Next week we will jump into a mini Advent series. We're not quite there yet. Some of you are like, man, can't we just start talking about Christmas on Sunday mornings? We're getting there, we're getting close. And then we'll have a rhythm series after that to usher us into the new year. Meaning that this week, this is our last week in Second Corinthians for the semester. Which, man, I hope that's like, maybe you're excited about getting to the Christmas messages, but hopefully there's a little bit of. Oh, man. Because Corinthians 2 Corinthians has been an incredible study. I've been so encouraged in it, and I hope that you guys have as well, especially as we've been in chapter five for five weeks. Just some reminders of what we've dug into. The reality that God accepts us and loves us because of what Jesus has done, not because of what we do. The reality that we, because of Jesus, can be new creations that can become a part of a new kingdom with a new identity as ambassadors of Christ and with that new identity as an ambassador of Christ. We have this purpose and we have this ministry of reconciliation that God has given us. And these are beautiful, incredible truths that we've dug into. But alongside these sweet realities, we've also recognized in the life of Paul and as if we've connected in it, is that there's suffering involved in the Christian life as well. It's not all roses and gumdrops. And while life is just difficult in general, following Jesus makes it meaningful, but doesn't mean it's easy. Makes me think of an epiphany that I had a couple summers ago when I went on a trip to Colorado with some friends. This was year two of our Colorado hiking trip to the same mountain. Because year one was a total failure. I'm just going to be honest with you. We were very ill prepared and ill equipped to go hike up this fourteener called Challenger Point, which a friend of mine picked because it's supposed to be the hardest mountain that you can climb without needing tactical climbing experience. So it was definitely like there was some pride involved in us choosing this trip. But that first trip we were overpacked, underprepared, and this second year, we were ready to go. We were going to succeed in doing this trip, doing this hike. And so we got off to the right, right foot because we were prepared. We knew the distance of the trail, we were way more physically prepared, and we were packed much less weight. And so day one, guys we crushed it. Okay. We made it to the base camp that we failed to get to the first year. We felt great. It was beautiful. We got to see this amazing mountain lake up in the mountains. It was amazing. Day two, totally different story. Totally different story. Because that was actually when the mountain climbing came into effect. And without going and belaboring the point, I can think of very few instances in my life when I've been more scared. We were had exposed rock that we were not expecting, loose rock. We got lost. We had snow crossings. It was not what we thought we were going to have at all. And I remember thinking to myself at one point, this was when Michaela was pregnant with Solomon. I have to get home to see my son. Like, I have to make it home. Like, I just. This is not good. This was not right what was going on here. The reality was that we were under equipped and the only reason that we were able to make it up and down that mountain was because we had a snow crossing. And these two former Marines were able to lead us across the snow crossing so that we wouldn't like literally slide down the mountain to our. You get the picture. It wasn't good. But this epiphany came to me on day three. This epiphany that this hike that we had just gone on with, marked by intensity and danger, is really a true and clear expression of the Christian life. That the Christian life is anything but easy. And it is hard. There are dangerous things along the way. It requires sacrifice. It is not comfortable. Yet we can often treat the Christian life like it's a cakewalk. Like if we just show up, we're going to get in line, we're going to walk around the circle, wait for our number to be called and we'll get a prize. And that's just not how it works. We can go about our days just like man. We can just live like everybody else and still have joy in following Jesus. But life just doesn't work that way, does it? The opposite is true. We can see all the ways in our circumstances in life. Now if you were just to take a moment to think about the problems you see in your life, we see that those get in the way of our joy in Jesus. Whether it's our culture, our responsibilities, our health, the economy, maybe even many of our relationships. They're restricting us living for Jesus. And so we can see these circumstances in our lives as obstacles in our way for truly living for Jesus and experiencing his joy. So Jesus told us that he came to give us eternal life, Life to the full, abundant life to the full. He gave us his command so that we could have joy in him. So how do we do it? Like, how do we live this Christian life, endure it with joy? And as we open up to 2 Corinthians 6 together this morning, we will see that the