Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / January 7, 2024 | 2 Corinthians - Accountability 101

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January 7, 2024 | 2 Corinthians - Accountability 101 · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: So you might have seen over the last couple weeks there's uh there's a metal sign taller than I am.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's out in the lobby.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: And uh if you're walking b uh uh past it kind of from this side if as you're heading out the doors, uh there are some uh cards that you can pick up.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: They're invitation cards that we've made that you can hand to somebody.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: It gives information about our church and it has some details on the back, kind of a lot of the you know the big points to hit.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we made these kind of as a response because some people were saying that it would be more helpful when they wanted to invite somebody to church if they had something to give them.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and so there they are.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: We've made them.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um I have two uh two quick little tips, though, to provide on how to hand them out.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the first one is that it should be a part of a bigger conversation or invitation, right?
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: So this is not just we um scatter them into the four winds and hope that people pick them up off the ground or something like that, but it's supposed to aid, and you know, when you're saying, hey, I would love for you to come to church with us, here it is, so I don't need to tell you like write out our address, you know, all of those kinds of things.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's one little tip is just make it a part of a bigger conversation.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: The other thing is um please don't, this is tied to it, but please don't create frustration in the way that you're handing them out.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: So for instance, um like don't use these in lieu of leaving a tip for somebody when you go out to eat or something like that.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, if you're going to do that, make a great conversation with a waiter or waitress, leave a great tip, and then hand out one of these.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: So don't create frustration.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: But I hope that feel free to take them, as many as you need that you're going to use, and uh we'll continue to replenish them.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: So uh you've made it, by the way.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we're at the end of our 2nd Corinthians series.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um you know everything about the book, and uh you're ready to teach it, okay?
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: But uh this this morning is kind of going to be a little, it's not a summary, uh, but there are a lot of things that we've talked about over the last couple months that are going to come up in a very final way as Paul is concluding his letter to the church.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: All right, there are a lot of sort of elements and themes that he's discussed that are going to sort of peak their heads up.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but really what's at stake here, though, is Paul is giving his instructions to the church, helping them anticipate that he is going to be visiting them a third time.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: And when Paul goes to visit this church a third time, um basically there's one of two things that are going to happen.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Either it is going to be this wonderful sort of loving embrace, uh, they have responded to his letters, they have changed their behavior, they've kicked out these false apostles, and everything will be hunky-dory.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Or they haven't done that, in which case he is, and this is where we'll get this morning, helping them to understand that that meeting, if they have not changed, is not going to be comfortable.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, he is uh willing to exercise uh a very little used sort of uh ability that Paul has as an apostle, which is uh bringing the church to account using the power of God.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of one of those things that only he kind of has in his holster.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but nevertheless, he is talking about how can we all keep one another accountable?
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so at the end of the message this morning, Paul is basically going to put on a masterclass on uh what does it mean for us to hold one another accountable as we're walking together in our relationship with Christ?
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, how can we do that in a way that's effective and not, you know, uh domineering or not overly passive?
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's sort of this specific line you have to walk.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: So that's where we're at this morning, and we'll be in chapter 13 of 2 Corinthians.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: And we begin here in verse 1.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, This is the third time I'm coming to you.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: I gave a warning when I was present the second time, and now I give a warning while I am absent to those who sinned before, and to all the rest.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: If I come again, it will not be lenient, since you seek proof of Christ's speaking in me.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: He is not weak in dealing with you, but powerful among you.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: For he was crucified in weakness, but he lives by the power of God.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by God's power.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, first of all, let's do again a very, very quick recap about sort of the logistics here, right?
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: This slide actually came up in the second week we were going through this series.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need to memorize these.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the numbers on the left are the the year, and so we have Paul's first visit right here, right?
