Beyond the Hype: Rediscovering the Fundamentals of Authentic Faith

[00:00:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:00:02] Good morning, Summit family. We are hearing incredible stories of God meeting us during the season that we've been in, 21 days of prayer and fasting.
[00:00:12] We know that when the people of God pray, that God hears us and God answers us. And as we close out our 21 days of prayer and fasting, my prayer has been that your passion, that your passion for prayer has grown.
[00:00:25] we always say that the greatest answer to prayer is a hunger for more prayer so my prayer has been that god will make us into a people who don't need to be compelled to pray don't even need a special
[00:00:35] season to pray but people for whom prayer becomes as instinctive as breathing privately in small group settings corporately that we would just become from top to bottom people who pray we're entering into a new season right now in the life of our church where all of our small groups are
[00:00:53] going to be doing a study that I wrote called Everyday Revolutionary. It uses the books of Daniel in the Old Testament and 1 Peter in the New Testament to show what faithfulness to Jesus looks like in the midst of a hostile culture. I think this is a crucially important moment right
[00:01:08] now in our society. You look at what's going on in places like Minnesota, and you see that our community is deeply, deeply divided. There's a lot of pain, and people are looking for answers to questions about justice and peace.
[00:01:22] And we've got a moment, we got a moment to testify to the distinctiveness of Jesus's kingdom like never before.
[00:01:29] And I believe that this study will help us better do that.
[00:01:33] In fact, I wanna lead us in a prayer about both of these things this weekend.
[00:01:37] Could I do that?
[00:01:38] If you're at one of our campuses, would you stand with me?
[00:01:42] I realize if you're in your home, that may not be easy, but could we stand together and open your hands and let's just, let me voice a prayer of faith on behalf of us as a church. Father, I pray first, I pray for our church as we come to
[00:01:58] the end of these 21 days of prayer and fasting that you would make us hungry. I mean truly hungry for prayer, hungry for your presence. People who seek you first and people who seek you most
[00:02:10] in everything. Second, Lord, I pray for this growing sense of turmoil in our country. Some of us feel hopeless. Some of us feel helpless. We ask you to heal the division, the brokenness in our society. We ask you to bring peace, Prince of Peace, that you would enable us to be the hands
[00:02:29] and the feet and the voice of Jesus in this moment. Help us represent Jesus above all and all that we would see every person, every person in our country, first and foremost, as somebody made
[00:02:43] in the image of God. I pray that we would be people whose words and actions reflect Jesus, that we, in all these different ways, would make the gospel beautiful to those who are hurting and disillusioned. God, we pray that our government leaders would react responsibly
[00:02:57] with peace and ensure justice and order in all these things. We ask this, Lord Jesus, in your name, in your name, and Summit family, if you agree with that, would you say amen?
[00:03:07] Amen. Amen. Now, wait, remain standing if you would. One final time in this series, would you remain standing for the reading together of God's word?
[00:03:18] Second Corinthians chapter 12. I'm going to begin in verse 11. I have been a fool. You forced me to it. And all the parents in the room said, amen. Amen. That's the parents verse. Paul says, for I
[00:03:32] ought not, or I ought to have been commended by you. For I was not at all inferior to these super apostles, even though I am nothing. The signs of a true apostle were performed among you
[00:03:43] with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works. For in what were you less favored than the rest of the churches, except that I myself did not burden you. Forgive me this wrong.
[00:03:56] Here for the third time, I'm ready to come to you and I will not be a burden for I seek not what is yours, but you. For children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their
[00:04:06] children. I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less? Now, chapter 13, verse 5, examine yourselves to see whether you are really in the
[00:04:22] faith. Test yourselves. Are you to not realize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you?
[00:04:29] Unless indeed you fail to meet the test, I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test.
[00:04:36] This is the word of God for the people of God.
[00:04:40] Thanks be to God.
[00:04:41] Thanks be to God indeed.
[00:04:42] You may be seated.
[00:04:46] In the early hours of June 6th, 1944, General Dwight D. Eisenhower gathered his top commanders into a room and he issued one of the most important military commands ever given.
[00:05:01] Operation Overlord was a go.
[00:05:04] D-Day, as we now call it, would go down as the largest amphibious invasion in human history.
[00:05:10] The stakes that early morning could not have been higher.
[00:05:14] Tens of thousands of lives were on the line.
[00:05:17] And if D-Day failed, Operation Overlord failed, then the war could drag on for years.
[00:05:24] Literally the future of Europe and by extension, the future of the world hung in the balance.
[00:05:30] You would expect Eisenhower's instructions in those moments to be stirring, eloquent, maybe even poetic, the kind of thing that you would memorize in school one day.
[00:05:40] But historians say that Eisenhower's leadership rarely operated that way.
[00:05:44] When the pressure was greatest, he didn't rely on hype. He emphasized fundamentals, staying focused on your objective, maintaining discipline, trusting one another, persevering, even if you find yourself isolated. He anchored his instructions to those troops in eight words.
[00:06:04] eight words that have become some of the most famous in military history.
[00:06:09] The eyes of the world are upon you. Eisenhower understood something that every great leader understands, and that is when the stakes are highest, you don't need hype, you need fundamentals.
