The Self-Deception Test

Introduction:

Jeremiah 17:9 - The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Matthew 7:13-14 - Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Matthew 7:21-23 - “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

2 Corinthians 13:5 - Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

Lamentations 3:40 - Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the LORD!

1 Corinthians 11:28 - Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

Galatians 6:4 - But let each one test his own work

The Test of Self-Deception:

Circle whether the statements on assurance are True or False in your life today:

1. There is no way I can be self-deceived.

True False

Jeremiah 17:9 - The heart is DECEITFUL above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?



2. I think I am a really good and important person.

True False

Galatians 6:3 - For if anyone thinks he is SOMETHING when he is nothing, he deceives himself.



3. Sin has never really been an issue for me.

True False

1 John 1:8 - If we say we have no SIN we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.



4. I go to church a lot, but that doesn’t really affect the way I live.

True False

James 1:22 - But be DOERS of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.



5. The way I talk doesn’t really reflect my faith.

True False

James 1:26 - If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his TONGUE but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless.

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The Self-Deception Test

Jeff Miller

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Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read 2 Corinthians 13:5

1. What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
   

2. Which of these test questions was most convicting to you?
   

3. A non-believing friend says to you, “Deep down, I am a good person.” How do you convince them they are self-deceived?

Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another. Are there any areas of your life that you now see you have been deceiving yourself?

This is Who We Are: Pillar 4

Introduction:

The Two Motivations to Share the Good News of Jesus That Are Embraced by Every True Witness (2 Cor 5:14-21):

1. I'm controlled by Love . (2 Cor 5:14-15)
2. I'm defined by Identity . (2 Cor 5:18-21)

1. Trustee (2 Cor 5:18-19)
2. Ambassador (2 Cor 5:20a)
3. Spokesperson (2 Cor 5:20bc)

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This is Who We Are - Pillar 4 - We Share the Good News of Jesus with Boldness

Jeff Miller

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• Audio Transcript

  00:42-00:46

  Open up your Bibles with me, please, to 2 Corinthians 5.

  00:46-00:47

  We're in this series.

  00:48-00:49

  This is who we are.

  00:50-00:56

  And if you're new around here, we've been spending some time talking about this is our identity as a church.

  00:58-00:59

  So if you're new, it's a great introduction.

  01:00-01:15

  And if you've been with us for a long time, again, it's just so important that we get back to this, that we don't forget who we are and what we're about, so we don't drift and start doing some crazy, unbiblical, non-Christ-centered things.

  01:17-01:18

  This is why we do these series.

  01:21-01:28

  2 Corinthians 5, while you're turning there, several years ago, we had a knock at our door.

  01:28-01:43

  I was sitting at the dining room table, and Aaron went and answered the door, and there was a guy at our door who said, "Hey, I just got done sealing a driveway up the street, and I got some extra material, I'll seal your driveway for $220.

  01:44-01:45

  Anybody ever have somebody show up at your house like that?

  01:46-01:48

  Show up and, "That guy's been to your house too? A lot of you.

  01:51-01:57

  Okay." Well, Erin goes, "You know what? My husband actually just did our driveway," which I did.

  01:58-02:04

  She goes, "My husband just did our driveway like a month ago, so it's like a 10-year sealant.

  02:04-02:07

  I don't think we need to do it again, but thank you.

  02:09-02:11

  And he goes, well, I have the extra material.

  02:11-02:12

  It won't take me that long.

  02:12-02:13

  It's only $220.

  02:15-02:17

  And my wife's like, we don't really need it, thank you.

  02:19-02:23

  And he said, is the man of the house home?

  02:25-02:32

  And I said, I'm right here, and I'm going to go get some popcorn, because I want to watch how the rest of this conversation goes.

  02:36-02:38

  I'm going to fast forward through the next few minutes.

  02:41-02:48

  He limped back to his truck and he came back next year.

  02:48-02:49

  Same guy, same story.

  02:49-02:54

  I was in the neighborhood and I have the extra material and I can do it real quick.

  02:54-03:06

  And my wife's like, "Still no." You're like, "Why are you telling us this story?" in heaven, I'm going to be that guy.

  03:08-03:10

  I'm going to be that guy in heaven.

  03:11-03:35

  Because I'm going to go around and say, "Hey, can I tell you how awesome Jesus is, and how He died to take away your sin and rose from the dead to give eternal life?" And everybody in heaven is going to be like, "We know." "No, no, no, if you receive Him, you have the gift of heaven!" they're going to be like, "Dude, we're here." Like, you don't understand.

  03:37-03:41

  Jesus Christ loves you so much that He was willing to lay His life down.

  03:42-03:48

  And they're going to say, "Goat boy, are you new here?" Because we know the message of the Gospel.

  03:49-03:52

  And I'm going to be like driveway guy walking around with my bucket of sealant.

  03:53-03:56

  "Anybody want to hear the Gospel?" We know! We got it!

  03:59-04:00

  No.

  04:02-04:03

  I'm going to be out of a job in heaven.

  04:05-04:06

  And that's okay.

  04:07-04:08

  Do you know what that means?

  04:10-04:21

  That means while I'm on the earth, I have to take every opportunity that I have to do the one thing that I will not be doing in heaven.

  04:24-04:26

  Not just me. You too.

  04:28-04:38

  Every opportunity the Lord gives you to do the one thing you will not do in heaven, and that is sharing the good news of Jesus with boldness.

  04:41-04:42

  This is who we are.

  04:43-04:45

  We proclaim the authority of God's Word without apology.

  04:46-04:48

  We lift high the name of Jesus through worship.

  04:48-04:50

  We believe firmly in the power of prayer.

  04:51-04:52

  And this is our fourth pillar.

  04:54-04:56

  We share the good news of Jesus with boldness.

  04:57-04:59

  So, how do we share?

  05:00-05:01

  How do we share?

  05:03-05:10

  I have a stack of books in my office that I was looking at this past week, and every book is about how.

  05:11-05:12

  How. How do we share? How do you share the Gospel?

  05:13-05:13

  How do you share the Gospel with someone?

  05:13-05:14

  How do you share the Gospel with someone?

  05:16-05:22

  And, you know, biblically there's really only one word used to describe how we are to share.

  05:23-05:29

  And that is the word "boldness." Boldness doesn't mean obnoxious, okay?

  05:30-05:37

  Boldness doesn't mean showing up at your neighbor's house saying, "Hey, pagan, you're going to hell!" That's not boldness.

  05:37-05:39

  That's obnoxious.

  05:40-05:41

  That's jerky.

  05:43-05:45

  Boldness doesn't mean condescending.

  05:46-05:48

  Boldness doesn't mean self-righteous.

  05:49-05:50

  Boldness simply means this.

  05:51-05:58

  When God gives me opportunity to share the message of His Son, I'm going to open my mouth and share it.

  05:58-06:00

  That's all boldness means.

  06:03-06:04

  But boldness is how.

  06:05-06:09

  And you know with this series, I'm not going to focus on how, I want to focus on why.

  06:11-06:15

  I want to talk about why do we share the message of Jesus with boldness.

  06:17-06:18

  Why? Why evangelism?

  06:18-06:20

  Why witnessing? Why? Why?

  06:20-06:40

  And some of you coming in here, maybe you heard Dr. Andrew give the announcements and you're like, "Oh, a message on evangelism! Oh!" Pack your bags, we're going on a guilt trip, and Jeff's going to get up and tell us what horrible Christians we are because we don't share with our neighbor, and you're not getting any of that today.

  06:45-06:51

  Because when it comes to evangelism, the message, we got that. Easy, right?

  06:51-06:52

  We got the message.

  06:53-06:54

  It's all written down.

  06:54-06:56

  You have a copy on your lap right now.

  06:56-06:57

  We've got the message.

  06:58-07:02

  And the method, that's easy too.

  07:03-07:03

  Boldness, right?

  07:04-07:10

  When God gives you opportunity, you're just going to open your mouth and say about what Jesus Christ has done for you.

  07:10-07:11

  That's easy.

  07:14-07:15

  Today I want to talk about the motivation.

  07:18-07:20

  Because I can give you all the information.

  07:21-07:29

  I've taught so many classes on evangelism and how to and different ways to, and I can give you that.

  07:32-07:35

  But something that I cannot give you is the motivation.

  07:35-07:38

  I can give you the message and I can give you the method, but I cannot give you the motivation.

  07:39-07:39

  I can't do that.

  07:40-07:42

  The motivation has to come from God.

  07:43-07:45

  Only His Spirit can do that.

  07:47-07:50

  So in your outline today, if you're taking those, I'm going to look at two things.

  07:52-07:56

  The two motivations to share the good news of Jesus that are embraced by every true witness.

  07:58-08:03

  I had some time allotted to shorten that heading, but I got a phone call and I never got back.

  08:05-08:06

  So that's what we're going with today.

  08:07-08:13

  The two motivations, biblically, to share the good news of Jesus, and these are embraced by every true witness.

  08:15-08:16

  2 Corinthians 5.

  08:17-08:18

  Jot this down first of all.

  08:19-08:20

  I'm controlled by love.

  08:22-08:23

  Look at v. 14.

  08:25-08:30

  It says, "For the love of Christ controls us." Stop right there.

  08:33-08:44

  "For the love of Christ controls us." And you have to see that Paul isn't saying, "I'm controlled by my love for Jesus." And I think that's what we want the passage to say.

  08:44-08:51

  Like, "I love Jesus so much and I just can't help sharing with people." That's not what it says.

  08:52-09:14

  He's like, "We are controlled by His love for us." And I just have to tell you, if you don't know the power that love has to motivate you to the point of actually controlling you, I would just say you haven't met the right person.

  09:18-09:20

  And you certainly haven't met Jesus.

  09:22-09:26

  Because nothing moves a person like love.

  09:27-09:30

  If you're married, you can look at your husband or your wife right now.

  09:33-09:39

  Go ahead, and then say, "Nothing moves me like your love for me." Go ahead.

  09:40-09:41

  Early Valentine's Day present.

  09:44-09:46

  I am so glad the people at home can't see this.

  09:48-09:48

  That was terrible.

  09:50-09:51

  That was unconvincing.

  09:52-09:55

  We're starting a sermon series next week on marriage.

  09:57-10:01

  Not really, but I'm really rethinking that now.

  10:04-10:07

  Nothing motivates like love.

  10:10-10:13

  Nothing motivates like Jesus' love for me.

  10:16-10:20

  You see, it's like telling a child to get excited about Christmas.

  10:21-10:24

  Or it's like telling a bride-to-be to be thinking about her wedding.

  10:25-10:30

  Or like telling the mom of a special needs kid to be protective of her child.

  10:31-10:32

  I don't need to do any of those things.

  10:35-10:43

  And that's exactly what it's like trying to convince someone who knows Jesus' love to share Jesus' love with other people.

  10:43-10:45

  They're like, "You don't got to tell me to share Jesus with people.

  10:46-10:51

  Because He is so awesome, and everything He's done, I can't help it.

  10:52-10:58

  I love telling people about what God has done.

  11:01-11:03

  So how does His love control us?

  11:03-11:05

  Well, get back to verse 14. He tells us.

  11:08-11:31

  He says, "Because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died, and he died for all that those who live no longer live for themselves, but for Him, who for their sake died and was raised." How does Jesus' love control us?

  11:31-11:35

  He tells us being alive in Christ means being dead to myself.

  11:36-11:43

  My life belongs to Jesus, and because it belongs to Jesus, I can't live for myself, because His love controls me.

  11:45-12:19

  My God loves me, and through the death of Jesus on the cross, taken away all of my sin, all of my guilt, all of my shame, and that love moves me to do everything that He's called me to do. I don't feel obligated to be standing up here and telling you this. And you talk to anybody who's serving in our ministry teams or our elders, nobody's obligated here. Nobody's taking a guilt trip to teach a class or lead a ministry. It's like, I'm doing this because of the the way Jesus loves me.

  12:21-12:24

  It's a privilege to do what He's called me to do.

  12:26-12:30

  So no, I'm not going to spend time today telling you how to evangelize.

  12:33-12:34

  And you're like, "Well, are you ever?" Yeah.

  12:36-12:47

  We're in a three-year series in the Gospel of John right now called "Knowing Jesus." If you know Him, you'll love Him.

  12:48-12:52

  But more importantly, you'll know that He loves you.

  12:53-12:58

  That's why we're doing this series in the Gospel of John we're getting back to in two weeks.

  12:59-13:00

  That's why we're doing it.

  13:01-13:07

  Because everything in the Christian life is about knowing Him.

  13:07-13:09

  It's about a relationship with the living God.

  13:10-13:14

  And when we talk about sharing the good news of Jesus with Buldus, That's how it happens.

  13:15-13:17

  It comes as you know Him.

  13:20-13:21

  That controls you.

  13:23-13:28

  The number one thing a witness for Christ needs is knowing Jesus' love.

  13:29-13:33

  And by the way, speaking of love, there's a secondary motivation from love.

  13:35-13:36

  And it's a love for people.

  13:37-13:39

  It really flows from the first.

  13:40-13:40

  Look at verse 16.

  13:44-13:49

  He says, "From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh.

  13:50-14:05

  Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard Him thus no longer." Paul says, "I stopped seeing people as external, just looking at the outside." He said, "We used to look at Christ that way.

  14:05-14:21

  We looked at Jesus and we just saw He's this Jewish guy, and he's a blasphemer, and I don't really like him or regard him." Paul says, "That's how we used to think of Jesus, but now we see Him for who He is.

  14:22-14:29

  Our eyes have been opened." He says, "And now I see people differently.

  14:32-14:35

  I see people as spiritual beings.

  14:37-14:46

  And I probably don't have to sell you on the fact that we have drifted so far from that in our day, seeing people as spiritual beings.

  14:46-14:48

  How do we see people in our day?

  14:50-14:52

  More than ever, it's external, right?

  14:54-15:01

  Oh, if we find out your political persuasion, you're either an idiot Republican or you're an evil Democrat, That's how we see people.

  15:03-15:09

  Or you're like, "I'm independent." Okay, then you're a weirdo independent.

  15:12-15:14

  That's how we see people.

  15:14-15:18

  Or we look at people according to purely like sexual preference.

  15:19-15:27

  He is a homosexual, she is a lesbian, they are transgender, and we just, we want to slap these external labels on people.

  15:30-15:33

  or we look at people according to the money they have, or the money they don't have.

  15:34-15:37

  You're part of the 1%, you're part of the 99%, or whatever.

  15:38-15:48

  Can we just acknowledge that all of these things are external things that sometimes we don't get deeper to say, "This is an eternal soul.

  15:48-15:59

  This person is going to spend eternity somewhere, either in the presence of the God who loves, We're apart from the God who loves forever in hell.

  16:03-16:10

  We need to see people not as external, but as eternal.

  16:13-16:13

  Eternal souls.

  16:15-16:21

  And I have the message that God uses to transform them.

  16:23-16:23

  Look at verse 17.

  16:25-16:28

  "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

  16:29-16:30

  The old has passed away.

  16:31-16:34

  Behold, the new has come." New creation.

  16:35-16:40

  Jesus Christ didn't come into the world to turn bad people into good people.

  16:40-16:43

  Jesus came to turn dead people into alive people.

  16:46-16:52

  Christ's love controls us, and as a result, His love for people is now our love for people.

  16:54-16:54

  And that's compelling.

  16:57-17:01

  So two motivations to share the good news of Jesus embraced by every true witness.

  17:02-17:03

  First of all, I'm controlled by love.

  17:04-17:06

  Second thing, jot this down.

  17:08-17:10

  I'm defined by identity.

  17:11-17:12

  I'm defined by identity.

  17:18-17:20

  Now, evangelism is commanded.

  17:20-17:48

  Yes, absolutely, 100%, great commission, but when it comes down to actually witnessing, to just simply say, "We're commanded to do it," that's true, but just simply saying that much doesn't really capture the bigger motivation behind sharing Christ.

  17:49-17:54

  I want you to see in this passage that your motivation has to be tied to your identity.

  17:57-17:58

  Think about it this way.

  17:59-18:10

  You need to move from "I have to witness" to "I am a witness." See the difference between the two?

  18:11-18:12

  "I have to witness.

  18:13-18:17

  That's what God has told me to do." There's truth in that.

  18:19-18:23

  The deeper truth is, I am a witness.

  18:24-18:25

  Because that's what God has called me.

  18:28-18:39

  And you're like, "Well, I hear what you're saying, Jeff, but you know, witnessing is not really my thing." And I would say, first of all, don't say it like that.

  18:42-18:47

  And second of all, if you're a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, Witnessing is your thing.

  18:49-18:51

  The issue is you're either a good witness or you're a bad witness, really.

  18:52-18:55

  But you're a witness if you're one of Christ's, right?

