Hello, and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast,
where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to
this podcast.
I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen
you in the word of God.
Now, come along.
Let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today
in the book of 2 Corinthians.
If you have your Bibles, turn there with me.
2 Corinthians.
And we're going to be in chapter number 11.
We've been following the book of 2nd Corinthians now for quite
a bit of time, and we have found ourselves here in this chapter
dealing with Paul as he deals with the Corinthian Church and how
he is defending his ministry against false teachers at this point
in time.
If you've been following us in this sermon series, you've realized
that here at this specific time frame, there have been some
false teachers who have claimed to be apostles of Christ,
move into the church at Corinth, and they're preaching something
contrary to what Paul is preaching.
And so what's happened is, is that these false teachers have allowed
themselves to get to a place that they have built the trust with
the church.
And the church at Corinth has tolerated these false teachers, and
they've come to a place where now they're accepting the message
of these false teachers and they're rejecting the message of
Paul, which.
The message of Paul is the message of truth.
The message of Paul is the message of the Gospel.
And so Paul now is defending himself, but it's not so much that
he's defending himself as much as he's defending the truth of God.
But he knows that there is a necessity here, and the necessity
is for him to prove that he is a messenger of God and therefore
prove that what he is preaching is truly from God.
And so Paul is defending the truth of God and his own ministry,
and he's matched up against false teachers who are doing their
best to get the church of Corinth to go the opposite direction
of the truth.
And we live in a world today that.
That is very similar.
We live in a world today that is trying to pull the church away
from the truth.
We have a world today that's trying to pull away the believer
from what God has clearly defined as truth in the gospel and
truth in his word, and to get us to believe things that are contrary
to his word.
And so Paul, in this case, is.
Is reluctant to defend himself in this defense.
Okay?
He he's reluctant.
Um, he actually calls it, as we saw earlier on, foolishness.
He says, this is foolishness that I have to sit here and go backwards
and, and to go back to what we've already talked about.
This is a waste.
Um, but no, he knows that this is a necessity.
So.
So he says, guys, we're wasting our time here.
We're getting distracted with things that should not be pulling
away our attention.
So he will, in this passage, boast, but he's not going to boast
like the other apostles have boasted, these false apostles.
He's going to boast in what God has been able to do through him.
And so what we can see here in Second Corinthians, chapter 11 is
that Paul is going to say, okay, I'm going to tell you what
God is doing.
And what God is doing in my life is not what God is doing through
those other people's lives.
The.
The false apostles.
We go back just in Second Corinthians, chapter 10, verse 17,
and he says, but he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
And so Paul says, these people that are glorying in themselves and
their works of the flesh, in the way that they've pulled this
audience together and how much they have in their material blessings,
these people are glorying in the wrong things.
They're boasting in the wrong things.
Really, the only thing that a believer can glory in is glorying
in what God has done for us, boasting and, and giving honor to
God for his blessings in our life.
And so Paul says, this is foolishness, but I'm going to defend
what God is doing in my life here in the church.
So look at it with me here in verse number 16.
Verse number 16, he says, I say, again, let no man think me a
fool.
So he says, even though I'm doing something foolish by lowering
myself down to defend myself and not preach the gospel, he says,
do.
Don't think I'm a fool.
If otherwise.
If you think I'm a fool, yet as a fool, receive me.
Say, what is he talking about here?
He says, well, you've received other fools.
You've received all these other people talking about their
accolades.
Just for the next few moments, he says, listen to me that I may
boast myself a little, that I might share with you what God is
doing through my life.
And so this is what Paul is talking about here.
If you read this passage out of context, it might seem like Paul
is bragging about himself.
But again, we understand that just a few verses ahead Paul says,
I don't boast in anything other than what God has done in my
life.
And so what Paul is doing is he's saying, look, if you think that
they're the true teachers, look at what God is doing through
them.
Well, he's not doing anything through them.
Look at what God is doing through me.
The proof is in the pudding, essentially, is what he's saying
here.
So he says, I need to tell you what God is doing now.
Now, what have we titled this sermon this morning?
I've entitled this the Credentials of a Certified Christ
Follower.
Okay, so Paul is giving his credentials, and he's giving his
credentials as a certified Christ follower.
He says, oh, they claim to be Christ followers.
What are their credentials?
I claim to be a Christ follower.
Here are my credentials.
And I think all of us want to be what's called a certified Christ
follower.
We all want to be those Christians who are honoring God by
the way that we live our lives.
We all want to be those believers that are are showing the
gospel to the world.
And so Paul says, you want to be like me?
You want to have my credentials?
Here it is.
And I think all of us can learn a little bit from what Paul
is sharing here in this passage.
So let's go ahead and pray, and then we're going to jump right
into our main thoughts here this morning.
Lord, I pray that you be with us.
I pray that you help us see your truth through this passage of
scripture.
I pray that we can understand that you have called us to defend
the truth.
You have called us to proclaim the truth.
You've called us to live the truth in our lives.
And so, Lord, I pray that you can help us this morning understand
that as we live for you, that there will be challenges.
As we live for you.
There will be ups, but there will be downs.
Lord, I pray that you can help us see what it means to have you
in our lives through everything.
Lord, I pray that here this morning that we can all leave here
growing in our understanding of what it means to be a Christ follower.
Lord, I pray that you can challenge our hearts, convict our
hearts, comfort our hearts.
Lord, I pray if there's someone here today that does not
know you as personal savior, that today can be that day.
Lord, I pray that you can remove me out of the way and that
your word can clearly be seen here this morning.
We thank you and we love you.
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
Verse 17.
He says something very interesting and some people have
read this to say that this passage of scripture is not from
God.
That would be a misunderstanding of what is being
said here.
Verse 17, he says, that which I speak, that when I'm about to tell
you, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were, foolishly,
in this confidence of boasting, meaning this.
Okay, you, you would say.
So is he saying, this is not from God, this is not inspired?
No.
What is he saying here?
He's saying this.
The fact that he's not speaking according to the Lord is
in the sense that his defense of his credentials focuses on himself.
He's speaking about himself.
