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Perspective, Power and Paradox

"And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain— for He says, At the acceptable time I listened to you, And on the day of salvation I helped you.” Behold, now is “the acceptable time,” behold, now is “the day of salvation”— giving no cause for offense in anything, so that the ministry will not be discredited, but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger, in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love, in the word of truth, in the power of God; by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left, by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; regarded as deceivers and yet true; as unknown yet well-known, as dying yet behold, we live; as punished yet not put to death, 10 as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things.11 Our mouth has spoken freely to you, O Corinthians, our heart is opened wide." 

II Corinthians 6:1-11 

Good Morning Beloved, 

Welcome to worship! 

We're so glad you're here, thank you for joining us today. 

Today, we are coming to a wonderful chapter. A chapter with all kinds of insights into the heart of Paul, as the other chapters have, into the nature of ministry, into his perspective in dealing with a difficult church. 

Never was a man more loved, never was a man more adored and never was a man more hated and never was a man more despised than our Lord Jesus Christ. And, quite frankly, the same is true of the preacher today, he is either the most loved and the most hated man in his community. He proclaims God's Word, and for those who believe, he's the voice of God, the bearer of truth, the source of hope and encouragement. And for those who refuse to believe, he is the voice of conviction, judgmental, and a liar, because he proclaims the Word of God. Those of us who proclaim the Word, literally stand in the place of Jesus Christ. 

I can't help but to recall the words of our Lord, in John 15:18-19, when He said "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you." 

We are given the responsibility to share the message of the gospel with the world We are to tell them, that they are alienated from God, that they are dead in trespasses and sins and that there is only one way escape, one way to heaven, only one way to forgiveness, there is only one hope and that is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who died and rose again to provide salvation and forgiveness. 

And, that's how it is in the ministry. The truth either unites or it divides. 

So, how does one evaluate their success, their effectiveness? At work, there are performance evaluations. At school, there are grades. In business, there are either sales or not. In exercise or diet we can see results and therefore, gauge the effectiveness of our success. 

However, when it comes to serving God, how do you know if you’re doing a good job or not? Often, we tend to use the same types of gauges as the world, money, numbers, reactions – a sort of spiritual performance evaluations. 

Sometimes, however, those kinds of gauges don’t give us an accurate picture of life serving God and can actually give us a false sense of doing well, or a false sense that we are failing. That is precisely what the Apostle Paul has been dealing with in Corinth. The Corinthians thought they were really pretty special, that they knew so much that they could take hold to some new teachers, that had come on the scene. And, these teachers, preached a different gospel than Paul, and teachers that said Paul couldn’t be a real apostle. After all, just look at the mess his life and ministry was in. 

Imagine being an apostle and risking your life for the sake of sharing the gospel with a corrupt and immoral city, you were the first one to bring the good news of Jesus Christ. You’ve spent hours and hours pouring your life into the lives of these new and struggling Christians. And, while you are away some slick silver tongued, false teachers come in among them and try to undermine all your hard work. They accuse you of being weak, of being insincere, they say you are not really a true Apostle because you are not one of the 12. They use your past against you. This briefly summarizes the heart of Paul's letter of II Corinthians. 

Let's bow our heads in prayer. 

Heavenly Father, 

Thank You for this incredible Word that You have provided us with today. Fill our hearts with joy, a sense of privilege, with a burning passion to protect the gospel. May we be faithful in sharing it with the world, who yet remains in darkness. Help us to boldly proclaim Your truth, with courage, enduring whatever challenges we might face in doing so. Help us O' Lord, to be committed to the truths revealed to us today by Your Holy Spirit, that we might not be complacent, distracted by the noise of this world, attempting to drown out Your voice. 

Grant us the wisdom and knowledge to understand Your message for us, cause us to be a stumbling block in the path of sinners. That they might come to true repentance.