  18:55-18:57

  Because it's your identity.

  18:57-18:58

  It's not your chore.

  18:58-18:59

  It's your identity.

  19:01-19:07

  And you're like, "Man, can you back that up?" Well, let's look down at verse 18, shall we?

  19:08-19:12

  Because Paul describes this identity with three pictures.

  19:12-19:14

  The first, we're looking at verses 18 and 19.

  19:16-19:17

  The first picture is a picture of a trustee.

  19:18-19:39

  He says, "All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation." That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

  19:40-19:46

  So first of all, according to God, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you're a trustee.

  19:47-19:48

  Did you see that?

  19:49-19:51

  He uses that with a couple phrases here.

  19:51-20:02

  The first one, he says, "The ministry of reconciliation was given to us," and then he says, "it was entrusted to us." Think about that.

  20:05-20:11

  In this church, we entrust money to Andrew and Sean.

  20:11-20:13

  They lead our finance team.

  20:13-20:15

  So when you give, we're giving to God.

  20:16-20:17

  Yes, right, Alex? We're giving to God.

  20:17-20:18

  Right? Okay, thank you.

  20:20-20:25

  We're giving to God, but there's a sense in the church that we're entrusting the money to Andrew and Sean.

  20:25-20:26

  Right?

  20:29-20:38

  And you're like, "If I'm giving money to God through these guys' hands, they better be reliable.

  20:39-20:40

  They better be honest.

  20:40-20:47

  We better be able to trust these guys if I'm giving the money that I worked for to them.

  20:47-20:49

  We better trust these guys.

  20:50-20:55

  But you know, if we do something even more audacious than that, we entrust our children to Mandy.

  20:59-21:00

  (laughter)

  21:04-21:12

  That statement I just made has nothing to do with Mandy's character as much as it has to do with how much more precious our children are to us than our money.

  21:13-21:13

  Amen?

  21:16-21:19

  That would have been a much easier sell when it wasn't Family Sunday.

  21:19-21:20

  Right?

  21:20-21:23

  When we're thinking of our kids back there instead of right here.

  21:25-21:27

  But we entrust our children to Mandy.

  21:29-21:31

  You know, this is life.

  21:31-21:56

  We love these people more than anything, and we do everything for them, and we come here on a Sunday, and we're like, "Mandy, here, I'm trusting you with the most precious thing that I have." Okay, so, God has given to us something that He is trusting us with.

  21:57-22:02

  God says, "I have this ministry of reconciliation.

  22:03-22:25

  I can change people eternally through this message." And God says, "Here, I'm giving this to you." Now just as seriously as we would take Andrew and Sean with the money, just as seriously as we would take Mandy watching the kids, how seriously do you think God takes it when He says, "Here, I'm trusting this with you"?

  22:25-22:26

  He's pretty serious about that.

  22:28-22:36

  You think God's pretty serious when He says, "Hey, people are lost, and people are self-destructing, and people are heading to hell.

  22:38-22:40

  So here, I'm giving this to you.

  22:41-22:41

  I'm trusting you.

  22:42-22:47

  You make sure they get this." You're a trustee.

  22:48-22:49

  It's in your lap.

  22:52-22:53

  Can God trust you with it?

  22:56-22:59

  So not only are you a trustee, you're also an ambassador.

  22:59-23:00

  Look at verse 20 again.

  23:03-23:12

  It says, "Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God, making His appeal through us." Let's stop there.

  23:14-23:15

  An ambassador.

  23:16-23:16

  What's an ambassador?

  23:17-23:22

  It's somebody that's in another country, they're representing the king from their country.

  23:23-23:23

  Right?

  23:24-23:33

  And they're not in this other country for personal gain, they're not trying to establish their own agenda, and they're certainly not there to change the culture of the other country.

  23:35-23:40

  They are there simply to represent the king in another culture.

  23:41-23:48

  If you're a born again believer, you too are in another culture, and you too are representing the king from your culture.

  23:51-23:54

  You're like, "What's the other culture?" This!

  23:56-23:56

  Earth!

  23:56-24:02

  This is the other culture and you are a citizen of heaven representing the King of heaven.

  24:05-24:07

  That is a very serious responsibility.

  24:09-24:11

  You're representing heaven to people.

  24:13-24:15

  You're representing Jesus Christ to people.

  24:18-24:21

  So we're trustees, we're ambassadors.

  24:21-24:24

  Letter C, you're also a spokesperson.

  24:25-24:39

  Back to verse 20, he says, "God making His appeal through us, we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." First of all, it says God is making His appeal.

  24:40-24:41

  You know what that means? Appeal?

  24:42-24:43

  That's an urgent request.

  24:45-24:48

  God's like, "Hey, I need to tell you something, It's really important!

  24:49-24:50

  He's making his appeal.

  24:52-24:56

  God is making His appeal to the world through you.

  24:59-25:02

  But it's even deeper than that.

  25:03-25:15

  Because He says, "We implore you on behalf of Christ." Now that word "implore" this is going to sound strange.

  25:17-25:19

  That word "implore" means to desperately beg.

  25:21-25:25

  In other words, if Jesus Christ was here right now, what would He be doing?

  25:25-25:30

  He would be desperately begging the world to receive His gift.

  25:32-25:39

  Because it says, "We're imploring you on behalf of Christ." Like Jesus isn't physically here, but He's spiritually here in His people.

  25:40-25:42

  because I represent Jesus, I've got to tell you something.

  25:43-25:47

  He is begging you to get off of the path that you're on and to trust Him.

  25:50-25:54

  And I just have to ask you, church, do you see the heart of God behind these commands?

  25:56-25:59

  Do you see the heart of God that we are to represent?

  26:00-26:16

  Some people sort of view God in heaven as distant and unemotional, and He sort of put the plan out, God's just kind of in heaven with His arms folded, and He's like, "Turn or burn, I don't care." That's how some people view God.

  26:17-26:22

  That God's up in heaven looking down, and He's saying, "Look, get right, or get left.

  26:25-26:30

  Whatever." But there's a real passion and emotion behind this.

  26:30-26:36

  Because of the love that God has, Not just for His people, but for the lost.

  26:39-26:40

  Because of what is at stake.

  26:43-26:47

  What's at stake is something that we prefer not to think about.

  26:49-27:12

  So often people talk to me about unsafe co-workers, for example, and they're like, "Man, Jeff, I work with this guy, and man, Jeff, he is so lost, and this guy needs Jesus so bad, work with this guy, he needs Jesus so bad." And my response is, "If only God had a spokesperson working with that guy.

  27:14-27:30

  If only God had somebody, somebody that knew the message of Jesus, that could be in proximity of this guy, and maybe spoke the same language this guy spoke, and could maybe tell him, 'That's you, home slice.

  27:32-27:36

  In case you didn't pick it up, you're the spokesperson.

  27:39-27:50

  So these aspects of identity, being a trustee, being an ambassador, being a spokesperson, that means getting the message right, obviously.

  27:52-27:53

  You're going to get the message right.

  27:53-27:54

  What's the message?

  27:55-28:00

  Well, five times in these verses, five times, same word comes up, reconcile.

  28:02-28:07

  The Gospel is not often presented that way, but that's how the Bible presents it.

  28:08-28:10

  That there's a hostility between God and man.

  28:10-28:18

  We are enemies with God by nature, because God is holy and perfect and just, and we are sinful and rebellious and self-centered.

  28:21-28:25

  And we are enemies of God, and God wants to reconcile.

  28:26-28:34

  God says, "Look, you have sinned against Me, I have made provisions so that you can have your sin taken away.

  28:37-28:47

  Every nasty thought you've had, every rotten attitude, every harsh word, every time you've avoided doing what you know you should have done, all of that's sin.

  28:50-28:51

  Everyone knows.

  28:53-28:56

  Everyone knows deep down that we are flawed people.

  28:56-28:57

  Everyone knows that.

  28:57-29:00

  When you're sharing Christ with people, you already have that advantage.

  29:00-29:03

  We know deep down that we are miserably rotten people.

  29:06-29:09

  And people deep down wonder, "Well, what happens someday when I die?

  29:09-29:10

  Where do I go?

  29:10-29:12

  What happens when I stand before God?

  29:12-29:18

  What happens when I have to answer for all of the wrong things that I've done?" See, that's where the good news comes in.

  29:19-29:28

  This is where I get to represent God and say, "Hey, there's a way God will never hold your sin against you.

  29:31-29:33

  Like, well, how can that be?

  29:33-29:37

  You know, I've really messed up a lot of things in my life.

  29:37-29:39

  I've really made a lot of bad choices.

  29:39-29:41

  I've really hurt some people.

  29:41-29:46

  And I don't understand how you could say God will not hold my sin against me.

  29:48-29:50

  How can that possibly be?

  29:50-29:51

  Well, look at verse 21.

  29:53-29:55

  in my mind, the most profound verse in the whole Bible.

  29:57-30:03

  He says, "For our sake, He made Him..." That's God the Father made Jesus, okay?

  30:03-30:28

  "For our sake, He made Him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." In other words, for the one who will believe, When Jesus Christ was on the cross, God treated Him as if He lived your life.

  30:31-30:42

  And as a result of Jesus' sacrifice, now God treats you as if you lived Jesus' life.

  30:45-31:03

  That in a profound way that I will never be able I can fully wrap my brain around when Jesus was on the cross, He took your sin on Himself, and in exchange, He gives you His righteousness.

  31:05-31:16

  That in Christ, God sees you as sinless and perfect and holy, not because of your conduct, but because of what His Son accomplished on the cross.

  31:17-31:18

  I'm not going to tell you.

  31:19-31:21

  That's life-changing stuff right there.

  31:24-31:32

  So every true believer says, "You know, I don't really need commanded to share that message.

  31:34-31:36

  But I'll tell you what, I am going to share that message.

  31:38-31:47

  Because the love of Christ controls me, and honestly, that's just who God called me to be." Come on, let's pray.

  31:48-31:57

  Father in heaven, your gospel is beyond human explanation.

  32:01-32:05

  Sometimes those of us who have known it for a while can take it for granted.

  32:08-32:21

  What a staggering thought that the God of the universe would pay the penalty that we owe.

  32:26-32:28

  It's just staggering.

  32:30-32:31

  that You would love us that much.

  32:34-32:41

  That Your Son would take our sin on Himself and He would give us His righteousness.

  32:44-32:46

  It's absolutely staggering, Father.

  32:47-32:51

  And even if we can't fully wrap our brains around it, we believe it.

  32:55-32:57

  And we certainly thank You for it.

  32:59-33:07

  Specifically today, Father, we thank You that You have given us the ministry of reconciliation.

  33:09-33:22

  In Your wisdom, Father, there are literally trillions of other ways You could have used to communicate Your Gospel that You have chosen to entrust the message to us.

  33:23-33:30

  And I just pray for my brothers and sisters here, especially as the days are evil, especially as people want to hear it less and less.

  33:32-33:35

  At the same time, Father, You are preparing people for it.

  33:35-33:44

  You are already at work in the hearts of people that You are entrusting us to come along and share the message of Your Son.

  33:46-33:52

  Father, I pray that as we draw near to Jesus Christ, we allow His love to control us.

  33:55-34:02

  Father, I pray that we look at ourselves the way that You do.

  34:06-34:10

  We find our identity being ambassadors of heaven.

  34:11-34:13

  Father, it's all for Your glory and honor.

  34:14-34:17

  We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read 2 Corinthians 5:14-21

1. What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
   

2. Explain how the love of Christ controls us (2 Cor 5:14-15). How does that motivate you to share the Good News of Jesus with others?
   

3. What is the difference between “I am commanded to witness” vs “I am a witness”? How does understanding your identity make you an effective witness for sharing the Good News of Jesus?
   

4. What would you say to someone who says, “Honestly - I don't really share Christ with others. It's just not my gift.”

Breakout
Pray for boldness – when opportunity comes to share Jesus with someone, you take that opportunity.

Paul: Zeal.

Introduction / Review:

zeal

Def: great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or an objective.

Romans 12:11 - Do not be slothful in zeal...

Romans 9:1-3 – I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit—that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

Exodus 32:32 - But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.

Why I Am Fired Up to Share Christ (2 Cor 5:14-21):

1. I am Controlled by Jesus' love. (2 Cor 5:14-15)
2. I see people as Spiritual beings. (2 Cor 5:16-17)
3. I Represent God to people! (2 Cor 5:18-20)
4. I have a Life-Changing message! (2 Cor 5:21)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

Bible Basic - 10 Paul: Zeal.

Jeff Miller

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• Audio Transcript

  00:38-00:42

  Our sermon series is Bible Basics.

  00:42-00:49

  And we are looking at ten people from the Bible that you need to know, trying to get a panoramic view of the Bible.

  00:50-00:55

  And with these people we have been studying, we've been learning some very important lessons.

  00:59-01:02

  Abraham taught us what it means to have faith in the Lord.

  01:04-01:08

  Joseph taught us what it means to trust in the Lord, even when things look horrible.

  01:10-01:13

  Moses taught us what it means to be dependent on the Lord.

  01:15-01:19

  Joshua taught us what it meant to have courage in the Lord.

  01:21-01:26

  Saul taught us the consequences of being disobedient to the Lord.

  01:27-01:30

  David showed us what it was like to worship the Lord.

  01:30-01:34

  And Solomon showed us how to get wisdom from the Lord.

  01:36-01:42

  Jesus taught us that He is the salvation of the Lord.

  01:43-01:52

  And last week we saw Peter showed us what it looks like when we have messed up bad.

  01:53-01:56

  Peter showed us restoration in the Lord.

  01:57-02:08

  Well, this past Thursday I was on my way to pick up Cade from school when the gas tank was on E, pulled into sheet right there on 910 and 79.

  02:09-02:11

  And every pump was full as usual.

  02:11-02:13

  That place is always hopping.

  02:13-02:16

  And waited, found one open, pulled in.

  02:16-02:23

  And as I'm standing there pumping gas, all of a sudden this silver Jeep Grand Cherokee rolls up right in front of me.

  02:23-02:26

  And I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, like really close.

  02:26-02:30

  And this guy leans out the passenger window.

  02:30-02:33

  He's like, oh, I was starting to roll up on you like that bro.

  02:34-02:43

  I'm like, "It's all good?" He goes, "Hey, we get some overstock that we gotta unload.

  02:43-02:55

  "Do you wanna buy a home theater?" Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking, Rich, was I learned my lesson from buying the $500 worth of meat out of the back of that guy's truck.

  02:57-02:58

  Hey, the Lord is growing me.

  03:00-03:27

  So I'm like, I just smiled, I said, "Hey, no thank you." you didn't even hear the price yet bro! But here's the thing, even if it cost a nickel, I have zero use for a home theater. Right? I don't want to be rude to this guy, but I have zero use for a home theater. It could have been the greatest home theater system ever!

  03:30-03:33

  But I have no use for a home theater.

  03:36-03:40

  And I just said, you know what, man, I'm just not outfitted for it, but thank you.

  03:40-03:48

  And he just drove over and started trying to sell home theaters to the tow truck driver in the pump beside me.

  03:50-03:59

  But you know, as he left, I'm standing there pumping gas, and I was thinking to myself, I was thinking, "Alex, how would you like to have that job?

  04:00-04:10

  "Could you imagine showing up to work "and you're punching in and your boss is like, "'All right, step into my office.' "Like, 'Okay, what do you got for me today, chief?'

  04:10-04:11

  (laughs)

  04:12-04:19

  "'I need you to get onto the gas station "'and sell some home theaters.' "I'm like, 'That sounds like a terrible job.

  04:20-04:31

  "'A terrible job.' "Like, just going pump to pump to pump, asking complete strangers if they want to buy a home theater.

  04:31-04:32

  And then I was thinking about it.

  04:32-04:34

  I'm like, what's the demographic there?

  04:34-04:40

  Like, how many people at a gas station buy a home theater on impulse, right?

  04:41-04:47

  I mean, I can understand buying like a pack of gum or a Milky Way Midnight or a bottle of Coke Zero or whatever on impulse.

  04:48-04:52

  But I just can't imagine being at the pump and being like, you know what?

  04:52-04:53

  I haven't even thought about a home theater.

  04:53-04:59

  that you're offering me one, sure, how much? I just don't...

  04:59-05:15

  Then I got thinking a little more about this, and you're like, "Man, you thought about this a lot more than maybe you should have." And I thought, you know, that's something great about my job, and I would say Harvest Bible Chapel, that's something great about our job, is we have something that everybody needs. Right?

  05:16-05:36

  We have something that everybody needs, literally everyone, whether you're young or old, whether you're a man or a woman, whether you're black or white, whether you're rich or poor, no matter where you've been, no matter what you've done, we have something that we are offering in this establishment that literally everybody needs.

