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you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you amen amen one two on Monday the next page amen amen and amen we had a great time everyone that was here appreciated you and had a really good time with our fellowship and it was really nice being able to spend Christmas together the church family it was special to me hopefully it was special to you too we do also have these gifts that are left over so if you weren't here you're still in luck because you have an opportunity to get one of these calendars that we have for 2023 so help yourself to one of those on Sunday we'll still give you a belated Christmas gift and take one of those home I hate having to throw away things like that because once you get started in the year no one needs a calendar anymore go ahead and take those I've got King James Bible verses in them I could just say Bible verses the real Bible verses no phony imitations there they look pretty nice too nice artwork on there but help yourself to one of those December challenge we're almost done, we've got a few days left ultimately through Saturday to do the singing challenge, who has kept this challenge to date? Amen alright good, good, good keep it up, stay strong make sure you're singing in church tonight you get those four hymns down and you get the don't be turning on that radio and try to jam out to some worldly music, keep that off you've only got a few days left and you know if that was an issue for you and you've gone this whole month hopefully you can realize now you can kind of break that that addiction because it really is listening to music is an addiction it can be it's not necessarily always for everybody it was for me and getting rid of it sometimes doesn't feel like losing a limb but it is a big deal, I'm not going to preach that during the announcements so don't worry another sermon for another day but keep it up if you've been participating in that and then January, January 1st we've got the Bible reading challenge, it starts off the new challenge for January reading the entire New Testament in those 31 days and it really isn't that bad at all it's not, you know, it definitely is a time investment but it's very, very, very doable and if you just if you think about it in advance and make a plan you're a lot more likely to succeed and I try to help you by just saying hey if you just do if you could just stick to 9 chapters a day you will easily get through this and with that 9 chapters a day I recommend splitting it up into two different time slots if possible, morning, evening whatever, whatever your schedule looks like reading 4 or 5 chapters is not that hard at all, that is not some huge commitment and you just do that twice a day and you've got this and the cool thing about this too is that hopefully by the end of January you know, even if you don't keep at this pace you can maybe read a little bit more than you're used to reading because you realize, hey I actually do have the time to do this and you could read a little bit more and just make sure you're getting more of God's word on a yearly basis but I will say this, okay and this is going to be more important than this challenge when you read the Bible make sure you read with understanding don't plow through it just to get the 9 chapters done under your belt if you're not really focused and able to think about what you're reading it is way more important, if someone is going to read 9 chapters a day and get almost nothing out of it because all you're doing is just going trying to speed read and you're not absorbing anything from the word of God, I'd rather have you read one chapter a day and absorb the whole chapter than try to just get the 9 chapters out of the way, so take that into consideration, it's way more important to get the understanding because you actually want to be learning from God's word not just checking a box seriously, that is the most important thing but another recommendation that will help you to stay focused, at least it does for some people, listen to the audio Bible while you read it can help you stay on track now it doesn't necessarily work for everybody but I recommend doing that but however, this is a reading challenge this isn't a listening challenge, okay, and look I listen to the Bible frequently I know other people probably do too but in order to complete this challenge, I want people reading the Bible for themselves you can listen to it while you read, right you can follow along and listen look at the Bible and be reading it but that would be acceptable, but you have to be reading your Bible, so there is something to be said for actually reading that I think is superior to just listening to the Bible but in any case, that's the challenge for the month and hopefully you're ready for that we'll get a lot of participation in that Hebrews chapter 6 is Bible memory we are about halfway through with this Hebrews chapter 6, if you can memorize the entire passage and we'll quote it word perfect, you'll get a prize for that, and then the upcoming birthdays excuse me Enoch had a birthday yesterday, huh? Happy birthday one day late and then we've got a bunch of birthdays coming up in January it's not all of them, I only kind of put as many as would fit for the time next week, I'll get all the rest of the month of January in there, but these were the first ones, if you have a birthday, you see that's missing is anyone missing a