If you got a Bible, turn with me to Second Corinthians, chapter 12. Second Corinthians, chapter 12. We're going to finish up chapter 12 this week, and we have one more chapter in Second Corinthians. Thanks for patiently walking through this as we've taken a pretty significant amount of time in this book. As we jump into it this morning, just wanted to remind you of what's been going on in this letter. So the Apostle Paul has written this letter to one of many letters that he wrote to the Corinthian Church. We have two of them in our Bibles. But in this letter particularly, what he has done is he's had to prove himself multiple times and prove his ministry and the authenticity of his ministry and his apostleship. Because there have been this group of people he has called the super apostles that have kind of come into this Corinthian church. He planted it. But now they've come in and he's been away. And what they've done is they've brought the culture into the church. And so no longer was the church influencing the culture, but the church was. No longer was the church influencing the culture, but the culture was influencing the church. And so they have said, hey, don't follow Paul in his ministry, because it's not real. Because, you know, the type of leader and ministry leader you should have is one that has a certain look that speaks really well. And Paul doesn't have either one of those. He doesn't look like a somebody with authority. He doesn't have good communication skills. So you shouldn't pay attention to this guy. So Paul has spent most of this letter trying to say, you've been deceived. You've been deceived from believing the gospel by these other people. And so I'm having to prove to you that my ministry is real and that I'm real as an apostle so that you would maintain your belief in the true gospel. So as I've thought about him and this, like, counterfeit culture that we live in, it's reminded me of a story all throughout as we preach through Second Corinthians in my own life. So when Erica and I got married, We've been married 16 years this month. And there you go. Yeah. So when we got married, I had already owned a home and I had had a bunch of guys living with me, so they moved out, which is a great thing. Right? They moved out. Erica moves in. And my house looked tremendously different from the time that I lived with a bunch of guys. And time My loving wife moved in and loves decorations that are great. And I didn't know how many throw pillows could enter your home. I didn't know that number of throw pillows existed in the world. But our house looked much better and much homier and didn't look like cigar bar or something. I don't know, you know, something like that. So one day early on in marriage, we are. And I share, if I share this illustration because it's just. It fits this text so well. I shared this in Urbana a few weeks ago. So if you were in Urbana, sorry, you're going to hear it again. But one night we were having dinner and one of my old roommates came over to join us for dinner. And so he comes over and he's sitting. We're cooking. He's kind of sitting at the kitchen counter. And he looks and he grabs this bagel off the counter because he's really hungry. And he grabs and bites into the bagel. But the bagel was Styrofoam. It wasn't a real bagel. I don't know why we had fake bagel decor in our house at that time, but we did. We didn't have a lot of money. That's what we're going for, right? So he just takes this massive bite out of this thing, and we kept it forever with his teeth marks in it, just as a reminder of, oh, look what Jonathan did. But what makes me think of this passage is that that, like, bagel for him. He was really hungry. He didn't want to wait around for dinner. He saw something that looked good. He saw something that felt right, but it wasn't right. It wasn't good. Like, it had all the trimmings of, like, this is real. But actually it wasn't. And for Paul, these super apostles had come in and said, this is the way you do ministry. It looks like this, it feels like this, but it wasn't right. And Paul has had to prove himself to the Corinthian culture over and over and over. And we live in a world of counterfeits. It's not new. Again, he's doing this in the first century, but there's. I mean, you get a new text or phone call scam every single week. It feels like, right, There's AI that generates things for you that you didn't do. There's fake body parts, lots of them, right? There's counterfeits, and they're getting better and better and better, and it's harder and harder and harder to tell the difference between what's fake and what's real. And I think that has infiltrated the church. And authentic ministry can be hard to find as well. And you have to start asking these questions, well, is this church legitimate? Are they genuine? Are they biblical? Are they doing ministry the right way? Are they doing the ministry the way God intended it to be done? And we have to ask those questions because we've seen like extreme ministry approaches like get exposed, right? You have like heavy handed ministries that are about a single individual. Domineering, abuse of power, that are manipulative, say this is how ministry should be done. You do ministry so that I can get the glory. Right, Like a heavy handed ministry. But on the other extreme, you have like a hands off ministry. And that type of ministry looks really good. Let's show compassion, let's make people feel good, let's respect their privacy, let's don't address sinfulness and prioritize their happiness. Guys, both of those may look good, they may feel good, but they're wrong. Both of those extremes. So if a heavy handed approach to ministry isn't right, a hands off approach