  05:39-05:43

  And the last guy on our list, the guy we're looking at today, has a man named Paul.

  05:44-05:46

  And this guy totally got it.

  05:48-05:51

  the greatest missionary of all time.

  05:52-06:00

  We spent three years in the book of Acts, and a huge chunk of that time was talking about this man.

  06:01-06:09

  He had the message, he had a plan, but there was something that made Paul effective.

  06:11-06:24

  On top of just having the message, which is absolutely essential, on top of having a plan, which is crucial, He had something else that made him so effective that without this thing, nothing happens.

  06:24-06:30

  And if we don't have this thing here at Harvest Bible Chapel, nothing is going to happen.

  06:30-06:32

  And that thing is called zeal.

  06:35-06:36

  What is zeal?

  06:36-06:37

  What is that?

  06:38-06:48

  Well the definition is it's great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or an objective.

  06:50-06:54

  Great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or an objective.

  06:55-07:01

  I would suggest to you in our mission of making disciples, I would suggest to you there is no greater cause.

  07:03-07:17

  We're doing, you realize, the thing that we're doing, the work that we're doing, if the Bible's true and I believe it is, the work that we're doing here changes lives for eternity.

  07:19-07:29

  And if zeal is greater energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or an objective, then I would say there should be no greater energy or enthusiasm for what we are doing here.

  07:32-07:34

  Because what we are doing here matters more than anything.

  07:36-07:45

  Romans 12, 11, Paul says, "Do not be slothful and zeal." And he was a guy who lived it.

  07:46-07:48

  Look what he said in Romans chapter 9.

  07:48-07:51

  He said, "I'm speaking the truth in Christ.

  07:51-07:51

  I'm not lying.

  07:51-07:58

  My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

  08:00-08:15

  Or I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh." See, Paul was Jewish, and many Jews at this time had rejected Jesus Christ as Messiah, and it grieved Paul so much.

  08:16-08:26

  He said, "You know, I'd be willing to go to hell if it meant they would receive Jesus Christ." Church, that's zeal.

  08:28-08:33

  And we know such a thing is not possible, transferring your salvation, that's not possible.

  08:34-08:37

  But what I want you to see is the heart behind that.

  08:38-08:43

  He says, "That's how much I care about these people." Moses had that going on too.

  08:44-08:48

  Remember back in Exodus 32, the whole golden calf incident?

  08:49-08:49

  Remember that story?

  08:50-09:07

  Moses is up on a mountain talking to God and Israel's like, "Hey, let's make a God." They craft this calf out of the gold, and Moses comes down and busts it up and makes them drink it, and it's just a horrible scene.

  09:08-09:11

  But I want you to see Exodus 32.32, what Moses prays to God.

  09:11-09:25

  He says, "But now if you will forgive their sin, but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written." Just like Paul, Moses was like, God, if you have to condemn somebody, condemn me.

  09:26-09:27

  But save your people.

  09:28-09:29

  And church, that's zeal.

  09:29-09:32

  That is compassion for lost people.

  09:32-09:38

  Even, and Paul and Moses both knew this well, very wicked lost people.

  09:40-09:43

  But can you imagine giving up your salvation for somebody else?

  09:43-09:45

  That's not like donating a kidney, right?

  09:47-09:53

  Like that's great enough to do something like that, to be willing to go to hell on behalf of someone else.

  09:56-10:07

  I look at Paul and I look at Moses and I think, "How much does my heart break for lost people?" I think you have to ask yourself that.

  10:07-10:09

  How much does your heart break for lost people?

  10:09-10:10

  You know lost people.

  10:10-10:15

  They're in your family and you're working with them and they live across the street from you.

  10:17-10:19

  But yeah, the last people I know are nasty.

  10:19-10:23

  The people that Paul and Moses dealt with were nasty people.

  10:26-10:30

  But today we're looking at one of the richest passages in the Bible.

  10:30-10:32

  This is one of my favorite passages in the entire Bible.

  10:34-10:35

  So rich in theology.

  10:37-10:43

  But today what I want us to look at is the zeal that's behind this passage.

  10:43-11:43

  church when you really get the theology, when you really understand spiritually what is being taught in this passage, you get fired up. You get the zeal to share the good news of Jesus Christ. So in your outline today I want you to jot some things down. We're gonna come alongside the Apostle Paul here, why I am fired up to share Christ. Why I am fired up to share Christ. First of all, number one, I am controlled by Jesus' love. I am controlled by Jesus' love. Look at verse 14. Paul writes, "For the love of Christ controls us." Stop right there. The love of Christ controls us. Understand This is such a foundational statement to everything that follows.

  11:44-11:44

  We've got to make this clear.

  11:45-11:50

  Paul is saying we are motivated not by our love for him.

  11:50-11:54

  He's not saying, "I love Jesus so much that this is what I do." That's not what he's saying.

  11:55-12:13

  He's saying, "I'm motivated by the love that Jesus has for me." He says, "The love of Christ controls us." That word control literally means pressure causing action.

  12:15-12:24

  In other words, with this bottle of water, we can make the action of a fountain coming out of the top.

  12:24-12:28

  And what is the way that happens?

  12:29-12:30

  Watch yourself.

  12:34-12:35

  I didn't mean it to shoot that way.

  12:36-12:36

  [LAUGHTER]

  12:37-12:39

  I thought it was going to go up.

  12:39-12:43

  But do you see how the pressure causes the action?

  12:44-12:47

  Please tell me you saw that, because otherwise--

  12:48-12:48

  [LAUGHTER]

  12:49-12:52

  I just-- we don't do it that way, Alex.

  12:52-12:53

  [LAUGHTER]

  12:54-12:59

  Please tell me you understand the illustration, because otherwise I'm going to take a tail kicking for nothing.

  13:01-13:02

  Did you guys see it over here?

  13:03-13:09

  Look, pressure causes action.

  13:10-13:11

  Do you need paper towels or anything?

  13:12-13:12

  We good?

  13:12-13:12

  All right.

  13:13-13:13

  All right.

  13:14-13:30

  And what Paul is saying here is Jesus Christ, I put the cap on, Jesus Christ is like this pressure on me that when it comes to sharing the love of Christ, it just like shoots out of me all the time and I can't help it.

  13:30-13:32

  Like, can you shut up about Jesus for a second?

  13:33-13:39

  He's like, I certainly cannot because the love of Christ has just, it's got me.

  13:39-13:42

  And it's this pressure that's on me and I can't let it go.

  13:45-13:57

  And as soon as we talk about witnessing evangelism, mission work, local outreach, I know, as soon as we talk about that, there's gonna be somebody that's like, oh, here comes the sales pitch.

  13:57-13:59

  Here comes the guilt trip.

  14:00-14:10

  to witness, "He's going to guilt me into evangelizing, and I'm not going to do that at all today." Because here's the thing when it comes to evangelism.

  14:13-14:15

  The love of Christ controls us.

  14:16-14:20

  And when you've got the love of Christ, you can't help it.

  14:22-14:28

  It's like telling a Pittsburgh Penguins fan to get excited that the season is starting.

  14:28-14:30

  Is such a thing necessary, Corinne?

  14:30-14:30

  No.

  14:32-14:38

  It's like telling a bride-to-be to think about her wedding.

  14:38-14:41

  Hey, hey, could you spend some time thinking about your wedding?

  14:41-14:43

  Is such a thing necessary, Kaylee?

  14:43-14:44

  No.

  14:46-14:51

  It's like telling a mom of a special needs child to be protective of that child.

  14:52-14:53

  Is such a thing necessary?

  14:55-15:03

  You see, that's what it's like trying to convince someone who knows Jesus' love to share Him.

  15:03-15:20

  And if you don't know the power that love has to motivate you to the point that it feels like it's controlling you, if you don't know what that kind of love is like, then you haven't met the right person yet.

  15:23-15:24

  And you certainly haven't met Jesus.

  15:26-15:28

  Because nothing moves a person like love.

  15:28-15:29

  Nothing.

  15:31-15:33

  How does His love control us exactly?

  15:36-15:38

  Well look at verse 14, he explains it.

  15:39-15:49

  "The love of Christ controls us because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died.

  15:52-16:04

  He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who for their sake died and was raised." How does His love control us?

  16:04-16:06

  He says, "Because we've concluded this.

  16:06-16:12

  Yes, we are alive in Christ, but yes, those who truly live in the Spirit live by this truth.

  16:12-17:01

  Being alive in Christ means being dead to myself." See, we're going to have baptisms here next week, and that's the whole thing behind the picture. That's why we don't do it this way Alex. That's the whole point of this picture is when you're going under the water you're saying I am dead and when you come up out of the water you're saying I'm identifying with the new life in Jesus Christ. That's what he's talking about in this passage. I don't live for me anymore. You know once upon a time I had all kinds of goals and dreams and And Christ came into my life and saved me and changed me and all the stuff that I had planned, but that ship really sailed.

  17:04-17:10

  My life belongs to Jesus, and because it belongs to Jesus, His mission is what matters, and that's what controls me.

  17:11-17:12

  You see, it's not obligation.

  17:13-17:15

  I'm not saved by evangelism.

  17:18-17:20

  It's not like Jesus has a quota for me.

  17:22-17:24

  I'm saved by His grace.

  17:24-17:30

  I'm saved because I experienced His awesome love and I received that by faith.

  17:30-17:37

  And it's that love that saves lost people like me that I just can't keep it to myself.

  17:40-17:46

  And I know many of you know this, but being a preacher was the absolute last thing I ever wanted to do.

  17:46-17:49

  Like, no! I told God no!

  17:49-17:52

  And I just can't seem to shut up about Him!

  17:54-17:56

  Because of His love!

  17:58-18:02

  So Harvest Bible Chapel, we ain't selling home theaters out of the back of a Jeep.

  18:04-18:09

  We're reaching lost people because we are controlled by Jesus' love.

  18:10-18:15

  As I heard one person put it, he says, "You know, I'm just a nobody that's telling everybody about somebody that can save anybody.

  18:16-18:17

  Controlled by the love of Jesus.

  18:19-18:22

  Number two, why I'm fired up to share Christ?

  18:22-18:24

  Because I see people as spiritual beings.

  18:25-18:28

  I see people as spiritual beings.

  18:29-18:30

  Look at verse 16.

  18:32-18:41

  He says, "From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh." Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.

  18:42-18:46

  He's saying we stop seeing people as external.

  18:49-18:49

  Just seeing the outside.

  18:50-18:52

  Paul's like, you know, we used to do this to Jesus, right?

  18:53-18:55

  We only looked at him from an external standpoint.

  18:55-19:04

  We looked at Jesus and we're like, that Jewish man is a radical teacher and a troublemaker.

  19:04-19:08

  And he says, I thought Jesus was just some guy.

  19:09-19:15

  And then my eyes were open and I'm like, I don't regard Christ according to the flesh anymore.

  19:16-19:18

  And then when you do that, you can't regard people.

  19:20-19:27

  See Paul says, "I see people differently." And people controlled by the love of Christ see people differently.

  19:29-19:41

  See you don't walk around and look at people and think, "Well, there's a worthless teenager." Or, "There's an annoying kid." "There's a stupid politician." there's a hopeless addict.

  19:43-19:44

  You see people as eternal.

  19:46-20:00

  You look at people and you think, "That person is going to spend eternity somewhere." And I have a message that God is going to use for that person to...

  20:01-20:02

  to what?

  20:03-20:05

  To make that person religious? No.

  20:06-20:09

  To make that person moral? No.

  20:09-20:10

  Now look at verse 17.

  20:11-20:14

  "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

  20:15-20:17

  The old has passed away.

  20:17-20:20

  Behold, the new has come." New creation.

  20:21-20:25

  Jesus didn't come into the world to turn bad people into good people.

  20:25-20:27

  And I've thought that my whole life.

  20:27-20:28

  That's what Jesus does.

  20:28-20:29

  He turns bad people to good people.

  20:29-20:31

  And that's not what He does.

  20:31-20:33

  He turns dead people into alive people.

  20:34-20:36

  And more on that in a minute.

  20:39-20:41

  Church, you've got to get this. People are spiritual beings.

  20:42-20:44

  Because of that, they're eternal beings.

  20:46-20:48

  And that fires me up to share Christ with people.

  20:50-20:51

  Because they're spending eternity somewhere.

  20:54-20:55

  Mike, can you bring me a chair up here, please?

  20:56-21:02

  At Harvest Bible Chapel, we encourage you to look for red apples.

  21:03-21:04

  What are red apples?

  21:05-21:06

  Thanks, Mike.

  21:07-21:14

  "Apples" refers to people who are ripe to the gospel.

  21:16-21:22

  That you need to learn to look for people who are ripe for the gospel.

  21:24-21:29

  And I want you to listen very closely because it took me a very long time to learn this.

  21:30-21:32

  A very long time to learn this.

  21:34-21:35

  and persuaded of better things for you.

  21:38-21:40

  This is what it took me so long to learn.

  21:41-21:43

  Some people just aren't ready to hear the gospel.

  21:45-21:47

  They just aren't ready.

  21:50-21:53

  Like, "Well, how did you learn that lesson?" I can tell you the exact day I learned that lesson.

  21:55-22:03

  At my old church, I stopped to get gas at the Sunoco, and you're like, "Well, Pastor Jeff, Servant has a lot of gas station stories.

  22:06-22:08

  I got like four more before we're done today.

  22:11-22:21

  But I went in to pay and the cashier, he said, I don't even remember how we even got into this.

  22:22-22:26

  He said, I need you to help me buy Christmas presents for my grandkids.

  22:28-22:31

  And I'm like, is this some kind of promotion that they're offering at A+?

  22:31-22:36

  Like, fill your tank, buy presents for somebody's grandkids.

  22:36-22:37

  Like, do I get a punch card for that?

  22:37-22:44

  Or it was, can you just agree with me that that's a really weird thing for the cashier at the gas station to say?

  22:44-22:47

  Okay, some of you are looking at me like, that's how they do it.

  22:49-22:50

  What?

  22:51-22:55

  So I'm thinking, all right, gospel opportunity.

  22:56-23:01

  I'm like, yeah, you come to my office and we'll give you some gift cards or whatever.

  23:01-23:17

  and I'd like to talk to you about Jesus Christ." And he's like, "Okay." So he comes to our office and we're sitting in the conference room and I'm sitting there and I am giving him the gospel with like both barrels.

  23:18-23:22

  It was the greatest gospel presentation I ever gave in my life.

  23:22-23:40

  I mean, you talk about thorough and passionate and I was laying it out The entire time that I was giving this man the gospel, this was his body language, and I am by no means exaggerating this.

  23:40-23:44

  This is what he was doing while I was sharing the gospel with him.

  23:45-23:46

  (exhaling)

  23:47-23:48

  (inhaling)

  23:49-23:50

  (exhaling)

  23:50-23:52

  Didn't even look at me.

  23:53-23:53

  (exhaling)

  23:55-23:56

  (exhaling)

  23:57-23:58

  (exhaling)

  24:00-24:07

  And then I got to the part of death on the cross, and he's just like, "How much longer?

  24:08-24:20

  How much longer is this?" I'm like, "I'm almost done, I'm almost to the boat!" He's like, "All right." So I rolled the gospel out to him, hardcore.

  24:21-24:27

  And he, of course at this point, Billy Graham in me is looking for a response.

  24:27-24:30

  And he's like, "Yeah, I got to go to work now.

  24:30-24:41

  Can I get those gift cards?" I gave him his gift cards, and I was just like, "What the heck happened there?" I mean, I had the right message, and I was fired up for it.

  24:43-24:48

  And the next time I saw him was the following November.

  24:49-24:55

  He said, "Hey, can you help me get presents for my grandkids for Christmas?" You want to come and hear the gospel?

  24:57-24:59

  That guy taught me something.

  25:00-25:04

  He taught me that some people just aren't ready to hear the gospel.

  25:04-25:05

  Now, don't misunderstand me.

  25:05-25:09

  Yes, yes, yes, we share with anyone.

  25:09-25:15

  Yes, church, we take every opportunity the Lord gives us.

  25:16-25:17

  Yes, for sure.

  25:20-25:23

  But in Red Apple evangelism, here's what I want to encourage you towards.

  25:23-25:26

  Look for people who are hurting.

  25:27-25:31

  Look for people who are experiencing the emptiness of life.

  25:31-25:43

  Look for people who are saying, "My thing ain't working!" Look for people who are looking for the very thing that you know Jesus Christ offers.

  25:45-25:46

  And here's the good news.

  25:47-25:48

  There's no shortage of those people.

  25:49-25:50

  They're everywhere.

  25:51-25:52

  Those people are everywhere.

  25:52-25:53

  You're related to some of them.

  25:54-25:55

  You work with some of them.