birthday in January here that's it isn't beyond January 21st when's your birthday, Will? 24th, okay, but I don't have that so I'm going to write that down anyone else? alright very good, on the back we've got the upcoming events, this Saturday is the New Year's Eve fellowship, so this is a few days 2-7pm, we're going to be having fun playing games and hanging out and kind of enjoying each other's company on Saturday starting at 2, now if you want to come early it's also going to be a building day I just got off the phone with our contractor right before service, we were supposed to have an inspection today that's postponed until tomorrow and he's planning on having his crew working tomorrow and Friday so hopefully everything goes well with that inspection they could start putting this stuff up and getting everything put back together so that we could get more work done on Saturday, I mean we're going to do the work on Saturday either way, we need to be planning and preparing for the new carpeting that's going to be getting installed probably in about a week and a half, maybe two weeks, I expect to be able to get the new carpet installed in that area, in order to do that we have to have everything removed from that area, all the furniture everything's going to need to come out and hopefully all the painting will be done too because I'd rather not paint over brand new carpet that would be ideal to have all of that done so if you would like to help us, come on out Saturday morning and we'll be here putting in some sweat and getting some work done and we'll feed you some lunch there's already going to be a meal included for the fellowship planning on having some pizza on that day in the evening so come on out and we'll get you fed for lunch too if you want to help us do some work here homeschool field trip January 10th, I think is that already locked in now? I mean we're pretty much where we're at with the attendance on that there's a lot of people going a lot of people going but hey the hours repeat so that's good but well we'll talk about that later, we are going to have to do some put some rules in place for homeschool field trips in general as we move forward especially as we grow with the ages of the children and things for attending these events but right now we don't have any so enjoy the wild wild west while you can with the homeschool field trips but in time to come soon we will be restricting them more towards the school age children of a certain year and above that will be considered homeschool age you know the newborn baby isn't technically homeschool I mean they are because you're teaching them at home right but it's not exactly what we have in mind but right now we're good but that will probably change and then January 21st we've got the soul winning marathon not we but we've been invited to a soul winning marathon in Savannah Georgia so there are a couple of gentlemen that have attended some of our events that go to other churches one lives in Florida one lives in South Carolina one of the guys was in Columbia and they are organizing this through their churches and their pastors to do a soul winning event in Savannah and we've been invited to join them so hopefully we get a lot of people if you're interested to go out on that day January 21st Saturday I'm not certain if I'll be able to make it or not I'd love to be able to go but I need to check my schedule for that either way you are more than welcome to attend and I will be asking for a show of hands in about a week or two to let them know what to expect and that is about it for our announcement so we're gonna sing another song and I'm gonna ask brother Peter if he'll please lead us along. We open up hymn notes again to song number 257 Psalm 257 look and live Psalm 257 Psalm Jesus now and live Tis before his word hallelujah It is only that you look and live I'm a message from above hallelujah I'm a message from my credit for you Tis a message from above hallelujah Jesus said it and I know it is true look and live my brother live look to Jesus now and live Tis before his word hallelujah It is only that you look and live I'm all for nothing hallelujah He is for the life that souls shall have If you'll only look to him hallelujah Look to Jesus who the Lord can't save Look and live my brother live Look to Jesus now and live Tis before his word hallelujah It is only that you look and live I'm the last to tell you how I came hallelujah to Jesus where he made me whole Twas believing in his name hallelujah I trust he will save my soul Look and live my brother live Look to Jesus now and live Tis before his word hallelujah hallelujah It is only that you look and live We go to the Tuesday night offering I'd like to ask the ushers to collect plates The Wednesday night offering goes and supports missions In church while the offering plates are being passed around if you can open up your Bibles to the book of 2 Corinthians chapter 6 That was 2 Corinthians chapter 6 and as we do customary here at Stronghold Baptist Church we're going to read the entire chapter, that's brother Devin if he can please do that for us That was 2 Corinthians chapter 6 But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God in much patience in afflictions and necessities and distresses and stripes and imprisonments and tumults and labors and watchings and fastings by pureness by knowledge, by long suffering by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth by the