Good morning. Welcome. We are so glad you're with us. If you're online, we're glad that you are joining us as well. We are a church of grace, which means if you look around at those around you, you'll recognize that they sin and fall short of the glory of God, just like I do. But we come to praise God because he takes us from that rocky soil and puts us on a firm foundation in Christ Jesus. And so in that, we come to praise him and worship him with our lives.

Would you join with me in prayer this morning as we prepare for God's word?

Eternal Father, we thank you that we're able this morning to gather as brothers and sisters, that somehow and some way you brought us to this place at this time to hear this, your word, and that this truth would change and transform us into your likeness for your sake, through your power.

In Jesus we pray. Amen.

So this week I had a medical issue that I thought I should let the church know about. I had a splinter in the palm of my hand and it was a doozy.

And so I went on to WebMD because that's what you do when you have an issue. And so I went on to WebMD and after searching for a little while, I discovered that I am terminally ill and that I'm going to die soon because WebMD took the symptoms like, are you tired? Well, yes, I am.

Do you find yourself sometimes worrying about things? I do.

How bad is your hand on a scale of 1 to 10? It's clearly a 12.

And the reason mine's different, and I share this with my wife, is that I have more sensory cells. So what she experiences as pain is one thing, but what I experience is far more.

And so I rejoiced this morning in letting you know that I have got the splinter out and I'm going to be okay. I'm going to make it.

What's interesting about that, thank you, thank you. The first service didn't clap, and so I'm glad that this group finally gets it and I feel the love.

It's interesting, though, how we can search for truth in places that won't always give us the right answer. And it's interesting to me where we seek truth these days.

I love when people will use social media as a source document. Well, I saw on Twitter the other day, well, when someone says that, I'm done listening. I have checked out. I am not interested in what you have to say. I'll stare at you, and I might even smile, but I'm not listening.

Twitter or X or whatever it is or Instagram is not a source document for truth.

I also think it's fine that we go to friends. Well, my friend said... I'm interested in what you have to say. I'm interested in what you have to say. I'm interested in what you have to say. I'm interested in what you have to say.

Okay. Your friend said, what did your friend say?

Or we use our own thoughts, and this is one of my favorites. Well, I've been thinking about this for a little while.

Okay. Tell me more about that.

Well, I've been thinking about this for a little while, and I think this is true.

But what happens is we tell ourselves stories in order to justify behavior, and so that probably isn't true either.

Well, it's interesting because this morning we're going to look at Paul's response to untruths.

You see, Paul is preparing right now to go to the church in Corinth to visit them. And as he prepares for his third journey to visit them, there is this small faction of people in the church that have levied two accusations against him.

The first accusation is that he is so bold in his writing, but in person he is very weak and feeble.

The second accusation is that he has written to them before, and he doesn't really have the jurisdiction to write to them any longer and hold them accountable.

And so what Paul does is he can respond like we respond when someone tells us that we're wrong, or someone levies an accusation against us, or if somebody has something to say about us that is an untruth or a lie.

Oftentimes we respond in a way like the world does instead of in a godly way. And what Paul does for us this morning is he shows us how we should be responding.

I'm not looking at this today and saying, folks, see, this is how I respond. I'm saying just along with you, this is how I should respond.

And Paul gets it right. And it's awesome by the way he reveals it.

And what Paul does basically is says this: there is one truth, and it comes by way of God's word. And Jesus declared, I am the way, I am the truth, and the life.

He is the way that we as sinners are made right with God by the blood of Jesus Christ. He is the way in which we are no longer afraid of death because he overcame the death in the grave and made a way for us to have the certainty, the promise of life in life eternal.

And so as we look at today's text, we see this minority accusing him. And we see Paul relying on the truth of God.

Let's look together at the text.

By the humility and gentleness of Christ, I, Paul, appeal to you, who am timid when face to face with you, but bold towards you when away.