  25:55-25:56

  Some of them live in your neighborhood.

  25:56-25:58

  Look for them. Invite them to church.

  25:59-25:59

  Invite them to small groups.

  26:00-26:07

  Invite them to the life transformation, the new creation that Jesus Christ gives people who recognize they need it.

  26:10-26:11

  So why am I fired up to share Christ?

  26:11-26:14

  Well, I'm controlled by Jesus' love.

  26:14-26:16

  I see people as spiritual beings.

  26:17-26:18

  Look for the red apples, people.

  26:20-26:26

  3) I represent God the people. I represent God the people.

  26:27-26:29

  Go to verses 18-20.

  26:29-26:54

  "All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation." That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

  26:55-26:59

  Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us.

  27:00-27:07

  We implore you, or we beg you, or we urge you.

  27:07-27:08

  Do you see the zeal?

  27:09-27:15

  We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

  27:17-27:33

  So, God in heaven wants to broadcast the news of the gospel to all the earth, to all of these lost and hurting people that need to know His love, and the way God chooses to broadcast the message is through you.

  27:35-27:38

  That is incredible!

  27:39-27:41

  But that's how God would choose to work.

  27:43-27:46

  That's why verse 20 says that we are ambassadors for Christ.

  27:46-27:47

  You know what an ambassador is?

  27:48-27:55

  An ambassador is somebody that goes to another country and represents their own king to that country.

  27:58-28:02

  That ambassador doesn't go to another country for a personal agenda.

  28:03-28:12

  Like here's what I was thinking, that ambassador is not there to change their culture to say I'm here to whip you in shape to be...

  28:12-28:16

  No, that ambassador is there to communicate a message on the king's behalf.

  28:17-28:22

  And church, really, at the end of the day, that's our job too, is to represent the king to another culture.

  28:24-28:25

  Represent the king in another culture.

  28:26-28:26

  That's what we do.

  28:28-29:06

  I had a friend one time who, more like co-worker, "Did you meet him at a gas station, Pastor Jeff?" "No, I didn't." Okay, but I had this friend just through sports, the one time we were getting ready for the event, he came up to me and we were talking and he just very sincerely, he said, "You know what, man?" He goes, "You are Jesus to me." And immediately I was like trying to downplay that, like, no, no, no, no, no, I'm just, I wanna, I like to talk about Jesus and share Jesus and I'm trying to, I'm really trying to downplay that whole thing, but...

  29:08-29:11

  But there's a real sense in which that's true.

  29:13-29:14

  And I don't just mean of me.

  29:15-29:19

  I mean biblically of everyone who follows Jesus Christ.

  29:21-29:38

  He said, "You're Jesus to me." And I say to you, "You name the name of Christ, you claim He's your Lord and Savior, well then listen, you're Jesus to somebody." In your homes, dad, you're Jesus to your kids.

  29:40-29:47

  At the workplace, you work with a bunch of lost, selfish people, anybody?

  29:50-29:51

  You're Jesus to them.

  29:54-29:59

  And they might not verbalize it like this guy did to me, but it's true.

  29:59-30:01

  You represent Jesus to people.

  30:02-30:06

  For some people, you are the first impression that they have of Jesus Christ.

  30:07-30:09

  What is Christianity about?

  30:09-30:10

  What does the Bible teach?

  30:11-30:13

  Who is this Jesus that they follow?

  30:13-30:23

  They're evaluating all of that by the way that you act at work, the way you act in your home, the way you act in your community.

  30:24-30:29

  Part of that, of course, means getting the message right, obviously.

  30:29-30:30

  You gotta get the message right.

  30:31-30:32

  And what's the message?

  30:32-30:35

  You know, a lot of times in evangelism, this is the message.

  30:35-30:38

  It's like, do you want to have meaning in your life?

  30:40-30:42

  Do you want to have your best life now?

  30:44-30:47

  Or do you want to know purpose in your life?

  30:49-30:51

  Or would you like to be happy?

  30:52-30:56

  A lot of times that's how evangelism is presented.

  30:56-30:59

  And the gospel is about none of those things.

  31:02-31:03

  But what's the gospel about?

  31:05-31:16

  Well, look, I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but in those verses that we just read, 18 through 20, Paul said the same thing under inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

  31:16-31:18

  He said the same thing five times, what the gospel's about.

  31:19-31:19

  Did you catch it?

  31:20-31:20

  Five times.

  31:22-31:23

  One word begins with an R.

  31:26-31:26

  Reconciliation.

  31:27-31:29

  That's what the gospel is about, okay?

  31:31-31:40

  You come to know Jesus, yes, you're going to experience joy and happiness, and yes, you're going to understand meaning and purpose and all of that, but those are leaves on the tree.

  31:41-31:49

  The root, the foundation, the very essence of the gospel is found in the word reconciliation.

  31:50-31:51

  That's the gospel.

  31:52-31:57

  Like, "Well, that reconciliation, that sounds like there's some hostility going on." There is!

  31:59-32:00

  That's the problem.

  32:01-32:03

  We have sinned against the Holy God.

  32:04-32:12

  Every nasty thought, every rotten attitude, every harsh word, every time you avoid doing the thing that you know you should do.

  32:13-32:15

  It's like spitting in God's face.

  32:16-32:26

  It's like saying, "You're not God, I'm God!" You've sinned against Him, but He provided the means of reconciliation.

  32:28-32:47

  See that's why verse 19, you better have this underlined in your Bible, where He says, "In Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself." Here's the thing, look, "Not counting their trespasses against them." Not counting their trespasses against them.

  32:49-32:55

  See everyone knows deep down, everyone knows that they are flawed people.

  32:56-32:58

  Everyone knows they're heading to death.

  32:58-33:04

  And everyone again verbalizing or not is wondering what happens when I stand before God?

  33:04-33:13

  What happens when the day comes that I have to answer for all of the wicked things that I've done and all the mean things that I've said?

  33:13-33:22

  What's going to happen on that day when I have to stand before God and answer for my nastiness?

  33:24-33:25

  Well, see, here's the good news.

  33:25-33:27

  I get to represent God now.

  33:29-34:09

  And in representing God, I get to say to that person, "What if I told you," sounds like an infomercial now, "What if I told you there's a way that God will not hold your trespasses against you. Doesn't that sound like good news? There's a way that God will not hold your trespasses against you. How could that possibly be? And that takes us to our last point. I have a life changing message. Look at verse 21. I've referenced this verse probably more than any other verse in the Bible over the last 20 some years or whatever because Because this verse is the gospel.

  34:11-34:30

  He says, "For our sake, He made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." See the apparent dilemma that we see that God has to face is that justice has to be satisfied, right?

  34:30-34:31

  Justice has to be satisfied.

  34:32-34:32

  We know that.

  34:33-34:34

  There has to be justice.

  34:36-34:37

  We understand that even on an earthly level.

  34:39-34:46

  Imagine a man goes to court and he's been accused of violent murder.

  34:47-34:49

  This man goes to court and he says, "You know what, Your Honor?

  34:51-34:52

  I did it.

  34:53-34:53

  I confess.

  34:53-34:56

  I did it and I'm sorry.

  34:58-35:03

  Can I go?" And the judge is like, "Sure.

  35:04-35:10

  Go ahead." What would happen to that judge? Tell me what would happen to that judge?

  35:12-35:33

  Do you think he's going to be judged very much longer? He's not upholding the law, right? On a personal whim he decides to let a confessing murderer walk out? He's not going to be serving for long. Somebody's going to make sure of that.

  35:33-35:36

  What's the problem? The problem is there's no justice.

  35:37-35:40

  But see that's the most beautiful thing about the gospel.

  35:42-35:48

  So in the gospel, God in his love provided justice.

  35:49-36:02

  That's why verse 21 says, "God made Jesus to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." You see there's a swap that takes place.

  36:02-36:09

  The Bible says that when Jesus was on the cross, He took all of your and my sin on Himself.

  36:11-36:14

  And in exchange, He gave us the very righteousness of God.

  36:16-36:23

  In other words, when Jesus was on the cross, God treated Jesus as if Jesus was guilty.

  36:25-36:25

  Though He was not.

  36:27-36:28

  Jesus never committed one sin.

  36:29-36:32

  But God treated him as if he was guilty of all of the sin.

  36:34-36:40

  And instead, God treats us as if we live Jesus' life.

  36:40-36:46

  We are treated as if we are righteous, though we are not.

  36:48-36:50

  That's a life-changing message, people.

  36:51-36:53

  That is a life-changing message.

  36:53-36:56

  I'm not shy about sharing that. Are you kidding me?

  36:57-36:58

  Hey, it doesn't matter what you've done.

  36:58-37:00

  and God loves you and wants to forgive you.

  37:00-37:02

  And he made the way that that can happen.

  37:04-37:12

  So when I think of the love of Christ, who took our sin on himself so he could give us his righteousness, I have no problem telling people of such an awesome God.

  37:13-37:23

  And when I think of Harvest Bible Chapel, a place where Christ is worshiped and people are loved and his word is taught, I have no problem inviting people to check this place out.

  37:26-37:29

  I don't have a duty to share Christ.

  37:30-37:32

  I have a delight.

  37:33-37:35

  No, that's not the word either.

  37:36-37:40

  I have a zeal to share Christ.

  37:41-37:42

  Let's pray.

  37:43-37:52

  Father in Heaven, I just simply pray today that we would grow in the understanding of Your love.

  37:54-38:03

  I realize that I can't guilt or motivate or give some kind of a sales pitch to get people to be evangelists.

  38:03-38:08

  The only thing that controls us is the love of Christ.

  38:09-38:13

  Father, help us to grow in our understanding of that.

  38:13-38:31

  And when we truly understand what Jesus has done, when we understand who He is, when we understand what He saved us from, When we see people as eternal beings who are heading to hell, apart from the intervention of Christ, like Paul, it fires us up.

  38:33-38:39

  So Father, I pray that as we leave here, You'd give us eyes to see the world as a mission field.

  38:41-38:51

  We see the lost for what they are, but Father, I pray that we would see ourselves for what Your Word says we are as well.

  38:53-38:58

  We are ambassadors of Christ. We are Your spokespeople.

  38:58-39:02

  We represent You, God, to a lost and dying world.

  39:04-39:07

  Father, Your Word tells us You are pleading with the world to come back to You.

  39:09-39:11

  And You're pleading through us.

  39:13-39:20

  Let us not be slothful and zeal. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read 2 Corinthians 5:14-21

1 - On a scale of 1-10, rate your zeal for Christ (1 = no zeal, 10 = on fire sharing Christ with everyone). How can you score a higher rating?

2 - How do you recognize a “red apple”? How can you start a conversation with them about Jesus Christ?

3 - Explain the Gospel using 2 Cor 5:21. Could you explain that to someone who needs to hear it?

BREAKOUT

Pray for: zeal, ability to spot “red apples”, and boldness to share Christ!

I Will Not Fear, I Will Be Strong.

Review / Introduction:

1 Corinthians 10:13 - No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

2 Corinthians 12:1-6

The Path to Living in God's Strength in 3 Easy Steps! (2 Cor 12:7-10)

1. Step 1: Acknowledge God's Sovereignty. (2 Cor 12:7)
2. Step 2: Get Real with God. (2 Cor 12:7)

Isaiah 40:31 - they who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength

3. Step 3: Be Weak, so that grace is your strength. (2 Cor 12:9)
4. Last Step: How Do I Know I Am Living In God's Strength? When I am Content. (2 Cor 12:10)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

I Will Not Fear, I Will Be Strong (How to Pray)

Jeff Miller

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• Audio Transcript

  00:43-00:45

  Open up your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 12.

  00:47-00:52

  Today we're going to be talking about trials and hardships that we go through.

  00:52-01:02

  Specifically, we're going to be talking about how do we get strength to get through those trials.

  01:04-01:23

  When we go through hardship, Sometimes people try to encourage us, even well-intentioned people in the church try to encourage us, but quite frankly, they give us terrible cliches.

  01:25-01:27

  I compiled a little list for you.

  01:28-01:30

  We'll do a family feud style, right?

  01:31-01:35

  We surveyed a hundred people, top five answers are on the board.

  01:38-01:46

  Give me a terrible cliche that somebody in the church tells someone else who is going through a hardship.

  01:48-01:54

  Number five, "This too shall pass." "This too shall pass." How many people have heard that?

  01:54-02:13

  "This too shall pass." You're going through a hard time and they come to you and they're like, "Hey, I've got a word of encouragement for you." "This too shall pass." "Well, thanks! I feel so much better now, knowing it's gonna pass!" I'm sorry, but that is so not helpful. So not helpful.

  02:14-02:14

  Number four.

  02:17-02:20

  You know this one. I spent a lot of time talking about this one about a month or two ago.

  02:21-02:24

  Number four is, "All we can do is pray."

  02:25-02:26

  [gags]

  02:27-02:28

  I hate that!

  02:28-02:36

  All we can do is pray. Our last-ditch effort is to cry out to the God of the universe who has all power and wants to bless us.

  02:37-02:39

  That's the only option we have is to cry out to Him. All we can do is pray.

  02:41-02:41

  Lame!

  02:42-02:45

  How about the best thing we can do is pray? How about that?

  02:45-02:47

  All we can do is pray.

  02:49-02:51

  You know what happens if you say that at harvest, right?

  02:53-02:55

  Your tithe goes up to 15%.

  02:55-02:56

  (congregation laughing)

  02:58-03:05

  Number three, terrible cliches that we try to comfort each other with in the church, but are so bad.

  03:05-03:09

  Number three, when God closes a door, he opens a window.

  03:11-03:17

  You know, somebody was really trying to get this job or really banking on something and the Lord didn't allow it.

  03:17-03:20

  And we come along where God closes a door, he opens a window.

  03:21-03:23

  You know what, if that's what you were going to say, just don't say anything.

  03:25-03:29

  Just smile, maybe give a side hug or something, but don't say anything.

  03:30-03:34

  Number two, God helps those who help themselves.

  03:36-03:38

  Yeah, God helps those who help themselves.

  03:38-03:39

  You know what the Bible says?

  03:40-03:41

  You know what the Bible says?

  03:41-03:43

  The Bible says God helps those who help themselves.

  03:43-03:44

  That's not in the Bible.

  03:44-03:46

  I think Benjamin Franklin said that, actually.

  03:48-03:56

  But really that's our way of saying, you know, when we say that to somebody, that's our way of saying, "Look, this is totally your problem, not mine." Right?

  03:56-04:10

  Like, "Oh, Pastor Jeff, I'm just really having a hard time and we're financially strapped." And we, "Well, God helps those who help themselves." Like, "Not my problem." Number one, this is by far number one.

  04:11-04:21

  The number one thing that lame cliches, just terrible cliche that Christians say to people that are going through hardships, this is by far number one.

  04:23-04:25

  God doesn't give you any more than you can handle.

  04:26-04:27

  How many people have heard that one?

  04:27-04:29

  God doesnt give you any more than you can handle?

  04:30-04:38

  Now right now, I promise you right now, somebody's sitting here, somebody's listening to this, and they're like hang on Pastor Jeff, hang on Preacher Boy, listen, that is in the Bible.

  04:38-04:41

  And I know for a fact that is in the Bible.

  04:41-04:42

  God doesn't give you any more than you can handle.

  04:43-04:46

  I know that's in the Bible, no it is not.

  04:46-04:51

  That is not in the Bible, that is not in the Bible, anywhere, like I know it is.

  04:51-04:52

  It's not in the Bible, it's not in the Bible.

  04:52-04:52

  It's not in the Bible.

  04:53-04:54

  Trust me.

  04:55-04:56

  Let me show you what is in the Bible.

  04:57-05:04

  1 Corinthians 10.13 This is the verse that people get that terrible cliche from.

  05:04-05:05

  But we highlighted some words here.

  05:05-05:06

  I want you to see something.

  05:07-05:10

  "No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.

  05:11-05:47

  God is faithful and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it." Now I'm no John MacArthur, but what do you think that verse is about? Because he says it three times. Here's a little Bible study 101. He says it three times. What's this verse about? Say it. Temptation. Is there anything in that verse about going through trials? No. That is not about going through trials at all.

  05:49-06:02

  What that verse is teaching is that when you are being tempted, God is never going to allow you to be backed into some sort of a corner where your only choice is to sin.

  06:02-06:04

  That's what that verse is teaching.

  06:04-06:05

  You're like, "I have no other choice.

  06:06-06:07

  I'm going to have to sin.

  06:08-06:19

  I'm going to have to, whether it's violating my marriage covenant or stealing something or being dishonest at work, I don't have any other choice but to sin.

  06:19-06:22

  The Bible says God will never let you be put in that situation.

  06:22-06:24

  That's what that verse is about.