So he says, for the next few moments, I'm not talking about God
directly, I'm talking about me.
Now we know in the underlying theme, he's talking about what God
has done through him.
But he says, for the next few moments, I'm not gonna be giving
you the gospel.
I'm gonna be giving you what I have been able to do through the
power of God.
So when he says he's speaking not after the Lord, he says, I'm
not speaking about God here, I'm speaking about myself.
But, but Paul, he.
He didn't like to talk about himself.
We can see his reluctance here, his humility.
And we even know that back in Second Corinthians, chapter 4, verse
5, he says, we don't preach ourselves, but we preach Christ.
So this is pulling Paul out of his comfort zone.
The fact that he has to tell people what he's been doing for the
Lord.
It would be like me going off and, you know, as your pastor, you
guys send me off and do a short term missions trip somewhere
and I come back to you and you go, well, did you waste our money,
Pastor, or did you do something for the Lord?
I would have to get up and tell you what I was able to do through
the power of God.
But if I'm a humble minister of the gospel, it's somewhat embarrassing
to come up and say all the things that were able to get done.
You know, like, well, we did this and we did this.
What Paul's saying is, I don't want this to be about me.
I want it to be about the Lord.
But I've got to tell you what the Lord has been doing.
And so in this case, he's both seen in what God has done.
He's both seen in his accolades.
And so he says in verse 17, this is not according to the Lord.
This is not about God.
This is about what God has done through me.
And then we see verse 18, he says, seeing that many glory after
the flesh.
Now, we know that he's not glorying after the flesh because
of this next verse.
He.
He says, you know, seeing that many glory after the flesh, he says,
I will glory also.
But he says, these people are.
Glory in the flesh.
I'm going to glory, but I'm not going to glory in the flesh.
And so Paul is boasting, but it'll be nothing like the boasting
of the many that have come before him.
And so by way of understanding, we understand that
this group of false apostles, we don't know how many there that
were there, but they had been getting in front of the church and
bragging about themselves.
And Paul says, I'm gonna brag, but not in accordance to the flesh.
I'm not gonna brag like these have bragged before.
And so that's.
That's what he's talking about here.
Verse 19.
For ye suffer fools gladly, meaning this.
You guys have been allowing these fools to get up in front of
you and tell you about themselves so much, you should be
able to listen to me.
For you suffer fools gladly, seeing you yourselves are wise.
Now, Paul uses what we could possibly call Christian sarcasm here.
Okay?
That's what he's doing.
Paul says, you guys have been so wise to listen to these fools.
You need to listen to this fool for a while.
And.
And so sometimes people say, well, sarcasm is always wrong.
Well, it's not always wrong if he's making a point.
And Paul's doing this in.
In love.
And he's doing this and speaking the truth in love.
And so Paul says, here, look, listen.
He says, you guys have been listening to these people brag about
themselves.
So you need to listen to me.
You guys.
Exercise your worldly wisdom now.
Exercise your wisdom in listening to me.
So he's going to move forward here.
And he's going to say, hey, look, there are people that have
been deceiving you.
I'm coming with the truth.
Listen to the truth.
Verse 20.
For ye suffer if a man bring you into bondage.
He says you have allowed.
This is what he's saying.
You have allowed.
That word suffer in the older English means to allow something
to happen, tolerate something.
So he says, you have allowed people to bring you into bondage.
This is not bondage to Christ.
This is bondage to those false teachers.
So what we can understand is this.
Someone has come into the church at Corinth and allowed themselves
to enact bondage on the people of the church of Corinth, who basically
rule over them in a.
In a Fleshly human focus.
So he said, you've allowed people to put you into bondage.
Says if any.
If a man devour you, you've allowed people to devour you.
This is similar to what the Pharisees were doing to the widows
back at the time of Christ.
If you remember what was happening, they were abusing the
widows, and they were devouring, as it says, their.
Their homes, their money.
And so what's happening is there's abuse.
So.
So what we can take by way of context is that the false teachers
there in Corinth were abusing the people by putting them into bondage.
Or we could say legalism, right?
You've ever heard of that term?
Legalism isn't just having standards.
Legalism is putting a rule upon someone that is not based in
scripture and then charging them in that account.
So if you don't wear, you know, black pants on a Sunday morning,
you're wrong, okay?
And that's a sin.
And what's happening is, is that it's a arbitrary legalism that's
being placed upon the church.
He says, that's what's happening in your bondage.
And then secondly, you are being devoured.
So basically, these false apostles were pulling the resources
from the people for their own good.
And Paul even said, we saw this last week.
Paul says, I don't want to be a burden upon you.
I haven't taken anything from you.
And so these people are abusing them, by the way, that they're
putting them into legalism and devouring their goods.
And then what else does it say?
It says if.
If a man devour you.
If a man take of you.
So they're actually not just manipulating the situation.
They're actually stealing from the church at Corinth.
These super apostles, as we talked about before, these fake apostles
that have come in, they're stealing from the church at Corinth.
They're taking from them, says if a man exalt himself, so they're
exalting himself.
So he's putting a contrast.
He's.
He's giving what we would call the condemning credentials of the
charlatans.
Okay?
So.
So we have the credentials of a certified Christ follower.
And now he's given the.
He's condemning these credentials of these, what we would
call charlatans.
They're coming in to fake their way to influence.
They're coming in saying that they're apostles of Christ.
But we saw last week, as it says in verses 14 and 15, that these
were ministers of Satan, ministers of evil.
So he says, hey, what do they do?
They exalt themselves.
And so Paul is like, hey, you know what?
I don't want to exalt myself.
These people are like, everything that they can do is exalting
themselves.
And then what does it say there at the end?
It says, if a man smites you on the face, say, what is it?
What is he talking about here?
Is this, like, just theoretical?
No, what he's saying is you could allow one of these ministers
to come up to you, smite you in the face, and you would be like,
well, he's from God, so that's okay.
He's.
He's basically saying that the Corinthian Church were turning a
blind eye to the public displays of sin of these leaders.
And.
And what we would say?
Would they really hit them?