I love that scripture is using quotes there. It's this whole thing. I appeal to you, I who am timid when face to face with you, but bold when you are away.

I beg you that when I come, I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be towards some of the people who think that we live by the standards of this world.

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.

On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

We demolish arguments in every pretence that sets itself up against the knowledge of God.

And we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

And we'll be ready to punish every act of disobedience once your obedience is complete.

So here's the accusation. And this accusation is kind of like texting or email. Do you know those people that are so verified that they didn't know how to vivid? All one of the other people that are few.

Close the conversation. Bold in their texting and email. They'll say anything.

And then suddenly, when you're face to face with them, they're sweeter than pie. They're lovely.

We have a wedding venue now, Woodside Weddings, and about two weeks before the wedding date, these brides flip a switch.

And they decide that they're going to text or email Kristen or myself at 11 o'clock or 12 o'clock at night.

And they just regurgitate all of their feelings and all of their stress and all their overwhelming thoughts on us. And they just blast us.

And I'm sure they feel better afterwards.

And my initial response is to get on my phone at 11 o'clock and blow them up. And just demoralize them. Take every part of them. Cut them at the knees.

That's the worldly view that I have that feels really good for me.

You know those texts that you respond with, and then later you're like, ah, I shouldn't have sent that.

I have learned that it's best just to sit in it for a little bit before I respond, because the way I respond is never, ever Christ-like.

It's always from a fleshly perspective.

And so Paul says, listen, if your concern is that I'm timid when I'm with you, and I'm bold when I'm away from you, or if your concern is that there were times in the past when I changed my mind about visiting you because I was trying to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, or if you feel like the Spirit wasn't actually working in me because there are times in life when I've tried to listen to him and not be obedient to the world, or if you look at me and say to yourself, well, the Spirit can't be in him because he suffered, and he has difficulties, and he's had trials and burdens.

And notice Paul's response to this accusation.

He could have come out and, you know, fired away at them, pounded away, written that text to them, or he could have also resorted to a place of safety, disappeared to a place of security, and hid himself from everybody else so that he wouldn't get hurt.

We do this, right? If we get hurt or someone has an accusation, we can either come out one of two ways. It depends on your personality.

Sometimes you come out like a hedgehog, and you're ready to fight.

Other times, or some of you come out like a rhino.

Other times, we hide like a hedgehog until we blow about something else on somebody else that probably didn't deserve it.

But notice what Paul says. He says, my response is not like the world's response.

Yes, I live in the world, and yes, the desires of the flesh want to respond in a certain way, but I recognize, says Paul, I have to respond differently.

Secondly, I must respond sometimes in silence.

I must respond sometimes in love, and forgiveness, and encouragement, and grace, and mercy, instead of the way that I want to respond.

He also declares there's something else going on.

He says, I don't wage war the way the world wages war. No, no.

Instead, on the contrary, I have divine power to demolish strongholds.

That's the Holy Spirit inside of us that keeps us from responding in a flesh-like way.

That Holy Spirit that reminds us to be quiet instead of speaking, or to speak when we want to be quiet.

It's that Holy Spirit that tells us, this is not a good idea. Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!

And we stop, and we pause, or we're prayerful, and we begin to speak.

Notice what it says next.

We demolish arguments in every pretence that sets itself up against the knowledge of God.

We refuse to say it's okay to speak in opposition to what God's truth is.

We refuse to take these lies, these accusations, these persecutions, and say it's okay, but here's what we do.

And we take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ.

Think about that for just a moment.

I'm preaching to myself. I'm glad you're here, but this is about Mike.

Because Mike's response is to get angry at people, to get furious with people.

I went down to visit my daughter at Susquehanna yesterday, and it's really funny.

If you know Chloe, she's the mascot there, which is kind of funny.

And so we go just to watch her, and people are like, oh, you're here to see your child?

And I like lie. I'm like, yeah, he plays football.

Because I don't want anybody to think that my kid is the one in the dancing.