  06:24-06:34

  It does not say, God won't give you more trials, more hardships, than you can handle.

  06:35-06:47

  Because honestly, if that were true, and that's what we're getting to our sermon today, if that were true, that God doesn't give you more trials than you can handle, If that were true, that would be horrible!

  06:50-06:52

  Listen to me, church, thank you, I was waiting for that.

  06:54-06:55

  Try this one.

  06:55-07:03

  If all the trials you get is what you can handle, you would never need God.

  07:05-07:07

  You wouldn't need small group.

  07:09-07:10

  You wouldn't need church.

  07:11-07:14

  Listen, you wouldn't even need to pray.

  07:14-07:21

  If the only amount of trials that you ever got in your life was just what you were capable of handling, you wouldn't need to pray.

  07:21-07:28

  In fact, your prayer would just only be, you know what God, I got this, because you promised I'd be able to handle anything that comes my way, right?

  07:28-07:30

  You're not gonna give me more than I can handle, God, so I got this.

  07:31-07:34

  That would be the sum total of your prayer life.

  07:35-07:43

  You would live a life free of ever needing to really call on the Lord, And that would be worse than any trial that you would ever have to face.

  07:44-07:45

  Could you imagine?

  07:46-07:51

  Living your whole life and not knowing what it means to cry out to the Lord?

  07:54-08:00

  Not knowing what it means to be delivered from one greater than yourself.

  08:03-08:04

  That's worse than any trial.

  08:06-08:07

  Here's the truth.

  08:08-08:09

  This is a promise.

  08:10-08:14

  God is going to give you way more than you can handle.

  08:14-08:23

  He is. He is going to allow into your life way more stuff than you can handle on your own.

  08:23-08:28

  He is going to allow that, I promise you. He is going to allow that.

  08:29-08:34

  Because He wants to teach you a very fundamental lesson.

  08:35-08:37

  And that is this, you need Him.

  08:38-08:38

  You need Him.

  08:41-08:44

  So I want you to think this morning as we talk about your trials.

  08:47-08:48

  I want you to think about your trials.

  08:51-08:54

  Maybe for some of you it is a relationship problem.

  08:54-09:05

  Maybe it's a family member that you've had a falling out with, or several family members that you've had a falling out with, and you have this trial of reconciliation that just doesn't seem to be happening.

  09:05-09:08

  Maybe for some of you it's a health problem.

  09:10-09:16

  You've received a diagnosis of something chronic or maybe something even terminal.

  09:19-09:22

  Maybe for some of you it has to do with finances.

  09:24-09:33

  I need way more money than I have and way more than is coming in anytime soon and I don't see how I'm going to financially cover this huge debt that I have.

  09:35-09:39

  And suddenly you find yourself in the situation that, you know, things that only happen to other people, right?

  09:40-09:42

  Things that only happen to other people, now they're happening to you.

  09:43-09:44

  And you're like, now what?

  09:47-09:54

  So in those times that God allows us to have more than we can handle, what do we often pray for?

  09:54-09:59

  what do we often ask others to pray for on our behalf?

  09:59-10:13

  Over and over and over, we hear this phrase, we use this phrase, I'm not criticizing this phrase, this is a good phrase, but over and over we say, please pray for strength.

  10:14-10:15

  I mean, how many times have we said that?

  10:15-10:18

  We're talking about our problems with somebody and they're like, well, how can I pray for you?

  10:18-10:20

  And we say, we just pray for strength.

  10:22-10:25

  And we do it before the Lord ourselves, God, give me strength.

  10:25-10:26

  God, give me strength.

  10:26-10:27

  God, give me strength.

  10:27-10:30

  And the question is, well, when we do that, what does that even mean?

  10:30-10:31

  What are we asking for?

  10:31-10:32

  And what does that look like?

  10:33-10:35

  That's what we're going to be covering today.

  10:37-10:39

  So what do you think of when you consider the word strength?

  10:41-10:44

  What do you think of when you hear that word strength?

  10:46-10:48

  Just that word strength.

  10:48-10:49

  What's that mean?

  10:51-10:56

  Is that, maybe for some of us, it's like Popeye is the first thing we think of, right?

  10:57-10:57

  Popeye.

  10:58-11:01

  My son's been watching old Popeye cartoons on YouTube, right?

  11:02-11:03

  You all familiar with Popeye?

  11:04-11:05

  Am I totally dating myself here?

  11:06-11:08

  Younger people, like, I don't know, okay.

  11:08-11:09

  You remember Popeye, right?

  11:09-11:10

  Popeye the sailor man.

  11:10-11:17

  Oh my gosh, and he eats the spinach, and da da da da da da, and you know, and then he, Popeye, strength, right?

  11:20-11:52

  For some people, they think strength is just mental toughness. Like, yeah, I'm going through this trial, but I'm mind over matter kind of thing. And mental toughness, and maybe for some they consider strength, it's just emotions that are dead to feeling the pain and anxiety that the trial is giving you. Which none of those things are really strength when we talk about it in the biblical sense. So again, praying for Strength is a good thing, but what are we asking for?

  11:52-11:54

  How do we know when we got it?

  11:54-11:56

  Well, that's why we're in 2 Corinthians 12.

  11:57-12:04

  First six verses, I just want to sort of summarize for us to give us a bit of an on-ramp because we're really going to be looking at just verses seven through 10 this morning.

  12:06-12:11

  But in 2 Corinthians 12, verses one through six, Paul was talking about himself in the third person.

  12:12-12:14

  Paul was actually taken to heaven.

  12:16-12:19

  And he saw things that he said no man could ever speak of on earth.

  12:21-12:25

  Now if you think about it, that could be a real recipe for pride, right?

  12:25-12:35

  Could you imagine Paul sitting down and having breakfast with maybe Peter and John and some of these other guys and Paul's like, "Oh, you think you have a thing with God?

  12:36-12:37

  You think you and God are tight?

  12:38-12:39

  Let me tell you how tight I am with God.

  12:39-12:44

  Do you know God took me to his house in heaven?" "Oh yeah, I saw it.

  12:44-12:45

  I saw it.

  12:45-12:50

  How many times has God taken you to heaven?" "Oh, none." "Oh, okay, okay." All right, just checking.

  12:51-12:51

  How about you?

  12:51-12:52

  Anybody else?

  12:52-12:52

  Anybody else been to heaven?

  12:53-12:53

  Anybody been to heaven?

  12:54-12:54

  Oh no, just me?

  12:55-12:55

  Just me!

  12:56-12:58

  So you see how that could be a recipe for pride?

  13:01-13:02

  Well look at verse 7.

  13:03-13:19

  It says, "So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.

  13:20-13:43

  You see that twice in the same verse, "to keep me from becoming conceited." In other words, to keep Paul humble because of these revelations, like going to heaven as he just spoke of, to keep Paul usable in ministry, God allowed Paul to experience some terrible ongoing trial from Satan, which he called a thorn in the flesh.

  13:46-13:49

  Thorn is actually a bit of an understatement in the translation.

  13:49-13:51

  A better translation would be a spike.

  13:53-13:59

  Don't think of a little thorn like on a rose or on a jagger bush that pricks your finger.

  13:59-14:01

  Think of a railroad spike.

  14:02-14:04

  That's more to the picture here.

  14:05-14:07

  Stabbed into somebody's side.

  14:08-14:09

  Thorn in the flesh.

  14:09-14:11

  So what was the thorn in the flesh exactly?

  14:11-14:17

  Well, some people say it was eye problems or some other illness or a false teacher who who followed Paul and harassed him?

  14:17-14:18

  And the answer is, we really don't know.

  14:19-14:30

  If God wanted us to know what the thorn in the flesh was, he'd tell us, but he kept it generic so we wouldn't limit it to just that one thing, whatever it was, right?

  14:30-14:34

  Like for example, if the thorn in the flesh, if it was really like, let's say it was eye problems.

  14:35-14:44

  And if in this passage, Paul's talking about eye problems and he's giving us this great principle about trusting God, we'd skim over it because we're like, well, I don't really have severe eye problems.

  14:44-14:46

  I'm going to wear glasses, but nothing like Paul.

  14:46-14:47

  And we just skim over it.

  14:48-14:49

  We would totally miss the principles here.

  14:50-14:51

  So he kept it general for us.

  14:53-14:59

  Because truth is, we all in some level, to some degree, have some form of some thorn in the flesh.

  15:01-15:04

  Whatever it was for Paul, it was so bad.

  15:05-15:06

  Look at verse eight.

  15:07-15:19

  He says, "Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me." It was so bad that Paul prayed over and over and over that God would take it away and he didn't get the answer that he was praying for.

  15:19-15:20

  Look at verse nine.

  15:21-15:43

  He says, "But he, the Lord, said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, "for my power is made perfect in weakness." Paul responds by saying, "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly "of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

  15:43-15:50

  For the sake of Christ, then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.

  15:50-15:54

  For when I am weak, then I am strong.

  15:56-16:04

  You notice at the beginning of this passage, Paul's talking about this horrible thwart in the flesh, but by the time we get to verse 10, it seems like everything changed.

  16:04-16:08

  And the reality is Paul's circumstances didn't change, but Paul changed.

  16:10-16:12

  And this is for someone here today too.

  16:13-16:15

  I imagine this is for many someones here today.

  16:17-16:23

  Whatever trial you're going through right now, your trial may not change.

  16:26-16:26

  It might not.

  16:27-16:27

  Oh, it might.

  16:29-16:30

  Today, next week, next year, it might.

  16:31-16:33

  The Lord might take it away. The Lord might resolve it.

  16:34-16:47

  I've seen that happen thousands of times, but looking at Paul's testimony, We can give personal testimony, my family can, to this very fact that sometimes trials don't go away.

  16:49-16:57

  But when you learn to receive God's strength, the way that Paul did in this passage, you're going to change.

  16:59-17:06

  So the path to living in God's strength, we're going to give you three easy steps, straight from the passage here.

  17:07-17:10

  The path to living in God's strength, if you're taking notes, step one.

  17:11-17:12

  It has to start here.

  17:12-17:14

  Acknowledge God's sovereignty.

  17:15-17:16

  Acknowledge God's sovereignty.

  17:18-17:19

  Look at verse 7 again.

  17:19-17:33

  So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.

  17:34-17:35

  So here's the $25 question.

  17:36-17:38

  Is the thorn from God or from Satan?

  17:40-17:50

  Well Paul said it was from Satan, but the structure of the text seems to imply that this was also from the Lord at the same time.

  17:50-17:54

  And interestingly, Paul pleaded with the Lord to take it away.

  17:55-17:58

  We don't see anything in the passage where Paul rebuked Satan.

  17:59-17:59

  Right?

  17:59-18:03

  "I said to thee, Satan, away from me!" We don't see that.

  18:05-18:07

  He took this problem straight to God.

  18:09-18:16

  We need to start here because when we're going through a trial, we often feel like God has abandoned us.

  18:19-18:24

  See it's obvious that Satan had a hand in this trial that Paul was going through.

  18:26-18:29

  And Satan certainly has a hand in the trials that you're going through as well.

  18:30-18:33

  The church, if we're honest, sometimes we give Satan all the credit.

  18:34-18:37

  Like God has no idea what's happening, right?

  18:38-18:45

  And Satan is just destroying us and wreaking havoc on our lives and beating us down!

  18:46-18:48

  And God has no idea.

  18:50-18:51

  God has no idea what's happening.

  18:51-18:53

  And sometimes we pray like we're informing God.

  18:53-18:54

  Like God, do you see this?

  18:54-18:55

  Do you see what this guy's doing?

  18:57-18:58

  As if he doesn't know.

  19:00-19:02

  And we think, well God surely has nothing to do with this.

  19:03-19:09

  God surely can't see what's happening to me and just sit by idly and let it.

  19:11-19:13

  God obviously has no part of what is happening.

  19:16-19:18

  Church, God knows exactly what's going on.

  19:19-19:24

  And He's using it to accomplish something in you.

  19:26-19:34

  Because this is one of the most profound truths from this passage and from others in God's Word.

  19:34-19:39

  This is one of the most profound truths that you can spend the rest of your life trying to wrap your head around.

  19:39-19:40

  That's this.

  19:42-19:46

  Satan wants to break you down and discourage you.

  19:49-19:52

  God wants to build you up and strengthen you.

  19:54-19:56

  and they are both using the same thing to do that.

  19:58-20:00

  Satan's goal is for you to be annihilated.

  20:01-20:02

  For you to give up.

  20:02-20:03

  For you to walk away.

  20:03-20:07

  For you to abandon this thing you have with the Lord.

  20:09-20:11

  Satan wants to beat you down.

  20:11-20:12

  God wants to build you up.

  20:12-20:14

  God wants you to have a greater and deeper faith.

  20:14-20:16

  God wants you to find your strength in Him.

  20:17-20:18

  Satan wants to beat you down.

  20:19-20:20

  God wants to build you up.

  20:20-20:22

  And they're both using the same thing to do it.

  20:25-20:26

  It's the same thing that happened to Job.

  20:27-20:28

  Read the book of Job.

  20:28-20:29

  Just read the first couple of chapters.

  20:31-20:33

  Satan wanted to destroy him and God wanted to display him.

  20:35-20:35

  They used the same thing.

  20:37-20:39

  Same thing happens to Paul here in this passage, right?

  20:42-20:43

  The same thing is happening to you.

  20:46-20:52

  wants to make a shipwreck of your faith. God wants your faith to be stronger than ever.

  20:54-21:07

  And they're both using the same thing to do it. And it's whatever that trial is in your life. See, God wants to humble you. God wants to teach you to live totally in His strength.

  21:08-21:18

  Our problem is not that we are by nature these humble people and God wants to come alongside and say, "Oh, I just need to give him a little self-confidence." That's not our problem.

  21:20-21:23

  Our problem is we have a tendency to live in our own strength.

  21:25-21:33

  Our problem is we have a tendency to try to live a life devoid of needing to lean and rely on the Lord for everything.

  21:34-21:38

  And God allows trials in our lives to make us realize our dependence on Him.

  21:39-21:42

  So whatever you're going through, church, God is not.

  21:43-21:44

  God is not unaware.

  21:46-21:47

  He isn't even just informed.

  21:50-21:58

  If God's Word is true, and it is, God has first-hand involvement of using whatever trial is in your life.

  22:01-22:03

  So that's step one. Acknowledge God's sovereignty.

  22:03-22:05

  The path to living in God's strength. Three easy steps.

  22:05-22:06

  Here's step two.

  22:07-22:08

  We see it from verse 8.

  22:09-22:13

  And it says, "Get real with God." Get real with God.

  22:15-22:18

  In trials, what do we often do?

  22:21-22:22

  We often complain, don't we?

  22:23-22:24

  We often complain to other people.

  22:25-22:28

  Sometimes we mask them as prayer requests, but sometimes we complain.

  22:30-22:32

  Sometimes even if we don't complain to other people, we complain to ourselves.

  22:34-22:35

  Have you been there? I have.

  22:36-22:43

  I have. Oh, I wouldn't say it to anybody in the church, or bring it to an elders meeting or a ministry meeting, but I've complained to myself a lot.

  22:43-22:45

  Like, "I hate this. I'm so sick of this.

  22:46-22:47

  I'm so sick of living like this.

  22:47-22:51

  Why doesn't God do something about this?" Complaining.

  22:53-22:57

  Oh, and sometimes we'll even ask others for prayer, sincerely.

  23:00-23:04

  But like Paul, we need to get real with God.

  23:06-23:09

  Sometimes it's easier to ask others for prayer than to actually pray ourselves, isn't it?

  23:10-23:21

  Look at verse 8 again, Paul says three times, "I pleaded with the Lord." Can you feel the raw emotion in his words?

  23:22-23:26

  Three times, "I pleaded with the Lord." He didn't just say, "I prayed.

  23:27-23:32

  I brought my petition before the Lord." He said, "I pleaded, I begged.

  23:33-23:34

  God, this is horrible.

  23:39-24:14

  Please, God." me. That's how bad it was. God, you need to get this thing out of here." So Paul got real with God, passionate, persistent prayer in church. Let me ask you, when was the last time that you were on your face, crying out and getting real with God? When was the last time you did that? By yourself, on your face, unapologetically, shamelessly crying out to Praying your prayers, but passionately and persistently praying.

  24:17-24:18

  When was the last time you've done that?

  24:20-24:22

  Some of us, maybe it's been far too long.

  24:24-24:25

  Paul says three times.

  24:26-24:28

  Okay, three times wasn't some magic chant, right?

  24:28-24:31

  Wasn't like, you know, "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice," or something.

  24:31-24:32

  "Oh, I got what I wanted!

  24:32-24:36

  I said the magic words!" Or maybe that's not the best example to use in church.