Well, well, they probably would have, because it wasn't uncommon
for religious authorities of that day to command those people
that they considered ungodly to actually be struck on the face
by the leaders.
Okay.
It was a way of disciplining them.
So it would be like, okay, you guys acted up this week.
Line up.
You guys are going to get your discipline.
And so this was literally something that they were probably
doing, physically hitting these people in the Church of Corinth.
And we know that through the concept of.
In First Timothy, when it's talking about a pastor and the qualifications
of a pastor, it says not to be a striker or a brawler.
And a lot of times people think that means just going out and
fighting in public.
That also can mean striking and hitting their own followers because
of that discipline.
And there is godly discipline, but the Bible never says that that's
physical discipline within the church.
Okay, so that's what we're seeing here in this case, Paul says,
you're tolerating things that are evil.
You're tolerating things that are contrary to the message of God.
And so Paul says, if you've tolerated this, tolerate the truth,
how much of a church, as a church, have we tolerated false teaching?
How much of a.
As a church have we tolerated the ways of this world?
And he says, hey, you know what?
You need to turn from that and turn back to the truth.
But why were they comfortable with this?
Sadly, many people are more comfortable with authoritarian, authoritarian
leadership than they are with the freedom that is found in Jesus.
So what I would say is this.
Sometimes in church, people want to be bossed around with legalism
because it makes more sense.
Right?
Give me a list, Pastor.
Tell me what's good, tell me what's bad.
And I can go home and I can check off my list.
But the Bible says that the Christian life is more than just
listening.
There is right and wrong, but there is the issue of the heart.
And what Paul has said is, look, you have tolerated this authoritarian
leadership because you like the structure, because you like the
way that it is.
Because it's like every other religion out there.
Every other religion out there had this system of, hey, follow your
leaders.
And the leader, leaders are going to lead with an iron fist and
you're going to be punished.
And it's all about condemnation.
And what Paul says is, hey, yes, there is condemnation, there
is judgment, but that comes through the Lord.
That comes through faith.
That comes through conviction.
And so he says here, hey, look, you have gotten the wrong way
of thinking when it comes to the church.
And he says, you're following the way of the pagans.
You're following the way of the world.
And so he goes on to say this.
Verse 21, I speak as concerning reproach, as though we
had been weak.
So again, he's using sarcasm here.
He says, we were so weak that we didn't do these things to you.
So by way of context, what the people of Corinth were saying is,
we like strong leadership.
Paul, you guys are weak.
We want strong leadership.
And Paul says, sorry that we were so weak that we didn't abuse
you.
So sorry that we let you make decisions in Christ.
Sorry we came alongside of you.
And we're meek and we're gentle and.
And he says here, he says this.
Don't take meekness and compassion as weakness.
That's essentially what he's saying here.
He says, sorry that you think that we were weak, but it was a weakness.
It was compassion.
It was.
It was meekness.
Meekness is different than weakness.
But he says this, verse 21, how be it wherein soever any is bold,
I speak foolishly.
I am bold also.
See, what is.
What is he saying here?
He's saying this.
Though you might think that we are weak, we have been patient with
you.
We have been compassionate with you.
But now I'm going to speak boldly.
There's a time and a place, even in humility, to speak boldly
the truth of Christ to those that are seeking after the truth,
right?
So if I got up here today and I said, well, I can't tell you really
the truth because it might offend some of you.
If you want to know the truth, hopefully you will tolerate the truth
in boldness.
I hope that you're hope.
I.
I hope that this.
I hope this.
I hope that the church here at Middletown Baptist wants to hear
the truth boldly, whether it's contrary to culture or not, whether
it's contrary to your feelings or not.
I.
I might get up here, and maybe not today, maybe, maybe not next
week, but there's gonna be some point when I preach something
from this book that's gonna rub you the wrong way.
You're gonna say, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Who is he to say that again?
Remember, it's not me.
It's the word of God.
And so what we can see here in this case is Paul says, okay, we've
been quote, unquote weak to you.
Now we're going to be bold and we're gonna tell you the truth, and
you need to receive this truth.
And, folks, I.
I think that Paul has proven himself through all this.
And we're gonna see this at the end of this passage, that he
does all of this in love.
He loves the church at Corinth.
And so it's speaking the truth in love.
It's boldness in love.
And so Paul is going to say, okay, I'm going to tell you what
these people are really like.
So Paul tells them not to take compassion as weakness.
Here comes the boldness.
And so he's going to give his credentials right here.
These are the things that Paul says.
You want to see a true Christ follower?
This is a true Christ follower, verse 22.
Are they Hebrews?
So he speaks to their ancestry.
So am I.
So he says, I've got that taken care of, okay?
I've got my ancestry taken care of.
We're not going to get into Paul's ancestry here.
There's other passages of scripture where Paul speaks to his
past and his credentials when it comes to that side of things,
but he's going to speak more to what he has gone through in this
case.
Are they Israelites?
So am I.
Are they the seed of Abraham?
So am I.
So he says, I'm similar to them in that concept, in my ancestry.
But there's more.
He says, there's more to your pedigree.
There's more than just your ancestry.
It's more than just your tradition.
It's more than just your past and where you come from.
And I think that's important for us to see as well.
Like, what if I got up here today and I said, well, don't you
know that my dad and my grandpa, my great grandpa were pastors
so that everything I say is okay?
No, that's not necessarily the case.
Now, my dad wasn't a pastor, my grandpa wasn't pastor, so you
don't have to worry about that.
They're deacons, so that's another whole thing.
But the idea would be this.
There have been people in Corinth, and there's been people
today that have said, look at where I have been.
So I must be preaching the truth.
Problem is, is that doesn't always equate to being truth.
Right.
You gauge what's being preached from what they're saying,
what they're doing, and how does that match up with the word
of God?
And so he says, oh, yeah, I've got the ancestry.
We're the same on that.
But he asked a question in verse 23.
This is a heavier question than what you might expect.
He says this.
Are they ministers of Christ?
Okay, now that seems like basic.
Well, are they ministers of Christ?
Are they serving Jesus?
Well, they claim to be.