to ministry isn't right, what is real ministry and what does it look like? What is real ministry and what does it look like? And more specifically for you today, maybe you're here today and you're searching for real ministry. You're searching for a church home. What should you be looking for? And then I think most of you in this room would go, okay, I found a good church that I like. I love Veritas, and I'm thankful for that. My question that I want you to wrestle with this morning is what does it look like for you to participate in real ministry, not just attend this church? You're like, oh yeah, this is a real, real church. What does it look like for you to participate in it, not just show up? So that's where we're going this morning. So second Corinthians, chapter 12. We're going to start with verse 11. Paul says, I've been a fool, you forced me to it, for I ought to have been commended by you, for I was not at all inferior to these super apostles, even though I am nothing now in my mind. We get an unfortunate title break in our like English Bibles here. I wish the title break would come after verse 13 because in verses 11 through 13, what Paul is doing here is kind of bringing his fool's boasting speech that we've talked about multiple times in the past few weeks is kind of coming to a close. And then he shifts to a different movement in verse 14, but he says this again, I've been a fool. Now, what is Paul being a fool about? Paul has been forced by the Corinthians to play this foolish game where he is having to boast about ministry and he's having to prove himself to them because they're being deceived. And he's going, I'm having to play this game. And it feels foolish. At one point, he calls himself a madman because as he's boasting, he's like, what am I doing? This feels gross. It doesn't feel right. But I'm having to do it for your sake. So he's saying, by this point, your lives should have commended me. But it's doing quite the opposite. Doing quite the opposite. At this point, he's saying, when I did ministry among you, your life's changed by the Gospel. Can't you see that? Why are you questioning the authenticity of my ministry? Because you can see it in your own life that God has used this type of ministry for your sake. He said, you should have been commending me at this point. And then he goes on to say, for I see going up to sorry, for I was not at all inferior to these super apostles, even though I am nothing. So he says, look, I'm not inferior to their type of ministry, but I'm nothing. Yeah, I've proved myself that I'm authentic to you, but just know I'm nothing. Like, I'm not thinking that I'm some big deal here. Right? And that's where real ministry starts with humility. Real ministry starts with humility. Then he goes on in verse 12 to say, the signs of the true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works. So signs and wonders early on for the apostles and for Jesus ministry, they authenticated true ministry. Like Jesus did these signs and wonders, and it authenticated that he was the Messiah. And that same thing was true for the early apostles. And he says, real, enduring ministry, because he says they were performed with utmost patience. God did real, enduring ministry work in the face of hardship among the Corinthians through Paul. So Paul's saying, listen, I am genuine. I'm a genuine apostle. The signs and wonders that I was able to do among you, that proves that I was a real apostle. Your lives should be showing that I'm a real apostle. But you continue to question. You can continue to question my validity and my message. So he goes on to verse 13 and says, for in what were you less favored than the rest of churches, except that I myself did not burden you. Forgive me this wrong. He's saying, listen, you think you got inferior ministry, but you didn't. You didn't get inferior ministry. You aren't worse off because of the ministry that I did, and you weren't mistreated. In fact, the only thing that you didn't get that some of the other churches got was the bill. Like I did all this ministry among you, and I never burdened you financially. I never asked you for any kind of money. God has moved among me in your church. I didn't ask for money. And you still question it. You still question it. And then it's like dripping with sarcasm at the end of this thing. He says, forgive me this wrong. I'm so sorry that I didn't charge you any money whatsoever. And I just did real ministry among you, and it changed your lives. I'm sorry. Forgive me for this kind of wrong. Right? So that kind of ends his boasting speech there. Now he's going to turn his attention to an upcoming visit that he wants to make. And this is where we're going to see what real ministry actually looks like. Verse 14 here, for the third time, I am 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 children. So Paul says, I'm eager to visit you. I want to pursue you. Even though you haven't been kind to me, I want to still pursue you. I've had to write hard letters to you. I made a painful visit to you already, and now I'm ready to come to you for a third time. I came to you for the first time when I planted the church. I visited you again, and it was a hard visit. And now I want to come to you again, but I want to come to you like, this is what real ministry does. It pursues people even when it's hard. Pursues people even when it's hard. This was something Paul desired, and he was ready and he was prepared to do. And he goes, I'm not going to be a burden to you. I wasn't a burden, financial burden to you. Then I'm not going to be a financial burden to you. I still don't want your money. And why look back? He says, for I seek not what is yours but you. Paul