Bible Guys Classics: 2 Corinthians 13

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some of our greatest hits.

So, Jeff, have you ever seen The Princess Bride?

Yes?

Yes, it's a great movie, isn't it.

I love it.

There's a part in there where he goes. My father's

final words were yes, yeah, okay, So that's today. This

is Paul's final words to the Church Accord.

That's one of my favorite movies. I think we have

something in common.

Yes.

So he's Chris and I'm Jeff, and we're the Bible guys. Chris, Yes,

So here's that segment everybody loves so much, and all

of our listeners they already know what we're going to say. Yeah,

what made Chris mad this week?

Okay, So here's here's what makes here's what makes me

really mad. My kids know this, why laughing.

It's funny that I can ask that question and you

don't even have to pause, you don't even go, well,

none of that. I got another thing that makes me mad.

Listen, none of that. But I didn't even find out

what we were doing. What makes Chris mad till like

one minute ago. So so listen the uh here's what

makes me, I mean, it just upsets me so much.

Is when you pull them through the drive through. It's

up to the driver to order for the entire family,

right and so and so here's what my kids will do.

And I'm totally throwing them under the bus right now. Okay,

I recognize this is not a flattering moment for me.

It's probably necessary, though.

Okay, so here's what happens. Okay, So the proper way

to do this everybody is to go like this. Okay, like,

for instance, if let's just pretend you're at McDonald's for

some reason, which we don't go through McDonald's, but let's pretend, right,

because everybody knows the menu, is to say I would

like a number one and then say medium with a coke.

That's great, So like, just tell me all of that

so that I don't have to you know. So literally

they'll say, give me a number one and then and

I'll say, well, I'll ask these clarifying questions like do

you want a medium? What do you want to drink? Right?

And I get it.

I got to just drawn how many times there's three

pieces to your order? I'm agreeing with this one on you?

Yeah?

Right? So the number how.

Many times do you have to go through a drive

through and experience this really uncomfortable thing with dad? Yes,

because dad just wants to know the complete order, that's right,

And I'm kidding you, I'm not kidding you. Ninety nine

times out of one hundred, they don't understand that you

have to do those three things. It's like it's a

brand new condundrum. Every time you walk through.

There's a big mac, a quarter pounds, drive through nuggets

yeah right, But people look at this menu like they've

never seen it before.

Yeah, what is this wonderful place?

Right?

Wow?

What's on here? And then they order, they don't order

the right way I want. I'll have a cheeseburger, okay,

and fries as if there were options, what size fries?

Right, what you're saying is it's very probable to know

what you want before you get up to the menu.

Yeah, it's not rocket science. Everybody knows what's on the

menu at McDonald's.

Listen. I'll even be fine if you don't know what

you want, but just tell me before I talk to

the guy, yes or the girl, because they'll say what

would you like? And they'll say, give me number one,

and then they'll pause, and I'm like, really, you're gonna pause.

And then the server or the person over the thing

they go, is that it is that?

It is that which creates.

A lot more pressure for you because you know there's

four or five orders coming. And what you said was

I need a number one?

Uh?

What size? Large? With the what size? Or what to

drink with the coke? Is that it?

Yeah? Yeah, yeah, you know. And so so then I'll

say give me number one and then I'll turn They'll

say what size? Then I have to turn around, what size?

A medium? Medium? What the drink? Hang on? Hang on, hey,

what's the drink toy? I would like h a sprite

with a sprite?

Yeah?

And then there's that that you know, so it says

that it's like every order has to take like five interactions.

Yes, and it's not necessary. I'm with you on this,

and it is your kid's fault.

I absolutely can't figure out how the family does not

figure this out.

Yeah, I don't know. Maybe you didn't raise your children right.

So the other day we went through uh was it

was it Arby's through Arby's or something. I wasn't with you,

and and uh, and I pulled through and I actually uh,

I said, Tori, you can just order this yourself. And

she was behind me on the on the same side.