[00:06:23] That's exactly what the apostle Paul does as he brings 2 Corinthians to a close.
[00:06:29] The last half of 2 Corinthians 12 and all of chapter 13 are Paul's final words to the Corinthian church, a church under a lot of pressure, a church being seduced by charisma and tempted by compromise. The stakes that morning that Paul said these things, if he said them in
[00:06:48] the morning, the stakes this morning could not have been higher. This wasn't simply about the fate of the nation. This was about the faithfulness of God's church in a hostile world and the survival of God's mission in the world. And yet, and yet Paul doesn't hype them up. He doesn't end
[00:07:05] this book with a grandiloquent rah-rah flourish. He calls them back to five fundamentals. Five fundamentals. Let's take a look. Okay. First, Paul says, I want you to remember that spiritual polish does not equal spiritual power. That's chapter 12, verses 11 and 12. Paul begins where
[00:07:26] Eisenhower did, not with confidence, not with bravado, but with clarity. He wants them to stop confusing the flashiness of the flesh with true spiritual power. This has been a theme that he has referred to, come back to again and again in 2 Corinthians. Remember, Paul's opponents in Corinth
[00:07:45] are a group of self-appointed leaders that he calls super apostles, a group he mentioned specifically there in verse 11 of chapter 12. In Greek, super apostle, huper leon apostoloi, literally extra super apostles. That is Paul's sarcastic name for them, extra super awesome
[00:08:04] apostles. These apostolic posers boasted long resumes and attempted to bolster their authority with things like advanced degrees rhetorical skill or flashy displays of spiritual gifts they also we learn demanded lots of money for their leadership they had big speaking contracts
[00:08:24] and they rolled up in cadillac escalades flanked by traveling posses probably sent out mous with requirements for what temperature they liked their diet cokes and what color m m's were unacceptable in their green room bowls at least that's probably what it would have been like today the point is by
[00:08:40] by the world's standards, these guys look like winners.
[00:08:43] But in Paul's view, they undermine the gospel itself by shifting attention away from God's grace and onto human impressiveness.
[00:08:53] I want you to hear me.
[00:08:54] This is a recurring theme in 2 Corinthians.
[00:08:56] Human ability, human strength, human glory is always the enemy to God's power.
[00:09:05] In contrast to these extra super awesome mega apostles, Paul says, verse 11, I am nothing.
[00:09:13] I am nothing.
[00:09:14] I need you to get your mind around that for a minute.
[00:09:15] Would you?
[00:09:16] This is literally the most important figure in Christian history outside of Jesus himself.
[00:09:21] The man who wrote two thirds of your New Testament, who had traveled more miles and planted more churches and endured more suffering than anybody else saying, I am nothing.
[00:09:35] Yet it was Paul's sense of his nothingness, we learn, that was actually the source of his power.
[00:09:42] It's the fundamental paradox at the heart of the Christian life.
[00:09:46] Those who think they are something have nothing.
[00:09:50] Those who think they are righteous in God's sight will never inherit the gift righteousness of Christ.
[00:09:55] Those who think they are powerful are actually weak.
[00:09:58] Christ only fills empty hands.
[00:10:01] Paul goes on in verse 12 to say that in contrast to these super awesome mega apostles, He says, the signs of a true apostle were performed among you.
[00:10:13] And what are those signs that he's referring to?
[00:10:15] Well, Paul has pointed to three things throughout his letters to the Corinthians.
[00:10:19] First, he says, my suffering is a proof of my apostleship.
[00:10:23] Those people that Jesus chooses to be his representatives have to suffer like Jesus did.
[00:10:29] It's not my accomplishments or my entourage or the size of my speaking fee or the size of my congregation that proves I'm an apostle, Paul says, it's my suffering like Jesus suffered.
[00:10:42] Second, Paul said, his fruitfulness.
[00:10:45] 1 Corinthians 9-2, Paul had said to the Corinthians, you are the seal of my apostleship.
[00:10:52] The Spirit had enabled Paul to plant a church in a place where none had existed before.
[00:10:56] That was proof of the power of God on his life.
[00:10:59] Third, Paul says, signs and wonders.
[00:11:03] That's right there in verse 12 that we were looking at.
[00:11:05] He's talking about dramatic answers to prayer.
[00:11:08] He's talking about healings.
[00:11:09] He's talking about words of prophecy.
[00:11:10] These miraculous signs and wonders, he says, weren't performed through big, through big flashy displays of the flesh.
[00:11:17] They were performed through quiet, meek power in prayer.
[00:11:22] Notice, by the way, that Paul says these signs were performed among you.
[00:11:27] He uses, we learned in English class, the passive voice, showing that he wasn't the one doing it.
[00:11:33] Even though he was the one who did the signs wonders. He doesn't say, I perform the signs of a true apostle among you. He says these signs were performed among you. He's creating distance from them. Same thing he did last week when he
[00:11:47] was talking about the guy that he knew that had all these revelations. He's creating distance from it. At every point, Paul takes the focus off of himself. Let me be really personal with you for
[00:11:57] a minute, if I could. I've had to learn, Summit Church, at every point, there's only room up here on this platform for one person to get glory.