All for Your increase, for Your glory
This we pray in Christ's name
Amen

Today's Message: Perspective, Power and Paradox

Today, in our continuing study of the II letter to the Corinthians, we come to a new chapter, chapter 6. In this glorious epistle, we find there’s more than just privilege in the heart of Christ’s ambassador, in being a coworker with God. There is a tremendous passion. However, admittedly, a preacher is a beseecher, a pleader, always in constant repetition, pouring his heart out, preaching and preaching the same monotonous message: Alienation, reconciliation and salvation. Paul, however, was a man who endured through all of this, because he had a sense of privilege, passion, protection, and paradox. Understanding those things is really crucial if you’re gonna be an effective ambassador for Jesus Christ, and that’s what God has called you and me to be. Ambassadors for Christ.

Open with me your Bibles, to II Corinthians 6, verses 1-11. Follow along with me as I read to you from this rich text for our study today, to get it settled in our minds. II Corinthians 6:1-11.

"And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain— for He says,At the acceptable time I listened to you, And on the day of salvation I helped you.”
Behold, now is “the acceptable time,” behold, now is “the day of salvation”— giving no cause for offense in anything, so that the ministry will not be discredited, but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger, in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love, in the word of truth, in the power of God; by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left, by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; regarded as deceivers and yet true; as unknown yet well-known, as dying yet behold, we live; as punished yet not put to death, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things. Our mouth has spoken freely to you, O Corinthians, our heart is opened wide." 
 
In II Corinthians 5:12, Paul says "We are not again commending ourselves to you but are giving you an occasion to be proud of us, so that you will have an answer for those who take pride in appearance and not in heart." Paul is continuing this thought in chapter 6. 
 
In verses 1 and 2, he says "And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain— for He says,At the acceptable time I listened to you, And on the day of salvation I helped you." 
 
This reference is from Isaiah 49:8. Paul is telling the Corinthians that by rejecting him, they are really rejecting the gospel of God’s grace.
 
You can however, choose to believe anything you want. I can choose to believe that men gain forgiveness, receive eternal life by standing on their heads while singing "The Star Spangled Banner" blindfolded. However, that doesn’t mean it will actually do anything. I can sit in my car all I want, however, if I do not turn the ignition on, or if there is no gas in the tank, I’m not going anywhere. 
 
My point is this: There is only one way that a person can receive forgiveness of sin, only one that really works – that’s not vain or empty –  and that’s by way of Jesus Christ, who became sin for us, died – then rose again – validating that His sacrifice on our behalf was accepted by God. 
 
The Holy Spirit directly told Paul the Apostle to bring that message – that God has heard and that the day of salvation is here, now, with the gospel he preached. 
 
Beloved, I tell you here today, now is the time of God’s grace, today is the day of salvation! 
 
The people in Isaiah’s day, they looked forward to the day of salvation. Paul is saying "that day is here and now! So grab a hold of it and don’t let go just because someone is telling you otherwise." 
 
For us, today is the time of God’s grace through Jesus. You can try all the various religions, any number of belief systems, all the legalistic righteousness you want to – but God’s grace and forgiveness, comes only through Jesus and today is that day, it’s the gospel that the apostle Paul preached. 
 
So often we try to come up with something new and improved, something for more appealing to the culture of today. Let me assure you of this, that is a very dangerous thing. That’s how many cults get started. 
 
Believe it or not, the gospel message Paul preached 2,000 years ago, is just as relevant today! 
 
People were watching Paul’s life, judging the character of his ministry and scrutinizing whether to receive that gospel, based upon what they saw. So Paul next talks about how he went about leading his life in a way that was honest and straightforward, and this most marvelous truth, this astounding, powerful message, becomes a lesson for each of us, today as well. 
 
In verse 3, Paul says "giving no cause for offense in anything, so that the ministry will not be discredited." 