And so I rolled down her window from where I

was and I pulled beyond the speaker to where she

was there, and and then and she ordered. And she

said to me, why did you Why did you make

me order? Why didn't you disorder? I'm like, because I'm done. Yeah,

I'm done.

That's fair. I think that's reasonable. I am with you

on that one, Chris, you and I are together awesome.

So your family and my family need to get it right.

Or maybe we should just quit eating at any place

that hands food out of window to us so much.

Maybe maybe that would be that would solve some problems massively.

The better the better response. Yes, there you go.

But for all you people who know what we're talking about,

you feel our pain.

I know.

Yes, Okay, Well that was worth it is worth sharing

that one. Thank you, Chris.

You're welcome, Jafflin.

So we're wrapping up Paul. Paul's writing to the Church

at Corinth, and this is chapter thirteen. He's really taken

a few swings. He's basically talked about three or four

really big topics through through the thirteen chapters. Well, the

first twelve chapters he talks about them like four times each, right,

But now he's kind of wrapping things up, and he says,

this is the third time I'm coming to visit you,

and as the scriptures say, the facts of every case

must be established by the testimonia two or three witnesses.

He's kind of making a joke there. I've already warned

those who had been sinning when I was there on

my second visit, and now again I warn them and

all others just as I did before that next time

I will not spare them. I will give you all

the proof of the proof you want that Christ speaks

through me. Christ is not weak when he deals with you.

He is powerful among you. Although he was crucified to weakness,

he now lives by the power of God. We too

are weak, just as Christ was, but when we deal

with you, we will be alive with him and will

have God's power. Examine yourselves to see if your faith

is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ

is among you. If not, you have failed to test

of genuine faith. As you test yourselves, I hope you

will recognize that we have not failed the test of

apostolic authority. We pray to God that you will not

do what is wrong by refusing our correction. I hope

we won't need to demonstrate our authority when we arrive.

Do the right thing before we come, even if that

makes it look like we have failed to demonstrate our authority,

for we cannot oppose the truth, but must always stand

for the truth. We're glad to seem weak if it

helps show that you are actually strong. We pray that

you will become mature. I'm writing this to you before

I come, hoping that I won't need to deal severely

with you when I do come, for I want to

use the authority the Lord has given me to strengthen you,

not to tear you down. Dear brothers and sisters. I

close my letter with these last words, be joyful, grow

to maturity, encourage each other, live in harmony and peace.

Then the God of love and peace will be with you.

Greet each other with a sacred kiss. All of God's

people here send you their greetings. May the grace of

the Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the

fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

And done, done, and seem there you go. So you know,

I can't get that mind of that line out of

my mind. Love her as I loved her, and there

will be joy.

That's right.

So it's the final words. So I just had to

say it. It was itching to come out. So you know,

Paul's final vice is connected to, you know, the spirit

of his letters, so he sort of recaps that whole thing,

you know, talking about his authority and dealing with them harshly.

So a lot of it is sort of the same.

But there's a couple of gems in here, and you

know it's a challenge to the Church of Corinth, but

it's a challenge to us. First number five, examine yourselves

to see if your faith is genuine, test yourselves. Surely

you know that Jesus Christ is among you. So you know,

I've always thought about that, and I've always thought, gosh,

that is such a wonderful thing. It reminds me of

the Psalms. You know, it says, you know, search your heart,

you know, and and creating me a clean heart, and

search yourselves and test yourselves. I think that there's a

lot of yeah, you know, wisdom, and you know, this

is the new year for a lot of us, and

a lot of us, you know, we always say, okay.

Go, I think it's a new year for all of us.

What did I say? A lot of us? What I

was thinking about, what I was thinking in my mind

is a lot of us set New Years res solutions.

Oh but I didn't say that.

That's not what you said. That's what I said, because

I'm like, look, we got time travelers. We'll think to

us now, Oh no, I've already been twenty twenty three.