So anyways—not that dancing's wrong, but in the matter—anyways, she's fine.

We're proud of you, Chloe, if you're watching. You're the—you're our favorite.

So it's interesting, as you begin to think about this, I'm driving back, and these cars.

It's like everybody is in the space now of they've learned to drive their cars on a video game.

They're driving at crazy amounts of speed, and they're—they're ducking in and out.

And I find myself angry towards them.

And I—I say things like, I don't like that Kia over there.

Sometimes in different words than that.

I say things like, well, it doesn't matter.

The point is, what does it look like to take captive the thoughts and make them obedient to Christ Jesus?

To take the anger or the accusation, to take the frustration and the bitterness, to take the hurt, and instead of responding in kind, like a fleshly response, actually taking captive those thoughts and making them obedient to Christ and saying, you know what, I might have that in my flesh, but I want to seek to respond in a way that is Christ-like.

Not the way that Mike would respond, or not the way that the flesh would respond, but the way that Christ would respond in this circumstance.

And let's be honest. There's a real and valid war out there.

We call it persecution.

Paul is being persecuted right here for his beliefs and his teachings.

He has just spoken in chapter 8 and chapter 9 of 2 Corinthians in a strong and mighty way about giving.

It's not a surprise to me that now in chapter 10, he's receiving some accusations, some persecution.

But he's not going to respond the way the world responds.

He's not going to wage war the way the world does it.

Instead, he's going to take captive his thoughts and make them obedient to Christ Jesus, and he's going to respond with a hope of reconciliation.

You see, our response in life is not about ourselves.

But so often we use that pronoun I in so many ways of saying, well, I was hurt. I am whatever.

And there's counselors who say, this is healthy. Get it out. And I agree with that.

It's healthy.

But what if we had these kingdom eyes to see, you can take as many shots at me as you want, that I'm going to be focused on who Christ is, and I'm going to try and reveal Christ to you by the way that I respond so that there's reconciliation between you and God.

That my hope is that reconciliation between you and God and your fallen state of sinfulness happens by way of Jesus Christ.

And I don't want to be somebody that causes a stumbling block for somebody else.

That's truth. That's what Scripture says. Don't be a stumbling block.

And so my response to accusations or my response to persecution must be in line as Paul does so.

Not allowing the evil one to have a foothold in our lives.

Seeking to speak and to live and to love and forgive in a Christ-like manner.

Next slide.

He continues on his response.

You are judging by appearances.

If anyone is confident that they belong to Christ, they should consider again that we belong to Christ just as much as they do.

So even if I boast somewhat freely about the authority the Lord gave us for building you up rather than tearing you down, I will not be ashamed of it.

I do not want to seem to be trying to frighten you with my letters.

For some say his letters are weighty and forceful. But in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.

Such people should realize that what we are in our letters when we are absent will be in our actions when we are present.

Paul responds by saying to them, you're judging me according to my outside appearance. You're judging me according to the way that I look or my timidity. Or by the way that I speak.

We look back to remember Moses felt this way too. He's like, Lord, I don't have the words to speak. I'm not very eloquent. I can't say these things right.

And what did God say? Oh, then don't worry about it. You're fine.

No. You see, because the truth of Scripture reminds us that in our weakness, he makes us strong.

You see, the truth of God and God's word enables us to respond in a way that is God-honoring and God-glorifying.

Remember the argument laid out to Paul. Paul, you're weak. You're timid.

You write these harsh and weighty letters from a distance. You're trying to frighten us.

And yet when we see you, your physical appearance doesn't look like much.

What does truth tell us? God's word reminds us of who we are in Christ Jesus.

That the first shall be last. And the last shall be first.

First, what does God's word say? That we're going to be persecuted. That there's going to be accusations. And it's going to be difficult.

And I would go so far as to say, if you're not being persecuted, maybe you're not living in a way that honors God.

Because it comes every time when we're stepping out in a way that honors and glorifies God.