Paul realized that if he was not sincere, it could effect whether people believed in Jesus. Notice, that I didn’t say that Paul worried about being perfect, that’s a mistake we often make. We think that if we are representing Jesus, that means we have got to be perfect and when people will see that perfection, they'll be drawn to the Lord.

Beloved, it just doesn’t work that way. What people need to see is that we are sinners, saved by grace, transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit, as we relate to Jesus in the power of His Spirit, not our own abilities. No, it is our sincerity, faithfulness and dedication to the gospel, not perfection that Paul is emphasizing. That’s the magnificent mystery and astonishing wonder of the ministry.

Paul explains this using three things: the hardships of ministry, the character in ministry, and the reactions to ministry for the Lord.

The greatest display of God’s power is not in the absence of pain or the presence of miracles, but our faithful, perseverance and endurance, even in the midst of adversity!

Endurance, or "hupomoné" in the Greek. It means cheerful or hopeful constancy and comes from a root that literally means "remaining under." However, stick-to-itiveness, might be another way to phrase it. That’s the quality of character that Paul says proves his authority over them and his credentials as an apostle.

The three things Paul lists, would not likely be found on most pastor’s resumes. In most cases today, its more likely we would say "our church grew to 2,000 people in the span of two years" or "we now have a worldwide ministry" or "we're taking in $50,000 a month" – all of this of course, is only by God’s grace and mercy. Don't misunderstand, there is nothing wrong with doing well – but anyone can stick it out when everything is going just great – the question is, what happens when things go wrong, terribly, terribly wrong.

The Corinthians and the false apostles said trouble meant you were not who you said you were Paul, if you were really sent by God then you would have the "Golden Touch Ministry" – everything you encountered would turn to gold. And, we all know that didn’t happen. Paul often found nothing but challenges in his ministry – the divisions in the Corinthian church, not the least of them.
But through it all, whether external circumstances were good or bad, Paul’s internal character and methods of sincerely bringing God’s truth to anyone who would listen, bore fruit!

Sometimes people didn’t listen, however, nonetheless, the apostle Paul kept at it, even if he was being dishonored, spoken ill of, or was accused of not being the "genuine article," suffered the ill effects of ministry: sorrow, poverty, and attack. Paul says: this is my character but what has been your response?

I have found, that many Christians today, often read scriptures without ever considering who wrote it, who received it and what purpose brought it about. I'd like to make a note, that has created a lot of false teaching itself. Many people cherry pick, taking little parts of verses from here and there in the Bible and build entire theological structures by them. Instead of reading the Bible, and the surrounding verses in context, in order to hear what it intended to say, many take pieces of scriptures and create new and false teachings from them. Some translations that make things difficult to understand, others, by removing passages, changing the thought process.

Let's take verse 11, for example, the NASB translation reads, "Our mouth has spoken freely to you, O Corinthians, our heart is opened wide."

While the King James reads, "O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged."

And the Message reads "Dear, dear Corinthians, I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life."

That is why I encourage you to read the Bible from several translations for several reasons. The first, is that reading it over and over makes you familiar with the thoughts of an entire letter. And second, the various translations bring out hidden nuances of the original language and broaden the scope of what is being said. Which can give us a better, more thorough understanding of the intended thought behind the verse.

That said, let's look at the same verse in the The Living Bible. "Oh, my dear Corinthian friends! I have told you all my feelings; I love you with all my heart."

And in the New Matthew Bible, it reads, "O ye Corinthians, we pursue you with many words. Our hearts yearn to you."

As you can see each of the translations, each states the same verse in a slightly different way. And, from them, you might totally miss what Paul is saying.

The Corinthians believers thought they were so self righteous and mature, they began distancing themselves from Paul, shrinking away from the "guilty party." However, as a result, they cut themselves off from fellowship and in this case, from the true gospel and in doing so, they became ripe for false teaching and false doctrine.