  24:38-24:40

  That was the first thing I could think of, sorry.

  24:41-24:44

  But you get the point. It wasn't some magic chant.

  24:45-24:54

  He's saying over and over, persistently praying, which includes an element as we talk about how to get God's strength.

  24:55-25:10

  We're starting to get closer to the actual reception of it here, because this type of persistent praying is what the Bible calls "waiting on the Lord." Isaiah 40, verse 31, very familiar passage.

  25:10-25:18

  Look at it again, it says, "They who wait on the Lord shall renew their..." what?

  25:19-25:20

  Their strength!

  25:20-25:21

  And that's what we're going after here, right?

  25:24-25:29

  But here's the problem, we're too accustomed to the instant quick fix.

  25:31-25:36

  And then when the preacher gets up and says, "You need to wait on the Lord." See the Bible says to wait on the Lord.

  25:36-25:41

  You know, as soon as we say that, immediately in our culture, we say, "Wait, wait!

  25:42-25:47

  "I don't wait for anything!" And our culture has certainly put us there, hasn't it?

  25:49-25:56

  We're the kind of people that we stand in front of the microwave while our food's cooking, and we're like, "Oh, what's taking this thing so long?

  25:56-25:58

  "Like, what am I, what am I, a pilgrim?

  25:59-26:04

  "Like, what's taking it so long?" And we're not used to waiting.

  26:06-26:07

  We don't wait for anything.

  26:08-26:17

  Do you remember, at least I remember this, some of you guys remember this, but when we were kids, we were kids, you remember when like new music came out and you would wanna get that new music?

  26:17-26:18

  You remember what you had to do?

  26:18-26:23

  You had to actually get in a vehicle and drive down to National Record Mart, right?

  26:24-26:30

  And then you'd have to go through piles and piles of whether records or cassettes.

  26:30-26:30

  Do you know what cassettes are?

  26:30-26:36

  Records are like still cool, so you know what records are, but maybe you don't know what a cassette is, but ask your mom.

  26:37-26:42

  But we have to go through all these cassettes and look for the album that had the song.

  26:42-26:43

  Do you know what we do now when we want music?

  26:45-26:48

  I heard this, it's just totally floored me.

  26:48-26:49

  I heard this Matt Redman song.

  26:49-26:51

  I'm like, oh, I like that song.

  26:51-26:51

  What's it called?

  26:52-26:56

  I Googled it and found the name of the song, got on iTunes, oh, there it is.

  26:56-26:57

  Boop, download.

  26:57-26:59

  I had it in 15 seconds.

  27:02-27:03

  National Record Mart.

  27:05-27:21

  Look what I got. But you see the point. We don't wait for anything. We don't wait for anything. We want to buy something but we don't have the money for it? Pull out the credit card. What do you mean wait and earn and get more money and save up? What do you mean by that?

  27:22-27:37

  It's not American. Waiting is such a foreign concept. We want the quick fix. We want instant results and then we turn to the Bible and the Bible says, "Wait on the Lord," and we aren't just unwilling to wait on the Lord.

  27:37-27:41

  The problem is we're so unfamiliar with the concept of waiting.

  27:43-27:47

  You don't become a scholar after going to one class.

  27:47-27:51

  You don't become a bodybuilder after one day at the gym.

  27:51-27:55

  You don't become a golf pro after one round of golf.

  27:55-28:00

  All of these things happen with consistency over time.

  28:00-28:05

  And if you want to grow strong in the Lord, if you want a strong faith, that's how your faith is going to grow.

  28:07-28:19

  Consistently seeking the Lord, consistently trusting the Lord, consistently walking with the Lord, consistently, yes, waiting on the Lord, and then you realize that your strength is the Lord.

  28:21-28:23

  And somebody's saying, "Wait, wait, wait, one second, Pastor Jeff.

  28:24-28:28

  I hear what you're saying, but it didn't seem to work for Paul.

  28:29-28:32

  Didn't seem to do him any good because his prayer wasn't answered.

  28:34-28:35

  Paul's prayer wasn't answered.

  28:35-28:39

  You're up here telling me about praying persistently and waiting on the Lord.

  28:39-28:41

  Paul did that and his prayer didn't get answered.

  28:43-28:44

  So why should I do that?

  28:46-28:47

  His prayer didn't get answered.

  28:47-28:51

  Well, you see, that kind of thinking reveals a common misconception.

  28:52-28:59

  And the common misconception is this, answered prayer, answered prayer equals, I got what I asked for.

  29:00-29:02

  And that is such an immature view of prayer.

  29:05-29:08

  That is such an immature view of prayer.

  29:09-29:14

  That when I ask for something, and I get exactly what I asked for, God answered prayer.

  29:14-29:19

  But when I pray for something, and I don't get what I asked for, my prayers were not answered.

  29:22-29:24

  That is not what answered prayer is about at all.

  29:26-29:28

  Because the truth is God did answer Paul's prayer.

  29:29-29:34

  Not by giving Paul what he asked for, but by giving Paul something better.

  29:36-29:37

  Step 3.

  29:38-29:39

  Step 3.

  29:41-29:41

  Be weak.

  29:43-29:44

  Be weak!

  29:46-29:47

  So that grace is your strength.

  29:48-29:50

  Step 3 is be weak.

  29:50-29:51

  Be weak!

  29:52-29:54

  This sermon was about being strong.

  29:54-29:55

  Look at verse 9.

  29:57-29:59

  This was Christ's answer again to Paul's prayer.

  29:59-30:18

  "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'" The structure of the Greek implies that this is the answer that Paul got every time that he prayed.

  30:19-30:21

  My grace is sufficient for you.

  30:22-30:40

  For My power is made perfect in weakness." Paul says, "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me." "My grace is sufficient for you," Jesus said.

  30:40-30:44

  Grace used 155 times in the New Testament.

  30:45-30:47

  Undeserved generosity.

  30:47-30:51

  And when we think of grace, oftentimes we think of grace in terms of salvation.

  30:52-30:52

  Right?

  30:53-30:56

  We are saved by grace, we are saved by grace, and that's absolutely true.

  30:56-30:58

  But grace doesn't stop there.

  30:59-31:00

  Grace is power!

  31:01-31:06

  And it's the power to save you, yes, but it's also the power to keep you.

  31:06-31:11

  And as we see in this passage, grace is the power of God to strengthen you.

  31:13-31:21

  Just as you are dependent upon God's grace for your salvation, You are dependent on God's grace for every step of your walk.

  31:22-31:32

  I love this statement where Jesus says, "My grace is sufficient." Do you realize? This is humorous to me.

  31:32-31:33

  Do you realize what an understatement that is?

  31:34-31:38

  "My grace is sufficient." It would be like if you said to me, "Pastor Jeff, you know what I need?

  31:38-31:40

  I need a handful of sand.

  31:40-31:59

  Can you get me a handful of sand?" And I'm like, "Ah, yeah, get in the car." and I drive you to the beach." And I say, "Here you go." And then I say, "Is this sufficient?" And your answer is, "Yeah, that is way more than sufficient.

  31:59-32:01

  I just needed a handful.

  32:01-32:04

  Here's a beach." It's like that with grace.

  32:05-32:13

  And we're like, "Oh Lord, if I could just have a handful of your grace, oh Lord, I could get through this." and Jesus is like, "Here's a beach.

  32:15-32:17

  Way more than you ever need. My grace is sufficient.

  32:18-32:27

  It's enough. And it's more than enough." You're like, "Pastor Jeff, I'm not sold on any of this.

  32:30-32:32

  I don't need strength to get through this.

  32:32-32:35

  You know what I need, Pastor Jeff? I need this trial to go away.

  32:37-32:38

  I hear what you're saying, I see it in the text.

  32:38-32:42

  I totally get this Jeff, but I don't need strength.

  32:42-32:44

  I need this trial to go away.

  32:46-32:48

  And I want to tell you that that might not happen.

  32:50-32:51

  That might not happen.

  32:53-32:57

  And maybe that's not what you really need anyways.

  33:00-33:08

  Because God uses the trials in your life in many specific and customized ways, but there's one thing that God accomplishes in every single trial.

  33:08-33:13

  He wants you to learn to depend on Him for His strength.

  33:14-33:21

  So instead of turning away the trial, God often chooses to turn up the grace.

  33:23-33:28

  Because you can't live in your strength and in God's strength at the same time.

  33:28-33:29

  You can't do it.

  33:31-33:43

  You can't live in your strength and God's strength at the same time, And if you are striving to navigate through your life and navigate through your trials in your own strength, God can't pour his strength into you.

  33:44-33:51

  You see, Jesus said, "My power is made perfect in weakness." And this is another paradox of the Bible.

  33:51-33:53

  The Bible's full of these things, right?

  33:54-33:55

  You want to be exalted?

  33:55-33:56

  What do you have to do?

  33:57-33:58

  Humble yourself.

  33:58-33:59

  That's a paradox.

  34:00-34:00

  What?

  34:01-34:02

  Bible says you want riches?

  34:03-34:04

  What do you do?

  34:05-34:06

  Give everything away.

  34:07-34:09

  That doesn't seem like the way to get rich.

  34:11-34:13

  Bible says, here's another paradox.

  34:13-34:14

  Do you wanna be great?

  34:15-34:16

  You wanna be great?

  34:16-34:17

  Who doesn't wanna be great?

  34:18-34:19

  Jesus said, you wanna be great, you have to be what?

  34:20-34:20

  A slave.

  34:22-34:22

  It's a paradox.

  34:24-34:24

  Here's another one.

  34:25-34:25

  Do you want power?

  34:27-34:28

  Do you want power from God?

  34:28-34:30

  Do you want the power of God resting upon you?

  34:30-34:30

  What do you have to be?

  34:31-34:32

  You have to be weak.

  34:33-34:34

  You have to be weak.

  34:36-34:37

  Is your tank on empty?

  34:39-34:39

  That's great news.

  34:41-34:43

  Because God only fills tanks that are on E.

  34:45-34:47

  His power is made perfect in weakness.

  34:49-34:52

  God's not going to be able to pour into you if you're full of yourself.

  34:55-34:57

  So how do you know you've received strength from God?

  34:57-34:58

  Well, here's the last step.

  34:58-34:59

  You're like, oh, wait, wait, wait, you said three steps.

  35:00-35:01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, three steps.

  35:01-35:01

  You can leave now if you want.

  35:02-35:08

  But I would advise against that because the question is, well, how do I know, did it take?

  35:09-35:10

  Am I living in God's strength?

  35:12-35:15

  How do I know that I really receive strength from God?

  35:16-35:17

  How do I know I'm living in God's strength?

  35:18-35:21

  And here's the answer, when I'm content.

  35:22-35:23

  That's how you know.

  35:24-35:26

  That's how you know you're living in God's strength.

  35:27-35:28

  It's when you're content.

  35:31-35:31

  Because look at verse 10.

  35:32-35:37

  He says, "For the sake of Christ then I am content.

  35:39-35:46

  I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities." And then Paul says why he's content.

  35:47-35:48

  Look at this last phrase.

  35:48-35:49

  He got it.

  35:49-36:01

  He says, "For when I am weak, then I am strong." You know that you're living in God's strength content.

  36:04-36:16

  Do you want to find somebody that's living in the strength of God? You find the guy. You find the guy who's going through trials. Who's going through severe trials.

  36:16-36:29

  Who you're thinking, "Man, I could never go through what he's going through." And he says, It's okay. God is good. He's going to get me through this a day at a time.

  36:31-36:34

  I'm content. That's biblical strength.

  36:36-36:55

  You find the lady, that from a human perspective, you're like, "I don't know how she does it. I don't know how she survives. I don't know how she makes it." She says, "God has a plan. It's okay. I appreciate your prayers. It's okay." Content.

  36:56-36:59

  I'm not complaining about it. It doesn't consume me.

  36:59-37:02

  And listen, church, it doesn't define me.

  37:03-37:07

  I'm content in trusting God each day that He gives me.

  37:10-37:11

  To give me the grace to endure.

  37:14-37:20

  If you're a follower of Christ, I know what you want more than anything is to draw near to God.

  37:21-37:28

  You have to know that as much as you want to draw near to God, even more so God wants you to draw near to Him.

  37:29-37:32

  God's more fired up about your walk with Him than you are.

  37:34-37:41

  So can you be content with whatever God uses in your life to accomplish this?

  37:42-37:43

  Can you be content with that?

  37:46-37:54

  You know, Paul could point to that thorn in the flesh, and he could say, "You know this, this thing, this thorn?

  37:55-37:56

  I hate this!

  37:57-37:59

  I hate this!

  37:59-38:04

  But at the same time, I've learned that this thing is beautiful.

  38:06-38:11

  This thing puts me on my face.

  38:13-38:20

  This thing makes me cry out to God in a way that I wouldn't cry out to God if this thing wasn't afflicting me.

  38:22-38:26

  So church, today, like Paul, celebrate your weakness.

  38:29-38:34

  So that you can celebrate the strength of God in you.

  38:35-38:36

  Let's pray.

  38:37-38:40

  Father in heaven, we thank You.

  38:41-38:43

  We thank You for the truth of Your Word.

  38:45-38:47

  The subjective truth that takes us outside of ourselves.

  38:49-38:57

  The subjective truth that teaches us, God, that Your strength is made perfect in our weakness.

  38:58-39:01

  Your Word that tells us that Your grace is sufficient.

  39:01-39:07

  And Father, I pray for myself, I pray for my household, I pray for every household represented here.

  39:07-39:12

  Every individual, every family, every young person, every not-so-young person.

  39:12-39:21

  I pray for every one of us here, Father, that whatever stuff we are going through, we would find Your grace to be sufficient.

  39:23-39:32

  That like Paul, we'd be able to boast in our weaknesses, knowing that that's the very thing that gives the opportunity for the power of Christ to reside in us.

  39:34-39:36

  Father, I pray that You would teach us to think biblically.

  39:38-39:44

  We'd reexamine what it means to pray, what it means when prayer is answered.

  39:45-39:47

  We'd reexamine what it means to be strong.

  39:49-39:54

  We'd reexamine what Your Word teaches about how to live in Your grace and in Your strength.

  39:56-39:58

  We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read 2 Corinthians 12:1-10

1. What was the worse piece of advice / lamest attempt at being comforted that you have ever experienced / heard?

2. "Satan wants to tear you down and God wants to build you up - and they are both using the same thing to do it." React to this statement in light of Biblical and personal testimony.

3. What's the difference between "saying your prayers" and "praying"?

4. How do you know, truly know, that you are living in God’s strength? (See 2 Cor 12:10)

5. What was your one big "take-away" from this passage / message? 
    

Breakout Questions:

When was the last time you truly prayed, on your face, crying out before the Lord? How can you be more consistent in doing so? Challenge one another on this and pray for one another. 

Because Giving Glorifies God

Review:

1 Corinthians 10:31 - ...whatever you do, do all to the GLORY of God.

How Does Giving Glorify God?

1. Giving results in THANKFULNESS . (2 Cor 9:11-12)


2. Giving proves AUTHENTICITY . (2 Cor 9:13)
   
   
3. Giving grows RELATIONSHIPS . (2 Cor 9:14)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above with your cursor for answers!

I Love to Give - Because Giving Glorifies God

Jeff Miller

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• Audio Transcript

  00:01-00:08

  So this month, really, we've had one message, and the message is this.

  00:09-00:10

  I love to give.

  00:12-00:19

  You know, we pass these little, you know, goofy looking felt bags, those little blue bags with the handles, and we pass those around.

  00:20-00:22

  And like, why do we do that?

  00:23-00:24

  Because we love doing that.

  00:25-00:27

  It's not the obligatory, "Oh, this is the part.

  00:28-00:29

  Every church does this.

  00:29-00:30

  This is where we're supposed to give.

  00:31-00:32

  That is so not our attitude.

  00:32-00:34

  Our attitude is we love this part.

  00:34-00:36

  We love seeing those goofy little bags come around.

  00:36-00:36

  Why?

  00:36-00:38

  Because I love to give.

  00:40-00:41

  Like, why are you so fired up about giving?

  00:42-00:44

  Well, that's what we've been talking about this month.

  00:44-00:50

  Remember in this passage, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 is really the key passage in the New Testament about Christian giving.

  00:51-01:01

  Recall that there were all these poor Christians in Jerusalem being persecuted for their faith and losing their jobs and their businesses.

  01:01-01:05

  So there's thousands upon thousands of these poor Christians.

  01:05-01:19

  And Paul and some of these churches were taking up an offering from the outlying regions saying, "Let's support these Christians in Jerusalem." And what we've seen through this series is giving is about the heart.

  01:20-01:21

  Giving is voluntary.

  01:22-01:26

  Giving isn't about a percentage or about an amount.

