive.

You're ashamed that I'm always punished.

You're embarrassed by me that I have not

been killed yet.

You're bummed out that my life is so

sorrowful, so sad, so pitiable,

but I'm still rejoicing.

You're embarrassed that I'm poor, but I

became poorer to make you rich in faith.

You think I have nothing? I have

everything.

I have everything. Why are you rejecting

me? Why are you rejecting the gospel

that I preached? Look at what I've done

for you, Corinthians.

Now he's done with his lists, but he has

another thing to add. Look at verses 11

and 12. We have spoken freely to you,

Corinthians. Our heart is wide open. You

are not restricted by us, but you are

restricted in your own affections.

Paul is putting the fractured

relationship between himself and the

Corinthians completely on them. He says,

"This is your fault." If there's any

sort of fracture between us Corinthians,

us and you Corinthians, it's your fault.

Our hearts were open wide. We were

sincere. We suffered for you and you

closed off your hearts to us.

Don't miss the grace of God,

Corinthians, by closing off your hearts.

I don't want you to have received the

grace of God in vain. That's what he's

saying.

Christians, are you in danger of being

like the Corinthians?

Closed off to correction, withholding

affection

from those who would challenge you and

help you grow.

Be careful. They may be the ones who are

working together with God to make sure

that you did not receive the grace of

God in vain.

They are probably in your life to help

you endure, to help you change, to help

you grow. Be thankful for the people in

your life who correct you

because we can so easily be like the

Corinthians. We restrict ourselves. I

see children do this with their parents

all the time. Parents correct or

discipline their kids and kids get angry

and defensive because they misunderstand

what love is, right?

And then we do that as adults too.

Children don't see how much their

parents have suffered.

How much they've given up,

how they've become poor to make their

children rich.

In some ways,

they don't see what their parents have

sacrificed. They don't see. They don't

understand how much their parents love

them. One of my kids tells me every

single day, "Dad, I love you more than

you love me.

And I'm like, you wait.

One day you will know that that's not

true.

I see this with people and their elders

sometimes, too.

People

don't see how much the elders pray for

them,

how much we love them, how much we fret

over them, how anxious we are for them,

how much sleep we lose when you suffer

or when you're trapped in sin.

And when we have to confront someone, we

know we're rolling the dice on the

relationship

because there's a good chance that this

correction or this rebuke or this

critique will be interpreted as an

attack and there will be a fight

orflight response

instead of receiving it for what it

really is, which is love.

It's an attempt to prevent you from

receiving the grace of God in vain,

from having the grace of God wasted in

your life.

So here is Paul giving a stern warning

for all Christians, Christians in this

room.

Hatred of correction can lead to the

rejection of the gospel.

can lead to a rejection of the gospel

and then to receiving the grace of God

in vain.

The gospel

the gospel itself

is a giant offensive correction.

The message of reconciliation is that

you are wrong

and you were born wrong.

Not just that you sin, but you were born

a rebel, an enemy of God that needs to

be remedied. And Jesus is that remedy.

And God corrects you by making you a new

creation. That is the ultimate

correction. You had to be remade.

You had to be made new. You had to be

given a new heart because the old one,

the heart of stone, wasn't working. It

was never going to bring you to God. It

was never going to get you there. And he

offers you amnesty for your rebellion by

sending Jesus to the cross to receive

the punishment for your defiance, for

your rebellion. He reaped what you sowed

and he became sin for your sake. And you

ex in exchange reap what he sowed and

you became a child of God.

And Christ, hear this, Christ did not

close off his heart towards you. Oh, how

he could have. He could have closed off

his heart to me.

He should have.

But he didn't.

He did not restrict his love for you,

but instead his heart was pierced by a

spear for you. And he proves his love

for you by his suffering for you.

And then he sends correction to us.

When we stumble,

sometimes the correction of the Lord

comes through the conviction of the Holy

Spirit and and the hol and his holy

word. That's how it usually comes.

That's typically how you receive

correction, right? You you do something

wrong. You sin in some way. You treat

somebody poorly and the spirit is like,

"That was messed up." And you're like,

"Yep, it was." And you repent. That's

that's normally how correction comes. Or

or it comes in the form of you reading

your Bible and you see something and

you're like, "I've never seen that

before. I've got to change this right

now. Correction comes through the Holy

Spirit and the Holy Word.

But sometimes it comes through brothers

and sisters, people who are outside of

your situation who can see what's really

going on. You're too close to it, but

they can see it.

You need other people from the outside

to offer correction. I don't know if if

you're a glasses wearer. I mean, have

you ever taken off your glasses and like

seen like the the gunk that's collected

on them, right? You're too close to it

to see it, but other people have been

probably watching that for a while and

kind of grossed out.

You need other people. You're too close

to it.

Sometimes it comes through our pastors

and our elders, our community group

leaders, people in our church.

