Sunday Sermon: Today is the Day of Salvation (2 Corinthians 6:1-13)

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You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabrielle Hughes, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.

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Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a

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New Testament book. On Thursday is our Old Testament study, and then we answer questions from listeners on Friday.

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Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series, presently going through the letters to the

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Corinthians. This is the sermon that was preached last week from our pulpit. Here's Pastor Gabe.

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Second Corinthians chapter 6, today we're going to be in verses 1 through 13.

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In honor of the word of the king, would you please stand? The apostle

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Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, working together with him then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.

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For he says, in a favorable time, I listened to you. And in a day of salvation,

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I have helped you. Behold now is the favorable time. Behold now is the day of salvation.

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We put no obstacle in anyone's way so that no fault may be found with our ministry.

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But as servants of God, we commend ourselves in every way. By great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger, by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the

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Holy Spirit, genuine love, by truthful speech and the power of God, with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left, through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise.

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We are treated as imposters and yet are true. As unknown and yet well known.

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As dying and behold, we live. As punished and yet not killed.

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As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. As poor, yet making many rich.

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As having nothing, yet possessing everything. We have spoken freely to you,

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Corinthians. Our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections.

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In return, I speak as to children. Widen your hearts also.

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Let us pray. Our great God and Savior, our

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Heavenly Father, we thank you for the salvation that we have been given in Jesus Christ.

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And as we've talked about it last week, in understanding the atonement that was given to us through the blood of Jesus Christ, which we receive by faith, and we explore an understanding of this salvation through the gospel of Jesus Christ even more so today,

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I pray that we would know that today is the day of salvation. That we not put it off.

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That we not point to it at a point in history and say, well, that was the day. Today is the day that you have given for many souls to turn from sin and come to know

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Jesus Christ as Savior. Today is the day that they would become a new creation, for the old has passed away and the new has come.

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That the old man or woman who is walking in sins and transgressions is crucified with Christ and in Christ we are resurrected to new life.

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I pray that the truth that we have heard proclaimed from your word, and perhaps we have heard it proclaimed our entire lives, that this truth would be alive in our hearts.

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It's not something that we take for granted. It's not some religious duty that we do every

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Sunday that we gather or Bible studies that we attend or devotions that we do. It's not just a thing that we're trying to fulfill, a religious obligation, but it is because we love our

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Savior and we know that we are loved by God through our Savior, Jesus Christ. Awaken a confidence in our spirits that is not a confidence that we have in ourselves.

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So that is the message of the world. Believe in yourself, but the confidence is not in ourselves, our confidence is in Christ.

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Believe in Jesus and you will be saved. We ask these things in the name of our

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Savior, Jesus Christ, and all God's people said, amen. Thank you. You may be seated.

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It was a few years back when my family and I were living in the parsonage next door. Babe, can you remember which summer it was?

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It was that ridiculously hot summer. It was like 115 degrees every day. He was, was it 2013?

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Was that about the year? 2012. Okay. So, so about six years ago, and it was that,

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I don't know if some of you who have lived here in Junction City that long remember that summer. It's like it did not rain all summer and every day in July it was 110 degrees or above.

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It was just that ridiculously hot year. And it just happened to be that year that we got the most traffic by the parsonage that I think we ever got.

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I don't know why people decided to walk that year more so than any other summer. But we would have people walking by and they'd even stop by the house and say,

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I'm exhausted. Can I get a drink of water? Can I use the bathroom or something like that? And we were more than willing to accommodate or help out.

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Even when I'd be here at the church, somebody would be coming by going, hey, I just need to come by and use the bathroom.

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But praise God for that hot summer because I got to witness and share the gospel with more visitors,

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I think, coming into the building than in any other year. Well, there was one day in particular, and this was in the dead middle of July, one of those 115 degree days, where there was this man and this woman who were walking by the parsonage.

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And I was inside, I believe I was working in the kitchen, maybe getting supper prepared, and Becky was outside and saw this couple that was walking by.

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Our kids were inside in the living room, and she stopped them and said, you guys are exhausted. She could just tell,

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I mean, drenched in sweat, they're huffing and puffing. She stopped them and said, you guys are so tired, why don't you stop and get something to drink?