had a deep care for the Corinthians, not what the Corinthians could provide for Him. And this is what real ministry is about. Real ministry is about a relationship with people. Not with those people can provide for you, not what others can offer in return. But sometimes we can go, okay, I'm going to do real ministry here. I want to be friends with this person, do real ministry with this person so I can be in their network of friends. Oh, I know there's people at Veritas that have this group of friends, and I want to get in with that group of friends. So I'm going to do ministry among them for ulterior motives. Paul's saying, I'm not going to do ministry among you for your money. We don't do ministry for other people's affirmation. You hear that? That's not why we do ministry. Because there would be no pastors left if it was just about the people's affirmation. I'm not in this, so you would affirm me, you shouldn't be in ministry. So that somebody would say, oh, you do a great job. Paul's like, I'm not burdening you with that. Like, I'm here for you, not what you can provide. And then Paul uses this illustration of children aren't required to save up for their parents, but the parents are required to do that for their children. Now, this is not a hard and fast rule, all right? Because there's some of you in this room, many of you, that are taking care of aging parents, and that's totally fine. Paul's not saying you shouldn't take care of them. You should take care of them. So some of you are using your own financial resources to take care of your parents. That's not the point of what Paul's trying to make here. The point that he is trying to make is this. Corinthians, you're my kids. I'm a spiritual father to you, and I love you deeply. And I'm going to treat you the way a father treats his kids. This is not like a professional relationship for Paul and the Corinthians. He's just going, I want to take care of you as a dad takes care of his kids. He's actually written to them about this before. In First Corinthians, chapter 4, verses 14 and 15, he says this, I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. He's not writing hard things to them, calling them out in their sin because he wants to shame them. That's not why he's doing it. For though you have countless guides In Christ, you do not have many fathers, for I became your Father in Christ Jesus through the Gospel. So what is Paul saying here? Corinthian church, you have a lot of people guiding and helping you navigate and counsel you in life, but you don't need another guide. You need a father. You don't need another life coach. You need a spiritual father. Because a father does more than guide people. A father does more than navigate for his children. A father trains them up and equips them and disciplines them and corrects them and rebukes them. That's what a real father does, right? And this is where we get real ministry from. Real ministry is a fatherly pursuit of a person, not what a person can offer. Real ministry is a fatherly pursuit of a person, not what that person can offer you. But then he takes it a step further. In verse 15, I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. I will most gladly. Jake pointed out this word just a couple times. This word gladly a couple times in chapter 11. And the idea of gladly here is to take pleasure in something. And in chapter 11, the Corinthians were taking pleasure. They were glad in the things of the world. And Paul was saying, I take pleasure and I'm glad in the things of the Lord. And now he takes it a step further to say, I take pleasure in spending myself for you and being spent for you. I will most gladly spend. The idea is, I'm going to spend my money for your soul. He spent his own money to do ministry in Corinth. He spent it. He spent it all. Maybe at times, I'm willing to give up my resources for your soul. This idea of spending comes up a couple times in the New Testament. The first time, Jesus is walking through this crowd. And as he walks through this crowd, there's this lady in the crowd, and she has had an issue of blood. So this blood issue for 12 years. And in it she has tried everything. It says she spent all that she had to try to get this issue fixed. But then she ends up having to go realize, like, oh, all these doctors, they can't help me. Jesus is going to have to heal me. But that same word, spent, is she spent all that she had trying to find a solution. The other time it shows up is in the story of the prodigal son. And I'm not going to go back through that whole story, but there's this story of this dad and his young son comes to him. And when his young son comes to him, the young son goes, hey, dad, I actually don't think you really care about my life. You don't care about what makes me happy. So give me my share of the inheritance now and I'll go live my life the way I want to live it. So then he goes and lives his life the way he wants to live it. And this word spend comes up because he spent everything he had and found out he was in need. He exhausted his resources and found out he was in need. This is the exact same term that Paul is using here. I will gladly spend or exhaust my resources for the sake of someone else's soul. That's real ministry, guys. But then he doesn't even stop with I just going to spend my resources. He says, I will gladly spend and be spent for your souls or I will be spent out. The idea here is Paul is willing to give up all his resources if he needs to, and he's willing to exhaust his life for the sake of someone else's soul. Are you willing to exhaust your life for the sake of someone else's soul? If you're not, you're doing fake ministry. So what was he gladly exhausting his life