[00:12:09] And if it's going to be me, then you're not going to get Jesus.
[00:12:14] And here's the thing, lifting up J.D. Greer may feel good to me for a minute, but it won't help you at all.
[00:12:21] So I have this statement right here.
[00:12:22] I'll put a picture of it up here.
[00:12:24] So I have this statement etched here in front of our pulpit.
[00:12:26] I'm looking at it right now, right there.
[00:12:29] It's what I look at while I preach.
[00:12:30] I glance down at it.
[00:12:31] It's the statement that was made by some Gentile seekers in John 12 who came looking for Jesus.
[00:12:36] They found one of Jesus' disciples and said to him, sir, we wish to see Jesus.
[00:12:42] That statement reminds me every week up here that what you come to see here is not the wisdom or the rhetorical performance of some middle-aged man.
[00:12:52] You need to encounter Jesus himself.
[00:12:54] And if I put me on display up here and impress you with me, you're not gonna get him.
[00:12:59] There's only room for one of us up here to get glory and you really need it to be him.
[00:13:04] All my life, God has put this choice, I feel like, in front of me.
[00:13:07] In fact, you've been around this church.
[00:13:08] I've probably told you the story of how early in my pastoring here, I took a day of prayer and fasting.
[00:13:14] It wasn't the 21 days of prayer and fasting yet.
[00:13:15] It was only ready for one.
[00:13:16] Took one day of prayer and fasting.
[00:13:18] And I prayed on that day for God to send revival to our city, to the triangle.
[00:13:24] Y'all, I was asking God to send the kind of revival to our city that you would write about in history books a hundred years from now, that just changes the trajectory of a city, that the universities will be changed
[00:13:34] and everything about Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and the surrounding areas would be changed, the kind of revival that they would write about in a hundred years from now and talk about how it changed everything.
[00:13:45] In the middle of this day of prayer and fasting, the Holy Spirit spoke to me in a voice.
[00:13:49] This doesn't happen to me a lot.
[00:13:51] It wasn't an audible voice.
[00:13:53] It was as clear as if it had been audible.
[00:13:56] But the Holy Spirit whispered to my heart in the middle of my prayer, okay, what if I say yes to that prayer and I send a revival to this community that totally changes everything.
[00:14:09] But the Summit Church does not grow by a single person as a result of it.
[00:14:13] In fact, it's your friend's church right down the road.
[00:14:17] That church that you would check their attendance every week to see how theirs compares to yours.
[00:14:20] What if theirs is the one that experiences all the growth?
[00:14:23] They're the ones that get credited for the revival.
[00:14:25] And 100 years from now, when they write the book, you don't even make it in the footnotes.
[00:14:28] All the credit, humanly speaking, goes to somebody else.
[00:14:31] You still want me to do it?
[00:14:33] Now, y'all, I know the right answer to that.
[00:14:35] Oh, yes, Lord, you must increase and I must decrease.
[00:14:37] I know the right answer.
[00:14:39] That may have been the right answer, but it would not have been the real answer.
[00:14:43] I knew that really, what I really wanted was for God to do something amazing so that it would also bring glory to me.
[00:14:50] Somehow in all my discussion about thy kingdom come, what I really meant was my kingdom come.
[00:14:56] And God said, you're going to have to choose.
[00:14:57] Is it going to be your glory?
[00:14:58] Is it going to be mine?
[00:14:59] Because we can't both stand on that stage.
[00:15:01] It's got to be one of the two of us.
[00:15:03] Maybe for you, you'll never be on a stage, but I know, I know you're also tempted to take pride in spiritual polish.
[00:15:09] To measure your worth by how much theology you know or your reputation for wisdom or how many people look to you as a mentor or how much money you give to the church, those fleshly bows compete
[00:15:18] with, not promote, they compete with the power of God in your life. Christ only fills empty hands.
[00:15:24] The paradox of the Christian life is that those who think they are something are actually nothing.
[00:15:29] Those who know they are nothing get filled up by the great everything. Fundamental number one is that those who focus on spiritual polish will never experience true spiritual power. Number two, number two, true love, Paul tells us, gives not exploits. This is verses 13 through 18 in chapter
[00:15:46] 12. In contrast to the super extra awesomely amazing mega apostles, Paul says, I never sought to use you to build up my own career. I didn't even charge you money for all my services.
[00:15:58] Literally, he says, verse 14, I sought not what was yours. I didn't seek what was in your pocketbooks.
[00:16:04] I sought you. In verses 13 to 18 of chapter 12, Paul lists out several ways that he's demonstrated this kind of selfless love to them. First, he says in verse 14, if you're looking at it there
[00:16:16] in your Bible, he says, I've always been willing to go the extra mile for you, literally the extra mile. He offers to make a third trip to come and see them, even though it's super inconvenient for
[00:16:25] him, just so he can be reconciled to them. He's not the one that wronged them, and yet he is willing to go the extra mile to be reconciled to them. I got a friend, his pastor named Eric
[00:16:34] Mason up in Philadelphia tells a story about having conflict with a friend. And so Eric suggested that they get remediation, but the other guy wouldn't pay for the plane ticket to go to the remediation.