Corinthians, they've been struggling to follow Jesus. They've been struggling to follow Jesus. They've been restricted. And they point to Paul as the problem. Paul, his teaching, his ministry, he's the one getting in their way. And Paul agrees. Hey, there's a problem going on here, Corinthians, but it's not me. It's not my ministry. And when he reveals their true problem, what's actually going on in their world, that's getting in the way of their Christian endurance. It will reveal to us what gets in the way of ours and how we can endure in the Christian life with joy. So first, we're going to look at and understand what was truly the Corinthians problem and how that maps on to our life. We're going to look at the beginning in the text, end of our passage this morning to see that, and then we'll dig in more to see the two sources for how Paul endures with joy. So read 2nd Corinthians chapter 6, verses 1 through 3 with me this morning. Open your Bibles, open your apps. It'll be on the screens as well. But Second Corinthians 6, verses 1 through 3, working together with him, with God. Then we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he for God says, in a favorable time, I listen to you, and in a day of salvation, I have helped you. Behold, now is the favorable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. We put no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no faults may be found with our ministry. So right off the bat in the first verses, we see a fruit of the Corinthians problem is a lack of urgency in this call to be ambassadors for Christ. And this call that now is the time of salvation. Go and share. And before this, Paul has been unpacking this ministry of reconcil reconciliation that all Christians are called to. And he said he appealed to them, be reconciled to God. And so now Paul is saying, live reconciled to God. Okay? Understand the truth, receive the truth, and then live like it. Don't receive the grace of God in vain. This verse that he quotes here, whenever you see the quotes in a New Testament passage, it points to a reference of Old Testament Scripture and It's from Isaiah 48, where there's a prophecy of the Messiah, the servant of God, coming to ransom Israel and the world to salvation. And Paul's saying, now's the time. Jesus has come. Be ambassadors for Christ. And if you're not, you're proving that you receive the grace of God in vain. You say that you've received this truth of the good news of Jesus, this life changing truth of reconciliation, but then you're still just fitting right in with Corinth. You're still fitting right in with the rest of the world and how they live. You have a normal life and you're just hoping to add Jesus to it. The Corinthians were not walking the ambassador of Christ talk. And they were saying, the problem with that lies outside of us. It's Paul, it's his teaching. That's what's getting in our way. But Paul says, no, we've intentionally done our ministry to not put any obstacles in front of you so that no fault would be found in us. They've been above board, they've lived rightly, they are not the problem. So what? What is the problem? What is going on in the Corinthian church and how can that relate to what's going on in our relationships with Jesus? Jump with me now to the end of our passage. 11 through 13, Second Corinthians, chapter 6, verses 11 through 13. Paul says, we have spoken freely to you Corinthians. Our heart is wide open. We've been truthful, we've been honest. You've seen our life. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. In return, I speak as to children. He's having a fatherly conversation with them. Widen your hearts also. The problem for the Corinthians is their heart, their affections. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections, your endurance. Problem Corinthians is not outside of you, it's within you. It's not the external circumstances, it's at your core heart's desires. Well, at like a gut level you really want and live for. The source of the Corinthians problem was a heart of divided desires. A heart with divided desires. And that led them to listening to the wrong people. See, the Corinthians, they wanted the good life that Jesus had to offer and the old life too. And they found teachers, these really high profile, flashy, important, relevant teachers that said, hey, you can have that, you can have it both ways. And Paul, fearing for his spiritual kids, these Men and women that he has labored for and loved and cared for is pleading with them. Y'all come back. Come back home. Come back to what is true. Widen your hearts. Also receive me in my ministry as I have shown you my life. And when I see that wide in your hearts also. This is cheesy, but I can't help but think of the Grinch, right? Like, his heart was too small to see that, like, very surface level, flashy Christmas goodness of Whoville, but too small. He needed his heart to grow for the good things. And so Paul is calling the Corinthians to break away from the sin that restricts them, that is limiting their hearts. It's shrinking their hearts to accept his ministry and teaching again for their good because he's the right model to follow. Don't