So a lot of us have these news resolutions, and

we set them physically, but setting them spiritually is a

really great thing to think about. So how do we

want our twenty twenty three to be? So test ourselves

examine to see if our faith is genuine. I really

think that there's something to that. We need to just

be honest with ourselves and just say, okay, you know,

where is it in my life that I'm doing really well?

Where is it that I'm not doing so well? And

by the way, you don't really know until you ask

somebody around you, right, because the Book of James tells

us we can't see ourselves clearly in a mirror, right.

It's hard to see it in ourselves, you know. We

can't actually recognize things, which is why we need counselors

in our lives. That's why we need godly counsel is

the reason.

Why we'll have blind spots.

We all have blind spots. So when it says test yourselves,

examine your faith, you really can't do that well. For

the most part. You can't accurately do that by yourself.

You could do it in somewhereas I guess, but ask

others help, you know, get others around you, set up accountability,

set up some goals.

I do think that there is the one thing that

you can test by yourself that nobody else can speak

for you about is salvation. So the beginning of faith,

you know, the foundation of faith, and everyone smiles. Somebody

will come to me and go, you know, I've really

been struggling with no one for sure whether or not

I'm actually born again, whether I've really been saved. And

then I've heard family members go, oh no, no, no, you are.

I remember you are, and you're trying to convince them

that they are because.

I remember when you were five.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. And I always go the

opposite direction. I never want to encourage somebody that for

sure they are saved, if they're struggling with whether or

not they are. I always say, let's make today the

day that you make sure right right, so test it.

And if your test is I don't remember when, I

don't remember where, I don't remember the circumstances, I don't

really remember crossing when I cross the line of faith

or the circumstances behind it, then that's a test that

only you can test. And I've had conversations with family members,

I've had conversations with friends before where others around them

want to say, oh, yeah, I remember, like it's a

shame on the family that you haven't been a Christian

or whatever, or that's always a mistake. Never encourage somebody, Yes,

for sure you are. If they're questioning it, I think

that it's always wise for you to go and say, well,

then let's make the day your day. There's no shame

in this. If suddenly you're coming awake and you go,

maybe I've been playing at this for the last five years,

but I'm ready, I'm ready to go in. Then encourage them.

Let's go all in. Don't try to convince them. And

that's a test I think every one of us should

test on a regular basis. Am I truly born again?

Have I been saved? Did I cross that line of faith?

If so, the answer should be readily available. If the

answer is not ready available, then we either need to

look at our lifestyle that we're not living it and

so we're not convinced of it, or we never actually

had that moment in time when we had that transaction

with Christ.

Yeah, and it's one thing. And just to be clear,

so listeners don't miss hear what you're saying is. What

you're saying is is if you can't resolve the time

where the transaction has taken place, not not whether or

not it worked.

Right, because Obviously his grace is sufficient for you. Paul

told a set in the last chapt so his part

of it is sufficient. It's just whether or not the

transaction actually happened, not whether that the transaction went through.

It went through, Yes, it went through.

That's right.

Yeah. It's it's interesting too because you know, the Bible

does say that if you know that, if you are

truly a Christian, there will be fruit. So you know,

so just think about, you know, the smallest measure of fruit.

Sometimes people change radically overnight. Sometimes people make a gradual change.

There's no formula to it, you know. But the but

the important thing is whether it's gradual change or whether

it's massive change overnight, both of those are fruit. So

it's it's it's a thing in our lives where you know,

if you I remember giving the Gospel to little children, right,

and sometimes I do it with vacation Bible school And

for years and years I ran these vacation Bible schools

at my small church, you know which, by the way,

side note, I remember one time we had six hundred

people in our whole church was one hundred and eighty people,

and they couldn't even fit in the auditorium. It was

standing room onely and they had to bleed out into

the But we had this huge fare, this carnival festival thing,

and all these parents came out and everything else. We

ended up having like five hundred and eighty people in

this auditorium that holds like maybe three hundred.

Right, those are always fun.