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And they said, oh, that would be wonderful, thank you. And so as they came up to the door, I saw them from the kitchen,

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I could see out the front door. And so I went and intercepted them at the door and she said, introduced,

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I think she even caught their names and told me what their names were, said, they're just really tired, they need something to drink.

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Well, I noticed something that I don't think my wife caught right away, because she just saw a couple in need and was anxious and willing to help.

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But I asked, I said, would you wait by the door right here? We've got some lemonade, I'm going to bring some lemonade out to you and some bottles of water as well.

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And as the door closed behind me, Becky's looking at me with a mystified look on her face.

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She's, are you leaving them out there in the heat? And I said, babe, they are drunk.

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She's like, really? I said, they're smashed. Yeah, I can just smell it coming off of them.

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I was concerned about bringing them in the house with the kids right there, was what my concern was. So I said,

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I'll get some refreshments for them real quick, I'll give them a ride to where they're going, but I don't want them coming in with the kids here.

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So I went outside with them, I said, hey, where are you headed? They were going all the way out to Milford on foot.

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I was like, goodness gracious. I said, well, get in the van, you guys, let me take you out there, I'll drive you out there to Milford.

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And so we got in and the woman was a little bit more sober than the man was.

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And she told me that the two of them had just met in Heritage Park, had not even known one another until like 20 or 30 minutes ago.

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And she had a relative that lived out in Milford who they were going to go and stay with and provide them with some lodging and some food and things like that.

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And I said, well, how did you guys meet? Where did you come from? And they said, well, we both just got out of jail.

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I was like, oh, great, ex -cons, I had no idea. So I started sharing the gospel with them as we were driving.

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And I asked, well, that was my ambition, my desire was to share the gospel with them. I opened with the question,

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I said, hey, guys, do you know the church that was right there and the parsonage was right next door?

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Do you know I'm the pastor of that church? Oh, no, great. Well, that's wonderful. Wonderful to meet a pastor. And I said, well, do you mind if I ask you if you know the

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Lord? Do you know the Lord Christ as your Savior? And it was at that point that the man spoke up like, oh, yeah,

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I know Jesus. I was like, oh, okay, great, well, what do you know about Christ?

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A lot. Actually, he knew a lot. A lot of Bible just came right out of the guy, chapters of the

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Bible completely memorized. He knew doctrines and theology.

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He had a master's degree from Liberty University. And while he was in prison, that's how he invested his time, studying the

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Bible and getting a religion degree. And he could not have been more lost a sinner.

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Knew it backwards and front and had no faith in his life whatsoever.

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Did not actually know Christ as Savior, just knew of him by what he had read and studied in the

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Bible and the assignments that were given to him by Liberty. It was a program that Liberty offered and they paid for prisoners to be able to take their classes and be able to get a degree and praise

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God for that program. But in this particular instance, this man had only invested his mind into understanding those things, but knew nothing of it from his heart.

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Drunk as drunk could be and had no application of the scriptures to his life whatsoever.

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And so my sharing the gospel with them actually could not go anywhere because he knew it.

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My friends, there were probably a good chunk of the Bible he knew more than I did as far as the memorization and all of that went.

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And I was not going to be able to get through the hardness of heart that he had to the truth and the reality of what the scriptures said, but he didn't have ears to hear.

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Whenever we apply ourselves to the gospel in such a way in which we know it and we can even articulate it and we can give all the right answers when somebody asks us and we can speak the

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Christianese and sound just as much like a Christian as anybody else. But it's not actually in our hearts.

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We don't, we're not grieved over our sin. We don't desire the righteousness of Christ.

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We don't understand what having a relationship with God means. When it's all just surface level stuff, when it's all just textbook, when it's all just education, but there's not actually application.

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Then we are those that Paul warns about at the start of chapter 6 that believe in God in vain.

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He says, starting this chapter, working together with him, then we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.

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And in multiple times in the letters that he writes throughout the New Testament, he says that this gospel would come alive in your hearts lest I preached it to you in vain.

