Sunday Sermon: Thankful for the Truth (2 Corinthians 11:16-33)

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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 11, starting in verse 16, and we'll read through to the end of the chapter, verse 33.

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In honor of the word of the King, would you please stand? Second Corinthians chapter 11, starting in verse 16.

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The apostle Paul writes, I repeat, let no one think me foolish.

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But even if you do, accept me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little.

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What I am saying with this boastful confidence, I say not as the

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Lord would, but as a fool. Since many boast according to the flesh, I too will boast.

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For you gladly bear with fools, being wise yourselves. For you bear it if someone makes slaves of you, or devours you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or strikes you in the face.

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To my shame, I must say, we were too weak for that. But whatever anyone else dares to boast of,

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I am speaking as a fool, I also dare to boast of that. Are they

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Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham?

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So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one. I am talking like a madman.

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With far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, often near death, five times

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I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one, three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times

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I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I was adrift at sea, on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure, and, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.

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Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?

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If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

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The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying.

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At Damascus, the governor under King Eratos was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me, but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and escaped his hands.

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Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, we have been given salvation, and it is through Jesus Christ that we have been given the truth which leads to life.

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The truth is imperishable. It cannot be destroyed, no matter how many people in this world and in this culture try to suppress it or try to change it, yet it is the same for every person.

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The truth still holds true, and it is our Lord Jesus Christ who is the way to God and life everlasting.

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He is the truth and the revelation of God through the person and work of Jesus Christ, and He is the life, the way that we must walk and live in this world, exemplified and commanded through our

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Savior. No one comes to the Father but through Jesus, and I pray it is this truth that we will ground ourselves upon as a church and as individuals, not being led astray or waylaid in this world, but we are on the solid rock.

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Jesus Christ our Lord, it's in His name that we pray, and all God's people said, amen.

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Thank you. You may be seated. So Paul says in verse 16,

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I repeat, let no one think me foolish, and I'm going to repeat a little bit here as well, coming into this final section of chapter 11.

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Over the last several weeks, we've been talking about false teachers, because that's what Paul has been warning the

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Corinthians against, being led astray by these false apostles. These men who have come in calling themselves apostles, but they speak contrary to the

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Word of God. They are men who boast in themselves rather than glorifying Christ, and because of this message that they have come delivering, they are leading many of the

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Corinthians astray. There were many sins that the Corinthians were guilty of, and Paul wrote the previous letter to correct them in those sins, and the testimony of Titus has come back to Paul declaring that these

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Corinthians indeed have been repentant of their sins. But there are still many

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Corinthians that do not receive the message of the apostle Paul as one that has truly come from Christ.

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Rather they are listening to these false teachers and deceivers and being led astray. They are being led into a kingdom of darkness rather than the kingdom of light.

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So appealing for their hearts, out of care and love for those people whom Paul had delivered the gospel to at first, and now contends for their hearts even more.

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He pleads with them not to listen to those men, but feels he must qualify himself and his authenticity as an apostle of Jesus Christ so they will know his word is true and theirs is false.

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And like I said as a pastor, I contend for your heart that you may know the truth and you may walk in the truth.

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You would be sanctified in the truth. We prayed this morning already about some of those families who are leaving here and they're

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PCSing out to other places. We've got soldiers who are going to be deployed coming up in the next few months.

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We have soldiers now that are already deployed. And wherever it is that you might happen to go,

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I hope that you cling to the truth, that you would not be led astray by the lies.

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For I know that for the most part, for most of you, I'm a temporary pastor.

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I'm with you for only a few years and then maybe God moves you to another place.

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So wherever you go next, you know that you've heard the truth preached here and you're looking for that somewhere else.

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And I just had a conversation with somebody this last week who came from this church.

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They've already been moved to another location and they've been there for a while, but they still find it difficult to find churches that are preaching the truth.

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And I know that's hard. And my encouragement to you would be just find the church that you know is faithful to the word.

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At the very least, they're opening up the Bible and they're reading that every Sunday. And if there are other aspects of their doctrine that need to be improved or they need growth, well, that's where you can help.

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You as a member of that body, as a part of the body of Christ, can help to lead even other members of the body in the truth.

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There may be pastors and elders that need correction in those things. Do that respectfully. Do it humbly.

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Don't try to assert the authority that has been appointed over you, those elders and pastors and teachers that are there for your benefit, as we're told in Ephesians 4, verse 11, to equip the saints for the work of ministry.