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then we have Paul's uh second visit right here.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: At this point, we are right here.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Paul is writing, has written, sending 2 Corinthians, and he is anticipating his third visit right there.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: You might recall that the second visit didn't go super well, neither did the letter uh that the third letter that he sent to them afterwards.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: This was part of the controversy at the beginning of 2 Corinthians because Paul has actually delayed the trip he's talking about right now because he wanted to basically give them as much time as possible to change, uh, to adjust to their behavior, to grow into the people that he wanted them to be.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it was a source of contention that he had told them he was coming and then delayed his trip.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so now they've had questions about his, you know, basically his reliability or something.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: There was some sort of conflict there about his travel plans.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul says, No, no, no, I'm doing it because I love you and I want you when I do come to be the way that you should be.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um but he has these trips, and at this point in 2 Corinthians, really the final message is I'm on my way.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: I am coming.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Trip is delayed no longer, here I come.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: And he quotes uh from uh Deuteronomy 19 and the Mosaic Law when he's talking about witnesses at the very beginning of this passage.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: And uh there either there are two things that he could mean.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: One of them is much more likely.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: He could mean that uh from his companions like Titus and Timothy, that multiple people have witnessed uh the behavior of the Corinthians and have sort of informed him of this.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that's possible, but much more likely is he is talking about uh each one of his visits that he has made is sort of like being a witness to a crime back in ancient Israel.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, the first time he visited, he saw some of their behavior.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, I'm not gonna say anything.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: He goes a second time, he sees some of their behavior.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: He says, uh, I'm gonna write a letter, I'm going to this third time, if he comes, it would be like having three witnesses for a crime, and he says, now judgment is due.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a lot of fuss, though, you could say, that's being made here, right?
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: His language is very strong.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: He is certainly focused on changing their behavior.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so the question becomes like, I mean, sort of what's the big deal, right?
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Why is this letter not enough?
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Why does he even need to do this?
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's complicated.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of things at play, but looking back very briefly, there's a passage in chapter 12 where he talks about what he's anticipating will be waiting for him in Corinth.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: He says, For I am afraid that perhaps when I come, I may not find you to be what I wish, and may be found by you to be not what you wish, that perhaps there will be strife, jealousy, angry temper, selfishness, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: I am afraid that when I come again my God may humiliate me before you, and I may mourn over many of those who have sinned in the past and not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and indecent behavior which they have practiced.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's important to remember, too, anytime, this is especially true in the New Testament, when you see a letter, and they have these things called like vice lists or sin lists, where they're sort of just enumerating different things that are going wrong that we should not do as Christians, that each one of those is specifically directed to the people who are hearing that letter.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's not like here in chapter 12 that Paul's just sort of randomly listing different things that he hopes uh he would not find, but instead every single one of these has a root and something he has already witnessed there.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's a lot of sort of um, you could say, trepidation, uncertainty.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of, he's a little nervous, maybe even anxious about what he is going to find when he comes.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: He knows they have not done what they should do, and they're upset with him for many of the reasons that we've talked about.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul says, you know, on top of that, we spoke about this a couple weeks ago, that Paul's goal, right?
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: This was actually last week, Paul's goal, remember that unique phrase that he wants to present them as a pure virgin in Christ.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: And we talked about that, that even though that's kind of odd language for us in our culture, what he means simply is that he, as an apostle and the one who founded the church, wants to present them as being a faithful people to the Lord.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and what they're doing right now is flirting with all these other folks and flirting with all these other faiths.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so, because of that, Paul is saying he might be humiliated when he goes to see that the church is not, first of all, the way that he left it or the way that it should be, and second of all, that he is mourning, that he is sad, he is brokenhearted because the church is not doing what they should be doing.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: So there are these layers of emotion that he has here.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: But nevertheless, right, whether it's his personal relationship with them or their spiritual relationship, there is work that needs to be done.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so we read Paul's experiences, we read about them, and at least for me, I am asking the question quite often, like, why head back?
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like, maybe just send another letter.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if there's all of this sort of concern about what's going on, pretty good likelihood that when he gets there, it's not going to be super pleasant.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just keep sending letters.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just keep, you know, sort of being pin pals here instead of doing the really hard thing.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: But Paul, there's kind of this backstop to everything that he does, which is that the personal relationship is so important.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: And that's hopefully, you know, if you've been with us through this series, even last year going through 1 Corinthians, you know how much love and devotion and care he has for these people.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: But the backstop for him, though, is that he has been called by God to do something, to carry out a mission.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: And that mission requires him to bring accountability to the church because it's necessary.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, though he could just continue to say, you know what, it's not great what you're doing, but just keep trying to do better, uh, that might help the personal relationship.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but it would not be fulfilling his role as an apostle of Christ.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: Or for that matter, just a brother in Christ to those who are in the church.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: They desperately need this accountability.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that's true for many of us as well.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we need accountability, and sometimes we need to give it.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: Just because it's hard doesn't mean we're exempted from that responsibility.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: So Paul's going to be talking about, or rather looking at, displaying how to do that well.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: But as we go back to the text, he says there right in the middle.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: He says, if I come again, though, I will not be lenient.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to pull any punches.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: And this goes back into, once more, right, I said a lot of these things were summary.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: If you remember all of our conversations about the difference between being weak and strong based upon the world and based upon the gospel, right?