power of God by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left by honor and dishonor by evil report and good report as deceivers and yet true as unknown and yet well known, as dying and behold we live as chastened and not killed as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich as having nothing and yet possessing all things O ye Corinthians our mouth is open unto you our heart is enlarged ye are not straightened in us but ye are straightened in your own bowels now for a recompense in the same I speak as unto my children be ye also enlarged be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness with darkness and what concord hath Christ with Belial or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols for ye are the temple of the living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people wherefore come out from among them not the unclean thing and I will receive you and will be a father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty Brother Jesse, can you pray for us please? Father, in the name of Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, talking about the ministry of reconciliation, and how we're ambassadors for Christ, and how I preach on how important of a job that is to be counted worthy, to be able to preach the gospel, and that Christ has chosen us as believers. Even though we live in this sinful flesh, and we're just human beings, and we're a mortal man, He's still given us the important job of preaching the gospel, and bringing the Word of God unto people. And with that in mind, let's dig into chapter 6, because it's just the same thought process continuing through to this chapter. Verse 1 says, We then, as workers together with Him, because when we preach the gospel, we are working together with Christ. We don't go out just of our own power, and of our own volition, just completely on our own when we do the work of the Lord. We're actually yoking up with Christ. I mean, we can't do it alone. If we go out in our own power, with our own wisdom, and our own words, we will fail. We will have to lead people to Christ, and bring that salvation, because the salvation has to come through the Lord. It has to come through the Word of God. It has to be through the Spirit that they are going to get saved. Okay? That seed being sown is the Word of God. We need to be working together with God. But that being said, at the same time, nobody is out there just getting saved on their own either. God is not working by Himself. He has chosen to commit unto us the ministry of reconciliation, as we saw in the last passage. So, it's a job that needs to be done, this reconciliation. People being reconciled unto God. People finding out about that free gift of salvation. People hearing the truth. But the way that God chose for that to function, and for that to work, as Romans 10 says, you know, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. And hey, people aren't going to hear without a preacher, and people aren't going to preach, except they be sent. Okay, this is the way that God designed it, and planned it, and that's the way things work. You say, well, God doesn't need you or anyone to save it. Look, God doesn't... If you're talking about the power of God, no one's disputing the power of God. But if you're talking about the way that God designed things, well, if He says that He needs us, then He needs us. It's not because He's weak. It's because He's chosen to use us and put us in the yoke with Him to be His husbandry and to be His laborers. It's like, you know, to put it into carnal terms, into physical terms, you know, the guy at the top of an organization, of a company, it's not saying he can't go and scrub toilets, or he can't do... What are you saying? He can't do that? No, but He's going to send His people to do that for Him. Right? I mean, obviously it's not exactly the same, but it's similar in the sense that we're not saying that God's not all-powerful. And of course, people can only be saved through the power of God, but you know what? They're not just going to get saved without human beings preaching the Word. It won't happen, because that's not the way that God designed it, and there's plenty of Bible back set up. So, we are workers together with Him. It says, beseech you also that you receive not the grace of God in vain. And He's saying, look, we're beseeching you as we are workers together with Him, as we're workers. Right? Look, you receive the grace of God, not of your own works. Right? It's by God's grace you get saved. But you don't want to just get saved in vain in the sense of just making that meaningless because you don't do anything with the rest of your life then to serve God. Right? Getting saved, obviously there's a sense where, well, it's not in vain because I'm not going to hell. Right? Yeah, for you. But what about for God? What about for other people? If you do nothing with that grace, if you do nothing with that gift, hey, it's in vain for everybody else. You know, if our gospel be hidden, it's hidden to them that are lost. And for the lost person, you getting saved, if you never talk to anyone else about it, it does them no good at all. It's good for nothing. Right? That's vanity at that point. And the beseeching here is saying, look, we don't want you to receive the grace of God in vain. We are already workers. We want you to be workers together with us and with the Lord to do the work of God and not just receive the grace