Bible Guys Classics: 2 Corinthians 6 Part 1

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So today, Jeff, we're talking about suffering for Jesus.

Hey, a lot of people do around the world, and

ours is nothing compared to theirs, But that's what we're going

to be talking about today. He's Chris and I'm Jeff,

and we're the Bible Guys.

So, Jeff, the segment today is mail bags. Oh those

are fun, which is basically somebody who writes in any

question or comment and we would love to con them.

By the way, if you would love to have your

question considered, please email us at info at the Bible

Guys dot com and we would love to take it.

So this one has comes from michael A Michael A.

And this is what michael A writes. He says throughout

all of your years of ministry, which is forever for you.

Oh yeah, like I think the same. What but both

of us is what thirty something is? Yeah?

Yeah, just over thirty I think. Yeah, what are one

or two of your most memorable moments?

Oh man, I've had a lot of memorable moments. You know,

early on in my ministry, I had opportunity I served

with gangs in Chicago. Of course, we've done ministry together

around the world. You and I have, Yeah, served in

a lot of churches.

You know.

When I first came to Heritage, we were two hundred

and forty people and you know, now there's thousands, and

so there's a lot of those things. It's a lot

of fun. But maybe the funniest. One of the funniest

ones was when I was working in Chicago. I go

with the gang members. The church was a big church,

had an auditorium is about eight thousand seat auditorium, and

we had a big day. We were shooting for one

hundred thousand people in attendance and we were going to

baptize three thousand new believers, and it was like Pentecosts.

It was on pentecost Sundays, so you know, celebrating Pentecosts.

And we wanted to see be the first church in

the modern era to baptize three thousand people on one weekend.

And if God could do it back in the Book

of Acts, he can do it today. Kind of the idea.

So we worked hard and we mobilized, you know, ten

thousand volunteers. It's just a really amazing thing. So I

led this gang member to Christ's name was Ricky, and

we're taking up and I was supposed to show himhere

to get baptized. And it was a really big baptistry.

And what they were going to do is baptize like

we were going to baptize three thousand, but they were

going to baptize like a hundred of them at the

beginning and then dismissed. It takes a long time to

baptize that many. And so Ricky looks at me and

he goes watch this, and he cannonballed out the middle.

So Ricky's like five feet tall, five feet wide, and

he just jumps out in the middle and just canniballed,

and the splash was huge, and the Baptiste was way

up over top of the choir and hundreds of gallons

of water just splashed over top of that batterstree and

just soak all the ladies in the choir. It was

one of the greatest moments in my life to see

and I just disappeared. I still have no idea how

he got back to Chicago, you know, because he rode

on a bus with me from Chicago, so I had

no idea how he got home. But that was a

pretty amazing thing. And I've seen it at America's Funniest

Home videos and different people jumping in the thing, but

it actually happened. It was nineteen ninety. Yeah, nineteen ninety Yeah.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

Well, the thing that came to my mind is this, like,

just like you referenced, you know, a lot of really

cool moments over thirty years, right.

And by the way, we had one hundred and four

thousand in church that weekend.

Oh that's amazing.

Yeah, that's pretty much.

Wow. Wow. So I remember one time being invited on

stage by Louis Giglio at a thing called One Day,

and there was like there was like one hundred thousand

college students in a field like like a modern day

woodstock for Jesus, right, and like I remember being on

stage and he called called us up and asked us

to pray, and that was a pretty cool moment. I

remember when when I was a part of my previous

church and we built a building. Uh. Actually I actually

camped out in that on that piece of property. Felt

like God gave us a vision and prayed and like, hey,

God's going to give us this vision. And then years

later we get at a fraction of the cost. Uh.

The stories were unbelievable God's stories, and we sort of

opened up that building and everything happened that way. That

was a cool moment. I remember, you know, being being

at baptisms where there's thousands of people baptizing hundreds of people.

Those were great moments. But honestly, I would say, uh,

the thing that just comes to my mind is baptizing

my own kids. So I baptized Sarah Uh at my

first church that I worked at, and uh, and it

was a very long time ago, and I remember she

was the last in line, and I remember we baptized

like eight people that day. And I remember at the

end of the day, I said, I said Sarah, I'm

so sorry that that you were get put in the

back of the line. And she said, it's okay, Dad.