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: Paul, according to the Corinthians, is weak in person and lacks strength.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul's point is that he is carrying out the ministry of Christ, which is defined by weakness, specifically going to the cross, and that actually through Christ's weakness, his power is fully displayed.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: On top of all of those things, uh, God's power working through that weakness can then now be seen by the Corinthians.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: And he gives this sort of past, present, and future narrative there.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Well, in the past, and this would be, you know, roughly 30 years, um, excuse me, roughly 20 years previous, he says, in the past, Christ was crucified in weakness, yet rose because of the power of God.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then he also says, Well, you also know that the power of Christ was displayed amongst you as I was ministering to you, and even though you think that I am weak, you saw, and we know from other places in the letter, he says, like the signs of an apostle were performed for you, meaning that Paul performed miracles while he was in Corinth.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so he's saying, basically, all the evidence that you need for God's power was displayed through my ministry.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: But then also, he lists here at the end of the passage, he says, For we are also weak in him, meaning us people like Paul.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Paul might be speaking about himself, but I'm sure he's also saying this so that they would recognize it's true for them also.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, We are weak, but God will raise us from the dead in the future.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so our power, God's power will be displayed in that way.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: So there's the past, the crucifixion, the current, the ministry, and the future, the the resurrection from the dead, that is displaying God's power.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: So he says, I am, you might think I am weak, but I am strong.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: He has said this before, and now, when he returns, if they do not change, Paul says, basically, you have wanted to see strength the way that you think of it.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: Wait until I get there.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: You can almost think of a parent saying, Go clean your room, right?
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't happen.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: Second time, I said, go clean your room.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: Second time, maybe doesn't happen.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: Third time, I'm going to your room, and when I get there, it better be clean, right?
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, that there's going to be some power that is coming on that third visit.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's what's happening here, right?
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um sadly, though, the Corinthians continue to lack these uh understanding of these clear signs, and instead of taking these warnings seriously, uh they're hung up on questioning his skills, his power, even his status.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so Paul flips everything back on them and asks a very critical question.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Are you sure uh that you're in Christ?
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: Do you actually have the Spirit of God within you?
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Test yourselves to see if you're in the faith.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: Examine yourselves.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: Or do you yourselves not recognize that Jesus Christ is in you unless you fail the test?
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope you will recognize that we ourselves do not fail the test.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: Paul means himself and his companions.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: But we pray to God that you do nothing evil, not that we may appear to pass the test, but that you may do what is right, even though we may appear to fail.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: For we can't do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: We rejoice when we are weak and you are strong.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: We also pray that you become fully mature.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: This is why I am writing these things while absent, so that when I am there, I may not have to deal harshly with you, in keeping with the authority the Lord gave me for building up and not for tearing down.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: So Paul essentially strips the issue down to its most basic concept.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um Jesus Christ as your Savior?
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um pretty hard-hitting question.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason why Paul is asking this question is because basically, every sign that the Corinthians have shown about their response to the gospel message, or at least a significant minority that the majority is not correcting, there that's also a possibility.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: But regardless, there's this rot within the church.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: And it's shown itself in all these different ways.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: And based upon how they are acting, what they are believing, the convictions that they are holding to, uh, their failure to respond to his letters, and keeping in mind that these are not just like if we wrote letters to each other, which might be convicting, but do not necessarily have the word of God behind them.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: They received God's word and they're not responding to it.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says it twice: examine yourself.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: This didn't represent to Paul what a healthy gospel-centered church should look like.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so it it makes sense that he would say, Do you actually know Jesus?