The believers at Corinth, came to Christ, through Paul's ministry, and apostle Paul loves them and wants to communicate to them the love of God. He is deeply concerned about their relationship with him because he knows that if they reject him, they have also rejected the message of Christ that he lives and breathes. Paul didn’t just preach the word, he lived the word, throughout his life. Paul lived the message. Paul, the man, the ministry and the message were so enmeshed, there was few differences between them. His heart for the church at Corinth reflected God’s heart for this church.

Beloved, I believe, there is a great lesson in this for all of us. It should be our prayer, that others see Jesus in us, not only by what we say, but especially how we live our lives. Being a Christian isn't the single act of attending church, as if it were a clock in and clock out on Sunday morning faith!

To the contrary, being a follower of Christ is a 24/7/365 experience. Jesus doesn’t take a break from His Lordship, therefore, we must not take a break from following Him and serving Him as Lord. We can't just hear today's message, without prayerfully asking God, to make it part of our daily lives.

Oh, my dear beloved family, how we desperately need to make room in our hearts! Room in our hearts for Christ, and for one another. This world makes it so easy to fill our hearts with everything but the Word of God, and the wonder of His amazing grace. The world around us is quickly passing away, hence so is everything in it, but the one who walks with God lives forever!

We must make room in our hearts for a spiritual relationship with one another! When we discover God’s love in Christ, as we grow in it, we desire to share it with each other. We pray with and for each other. We share our faith with one another, building one another up in Christ.

I have a deep and growing concern for our world today, especially our youth. I'm in constant prayer over it, and the more I pray, the more concerned I become. I want to see our children becoming spiritual men and women of God, filled with His love, grace and spirit of His peace. I want them to care more about Christ than they do the newest fashions, the latest technology, or even the approval of their peers.

I want them to care for each other in spiritual ways, sharing their faith with one another and praying for one another, growing in maturity, Christian character, morals and values, in order that they can stand up against the pressures of our corrupt culture, and lures of the flesh.

I want them to forego committing the acts of hatred, violence, and killing one another, that which has become in the headlines of today's every news cast.

Beloved, Jesus Christ died on the cross for each and every one of these beautiful beloved children, some, have grown up, hearing that over and over and they know the words, however, it needs to become a fire in their bones.

Still others, have never heard God's Word, that they are so loved by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, unaware He willingly gave His life for them, that they might have the precious gift of Salvation. Some may never know the honor and great privilege of being a child of the One True Living God. They may never know what it is to dwell in Christ; of being God's people, or being His sons and daughters!

However, this same God who so freely loves us, tells is that we can’t be His beloved children of God and continue to live like sons of Satan at the same time. We can’t be part of God’s family even be yoked up to the company of devil.

There's a heavy burden on my heart, for the families of our Churches. I want our families to glow with the light of the love of God and the purposes of heaven in the home. I want husbands to love their wives like Christ loves the church and wives to be submissive to their husbands as the church submits to Christ. I want fathers, mothers, grandparents and children all walking in the light of God’s love, in His grace, growing in knowledge and wisdom of His Word together.

I long to see each new generation trained and nurtured upon the Word of God. My heart yearns for us to be connected, committed to the service of Christ. Where we people meet to worship Almighty God, the Creator of heaven and earth, fellowshipping, building one other up in Christ.

In heavenly reunion and to stir one another on to love and good deeds at every worship service. May God make us a loving and caring people that is so full of His presence, so filled with wisdom and the Holy Spirit, that we shine like a beacon in the night on this mountain for Jesus.

Some of you might say, "That's nice, but it doesn’t matter what you want! It only matters what God wants!"

Well, that’s not entirely true. Because if your pastors don’t want the same things that God wants watch out church!

Please pray for me, as I continue to do for all of you, that we will want what God wants for you. Pray that I not only preach but live it also require it of each of you! Being your pastor is not just a job, it's a spiritual relationship!

I pray that each of our lives be lived so that the love of Christ, the message of gospel lives in us.
May it be so..

And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;

the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.

Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen

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The Brian Monzon Ministries

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