of God in vain and make it just meaningless. For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted in the day of salvation. If I suckered thee, behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. And you know, the urgency in this verse is, I'm not going to get too deep into this one verse. It's a quotation from the Old Testament. But you know, we have to understand not just for your salvation, which is this is obviously talking about, hey, now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. People need to get saved. We need to stress that to people at the door. A lot of people want to think about everything. It's like, look, man, now is the day. Now we're here. Now you've got the laborers at your door. Now I'm here to answer questions. Now we're here to explain things to you. Now is that day. Not only is it that day of salvation, but how about to become a worker together with the Lord, too? Now is that day. Don't let it pass. Not like, oh, well, you know what? I'm going to study and I'm going to learn. I'm going to do all this other stuff. And then maybe one day I'll become a worker for the Lord. No, now is that day. Don't let it pass you by. The Lord offers on-the-job training. Seriously. Like, that is exactly what we're supposed to be doing is, yes, of course you should be learning and growing and spending time and study and everything else. Yeah, don't get me wrong. But don't let that prevent you from starting to work right away. Get in there. Get your feet wet. Get your hands dirty. Roll up your sleeves and get to work for the Lord. And you say, well, I don't think God... Look, the great thing about God is that there's no experience necessary. Like, there's no skills required, in fact, of all people to serve and all people to work for. God loves using those who don't already have the skills, who don't have the talent, who don't have... Because God is going to show Himself strong in you. That gives God all the more credit and glory and honor that's due His name as He empowers you to do the work that He has called you to do. Look at verse number 3. This is also extremely important. I'm going to spend a little bit of time in parking on verse number 3 for a little while. Giving no offense in anything that the ministry be not blamed. So as workers together with Christ, as I'm not going to re-preach everything from last week, how important that job is, the ministry of reconciliation, being an ambassador for Christ, being on this earth representing Jesus Christ in all that you do. Hey, we need to be very careful that we're not giving offense in anything. Now, obviously, the world's going to get offended over stupid things. This isn't referring to you standing for the truth and then people being offended at the truth. It's not about giving offense because you are an offense to the law or to the Word of God because you are in judgment. You know, people could judge you for not being obedient to the Word of God, not being obedient to law, and just not being an upright person or a righteous person. We need to make sure we don't give offense in anything. Why? Because the ministry gets blamed when you get into sin, when you get into all manner of wickedness or whatever, then it's since you're representing someone else, now the ministry gets blamed. Now you're going to bring a bad name on the cause of Christ. Keep your place here, of course. We're going to look at just a few places. I'll have you turn to 1 Timothy 6. I'm going to read for you from 2 Samuel 12. So in 2 Samuel 12, this is a passage where Nathan confronts David with his sin. King David. A man after God's own heart is a really godly man in many areas of his life, but this one area he did really, really horribly by committing adultery with Bathsheba with the wife of Uriah the Hittite and then having him put to death. An extremely horrible sin, really, really bad sin, really bad. And this is what Nathan, Nathan confronts him and says, hey, you're the man. David repents, okay? But then Nathan, excuse me, David says this unto Nathan in verse 13. And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord, right? So he's admitting his guilt, he's admitting his wrongdoing. And Nathan said unto David, the Lord also hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die. So God decides to show mercy, because David deserved to die for that. Obviously, we all deserve the lake of fire for our sins, but not only that, he deserved the death penalty for his sin in lying with another man's wife. Okay, he just deserved to die, but God decided to show him mercy and not just outright kill him right then and there. Verse 14, though, he says this, and this is the message from the Lord, Nathan speaking the message from God, how be it because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. The child also that is born unto thee shall surely die. So there's still a recompense. Why is there still recompense? He says because now what you've done in doing this deed, you've given this great, and it says occasion, it's like an opportunity for the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the name of God. Because now they're going to say, Oh, yeah, David, this real holy man. Oh, yeah, he's bringing in the Ark of the Covenant. He's such a godly person, right? And then he's doing all this other stuff. It gives people a chance to blaspheme the Lord and bring down the name of the Lord because of the actions of a sinful human being, right? And that happens, which is all the more reason why we need to make sure that our ministry isn't blamed because of our actions. Now, obviously, it shouldn't reflect poorly on the Lord if a sinner does some sin, but it does. It does. And because of that fact, we need to be all the more careful. 