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now, uh, as Protestants, um, for you know, 500 years, we fought a really hard battle to say that our faith in Christ is not based on works.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's not how we're saved.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: We believe in grace through faith alone.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um so the idea, the concept, that any sort of activity would be something that could determine our faith is something we would rightly reject out of hand.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: All right, that is not the way that it works.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot look at somebody's life and say, because of X, Y, and Z that they are not a Christian.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so we read this and we say, well, Paul, okay, we're getting a little nervous here.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: But notice that Paul stopped short of determining anybody's faith.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: What he's doing is simply asking a very wise question, which is as their spiritual father, as the one who brought them to Christ, as the one who knows these people so well.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there are parts in Paul's letter where we don't even know what he's talking about because it's such a personal conversation.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: He'll say, You know that one person, and we're just like, we don't know.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know that person.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: But they did.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: So Paul knows these people, he knows them so well.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so his question that he is asking them, it stops short of reaching the point of saying, Because of what you've done, I don't believe that you have the faith.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: He even gives them the benefit of the doubt.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Um, or do you yourselves not recognize that Jesus Christ is in you?
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, Let's go, people.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like you've said you love Jesus, that means that he lives within you.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: Where's he at?
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like, let's see him a little bit more.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so he's giving them the benefit of the doubt, right?
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: He is drawing them deeper into these things.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: But he does, he has every right to ask this question.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: And frankly, in a very measured and careful way, we have the ability to ask this question too.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is part of the accountability, this is part of the heaviness that is involved with this sort of ministry between each other, is that when somebody whom we know and love and deeply care for is consistently walking away from the Lord, consistently doing things that don't align with the way that God has called us to live.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: And furthermore, when sort of rebuke or when correction is brought about, they push back hard against it, like the church is doing.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: They're not receiving really much of any of Paul's correction.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Well, okay, there's a way that this should work, and if the Spirit of God is within you, then when the word of God comes along, those two things should be receptive.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: It should be like a magnet that is working has opposite poles.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but he's like, right now it feels like we've got plus and plus facing each other, and there's just kind of some repulsion here.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: So he says, I'm gonna ask you this question.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: Ironically, though, um uh the Corinthians are asking this question of Paul.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, hey, Paul, are you a Christian?
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: Not a great question to ask Paul.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I hope you will recognize that we ourselves do not fail the test.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so, in the end, to kind of close out that thought, this question, it's a good question to ask.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's a careful question to ask, it's also a self-administered test, right?
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: It is not something that even, you know, I or anybody else could determine based upon uh looking, it's not something that Paul could determine based upon looking at somebody's life, even knowing all of the details, unless part of that was their response in faith.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: But if somebody says, I've trusted in Christ as my Savior, the benefit of the doubt is extended.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: But what we can do is say, okay.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Just so you know, it doesn't really look like that right now.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so you must administer the test and say, Are you sure that you trust in Christ?
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not a sort of an endless question.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, Paul himself, he's like, No, we don't fail the test.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: Asked myself, Am I a Christian?
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I am a Christian.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: I passed the test, right?
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul is able to do this thing.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have to walk in endless uncertainty, but nevertheless, this is what the community needed.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: So they asked Paul this question, and then Paul responds, as we would expect, but in a way that so few of us would probably do it.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: He does it with humility and prayer.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Yes, we're Christians, but we pray to God that you do nothing evil, not that we may appear to pass the test, but that you may do what is right, even though we may appear to fail.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: What he's saying there is that, first of all, he's praying for them, right?
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: He says, in all of these things, we have been uh going before the Lord's throne on your behalf, because we care about you and we love you.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then he kind of creates this uh hypothetical scenario where he says, Um, if it could be true, that you would still reject us but draw closer to the Lord at the same time, we would be okay with that.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um if it meant that our rejection uh was so that or was able to happen at the same time, that you were following what we were saying and knowing Christ more, he says we'd be okay.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: Because the ultimate goal here is not that you love us, even though we love you, uh, but that you know Jesus.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now, it's a hypothetical because the concept that they would follow after Christ and reject the person that Jesus sent to them doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: But this is still Paul's heart behind these things, right?
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: We pray to God that you do nothing evil, right?