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In other words, Paul, did I just come and I was just preaching to myself? Or is there somebody who had turned from sin and come to believe this gospel so that my efforts and my labors would not be in vain?

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Paul knows that the gospel has been proclaimed there in Corinth. He spent a year and a half with them there in Corinth as this church was being planted.

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He knows that there are Christians and believers who have come to the faith, for it is those very Christians who have come to Paul and reported to him about some of the things that were going on in the

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Corinthian church. And yet, Paul doesn't take for granted as he is preaching to this church that everybody that he is writing to in this letter just knows the gospel.

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He doesn't take for granted, everybody just knows it. So I don't need to go back to any elementary principles or call for salvation among those who have not yet come to believe.

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I can preach some deep truths, I can go into deep doctrines, I don't have to make any appeal for anybody to turn from sin and come to saving faith.

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Paul does not take that for granted. But rather, even here, as we have just talked about the gospel at the end of chapter 5, he says, receive this grace, believe it unless you've received it in vain.

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And it's just for yourselves and not for the glory of God. Sometimes the religion that we do is really nothing more than the self -esteem message that the culture tries to put on us, but with a choir robe on, you know what

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I mean? So it's like this perfect self that you have a picture of wanting to be.

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And maybe that person that you aspire to be is some sort of archetype that the culture has presented to you and said, this is what the perfect man looks like, or this is what the perfect woman looks like.

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And so you've got this picture of yourself who's sharp, good -looking, clean -cut, eight -pack abs, money falling out of your pockets.

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You know, that's the person that you want to be because that's what the culture presents to you as, this is what a successful man or woman looks like.

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And sometimes in our Christianity, we take that person and we just put a choir robe on that person.

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And so we want the image that the culture is presenting to us that we need to be in order to be happy and satisfied in this culture in which we live, and also fulfill all of the religious practices and obligations that we need to do because we're

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Christians and that's what you're supposed to do. Go to church, memorize your verses, have your daily devotional, drink your coffee while you're reading a

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Bible verse, or listening to Pastor Gabe's podcast, you know, something like that. But if you're just doing it to fulfill some sort of religious obligation because you think you need a religion and so this is just the religion that I chose, it's the religion of America.

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And so that's the religion that I'm going to follow. If that's the mindset that you have coming into Christianity, then you believe it only in vain.

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It's not to God's glory. And when I say God's glory, meaning, do you love the

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Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength?

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This is the greatest commandment. When Jesus was asked, what is the greatest commandment in the law?

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You will love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And a second is like it. You will love your neighbor as yourself.

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On these two commandments hinge all the law and the prophets. And maybe you could have even given that answer if I had asked you that.

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What is the greatest commandment? Well, I remember this one from Sunday school. You'll love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

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Do you understand what that means? To love

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God with all your heart. My friends, there is nothing in your life that has your attention more than God.

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And I'm not saying 51 % of your life is devoted to God and the other 49 % is divided up into other things.

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So that way I know exactly that I am giving more to God than to anything else. Well, what is 51 %?

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Exactly quantify that for me. It doesn't work. You cannot quantify your passions, but that you would be completely passionate about God so that in all that you do, in all you invest your heart in, it is in thankfulness to God and for His glory for the things that He has given you and done for you.

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I remember listening to Chip Ingram when I worked at a Christian radio station years back. And I remember

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Chip Ingram going through a particular study. This may have been his R12 study, the Romans 12 study that he's popular for having produced.

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And he was talking about going through lists of things. So you have the list of things that you want to accomplish or the list of things that are important to you.

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And what would be at the top of that list? Well, as good Christians, you'd get your legal pad out, you'd make your list. Number one,

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God. That's what you'd write there on the top. Number two, family. You write family at number two.

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Number three, others. I'm going to put others. And then number four, myself. So there, I've got a good starting list there.

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I'm putting others ahead of myself and I'm putting God at the top of that list. And Chip Ingram says, take that page, crumble it up, throw it away.

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You're doing it wrong. For God is not at the top of the list, but everything that's on the list centers around your relationship with God.

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Everything is fully devoted to Him. Your whole life, all of your energy, everything that you give your thoughts to and your passions to God is the focus first and foremost.