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But nonetheless, we all work together to sanctify one another and grow one another in the truth.

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You grow me in the truth as much as I also have been appointed to grow you and shepherd you in the truth of God's word.

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So Paul says, I repeat and let no one think me foolish, but even if you do accept me as a fool so that I too may boast a little.

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What I am saying with this boastful confidence, I say not as the Lord would, but as a fool.

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What does that mean? Because if Paul is an apostle, what he's saying here is still a word that comes from Christ.

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So what would it mean for him to say, I say not as the Lord would, but as a fool? One of the things

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I think that this really means is that we should not imitate this behavior. This is not an excuse for us to boast.

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As Paul is boasting in himself, we should not go, oh, well, if Paul can do it, I can do it.

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And I tell you, I've seen many teachers do that. I've seen many teachers do exactly that.

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They have said, well, Paul boasted in himself in 2 Corinthians chapter 11. So let me boast in myself a little bit.

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This is not permission to do that. And you also look at the kind of boasting that Paul is presenting.

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What kind of boasting is it? I have been imprisoned, I've been beaten,

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I've been near death, five times I received the hands of the Jews, the forty lashes less one, three times

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I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I was adrift at sea. My friends, if you come in here with that kind of boasting, we're all going to gather around you and pray for you.

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But none of you can boast like that. None of you have been through that kind of persecution for the gospel.

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When you get even partway there, we'll let you have a platform. But that's the kind of boasting that Paul is presenting here, and we can't boast in that way.

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None of us have been through that kind of persecution. None of you may ever go through that kind of persecution, though some of you will be persecuted if not ridiculed in some way for the teaching of the gospel of Christ.

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We have been told that. The world will hate us because we have the gospel. It's sad to say, but most churches you could go into and preach the gospel, and they would hate you for that in those churches.

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A pastor friend of mine a couple of years ago moved from teaching in a small church.

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He was an associate pastor in that particular church, and he had an opportunity to become a senior pastor in another church in another small community here in Kansas.

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And so he took that opportunity and moved his family from a small community to an even smaller community that he might minister with the gospel in that particular church.

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This was a church with a plurality eldership. That's something that we went through a few years ago.

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So you might think, well, that's a church that desires sound doctrinal leadership.

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Even if they've already established plurality eldership, that's great to see. But when he was at a meeting with those elders, he began to notice something about the things that they were saying.

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And he asked one of the elders, could you tell me the gospel? And what that elder repeated back to him was not even remotely close.

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And he didn't say anything to the man. He just looked to the next elder and he said, could you tell me what the gospel is?

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In your words, what's the gospel? And as they went down the line, those elders would either say, well,

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I agree with him, or they would come up with something else that was just totally off base.

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The gospel of Jesus Christ is the truth for salvation for everyone who believes it.

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So it's pretty important to get it right, that Jesus Christ, who is

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God, left his throne in heaven, took on flesh, the form of man whom he created.

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And he lived a perfect, sinless life. And he died on the cross as the perfect sacrifice of God, shedding his blood for our sins.

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He was buried in a tomb, has prophesied in the scriptures that he would, buried in a borrowed grave, rose again on the third day, rose again bodily.

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He was seen by many, over 500 brothers, as well as the apostles, and his half -brother

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James. There were many women and children who saw him as well in the 40 days between his resurrection and his ascension into heaven.

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And now having ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the throne of God where he is interceding for us as the

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God -man, Jesus Christ. And there's a day that is coming in which Jesus will return and he will put an end to all evil, all pain, all sickness, all disease, all that we mourn over in this world will come to an end and we will rejoice with our

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Savior forever in glory. But those who persisted in doing evil and rebelled against God and did not believe on the name of the

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Lord Jesus Christ, they will be judged and cast into an eternal hell. So we must know the gospel and it is belief in Christ and following after him that leads to eternal life and the forgiveness of sins.

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This is basic truth that we must all know and believe and lead others in knowing as well.

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It is not about anything that we have done or can do. It is about Christ.

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Glory be to Him. It is about proclaiming His name.

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And the whole reason why Paul would boast here in himself of what manner of boasting he does is to contend for the hearts of those who are listening to false teachers, that he may win them away from the lies and they would believe the truth and be saved.

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That's why he is doing it. It is not to exalt himself. It is to make much of Christ.