for, though? For their soul. For their soul's sake. Now, what is a soul? One commentator said, you don't have. You're not a body that has a soul. You're a soul. You're a soul that has a body. Your soul is who a person really is. Your heart, your mind, your will, like the whole person that relates to and worship God and that lasts for eternity. You're going to need a new body, right? Thankfully, for the resurrection, we're going to get a new body, but your soul lasts for eternity. And what Paul is saying is, I'm ministering and I'm going to give up my resources, I'm going to give up my life for the sake of the thing that's going to last for eternity. And my ministry is going to be spiritually advantageous for you. You're not going to think it's to your advantage. Obviously you haven't thought it's to your advantage. But real ministry gladly exhausts one's life for another person's soul. Paul's life wasn't gladly spent on somebody else's happiness and comfort. Paul's ministry life was not spent on somebody's physical, mental and emotional health. It was spent on their souls, the thing that was going to last for eternity. He was going to gladly exhaust his life for something deeper, more meaningful and more lasting than the temporary things of this world. And it makes me Kind of think of a story scenario like this. Let's pretend for a second you're going to take your family to the Grand Canyon. You're gonna take your family to the Grand Canyon, and you are a professional photographer, and you can't wait to get to the Grand Canyon. And you're gonna make the most amazing pictures. You're gonna be able to sell them. You're gonna make money for your family. It's gonna be a great time. So you get out of your car and you just. You see that the sun is setting at the right time. I can't think of. What's that term? The golden hour. That's right. All right, so golden hour at the Grand Canyon. This is amazing, right? So you can't wait for this. So you're fiddling with your camera, you're getting it all set up, you're looking down, you're like, I can't wait for this. And all of a sudden you look up and you see your kids playing at the rim of the Grand Canyon, super close to the Grand Canyon. Now in that moment, you could say, you know what? I really care about my business. I really care about my happiness. And if I take these pictures and sell them, our family's going to be really happy. Or I care about their happiness. It looks like they're having a great time right now. They're not even fighting. They're not yelling at each other. They're literally laughing and having a great time and about to fall to their deaths, right? So in that moment, are you willing to exhaust your resources and your life for your kids sake? A good father would, right? A good father would say, I'm going to throw the camera on the ground as quickly as possible. I don't care if it breaks. I don't care if we go into bankruptcy. I don't like whatever it is because I like lost all this because I'm going to go after my kid that's about to die. Now, what if you start running, sprinting, and you're not a sprinter, so you're exhausted by the time you get there and you're screaming to the top of your lungs, you've exhausted your voice. And what if your kids look at you and go, dad, you are so embarrassing right now. You are so embarrassing. Do you not see all these other people looking at how crazy you are? Dad, don't you care about my happiness? Dad, can't you just let me live my life? Like we hear a story like that, we go, no, good dad would do that. But why do we have spiritual fathers that act that way, that are unwilling, that see people standing on the edge of an eternal separation from God Almighty and go, oh, I don't want to have a hard conversation. Sure, I know it might end up bad, but like, they're happy doing that, living that kind of lifestyle. And that's going to be a hard conversation. It's actually going to be like six hard conversations because there's going to be a lot of follow up. A spiritual father says, I will gladly exhaust my life to pursue you like a father. And not to just pursue you, and for sure not to pursue what you can offer me, but to pursue your soul. And this is what real ministry is. Real ministry is a gladly exhausting fatherly pursuit of another person's soul. Real Christian ministry is gladly exhausting fatherly pursuit of another person's soul. Guys, ministry isn't for the lazy. Ministry isn't for the faint of heart. Ministry isn't for those that want to keep their lives. How do I know that? Look at what mark chapter 10, verse 45 says. So go back. For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Aren't you glad that you have a heavenly Father that was willing to exhaust His Son's entire life on earth for the sake of your soul? That was a great opportunity for an amen there. Guys. We have a God that exhausted the life of His Son for the sake of our souls when we are at the edge of eternity saying, I'm going to be separated from a holy creator God forever. His Son gave up his life for you. That is great news. And if we're going to do real ministry, we do it like Jesus, and we gladly exhaust our lives for the sake of other people's souls. So what does this look like? The end of verse 15. Really? Through 19, you're going to see some kind of the same things show up multiple times. But we'll start at the end of verse 15. It says, I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less? So Paul asked this rhetorical question to the Corinthians. He goes, listen, as my love keeps increasing, why does it seem like your love keeps decreasing? You're missing it. You're missing the point. You're actually doing the opposite. And this is the start, all through the beginning of verse 