We have a men's mission trip coming up here. It's a very short mission trip. It's three days. One day off of work on Friday.

We're leaving Thursday night. We will get there in two hours. You'll miss Friday work.

Saturday you'll work. Sunday you'll work. We'll worship with the church and then we'll come back.

And I tell you, the moment you sign on that line that says, I'm going, Satan is going to be working against you.

Why? Because he doesn't want you to go.

And you know where he's going to attack first? Your wives.

Do you know why? Because they know you and they know how to get through to you.

And Satan knows you and he knows how to get through to you.

It's through your wife. It's what happens every time.

And this is an attack on women. It's a truth. Satan attacks the family. Why? Because he knows it gets to us.

It's real.

So, if we're not experiencing persecution, then perhaps we're not living in opposition to the evil one.

And if we're not living in opposition to the evil one, then we're living with him and we're living a worldly way.

And we live according to the world.

God is not honored. God is not glorified. But the evil one is winning.

Paul is making his claim very simple: soon my actions will meet my words.

He's not saying this in a term of threatening, and in fact, you look at the original language, it's not threatening in any capacity.

What he's saying here is when I get there, you're going to see that what I've said is how I live.

The words that I've spoken will be revealed by the way that I live my life, and you're going to see it evidenced in my response.

If I'm giving you all these ways to live and then when the moment comes, there's an accusation and I respond in a negative, harsh, mean way, that does not cause reconciliation but rather causes disunity—well then, that doesn't work either.

I've got to respond in a way that is God-honoring, God-glorifying, that is Christ-like.

So that's the first accusation and Paul's response to it.

The second one: we do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with someone who commends themselves.

When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.

We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits but will confine our boasting to the sphere of service God himself has assigned to us—a sphere that also includes you.

We are not going too far in our boasting as would be the case if we had not come to you, for we did get as far as you with the gospel of Christ.

Neither do we go beyond our limits by boasting of work done by others.

Our hope is that as your faith continues to grow, our sphere of activity among you will expand greatly, so that we can preach the gospel in the regions beyond you.

For we do not want to boast about work already done in someone else's territory, but let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.

For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.

Remember, the second accusation was this: you have gone beyond your apostolic reach.

You have stretched yourself, Paul, further than what you should. Just stay to yourself and mind your own business.

We got this. We know what we're doing.

It's like that teenager that you've raised and you've equipped and you've trained, and they get to this age in high school where they're kind of like, I know, I know, I know, mom and dad. I know.

And mom and dad are like, you don't know.

And that's kind of what the church in Corinth, this group of people, was doing. They were saying, you don't have the right to speak to us and write to us this way.

And here's Paul's response—and I love this.

He doesn't respond in the comparison game.

And this is what we do. We love the comparison game.

He doesn't even allow himself to be part of that discussion.

It's not even for a second about, well, yeah, well, you don't know that. Well, I— that's not what he does.

He does not get into the comparison game at all. He's not comparing with them. He's not challenging them. He's not accusing them.

He responds in a way like children learning to respond.

It's like when you see a preschooler, and they don't know any better. They see it at home, and so a child will respond like that.

If you push them, they push back. And a little brawl starts.

And I think it's adorable—that's how we learn to respond.

But that's not what God desires.

A Christ-like response is not in the comparison.

The only person that Paul compares himself to is Christ Jesus.

And we do this. We do this at work. We do this in our schools.

We compare ourselves to the other teachers. We compare ourselves to the other students.

We compare ourselves to this person or that person.

We compare ourselves in this world.

And what it does is, it's our way of validating ourselves.

And that's not what Paul says we should do.

I'm not going to do that. I'm not even going to entertain that for a moment.

The only person I compare myself to is Christ Jesus.

He is my plumb line.

That is the truth. That is the Word of God. That is what God's Word says to us.

You know, it's interesting as we think about this because Paul knew his identity.

He knew the truth.

He knew that it wouldn't do any good to compare himself with others.