  01:26-01:36

  It's about voluntarily choosing, deciding in your hearts, a biblical portion of what God has trusted to you.

  01:37-01:38

  And it's between you and the Lord.

  01:40-01:41

  So why do I love to give?

  01:41-01:42

  Just as a recap.

  01:42-01:43

  Why do I love to give?

  01:43-01:45

  This is what we've seen in this passage.

  01:46-01:47

  First of all, I love to give because I'm a steward.

  01:49-01:50

  I'm a steward.

  01:50-01:51

  Nothing is mine.

  01:52-01:53

  Right? Nothing is mine.

  01:54-02:25

  Many of you know a couple weeks ago, accident and I was really sad. I loved that car and it was a reminder to me, God just let me borrow that car for a few years. It wasn't mine. I wasn't going to drive that car to heaven. Okay? Nothing is mine. Nothing is mine. And remember Ben, remember how fun it was to give away somebody else's money? Remember that? Like we took money from the Fredericks and we gave it to you and said you could give it to anybody. Wasn't that See, it's fun when you give...

  02:26-02:29

  He was like, "Yeah, this is great." Because he didn't have an attachment to it.

  02:30-02:31

  It came into his lap.

  02:32-02:35

  And I said, "You can give it to anybody." And he did.

  02:36-02:37

  You know why that's fun?

  02:37-02:38

  It's because there's no attachment.

  02:38-02:38

  Nothing is mine.

  02:40-02:49

  And until you understand that principle, that everything in your possession is really God's, and God gave it to you to use to glorify Him, give it away.

  02:52-02:55

  Until you do that, you're not going to understand why people love to give.

  02:56-03:00

  So I love to give because I'm a steward. I love to give, secondly, we talked about, because Jesus loves to give.

  03:03-03:04

  Jesus loves to give.

  03:05-03:19

  If we had Jesus personally, physically, in the flesh, right here, right now, sitting with us, and we said, "Jesus, what's your favorite thing in the world?" He would say, "I love to give." How do we know He loves to give? Because His life was typified by that.

  03:20-03:49

  himself. He emptied himself, and that was that beautiful verse, remember? That He became poor for us. He emptied himself so that He could give Himself fully, even all the way to the cross. And even beyond that, God is a giver of gifts. He gives us His Holy Spirit who gives us His peace, His joy. We are fellow heirs with Christ. God loves to give, and Because God's people, we love to give.

  03:50-03:52

  God is conforming us into the image of His Son.

  03:53-03:55

  So because He loves to give, we love to give.

  03:57-03:58

  Then last week we talked about why do I love to give?

  03:58-04:00

  I love to give because God gives to me.

  04:01-04:08

  And at the risk of sounding like some liberal, charismatic TV preacher, we looked at what the Bible actually says.

  04:09-04:15

  The principle of sowing and reaping that's true for agriculture is also true with money.

  04:16-04:23

  The Bible says if you sow, if you give money, you will reap, you'll receive money.

  04:24-04:29

  And your reaping is in proportion to your sowing, meaning if you sow a little, you're going to reap a little.

  04:29-04:31

  If you sow a lot, you're going to reap a lot.

  04:32-04:36

  And we saw last week that God gives you more so that you can give more.

  04:36-04:38

  God wants you to meet a need, not feed your greed.

  04:40-04:42

  So God says you keep giving it out.

  04:43-04:44

  I'll keep giving to you.

  04:46-04:48

  God gets really fired up about that.

  04:49-04:51

  You've seen a lot of reasons that I love to give.

  04:52-04:57

  All of those are great reasons, but today we're going to look at the number one reason I love to give.

  04:58-05:06

  This isn't like - Paul's like, okay, here's a bunch of reasons, and we're going to kind of round it off, kind of cap it off, and let's throw one more in.

  05:07-05:11

  This is the biggest reason that I love to give.

  05:11-05:13

  This is the biggest reason that we should love to give.

  05:13-05:14

  And why is it the biggest reason?

  05:15-05:20

  Because this reason is something that should typify the Christian's life in every area.

  05:21-05:24

  This is the reason behind why you should have the marriage that you have.

  05:24-05:27

  This is the reason behind why you should parent the way that you parent.

  05:27-05:31

  This is the reason behind why we try to do what we do as a church.

  05:32-05:35

  This is the reason that's actually the mission statement of the church.

  05:37-05:49

  And it all comes from 1 Corinthians 10 .31 "Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." And that's what we're going to see in this passage.

  05:49-05:53

  I love to give because giving glorifies God.

  05:54-05:57

  Again, that's something that should typify every single area of our lives.

  05:58-05:59

  Why are you doing it that way?

  05:59-06:01

  I'm doing it because this is the way that glorifies God.

  06:02-06:04

  So why do we give the way that we give?

  06:04-06:06

  We're going to see it very clearly in this passage.

  06:09-06:10

  Because we want to glorify God.

  06:10-06:12

  But what does it mean to glorify God?

  06:13-06:15

  To glorify God means to manifest His presence.

  06:17-06:19

  To glorify God means to make Him known.

  06:20-06:24

  In other words, glorifying God means you're letting people see God in you.

  06:24-06:31

  Jesus said, "Let your light shine before men so they may glorify God in heaven." Now, your light isn't your light, right?

  06:31-06:33

  It's God's light shining through you.

  06:34-06:42

  But Jesus said, "Live your life in such a way that people see God at work through you, And then they're going to glorify Him, not you.

  06:43-06:45

  Because you're manifesting His presence.

  06:47-06:52

  The biggest reason that we give to the work of the Kingdom is it glorifies God.

  06:52-06:58

  The way that we give magnifies the Lord.

  07:00-07:04

  So today, the question is how does giving glorify God?

  07:04-07:07

  There's three things I want to share with you.

  07:08-07:10

  is giving results in thankfulness.

  07:12-07:13

  You're going to see this again straight from the text.

  07:15-07:16

  Giving results in thankfulness.

  07:17-07:18

  Look at verses 11 and 12.

  07:19-07:30

  Paul says, "You will be enriched in every way, to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.

  07:32-07:39

  For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but is is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God.

  07:42-07:43

  You see it right there in the text.

  07:43-07:45

  Like what's happening with this giving?

  07:45-07:46

  What's happening?

  07:46-07:47

  Paul's like, well, a couple of things.

  07:47-07:52

  We're meeting the needs of the saints, but that's not even the main thing that's happening.

  07:52-07:57

  The main thing that's happening is all these people are thanking God because of this giving.

  07:58-07:59

  That's the main thing that's happening.

  08:01-08:02

  And biblically, this is so important.

  08:02-08:04

  I'm gonna say this quickly.

  08:04-08:07

  We could spend a whole sermon series on this topic.

  08:08-08:09

  Just write this down.

  08:09-08:11

  Thankfulness glorifies God.

  08:11-08:13

  Thankfulness glorifies God.

  08:13-08:14

  It does.

  08:14-08:27

  2 Corinthians 4:15 says, "For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God." Thankfulness glorifies God.

  08:28-08:31

  In Romans 1:21, just write the reference down.

  08:32-08:39

  But you have to see The Apostle Paul in Romans talks about how faith is linked to thankfulness.

  08:40-08:45

  Meaning this, you find me somebody that's not thankful to God, I'll find you somebody that doesn't have faith.

  08:48-08:51

  You find me somebody that says, "I don't think God's ever given me anything.

  08:52-08:56

  God's never done anything for me and I'm not thankful." Well that guy doesn't have faith.

  08:56-08:59

  But you find the guy that says, "You know, God has been so good to me.

  08:59-09:00

  Yes, life has been hard.

  09:00-09:02

  I've had to deal with some very hard things in my life.

  09:03-09:04

  It's been very difficult.

  09:04-09:10

  But you know, God has been so good, and He has sustained me, and He has taken me through some very hard times in my life.

  09:10-09:13

  You find me that guy, and I'll say there's somebody that has faith.

  09:14-09:21

  But you have to see, biblically, faith and thankfulness are connected.

  09:22-09:23

  You can't separate them.

  09:25-09:27

  People thankful to God have faith.

  09:27-09:30

  People not thankful to God exercise faith.

  09:30-09:45

  That's Romans 121. Because you see, it's all from God. You see, when we give, it's because God moves our heart, and the recipient of the gift thanks God for the gift.

  09:47-09:53

  Don't thank me, thank God. You see, that's how that works.

  09:54-10:05

  The person gives, and And the recipient, while acknowledging that God used that person to give, the recipient ends up thanking God because God's the one that moved the heart for that person to give.

  10:05-10:06

  You following me on this?

  10:07-10:08

  This is so important.

  10:09-10:13

  The point is, it's not the person that receives the glory.

  10:14-10:17

  Like I gave this to you man, you should thank me.

  10:17-10:18

  No, you should thank God.

  10:19-10:24

  Because God is the one who, He gave it to me in the first place, right?

  10:24-10:33

  Everything I give came from God, so you should be thanking Him anyways because I'm just giving you something that He gave me in the first place.

  10:34-10:47

  That's something I like to say to people the times that we're out and I treat somebody to lunch or coffee, "Oh no, no, let me get that, let me get that." Something I like to tell people is, "Oh no, don't worry about it, my father owns everything." Meaning what?

  10:47-10:51

  Meaning everything in my wallet came from God in the first place.

  10:51-10:54

  It's not like it's mine anyways.

  10:55-10:57

  So, it's all from God.

  11:00-11:18

  Think of Moldova last February, when we took an offering to help rebuild the pastor's home that was a communist block apartment that was crumbling, and the pastor and his family were living in these horrible conditions, and we took an offering to help rebuild his home.

  11:19-11:20

  What resulted from that?

  11:22-11:25

  Does the pastor and his family have a picture of me on their wall?

  11:26-11:30

  And every morning, "Kids, kids, it's time to sing the Pastor Jeff song, come on!

  11:31-11:35

  We're going to praise Pastor Jeff because Pastor Jeff got the church to send us money." Does he do that?

  11:36-11:38

  He absolutely does not.

  11:40-11:40

  Nor should he.

  11:42-11:43

  Take a guess what they do.

  11:44-11:49

  Do you think that they thank God because of the gifts that you gave?

  11:50-11:51

  Absolutely.

  11:51-11:53

  So much praise has gone to God.

  11:53-11:54

  Thank you, God.

  11:54-11:56

  Look what God provided.

  11:56-11:59

  Yes, He did it through Harvest Pittsburgh North and Harvest Pittsburgh East and some other churches.

  12:00-12:04

  Yeah, that's how, those are the channels that God used, but it's all from God.

  12:04-12:09

  So the thankfulness went to God, not to me, not to you, not to Jeremiah in Pittsburgh East.

  12:09-12:10

  The thankfulness went to God.

  12:11-12:14

  You see, and that's why I love to give.

  12:15-12:20

  Because when I give, people praise God for the gift.

  12:22-12:26

  We can talk about the concepts of this all year.

  12:27-12:31

  But you know, we have an opportunity to actually put this into practice.

  12:31-12:36

  We have an opportunity right now in front of us, and I've been teasing it the last couple of weeks.

  12:37-12:38

  We have an opportunity.

  12:40-12:48

  Just as these churches were giving to help support this ministry in Jerusalem, Harvest Bible Fellowship has approached us about an opportunity.

  12:49-12:56

  They're building a training center in Romania like the one that I attended in Chicago to train ministers to plant churches all over Europe.

  12:56-13:04

  And they're coming to us, and they're saying, "Can you partner with us in this mission?" An absolutely incredible opportunity.

  13:05-13:09

  It is to be on the front end to do something like this?

  13:10-13:12

  It's a staggering opportunity.

  13:13-13:15

  I mean, it's one thing to invest in a ministry.

  13:15-13:17

  It's another thing to plant a church.

  13:18-13:26

  But to invest in a ministry that is training pastors to plant churches - think of how far those offerings are going to go.

  13:27-13:32

  We're talking generations of people, as Jay said, starving for the Word.

  13:34-13:39

  We have an opportunity now to give to get this going.

  13:39-13:42

  Isn't that just an incredible thing about giving?

  13:42-13:47

  See, not everybody here can say that's great, I'm going to jump on a plane and head over there for three months and build it.

  13:47-13:49

  Not everybody can do that.

  13:49-13:53

  But, every single one of us have something in our pockets that we can give.

  13:54-13:55

  To say, you know what, I believe in this.

  13:55-14:01

  And I believe God is calling me to give like the Macedonians, according to my means, beyond my means.

  14:03-14:10

  And we want you to be prayerfully considering you're going to give to this ministry to get it going.

  14:10-14:18

  And prayerfully consider you're going to be one of the people to head over there to be a part of getting things built.

  14:19-14:20

  Much is happening.

  14:21-14:22

  Incredible opportunity.

  14:23-14:29

  So I love to give because giving results and thankfulness - people praise God for His provision through you.

  14:29-14:29

  Do you know that?

  14:30-14:34

  For generations, people will be praising God through this training center.

  14:34-14:42

  And think of the churches out of this training center of these passionate worshippers of Jesus Christ and people coming to Christ.

  14:43-14:45

  And all this worship going up.

  14:45-14:47

  And how did it start?

  14:47-14:49

  It started because God did something through you.

  14:50-14:52

  And that's what Paul's talking about here.

  14:52-14:54

  Giving has a way of doing that.

  14:56-14:59

  God using you to make all of that worship happen.

  15:01-15:07

  You mean I can give money and the end result of this money Is there going to be people worshiping God?

  15:08-15:09

  Who do I make the check out to?

  15:12-15:15

  It's an amazing cycle, isn't it, when you consider what we talked about last week.

  15:16-15:21

  So we give, and then it results in thankfulness to God.

  15:21-15:32

  So because we give, God gives us more to give, and then we give more, which results in more people being thankful to God, and God is glorified even more.

  15:32-15:38

  So He gives us more to give so that we can have even more people thankful to God, and God has glorified more.

  15:38-15:41

  Do you see this incredible cycle of grace?

  15:42-15:43

  Awesome.

  15:44-15:46

  Giving results in thankfulness.

  15:46-15:47

  #2 - Giving proves authenticity.

  15:49-15:50

  Giving proves authenticity.

  15:50-15:51

  Look at v. 13.

  15:53-16:08

  "By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission flowing from your confession of the Gospel of Christ and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all the others.

  16:10-16:12

  Giving proves authenticity.

  16:12-16:19

  See, this would have been very important for the Corinthian church, because let's be honest, the Corinthian church - they were a messed up church.

  16:19-16:20

  They were messed up.

  16:21-16:22

  Read 1 Corinthians sometime.

  16:22-16:23

  They were messed up.

  16:23-16:26

  1 Corinthians 5 - do you know in the Corinthian church?

  16:26-16:35

  There was a guy in the church who's having an illicit affair, a physical illicit affair with his stepmother.

  16:36-16:44

  Okay, so his dad gets remarried and this guy is messing around with his stepmother and like the church was bragging about it.

  16:45-16:47

  Okay, and I'm not trying to be crass, read 1 Corinthians 5.

  16:47-16:49

  They were boasting about it.

  16:49-16:54

  There were a lot of high fives and pats on the back and oh man, look at this guy.

  16:54-16:56

  And Paul's like, what are you doing?

  16:56-16:58

  You shouldn't be bragging about this.

  16:58-17:00

  Paul's like, "What in the world is going on in that church?

  17:00-17:05

  Throw him out!" Bragging about such a gross sin.

  17:05-17:06

  Throw him out.

  17:06-17:07

  That's 1 Corinthians 5.

  17:08-17:10

  So the point is, it was a messed up church.

  17:12-17:13

  It was a messed up church.

  17:13-17:25

  And I'm sure as word got around of these kinds of things, there are probably people wondering, I wonder if there's even any really like born again people attending the church in Corinth.

  17:26-17:31

  I mean, you really think that there's anybody here Christian, I mean, obviously, all their salvation's in question now.

  17:31-17:35

  If this is the kind of garbage that they're doing, well, Paul knew.

  17:36-17:41

  Paul knew, listen, they're born again people that are like us, still learning, still growing, right?

  17:41-17:43

  Anybody here have it all figured out?

  17:44-17:45

  Anybody, anybody at all?

  17:45-17:46

  Like, yeah, it's all figured out.

  17:46-17:49

  I'm like as good as I'm going to get, not me.

  17:51-17:52

  We're all on a journey, aren't we?

  17:52-17:53

  And Paul knew that about them.

  17:53-17:59

  He says, they are born again and they're growing And Christ is doing something in them.

  18:02-18:06

  And that's why he says, "Look, this giving is going to - what's it going to prove?

  18:07-18:08

  How's it going to glorify God?

  18:08-18:09

  Look at this phrase.

  18:09-18:18

  Because of your submission flowing from your confession of the Gospel of Christ." What's he saying?