[00:16:46] So Eric said, I paid out of my own pocket several hundred dollars just so when a grieved friend could come and cuss me out. That's basically what Paul does here. Second, verse 16, Paul says he's
[00:16:59] endured being misunderstood by them. Throughout 2 Corinthians, Paul refers to several things that he's done out of love that had just been turned around on him. For example, Paul's critics took his refusal to charge for his ministry as some kind of indication that Paul's ministry had no
[00:17:15] value. The whole, you get what you pay for kind of thing. Or when Paul refused to defend himself by attacking other leaders, the false teacher said, well, there's a reason he's silent, probably because he's guilty. And then they tried to accuse Paul of having something to hide. And
[00:17:29] that's why he wasn't replying. Listen, some of you need to hear this. If you're going to be truly committed to loving somebody, you're going to have to endure having your motives misunderstood and turned around on you sometimes. That doesn't mean you're doing something wrong. It happened to
[00:17:45] Jesus. Jesus healed a demon-possessed man, and they accused him of being in league with demons.
[00:17:51] He befriended sinners with God's love, and his critics used that to say that Jesus was really soft on sin. Jesus shared meals with sinners, and his critics accused him of being a glutton who liked to party more than he liked to pray. In his final message to his disciples in the upper room,
[00:18:06] Jesus made clear, if you're going to follow a misunderstood savior, that means embracing misunderstood service. It's just part of the package. Then in the second half of verse 14, Paul uses an analogy that most of us can relate to. Basically, he said, I'm like a parent to you
[00:18:24] in that regard. If you're a parent, in fact, all the parents in the room raise their hand for a minute, okay? All right. If you're a parent, you learn very quickly that your selfless love is not
[00:18:35] always understood or appreciated. Am I right? Your wisdom is not appreciated. Look, I don't know what image you have of Greer family devotions. I suppose you think growing up, my kids all had little dad wisdom notebooks that they kept close by. At the end of our family meal, they would
[00:18:51] pull them out and say, feed us from the word now, father. And they would hang on every word I said and write it all down. But I assure you that was not the case. I'd be like, hey, let's take a few
[00:19:01] minutes and read a Bible story. And they'd be like, oh, how long is this going to take? In fact, I ended up having to march it with dessert. It was called Devo and Dessert because I knew that
[00:19:11] if I put the sweet with one, they would at least, you know, have something while I was talking.
[00:19:15] And then while I'm talking, the kids are looking off in other directions. One of them makes a rude bodily noise and totally kills the moment. Or sometimes now I'm trying to give them counsel on some issue and they're like, oh, dad, why do you need to feel the need to comment on everything
[00:19:31] in my life and sometimes my flesh is like kids i'm not trying to brag but when i go speak at a college ministry the most popular thing i do is the open mic q a time college students will line
[00:19:42] up at microphones to ask questions and we always have more questions than we do time and when we're done i've usually got a line of students who want to ask individual questions and i usually have to
[00:19:50] cut it off at some point and go home to you and here i am sitting with just you trying to speak individual wisdom into your lives and all you can think about is when will it be over? Just part of
[00:20:07] the package, right parents? But you just accept it because you didn't get into parenting for the appreciation or the praise. Love means pursuing them when they appreciate it and when they don't, when they understand you and when they're annoyed by you. In fact, an older parent who was giving
[00:20:22] some counsel to Veronica, my wife and me, told me that the teenage years are like that scene in Apollo 13. Remember that movie Apollo 13? That's the movie where Tom Hanks plays, you know, one of
[00:20:34] the astronauts, the failed mission, the second mission to the moon that failed. Trying to get back into the earth, the ship was really badly damaged and they weren't sure if it was going to be able to make it back through the atmosphere or if it would burn up upon re-entry. The worst part
[00:20:47] was that they knew they would lose all radio contact with the capsule during re-entry, which meant they wouldn't know if it had burned up or if it had made it. All they could do was stare for
[00:20:57] four to five painful minutes at that spot in the sky that the capsule was supposed to emerge from.
[00:21:05] My friend looked at me and said, those are the teenage years. You basically lose all radio contact and you just stare at the place they're supposed to come out and hope that they make it.
[00:21:15] You know, all you can say is they went in at the right angle. The important thing he said is that you're there at the beginning and you're there at the end and you don't go anywhere in the middle.
[00:21:24] See, that's what true love is. You can have thick skin and a tender heart instead of vice versa.
[00:21:30] You're in it not for what you get out of it, but because you love and you're committed to the people you're called to.
[00:21:35] Listen, I can make a very few things more needed, listen, in our church or in a church like ours.
[00:21:40] So many relationships in churches like this end up being transactional or consumer-based.
[00:21:47] People come to church with a set of religious services they're looking for.
[00:21:50] I want an inspirational talk each week.
[00:21:52] It needs to be entertaining, not too long.
[00:21:55] Worship needs to be just right.
[00:21:57] All my favorite songs played at just the right volume.
[00:22:00] My small group needs to be drama-free and filled with cool people.