It was fun. So so anyway, it was. It was

a really cool time. But I remember sort of giving

the gospel and saying like, Okay, you know, Jesus died

for your sins and and you know, the Bible says

that we can't get to Heaven by ourselves and we

needed to trust him. And I was doing that. But

in the room, I'm radically conscious, conscious of the fact

that you can convince kids into doing anything. Sure, you

could look at kids and go the moon is made

of green cheese. Oh really, you don't want to go

to hell? Do you know you want to go to having? Sure,

kids have no idea what the what they're saying, right,

And so it's like you, as a teacher, hold that responsibility.

So you need to just make sure that you know

you're not, you know, creating a problem for a family.

That it's the same problem that you're referring to right

down the road, Like, well, yeah, I remember when you

were Christian. You were four years old and you raised.

Your head, or you got baptized when you know, I

had you baptized when you were a baby, right, and

so anyway, all you went through confirmation, you must be

a Christian.

But for the kids who do know, my point in

my story has a lot of points, but it says, uh,

I just say, if you do your part, trust God

that he'll do his part. That's sort of what I

was thinking, which is which is like, hey, with childlike faith,

you put your faith in trust in him, and it's

God's job to do what he promised, which is to

secure your salvation, to write your names down in the

Lamb's Book of life. You know God's gonna do those things.

It will always do his part always, That's right. So

I guess the challenge is, don't risk eternity on maybe right,

every major event in your life. You can remember every

major event. You remember when you graduate from high school.

You remember your first kiss, you remember when you graduated

from college, you remember your first job, You remember when

you had your first child. You remember all those all

these major events. You remember asking your wife out on

a first date, you remember proposing, you remember.

So you're clearly talking to old people at this point.

Yeah yeah, yeah, grown ups.

Yeah yeah yeah yeah.

But so with regard to the events in your life,

you remember these important events. And if you're sitting here

testing your faith, going, I just don't remember I cross

thetlante of faith. There's no shame, right, and saying only

the devil is speaking in your saying it's a shame

that you don't remember. Instead, don't risk eternity on man,

I have this vague feeling that I've just always believed

or whatever. Instead, make today your day. That's why Paul

said that just a few chapters ago, today is the

day of salvation, right, And what he's saying is you

don't wait, and you don't put it off, and you

don't just guess or just hope. And here he's ending

it saying, you should test yourself, test yourself, and if

you can't define it, make today that day. And it's

this simple. Everyone who calls them the name the Lord

will be saved. So in Romans chapter ten, you have

to believe that Jesus is the Lord that he rose

from the dead. He paid the price for your sins.

And if you will repent of your sins and come

to faith in Christ, invite him into your life today,

he will.

Right.

It's not a sinner's prayer that does it. It's the attitude.

But there are some elements to it that are not

that difficult to put into a prayer, to say, God,

would you forgive me my sins? Jesus, would you become

the king of my life? Would you take me to

Heaven when I die? And you can be sure of

it because God's end of the transaction is for sure

completed when you repent of your sins and turn to Christ. Right,

And that's it. And so this is I think part

of what he's talking about. Examine yourself, think about it.

This isn't a shame on you, or you stink or

you're a horrible person. It's just another opportunity to make

sure that things are right between you and God. That's

a good thing.

And I like the set of statements that are put

in verse number eleven where he says, dear brothers and sisters,

which let's remind ourselves he's talking to Christians. When he's

saying that, yeah, brothers and sisters refers to not physical

brothers or sisters like family lineage. He's talking about brothers

and sisters in christyep, I close this letter with these words,

and then he goes he does that famous Paul thing. Right. Yeah, yeah, here's.

About twenty five other things I wish I could have

talked about it.

Right, So be joyful, and by the way, be joyful.

You know, I'm under the belief that it actually doesn't

take a lot of effort to just fake your way

through being joyful. You know, sometimes we can actually you know,

can you know? I always say, like, you know, uh,

sing about it until you actually mean it. Right. That's

why I like worship songs because sometimes it will say

God is so good, and you're like, well, I'm singing

because the worship guy's asking me to sing the lyrics

on the screen, and the lyrics are on the screen, right,

And sometimes by the end of the song you're.