Sometimes it comes through your children

or your parents or your friends if you

have good friends. But however

correction comes to you, this is Paul's

final appeal in our text. Verse 13. In

return, he said, I give love to you. In

return, I speak to you as children.

Widen your hearts.

Widen your hearts also. My heart is open

wide for you. Widen your hearts.

So what is our responsibility in our

salvation?

Widen your hearts to the correction of

God.

Widen your hearts for God and others.

Don't restrict your love. Reject the

fight or flight instinct when you're

challenged.

Stay there and be changed by the

correction, by the challenge.

Now I want to end by giving you two

attitudes to adopt so that you will not

receive the grace of God in vain. This

will help you to not receive the grace

of God in vain. The first attitude is

humility.

Let me give you two verses that really

drive this home. Proverbs 12:1,

Proverbs 12:1

"Whoever loves discipline loves

knowledge, but whoever hates correction

is stupid."

Didn't know that word was in the Bible,

did you? I'm not allowed to say that

word. But whoever loves discipline loves

knowledge, but whoever hates correction

is stupid.

James 4:6, God opposes the proud, but

James 4:6

gives grace to the humble. You want to

keep on receiving grace,

be humble.

When someone corrects you, again,

disregarding abusive people, but when

someone corrects you, someone who loves

you corrects you and is willing to

suffer for you, someone who's willing to

risk their relationship with you to tell

you something hard, when that kind of

person corrects you, listen to them.

They're probably right, at least mostly

right or right about something.

Can you have enough humility to believe

that the people who love you and are

willing to correct you are probably

right?

Think about what they say and ask honest

people if they agree. Don't ask your

friends who think you're super amazing

at everything. They're not going to tell

you the truth. Ask your friends who who

tell you the truth even when it hurts.

If you don't have people like that in

your life,

you need to get some. If you don't have

people in your life who tell you the

truth even when it hurts, who are

willing to roll the dice on your

relationship because they love you that

much, you need to get some of those

people in your life.

If you need to join a community group,

if you need to become a member of the

church,

become a part of a people who love one

another enough to tell each other hard

things.

Have humility with God and with others.

Be willing to be corrected and

challenged by God. Not everything you do

is amazing.

It's it's just not all amazing.

If you want to grow, you'll need some

correction. You'll need some challenges

in your life. And those are always

uncomfortable.

Now, if no one ever corrects you in your

life, it might be it might be because

you're not known.

If you have nobody speaking into your

life, it might be that you're not known.

You have only shallow relationships.

And this leads me to the second attitude

that we should adopt from this text.

Vulnerability.

This is implied by Paul's last words in

the text. Widen your hearts. Let people

It has to be wide enough for people to

come in. Open the door. Let people see

what's in there.

Widen your hearts. Paul let the

Corinthians know the real him. He opened

his heart wide. He's like, "This is all

of me. All the raw Paul. It's all here.

Now you do the same. Also widen your

hearts. Let people in.

How will people be able to speak into

your life if they don't know what's

going on? If they don't know the real

you. You might think, "Ah, that's why

I'm not vulnerable. I don't want people

to know what's really going on. If they

do, they might correct me. They might

challenge me." If that's you, you will

never change. You will never change with

that attitude.

Change requires being challenged. And

being challenged requires being known.

And being known requires being

vulnerable.

Don't miss the grace of God by closing

off your heart to the people that he

brings into your life with the message

of reconciliation and with a message of

correction. He's giving you the grace

that will not be in vain.

We've seen Paul plead with the

Corinthians. He plead he plead with

them. Don't miss the grace of God by

closing off your hearts.

And why would they close off their

hearts their hearts? Why would they be

tempted to do that? Because the path of

faith is hard. The path of

reconciliation, the path of bearing

fruit is often marked with suffering and

misunderstanding and correction. It's

human nature to want to flee from

challenge and to shrink back from pain

and to restrict our affections when love

demands vulnerability and when Christ

demands change. It's human nature to

shrink back from these things. They're

scary. They're hard. We don't choose to

go through hard things most of the time.

But look again at Jesus. He did not

close his heart to you. He did not

restrict his love. Instead, his heart

was open wide and pierced on the cross

to prove his love for you by his

suffering, offering you amnesty and

reconciliation and the ultimate

correction of a new creation.

And so, West Hills, this morning, I'm

calling you to be courageous.

The battle is real, but the victory is

certain. Keep your heart humble to

correction so your faith doesn't wither

in suffering or get choked out by

comfort. Don't receive the glorious

grace of God in vain by closing off your

heart.

Widen your hearts to people who would

correct you. Humble your spirit and

embrace the vulnerability required to

endure.

You have received the grace already. If

you're in Christ, you have received the

grace. Now all you have to do is keep on

receiving the grace, holding your

original confidence firm to the end.

Be the one who conquers by the grace

that he supplies. Let's pray.