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When you are struggling with life, when you're struggling with questions, when you're struggling with grief, or even when things are going great, things are good right now,

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I've got no problems. Okay, your joys or your sorrows, where do they go?

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Is it just something that you sit and like, oh, I'm really sad or I'm really happy? Where do you invest those feelings and those emotions that you have?

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You give them all to God. Do you pray? Do you praise God for good?

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Do you praise God for bad? As Job understood it when his wife told him to curse

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God and die, he said, you are speaking like a foolish woman. Do we accept only the good things from God and not also the bad?

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And in Lamentations chapter 3, who is commanded and it has come to pass unless the

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Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both good and bad come?

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Do you understand God as sovereign, that He is ruler over all, and there is nothing happening in the world that is shocking

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God off of His throne? Oh, these people,

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I didn't even know that was going to happen today. What am I going to do now? That's not God. You might be taken by surprise, but God is in control and has never been out of control even when

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His Son was hanging on the cross, dying for our sins. God was never out of control for that was exactly the sovereign plan that He had put together from before the foundation of the world.

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That before you were born, before you even had a thought or an inclination about God, He had placed

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His love and His affection on you through His Son, Jesus Christ.

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And Christ died on the cross for your sins, an atoning sacrifice, which as we talked about last week, you have received that atonement by faith.

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This is all according to the sovereign plan and will of God. And so whatever you are going through, be reminded that there is nothing that is happening in your life or in your world that is outside the bounds, the realm, the reach, or even the plan of God.

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Give Him praise and rejoice in all things, for we have been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ.

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Whatever is going to happen to us in this life, we can know and have confidence in this, that the grave is not the final resting place, for we will rise again and be with the

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Lord forever in glory. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.

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It is important for us to study God's Word. That is a thing that you must do.

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And in fact, Paul said to the Colossians in Colossians chapter 2 that it is in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

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The greatest truth that we could ever know, we know it when we look at Jesus Christ.

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And we study who He is and what He has done and all the things that He is bringing together for His glory and the glory of God the

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Father. As we read in Ephesians chapter 1, and Paul says it in Colossians also, God is reconciling all things to Himself through the person and work of Jesus Christ.

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We also consider that in 2 Corinthians 5. These are things that people will invest their whole lives in studying and never come to the end of.

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I am baffled on a daily basis as to how much of Christ I don't yet know and what

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He has to show to me through His Word today. I haven't come to the end of it.

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And even when I die and go be with Him forever in glory, I'm going to continue to behold and marvel at the majesty of God forever.

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And so will you if you are in Christ Jesus. That we would love the

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Lord our God also with all of our strength. So we have in the first part of that, love the

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Lord your God with all your heart and soul. There's a spiritual aspect to it right there. But then also with all your mind and all your strength, there's a physical aspect by which we love

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God. As Paul said in Romans 12, 1, Submit your bodies as a living sacrifice unto the

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Lord, and this is your spiritual act of worship. There's physical and spiritual right there as well.

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Submit your bodies to the Lord. Whatever you do in the body is an act of worship unto

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God. And so this is why we are told that we must live lives of holiness, imitating the righteousness of Christ, not entertaining sin, not making excuses for sin, but knowing that we have been bought with a great price.

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And if indeed we were the righteousness of Christ, that we would not return to those habits and that old person of sin, but that we would desire the holiness of God.

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And we would live that way according to what God says. What is pleasing to the

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Lord, not what pleases myself. Don't try to entertain the passions of your flesh and then try to excuse it with, well,

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God just wants me to be happy. Certainly he does. But he wants the joy that you have to be a joy in the

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Lord, not a fleeting joy in the things that are of this earth, that are in rebellion against him.

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What delights God should be the joy of your heart. I desire and I love and I want to do what is pleasing unto

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God, who is merciful and is gracious and forgives sin. And then the

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Lord has asked of us that we would love one another. So we devote our full selves unto

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God. And then with the love that has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, we would take that love and we would show that love and that affection and that grace even to others, especially the household of faith, as Paul put it in Galatians chapter six.