  18:18-18:25

  He's saying that one of the ways that giving glorifies God, Giving is a demonstration of true faith.

  18:26-18:29

  Giving is a demonstration of true faith.

  18:31-18:36

  It's not as if giving is what gets you saved.

  18:38-18:39

  That's not the point at all.

  18:39-18:43

  Paul is saying that giving is a demonstration that you truly are saved.

  18:43-18:47

  Because you did confess Christ, giving demonstrates salvation.

  18:47-18:49

  How can you tell if somebody is saved?

  18:50-18:53

  Can you tell someone, say, what's the fruit of salvation?

  18:53-18:56

  Is it based on what they say or by what they do?

  18:58-19:01

  Well, according to James, faith is demonstrated by what people do.

  19:02-19:13

  James says, "Faith without works is dead, but faith with works is alive, and giving is one of the most beautiful acts of worship." Want some evidence?

  19:15-19:15

  Let's look at the disciples.

  19:16-19:18

  We're going to be jumping back into Mark here next week.

  19:19-19:24

  And we've already seen this in our study through Mark, where the disciples were always arguing about stupid things.

  19:25-19:27

  Like, which one of us is the greatest?

  19:29-19:31

  While they were walking around with Jesus.

  19:31-19:33

  But then something interesting happens.

  19:33-19:35

  They're arguing about which is the greatest in Mark.

  19:36-19:45

  And then you get to the book of Acts, and they're like giving everything for the common good of everybody.

  19:45-19:55

  And you're like, wait a minute, How did they get from these self-serving, sort of arrogant people to pouring themselves out for Jesus people?

  19:56-19:57

  What happened in the middle?

  19:57-19:59

  What happened in the middle was the Holy Spirit came.

  19:59-20:01

  And the Holy Spirit changed them.

  20:03-20:05

  I believe that's one of the ways the Holy Spirit transformed them.

  20:07-20:14

  They were, you know, in Jesus' day, so much about themselves, their glory, their attention.

  20:17-20:23

  After Jesus' death and resurrection and after the Holy Spirit came, they were about giving.

  20:23-20:25

  Read Acts 2. Read Acts 4.

  20:25-20:26

  That's what the church did.

  20:26-20:28

  They gave. They gave. They gave.

  20:29-20:30

  So that everybody was taken care of.

  20:30-20:33

  It says that there was no needy among them.

  20:34-20:35

  They shared everything that they owned.

  20:37-20:41

  Church, nothing fires a Christian up more than seeing Jesus change a life.

  20:42-20:49

  That giving generously is one of the most visible and tangible ways that demonstrates that Jesus has changed a life.

  20:51-20:55

  Because God truly has a person when He has their money.

  20:57-20:59

  So giving proves authenticity.

  20:59-21:01

  And finally, giving grows relationships.

  21:02-21:04

  Giving grows relationships.

  21:04-21:05

  Look at v. 14.

  21:07-21:14

  Paul says, "While they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God upon you.

  21:17-21:23

  When Jesus changes someone, the reality that the world sees is the love that we have for one another.

  21:23-21:24

  Sort of counterintuitive.

  21:24-21:35

  I would have thought that Jesus would have said, "By this, all men will know that you're my disciples by the way that you love lost people." But He didn't say it was about the way we love lost people.

  21:36-21:38

  Jesus said it was about the way that we love each other.

  21:40-21:41

  Scripture's so clear in that.

  21:41-21:49

  John 13, 35, "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." So the world is looking at us.

  21:49-21:52

  Do we really love each other as Christians?

  21:55-21:59

  And that's why in this passage, we see signs of deep loving relationship.

  21:59-22:01

  Did you see that in verse 14?

  22:01-22:04

  He says they long for you, and they pray for you.

  22:04-22:12

  See, that relationship was happening to the point that they were wanting to see them, They were constantly remembering Him in their prayers.

  22:14-22:15

  And it was because of the giving.

  22:16-22:19

  Now listen, I'm not saying that we're buying friends.

  22:19-22:20

  I'm not saying that.

  22:20-22:21

  I don't want anybody to leave.

  22:21-22:23

  So I hear what Pastor Jeff is saying.

  22:23-22:24

  He's saying that we should buy friends.

  22:25-22:26

  So Tony, I like you.

  22:26-22:27

  Will you be my friend?

  22:27-22:28

  I'll buy you a dirt bike.

  22:28-22:30

  If I buy you a dirt bike, will you be my friend?

  22:31-22:31

  Tony, will?

  22:31-22:33

  Okay, that's fantastic.

  22:33-22:34

  He's a cheap friend.

  22:36-22:49

  You're a cheap friend, Tony, because I asked somebody else the other day, "Will you be my friend if I buy you a dirt bike?" And he said, "You're gonna have to up it "to something with four wheels." I'm like, "Yeah, I'm kinda buying one of those myself." And I'm not saying that you buy your friends.

  22:51-22:52

  Like, well, then what are you saying?

  22:53-23:02

  I'm saying there's a sense in which relationships form and deepen when someone is willing to give in order to ease another's financial burden.

  23:04-23:06

  And I wanna share it from a different perspective.

  23:07-23:12

  We were talking about giving to Moldova giving to Romania. But you understand that we've been on the other end of that, right?

  23:13-23:39

  Before this church launched and money was pretty tight, right Ken? You remember that money was pretty tight? Harvest Bible Chapel up in Oakville in Niagara, you know, they're just like right down the road from each other. I've told you this, they sent us somewhere between seven and eight thousand dollars. They're just like, we were going to do some missional giving, we thought you guys could use it, here you go. So how do you think I feel about those churches? You see, there's a There's a connection there with Pastor Robbie Simons and Pastor Darrell Molyneux.

  23:40-23:43

  There's a connection that I have with those people that I always remember.

  23:43-23:44

  You know what?

  23:44-23:48

  We were in a tough spot and they reached out to us by giving.

  23:50-23:56

  Now granted, we had hundreds of people that were like, hey, best of luck to you, I'm pulling for you, I'm praying for you, that's fantastic.

  23:57-24:01

  But there's something special about these people that said we are willing to invest in you.

  24:03-24:05

  It happened even more recently with Northway.

  24:06-24:11

  At the end of a baptism service, they took an offering and they gave a portion of that offering to us.

  24:11-24:11

  Why?

  24:14-24:14

  To bless us.

  24:16-24:17

  We didn't ask for it.

  24:17-24:24

  I didn't have a private conversation with Pastor Kent or Pastor Scott like, "Look, I appreciate you doing this "because we're broke." None of that happened.

  24:25-24:30

  They're just like, "We just wanna bless you guys "because we love you guys and we love our partnership." So they gave us money.

  24:32-24:47

  So I'm saying that being on the other end of that, I understand the truth that there's some kind of a, there's some kind of an affection and a bond and a unity that comes when ministries are being supported by other ministries like that.

  24:48-24:50

  That's exactly what Paul's talking about here.

  24:50-24:52

  When you give, that's why they're longing for you.

  24:52-25:01

  That's why they're praying for you, because you're being united and unified and knit together because you are willing to invest in them financially.

  25:03-25:06

  Thinking of what's going to happen in Romania, as I already said.

  25:07-25:10

  These churches are going to think very fondly of you.

  25:11-25:13

  There's a church in Pittsburgh that never met us!

  25:15-25:16

  Praise God for them!

  25:16-25:24

  And I'm praying for them, and I'm praying for that church, and I'm praying for that ministry because God used them so mightily in our lives.

  25:27-25:30

  So giving makes for unity and a love and a gospel like nothing else.

  25:31-25:36

  Because money used rightly can make friends.

  25:38-25:45

  But if you're still sort of like, I'm not sure about this using money to like buy friends thing that you're talking about.

  25:45-25:46

  Just jot this down.

  25:46-25:47

  Luke chapter 16.

  25:48-25:49

  This is one of my favorite parables.

  25:50-25:52

  Because it is so weird compared to the other parables.

  25:52-25:54

  But Jesus told this parable, and I mean weird in a good way.

  25:55-25:59

  But Jesus told this parable in Luke 16 that's just kind of crazy when you think about it.

  25:59-26:01

  Jesus is like, okay, so this, I'm paraphrasing.

  26:02-26:03

  I want you to read, I'm paraphrasing.

  26:03-26:08

  But Jesus is like, okay, so this guy, this guy worked for this guy that owned all this stuff.

  26:08-26:09

  And this guy was a manager.

  26:10-26:12

  And this manager knew that he was getting fired.

  26:13-26:13

  Like, you know what?

  26:14-26:16

  We found out that there's some shady things going on.

  26:16-26:18

  You're gonna be out, you're fired.

  26:19-26:20

  So this guy knew he was getting fired.

  26:21-26:25

  So what this guy did was he called in all these people that owed his master money.

  26:25-26:45

  He's like, "What's your bill?" The guy's like, "Well, I owe 100." He goes, "Cut it in half, write down 50." And he called in the next guy, "How much do you owe?" And he's like, "Well, I owe like 100 or whatever." And he's like, "Write down 80." So he called in all these people that owed and said, "Cut your bill down." It was like, you know, price to sell, price to move.

  26:45-26:47

  We are cutting debt here today.

  26:48-26:49

  Why did he do that?

  26:51-26:54

  because he knew he was about to get kicked to the curb.

  26:54-26:56

  He didn't have anywhere to go.

  26:57-27:02

  But all of a sudden, he just made for himself a handful of friends that were sort of indebted to him.

  27:04-27:09

  That's why the Bible says, Jesus said the master commended this manager for his shrewdness.

  27:10-27:15

  I'm sure he didn't commend him for what actually happened in the sense of, you just ripped me off a lot of money.

  27:15-27:16

  That wasn't the commendation.

  27:16-27:20

  The commendation was, dude, that was actually kind of clever what you did.

  27:21-27:30

  Because when I can you here, you're going to have all these people that are going to let you stay with them because you looked out for them.

  27:31-27:33

  Why did Jesus tell that story?

  27:34-27:35

  Jesus made the application.

  27:35-27:40

  He says, by the way, worldly people are a lot smarter about using money than kingdom people.

  27:40-27:47

  He says, but I'm telling you, you can win eternal friends with unrighteous mammon, which is money.

  27:48-27:51

  Because you can win friends for eternity with money.

  27:51-27:52

  You can win people.

  27:52-27:54

  Jesus said they're going to welcome you into heaven.

  27:55-27:58

  There are going to be people in heaven waiting for you when you cross over.

  27:58-28:01

  And they're going to be like, "It was because of your giving.

  28:02-28:10

  It was because of the way that you invested in me and this ministry that affected me that I'm here in heaven right now." Jesus said there are going to be people in heaven greeting you.

  28:10-28:10

  Why?

  28:11-28:18

  are willing to give money in the name of the Lord to advance His kingdom.

  28:19-28:22

  So can you use money to win friends according to Jesus?

  28:22-28:23

  Yes.

  28:24-28:27

  Not only yes you can, but Jesus said yes you should.

  28:28-28:31

  Invest your money in people.

  28:34-28:36

  And that grows relationships.

  28:37-28:40

  I know that sounds very weird to hear in church.

  28:41-28:42

  I encourage you to be a Bible student.

  28:42-28:44

  That's what it says here in 2 Corinthians 9.

  28:45-28:46

  Read the parable in Luke 16.

  28:48-28:50

  Okay, and then we have verse 15 as I close.

  28:51-28:52

  Look at verse 15.

  28:53-29:05

  Paul says, "Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift." "Thanks be to God for his," what kind of gift?

  29:05-29:06

  He says it's inexpressible.

  29:06-29:08

  So what do you think he's talking about?

  29:08-29:09

  What do you think he's talking about?

  29:09-29:11

  Go ahead and shout it out if you think you know the answer.

  29:13-29:14

  What is the inexpressible gift of God?

  29:15-29:19

  Jesus, okay, everybody else now, what's the inexpressible gift of God?

  29:20-29:22

  Jesus, that's obviously who he's talking about, right?

  29:22-29:24

  God's given me lots of stuff that I can describe.

  29:24-29:26

  He's given me an awesome wife, an awesome family.

  29:26-29:28

  He's given me so much, an awesome church.

  29:28-29:30

  I can describe you guys though.

  29:30-29:33

  You know something I can't fully describe is how awesome Jesus is.

  29:34-29:35

  And that's what he's talking about.

  29:35-29:37

  That's kind of a weird way to end this passage, don't you think, Deana?

  29:38-29:43

  because I was thinking about this this week while you were doing what you do, and I'm thinking about this.

  29:46-29:49

  He has this section in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 that's all about giving.

  29:49-29:54

  And something they teach you when you go to preaching school is that you have to land the plane.

  29:55-30:01

  Meaning your conclusion should be tight and memorable and meaningful, right?

  30:03-30:07

  So as I was thinking about this week, "You know, how was Paul gonna land this plane?

  30:08-30:12

  He just gave this awesome, Holy Spirit inspired discourse on giving.

  30:13-30:20

  How was he gonna land this plane?" Then Paul's like, "Okay, so they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God upon you.

  30:23-30:26

  Amen." Like, no, that wasn't quite, wouldn't quite do it.

  30:26-30:35

  Or, you know, he's like, "Well, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you, "So, give." Okay?

  30:36-30:37

  No, that couldn't quite do it.

  30:40-30:43

  How could Paul conclude this series on giving?

  30:45-30:48

  He says thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift.

  30:49-30:50

  And here's the point.

  30:52-30:53

  It all goes back to Jesus.

  30:56-30:59

  It all goes back to Jesus.

  31:01-31:02

  All of it.

  31:03-31:04

  What do you mean by that?

  31:06-31:14

  Listen, if I have to forgive someone for a wrong they committed against me, who is my motive?

  31:15-31:15

  Who is my example?

  31:16-31:17

  And who is my power for forgiveness?

  31:17-31:21

  Somebody could get up and list all of the verses in the Bible about forgiveness.

  31:22-31:25

  But at the end of the day, do you know what motivates me to forgive?

  31:25-31:26

  Jesus.

  31:28-31:29

  It all goes back to Him.

  31:30-31:34

  Or, good works.

  31:35-31:37

  What motivates me to do good works?

  31:38-31:46

  You can give me all the reasons why it's important to work for the Lord, and how important good works are, but at the end of the day, what motivates me?

  31:46-31:47

  Jesus.

  31:48-31:56

  We can talk about prayer, and all the benefits of prayer, and the way that God works through prayer, but at the end of the day, going to motivate me to pray?

  31:57-31:58

  Because Jesus prayed.

  32:00-32:01

  So now we're talking about giving.

  32:03-32:09

  And here's the need, and these people have needs, and God has given you, and even if you don't have much, you have something to give.

  32:10-32:12

  But if you give, God's going to give you more, but it's an act of faith.

  32:12-32:17

  And he's talking about all these concepts about giving, but it all goes back to what?

  32:18-32:19

  It all goes back to Jesus.

  32:20-32:25

  and say, "Listen, if there's somebody here that's still like, 'Yeah, I'm not really sure.

  32:26-32:38

  I'm not really sold on the giving thing.'" Maybe there's somebody here that says, "Yeah, Pastor Jeff, I hear what you're saying, and I'm not really sure." My answer to you is, it goes back to Jesus, doesn't it?

  32:41-32:44

  Because He's the giver to me.

  32:45-32:48

  He's the example of giving sacrificially.

  32:50-32:52

  He's the example of giving worshipfully.

  32:53-32:55

  He's the example of giving lovingly.

  32:56-33:07

  And because of all He is, and because of all He does, and because of everything He promises, I say, I love to give.

  33:08-33:09

  How about you?

  33:10-33:14

  Father in Heaven, it certainly does go back to Jesus.

  33:16-33:28

  And You have taught us so much stuff in these chapters about all of the promises and blessings and ways that You work as we give.

  33:29-33:35

  And I pray, Father, the thing that we would leave with is I love to give because of Jesus.

  33:38-33:46

  Father, I pray that as we are preparing to partner with this training center being built in Romania, that You would move our hearts.

  33:47-33:50

  You would stir our hearts to be generous towards this endeavor.

  33:52-33:55

  The advancement of Your kingdom for the glory of Your name.

  33:57-34:03

  Let us be people who don't just talk about giving, who don't just acknowledge that giving is good.

  34:03-34:05

  Let us be generous givers.

  34:07-34:10

  In Your glorious name that we pray, Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read 2 Corinthians 9:11-15

1. How would you define what it means to "glorify God"? How does financial giving glorify God?
    

2. In 2 Corinthians 9:13, Paul says that giving is a proof of genuine salvation. How is giving an evidence that someone is truly born again?

Breakout Questions:

Pray for one another to grow as givers: rightly motivated, generous, and trusting God!