She must have been only six years old something like this,

you know. She goes, maybe seven, and she goes, it's okay,

And I said okay, and she goes, cuz the last

shall be first and the first shall be last. And

I said, where did you learn that? That's so incredible?

She goes, You mentioned it to me one time, and

I said, when did I mention that to you? She goes,

you felt bad for picking me up last at school

because I was trying to make her film back, but

you remembered it. And then the other time when I

baptized Tory and Steven, it was on the same day,

and we baptized in a lake. In fact, it was

a stony creek and it was it was the same time,

and I was able to walk out with them and

uh and baptize both of them with my wife and

my older daughter being you know, oldest daughter being there,

and it was just wonderful.

Wow. So I think that nothing compares to that I

had the privilege baptized my kids too. You know. Another

one is so the big crowds. We've both of us

had opportunity to be in front of some really big

crowds and lead lots of people to Jesus and do

some really amazing things, and God blessed us beyond anything

we deserve. Another one, though, was actually at a funeral

and the person that had died had told me, Hey,

if you'll come speak at my funeral, there's five people

in my family that are far from God, and I

believe that if you share the gospel and offer to

you know, let them respond to the gospel. I think

we're going to leave it. You'll lead them to Jesus.

And so four of the five people were there, and

all four of them gave their life to Christ at

the funeral, and I just remember thinking, Man, this guy,

you know, spent a big part of his life trying

to bring these people to Christ. And it was not

in his life, but in the memory and the celebration

of his life is when they finally came to faith.

And you know, God, let me be a part of that.

So I think it's the changed lives, Michael, to get

back to your question, There's been really amazing events, but

it's those individual lives being changed because we can talk

about big numbers, we can talk about incredible stories, but

it's each of those numbers and these stories represent people,

and it's the fact that we get to be a

part of so many lives being changed, I think is

the real delight of the ministry.

Oh for sure.

It's also the hardest part of the ministry is the people.

But yeah, right right, I love God, I just don't

like people now, Yeah, but you're right though. Let me

have one more comment, is that of all the roles

that I've played, I was a youth pastor, I was

a kid's pastor, I was a worship pastor, just like you, you know,

it just sort of fulfilled those roles. I think of

all the roles that I've played over the years, including

my current role, you know, as one of the lead

pastors and leading weekends and stuff like that, I think

that the most fulfilling role that I've ever had was

being a pastor of high school students. Well, because when

you have a high school student come up to you

who's like fifteen or whatever and says you've changed my life.

For what happens is you sort of you sort of

set the course, you know, and you know that the

trajectory of their lives are completely different. Yeah, and uh,

you know, and they're just old enough to where you know,

you know that like they're gonna make it's gonna be

a big difference in their lives.

Yeah. Well, I'm glad you like that because we're gonna

send you back to that same job.

So that's sign me up, baby. Only problem is, I'm

not too sure i'd be that relevant.

Fifty year old youth pastors are really cool.

I thought, Yeah, we'll just make a We'll just make

a bowl of punch and they'll they'll just flock to

the bunch.

They will kit teens love punch. Yeah, you're all over it, man. Okay, well,

why don't you turn in your resume and we'll we'll

see if you're if you're the right can.

The punch things really good?

Okay? So, uh, Two Corinthians, chapter three or six is

where we need to move on to. And uh, we're

going to pick up in verse three and continue on.

And Paul now is kind of unpacking some of his

resume a little bit as far as the difficulties he's

faced for the sake of the gospel, and he says,

we live in such a way that no one will

stumble because of us, and no one will find fault

in our ministry. In everything we do, we show that

we are true ministers of God. We patiently endure troubles

and hardships and calamities of every kind. We've been beaten,

put in prison, faced angry mobs, worked to exhaustion, endured

sleepless nights, and gone without food. We prove ourselves by

our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness, by the

Holy Spirit within us, and by our sincere love. We

faithfully preach the truth God's power is working in us.

We use the weapons of righteousness in the right hand

for attack and the left hand for defense. We serve God.

Whether people honor us or despise us, whether they slander

us or praise us. We are honest, but they call

us imposters. We are ignored even though we are well known.

We live close to death, but we are still alive.