But if you go back to verse 15, it says, therefore it is no great
thing if his ministers, talking about Satan's ministers,
are also be transformed as ministers of righteousness whose
end shall be according to their works.
And so he says, these people claim to be ministers of Christ,
but what makes them ministers of Christ actually serving Christ?
That word minister means to serve.
It means to be part of the message of the truth of Christ.
And so therefore they're not ministers of Christ.
He says, I speak as a fool, meaning I'm.
I am the one who understands this.
He says, I am more.
I am more of a servant of Christ.
And he starts to talk about his credentials, and he doesn't say,
well, this is where I went to school.
He doesn't say where he's preached.
He doesn't say how many churches he started.
He doesn't.
He doesn't, you know, I'm a PhD.
No.
What does he say here?
He does something that is not what we expect.
He begins to talk about a different element of his credentials.
So again, we gotta go back to what a minister means.
A minister means, and literally in the Greek, it's deakinos.
We get the word deacon from it.
It describes a humble servant of basic work, everyday work.
So Paul says, are they servants of Christ?
Are they workers for Christ?
Even.
Even what we would consider in this case, the.
The most elevated apostles had inflated their idea of ministry to
basically be a title of exaltation.
What do I mean by that?
They, they.
They would come up and say this.
The.
The false teachers there in.
In Corinth, they would say, we're ministers of Christ now serve
us do you see if you understand what that word minister
means, how that's, that's contrary to what is being taught,
right?
So if I got up here and it says, I'm, I'm but just a minister
of Christ, I just want to serve the Lord now let me sit in
my high place and everyone serve me.
That's the opposite of what we're called to do as ministers of
Christ.
And so what had happened in the church at Corinth were these
individuals were looking at that term minister of Christ, and
putting that as a title, putting that as their credential,
just my title.
So I came up to you and say, don't you know who I am?
I'm, I'm the lead pastor of Middletown Baptist Church.
That makes me a good person.
No, that means nothing.
It's a title.
A title is just something that we give someone.
It's what you do is really your credentials is what Paul is
saying here.
So he says, hey, I am a minister.
They are not ministers.
They became very highly regarded, quote, unquote, ministers.
Essentially, what they're doing is they're abusing you.
And so in the following section, Paul explains what qualifies
him to be called a minister of Christ.
And we should hopefully, in our own lives, claim this for our
own credentials.
We, we would expect it to be different, but these qualifications
are, are totally opposite of what we would think.
So let's look at those credentials.
First one, in Labors.
This is the middle of verse 23.
He says, in labors more abundant.
What is he talking about here?
Labors are essentially working, toiling, sweating, the way
I wrote down in my notes here, sweat equity.
He's, he's, he's, he's working for the Lord.
He's toiling.
Some of you understand what that means.
You know, maybe you, you're, maybe you work outside all day and
you're out there and you're sweating and you're working, you're
sore.
That's, that's the idea that Paul is talking about here.
He's not talking about, well, I work for the Lord.
I, you know, I, I, I walked into church today and I sat down,
I walked out.
That was a lot of work for the Lord today.
I'm not saying that that's a bad thing, but what I'm saying is
he's talking about something more like, I've, I've struggled.
I, I, I, blood, sweat and tears for the Lord.
He says that's, that's what it means to be a Christ follower.
He goes on to Say more.
In stripes, above measure.
Say what?
What are.
What is he talking about, stripes?
He's talking about wounds.
He's talking about people taking a whip and striking him with
that and leaving scars and marks.
We could go back and we could look at many of the stories that
Paul talks about.
He talks about being whipped by the Jews, being whipped by these
people that are against him in.
In what he's preaching.
And so he says, hey, in stripes, in wounds above measure.
I can't even count how many times that I've been wounded for
the cause of the Gospel.
You say, what does that mean for me?
That means this.
To be a certified Christ Father, we must be willing to take
wounds for the Lord.
We must be willing to go through pain for the Lord.
You would say, well, that's what it's about.
I don't want to be there, folks.
The truth is, is that if we want to be servants of God, we must
be willing to get out of our comfort zone and be willing to take
the wounds that we face from this world.
Paul says, I'll preach.
And it doesn't matter how much I'll preach.
I'm still gonna face this.
He says, in prisons more frequent, he says, I've worked harder
than them.
I've been beat more than them.
I've been in prison more for them, more of them.
And the idea would be this.
Paul went to prison, but Paul didn't go to prison for, you know,
trying to evade the Roman tax.
Paul didn't go to prison for speeding on his chariot.
He went to prison for preaching the gospel.
He went to prison for obeying God.
So.
So he was persecuted essentially for his faith.
And the question would be that in America today, and I know this
is really heavy, and I know that this is convicting and I am
convicted, but how many people would be where they are today if
there was more persecution?
How many of us would be willing to say, yeah, I'll publicly
be a Christian.
If that meant that we would be in prison, if that meant we would
be hurt, if that meant we would have to pay a price with our
blood, sweat, and tears.
You know what we see in second Timothy, chapter three, verse 12,
it says, Yea, all.
All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
So it's actually an expectation that if we live boldly
enough for Christ, we will face some element of persecution.
And what Paul is saying is, is that a certified Christian, a certified
Christ follower, which means they're serving God, it's not just
by what they say, but Also by what they believe and by what they
do.
Someone who is willing to be a minister of Christ is going to be
willing to do all of these things.
They're going to be willing to be ostracized.
They're going to be willing to be mocked.
You know what the truth is, is that most of us will never have to
go through physical torment for being a Christian.
I hope not.
And that's not a guarantee.
But maybe you'll live your whole life and not be physically
hurt for being a Christian.
But you know what also comes with that?
There's a lot of persecution when it comes to mocking, when it
comes to ostracizing.
Maybe you living as a Christian has made your family forget
about you.
I don't know.
And that's painful, I get that.
But what it says here is that we, if we want to be ministers for
Christ, we must be willing to go through and these difficulties
for the Lord.
And so he says here in prisons, more frequent, in deaths
oft meaning.
Now you say he's died multiple times.
It just means this.
He's been left for dead.