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Many boast according to the flesh, he says in verse 18, I too will boast for you gladly bear with fools being wise yourselves.

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That's very sarcastic, dripping with sarcasm. You gladly bear with fools being wise yourselves for you bear it if someone makes slaves of you.

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By preaching lies to you, they're enslaving you to sin and the deceitfulness of Satan.

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They devour you. First Peter chapter 5, the devil is a lion, crouching, waiting to devour.

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They take advantage of you. They're using you for their own benefit.

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They put on airs. What does that mean? To put on airs? It means they're speaking way more highly of themselves than they deserve.

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They have nothing to show for it. They're all talk or they strike you in the face.

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They would abuse you in order to make much of themselves. To my shame, I must say we were too weak for that.

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Again, sarcastic, but Paul is saying if we didn't do that to you, it must have been because we were too weak, right?

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Paul was gentle with the Corinthians. He was not trying to make much of himself. He loved them.

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Loved them to bring them the gospel of Jesus Christ. In verse 10, as the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia.

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And why? Because I do not love you. God knows that I do. Paul came preaching the truth because he loved them.

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If a pastor cares about you, he will exalt

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Christ by preaching his word. He will be more concerned about teaching timeless truth than he will be with tantalizing gimmicks, tweetable quotes, trendy topics, or today's talking points.

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That pastor is about delivering to his congregation timeless truth. That's how you know that that minister in that church loves his congregation.

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And Paul is saying to the Corinthians here the same thing. I came to you preaching the truth because I love you.

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God knows that I do. Going on in verse 21.

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But whatever anyone else dares to boast of, I am speaking as a fool. I dare also to boast of that.

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Are they Hebrews? So am I. So you probably had some of these guys coming in saying, we are authentic apostles because we are descended from the line of Abraham.

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Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ?

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I am a better one. I am talking like a madman. Because again, as I mentioned to you last week and the week before,

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Paul doesn't want to do this. He doesn't want to boast in himself. He doesn't want to have to say,

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I am a better follower of Christ than they are.

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And far be it from any of us to ever do such a thing. I'm a better follower of Christ than you.

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I believe we would be missing the point that Jesus came, as he said in his own words, not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

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And so if that is the example that we should follow in our Savior Christ, so we also should consider others' needs ahead of our own.

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Far be it from anybody to say of themselves, I am a better servant of Christ than you.

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On the contrary, Paul said to the Romans, in Romans chapter 15, verse 1, those of you who are mature must consider the failings of the weak and not to please yourselves, but to consider their good for their benefit to build them up.

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It's not thinking of yourself as, I'm mature, you're weak, so you need to listen to what

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I have to say. But it's knowing that in your walk of faith, you have come to grow in the

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Lord Christ to such a place, in your maturity in Jesus Christ, and you look at another person who has not known the

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Lord or is not matured as much in their faith as you have. And you don't go to them saying that you're more mature than they are, but rather very patiently and with grace and with compassion, seeing a person who is not as mature and helping them grow in the knowledge of Christ.

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So they may grow in sanctification and holiness, just as you have, just as you have had brothers and sisters in Christ in your life who have helped you grow.

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So you must consider that for your other brothers and sisters in the Lord in the body. And it's not to make much of yourself, it's to make much of Christ.

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As the instruction as Paul gives in Ephesians chapter 4, to build one another up in the faith, to grow one another in the truth, speaking the truth in love.

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We grow up in every way into the head of the body who is Jesus Christ. And so Paul is doing this here, talking like a madman with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, countless beatings, and often near death, and doing this to contend for the hearts of the

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Corinthians. Paul is an apostle. So he has a position that is much different than you or I will ever have.

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As an apostle, he was a carrier of the word of Jesus Christ. The word apostle means sent one.

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And it wasn't just limited to people who were followers of Christ or those who were specifically appointed by Christ to be apostles and take the message of the gospel to the world.

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It was not just the apostles of Jesus who had that title as apostle. There were people who were sent by the emperor and they were called apostles.

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In fact, that's where that word comes from. It was adapted from those who were sent by the emperor to those who were sent by Christ.

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Those who were specifically appointed as carriers of the message of Christ to preach the gospel. Anyone who was an apostle of the emperor, who went out from the emperor with a message, he carried the very word of the emperor himself.