Instead, his response is there's no wisdom in that.

There's no wisdom in the comparison game.

There's no wisdom in putting other people down.

There's no wisdom in trying to justify our own behavior by looking at others.

Stop comparing with others.

Look to Christ. Look to truth.

That's the comparison game that matters.

I love that because Paul is not defending himself.

What is he boasting?

When someone says something about us, what do we do?

We list off our resume.

Oh, I love this one. Well, yeah, well, you don't know that I've done all these things.

I don't care.

Paul says, I don't boast in myself.

I'm not bragging about what I've accomplished.

I'm not bragging about the fact that I brought you the Word of God and the gospel of truth in the beginning.

I'm the reason I shared this message with you—that you've come to know Jesus Christ.

I'm not boasting in myself. I'm boasting in Christ Jesus.

I boast in the Lord.

Oh, by the way, truth.

Truth. Look at this. This comes from Jeremiah chapter 9.

Next slide.

This is what the Lord says:

Let not the wise boast of their wisdom, nor the strong boast of their strength, nor the rich boast of their riches.

But let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know God, that I am the Lord who exercises kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth.

For in these I delight, declares the Lord.

Look at Paul's response.

He's quoting from Jeremiah and reminding us, I don't boast in what I've done or how much I've accomplished or how much money I have.

That's not the boasting.

My boasting is in Christ Jesus.

My boasting is in the Lord and what he has done and who he is.

You see, so often in our lives, when we are feeling accused or feeling persecuted or we encounter some sort of lie that someone has made up about us or whatnot—and this happens even in churches.

I've said some things to some people, and I remember pretty clearly what I said.

And then when it comes out through somebody else, I'm like, I didn't say that.

Like, well, you said that.

I'm like, no, I didn't say that. I said this.

A telephone game gets pretty rough in time because we hear what we want to hear.

And it happens in all walks of life.

And think about the amount of time and energy that we pour into these sorts of conversations.

The amount of time wasted.

And if you don't think for a moment that Satan's behind those lies, you're missing the battle that's happening.

Because if he says something that gets us off on this pattern and on this trail and on this space of chasing after this whatever, then we're not focusing on the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And man, it happens so quickly with one person's comments, with a stare, with a gaze, with somebody not talking to us when they see us.

I'm pretty sure they saw me at the grocery store, but they just turned their back for me.

I don't know, man, maybe they just didn't see you.

Maybe they just didn't recognize you.

Maybe you're having a bad hair day.

Maybe they didn't.

And then what happens? The spiral that happens from that, that takes over and consumes us.

And all that's doing is taking our eyes off of truth.

Paul's response to these accusations wasn't a bruised ego.

It wasn't to hide.

It wasn't to say, been there, done that, and kind of refuse.

It wasn't to just kind of fade or disappear.

When people don't act the way we expect, and they don't do things in a way that is honoring God, our response, our hope, is that they would be reconciled to God and not pulled away.

Paul could have just ghosted these people and been like, I'm done with these people.

I've tried. I've tried. I've tried this. I've tried that. I've tried the other.

I've tried. And you people just don't get it. I'm out.

He just sent that little emoji, the thumbs up, which just basically means I'm done talking to you. Right?

Someone sends a long text, and I send back a... That just means I'm not listening anymore.

So if you got that from me, you're like, wait, you're not... Yeah, you got the message.

No, Paul's response is to live a God-honoring, Christ-like response in the desire that reconciliation would happen.

You see, there's research that went out a couple years ago, and Barna, the Barna Group, did it, said that 82% of people in the United States say that they are Christians.

But of those, only 50% of those 82% say that God's word is truth—the gospel of Christ is truth.

Now, you can't have it both ways.

Either you're a follower of Christ and you believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins, or you don't.

But there's a tremendous amount of Christians who say, yes, I love Jesus, and yes, I love Jesus, but I refuse to make the hard decisions in my life and do the stuff that is required of me.