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: That you don't turn away, not that we may appear to pass the test, but that you may do what is right, even though we may appear to fail.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: So you may still think we fail, but we want you to pass the test.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: But Paul says, for we can't do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: We rejoice when we are weak and you are strong.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: We also pray that you become fully mature.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: There it is again, the language of weak and strong.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: So, right, we we know what he's talking about now.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the final twist in this narrative is that now, instead of, whereas he had previously always been referencing weak as a negative thing, like their perception of him as being weak is wrong, and their perception of him of being strong is incorrect.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now he's saying, we rejoice when we are weak and you are strong.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so, what that should do in your mind, if you're reading this, you should go, okay, he's just spent like 12 chapters saying he does not like it when they are trying to be strong.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: How is it that he is rejoicing here?
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well, as we come to the end of the letter, now he is using the language that he hopes that they will pick up on.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: So, if in God's kingdom we are strong when we choose to be weak, what Paul is saying is that we rejoice when you are strong, because you would respond to this letter in humility and weakness and meekness, right?
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: You would choose to repent of your sin and turn away and say that you need to go a different direction, that you would show your weakness in that way.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: You would not constantly be trying to be great in the world's eyes.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: And therefore, by choosing the path of weakness, you're strong.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, if you're strong, this has been the other argument, if you're strong then in the way that the Lord sees it, then when I come to you, I can be weak in the way that normally they've been criticizing him.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, I can come without having to display all of this apostolic power that the Lord has given to me.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: I can come and be humble, meek, Paul.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: And we rejoice that that might be a possibility.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: So if that makes sense, what he's saying is we rejoice when you are responding correctly, that I can come how I would be, desire to be, and that you would be responding to this message appropriately.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then he says, We also pray that you become fully mature.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: So they don't just pray for the protection of the Corinthians from temptation against evil.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: They don't just pray for the Corinthians that they would sort of repent from their sin, but he says that we pray that you would become fully mature.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: This Greek word is the same word used, or very similar, to another word used by uh medical professions during the time to describe setting a broken bone.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so he says, we also pray that you would fix the issue, that it would become set, and that you would be healthy to move on in the uh in the future.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: So, this is why I am writing these things while absent, so that when I am there, I may not have to deal harshly with you, in keeping with the authority the Lord gave me for building up and not for tearing down.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, uh to avoid the kind of confrontation that will be necessary if they don't change.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: So, as a genuine apostle of Christ, Paul has a job to do.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: That job uh hopefully will not involve him having to display the power that God has given to him as an apostle of Christ.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: What exactly that entails, I'll talk about that a little bit in the podcast.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of up for debate, but regardless of the Corinthians, it would be very obvious to them and clear, and they probably would not enjoy it, right?
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, so I can do that, or we change, right?
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: We draw closer to Christ, we keep one another accountable, we grow.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: He says, if that's the case, right, this is the way that it's supposed to work, is that my power, my authority is used for building you up and not for tearing you down.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: We've probably all had experience with a boss or a leader who has used authority in a way that wasn't for the best of the company or the organization or the group, um, but instead they used that to be demeaning and harsh towards others.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, that's not gospel leadership.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, that's not what I'm going for.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: He says, My desire is that you would be built up.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: There's kind of a phrase you might be familiar with that, you know, in order to make an omelet, you have to crack a few eggs, right?
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes we can just think that that is the normative way that things have to happen.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: And what Paul's saying here is by God's grace, I can make an omelet without cracking any eggs.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: That I can this thing can happen by his spirit and nobody has to get hurt in the process.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: But just to be very clear, if I get there, and some of you, mind you, some of these things have been going on for like four years.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: So if I get there and you are still unrepentant, if you are still fighting back against this, if you're still promoting a false gospel, if you're still leading people astray, so on and so forth, he says, there will be some eggs that get cracked.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: And that is so that we might be a healthy church.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: This goes back to Paul's topics on church discipline and things like that.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: But moreover, what he is desiring is that by keeping them accountable, that they would change before hard things have to happen.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is our goal, too, right?