19 of tremendous misunderstanding. And what I need you to know, if you're going to do real ministry, it's going to be exhausting. And you're going to be misunderstood a lot. You're going to be misunderstood a lot because people are going to accuse you of. You're getting too personal. Why are you in my business? Why don't you respect my privacy and my personal relationship with God? But the misunderstanding continues. In verse 16, it says, but granting that I myself did not burden you, I was crafty, you say, and got the better of you by deceit. So he's like, okay, the Corinthians are going, okay, I know what you were doing, Paul. Yeah, you didn't try to get our money for this type of ministry. But you didn't try to get our money because you wanted to bait and switch us and actually deceive us. You were being crafty. And this same word, crafty here is the same word that shows up from the serpent to Eve in the garden. The same idea here. It's the same idea he used back in chapter 11 when he's saying, these super apostles have come in and they've had this cunning way about them and they've deceived you. Because that's not what I'm doing. That's not what I'm doing at all. Like, I'm not trying to be this crafty minister of the Gospel. I'm not trying to be deceptive. And then verse 17 and 18, he says this. Did I take advantage of you through any of those whom I sent to you? I urged Titus to go and sent the brother with him. Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not act in the same spirit? Did we not take the same steps? Because they're saying, you deceived us, Paul, and you tried to take advantage of us. You sent all these other ministry partners of yours, Titus, and this other brother, and they tried to take advantage of you too, or take advantage of us too. He's going, no, like we acted the same way. It wasn't like I acted one way and they acted a different way. We acted in the same spirit. We had the same attitudes and took the same steps and had the same patterns and principles, and they were all empowered by the Spirit of God. We did the same type of ministry. And then beginning of verse 19, he says, have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves to you? He's like, you've been thinking all this time, for a long time. This isn't a new thing for you. You think that we're trying to just defend ourselves. Paul hasn't been trying to prove himself just to this like Corinthian jury, he's trying to say, listen, I haven't. I haven't been on the defensive. I haven't been on my heels. Like you get to the end of a football game sometimes and your team's up by a lot, and you play this kind of like called prevent defense, where I'm going to do everything I can to prevent them from scoring. You kind of take your foot off the gas and you go, I'm just going to step back and I'm going to play not to lose. Paul's going, that's not what I'm doing. I'm not doing ministry, not to lose. Because in fact, I might lose some relationships, I might lose some friendships by doing real ministry. So this whole section, what you see is that real ministry, this gladly exhausting fatherly pursuit of another person's soul, number one, involves trustworthy intentions. Trustworthy intentions. Their motives were pure. Their intentions were pure. There was no swindling or cheating or tricking people. But on the opposite side of that, there's trustworthy intentions. But people are going to misunderstand. And my question for you today is, are you willing to be misunderstood for the sake of someone else's soul? Are you willing to be seen as unloving and deceitful and manipulative and hateful and domineering and toxic and in need to be canceled because you care deeply for someone else's soul? Are you willing to be misunderstood in that way? Are you willing to be confused as a hypocrite, unaware, someone who just doesn't get it because Paul, you just don't get our situation. So there's a ton of misunderstanding. And Paul's going to correct this and tell them what he actually is doing. Verse 19 again says, have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves to you? Then he corrects it. It is in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ and all for your upbuilding, Beloved. You think I'm just trying to excuse my actions, Corinthians. But God sees it all. God knows what's true. And when he sees it all, he knows that the words that we've been speaking to you haven't come out of hate. They've come out of love, and they've come out of being in Christ. Because real ministry overflows out of a personal relationship with Christ. We tell our staff all the time, do ministry out of the overflow. What do we mean by that? Do ministry? Don't just do ministry to the people without God ministering to your Heart first. And when you minister like what comes out, it should be what's going, what God's doing in your own heart. Jesus kind of said it this way, hey, when you call somebody else in their sin, don't point out the speck in their eye before you look at the log in your own eye. So don't do this kind of gladly exhausting fatherly pursuit of another person's soul without looking inwardly first. Because this type of ministry overflows out of a personal relationship with Christ. So genuine ministry involves trustworthy intentions. And number two, it involves an overflowing relationship with Christ. Back to verse 19. Again, it is in the sight of God that we have all that we have been speaking in Christ and all for your upbuilding. Why has Paul been doing all this? For their upbuilding, for their edification. He's trying to build them up, to grow them up into maturity. And this is what real ministry and real care is intended to do. But when you do this type of ministry, people