[00:22:04] Drama-free, and what I mean by drama-free is that I'm the only one who is allowed to have problems.
[00:22:10] And everybody in the small group needs to be attentive to those problems and devoted to helping me.
[00:22:15] A little soapbox warning, okay?
[00:22:18] I'm warning you.
[00:22:19] I get complaints sometimes from people at our church who say that it's hard to get plugged in here.
[00:22:23] And I get it.
[00:22:25] Sometimes that is on us.
[00:22:26] We have so many people trying to get into small groups that sometimes it's hard for us to keep up.
[00:22:30] and we are working, working really hard on that. I promise. But sometimes, sometimes, and here's the soapbox. Sometimes when I talk to people who don't feel connected and I'll ask them what they're doing to serve, they almost always say they aren't.
[00:22:46] Or somebody will say, well, I went through a hard time last year and nobody from the church called me. I'm like, were you involved enough in people's lives that they would know to call you? And how
[00:22:56] many other people in the church who were going through a hard time last year did you call?
[00:23:00] You think you were the only one in this church who went through problems?
[00:23:04] There's an important principle in Proverbs that almost always rings true.
[00:23:08] It says, whoever refreshes others will himself be refreshed.
[00:23:11] Can I tell you who almost never has a problem getting connected here in the church?
[00:23:15] It's people who show up to church early and don't go home when it's over or won't rush home when it's over, who volunteer, who just show up to serve, people who, if the first small group they work out,
[00:23:25] tried, doesn't work out, then they try another one.
[00:23:27] And if that one doesn't work out, they just start their own.
[00:23:30] People who look for needs around them and start investing in people's lives.
[00:23:33] Those who approach the church from a transactional consumer standpoint, they will almost always be disappointed.
[00:23:40] But the ones who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.
[00:23:42] Again, that doesn't mean we don't have work to do on our end, making it easy for you.
[00:23:46] And we are devoted to that.
[00:23:47] I'm just saying this is the other side of that.
[00:23:50] Fundamental number two is true love gives, not exploits.
[00:23:53] One was spiritual power, spiritual power.
[00:23:56] True love gives, not exploits.
[00:23:56] Number three, Paul says, examine yourselves.
[00:24:00] Examine yourselves.
[00:24:01] This is chapter 13, verses five and six.
[00:24:04] Okay, this is a heavy one.
[00:24:07] After Paul clears away the illusion of polish and glitz, he turns the spotlight where it actually belongs, not on him, but on them.

[00:24:18] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:24:18] Verse five, examine yourselves to see whether you are really in the faith.
[00:24:23] Test yourselves.
[00:24:25] You not realize it's about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you?
[00:24:29] Unless indeed you fail to meet the test.
[00:24:31] Paul just says to them straight up, hey, you need to ask.
[00:24:35] Is your faith really real?
[00:24:39] This is a sobering question.
[00:24:41] It's maybe one of the most important questions you'll ever ask yourself.
[00:24:45] Is it possible that despite all your religious activity, you've never actually truly been converted?
[00:24:54] Now, let me take a little bit of pressure off of you.
[00:24:56] This is not supposed to throw you

[00:24:58] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:24:58] into tailspins of despair.
[00:25:00] What if I'm not really saved?
[00:25:01] What if I didn't pray the prayer right?
[00:25:02] Or what if I'm sorry enough for my sins?
[00:25:04] And what if it never really took in me?
[00:25:06] I'm not nearly as spiritual as that person.
[00:25:07] Does that mean I'm not really saved?
[00:25:08] But no, Paul has a very specific audience in mind when he asks this question.
[00:25:11] Actually, two audiences.
[00:25:13] First, he is thinking about the willfully repentant, unrepentant, excuse me, the willfully unrepentant.
[00:25:20] In verse 21 of chapter 12, Paul says that some of the people in the Corinthian church, and I quote, have not repented of the impurity, the sexual immorality and sensuality that they have practiced.
[00:25:32] In other words, they knew these things were wrong.
[00:25:35] They knew it was against God's will and they just kept doing it anyway.
[00:25:39] They just didn't want to give up that part of their lives to Jesus.
[00:25:42] Paul says, it is inconceivable that you would call Jesus Lord and think yourself reconciled to him while willfully and intentionally practicing those things that put Jesus on the cross.
[00:25:56] Jesus himself said the same thing.
[00:25:58] In Luke 6, 46, he asked a group of would-be followers, why would you call me Lord and not do the things that I say?
[00:26:07] that just makes no sense it's a contradiction in terms what do you think lord means lordship means surrender to call jesus lord and not surrender to him is to make a mockery of the word that's the
[00:26:21] first group paul has in mind the second group paul is thinking about here is the unchanging the unchanging look at verse 5 again do you not realize this about yourselves that jesus christ is in you unless indeed you fail to meet that test in other words he's asking do you show evidence
[00:26:37] of Christ being in you.
[00:26:41] How is it possible, he says, that Jesus Christ would literally live inside you and you wouldn't show signs of change?
[00:26:52] I had a friend whose 10-year-old daughter accepted Christ and she did it by asking Jesus to come into her heart.