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But as we have opportunity, let us show charity to everyone. And that kindness we would use as an opportunity to be able to share the gospel with somebody else.

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I took a couple who was drunk and I drove them to Milford to take them to the place that they were walking to on foot.

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I attempted to share the gospel with them. I don't know if it worked, but that is the work of the

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Holy Spirit. That is not anything that is in my power to be able to succeed at doing. I'm simply faithful to what the

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Bible says and sharing that with them because I know it is only the gospel that saves from hell and delivers a person into the glory and majesty of God for all eternity.

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So I took that charity as an opportunity to share the gospel. And even if they didn't understand it or believe it in the moment, that the

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Spirit would work on their hearts to believe it when they come to realize that today is the day of salvation.

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I don't put it off any longer. I don't wait till tomorrow. I know and I understand that now is the day that I put faith in Jesus Christ and I believe in Him for my salvation and my forgiveness of sins, delivering me from the wrath of God and into the love of God.

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When Paul starts this chapter, he says, working together with him, and this is not a synergistic.

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We do part of our salvation and God does part of our salvation. Salvation is a monergistic work, meaning that it is the work of God alone and no one else.

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But God has chosen the church as His instrument to share the gospel.

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First Timothy chapter 3, the church is the pillar and the buttress of the truth. That means the church holds up the truth and presents it to the world.

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And as a buttress, we are also a defense against those who would try to malign the truth or misrepresent the gospel.

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And so the church is the instrument that God has chosen to proclaim the message of His kingdom to the world.

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And so we all have a job and an obligation to take the message of salvation to others. And though I certainly apply myself to that work, there are people in your life that you are going to meet and you are going to encounter that I'm never going to see.

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And so you have those relationships and those opportunities to share the gospel with somebody else that they might turn from sin and come to know salvation in Christ.

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And maybe in those conversations you struggle with finding the right words and you just go, you know what, I don't know that I can answer your questions, but Pastor Gabe puts it better than I can.

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So you say, hey, why don't you come to church with me on Sunday and Gabe will explain it to you and I would love to sit down with him and fill in the blanks where maybe you had some trouble as well.

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In this way, we all can work together in sharing the message of the gospel of Christ.

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And when the world beats you up over being a Christian, you come to the safety of your family of God and we pray over you and encourage you and lift one another up, weeping with those who weep and rejoicing with those who rejoice.

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So Paul says, working together with God, the Holy Spirit who is working through us to do the work of the message of the gospel, the ministry of reconciliation, the way that he put it previously in chapter five, verse 18, working together with God, then we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.

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So Paul is saying we are himself and the missionary brethren who are with him. We appeal to you to receive the grace of God.

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Don't do it in vain. Don't let the work that I did there in Corinth be in vain.

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Don't let this letter that I have written to you simply be in vain, that you're just sitting in church and listening to it preached and you can say, ah,

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I heard a word from the apostle today, but that you would be cut to the heart.

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You would die to yourself and you would live and know life in Jesus Christ.

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For he says, and then Paul quotes from Isaiah chapter 49, verse eight, in a favorable time,

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I listened to you and in a day of salvation, I have helped you. These are but types and shadows of things that were to come.

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Remember using that term last week. The stuff that we read in the Old Testament was but a type or a shadow of that which was going to be fulfilled in Christ.

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So now Paul says, behold, now is that favorable time. Now is the day of salvation.

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Put it off no longer, but that you would come to know Christ now in this day and in this moment.

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And maybe even as I have preached this, you know for certain that you are a

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Christian. You don't need a reminder to turn from sin and worship Christ because you have known it and you have believed it.

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And in this season of your life, you are steadfast. Amen. But maybe you need the reminder that whatever is going on in this world or in this life is not taking away your salvation, but it is secure in Jesus Christ.

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And you need the reminder to not just go ho -hum through your religion because God does not want your begrudging submission.

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He wants you to delight in Him. And so you need that reminder to delight in God, to not just be in church because it's the thing

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I'm supposed to do or because teens, kids, my parents dragged me here. But you delight to be here and you want to be with God and with His people and hear

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His word proclaimed and lift up these praises. Today is the day of salvation.