are often going to feel like you're tearing them down, particularly when you need to confront something or correct something. It can feel like this situation if you're a single lady and you're struggling with your contentment of singleness, and all of a sudden you find this guy who's just awesome. You think he's just the greatest in the world, but after a little while you find out that he's not a believer at all. And so you have a sister in Christ. You have a sister in Christ who loves you deeply and says, hey, I know you really like this guy. I know you feel really happy right now, but I'm concerned of where this is going to lead to. I'm concerned that, like, one day you're going to be pulling in this direction, and he's going to be pulling in this direction when it comes to honoring the Lord. And you're going to be stuck in a really terrible situation. Now, in that moment for you as the single or the girl that's finally dating the guy of her dreams, you're going to feel like, do you care about me? Do you not see how happy I finally am? And your friend goes, I do see, but I also can see where it's leading. And I'm concerned for your soul more than I am your happiness. Now, in that moment, you can say you don't care. You just want to tear me down. When all along the way you have a sister in Christ that wanted to build you up. Because real ministry is about edifying, edifying. But it's not just edifying for the sake of edification, he says, for it is all for your upbuilding. Beloved Corinthians, I love you and I want you to grow up. I want you to be built up in Christ. When we do real ministry, we're not just trying to secure affirmation from another person. We want them to be lovingly edified. Because here's the irony. If you're worried about losing a relationship because you have a hard conversation in ministry, if you do ministry and you avoid all those hard conversations, you potentially may lose a relationship for eternity at the expense of you just caring about your comfort. Now, do you want your friends eternity with the Lord at stake because you were unwilling to have a conversation? Now you don't determine another person's eternity, but you need to care about it. You need to care about it. So then we go on to verse 20 and 21, and Paul makes it really explicit what he's concerned about. For I fear, and this word fear here is deep concern, alright? For I have deep concern that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish. That perhaps there may be quarreling and jealousy and anger and hostility, slander, gossip, conceit and disorder. I fear that when I come again, my God may humble me before you. And I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality and sensuality that they have practiced. So what is he deeply concerned about? Number one, he's deeply concerned that when he shows up, he's going to disappoint them and they're going to disappoint him because they're going to be continuing in their sinful actions and it's going to be disappointing to him as a spiritual father. And he goes, but I'm concerned that when I show up, you're going to be disappointed in me too. And it's kind of that moment when you as a kid, you had a really hard day at home, you were acting terrible and your mom did everything she could and finally it got to the point and said, just wait till dad gets home, right? And you're like, I don't know if Dad's going to find me the way he wants to find me. And I don't think I'm going to find dad the way I want to find him, right? That's the same idea here. Paul's saying, I don't think you're going to find me as you wish, because I think I'm going to find you and your sinfulness. And this sinfulness is like. It's not just a fear of and a deep concern for disappointment, but there's this deep concern for their spiritual health we've talked about with the soul, right? But he's concerned about their spiritual health. And the first way their lack of spiritual help is showing up potentially is through their like, horizontal relationships with each other. And he gives this long list and it's all about their relationship with each other. And they led to. It says, to disorder. Same idea is like chaos, instability. There's instability in the church because you haven't repented of your sins. And then he says that idea of repentance comes out in verse 21. I fear. I'm deeply concerned that when I come again, God may humble me before you and I may have to mourn, worried that I'm going to be ashamed of your actions. And I'm going to have to grieve over the fact that you have sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality and sensuality that they have practiced. He's going, I'm concerned that I'm going to find your relationships here on earth in a mess. And I'm going to find your relationship with God in a mess. Because you know that the things that you are doing is wrong. But you continue to. To walk in your sin. And you have not repented. And you have not repented of impurity or uncleanness or lewdness. You have not repented of sexual immorality. That word immorality there. The Greek word is porneia, the same word we get pornography from. He's saying, I'm scared that I'm going to come to you and you're going to be operating in a way that dishonors God with your body. I'm going to find you unrepentant of your sexual escapades outside of God's design, whether that's your sex before marriage or outside of marriage or homosexuality or lusting over another image bearer. He's saying, I think I'm going to find you doing sexually immoral things with the way that you're doing them, the way that you're viewing other people and the way that you're thinking about other people. That's why I'm having. That's why I'm coming to you. But