[00:26:58] And then she talked to the kid's director about being baptized.
[00:27:01] And she was super excited about baptism until about a week before her baptism, she came to her dad, he told me, with a really troubled look on her face.
[00:27:09] And she said, daddy, I'm so confused.
[00:27:12] You said that when I accepted Jesus, he came to live in my heart.
[00:27:16] Her dad said, well, yes, sweetheart, that's right.
[00:27:18] She said, but daddy, how tall was Jesus?
[00:27:23] Her dad was like, well, he's a grown man, probably about the same size as me.
[00:27:26] She said, well, dad, if Jesus is as tall as you and he came to live inside my heart, shouldn't he just kind of stick out everywhere?
[00:27:34] Her dad said, well, yeah, actually he should, but probably not in the ways you're thinking.
[00:27:39] You start to show evidence of supernatural change in your heart. That's how he sticks out of you. You start to develop a dislike of sin like he dislikes sin. Sin or a disrespect of God and his laws, that starts to bother you. You don't just
[00:27:53] like obey because it's the right thing to do. You forsake sin because you find it. I don't want that.
[00:28:01] You start wanting to be close to God. And if those things aren't present, Paul asks, you need to ask yourself, is Christ really in you? Because if he is, he'll just stick out everywhere. Now, be
[00:28:11] encouraged. Paul gives a wide berth for people who struggle in the Christian life. Can you prove it? Go back to verse 20 of chapter 12, just right before this chapter. Look at it. Paul gives a long
[00:28:25] list of things that, look at this. Here's the way he described the Corinthian believers.
[00:28:32] You people, he says, there's all kinds of quarreling and jealousy and anger and hostility and slander and gossip and conceit and disorder. I mean, that does not sound like a spirit-filled revival-experiencing, church-going Christian, does it?
[00:28:44] Feels more like an episode of the Kardashians or the real housewives of Corinth, right?
[00:28:50] What's encouraging to me is that Paul didn't say that struggling with these things proves that Jesus isn't really inside you.
[00:28:56] Paul recognizes that these things are present in their flesh, just like they're present in his flesh and just like they're present in mine and yours and that we are going to struggle with them as long as we are in the flesh.
[00:29:06] The question, he says, is have you truly repented of them?
[00:29:11] Have you turned from them and started looking to Jesus to change you?
[00:29:14] That's why we often say around here, we say it this way, it's not sinless perfection that we're looking for, but a new direction.
[00:29:21] Not sinless perfection, but a new direction.
[00:29:24] That's the mark of salvation.
[00:29:26] Now, before we move on, I need to ask you, sitting here in front of me, at one of our campuses, or at home on your couch, whatever, examine yourselves.
[00:29:38] You need to ask whether you are really in the faith.
[00:29:40] You need to test yourselves.
[00:29:44] Listen, I'll just say it.
[00:29:46] It's never worked for me to try to say things in a subtle, beat around the bush way, so I'll just say it straight.
[00:29:51] If you're sitting here this weekend in open, unrepentant sin, you're in an immoral relationship, you're living with a boyfriend or girlfriend, you're dating somebody you know you shouldn't be dating, you're doing shady things with money,
[00:30:01] you're hiding things on your tax return, you're cheating at your schoolwork, you're nursing some willful secret sin.
[00:30:07] I don't mean struggling with some sin, but I mean willfully continuing to practice it Friend, do not deceive yourself. Jesus certainly is not deceived. He says, Matthew 7, on the last day, many will say to him, many church-going people will say, Lord, I was a church-going person.
[00:30:24] I wasn't an atheist. I was on your team. And he'll say, depart from me. You who worked lawlessness, you who intentionally practiced lawlessness, I don't care what you called me. I never knew you.
[00:30:36] I would invite you to truly repent today. He is ready to receive you, but you have to repent.
[00:30:44] with sincerity. Number four, fourth fundamental. He says, you got to do the hard work of accountability. Do the hard work of accountability. This is chapter 13, verses nine to 11. Number four here is really quick. Paul encourages them, be willing to do the hard work of accountability
[00:31:01] with each other that I'm doing with you. In verse nine of chapter 13, he says, your restoration is what we prayed for. For this reason, I wrote these things to you. He was trying to confront you and
[00:31:12] restore you. Paul did the uncomfortable thing of entering into their mess with them and confronting them in their mess. In verse 11, he says to them, finally, brothers, aim for restoration with each other. In other words, he's saying, now do with each other what I've done with you. I came for
[00:31:27] your restoration. Now you guys do that with each other. One of the greatest demonstrations of love is a willingness to confront somebody who is in sin or somebody making foolish choices that are going to harm them and holding them accountable. I say it's one of the greatest demonstrations of
[00:31:42] love because for most of us, it is way easier just to ignore somebody, even a friend, and isolate them rather than going through the discomfort of confrontation. We tell ourselves we're giving space. We're respecting boundaries. When in reality, we just don't want the discomfort that
[00:32:00] confrontation brings. It's easier to avoid. It's easier to stay silent. It's easier to let someone and drift, it's easier just to let them.
[00:32:10] I get respect and boundaries.