He's been seen as dead, meaning he has gone almost to the
point where he's taken his last breath.
And some have even said that Paul did die and he was resurrected.
But nonetheless we know that he says, I've been willing to die,
I'm willing to die.
That's what he's saying.
Verse 24 of the Jews, five times received thy 40 stripes, save
one.
25, verse 25, thrice three times was I beaten with rods.
Say, what is he doing here?
He's giving his credentials.
Like that's not what I expected him to say.
I thought he was going to say that he went to school, he was a
Pharisee, that, that he knew the Bible backwards and forwards.
No, what is he saying here?
He's saying these are the things that he has gone through.
Once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck a night and a
day.
I have been in the deep, in journeyings, often in perils of waters,
in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen.
He's been betrayed by his own people, in perils by the heathen.
Okay, so that's persecution from the non believers going forward.
Here he says imperils in the city and perils in the wilderness.
He's saying there's been struggles everywhere.
I couldn't run from those struggles.
I went to the city, I found struggles.
I went to the country, I found struggles.
It was everywhere.
Imperils in the sea.
I couldn't even avoid it out in the ocean.
There was perils out there in perils among false brethren, in weariness
and painfulness, in watchings, often meaning lack of sleep, not
sleeping, in hunger and thirst, in fastings, often in cold
and nakedness.
He says, these are all the things that I have done as a Christ
follower.
These are all the things that I have done that I continue to do
and that I'm willing to do as long as God has me to live.
That's a pretty strong testimony.
I don't know if any of us here today would say, I'm in.
And, and, and the truth is, is that I don't think that God asked
every single believer to go through this.
Paul had a specific purpose in a specific time.
But he calls all of us to some degree to give up something in our
life, to give up our comfort, to give up our will to give, to give
up our desires, our agendas, and say, lord, if it takes me to
be shipwrecked, if it takes me to go through this struggle, if it
takes me to go through this loss, if it takes me to go through
this pain, if it takes me to go through this sickness for other
people to see you, so be it.
I'm willing to do that.
That is a certified Christ follower.
You want to be a disciple?
That word disciple means committed follower of Christ.
A committed follower of Christ says, lord, I'll follow you anywhere.
I won't just follow you in the good.
I won't just follow you in the easy.
I won't just follow you when everything's smooth sailing.
I will follow you when it goes bad, when everything seems to be
going astray, when our country is this way, when our country is
that way, when my family is this way, when I'm this way, when
I have bad news from the doctor, when I get to work and I
realize that I've lost my job.
That's where I will say, lord, I am with you no matter what.
And even further, I will proclaim your word and face the backlash
of proclaiming your word publicly.
There are people in this world that are okay with us being in church
here because we're like every other church in America, right?
They me and they leave.
But there's a lot of people in this world that would be upset if
we take the gospel message and send it out.
That's when the opposition comes.
They don't care what's happening within these four walls.
Every other church in America meets.
It's when we publicly, publicly Proclaim the change of the
gospel when we publicly proclaim that Jesus is the only way.
And Paul says, hey, you know what?
There was a lot of religious people that are okay with what we
were doing until we started preaching Jesus.
And that's when everyone came against us.
And so he says, I've gone through so much.
I've had so many burdens, but I'm doing it for Christ.
But then here.
Here is what blew my mind when I was reading this passage.
He.
He talks about in weariness and painfulness, in lack of sleep
and hunger and thirst and fastings and cold and nakedness.
But then we see his biggest burden, verse 28.
And this is not what we would think his biggest burden is.
If I was him, my biggest burden would be getting beaten multiple
times.
Okay?
I'd be like, I don't want to do that anymore.
But this is Paul's biggest burden here, and this is a mark of
a believer focused on the cause of the gospel.
Verse 28.
He says, Besides those things that are without, that which cometh
upon me daily, the care of all the churches.
Say, what is he saying here?
He's saying this.
Paul's biggest burden was the ministry to the church, the people
of the church.
He says, whip me all you want.
My biggest burden is the people and the souls that are there
in Corinth, the souls that are there in Ephesus.
I want them to come to Christ.
I don't want them to be misled.
He says, my biggest burden is not the physical that's coming down
on me.
My biggest burden is the church.
My biggest burden is your spiritual growth.
My biggest burden is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And so Paul's deepest concern, his deepest burden was not for himself.
Man, if I, If.
If I had the testimony of Paul, I'd be wanting people to like,
oh, I'm so sorry, Pastor.
What can we do for you?
And come alongside.
Paul says, don't worry about me.
I'm more worried about you.
It was for others, for the week, for those who were stumbling
in the false teaching.
He's sitting there like, you know, we're.
We're gonna see next chapter.
I don't want to give you too much of a spoiler for next week.
Paul has a.
Has a thorn in his flesh, and it.
It.
It holds him back in his mind.
It holds him back from doing what he can do for the Lord.
He says, there's something holding me back, and he wants God
to take that away.
But you know what?
Because of all these burdens that are upon him.
He could have felt sorry for himself.
But what does he say?
He says, I'm more concerned about that false teaching that's
leading you astray, that's making you stumble.
A true mark of a certified Christ follower would be someone
who was concerned about others instead of themselves.
Paul had many burdens, but ultimate burden that he had would
be the burdens of the souls of those around him.
Now, not in a perfect way.
We know who did that in a perfect way.
That was Jesus.
Jesus was the perfect example of someone who was other centered.
He came to this world, he was mocked, he was beaten, he was rejected
by his own people.
He was put on a cross, but yet he did it.
As we read this morning.
Romans, chapter 5, verse 8.
But God commandeth or demonstrated his love towards us.
And now, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
He was willing to do that for us because of his love for us.
Paul was willing to do that for the church of Corinth, for his
love of the church of Corinth.
Are you willing to love others enough to go through the difficulties
of this world?
The persecutions of those that are against the gospel, the pain
that you might face with others?
And sometimes the wounds are not.
Sometimes we'd rather have a physical wound.
I don't know about you, but sometimes we know that those in.
In your heart wounds are more painful than the ones that are on
the outside.
And sometimes those wounds don't heal.