We've been beaten, but we've not been killed. Our hearts ache,

but we always have joy. We are poor, but we

give spiritual riches to others. We own nothing, and yet

we have everything. Oh, dear Christian Corinthian friends, We have

spoken honestly with you, and our hearts are open to you.

There's no lack of love on our part, but you

have withheld your love from us. I'm asking you to

respond as if you were my own children, open your

hearts to us.

Yeah, you know, Paul is great.

Yep.

You know, Paul is my favorite.

When we get to Heaven, I'll make sure i'll let

him know that. Hey, you know, one times I well

said on our podcast.

I just I'm so excited about Paul. You know, when

we were making the series, you know, the series for

twenty twenty three, we're trying to decide like, okay, what

do we preach on for twenty twenty three And right

after Easter, we're actually doing a series and it's a

five week series and it's just on the Apostle. Paul.

Yeah, that's gonna be great.

And I just and I'm thinking, gosh, I can go

we can go like fifteen weeks on the Apostle.

Paul. Yeah, right, but we've never.

Identified But anyway, I just I just think Paul's great.

Yep. So's he's here kind of he's pleading with them again.

It's kind of almost it feels like a pause in

the letter a little bit. He's been talking about eternity,

and then he pivots back to now, hey, listen, I

love you guys. I've paid the price proving my love

to you. But one of my favorite things, you know,

he talks about facing the angry mobs and the hardships

and calamities and endured sleepless nights and gone without food.

But look at what verse success we prove ourselves by

what our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness and

the Holy Spirit within us and our sincere love. Those

six things prove whether you're legit or not. Right, That's

what's we're saying.

And he classifies them, and he sort of categorizes them

and calls them weapons of righteousness.

That's right.

So those things that you just mentioned the very next

word say we use the weapons of righteousness in the

hands of the right the left?

Does he mentioned typing in all caps on Facebook? Where

where's that is? The weapons of righteousness? Where is it?

I don't see it?

Boom soapbox.

What about arguing with all of your friends all the time?

Right is there? Hey? What what about you know? Banishing

family members from from Christmas parties? And stuff like that.

Is that I don't know where's that there's a weapon

of righteousness, Jeff.

Those are not in there.

They're not in there. No.

Oh, by the way, Uh, sometimes when we read things

like this, if we're not careful, we can forget the

context of not only you know, of Paul's context, but

also how people are receiving these words, because think about this, Okay,

like it wasn't too long ago. It was it was,

like you know what, probably not even a couple of

decades where Jesus actually said these words a new commandment,

I bring to you love one another. Right, And so

imagine that the idea of loving one another is only

a couple of decades old, right. And then all of

a sudden, Paul's going around and he's, you know, bringing

the Gospel, which started, by the way, in the Jewish community.

And so it sort of grows and grows and grows.

And then Paul's you know, commission or his life assignment,

right that he's been given is to take it to

you know, the gentiles, those who are in Greeks and

those who are not very familiar with the ways of

Christ and the church certainly, and so he's writing to

the Church of Corinth. They're not church culture people. So

think about this. It seems a little arrogant, perhaps out

of context, to hear Paul say like this, we live

in such a way that no one will stumble because

of us, and no one will find fault with our

ministry and everything we do. We showed that we are

true ministers of God. This isn't bragging. This is Paul

going out of his way to model that which is

not common. So Paul is saying, like you understand, you know.

It also reminds me of Philippians too, where he says,

you know, if you have any excuses about humility, let

me give you an example of Jesus. Jesus is the

ultimate example of humility. And this in the same way

Paul's trying to do this with his own life, and

he's saying, listen, if there's if there's if you have

right to complain, we're going to be the ultimate examples

of those who do not complain because we've still shown

you it's possible to have patience in the midst of

all these hardships. Well, how does that apply to us?

It means that chances are whatever excuse you have Paul

takes it away. Whatever excuse you have to say, like, oh,

I can't be patient with this person. You have no

idea how how difficult they are at work. Let me think,

does it compare to the things that Paul listed? It

doesn't compare. And there are so many people who you know,

they think to themselves, man, I have a tough suffering

for Jesus, like you mention, right, like, we don't really

know what's suffering for Jesus means.

Well, when you look at verse five, you know we've

been beaten, put in prison, face to angry mobs. Sometimes.