[00:32:12] I get not taking responsibility for other people's choices, but Paul shows us true love doesn't step back when things get messy.
[00:32:19] It steps in for the sake of restoration.
[00:32:23] Now, let me acknowledge there are different personalities in this room.
[00:32:27] There are different personalities sitting on the couch right now listening to this.
[00:32:30] Some of you love to confront.
[00:32:33] Pointing out others' faults gives you a great deal of delight.
[00:32:35] You're an Enneagram eight like me, And your spouse is like, for the love pastor, the last thing my spouse needs is more encouragement to confront.
[00:32:43] Fair enough.
[00:32:44] There's two ways we can go wrong with this.
[00:32:46] And Paul points to both of them in this passage.
[00:32:49] Take a note, write this down.
[00:32:50] Sometimes we fail to confront because of the discomfort it brings.
[00:32:54] Sometimes we over confront out of an irritation or a desire for vindication.
[00:32:59] In other words, your real aim in confrontation is not helping them grow, or you're not trying to restore them.
[00:33:04] You're just trying to give vent to your frustration or demonstrate that you are in the right, that is to vindicate yourself.
[00:33:11] You demonstrate this by your lack of patience, your lack of tenderness that you show to the person you're confronting.
[00:33:16] If your real goal is restoration, you're much more patient and you're much more graceful.
[00:33:21] Both of these postures right here, both of them are selfish.
[00:33:25] Love is willing to confront when you see somebody hurting themselves.
[00:33:29] But the confrontation is always done with humility because you recognize that you too get a lot of stuff wrong, which makes you patient.
[00:33:36] And your goal is restoration, which makes you gracious.
[00:33:40] Quick question, okay?
[00:33:41] Which side of this, which side of this are you more liable to struggle with?
[00:33:46] How many of you would be in this category?
[00:33:48] This is kind of where you fall apart right there.
[00:33:50] You fail to confront, okay?
[00:33:51] How many of you are like, no, I'm more on this one right here, okay?
[00:33:54] Yeah, that's where my hand is.
[00:33:56] My guess is more of you though struggle here than here.
[00:34:00] St. Augustine said 1700 years ago, 1600 years ago, St. Augustine said, better it is to love even with the accompaniment of severity than to mislead by excess of lenience.
[00:34:13] Confront even if it's awkward because this is love, but you got to do so aiming at restoration because it's not about winning an argument, it's about restoring a person.
[00:34:24] I told you this one was quick, so let me give you one practical challenge on this one, and then I'll move to our very last one.
[00:34:29] Here it is.
[00:34:30] I want you to take one significant relationship in your life this week, just one relationship, and I want you to ask yourself, okay?
[00:34:37] I want you to picture this.
[00:34:38] If I fast forward in my head 20 years, what is one thing in 20 years I'll probably look back on and wish I'd said to that person?
[00:34:48] I look back on high school, a little bit more than 20 years ago, but I look back on high school and I'm like, why didn't I say this to them?
[00:34:56] Then I want you to ask God, help you say that to them this week, okay?
[00:34:59] This week, will you do that?
[00:35:01] That's my challenge for you, okay?
[00:35:02] Last one, last one, last fundamental Paul says, go forward with.
[00:35:08] This is gonna be the last couple of verses chapter 13, verses 11 and 14. Finally, brothers, he says, rejoice. Aim for restoration. Comfort one another. Agree with one another. Live in peace. And if you do that, the God of love and
[00:35:24] peace will be with you. Paul ends his letter like Eisenhower did his orders on D-Day, telling them

[00:35:32] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:35:32] they're not supposed to do this alone. Two things that you should go forward with in the Christian

[00:35:40] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:35:40] life. Each other, God himself. And those two things, listen to me, make the Christian life profoundly worth it. Without those two things, I'm telling you, Christianity is a terrible hobby.
[00:35:54] You got to get up on Sunday morning and fight your way through traffic and come to church and sit and listen to somebody yell at you and hear music that's too loud and then fight your way
[00:36:01] to traffic. It's just a terrible hobby. The only thing that makes it worth it is with each other and with God. They turn the struggle into delight. Let me hit both those real quick. First, each
[00:36:10] other, each other. Paul says, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace with one another, be together. I learned this a few years ago from my trainer at the gym. When I heard of
[00:36:25] cows, senses a storm coming, they run from it, scattering as they go. Pack of cows, here comes a storm, they run away from it, scattering. Of course, the storm always catches up with the cows
[00:36:37] and when it does, right, it's utter destruction.
[00:36:41] All right, sorry, that was totally free.
[00:36:43] Okay, but it's especially hard on the cows because they're out in the cold alone now.
[00:36:49] Buffalo, by contrast, instinctively do the opposite.
[00:36:54] When buffalo sense a storm is coming, they huddle together and walk into the storm.
[00:37:00] They don't go away, they go in and they go together.
[00:37:02] I'm sure their cow cousins think they're crazy, but that gives the buffalo three advantages.
[00:37:08] First, they get extra support from being huddled together.
[00:37:11] Second, their fur is thicker on their front sides than on their backsides.
[00:37:16] It's fascinating.