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So you were to treat an apostle of the emperor with the same sort of reverence and respect that you would have treated the emperor should you have been standing in his very presence.

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And the same was true as an apostle of Christ. Those whom Christ had appointed with his gospel, as Christ preached this word, so did the apostles.

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They carried this message to the world. And these men knew

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Christ. They were with him personally in his presence. Now the apostle Paul did not know

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Christ during the time of his earthly ministry, but Christ did manifest himself to him. And this was verified by other men who saw it.

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So it was not just something that Paul was claiming of himself that was contrary to what the other apostles saw and heard.

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In fact, the other apostles even affirmed that this message that Paul preaches is the same message that we preach.

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So he is as much an apostle as we are, although Paul refers to himself as one who is untimely born because he came later and Christ appeared to him last of all, after he had shown himself after his resurrection to the other apostles.

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So Paul, as an apostle, has to contend for himself because he's going up against other guys who are calling themselves apostles and are not.

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So Paul is doing this, again, for the sake of the Corinthians. He is boasting in himself so they would know the difference between a true apostle and a false one.

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Now this would have been a lot more difficult in Paul's day, but I want to say to you this is a lot easier for us.

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If someone comes to you and says they are an apostle, how can you tell if they're a true apostle or a false one?

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Did they write the Bible? No! Then they're a false apostle. There you go.

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There's your litmus test. There are no new apostles. None.

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If anybody comes to you today claiming to be an apostle of Christ, they're not. They're a liar.

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Unless they're using that term in a very liberal way to say they are one who has been sent by Christ, as we all have been sent by Christ into the world to preach

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His gospel. Amen? Now if they're using it in that way, okay, show them some grace.

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But if they're actually proclaiming themselves to be an apostle as one whom

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Christ has actually appeared to, and they will likely tell you that, no, Jesus actually appeared to me, and He appointed me to be an apostle.

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I tell you they're lying. For Paul said he was the last one to be appointed. Christ appeared to him last and would appear to no others.

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And Jesus said in Matthew 24, many are going to come to you claiming, look, here is the Christ, or there

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He is. Do not listen to it. Do not go out. For there will not be another appearance of Christ again until His second coming.

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He is not appearing to anyone and claiming, well, I got a new church for you.

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I got a new testament for you to deliver. I got a new word that you would not find in the pages of Scripture.

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Christ is simply not doing that. So anyone who comes claiming themselves to be an apostle, they are liars.

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That is easier for us than it was for the Corinthians. But Paul, having to authenticate himself as an apostle of Christ, so they would not be led astray by these

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Satanists who come claiming to be of Christ. Verse 24,

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Paul says, five times I received at the hands of the Jews, the forty lashes less one, three times

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I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I was adrift at sea.

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I was on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people.

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You know, as he's laying these things out, what he's hoping that the Corinthians realize is that these guys have never suffered anything.

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They have never gone through anything for the sake of the gospel. In fact, they're getting rich off of it.

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So they're taking that which Paul preached, and they're trying to take Paul's acclaim and claim it for themselves.

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And they're not the only ones to do that. When Paul was in Ephesus, when we read about that in the book of Acts, there were men who saw that Paul was very successful with the preaching of the gospel, and that people were coming by droves to listen to him preach it.

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And so they tried to capitalize on his success. And in the book of Acts, there's a story about the seven sons of Sceva, from a

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Jewish priest whose name was Sceva, and his sons were going out and they were claiming to cast out demons.

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And they would say something to the effect of, in the name of the Christ whom Paul preaches,

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I say, come out of this person. And they were doing what like the health and wealth guys do today, the faith healers,

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Benny Hinn swinging his jacket around and knocking people down, you know, and all slain in the spirit thing, which is all by the power of suggestion.

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Nobody is actually falling down or having demons cast out of them, especially not at the hands of Benny Hinn.

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Benny thinks they're having demons cast into them, but I digress. So that's what these sons of Sceva were doing until they encountered an actual demon -possessed man.

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And he came up to them and he goes, I know Paul, I know

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Christ, who are you? And this one demon -possessed guy beat the lot of them and sent them running from the place naked and bleeding.

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And fear struck the people because they realized that they cannot serve both

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God and these other evil spirits that they had kind of mingled in with their spirituality.

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So they worshiped Christ, but they also worshiped all their other false gods, and there were people who claimed to be apostles who really were not, and all of these things were not enough to beat the forces of darkness when they actually came upon them.