listen to these false teachers that are leading you this way based on your desires. Follow me, y'all. Following Jesus is hard enough when we are following him with the right people with the right guides. But when we neglect the wrong right models, when we pattern our lives based off the incorrect models, the people that are living different ways from the ways of Jesus, we will get lost in this mountain climb of a Christian life. We will get misdirected. So when it comes to living for Jesus, we need to ask ourselves, who am I following and why? Who am I following and why? The online influencer? Why did they capture your attention? Is it a hobby horse that you have along with Jesus? Like, what's going on there? That respectable person in community that just everyone wants to be like, why do you want to be like them too? The mom that has it all together, the business owner that has it made. Why are we looking at these lives and desiring for ourselves to pattern off them? The problem is, no matter what our sinful desires want, whatever our hearts want, we can find supposedly Christian leaders that will say we can have it. That will tell us, yeah, you can have it both ways. You can have what your just heart desires, even though it is deceitful above all else and Jesus, and that's a lie. That's not true. And Paul warns his protege Timothy about this in second Timothy, chapter four, verses three through four. That'll be on the screen, so read it with me. Second Timothy 4, verses 3 and 4. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching. They won't endure the truth, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off, get lost into myths See the Corinthians, sinful desires were the true problem with their living for Jesus, with joy, their endurance. They weren't restricted from joy because of the problems going on around them. It was what was in them that wasn't being met with, that wasn't being challenged, that wasn't being shifted by models that love Jesus. That was the issue. Their sinful motivations led them to the wrong models to follow and that gets in our way too. Our sinful motivations will lead us to the wrong models to follow. So we have to ask ourselves, who am I following and why am I following? Like what Paul said, am I following people that say, follow me as I follow Christ genuinely, sacrificially or not? Because Paul was the right model to follow. Let's see how he proves that in verses 4 and 5 in our text this morning he shows this to us, verses 4 and 5. But as servants of God, we commend ourselves in every way by great endurance. And just hear this list of what him and his co workers went through in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger. Paul and his team, they're servants of God that have proven through their ministry, through suffering, endurance. They've experienced these internal results of these external pressures of, and the external chaos of beatings, imprisonments and riots and the sacrifices of ministry, the long laboring leading to sleepless nights and the hunger pains that go. When you're on a traveling ministry and you're not in the modern world with fast food and coolers, right? Like can you imagine traveling without Culver's and Chick Fil A? Like that would be a bummer. It is difficult to imagine a person going through all nine types of these struggles and surviving, let alone thriving in a life for Jesus, enduring with joy. Those all seem like problems that just get in the way of joy that make it impossible to endure. But we see in verse four, great endurance was the marking of Paul's ministry. That's how they handled it. He is the right model to follow. But how does Paul endure? How does Paul endure? And how does that let us in on how we can endure? The first source of Paul's endurance is God's power. God's power. If you glance back with me at verse one and chapter six, the first words there are working together with him. Working together with him, which in the Greek the word there is the same word we get the word synergy from where you take two things and bring them together and you have a greater, more Impactful, better result on the other side. Now, don't get me wrong. God doesn't need us. He can do whatever he wants through any means. But we can all recognize we need God. We need the power of God. We need to synergize with the power of God to live for Jesus. I love this verse from Colossians 1:29 where Paul talks about the power of God. Here, check this out. Colossians 1:29. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. This is after verse 28 when he says him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we present everyone mature in Christ in this ministry, he's able to endure because of the power that God is powerfully working within Him. How amazing is that? And verses 6 and 7 in our text can reveal to us what that power fleshed out in life looks like, what the resources of God's power truly look like. Read verses 6 and 7. Paul says, by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, by truthful speech, and the power of God with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left. These are nine resources that Paul's been given to complete and to sustain him as he endures these nine trials he's expressed. And it would be a valuable study to dig in into each of those. But briefly, let's just look at a couple together, a couple of these resources of God's power. The first one we should consider from verse 6 is the holy Spirit. God within us. What a gift for us believers that God would gift us the same Spirit that He rose Jesus from the grave with. We can't overstate that we've been given the Spirit of God to reorient our hearts, to empower the denial of sin and the faithful obedience to God. And what is additionally just beautiful about the gift of the Spirit is that he is the vehicle through which God pours His love for us into us. That he tells us that we are known, that we are seen, that we are loved. And we see that in Romans 5:1, 5. Check that out later this week. But a beautiful way that we are reminded of the love of God as Christians is the Spirit pouring His love as God's children into us. Read Romans 8, 15, 17, how Paul tells us the Spirit reminds us who we are in God. Romans 8, 15, 17 says, for you did not receive the Spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. You're not stuck in the pressures of life, always having to measure up, always have to Work hard enough for your identity. No. You have received the spirit of adoption as sons. Sons and daughters of the High King, by whom we cry Abba. Father, the Spirit himself bears witness with our Spirit, that we are children of God. And if children, heirs, Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. Christian, you feel the burdens of life. You feel the pressures that make life hard and they leave you feeling weak and weary. Trust and know that God is powerful and he is with you. He is in the thick of it with you. He is your father. You are his child and he has gifted you his spirit to empower you with his energy, his power, and to remind you of who you are. The Spirit is God within us, to empower us. He reminds us that our identity is in God, not how we are performing when the circumstances are hard, not in the ways that we are succeeding in our responsibility possibilities. God has given us His Spirit. That's a resource of his power. Another resource of God's power is the truthful speech or in other translations, word of truth, meaning the Bible, God's Word. And this is our ultimate source of wisdom and equipping for the life of Christianity, the wisdom to endure any circumstance. And we get to see our place in the amazing redemptive story that God has for us in the Bible. God's Word is not something we are just supposed to read because we're Christians. Not just to check off the box to say that we're doing good enough. It is where we go to prepare for the challenges of the day and where we go when we do not know what to do with our suffering. See again in second Timothy what Paul tells Timothy about the Bible to encourage him in his study. Paul says all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete equipped for every good work. Christian, when you feel lost in how to follow Jesus through the challenges of life, look to God's Word. It is God's wisdom to prepare us. And lastly, let's consider two things together. The power of God with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left. Paul's saying all these resources that come from God, that empower him, make him fully equipped. Fully equipped. As if I'm. I have my hands full with what God has given me to sustain this life. He is battle ready. He doesn't wage war against flesh and blood. He does not fight the way the world fights. Paul does not labor in his own strength, believing it is up to him for his ministry to succeed. But he relies solely on the power of God. It's by the power of God. Christian. When you feel ill equipped and unable to handle the tasks and responsibilities for the day, rely on your sovereign, all powerful God because He's able to do far more abundantly than we could ever ask or think. His spirit is within you to empower you as his child. His word is available to you to prepare you. His power is what you need. This is what resourced Paul and his great endurance. And this is what we need as well. When we were on the mountain, we were ill prepared for the hike and that became painfully obvious. Especially when we needed people that were prepared to help us along the way. We can't make that mistake in the Christian life. We have to be intentional to pursue the power of God to be equipped for the life God has given us. We must rely on God's power for our endurance. We need his energy to work powerfully within us. The reality is we can have all these resources and still not endure with joy though. So the way. What is the way to endure with joy? God's perspective. We need God's power and we need God's perspective. Read verses 8 through 10 with me the rest of our text this morning. Paul then goes back and forth with these contrasts with him and his ministry partners are experiencing. In ministry, he says, through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise, we are treated as imposters and yet are true, as unknown and yet well known as dying. And behold, we live as punished and yet not