[00:37:17] It's thicker here than there, which gives them extra protection for warmth.
[00:37:21] And third, it literally shortens the storm for them since they're walking through it.
[00:37:26] Now, like I said, it was my trainer at the gym who used that analogy.
[00:37:28] And to be honest, I wasn't sure how that illustration was supposed to inspire me to do more burpees.
[00:37:33] But I do know that it illustrates well what Paul is trying to say here in verse 11.
[00:37:39] You will winter this storm of a world better if you do it together.
[00:37:44] So my challenge to you is to get connected here if you're not.
[00:37:47] Take advantage of one of those group links that we talk about to get involved in one of our small groups here.
[00:37:51] Join a volunteer team.
[00:37:53] Men, come to our men's conference coming up in March.
[00:37:57] Literally, the theme is don't walk alone.
[00:37:59] Students, join up with our student ministry.
[00:38:01] Don't just come on Sunday morning.
[00:38:03] Come on Sunday night to small groups or to midweek.
[00:38:06] College students, okay?
[00:38:07] Hey, college students do City Project this summer.
[00:38:11] It'll really help you make deep connections that will help you thrive spiritually throughout the year.
[00:38:16] Talk to your campus pastor today, or when you see him again, hit up somebody in the chat right now, they can connect you with any of those things.
[00:38:25] Paul says, do it with each other, but more importantly, do it with God.
[00:38:30] Verse 11, again, the God of love and peace will be with you.
[00:38:34] In verse 14, he makes the whole with God aspect even fuller.
[00:38:37] I love this, verse 14.
[00:38:39] Look at the last verse in 2 Corinthians.
[00:38:41] The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
[00:38:45] Paul got the whole Trinity involved in helping you live the Christian life.
[00:38:49] Grace, that's associated with Jesus.
[00:38:52] You see, through Jesus' death on the cross, Jesus removed anything and everything that could separate you from God.
[00:38:57] All the punishment for your sin has been taken away through his cross.
[00:39:00] There is therefore now no condemnation, no punishment, no anger left for those who are in Christ Jesus.
[00:39:05] That means God feels nothing towards you right now but positive, fatherly, lovely, loving emotions.
[00:39:10] He is ready to help, and he's got nothing but good intended for you.
[00:39:14] That's grace.
[00:39:15] And the love of God.
[00:39:18] That's associated with the Father.
[00:39:20] It's easy to forget that the grace Jesus purchased for us was birthed out of the love in the Father's heart.
[00:39:26] Jesus's death was not some clinical theological transaction God pulled off.
[00:39:30] It wasn't Jesus trying to, you know, make God the Father like you again.
[00:39:35] No, it was a deeply emotional rescue prompted by the father, the price paid by a weeping, brokenhearted father who just wanted so badly to bring you home.
[00:39:46] And it's a love, Paul says, it doesn't stop with your salvation.
[00:39:49] That same love now pervades every part of your lives.
[00:39:51] It's like King David said, surely goodness and mercy will follow me, literally haunt me all the days of my life.
[00:39:59] And then finally, fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
[00:40:02] That's the Holy Spirit's part.
[00:40:03] The Spirit brings the presence of God into us.
[00:40:06] Hear me, the Christian life is not something you live for God.
[00:40:09] You don't have what it takes.
[00:40:11] It's something that his spirit lives out through you.
[00:40:15] So don't be discouraged, okay?
[00:40:16] I feel it with you.
[00:40:18] You may think the Christian life feels impossible and it is for you, but it's not when you have God himself living through you.
[00:40:26] I always say the Christian life is so hard that only one person in history was able to live it.
[00:40:31] He was so good at it, they named it after him.
[00:40:34] And now that victorious one lives in you.
[00:40:36] so just let him stick out everywhere yield yourself to him and let him take over y'all these are the last instructions paul gives the corinthians his final speech before d-day and like eisenhower's but not so much a rousing speech they're really just a practical basic
[00:40:54] instruction the fundamentals spiritual polish doesn't equal spiritual power true love gives not exploits examine yourselves as to whether you're really in the faith do the hard work of accountability and go forward with. And all God's people said, amen and hallelujah. Let's bow our
[00:41:12] heads. Let's just spend a moment in direct communion with the Holy Spirit. Can we? Keep your heads bowed. What's the Holy Spirit compelling you to do? I often say this, he's the real preacher, not me. What's he telling you to do? Any of those that I just went through that you need to act on,
[00:41:34] what action do you need to take? Let me leave you just a few moments here, whatever he prompts you to do whatever he prompts you to do i'm gonna say yes lord i'll do that
[00:41:46] i'll do that father we listen for the holy spirit and we go forward with thank you that the god who inspired second corinthians and didn't give up on them they didn't give up on the summit church
[00:42:14] either it's not giving up on any of us that are listening may the grace of jesus may the love of god the father and may the fellowship of the holy spirit be with us all we plead for that in jesus
[00:42:28] name. In Jesus name. Amen. We're going to sing a great Trinitarian song and celebrate the Father,

[00:42:35] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:42:35] Son, and Holy Spirit who are with us to help us do this. Okay.