Instead, I want to respond with my flesh, and I want to respond in likeness to the world.

And truth be told, I have done all these things.

I'm not preaching at you as someone that's never done this.

This is a part of my struggle in life.

But it's something that causes me to sit back and say, wait a minute here.

Do I take captive my thoughts and make them obedient to Christ Jesus?

Do I respond in comparison or not?

Do I respond in a way that is God-honoring and Christ-like, or am I responding in the flesh?

Am I boasting in what I can do and what my accomplishments are?

Am I boasting in God and what he's done?

Am I boasting in the Lord?

And finally, do I believe that God works through weak people?

I do.

I believe this world that is falling down around us is changed in one way by the local church.

I truly believe that's how everything gets made right, is by faithful believers of Christ living out their faith in a powerful way—and mighty way, not relying on their own flesh or their clever ways or skills, but trusting in the truth of Jesus Christ.

That's how this gets changed. That's how this gets made right again.

And so I have a series of questions for you, and then I'll be done.

How does Paul's response differ from our own during an accusation?

Are you ready to go to war and battle?

And I wrote my answer there. It doesn't seem like it.

I don't feel like Christians in America are ready to do battle.

I think Christians in America just want to make sure we get through the day and figure out the next vacation.

That is what the Christian American looks like.

I just want to get through the next week, and I just got to take care of myself.

And if I just preserve myself and not step out in any way that's going to be uncomfortable, and I just keep myself in my little bubble, I'll be good.

The self-preservation is not how the local church rectifies the status of our culture today.

Third, not sure what to say, or you don't seem impressive in your sight. You're not.

But in our weakness, God makes us strong.

Are you willing to take a truth-saturated, life-embodied proclamation of the gospel into the world?

Are you actually ready to do it? Like, no kidding, ready to do it?

Or is it something we're just going to say, and we try it for a little bit, and we go for it for a little while, and then we get beat up and persecuted, even though the truth says we're going to be beat up and persecuted?

And I'm just going to hide and try to get my self-preservation?

One of the things that breaks my heart is seeing mature believers hide.

Hide.

Because they've been hurt so often and so long.

And they've stopped fighting.

Because they just don't want to get beat up anymore.

It's just easier.

And as I read God's word, and I read God's truth, I can't find those words anywhere.

Finally, do you believe that God does his sovereign work through his people?

Do you believe that he is the one that will get revenge?

He says, vengeance is mine, says the Lord.

Vengeance is mine, says the Lord.

He says that.

He got this.

Do you believe that the battle will be won by the Holy Spirit?

Do you believe that victory has already happened?

And do you believe that we, through the local church, are the way in which God will turn this upside-down thing the right way?

God's truth is where this begins.

Do we believe it? Do we hold to it? Or is it something we just become accustomed to and say, yeah, yeah, it's just the word of God?

Because God's word has the power to change everything.

Would you join with me in prayer?

Heavenly Father, I thank you for your word this morning.

I thank you for the ways in which your word speaks to each of us.

Not one of us can say, I've got this whole thing figured out.

And so we turn our faith to you and say, Lord, mold me, shape me, form me, make me for your sake and for your sake alone.

Lord, give us the courage to make our thoughts obedient to your truth.

Give us the courage to not give a listing of all of our boastings, but rather to boast in you.

Give us the courage through your Spirit to love the way that you have loved us, to forgive the way you have forgiven us.

Embolden us to go forth to speak your truth in love.

And Lord, we ask that those ears that hear your truth will be open to your word.

Father, I pray for a change.

I pray for an awakening.

I pray for a local church to rise up without fear, to be faithful, to be completely different from the world, to live as you've taught us to live, to ask forgiveness when we go astray, to repent and turn back when we've lost our way, to love, to be gracious and merciful, to be forgiving, to be on fire to set this world on fire for you.

Lord, we ask that your Spirit would awaken in our hearts this morning your truth and set us free as your truth always does.

We pray this through the name of your Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.