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And for those of us who have been saved 30, 40 years or more, we rejoice in knowing that we are still held secure in our salvation by the sovereign work and gracious plan of God.

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It is by His strength that we endure, not our own. Paul goes on to say in verse 3, we put no obstacle in anyone's way so that no fault may be found with our ministry.

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And this is simply Paul saying that we do whatever we need to do to ensure that you know the truth and that you understand what it means to turn from sin and walk in holiness and worship

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Jesus Christ and love Him. Whatever it takes for you to know that.

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We put no obstacle in anyone's way so that no fault may be found with our ministry. But as servants of God, we commend ourselves in every way.

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And this is not Paul boasting in himself or in his missionary brethren. But he knows that there are men that are even among the

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Corinthians as this letter is being read to them who proclaim themselves to be even greater apostles than Paul.

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But the message that they have to preach is not from Christ, it's from Satan. They're even sitting there among them.

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So Paul is making an appeal here to receive the grace of God and do not receive it in vain.

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Again, not taking for granted that everybody who hears what he is saying is automatically a believer in Jesus Christ.

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Because what's coming up soon, once we get a few more chapters down the way here,

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Paul is going to issue a rebuke to those super apostles that are sitting among them who are speaking as liars and deceivers and attempting to lead astray the flock of God.

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So he makes this appeal first to repent and believe the gospel. Now is the favorable time.

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Now is the day of salvation. We don't cause anyone to stumble in their understanding of the gospel, but as servants of God, we commend ourselves in every way.

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And here is the work that Paul and his missionary brethren have done since he is a genuine apostle of Jesus Christ versus those super apostles who have not been through the things that Paul is about to list here.

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By great endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger.

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And before we go on, as Paul starts to lay out this list of the struggles and trials that he has been through on behalf of the gospel, there comes a tendency in us sometimes to think, maybe

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I'm not as saved as I should be because I've not gone through those things.

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Maybe in order to be a good Christian, I have to go through beatings and sufferings and imprisonments and some of that.

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But remember what Paul said at the start of the letter, 2 Corinthians chapter 1, starting in verse 3.

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Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

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For we share abundantly in Christ's suffering, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.

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If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation.

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If we're afflicted, it's for your comfort. And if we are comforted, it is for your comfort.

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We're afflicted for your comfort, we're comforted for your comfort. So on which end of this are you on?

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The comfortable part. Praise God, glory, hallelujah. You have received comfort in the message of the gospel because of what the apostles went through for you.

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And they were continuing the work of Christ as he told them to go out and preach the gospel and even suffer for the sake of the name.

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You may never be imprisoned or beaten because of your faith, though you might be if you become so ambitious to go door to door and share the gospel and somebody decides to throw you a punch because you just said, repent and believe in the name of Christ.

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Maybe you will suffer physical harm for the gospel. But I can give you this, my friends, you won't suffer nearly the way that Paul did.

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For Jesus even said to Ananias in Acts chapter 9, I'm about to show him how much he's going to suffer for the sake of my name.

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And you won't go through suffering like that. Maybe you will suffer. Maybe you will be ostracized by friends and family and coworkers because of the gospel that you believe, but you will not suffer like this.

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And the affliction that Paul went through was for your comfort. And so praise

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God for that. There was a certain affliction that God had in store for the apostles to go through as Paul said in another letter, building up what was lacking in Christ's afflictions.

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And it's not that what Christ went through on the cross wasn't enough to save us from our sins, but rather this message of proclaiming the gospel to the world had not yet happened.

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Jesus was just in Galilee and the surrounding area, there in Judah. And he told the disciples, now you're going to go into all the world, preaching and teaching all that I have commanded you, baptizing in the name of the

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Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. So this was fulfilling what was lacking in Christ's sufferings as the apostles went out and were suffering for the sake of the name.

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And through this suffering, the gospel has been brought to you. So you can know this, here is the comfort and here is the assurance and the satisfaction for you.

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Whatever you're going through in your life, if Paul can deliver, if God, I'm sorry, if God can deliver

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Paul from all of this, then he is surely delivering you from the sufferings and the afflictions that you go through.