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And so what ended up happening in that city, in Ephesus, was they all grabbed their scrolls of incantations, their various spiritual documents, and they came and burned them in the public square.

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And they decided, we're going to follow one God and one God only, and that is the

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Lord Jesus Christ. And revival broke out in Ephesus because a demon decided to work his little demon jiu -jitsu on these seven sons of Sceva.

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There were many men that tried proclaiming the gospel of Christ, but it was a weak gospel for what they preached was lies.

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They used the names of the apostles or of Jesus to gain acclaim for themselves, but what they spoke was not the truth.

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And when actually faced with real -life scenarios and real -life situations, they couldn't stand against it.

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They failed because they were not grounded upon the truth of God's word. Last week when

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I started the sermon, I began reading to you from Colossians, and I gave a story of my daughter,

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Annie, who came to me at the age of four and asked me, Daddy, how can I stop lying?

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And I got all kind of choked up and blubbery when I was sharing that story, and I kind of dropped the point.

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I went back to the sermon and listened to it, and I was like, okay, I didn't do as bad a job as I thought I did. But nonetheless,

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I didn't connect the dots as well as I meant to when I was providing that story. Why do people listen to false teachers?

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Why do we tell lies and listen to lies? Why? Because we're not satisfied with the truth.

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Because we don't believe Christ is sufficient. Because Jesus is not enough.

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And we will say, God, it doesn't matter what you have for me through your son Christ, I also need this thing in order to be happy.

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And just like those guys in Ephesus who would worship Christ, but they also had all their other little spirituality, we create our own little religion in which we have

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Christ, but I also need this thing and this thing and this thing in order to be happy, in order to be satisfied. And Jesus isn't enough.

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And when we make that claim in our lives that Christ is not enough, we will open the door up to telling lies and believing lies.

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It's because Christ is not sufficient. So we need something else to fill up what we think is emptiness in our hearts.

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That emptiness is because you've not made Christ sufficient, and yet, you're filling it up with lies.

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You'll repeat those lies, and you'll believe those lies. We need to be grateful to God for everything that he has done for us in his son.

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And everything that Christ has done for us is sufficient. That's actually where we're going next week when we get to chapter 12, for Christ saying to the apostle,

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Paul, my grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect in your weakness.

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And this is something that I believe heading into this Thanksgiving week is a good reminder for us to be thankful to God for all that he has given to us, because our thankfulness to God guards us from the lies that the devil attempts to ensnare us with.

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Let's go to a few places in your Bible. Or if you would like, you can just follow along in your bulletin, because I put these passages in there for you.

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Last week, I read from Colossians 3, verses 15 through 17, and I want to come to that again.

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And for your benefit, I put thankfulness in bold, so that you could see in just those few verses how many times thankfulness comes up.

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Colossians 3, verses 15 through 17. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.

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And I love the way that Paul puts that. It's not, believe in Jesus, although he does say that in other places.

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More specifically, more emphatically, he says, let the peace of Christ rule.

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Let it rule. Let it reign in your hearts. Reigning, meaning what? Meaning it is over everything else in your heart.

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There is no other care or concern or affection or desire that is greater than that which you have for Christ.

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And the peace which surpasses all understanding, as Paul says in Philippians 4, guards your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.

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So let the peace of Christ rule. Let it reign in your heart. You need nothing else.

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You have the peace of Christ. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

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You are wealthy. You are rich and abundant if you have the truth of Christ dwelling inside of you.

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Teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

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And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the

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Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. You know, the Colossians had some false teachers that were trying to lead them astray also.

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And they were probably just like these false teachers that are leading the Corinthians astray because they claim to be

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Jews. They claim to be descendant of Abraham. They claim to have some sort of greater esoteric knowledge than whatever it was that had been preached to them from the other apostles.

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There's one that Paul refers to as the philosopher, although he doesn't give his name. And so there's some guy that came into Corinth claiming...or

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not Corinth, Colossae. It came into Colossae claiming that it's great that you follow

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Jesus, but you also need this philosophy. If you have this philosophy, then you will unlock the secrets of the universe.

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And Paul warns them not to be led astray by these kinds of claims, by strange philosophies, by speculations.

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The way that Paul approaches the Colossians is different than the way that he approaches the Corinthians. The Corinthians he knows.