But are we willing to be wounded for the cause of the gospel?
You say, well, I've never been a part of a church service that asked
that question.
If you go through second Corinthians, it's pretty clear that
that is the call to action here.
Am I willing to be hurt for the gospel?
Am I willing to be, in most cases in America, just discomforted
for the gospel?
Am.
Am I willing to have someone look at me and turn a side eye just
because I'm a Christian?
That's really what mostly what we're facing in our world today.
Well, someone at work might call me a crazy person.
Well, be called a crazy person.
Okay, so someone might.
Might call me, you know, weird because I don't do the things that
they do at work.
Let them call you weird for the gospel.
That's the point.
The point is to live differently.
The point is to follow something differently.
The point is to say, lord, I'm willing to go through this for you
because of the greatest act of love.
Romans 5, 8.
He went to the cross for us.
We all have an opportunity to reciprocate that love by obeying
him in every way that we can.
So going forward here, he says verse number 29, who is weak and
I am not weak, who is offended and I burn not meaning.
His concern is for those who are weaker than him.
His concern is for those who are offended in the false teaching
of those people there in Corinth.
He says, I'm concerned for your souls.
I.
I'm concerned for your weakness.
Verse 30.
If I must needs glory if I'm going to boast.
He says, if I'm going to boast in anything in my life, I will glory
or boast of the things which concern my infirmities.
What is he saying here?
He says, the only thing that I'm going to boast in is what I have
gone through for Christ.
My weaknesses.
Now that's like, that's totally contrary to what we think.
We think, let me, let me boast in all the things I'm strong in.
He says God has allowed me to go through struggles and pain so
that he is seen, so that he is elevated again.
I don't want to get too far ahead, but he's going to talk in
Second Corinthians, chapter 12, about what happens when we are
weak.
I'll give you a little hint.
God is able to work.
God is the one who is seen strong, folks.
I can tell you what it means.
And all of you know what it means to be helpless.
I mentioned this last week and it's real to me.
It's fresh on my mind when I'm looking at my one year old son and
he's in pain and he's screaming and I can't take that pain
away from him.
As a dad, I want to just take that pain away.
I felt so weak.
I felt like such an inadequate father.
Like, why would I let this happen?
I know that the surgery was there to help him, but as a dad,
you never want to see your children in pain.
I want to take my children's pain.
I would take, I take a bullet for my children.
Like I would take anything for my children.
I love them so much.
And the truth is, is that in, in that opportunity, in, in that
moment, I realized how helpless I was.
But in that helplessness, it made me more reliant on God's power.
Right?
And I didn't feel lost because I felt that even though I'm helpless
here, the one who I trust in is more powerful than I could ever
be.
And so what we can see here is Paul says, look, I'm Gonna glory
when I go through struggles.
When you have that perspective, it's an amazing perspective
because Paul always talks about win, wins.
Remember his other win, win.
I wanna go to heaven to be with God, but if I don't die, I'm
here to serve him.
So it's a win, win.
I go to heaven, I be with him.
If I'm here, I'm serving him here.
It's an awesome way to think about life.
It's the same way when it comes to struggles and pains and
persecutions.
Well, if things are going well, I can give glory to God for
the blessings.
If things are going difficult, I can just rely on him more.
And that's the idea that Paul is trying to get across here.
So he goes on to say more here.
Verse 31.
The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed forevermore,
knoweth that I lie not meaning.
He's like, God knows my heart.
God knows I'm not just going through the motions here.
God knows my heart.
I don't care if you believe because you.
Why?
Why would he say that?
He would say that because everyone's like, yeah, right, Paul,
you like your infirmities.
Yeah, right, okay.
That's what everyone says when you read those passages of scripture.
Come on.
We all say, you know, you're that passage of scripture.
I glory in my infirmities.
I'm thankful, I count it all joy.
When I fall into diverse temptation, we all go, yeah, right.
That.
He didn't really mean that.
Paul says, God knows my heart.
God knows I'm not lying, I'm true about this.
Then he goes on to say more about.
Really?
It's one of his first trials of persecution.
Verse 32.
In Damascus, the governor under Eratas, the king, kept the
city of Damascus with a garrison desirous to apprehend me.
And through a window in a basket, I was let down by the wall
and escaped his hands.
You say, why does he bring that up?
Well, back in Acts, chapter nine, that was one of the first times
that God gave him provision.
God gave him salvation.
Not in spiritual salvation, but in his physical.
And so what I would say here in this case is that Paul is pointing
to the provisions of God through the difficulties.
You would say, so.
So we're supposed to just go through pain and grin and bear it?
No, we go back.
I want you to go back with me.
We're gonna kind of wrap this up in Second Corinthians, chapter
four.
We need to have a review.
When I was a teacher, I would go back and have to review things
that we built upon.
We've been going through Second Corinthians, and that's why
we do book studies.
The reason why we do book studies is because when we're going
through Second Corinthians, something in chapter four might be
built on in chapter 11.
And if we don't go back to chapter four, we might not connect
the dots.
That's why we do book studies.
If I just read this passage of Scripture to you, you might think,
well, so I'm just.
Life is all just gonna be about pain, and now I just have to
grin and bear it.
No.
What does Paul say in 2nd Corinthians, chapter 4?
2 Corinthians, chapter 4, verse 8.
This is amazing.
This is.
This is how the dots are connected.
This is how we can move forward.
He says, we are troubled on every side.
Paul says, hey, look, we've got trouble all around us.
In front of us, beside us, behind us, above us, below us.
There's trouble around us, yet not distressed.
He's like, I can have trouble all around me, but it doesn't distress
me.
We are perplexed.
That means confused, but not in despair.
You ever been confused so much that you just like, I give up, got
no hope.
I don't know what to do.
Paul says, I'm perplexed, but I'm not in despair.
Persecuted.
There's our word that we were talking about.
Persecuted, but not forsaken.
People will come against me, but God's not forgotten about me.
Cast down, but not destroyed.
Reminds me of the psalm that says, though he fall, the man of
God.
Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord
upholds him with his hand.