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And I believe that's the reason why we read about the apostles going through what they went through for the sake of the gospel.

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So that when we read how the gospel came to be spread, we would know and we would be assured if God could deliver them from this into eternity, forever, then you know that he is going to deliver you from whatever you are going through right now.

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And maybe it is not a persecution, maybe it's just suffering and feeling your body deteriorating and wasting away.

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God deliver me from this body. Maybe it's the struggle that you go through trying to resist temptation and sometimes that fight gets harder and harder every day.

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God, I'm trying to resist these temptations in my flesh. Deliver me from the wretched man or woman that I am, as Paul prayed in Romans chapter 7.

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Or maybe it is just weary in the ho -hum, ebb and flow, mundane goings through of this world and you're just tired of it.

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You're done. It's been the same thing every day my entire life. God deliver me from this.

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And you can know and be assured that he will because he kept Paul steadfast through all of these sufferings.

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He will surely keep you to the end, no matter what it is that you're going through. Beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger, and all of this for the sake of the gospel.

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You may also have sleepless nights and endure hunger for other reasons, but if God could deliver

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Paul, he will surely deliver you. By purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the

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Holy Spirit, genuine love. His list takes a different turn there, you notice. Now he's talking about those gifts, those fruits that have been given to us by the

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Holy Spirit of God. Whether bad or good, the Lord is carrying us through by truthful speech and the power of God, with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left.

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The armor of God that we have in Ephesians chapter 6, it mentions the one weapon that we have in that arsenal is the sword of the

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Spirit, which is the word of God. The inspired word of God through the

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Holy Spirit is given to the prophets and the apostles. Paul is saying, we are so equipped with that word, we've got it in both hands, for the right hand and for the left.

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Through honor and dishonor, whether we're praised for our work or whether we are ridiculed for our work, through slander and praise goes right along with that.

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We are treated as imposters. There are those who would say of them that they're not of God.

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And yet, Paul says, we are also treated as true. We're treated as unknown, and yet we are well known.

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We are known by God. My friends, you might feel like strangers and aliens in this world.

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You should. As Peter said that in 1 Peter chapter 2, we're strangers and aliens in this world.

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We are known by God. And that is an identity that we cannot find in any of the world's recognition of us.

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We are as dying, and behold, yet we live.

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Our bodies are wasting away, but we have this comfort and assurance in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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You were once dead in your sins and your transgressions. You have been made alive together with Christ. And a day is coming in which the struggles of this life and of this body will not trouble you anymore.

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And in fact, the weight of glory that awaits us doesn't even compare to the weight of struggles and hardships that we go through now.

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We are punished, and yet we are not killed. We are sorrowful, and yet we are always rejoicing.

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As the world will tell you about happiness and sadness, those things are opposite. You can't be sad and happy at the same time.

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You can be really happy, you can be really sad, but you can't be both. And happiness is fleeting.

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It's cheap. It can be robbed from you in a moment. There are ridiculous things that can make you happy.

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Becky and I got new cell phones this week. We're pretty happy, especially considering my phone wasn't working for a while.

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So if any of you for about a week were trying to text me, you're like, boy, Pastor Gabe's just ignoring me. No, my phone wasn't working.

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So once we got new phones, hey, we're happy for a little bit. But then, once we're trying to load all of our apps and get things working, and the phones aren't wanting to cooperate, are you happy with that phone anymore?

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No, now you're annoyed. Why doesn't this work? I paid for it, and it's not doing what I paid for it to do.

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So happiness is fleeting. It's cheap. There's so many different things that can make us happy, and then instantly it's gone.

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The illustration that I like that goes with that is cotton candy. Nothing disappears faster than cotton candy. You get it a little bit wet, it's instantly gone.

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So you've got taste of it for a little while, and then it's gone, and now you want more cotton candy. I don't know if you've seen the video that's been circulating on Facebook lately, but there's a raccoon that grabs some cotton candy.

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And raccoons always wash their food before they eat it. So he takes the cotton candy, and he puts it in the water, and it's gone.

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And he's going through the water looking for what happened to that cotton candy. That's exactly the way we are.