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He personally knew them, but he had never been to Colossae before. So the way that Paul starts his letter to the

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Colossians, he begins that letter by making much of Christ. In fact,

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I've read from several scholars who say that the book of Colossians is the most Christ -centric book of the entire

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New Testament, even more than the Gospels, surprisingly enough. How lofty the language is that Paul uses to exalt

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Christ, using one word to the Colossians that he does not use in any of his other letters, and that's the word preeminent, proto -euon in Greek, meaning that Christ is the greatest and the highest of all.

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He is top. There is nothing else to gain once you have Christ. And so he means to fill up an understanding in the hearts of the

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Colossians of Christ, and once they are grateful for Christ, once they know him as preeminent, and once they are thankful to God for all that has been given to them in Christ Jesus, then they are guarded and protected from ever being led astray by any false teacher who comes claiming, you also need this.

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Because now the Colossians go, no, I don't. I've got the greatest thing. I've got

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Jesus. And he is greater than any treasure or any wisdom that the world can try to give you.

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And so Paul goes on in that letter to the Colossians in Colossians 3, encouraging them to be thankful.

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And you see how many times it comes up in just that short paragraph, be thankful, thankfulness in your hearts to God, giving thanks to God.

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If you are thankful to God, you will not be led astray by lies.

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You won't repeat lies. You won't listen to lies. And in fact, that was even in that section of Colossians 3 before that particular paragraph

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I jotted down for you. No longer walk in lies, but instead put on the new self, which is being renewed after the image and knowledge of our

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Creator. Next passage that I had for you there is Romans 1 19 -21.

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I should have included verse 18. For verse 18 says, Again, why does a person listen to lies instead of following the truth?

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Because they're not satisfied with the truth. They think they need the lies in order to find satisfaction.

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So, because they are wretched sinners that want the passions of their flesh rather than the holiness of God, by their unrighteousness, they suppress the truth.

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For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them.

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For His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made, so they are without excuse.

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For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened.

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Now, there are many things that separate a believer from an unbeliever, but one of those things is going to be that a believer is thankful and an unbeliever is not.

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A believer is thankful to God. The unbeliever has no appreciation for God. And so, as we gather around a table this coming

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Thursday to give thanks with friends and family, who are you giving thanks to?

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I chuckle every year when I hear somebody say, the meaning of Thanksgiving, why do we celebrate

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Thanksgiving? Well, it's giving thanks to the Native Americans for helping us survive that first winter on American soil.

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No, it's not. The Indians were with the pilgrims giving thanks to God. They all did that together.

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That's where the holiday came from. And Benjamin Franklin was all about this holiday even though he was not a

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God -fearing man, which is rather interesting. But knowing that all things that we have, all that has been given to us, even life itself, comes from God, it is a gift from God.

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And when we are thankful to the Lord, even when times get difficult, we are guarded from wandering away into lies when we're grateful for all that the

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Lord has given to us through Jesus Christ. Philippians 4, 4 -7,

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I've quoted some of this already. Rejoice in the Lord always, I will say again, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.

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This is a message that Matt Johnson from First Christian Church, he shared with our high school students this past Tuesday.

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The Lord is at hand, do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.

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Let your request be made known to God. As I shared with the kids this morning about the psalms, there are some times when you're reading through the psalms, some of those psalms can be pretty depressing.

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I think sometimes we have this idea of the psalms as being the happy -go -lucky praise songs unto

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God. Most of them are pretty depressing. They don't know where God is, what are you doing in this situation?

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Lord, please deliver us. How long are you gonna let my enemies triumph over me?

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And yet, every single psalm expresses a gratitude and a thankfulness to God in some way.

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Even when the psalmist can't see God's hand, the psalmist trusts his heart.

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That was Charles Spurgeon who said, if you can't trace his hand, trust his heart. And though they cannot see what

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God is doing in the midst of this situation, nonetheless, I will trust in the Lord and I will praise him.

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For he has dealt bountifully with me. So Paul says, don't be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

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Not that we aren't gonna experience depression or sadness in this life. But when we go to the

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Lord and we ask for his comfort, that we would have a thankful heart.

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That way we know we're not lacking in anything, but we have been given everything already in our Lord Christ.

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2 Thessalonians 2, verses 9 through 13, that fourth paragraph in your bulletin. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan.

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And as Paul had warned the Corinthians here, even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. With all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved.