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: Is that we would be able to avoid the hardest things in the Christian life that are sometimes necessary by keeping one another accountable to the Lord, to each other, being accountable to ourselves, and sometimes having these hard conversations early on, where they aren't as severe, so that we can avoid the most painful parts.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: But like I said, still walking this line is difficult.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: How to be to hold somebody accountable, how to seek out accountability in a way that walks this line between truth and love.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: And what I want to show you as we wrap up our message this morning is that there are, I actually have six very brief things that I think we can draw out of this passage that I believe Paul is displaying that shows how he does how we can keep each other accountable and ultimately how we can do this in a way that is honoring to the Lord, right?
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't we just walk away from hard things?
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes by pushing through those hard things, doing what is necessary, right, realizing we all have our own backstop about being brothers and sisters in Christ, that might be more important than sometimes just the immediate friendship or connectedness that we have.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we're asked to draw each other deeper into things.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: Quick example being we are one week into the new year.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how many of you have made New Year's resolutions.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how many of you have made New Year's resolutions about for fitness goals or things like that.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: But a really great example of this would be um when you work out with a partner, right?
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes that relationship looks like encouraging one another in the gym, saying, like, come on, let's go.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: We can do this, right?
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: You push yourself, I know you can do more than that.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and you're lifting up one another in that way.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes having an accountability partner uh in that way also looks like, hey, you haven't been at workouts the last three days.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: Where are you at?
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's only a week into 2024.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's hop on the train.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: Accountability partners serve both purposes.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: So, six things.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, Paul was patient with them.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, his relationship with the church had spanned years.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't meet them and immediately begin to rebuke them.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: He did not see them, go, don't like what's happening.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: You've all got to change.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: This goes back to his passage in Deuteronomy.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: He was careful, right?
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's like it wasn't just one visit, it wasn't even two visits.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: He says, if I come though and it's the third visit, we need to talk.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um He hasn't shied away from hard conversations through his letters.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: This was his second visit and his third letter.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but nevertheless, Paul has been patient with them.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so it is important to see that he has witnessed some of these mistakes over and over, and when it finally comes time for the visit, he's choosing his moment carefully.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: When we are thinking about being in an accountable relationship with somebody, patience is required.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: Grace is required.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: We can't be hasty, but we also can't be lazy.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: There's an appropriate level of patience, and Paul has displayed that.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: He's given them multiple warnings, and now it's time to change.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: Number two is that he is humble.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says the entire reason that he wrote this letter was so that they could be built up and not that they would be torn down.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: He cares about this because he doesn't want to have a hard conversation with them.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, insofar as often many of us struggle with conflict, most of the time when we think about those situations, we're like, I don't want to have that conversation.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: But really, Paul's through line here is I don't want them to have to go through that conversation.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want them to have to endure this hardship by feeling the power of God that is coming through in this situation.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: Furthermore, Paul, like that hypothetical example we gave, Paul says, even if we may appear to fail, even if you still continue to think that we are weak and silly and whatever it is, foolish, he says, I would still desire that you would grow.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: Paul's not trying to write personal wrongs here.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: That has come up in his letter.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: He's not going for revenge, it's not self-righteousness.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: Everything will, every single thing about his motive is for the goodness of the church.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: He's humble, it's not about him.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: Number three, it's personal.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: This sounds similar, but it's really different.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um Paul is not a stranger to these people.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: And the greatest places of influence that we have are with those that we have the closest relationships with, right?
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: This is why accountability is oftentimes very difficult and uh hard for us to pursue, is because sometimes the places where it is most desperately needed are the ones that hit closest to home, you know.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: But nevertheless, that is where the greatest amount of growth can come as well.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: If a stranger comes up to you and says, Hey, you need to change, you're like, Who are you?
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: Family member, right, comes up to you and says, Hey, I've been I've been watching for a little while, and uh I you know, I say this um understanding I might not have all the details, but um are are you sure that what you're doing here is right?
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um I I don't know that it is, and I'd love to talk about that with you.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the kind of conversations that are heavy, but they last.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul is making a personal appeal.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: I've already talked about how his letter, there are multiple times to the frustration of commentators where they're like, we don't know what he's talking about here, we don't know who he's referencing, we don't know what situation it is, because only he and the church knew.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: Paul is very personal.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um he's also careful that the accountability that he is presenting uh is does not become an excuse for just criticizing people.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: This is the danger, too, of having too personal of a relationship, is sometimes we want to couch our uh uh our frustration under the umbrella of accountability, but in a real personal loving relationship, we're gonna do it for their needs instead of ours.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: Number four is that he is challenging.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: We need to be challenging.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he does not pull any punches.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: If you read any of Paul's letters, this is very obvious.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: This guy does not struggle to have hard conversations, and neither should we, right?