You know, we can feel that way too. You know

we're being foul with other people, were being we're not

representing Jesus well. And then how many times have I

had to apologize to somebody saying I'm sorry. I don't

know why I was so grumpy. It's just been a

really rough day, right man. I just feel like I've

been being beat up all day to day and then

I lashed out, or you know, I've worked to exhaustion,

I'm just really really tired, or I didn't sleep all

last night. I'm sorry I was grumpy. I didn't sleep

all last night, or I'm sorry I've gone without food.

I'm hungry, right right, Paul's like, Okay, maybe you were angry,

I was starving. Maybe you've got beat up by the

crowd at work. I literally was beat almost to death

and put in prison. What Paul is saying is anything

that you would use an excuse for your bad behavior, right,

he said, let's just multiply at times ten.

Right.

So I've gone through, but I've still tried as hard

as I could to model a godly way in a

godly response instead, And so he said, So I'm proving

myself by my purity. I'm proving by myself by my understanding.

I'm proving myself by my patience and kindness and the

Holy Spirit and sincere love. And that's really it. Instead

of us justifying our bad behaviors because we're angry or

because we got roughed up by the crowd, instead, let

us be working hard in these other ways to demonstrate

that we genuinely are sincere, not just telling we tell people.

I mean it in my heart, I'm sincere, even though

I mistreated you, Paul Saint, just why don't you just

go ahead and treat them?

Right?

Why don't you go ahead and prove that you are,

are you peer of heart and all those kinds of things.

So, and you know it's also inspiring is that it

also means for us today, you know, for those listening

and they're trying to apply this to their lives, thinking like,

how can I demonstrate patience and love and forgiveness and

godliness and patience and all these different things. It lets

us know that it's possible. If it's possible for Paul,

it's possible for us. And remember, again, Paul was modeling

something that was not common. And I think what Paul

was doing was it was his job to set the bar.

And I think that he actually knew that. He realized

that it was his job to set the bar, and

so he sets the bar extremely high. And God, by

the way, I think, allowed Paul to go through those things.

God may not allow you to go through such hardships

as Paul did. But again it's because I believe that

God used Paul and his writings and his life and

his experiences to set the bar for us. So it

is possible today to show patience and love to that

difficult person at work.

Yeah, sure it really is. And then he's also trying

to say to us, it doesn't matter what you go through,

you're going to be okay. You know, we were ignored

even though we're well known. We live close to death,

but we're still alive. We've been beaten, but we've not

been killed. Our hearts ache, but we always have joy.

What he's saying is, listen, you're going to make it

through this, and I know it because I got me

through it. And that's that's you know, he's trying to

encourage people all the way around Christians in particular, to

trust that God's going to carry you through these things.

You know, yes, it's going to be difficult, you make

it through it. And then I think, you know, as

we come to the end of that passage, he's really transparent.

I think, oh, dear Corinthian friends, and he said, I've

been really open and honest with you how I feel

about you, and that I love you. Yes, I gave

you some tough news, but man, I love you. And

you think of how he opened both of his letters,

how he closed his letter, I just I love you

so much, and he said, but I don't feel like

it's being reciprocated. I think that there's something special in

the idea of us making sure. It's almost like you're saying,

we're good, right, are we okay?

Yeah?

Because I feel like you're withdrawing from me. And when

it comes to relationships, what Paul doesn't do is just

let relationship be. He's wanting to strengthen the relationship. He's

leaning in. So when he's feeling like I'm demonstrating my

love to you, but you don't seem to be demonstrating

your love back, I don't even know what to do

with this, and so I just want to make sure

it's right. And so then he says, open your hearts

to us. What he's saying is more important than us

arguing about behaviors, more important than us arguing about all

these other things, is that we genuinely have love for

one another. I want you to know that I love you,

and for some reason you seem withdrawn from me. Let's

draw close together. Their relationship was more important than any

of the rest of the things he was arguing or

talking about.

And by the way, once again Paul makes a comparison.

He says, respond as if you were my own children.

Yeah.

So Paul again just has a way of slipping in there,

just another metaphor or a visual aid that helps us understand. Oh, yeah,

that's right, because Paul is in essence their spiritual father. Yes,

he is the pastor that comes along starts the church.