Like, ah, God is so good.

I'm reminded that God is so good. Right. Think about

just that one phrase, be joyful, be joyful. Well, I'm

not joyful today. Well, here's here's a practice for us.

Fake it until you believe it, right, so you can.

You can or just do it? What what I'm faking

it is?

Okay, faking it's the wrong word. Here's what I mean.

What I mean is respond joyfully when you don't feel

like it. That's the faking part, right.

You can choose joy even when you don't feel joyful.

Yes, yes, that's what I mean. So yeah, just semantics there,

but but fake it until you mean it, because what

you can do is you can say, okay, I choose joy,

and joy is actually something that can be chosen. You

can say, okay, I'm choosing to live in the joy

of the Lord and just and just say respond like

you would joyfully. You're like, I don't feel like responding

this way, you know, but you do it, and then

before too long you're gonna go you know what, I

should be joyful?

Yeah, well response, a negative response and a positive response

are both choices.

Yeah, that's so I can choose.

I can choose positivity, and as I choose to be

a positive person instead of a negative person. You know,

Jesus says, let your yes be yes and your no

be no. Let your words be clear, be who be

what you are, say what you mean. All those kinds

of things, but you can choose a positive answer instead

of a negative answer. That's the beginning towards being more positive.

The more positive are, the more happy you're going to be.

That more happier you are, the more joyful you're going

to be. These things kind of go together. So you

can choose one of all of these things. Be joyful

to maturity, encourage each other, live their own choices.

Encourage each other. When's the last time you have felt

like at the end of the week, For instance, you're like,

I get a really good job encouraging everybody. I rubb

shoulders with right, And that's that's a That's a gift,

isn't it. By the way, my love language is words

of affirmation. So you need to encourage me often.

Chris, Chris, you're amazing.

Thank you.

I don't mean that people love you.

I mean specific specifics. Yeah, like, hey, you did a

good job or whatever it is.

You're doing a good job on this podcast.

Dude. I'm just totally being serious. So what is your

love What is your love language?

What is my love language? Do what I tell you

to do? Obedience?

Okay, so the five love languages are words of affirmation,

physical touch, acts of service, quality time, and then uh goodness,

gracious gifts.

Quality time is mine.

So here's this qual time. Okay, So that's how people

receive love, and in turn, we usually give love in

the way that we have a tendency to receive love. Yeah, okay,

all that's say this encouraging one another is usually done

by somebody whose gifts are or is love. Language is

acts of words of information.

Yeah, wow, my brain, so it is amazing, Chris, thank.

You, thank you, Jeff. My brain's all over the place.

So anyway, all that to say, encouraging one another is

just something that is just a snippet, but it is

so valuable.

And it can be clunky, right, So if you're not

naturally gifted at encouraging other people, it can feel a

little clunky. But you know what, when you're trying, the

people who who need to be encouraged can sense, hey,

he's not great at it, but he's trying, and that's

an encouragement.

Yeah.

Right, So in all these things, all of these are

a choice. He gives you, like ten little things to do,

but every one of them you can choose. These things.

Let me tell you what I'm not going to choose

to not do it is greedy each other with a

sacred kiss.

Yeah, we'll pass on that one. How about a sacred

slap on the back. How about that for a sacred fistbook? Yeah,

that's so funny.

Just the other day we were talking about the idea

of shaking hands in church and Tim Wright said, he's like, oh,

I think we should ask people to stand up and

greet each other with a holy kiss.

Well, back when I was in high school, I was

hoping for that, right.

That's right, that's right. That's so funny. Well, you know,

as Paul winds this down, we're winding down this podcast,

and so we're going to jump back, uh, you know,

next week in the Book of Acts, because after all,

that's the whole point of the series is to chronologically

work through Acts, which includes all of Paul's letters.

That's right. So I think it's gonna be fun.

Yeah, we'll see you then on the Bibble guys,