So the Bible says here that though we will be cast down, we are
not destroyed.
Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus.
Meaning we're carrying with us the gospel message of Jesus sacrifice,
that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
Meaning we carry Jesus around with us.
And what we do and how we respond reflects Jesus to those around
us.
So how we respond to good reflects Jesus.
How we respond to bad, how we respond to difficulty reflects Jesus.
Going further.
For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus sake,
that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal
flesh.
We go through struggles to show people Jesus through our flesh,
through our body, through our life.
So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
Paul says, it's all about the message of the gospel.
It's all about glorifying.
God.
If I have to go through difficulties, I will for the cause
of the gospel, so that people will know him, so that people can
understand his goodness, so that people can understand his love,
his grace, his patience, his forgiveness all across the board.
It's a beautiful thing that we have in Christ and that is his love
and his presence working in us and through us.
And so what we can see here is Paul says, hey, the struggles are
not just a waste.
The struggles are not just something that we tolerate.
The struggles are used to point people to Jesus.
And so Paul goes through all those credentials to say this.
I'm willing to go through these pains and sorrows.
I'm willing to point people to Christ through this.
Are the true apostles that are claiming to be apostles in your midst,
are they willing to say this?
Are they willing to do this?
No.
They want to be exalted.
They want to be removed from all the problems.
They want to be the ones that are stealing from you and taking
from you and abusing you.
And here's the case.
Paul says it really boils down to this.
Those false teachers point the people to themselves.
A true Christ follower points people to Christ.
That's, that's where it's summed up.
And so Paul fights and he fights and he fights against these
false teachers.
And we know that ultimately he's going to talk in the next chapter
about, about the biggest picture, and that is the biggest
picture of God's grace is sufficient.
He, he, he ends this thought at the where we're going to start
next week.
And that is God's grace is sufficient.
And if you don't come back next week, I want to tell you God's
grace is sufficient.
I hope that you come back for next week.
This is a building point to the place where Paul is going to
give us his thesis.
You know what your thesis is?
Your thesis is your main thought.
And Paul is basically going to tell us that it doesn't matter what's
happening to you, because God's grace is all you need.
Good, bad, easy, hard, persecuted, exalted.
All we ever need is God's grace.
You go to Romans chapter 5.
Romans chapter 5 speaks of glorying in tribulations, counting
all joy when we fall into different tribulations.
Why?
Because those tribulations work.
Patience.
That's endurance.
Taught patience through struggles.
Patience, experience and experience.
Hope.
Don't we all want hope?
I want hope.
The world's looking for hope.
So we say, oh, hope, what do we do?
Hope.
Hope is not.
Some of my Sunday school Class knows this.
I'm about to call them up here and they can quote you the definition
of hope.
It's not, lord, please do this.
It's a confident expectation that God is going to keep his word.
The more trials we go through, the more we're willing to say, lord,
I know you're going to keep your word.
I know it.
I don't care what's going to happen.
I don't care.
I don't care if my life is taken away.
Because you know what?
At the end of the day, this is, and this is not something we
want to talk about in American Christianity.
But if your life is taken, guess what?
What's the worst that can happen?
What's the where, where am I?
If I'm a Christian?
If I'm a Christian and someone comes in here and they say, don't
you preach Jesus?
If you preach Jesus, you're, you're going to be dead.
Okay, what's the worst that can happen?
Get to go to be with my Savior.
No one wants to talk about that.
But the truth is, is that we're, as Christians, we are living,
we're living not on our, our benefits, right?
We're living on Christ's benefits.
Every moment that we have is a gift.
That, that, that breath you just took in was a gift.
Right?
The fact that we can meet together is a gift.
And so the fact is today is that God has given you time.
We don't know how much time.
The Bible says to redeem the time because the days are evil.
And so what do we do?
We utilize that time for what's at hand.
Paul could have said, I need to go.
Just take a break and go out to the Mediterranean Sea and probably
try to.
He would have a shipwreck or something like, remember Jonah?
Jonah tried to run the opposite direction and a bunch of
bad stuff happens.
The best place to be is in the will of God.
So what I would tell you is this.
There's nothing wrong with taking a break.
There's nothing wrong with taking a season of rest.
But what I will say is that let's not get weary and well doing.
Let's keep pushing forward, redeeming the time, because the days
are equal.
And I would encourage you to think about you, you would say, well,
hey, Pastor, what, what's the call to action here?
Are we supposed to just go out and be persecuted?
Don't worry about the persecution that will come.
Live for Christ, live publicly for Christ, live boldly for Christ,
live different in Your families live different in your.
In your workplaces.
Live different everywhere you are.
And ultimately there will be struggles and.
And struggles come from many different places.
Struggles come from the enemy, the attacks of the enemy.
Struggles come with our own bad decisions.
Struggles come from the world.
And then God allows struggles to happen.
I.
I do firmly believe that God allows difficulties to happen to
test us in our faith.
You don't believe that.
Read the book of Job, right?
None of us want what Job had, but all of us must be willing and
ready to say, you know what?
If it takes a wound, so be it.
If it takes shipwreck, so be it.
If it takes hunger, so be it.
If it takes sleeplessness, so be it.
I want to do what I can for Christ.
I'm not saying all of us are capable of doing the same things.
Some of you are like, you know what?
My days of going out and conquering the world are over.
But I'm going to tell you, folks, it's not over.
God has given you what he has given you for a purpose and a time
at hand.
You'd say, I'm not able to get out the way that I used to get out.
God has given you opportunities.
I know he has.
Every one of us come across people that we can influence for
the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Paul says, I'm more concerned about them.
But you know what happens?
What happens is this.
This is what happens in my life.
I get so busy with me and my struggle and my issues that I lose
sight of those around me that need the grace of God.
So life's all about me.
And.
And I say, well, you know what?
I'll get to that when my life is straight out.
It's kind of like when Alicia and I first got married.
We said, we're gonna have kids when we're ready.
We're gonna have kids when we have enough money.
And someone came up to me in love and said, brother, let me tell
you something.
You're never gonna be ready.
You're never gonna have enough money.