1 Timothy 6, look at verse number 1, because there's multiple places where the Bible warns about this, warns about the ministry being blamed or the Word of God being blasphemed because of our actions, because of what we do. 1 Timothy 6, verse number 1, the Bible says, Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters, worthy of all honor, that the name of God and His doctrine be not blasphemed. So there's just one more area, and look, we could ultimately end up applying this to pretty much any sin under the sun. But there are some things that are specifically mentioned in the Bible as saying, look, man, you better be careful about this because you don't want the Word of God to be blasphemed. So what is it saying? Servants under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor. How about, you know, you're an employee, and especially in the age that we live in and the stinking attitudes that people have and the entitlement and people thinking they deserve everything and the talking back and disrespectfulness under their bosses. The Bible says, hey, give your masters, count their own masters worthy of all honor that the name of God and His doctrine be not blasphemed. When you're going around and speaking evil and not showing honor unto your master, unto your boss, you are giving occasion for the name of God and His doctrine to be blasphemed. Now, you might be accepted by the world, but that's not Christianity. That's not godly living. And that's going to make you a hypocrite. Titus chapter 2. Flip over to Titus chapter 2. We're going to see one more reference here. Just certain things that people can do that bring blasphemy upon the name of God and upon His doctrine, upon the teachings of the Bible. Titus chapter 2 verse 4, the Bible says, talking about the older women, that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the Word of God be not blasphemed. So the actions of the younger wives could cause the Word of God to be blasphemed when they are not adhering to these things that were mentioned in this passage, about being discreet, about being chaste, about being a keeper at home, about being good, about being obedient to their own husbands. The Bible says, when you're not doing these things, you're giving cause for the Word of God to be blasphemed. It's funny because the worldly Christians will think the exact opposite of that. People are going to think you're so weird and they're going to think you're nuts and you're crazy if you're obedient to your own husband. No. That's actually blaspheming the Word of God. But you have to have a respect for the Word of God and respect for what God's good doctrine and what the Bible teaches us to even care about that. The problem is that people have no respect for the Word of God, which is why they worry more about what other people think of them in the world's judgment instead of what God thinks of them through God's judgment. And God sees things clearly and He says, no, you are causing my word to be blasphemed because you are being completely rebellious and disobedient to my word. And then you know what that does? It gives the world an opportunity to say, oh, so you say you believe the Bible, huh? You want me to believe in Jesus, you believe the Bible? Well, what about when the Bible says to be discreet? What about when the Bible says to be chaste? What about when the Bible says you have to obey your own husbands, huh? What then? And if you're going to say, oh, no, you don't have to do that, hypocrite. You're causing the Word of God to be blasphemed. But then if you say these things and you're not doing them, again, kind of the same boat. Let's go back to 2 Corinthians 6. What we do is extremely important, how we live. We need to be striving to live righteously, inside and out, in public, at home, everywhere, in your soul. It's not just for show. This is important. This is something that we ought to be striving to not give offense in anything. I mean, think about David's sin. He caused great offense. He was trying to keep it all secret and tucked away, right? That was a private sin that no one really knew about. He was trying to keep it under wraps and trying to make sure no one found out about it. He was trying not to go public with it. But it got found out. And what great reproach that brings on the cause of Christ, especially when you fall that hard. Look at verse 4. So this is contrasted with, you know, giving no offense in anything that the ministry may not blame, but, in all things, approving ourselves as the ministers of God. So now it's going to tell us what we should be doing, right? So that the ministry isn't blamed, so that we don't give offense. Here's what we should be doing. Approving ourselves as the ministers of God in much patience. As a minister of God, you're going to need a lot of patience. Because there's going to be a lot of trying times to get through that you have to see your way through. And you're going to need the faith to get through those times with patience, without failing, without fainting, without overreacting, without quitting. Patience will get you through. In patience, in afflictions. We need to approve ourselves as the