He says in verse five, examine yourselves. As to whether you are in the faith, prove yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you?
Unless indeed you are disqualified. The old King James says reprobate. Now it could be that verse five is written to his accusers. Those false apostles. You know, he's saying, you know, you're examining us.
You're evaluating me and saying all sorts of bad things about me. Have you examined your own life, your own self? Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Pastor Skip shares a message encouraging you to examine the condition of your faith in Jesus. Now, here's more about this month's resource that helps you get to know God's character on a deeper level. The best biographies contain the kind of intimate details that make you feel like you're getting personal access to the person you're reading about. From timeless icons to contemporary celebrities, it's exciting to learn about influential people. But one biography stands out above the rest. The biography of God.
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Call 800-922-1888 or give securely online at connectwithskip.com slash offer. Great. We're turning to 2 Corinthians 13 as we join Skip today. In my infirmities, the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, and distress for Christ's sake. For when I'm weak, then I'm strong. I'm humbled by Paul. I don't know that I've gotten to this place where I say, yeah, I take pleasure in that.
Oh, this is so hard. Yes, bring it on, Lord. Bring it on. This is such a trial. Yes, I take pleasure in that.
I'd like to get there. At the same time, let me put it to you this way. When I was a kid at Christmas time, I got two types of gifts from my parents. One type were the things I wanted. Another type were the things I needed. Sometimes it was a fire truck or it was a bicycle or it was something that I wanted. But every Christmas, I also got gloves, T-shirts, underwear, socks. I wasn't particularly thrilled to open up those gifts.
Oh, boy, a pair of socks. But I needed them. And so Paul says it was given to me, this messenger of Satan to buffet me, given to me by God. And so I'm taking pleasure in these things because I realize behind it is a good God who knows how to make the right balance. He knows what I need.
He's maturing me. I take pleasure in persecutions, distress for Christ's sake. For when I'm weak, then I'm strong. Verse 11, I've become a fool in boasting. In other words, I didn't really want to talk about this or bring up this whole thing about visions and revelations that I'm super special and everything else.
But you've compelled me. For I ought to have been commended by you for nothing. I was behind the most eminent apostles, though I am nothing. What Paul is making reference to is you were passive. You didn't stand up for me. These false apostles came in bad-mouthing me, and you didn't commend me to them. You just sort of stood by and listened to it.
You could have said, wait a minute. We know Paul. We know his heart. We know the fruit. We've seen the results. But you didn't.
That's why I brought it up. And again, he says, though I am nothing. Verse 12, truly the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance in signs and wonders and mighty deeds. For what is it in which you were inferior to other churches except that I myself was not burdensome to you?
Forgive me this wrong. In other words, what he said in the previous chapter, he's just sort of repeating, I didn't take money from you when I was among you. I worked. I had a job.
I was a tent maker. Now, other churches, he said, I robbed other churches or I took financial support from other churches, which is fine and which is biblical. The biblical principle is you shall not muzzle the ox as it treads the grain, something that Paul himself said. But he said, I made sure when I was among you, you were Gentiles. It was a different setting, different season, and I purposed in my heart not to take anything from you. And so he says, how is it that you are inferior to any of the other congregations except that I was not a burden to you?
I didn't take anything financially from you. Then he says, forgive me this wrong. In other words, well, excuse me. Now, verse 14, now for the third time, I am ready to come to you. So he's been there twice. Once, Acts chapter 18, you can read about it. Second time, he makes reference to the painful visit. We don't know much about that except it was very painful for Paul.
Didn't turn out the way he wanted to. Third time is this time that he's planning to come on his way to Judea. So now for the third time, I'm ready to come to you. And I will not be burdensome to you, for I do not seek yours but you. I don't want anything from you. I want something for you. I want to give to you.
I want to minister to you. And then he explains why. For the children ought not to lay up for the parents but the parents for the children. And all the children said, amen. The principle is parents raising children take care of their children. The children 10 and 12 years of age aren't told, hey, go get a job and support me and mom.
Now look, that's the parents' responsibility. Paul was their spiritual father and he didn't want to be a burden to them. And I love verse 15. It's a verse that I have lived by and clung to and I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls.
That's the heart of ministry right there, to spend and be spent for other people, to minister to other people, to love and serve other people. Though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved. It is a conundrum. Sometimes the people you spend the most time on and with and for and minister to and try to win over will sometimes treat you worse than those you don't spend much time on but just love you. And it's just one of the mysteries.
And Paul articulates it. The more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved. Be that as it may, I did not burden you. Nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile. Did I take advantage of you by any of those whom I sent to you? I urged Titus and sent our brother. That was the unlamed brother that we mentioned a few weeks ago that came with Titus. I urged Titus and sent our brother with him.
Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not walk in the same spirit? Did we not walk in the same steps? Again, do you think that we excuse ourselves to you?
We speak before God in Christ, but we do all things, beloved, for your edification. What's he talking about? Evidently, the critics were saying either, Well, Paul may not have taken things from you financially in the past, but just wait till he comes again. That's really what he's all about. He's going to be taking from you the third time. Or maybe it's a reference to taking up the offering for the Jerusalem church.
You know, he gets other people like Titus to come in, and those are his agents, and they're bringing the money back to him, and he's misusing it for his own purposes. When he's not, he's going to send it to Jerusalem. For I fear, verse 20, lest when I come, I shall find you not such as I wish, and that I shall be found by you such as you do not wish, lest there be contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, backbiting, whisperings, conceits, tumults. Sounds like the average church. It was the condition of the church at Corinth in the first letter.
Paul is hoping things have improved since then. He doesn't want to find them in that condition again. And lest when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and I shall mourn for many who have sinned before and have not repented of the uncleanness, fornication, licentiousness, which they have practiced. This will be the third time I am coming to you.
By the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word shall be established. He's coming with other people. Titus, this other brother, a small group, a contingency that will go to Jerusalem. I have told you before and foretell, as if I were present the second time, now being absent, I write to those who have sinned before and to all the rest, that if I come again, I will not spare. I'd rather come and have a peaceful meeting and be able to love and encourage you and spend and be spent for you.
If I need to, I'll get rough. If I need to, I'll get in your spiritual face and I'll tell you what's up and have a little spiritual slapdown session of those false apostles who are causing so much trouble. Since you seek proof of Christ speaking in me, who is not weak toward you but mighty in you.
Remember, they accused Paul. They said, well, he's big and mighty and powerful in his letters, but when he's up close, he's docile and he comes in like a lamb, but when he's away, he writes big, but yeah, he's nothing up close. So he says, well, okay, I'm on my way. Have it your way.
If that's what you think, you'll be in for a surprise. For though he was crucified in weakness, a reference to Christ again, yet he lives by the power of God, for we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you. He is saying, my first coming to you and my second coming to you or my next coming to you will be like Christ in his first coming and his second coming. In his first coming, he came humbly as a servant. His second coming will come in power. He's now resurrected. He's coming again. It will be in parousia, in power.
I'm coming to you. You won't be humble like the first time. If that's how you want it, it will be like Christ's second coming in authority and in the power of God toward you. So he says in verse 5, examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Prove yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you?
Unless, indeed, you are disqualified. The old King James says, reprobate. Now, it could be that verse 5 is written to his accusers, those men from Jerusalem, those false apostles. He's saying, you're examining us. You're evaluating me and saying all sorts of bad things about me. Have you examined your own life, your own self? Do you even know if you're saved?
Prove yourself. Examine yourself whether you are in the faith. And, of course, this is good wisdom for all of us, especially churchgoers who just think, I'm saved because I go to church. I'm saved because my parents brought me to church. I meet people all the time. You know, I've come to Calvary since I was a kid.
Okay? I'm glad you've come. Have you come to Christ? Is it that you're just coming to church? Is it just a family tradition? Is it a cultural conversion?
Or is it a true Christian conversion? Examine yourselves whether you are in the faith. But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified. Now, I pray to God that you do no evil, that we should appear approved, but that you should do what is honorable, though we may seem disqualified, where we can do nothing against the truth but for the truth.
Remember that. The truth is the truth. The truth is always objective. It is not subjective. No matter what somebody says about the truth, the truth is still the truth, whether it's theological truth or biological truth.
A person might feel that they're biological in one way or another way, but truth is truth. And truth stands. And you can do nothing against the truth but for the truth. For we are glad when you are weak, when we are weak and you are strong. And this we also we pray that you may be made complete. Mature would be a better word. I just want to see you grow up in the faith and become mature.
Therefore, I write these things being absent, less being present. I should use sharpness according to the authority which the Lord has given me for edification and not for destruction. That verse is like a one-verse summary of 2 Corinthians as a book. I'm writing this for this purpose. He states his purpose. Finally, brethren, farewell. Become complete, become mature, grow up. Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Be of good comfort. Be of one mind. Live in peace.
And the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. Now, that's a practice we don't really do much anymore in the West. We do a hug. We kind of as Christians do a little side hug or knuckles, you know, and the pandemic wouldn't let us touch people. But in many parts of the world, especially the Christian world, it's a kiss on each side of the cheek. In many cultures, that's standard greeting. It was standard procedure back then. Greet one another, and it should be a holy kiss.