killed. As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. As poor, yet making many rich. As having nothing, yet possessing everything. In verse 10 we see these examples of suffering that are being contrasted with their polar opposites. Sorrow, yet always rejoicing. Poor, yet making many rich. Having nothing, yet possessing everything. What is going on here? Paul and his team were simultaneously experiencing sorrow, financial duress, lack of material resources, and at the same time joy, generosity and this contentment that just flowed out of them. Unpacking these things will show us God's perspective that he gave Paul to endure his and help him endure with joy. Paul was able to both be sorrowful, sorrowful and always rejoicing because of Jesus, his older brother. Jesus went ahead of him and suffered before him. He lived a life of high demand ministry where people were constantly knocking on his door, healing people into the night. He suffered relational loss, he he suffered the slander, the dishonor all these different things ahead of Paul, before Paul, and ultimately to be the first to rise from the grave and bring Paul to him. Jesus had endured sorrow and redeemed it, had made use of it, had made it good. And so anyone who's experiencing sorrow this morning, we can know that Jesus went ahead of you. He experienced the high demands of life before you. And he redeemed it. He redeemed it. Jesus will redeem our sorrow and that gives us joy to endure. And Paul was also able to both be poor and yet making many rich, seemingly having nothing but content because he had everything. How like that just doesn't line up. That doesn't make sense. And it's because of Jesus. Paul unpacks this later in 2 Corinthians 8, verse 9. Read that with me. This is beautiful truth this morning. Church. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became poor so that you by his poverty might become rich. Jesus left the riches of heaven to be born of a virgin, this sweet reality of the incarnation that we celebrate each Christmas season, to then grow up in a poor family, to experience the life of a poor person in ministry, to suffer with intermittent sleep and wondering where food would come next. And eventually was stripped of everything he had on earth when he endured a brutal death on a cross. Jesus traded the wealth of glory for the poverty of death. All so that we could be rich. All so that we could be rich with eternal life, so that he could rise from the grave victoriously three days later to give us that eternal life to proclaim the glory of God to us through his resurrection. Which reminds me, this poor being made poor, making many rich reminds me of what we talked about just last week. The reality that he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God. This good news of the gospel. And Paul was able to make many rich by sharing this good news, secure in the reality that he possessed everything because he had Jesus. He had everything he needed in Jesus. And so then his poverty, his suffering, these obstacles that were in his way were actually liberating pathways for him to see what was true, see what joy actually endured in life. Not the stuff of this world, but the stuff from Jesus. If there's any here experiencing financial strain this morning. Maybe you would use the word poorer, maybe you wouldn't. Financially restricted, unable to do everything we would want to. Caught up in the if I just had a little bit more, then I'd be content. Then I'd be generous. Paul is revealing to us Christians that we are rich, that we have everything that we need, and that we can make anyone rich with the good news of the gospel. That he came to live the life we couldn't live, died the death that we deserve to die so that we could have life in him. Because now is the day of salvation. Now is the day for people to know Jesus. And we can proclaim that with joy because Jesus has given us everything we need. Everything we need. Now, I told you guys that we made it to the top of the mountain and then we made it down. I didn't tell you guys about the amazing view that we had at the top of the mountain. It was incredible. It was beautiful. We were able to call our friends and family and show them the view and conveniently leave out all the dangerous stuff that happened on the way up. We told them when we got down, but that hike was awesome. It was brutal, but the view was worth it only because nobody got hurt. How much more is the suffering we endure, that we endure in life worth it because of the joy we have in Jesus? How much more is it worth it because we can see and know that Jesus redeems our sorrow for our glory, for his glory, my bad, for his glory, our good, and for others good that we can make many rich through the good news of the gospel. With God's perspective, it shifts how we see suffering. It is no longer something that restricts our joy, but is something that actually makes more joy possible in Jesus because Jesus redeems it. It doesn't restrict our joy. It is something that Jesus redeems to increase our joy. Church, family. The Christian life is hard. Living for Jesus joyfully through suffering is only possible by God's power and God's perspective. You