And even though there are other leaders and other pastors

and other people there leaving the church, Paul sort of

is the father and he feels responsible for the church.

And as somebody who is a pastor by profession, I

understand that because even though I may see somebody who like,

for instance, I just saw a whole family in a

restaurant I don't know, three days ago, and there was

like twenty five of them and they were there celebrating

their some family member's eightieth birthday. There's balloons and everything else, right,

And I walk in and these two ladies in particular

knew me, but I did not know them, do not

know their names at all. And they said, oh, you've

been our pastor for you know, X amount of years,

and you know, we want to come to services and

this and that. And it's amazing how they went from

being somebody who I didn't have any care for them whatsoever.

I didn't hate them, I just didn't care for them. Right,

They were neutral, they were Switzerland to me, right, and

then all of a sudden I immediately felt like fatherly right, like,

oh my goodness, they've been under my ministry for ten years,

which means like I feel like I I want like

a mother that puts their wings around some chickens, right,

that around their chicks. And you feel that because you

feel spiritually responsible, you feel you know all these different ways.

And I believe that that's what Paul is saying. Paul

is saying like, I feel like you're my own children, yeah,

and my heart and my compassion, and so I want

you to respond like your own children, because he has

such a love for them. And even when our children

are bad, isn't it true, we love them just the same,

that's right. And even though that we're the ones that

bring the discipline, just like that's that's Paul too, because

you said it yourself. He's writing some harsh words, that's right,

But he's like, I'm your dad, right, I'm supposed to

do that.

It's my job to give you the difficult news too,

not just the good news. And I love you right, right,

And hey, there's a lot of value in having straight

shooters in our life. Yeah, who call a spatis bade,

who say, hey, these things you're doing well, these things

you aren't doing well, let's fix those things and be better,

especially somebody who thinks of us as a father very quickly,

if I can reference this, You mentioned it a couple

times over the last couple of podcasts about running into

somebody that's been a member in your church for ten

years that you didn't know them, right, And for somebody

maybe who doesn't know the context that we're in. You

and I serve together in a very very large church,

that's why. And so there are many pastors on it.

We just had our Christmas party a little while ago.

We have fifty five staff members at our Christmas party.

So the people in our church are known. Sometimes we

don't know them. They have their pastors, they have the

people who are caring for them, they have their smug

We have seventy eighty one hundred small group leaders that

lead and function as pastors as well. So it's not

that they're Basically what she's saying is you're the guy

I here preach a lot on Sundays, right, and as leaders,

you and I have a spiritual responsibility for all of them,

even though we don't always know them, but we share

leadership with so many. That's why both of you and

I will get up on a Sunday morning and we'll

say Hi, I'm Jeffrey. You'll say hi, I'm Chris. We're

one of the pastors here, right, rather than saying I'm

the pastor here. It's because you know, we share and

so you and I are teaching pastors, but there are many,

many other pastors and other small group leaders that are

providing spiritual care to And that's why we're able to

serve thousands and thousands of people, is because we're able

to disperse some of the responsibility of leading and caring

for all of our.

People, which, by the way, is an exact reflection of

Acts chapter two. Yes, so if you think about the

three thousand people getting added to the church in one day,

and you know them saying like, hey, we should not

neglect preaching the word of God and to care for

orphans and widows, we're going to delegate that responsibility out.

Everything you just said is exactly how Acts chapter two church.

Ran, and then throughout the New Testament there's always a

plurality of leadership like in Acts. Paul calls all of

the elders from Ephthesis. He doesn't call the elder from Ephesus.

He calls them all all the and Peter references to

all of the shepherds that are serving as bishops and pastors, right,

and so I think that the a plurality of leadership

allows for greater impact. And so that's how that happens.

So it's not that it's a look at me, I

don't know any of my church people. It's that there

are lots of people who attend for different reasons and

have other people that are caring for them. But we

feel a responsibility from a teaching standpoint and from making

sure that care is provided. So much so she felt

so cared for. She was thrilled to run into you

right right right, So she she didn't feel like she

was being poorly cared for. She was thrilled that she

got to run into you.

That's a great clarification.

Yeah, yeah, I think it's important.

So okay, well we will wrap it up right there

and we will see you next time, hopefully on the Bible.

Guys,