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: So what's the temptation here?
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: The temptation is that we say, okay, I'm gonna be accountable.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but what ends up happening is we make our comment so general and vague and passive that it ends up lacking any sort of impact at all.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: So we know somebody that's struggling, we know that, or maybe we ourselves are struggling and we're seeking accountability, and somebody comes to us and doesn't do this, right?
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: They're not challenging enough.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so they're like, I know, I just wanted to send you this Bible verse and let you know that I'm praying for you.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's fantastic, right?
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: But that's not really keeping them accountable.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: What keeping them accountable looks like is having the specific conversation that is going to draw out what needs to change.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: You say, hey man, um, we've been talking for a couple weeks now, and I think you're getting too close with that girl in accounting.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: And you need to pull back, or else you're gonna do something stupid.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: You say to another friend, girl, I know you um don't like uh this person, um, but the way that you're talking about her, even in private, is not honoring to God.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: There are specific conversations that we need to have, and the more specific they are, the more challenging they end up being.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: But all of these things, the challenging comments that we have, right, because some of us are very, very good at saying challenging things, they also need to be encouraging.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: This is where Paul says, My desire is to build you up, not to tear you down.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so sometimes you can practice with another person, sometimes you can practice in the mirror, um, whatever it is, but you can say, the way that this comes across, can they tell that I love them by the way that I'm saying this to them?
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: Can they tell that I care for them and I'm not angry with them?
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not, you know, necessarily disappointed in them, or that that's not the overriding emotion that they're sensing, uh, that I deeply desire for them to change, but also that I am not coming at them from a position of looking down upon them, but instead I am a fellow Christian walking with Jesus Christ and failing at the same time.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh when we talk about being encouraging, we can go back and read Paul's letter.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: And even if your perception of 1 and 2 Corinthians is that he has said hard things to them, um, if you go back through and read the letter and instead start looking for all of the ways that he was encouraging to the church, you are going to see over and over and over and over again how often he praises them, how often he congratulates them about the things that they're doing well, how often he says that he is proud of them as his spiritual, as their spiritual father, how often he is telling them that they are doing the right things.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: Paul is very encouraging in his appeals to them.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so then when the challenging part comes, it helps because their relationship, the personal relationship, was not just characterized by criticism.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_00: Sixth and finally, be prayerful, right?
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: I put it at the very end because it is the most important thing.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: No matter how patient, humble, personal, challenging, or encouraging you are, the only way that real change is going to happen is if the Spirit of God is in this person or in yourself.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_00: The only way that real change is going to happen is if God is moving.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, being in an accountable relationship with somebody often invites the Lord into these kinds of situations where he seems to be more willing to move and to change things, right?
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: Brings our hearts and minds in accord with his spirit because we might be drawing somebody's attention back to where it is.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: This is Paul's question for the church.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Don't you have the spirit of Christ in you?
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_00: If you do, then the things that I'm saying should make some sense.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: Being prayerful is important.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: Not just that the person would change, but even in the passage we looked at, Paul's praying for their safety from the enemy.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_00: Paul's praying for their spirit.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_00: Paul's praying that they would have an understanding, right, of God's glory.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_00: Paul's praying and rejoicing that they would be weak.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_00: Paul is praying, I mean, over and over and over again, this is at the beginning of his letters and the end of his letters.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: You can tell that this is a man who is immersed in prayer down on his knees, praying for all of the churches in his ministry, consistently going before the Lord and asking the Lord to do the things that only he can do in their lives.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_00: This is what Paul is doing.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_00: So finally, um, when it comes to us, my my challenge is that we would be more accountable in 2024.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_00: The pushback is that this is a really, really hard thing to want to pursue is accountable relationships.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a really, really hard thing to want to pursue that we would be hold other people accountable who we have personal relationships with, right?