can say it like this. Joyful endurance is sustained by God's power and God's perspective. Joyful endurance is sustained by God's power and God's perspective. And to pursue this joyful endurance, we must check our affections. We must check where we are looking for our power for the day, and we must check our perspective. So consider checking your affections, your motivations in life and how that leads you to follow certain models in life. Who are you following and why? We need to follow the right people, the people that say, follow me as I follow Christ. And a quick tip on how to do this well is to make friends who suffer for Jesus well, make friends with people who suffer for Jesus well, that they love Jesus, they pursue him, they seek to tell Others about Him. They've experienced trials along the way and their joy has increased through that. So make friends with people who suffer for Jesus. Well, then we need to check our power source. We can do this every morning. Are you waking up in the morning feeling like, I have a lot to do today, I need to get after it and get it done. I need to just go on with my day and take control? Or do you wake up knowing that God is with you? He's already gone ahead of you. He already knows everything that your day is going to take and he is there to empower you, to remind you that you are his child and so that his energy powerfully will work through you as you meet the challenges for the day. Do you go to God's Word for encouragement and that something to help you in this endeavor is to memorize Colossians 1:29 for this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me, knowing that this is something that comes out of a life that you're living, to tell people about Jesus so that people would be mature in Jesus. But he fills us for every response, responsibility for the day. So check your power source. Are you operating on your own strength or God's strength? And then check your perspective. Are we stuck believing that we just need to be freed from our suffering and circumstances in order to experience joy? Or do we believe that Jesus is powerful enough to redeem it, to redeem our sorrow, to increase our joy, that we can look to the cross, the ultimate emblem of suffering and shame that Jesus endured for the joy set before him, to redeem suffering for our good and for God's glory. How might Jesus redeem your suffering for more joy in him? How might he do that? I'm sorry if this has just been a brutal illustration with me talking about this story up and down the mountain, but this is the last thing I'll say about it, I promise. I praise God that we made it up and down the mountain. But here's what's true. If I was left to hike that mountain on my own, I would have even gotten really hurt or would have given up along the way. And something that I did not touch on as we worked through this text this morning is that everything that Paul expressed as he modeled was modeled in community, was modeled together as a group of ministry partners seeking to pursue a life of ministry together. And so when I think about our journey up and down the mountain and I praise God for the men that God had for me in that and the challenges that we've went through, and the fact that they are some of my closest friends and brothers in Christ today, I can't help but think that it's a beautiful picture of what our role in each other's lives ought to be. That we are to be in the thick of life together. That we, no Christian, no member, no person that's here this morning at Veritas Urbana should ever suffer alone, should ever go through the trials of living for Jesus alone, but that we should work through it together, that we should be on this walk together. That anyone who suffers has someone there to pray alongside them, feeling sorrow alongside each other, and preserving together to see how God is going to redeem it for our rejoicing, praying together through the financial strains that are going to come up in our lives and praising God for the God, for the way that he's opened opportunities for us to share the good news of the riches of the Gospel in the midst of that financial strain, fighting for each other's contentment in Jesus and not letting each other get distracted with the promises this world has for us, but understanding that the joy we have in Jesus is more than enough, reminding each other that we have everything we need in Jesus. We would be a people who endures joyfully together if we pursued that end. Let's pray. Father, we praise you for your Word. We praise you for how you clearly display your truth through your word. And that our hope, our joy found there and our hope and joy is secure in Jesus. You sending your son Jesus to save us, to ransom us, to go through a life of pain and suffering as the Lamb of God, to be sacrificed for our sake so that we could have reconciliation with you, so that we could have new lives in you that are able to endure joyfully. Thank you that you are intimately aware of every struggle we go through in life. And you are there with us to empower us, to strengthen us, to give us a perspective of what you are doing in the midst of it. Thank you for this, Lord Jesus. Amen.