I'm concerned, and ultimately I'm concerned that you know that what you're doing is right, but you want to Keep doing it. And real ministry is concerned about people's repentance, that they were walking towards sin, but they have a change of mind and they begin to walk back to the Lord and he goes, I'm saying these hard things. I'm doing real ministry. I'm pursuing you like a father. I'm gladly exhausting my resources, I'm gladly exhausting my life so that you would repent and turn to the Father because I care about your soul more than I care about your comfort. Guys, real ministry is a gladly exhausting fatherly pursuit of another person's soul. And it involves trustworthy intentions, an overflowing relationship with Christ, loving edification, and a deep concern for spiritual health. Trustworthy intentions, an overflowing relationship with Christ, loving edification, and a deep concern for spiritual health. So we know the type of ministry that we want to avoid. We want to avoid this heavy handed, domineering, arrogant, authoritarian that just dictates behavior for the sake of the leader. Sure, we absolutely want to avoid that. We also want to avoid a hands off ministry. And I would call a hands off ministry apathetic narcissism, where you only care about yourself and you don't actually care about the other person. Because I think sometimes we can think of narcissism and put it in that first category of heavy handed. But, but I think narcissism is I'm thinking about myself all the time and I care about myself and I'm not even going to say anything to you because I care about me more than you. And in both those, it shows that you don't care about people, you care about what they can offer you. You're unwilling to be uncomfortable. Guys, we can't fall into either one of those ditches. Please not fall into those ditches. But please don't confuse loving confrontation and pure accountability as pride and narcissism. Because it's not. That's actually real ministry, genuine ministry, doing those things, holding people accountable, having hard conversations because you love somebody and care about their eternity. We must take a humble, hands on, gladly exhausting fatherly pursuit approach to ministry. Now, I think there's probably three groups of people in this room now after hearing God's word, the first group of people might say, yeah, I don't want to be a part of that church because I'm looking for a hands off church that stays out of your business, refuses to ask personal questions about your life, and is apathetic to your sin. I would say Veritas probably isn't the church for you. Now, I would give you a challenge. I challenge you to prioritize the health of your soul over the comfort of your life. Though now there's another group of people in here. And you say, I want to be a part of that type of ministry and that kind of church, because I'm looking for a church that is willing to exhaust the resources and lives of its leaders and people for the sake of my soul. I would say you may have found a church home. And I say may because I'm not arrogant enough to think there aren't other great churches doing this type of ministry work. There are. There are plenty of them. But this is the kind of work that we're going to do. Are we perfect at it all the time? No, we're not a perfect church. We're not a perfect ministry. We're going to disappoint you. And I would hope that we wouldn't hurt you unless it's for the sake of your soul. But I'm sure we will get it wrong at some point. And then the third group of people, which I think is the majority of people in this room, you would say, yeah, I want to be a part of that kind of church and I want to participate in that kind of ministry. But my guess is that either because of past experience when you tried to challenge somebody, or what you can see ahead, gladly exhausting your life for the sake of someone else's soul. I think some of you go, whoa, that sounds hard. That sounds difficult. It is. It is. And here's the good news. I want you to go back real quick to Second Corinthians, chapter 12, verse 9. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ then. And I would say for the sake of Christ in ministry, then I am content with weaknesses that ministry may bring insults, that ministry may bring hardships, that ministry may bring persecutions that ministry may bring and calamities that persecution or that ministry may bring. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Guys, if you try to do weakness producing ministry apart from the grace of God, you will never experience the power of God. And then I want to leave you finally with words from Jesus. In Matthew, chapter 11, he says this, Come to me all who labor, who exhaust their lives and are heavy laden, and I will give you what rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Please don't try to do weakness producing ministry apart from Jesus and please don't try to do please please church don't try to do exhausting work of ministry on your own apart from Jesus. You will burn out so fast. Real ministry is hard, it's exhausting and you will often be misunderstood. But real ministry with Jesus leads to gladness, it leads to rest and if you miss everything else I said real ministry this way glorifies our King and that's what life is about. So let's do that type of ministry for his glory not our own. Amen. Father God we are so grateful. We are so grateful that you would willingly give up the life of your son for our souls and may that be the motivation for us to do ministry. Please please God protect us from doing ministry on our own apart from Jesus and please empower us with your spirit to do work that glorifies you because you're worthy in Jesus name. Amen.