ministers of God in our afflictions. You need to learn to do right and to handle these situations right when you're being afflicted. When you've got people treating you poorly, how do you respond? How do you act? Well, what does the Bible say? Overcome evil with good, right? In necessities, when you have needs. This is what necessity is, right? When you are going through a time of want, when you're going through a time of needs. My needs need to be met, right? I have problems. I have hunger. I have need of clothing. I have need of shelter. In those necessities, how do you approve yourself? By doing the right thing. By seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. By not stealing. By not defrauding people, right? You do it honestly with integrity. That's how you're going to approve yourself as a minister of God. You do it the right way. Even in your afflictions, even in your necessities, even in your distresses. When everything seems to be going wrong and you're willing to just cling to anything to help you out. Well, no, it shouldn't just be anything. Righteous things. In stripes, in imprisonments. Again, going through all of these difficulties so while you're in these things, stripes is literally like being bloodied. Being whipped and beaten so that you have a stripe of a red line that's your blood for the cause of Christ. Right? In those stripes. And in imprisonments. Being thrown into prison. In tumults. Right? Big fights. How about this? And you know, in all of those things, approve yourselves as ministers of God. Doing it the right way. Having patience to get through those times. In labors. In watchings. You know, watchings. What would that be like? Well, there's a lot of stressful times where you're kind of looking out for things to happen and you're on edge maybe of, you know, they would set watches in the night around cities and things like that as a guard, as a defense because you don't know when someone, the enemy might be coming to attack. Right? So in watchings is you're looking out for the bad people to come. Hey, do that. Approving yourselves righteously even in your watchings when you're looking out when you're kind of expecting bad things to happen and you're looking out for it. You know, be ready and be patient. Do things the right way. In fastings. Watchings and fastings almost go hand in hand because you're trying to get a hold of the Lord. And you know, in your fastings, how do you approve yourselves unto God? How about by not showing everybody and telling everybody that you're fasting? The Bible says, you know, in Matthew chapter 6, Jesus Christ informs his disciples, you know, when you fast, don't be like the hypocrites. Don't be like the Pharisees. Don't shout at, you know, make sure everyone knows you're fasting. Don't disfigure your face going, oh, I'm so hungry. Oh, why are you so hungry? Well, I'm fasting for the Lord. You know, like, no. You make yourself appear normal. You have the internal, you know, flesh just going, you know, like, but on the external, you're handling it with patience. God knows that you're fasting, which is why you're doing it. You should never be fasting for the benefit of anybody else, of, like, being able to see you or your own benefit of people saying, oh, wow, this guy's really holy because he fast so, you know, like the Pharisees. I fast twice in the week, you know, like, good for you, whatever. Why, you know, you don't have to wear that as a medal, a badge of honor or something, you know, that ought to be something that's only between you and God and you don't brag about it. You fast because you're trying to get God's attention and show how serious you are that you're willing to afflict your own soul and go through your own hardship as you're praying for your various needs or desires or, you know, maybe the needs of others. That's how you approve yourself as a minister of God in fastings, right? So all of the, everything that's being mentioned here, we ought to be doing it the right way. You're approving yourself and you're not causing offense that your ministry isn't blamed because you're some big stinking hypocrite. Let's keep going through these, verse 6. So those are the ins, inimprisonments, intumotes. Now the bys. By pureness. This is how we're going to show ourselves approved unto God by our pureness, by knowledge, by knowing the Word of God, by knowing the right way, by knowing how we ought to fast, by knowing how to handle the labors and the tumults. By long suffering. Long suffering allows, you know, you don't have the quick fuse. Like Jesus, when He was reviled, reviled not again, right? He wasn't just quick to just be like, oh yeah, you call me that, well I'm going to call you this. And just snapping at people or whatever. He was long suffering. By kindness. By the Holy Ghost. By love unfeigned. Unfeigned love. If you don't know what the word feigning means, it means you're faking it. When you're feigning it, you're putting up a front. Unfeigned means it's not fake, it's not a front, you're not just saying it, you're not just using your lips and telling someone how much you love them. You actually mean it. It's real. That's how you're going to approve yourself as a minister of God as you go through these different things. Because you have love unfeigned, because it's real, because it's sincere. And when you have a sincere love, you're going to do things for people. You're going to actually help. You're going to actually make