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_00: One of the most difficult things about the Christian journey, walk, whatever you want to say, is that the greatest places of growth come when we intentionally make the decision to engage in a community of people that holds each other accountable, right?
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_00: If you're um someone who is just uh coming in and worshiping and then heading out to the church, you know, heading out the doors, and then never really sort of engaging with much of anything else about the faith or with other Christians in a really committed way, not just that you have friends that are Christians, but like, you know, iron sharpening iron kind of stuff.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_00: If none of that is happening, then your walk with Christ is going to struggle, not because you're necessarily wrong or sinful in such a way, but because accountability is the way that God has designed for us to experience this whole thing together.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_00: We are supposed to be able to have people in our circles who can say, hey, are you making the right decision?
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_00: It might not seem that way to me.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_00: We're also supposed to have people in our circles that we say, hey, out of love, are you making the right decision?
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_00: If you're lacking in those relationships, right?
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_00: What I'm challenging you to do is draw deeper into them.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of ways to do that.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_00: You can join a small group, you can get into a Sunday school class, you can join a Fed-led class, we have purity groups here at the church for those who are struggling with sexual sin.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_00: You can ask a close friend to meet weekly or monthly as accountability partners.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: If there's anything within the church that has to do with connecting with other people in a deeper way than just a worship service, okay, that would be drawing us deeper into accountable relationships.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: You can also email or talk with Doug.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: Doug will.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_00: If you are looking for any of those situations, any of those opportunities, guarantee you he will be able to help you get connected.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_00: But beyond those things, right, is just this general idea that we would be a people that are more accountable to ourselves and to others.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_00: That is how we are going to grow.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_00: That is how 2024 is going to be a time where we can have a better relationship with Christ than we ever had before.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_00: And part of that is going to be improving the relationships that we have with people in the church.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because that is what God has called us to do so that we can experience these things.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_00: So we ask ourselves the question similar to the one that Paul asked the Corinthians are we living like we have the Spirit of God within us?
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think in many ways we are as a church.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_00: I love this church.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_00: But we can't think that there's no place for us to grow.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not about works, but it is about growing in faith.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_00: And growing in faith requires surrounding ourselves with people who ask hard questions and people who are willing to let us ask hard questions of them.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to pray and uh then I'm going to step back for a second because we'll go into a time of communion together as a church.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_00: And uh as I do that, as I step back just for a minute or so, I just want you to be thinking about where might the Lord be calling you to grow in accountability in 2024.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_00: Bow your heads and pray with me.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we come before you and we thank you today.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Lord, we thank you for this letter, 2 Corinthians, that we've had the privilege to study over the last few months.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_00: And God, how you uh specifically have been working in our church to just bring these things out.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh God, we pray that we would be a people who are responding to your word faithfully and truly.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um God, when it comes to accountability, it's hard.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it does not come easy, and oftentimes, Lord, it um brings perhaps even stress or anxiety to us to whether go through it or to give it.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_00: But God, we know that um you have called us to be a people who um are humble and are weak, uh, so that Lord, you might show your strength through those things.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so, God, as we desire to let your righteousness show more brightly in our lives, God help us to see these areas where your spirit is convicting us to change, to adjust, to grow, so that we can walk more closely with you in this year.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_00: God, we love you and we thank you.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_00: And it's in Jesus' name we pray.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_00: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, This is my body which is for you.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_00: Do this in remembrance of me.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_00: In the same way also he took the cup after supper and said, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_00: Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_00: For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we proclaim your death until you come.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_00: God, we desire that when you come, uh we would be a people who are shown to be faithful.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_00: And God, that um we would be a church that is living out your call upon our lives to share this message, to understand and know what it means that your body and your blood were given so that we might be free.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, so that we might be set apart from the world yet live in it.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_00: And God, also that we would have the shackles of sin cast off from our bodies.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_00: God, we desire to live fully for you.
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yet, Lord, that is so hard sometimes.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so I pray that your spirit, which rests within everyone who trusts in you, uh, God would just draw us deeper into these things, help us to do them, and give us the power to conquer the things that need to be conquered, Lord.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_00: We love you and we thank you, God.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's in Jesus' name we pray.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks everybody.
• 49:17
  SPEAKER_00: Great seeing you.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_00: Have a good week.