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Now whenever we read of Satan working with power and false signs and wonders, we probably think of like false miracles or something like that, right?

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False prophecies. You know, the way that Satan works with false signs and wonders also includes people who promise you something.

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But they don't deliver what it is that they promise you. So if you do this, you will be healthy and wealthy and wise.

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And then they don't follow up on any of that that they've promised you. That's also a false sign and wonder.

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Next part, therefore God sends them a strong delusion so they may believe what is false in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

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I said to you last week, I believe it was, that false teachers are a judgment. A person is sent false teachers because in their heart, they didn't really like what

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God had to say anyway. And so the false teachers reveal that their hearts were already far from God and did not love his truth.

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And that's what Paul says here. God sent them a strong delusion. So they would believe what is false in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth and had pleasure in unrighteousness.

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But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the

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Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits to be saved through sanctification by the

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Spirit and belief in the truth. Last paragraph, 1

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Timothy 4, 1 through 3. Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times, some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

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The things that false teachers say, they're not grateful for what

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God has given. And they will burden you with lies, making you think that you have to do this, you have to do that, you have to keep this ordinance, you have to keep this law in order to be in favor with God.

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And they have taken something that is supposed to be received with thanksgiving that was not meant to be a burden on us, and they've made it a burden on you.

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Because they speak with lies instead of rejoicing in the truth. So we must be careful of those who try to burden us with those things that God has graciously given to us, making them something oppressive rather than something to be rejoiced in.

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And Paul, contending for the hearts of these Corinthians who have been led astray by false teachers, lays out those sufferings, those things that he has gone through.

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He's been on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, the

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Jews, danger from the Gentiles. He's been in danger in the city, he's been in danger in the wilderness, he's been in danger at sea, in danger from false brothers.

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That's how he ends that, by the way. So as he's going through those list of dangers, he mentions, Danger from false brothers, hint, hint, these guys who are lying to you and are trying to undo the work that I have labored so tirelessly to do among you that you may know the truth, and the truth would set you free.

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That's Jesus in John 8, 31 through 32. If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

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My brothers and sisters in the Lord, the truth will never be a burden on you. It will never oppress you.

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It sets you free. And the liars in their lives bind us to things that will never deliver, to promises they can never keep.

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They will bind us to a false God who we think we can never truly satisfy, who's never actually really happy with us.

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Because I can't do these things that these false teachers said that I need to do in order to have his favor.

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The truth sets us free and sets us in fellowship with God, not opposed to him, but he is for us.

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And as Paul said to the Romans, if God is for us, who can be against us? Verse 27,

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Paul says, I was in toil and hardship through many a sleepless night in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.

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And why did Paul do these things? For the gospel, to preach the gospel. And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.

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Who is weak and I am not weak? Who is made to fall and I am not indignant? Paul says, there's the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.

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This is Paul saying, look, my heart is broken for you. I pray for you.

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I pray so that it causes me physical anguish. Have you ever prayed with passion like that before?

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And that's the way Paul prays for the Corinthians. Even when I'm not with you,

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I'm laboring for you. Do these guys do that? Do they care for you at all?

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Paul goes on in verse 30, if I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

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The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is blessed forever, knows that I'm not lying.

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And this is, again, Paul setting himself as a true apostle of Christ against those who are false apostles.

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Paul saw the risen Christ. He was appointed by the risen Christ to go and preach the gospel.

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And his appointment was affirmed by the miracles that Paul did. As it says in the book of Hebrews chapter 2, that these signs and wonders were given to those apostles by the will of the

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Holy Spirit to affirm that these men spoke the word of God. At Damascus, the governor under King Eratos was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me, but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his hands.

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We read about that story in the book of Acts, with Paul being led down in a basket to escape.

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But are these men who are among you, these false prophets, are they trying to escape?

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Are they trying to get away from being killed for the gospel of Christ? Yet I am putting my life on the line that you may know the truth.

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I've quoted to you this morning already, John 14, 6. Jesus said to his disciples,

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I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Oprah has said, there are millions of ways to God.

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I'm going to say something you probably would not expect me to say. She's right. There are millions of ways to God.

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They all end in judgment. There is one way to the

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Father, and that is through our Lord Jesus Christ. Let no one lead you astray in that.

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And my friends, know the truth and love it so much that you would even risk ridicule from your friends and family to give them the truth.

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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.