It's not like, ooh, I'm single, and there's that cute single girl. I want to give her a holy kiss. But that's not that holy, if that's how you're thinking. All the saints greet you. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit, and I love that he was from the South, said, be with you all, amen. Did you notice the Trinitarian benediction? People say, well, you know, the Bible didn't mention the Trinity.
It does all over the place. Here's one of those places where they are mentioned, three persons, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Very common benediction in the early church to make mention of three persons in the Trinity.
It was passed on generation after generation. Three persons, one Godhead. But that concludes the book of 2 Corinthians. We made it through to the end.
Congratulations for coming and for sitting through and studying together. I hope you see the benefit in just taking the Bible verse by verse, book by book, chapter by chapter, and going through it all like this as a church is just tremendous value. As we close, go away with this thought. Walk on earth while viewing heaven. Keep heaven in mind. You know, Paul was caught up into the third heaven. I saw and I heard things inexpressible.
Unlawful to even talk about, but I was there, and he let what he saw motivate him in his earthly walk, his earthly life. The Bible says we are pilgrims. It means we're traveling through. We're passing through.
We're sojourners, we're just passing through. Jesus said, my kingdom is not of this world. Neither is your kingdom of this world. Now, one day, the millennium will come. His kingdom will be of this world, will be a part of that, but here's the gist. Your kingdom presently is not of this world.
You are just passing through. I pray that you get a bigger picture of God's power, the power of Jesus, the loveliness of Christ to motivate you as you think heavenly thoughts living in this present world. One of my favorite analogies, and I use it at funerals, so if you've been to funerals, you'll recognize this.
That I've done, you'll recognize it. Bishop Richard Loring said, we live one life, but there are three livings to that one life. The first living lasts for nine months. In a womb, we are being prepared for a larger stage. Once we are born, we enter into phase two, the second living. He said that birth to an infant seems much like what we would call as adults, death. Babies cry when they're born.
They don't go, hallelujah, awesome. Now parents do because they know the value of that birth, but babies have been in a warm, moist place, and all of a sudden it's cold and a slap on the rear end and, ah, not a happy moment. That transition to the baby must seem like what we would refer to as death. Nonetheless, nine months has produced a baby born into phase two of living. Now typically, people that are on the earth think of phase two as the be all and end all of their life. Not knowing that phase two is also preparatory for phase three, and all of us are gonna face phase three in heaven or in hell. This is in preparation for what God created us for, to be in His presence forever.
You're in phase two, folks. You're in your second living, but let the third living motivate the second living. Lay up, Jesus said, treasures in heaven where moth and rust cannot destroy, where thieves cannot break in and steal. So Paul did boast about the third heaven. He was caught up, but unlike Neil Armstrong, it didn't drive him into deep depression, like, man, heaven was awesome, man. This earth is horrible, horrible. I meet Christians like that all the time.
How you doing? Man, I want to go to heaven. Yeah, I kind of want you to go there, too, because every time I'm around you, my goodness, where's the joy? Of all people, we should be most joyful. Of all people, we have everything ahead of us. Yeah, but it's hard right now. I have a thorn in the flesh. Awesome.
Learn to enjoy it. That's Skip Hyten concluding his message and the series, Expound, 2 Corinthians. Find the full message as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series at connectwithskip.com. Right now, we want to let you know about a special opportunity you have to pursue biblical studies in a way that works with your schedule. Imagine turning your desire to make a difference for the kingdom of God into a purposeful and fulfilling career in ministry. Calvary Church of Albuquerque is pleased to announce a partnership with Southeastern University, a fully accredited Christian university. The Southeastern University partnership with Calvary launches with the fall 2024 semester, offering online degrees from Southeastern University in general education, as well as several ministerial leadership degrees. Visit calvarynm.church slash schools to learn more about available degree programs, tuition, and financial aid details, and to start your application. Fall classes begin soon, so check out the SEU at Calvary webpage to learn more about this incredible new partnership. with Southeastern University and begin your Christ-centered, flexible degree program today. The website again is calvarynm.church slash schools. That's calvarynm.church slash schools.
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That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Thank you. Come back tomorrow as we begin a new teaching series and hear Pastor Nate Heitzig's message, How to Build a Kingdom City.
Maybe you've concluded that there's no use in trying to do anything because there's just no way that you could ever make a difference. According to the Bible, Christian, that simply isn't true. And we should never, as believers, retreat and hide in our little Christian subculture bubble. We should never remove ourselves from contact with the world thinking that the world's just too far gone. Make a connection Make a connection At the foot of the crossing Cast all burdens on His Word Make a connection Connection Connect with Skip Heitner is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.
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