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That's the way that we try to find our happiness in this world. We grab a little bit of it. We think we can do this, that with it, and make it our own, make it so that it belongs to me.

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It's my own little personal thing. It brings me joy and happiness, and as soon as we think we've got a hold of it, suddenly it's gone.

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All the things that we think in this world that bring us happiness are fleeting, and they do not last. But we have the joy of the

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Lord, which is eternal, and is not dependent upon circumstances. And the joy of the

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Lord you can have whether you're sad or you're happy. Do you understand sadness and grief, and yet praying as David did in Psalm 13, yet I will put my trust in the

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Lord, for he has dealt bountifully with me? Even though I don't understand this trial, this thing that I'm going through now, yet I will trust in God.

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Polycarp, one of the patristic fathers, one of the early church fathers, was being led to his death at the

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Colosseum in Rome. And the guards were even pleading with Polycarp, who I believe was in his 80s at the time that he was being executed.

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They were pleading with Polycarp and saying, hey, just say Caesar is Lord instead of Jesus is

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Lord. And all of this ends. I mean, how big a deal is that for you to just say Caesar is Lord? And Polycarp said, my

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Lord has never let me down my whole life long. Why should he do that to me now?

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And went to the pyre and died for the gospel of Jesus Christ. The joy that we have in Christ is not fleeting and nothing can take it away, not even the fires of this world.

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And so we place our hope and our trust fully in the Lord, and we will find our delight in God in a way that this world simply cannot ever satisfy.

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You know, it's all right to find joy in the things that you enjoy doing in this world, for these things are but a taste of the joy and the elation that we're going to experience for all eternity with God forever in heaven.

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So you enjoy a good meal, great, enjoy that meal. We're going to have the wedding feast of the lamb forever in glory, right?

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Amen. You enjoy good relationships, good friendships, wonderful.

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We're going to be forever with all of the saints rejoicing and praising in God in a fellowship that doesn't even compare to the kinds of friendships that we have now.

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You love family, you love your kids, you love your spouse, wonderful. These things are a picture of the unity that we will have with God forever in glory.

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He has given us gifts to enjoy even in this life, but do not make them your

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God. Do not make them the thing that you think that you need in order to be satisfied, for we only find true contentment and satisfaction in Christ.

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We're sorrowful yet always rejoicing. We are as poor yet making many rich, rich with the gospel, rich as fellow heirs of the kingdom of God.

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Jesus said, what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and yet forfeits his soul? The wealth and the richness that we have is not in this world, but it is in Christ.

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We are as having nothing yet we are possessing everything. Remember the Beatitudes, blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth.

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We have spoken freely to you, Paul said. Our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections.

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In return, I speak to you as children, widen your hearts also.

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Is there something that you are lacking in Christ? This is basically the question that Paul is asking. Is there something that you feel like you're lacking in Christ?

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Do you feel like God is not enough and that Jesus does not fully satisfy, but you need other something else or this other thing in order to actually be satisfied with life?

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Paul is saying that's not because of anything that we have said to you. It's because you are restricted by your own affections.

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You still have an affection for things of this world, and the things of this world are transient.

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They're wasting away. They're temporary. So you'll only find temporary satisfaction in them. Even sin according to the book of Hebrews is pleasurable for a season, but then it's gone.

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I heard one pastor say, has anybody ever enjoyed sin before? And there's some people not raising their hands.

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He goes, you must not have been doing it right. Sin is pleasurable, but it is rebellion against God, and the wages of it is death.

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And if you are storing up for yourself treasures in this world, that's why you don't find satisfaction in the stuff of this world or in Christ, and you are hindering yourself from understanding the fullness of the glory of God that has been given to us even now, for today is the day of salvation.

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So I appeal to you, brothers and sisters in the Lord, let go of this world and stop trying to find satisfaction in it.

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You won't, but that we find our joy and our pleasure and our fullness entirely in Christ.

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Thank you for listening to our weekly sermon presented by First Southern Baptist Church of Junction City, Kansas.

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For more information about our church, visit fsbcjc .org.

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On behalf of our church family, my name is Becky, inviting you to join us again this week, Growing Together in Christ, when we understand the text.