You're never gonna have enough stuff.
So here's the thing.
We're never gonna get our lives to a place where we can say,
hey, you know what?
I got no more problems.
Now I can help other people.
Thing is, is now we just take what God has given us and graced
us with and help others.
And Lord willing, God allows others to come help us.
And it's that process of edification.
And so walk.
The Bible says walk circumspectly.
It's a weird word.
Circum.
What circumspectly means, just means like, walking around.
And when we played football, some of you aren't a sports person,
but you'll get it.
So we play football.
If you keep your eyes focused on one thing all the time, you might
not see what's coming from the side.
I can tell you a story.
There was a time where I had a job.
I was to tackle this guy, and I was running towards him.
He was running this way, and I was running this way, and I was running
like this.
All of a sudden, I felt like a train hit me.
Some guy came in full speed from the other way, and I had no
clue he was there.
And I got up.
I don't know how many minutes it was later, I tried to walk to
the wrong sideline.
I didn't know where I was.
I didn't wake up to, like, we were eating at Burger King.
And I'm like, oh, why am I here?
It's weird.
But the reason why that happened is I wasn't walking with
my head looking for things around me.
I was looking at the one thing in front of me.
And as Christian sons, we can get so focused on the blinders of
life that I'm so focused on my own life that I don't see people
hurting beside me.
So when the Bible says walk circumspectly, it means look around
for opportunities to extend the grace of God to other people.
And that's really the picture of what Paul is saying here is, I'm
concerned about you.
Paul could have been sitting there concerned about his own life.
He could have been complaining, but he didn't.
He said, I want to help you.
And I'm reluctant to tell you what I've gone through, but I need
to tell you what I've gone through to show you that I'm the
real deal.
And that's.
That's the story of Second Corinthians, chapter 11.
So I'm going to ask you if you're able to stand with me, every
head bowed, every eye closed, as the music plays today.
It's a.
The difficult message.
It's not a passage of scripture that we would just pull
out of a hat, as a passage of scripture that would be used to encourage
each other.
But here's the thing.
When we get to these passages of Scripture, they're there for a
purpose.
And it's there to show us that the Christ follower, the one.
The one who is following Christ with everything, is willing
to go through the struggles of life for him because of the greatest
gift of love in his sacrifice for us.
How dare we?
How selfish is it that we say, lord, I don't want to do that for
you?
When we look at what he has done for us, he hasn't called everyone
to do everything, but he's called everyone to do something for
him.
You have a purpose in your life.
If you're breathing here today.
You have a purpose for the gospel.
You have a ministry, as the Bible says, that ministry of Christ.
How are you serving Christ today?
Say, well, I serve Christ by, you know, not yelling at my neighbor.
That's a good start.
But what are you doing for the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
It's one thing to stop doing the wrong, right?
We all should stop doing wrong in our life.
We should all strive not to fall into sin.
But the Bible says it's so much more than just not doing bad
things.
It's not doing bad things and replacing that with the things of
the Gospel to elevate Christ, to elevate his message.
And so, folks, I'm glad that you are a good citizen.
I'm glad that you are an honor honoring person that goes to church
and follows the best that you can.
But the second part of that is, what are you doing for the furtherance
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
Because the truth is, is that if we stay stagnant, if we stay still,
many times before we know it, we've drifted back the other way.
And encourage you to stand strong and say, you know what, I
might not be Paul, but.
But I can say that I'm willing to go through discomfort for him.
I'm willing to be stretched for him.
I'm willing to go somewhere that he has called me to go.
I'm willing to move somewhere where he's calling me to move.
I'm willing to change something in my life.
And this is a point that I wanted to bring up before, but I'll
say it again here in this time of invitation, maybe God is calling
you to change something in your life or take something out of
your life.
And you're like, you know what?
I can't give that up, that one thing, Lord, I just can't give that
up for you folks.
I don't know what that is.
I don't know what that is in your life.
I know what it is for my life.
And there's a time and a place where we all have to say, lord, I'm
willing to give that up for you.
Well, it's not a bad thing.
But if a good thing becomes the first thing, it becomes the worst
thing.
Don't allow something to come between you and the Lord.
If it's something between you and the Lord right now, if it's a
good thing, it's an entertainment thing, it's a hobby
thing, it's a security thing.
You know what?
Be willing to say, lord, I will give you everything.
I will give you my all.
So here this morning, the call for invitation is this.
Are you willing to come forward and dedicate your life to
being one of those ministers of Christ, like Paul was willing
to do?
If so, during the next few moments, you can come kneel and commit
yourself to him.
Not looking forward to the bad things that'll happen, but being
ready when the bad things happen, to know that, that God's
going to get me through this, that I can look to Him.
But secondly, it's this.
You can't be a minister of Christ if you don't know him in a
personal way.
You need Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.
If you've been trusting in all the wrong things, if you've been
trusting in your works, in your church, in your, your money,
in your health, whatever it is, anything outside of trusting
in Jesus Christ and Him alone for your salvation is empty.
The Bible says he is the way the Bible says it is him who died
on the cross for our sins.
And so therefore, without trusting in him, we do not have salvation.
If you need salvation here today, if you need forgiveness, if
you need to know what it means to have everlasting life with him
in heaven, come forward.
We'll show you in the word of God what it means to know Jesus and
to have salvation and to live eternally with him.
Lord, I pray that you be in this time of invitation, working
hearts and lives.
I encourage, Lord, these people to trust in your grace.
Lord.
I know that five encouraged them even more.
So you're encouraging them through the preaching and teaching
of the Word.
So Lord, I pray that you be in this time of invitation.
Help us to be committed to you as Christ followers.
We thank you and we love you for what you've done in our lives,
most importantly for salvation.
So we trust in you for that.
In Jesus name, amen.
As the music plays, follow as the Lord leads here today.
Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church
podcast.
I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.
If you would like to find out more information about our church
or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org
or find us on Facebook or YouTube.
You can also email me directly at joshmissaroiddletownbaptistchurch
dot com if you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and follow
along for future podcasts and updates.
Thank you so much.
God Bless.
Have a wonderful day.