the sacrifice of your own self for others when you have a not fake love. That's why, you know, you say, what do you mean? Well, the Bible says that greater love hath no man than this, and that man lay down his life for his friends. Well, there's the greatest sacrifice you can make is laying down your life, which is why it's the greatest love. So when you have unfeigned love of the brethren, when you have unfeigned love, you are willing to make sacrifices for people. So when people are in need, don't just always be, oh, it's just such a burden, this person's a burden, that person's a burden, and have a wicked mindset of helping people. Do you love them or not? Because if you love them, you're going to make the sacrifice. And you ought to do so without murmuring and complaining about it. Because if you're going to murmur and complain about it, I don't see how God's going to reward you, even when you do make the sacrifice. If we're going to do it, do it the right way. If loving people was easy, everyone would do it, right? Everyone says they do it, but there's a lot of fainted lips out there. Verse 7, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left. We need to be in full armor. We need that word of truth, the word of God. We need God's word. We need the power of God to be able to do all that we need to do to prove ourselves as ministers of God in all the hard times. Hey, how are we going to do that? By the word of truth. We're going to do that by the word of God. We're going to do that by the armor that we're wearing, the armor of righteousness, by honor and dishonor. Now we're going to see, in the next few verses, another contrast of things that seem to be almost contradictory or opposites of each other, but they all make sense. Why are they opposites? Because on the one hand, it's going to be through God's eyes. On the other hand, it's going to be through the world's eyes. So by honor and dishonor. Well, when you're doing things the right way, that's honorable to God, but oftentimes it can be seen as dishonorable in the world. By evil report and good report. Again, the truth is evil. The truth is hate. To those that hate the truth, right, people who don't like what's right will bring an evil report upon you, but you really ought to have a good report, right? People want to cast out your name as evil, as wicked, and try to say all manner of evil against you falsely. It ought to be falsely, and it will be falsely if you're approving yourself as a minister of God, right? If you're doing it the right way, then those things will be false statements. They won't be accurate. They're going to try to bring up an evil report against you, but you have a good report of God. As deceivers and yet true. Again, people want to cast you as being a deceiver. That's why it says as deceiver. You're not actually a deceiver. You're as a deceiver in some people's eyes, yet you're true, because you're not a deceiver. You're telling the truth. As unknown and yet well-known. Well, unknown by who? Unknown by the world. You're not famous, right, in this world. I'm not famous in this world. People don't know who you are, just like, oh, the whole world knows who I am. You're unknown, but you know what? In God's eyes, you're well-known, and among the saints, you're probably well-known, and among the people who really matter in God's economy, you're well-known. But in the world, you're unknown. Well, you're unknown. As dying, and behold, we live, right? You have everlasting life. You can live your life as you're dying here physically. Hey, behold, we live. As chastened and not killed. Now, look, there's another important one. Look, God scourges every son whom he receives. Every child of God is going to receive chastening and disciplining, but you want to make sure that you're not one that's killed, because there are those who are killed. They push things too far, they backside too far, whatever, and God just says, okay, I'm done with you. You're done, like King Saul. You want to be, you know, we're all going to be chastened, but you want to be chastened and not killed. You know, there is a sin unto death. I do not say you shall pray for it. Verse number 10. As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. And this was another one. If you remember from Sunday, we're reading in Isaiah chapter 53 about Jesus Christ. You know, the Bible talks about him being, you know, a man of sorrows and well acquainted with grief, right? And the more truth and knowledge you have, you're going to understand sorrow. You're not going to be found in the house of mirth and the fools, right? The Bible talks a lot about that, of having this knowledge. It kind of, it sobers you and makes you realize there's, you know, there's often a lot of things to have grief over, but simultaneously we are commanded to be joyful, but for good reason too. While there may be tragedy going on around you, you still always have reason to rejoice. So you can always be rejoicing even in the midst of tragedy because one, you have eternal life. Two, God will never leave you nor forsake you. I mean, God will always be there for you. So even in your darkest time, even if everyone else seems to be, you know, abandoning you, on the one hand, that's sorrowful. It is. And when you live the Christian life, there's going to be people who backstab you, things like that, but at the same time, you can be always rejoicing still. Hopefully that makes sense to you. It makes sense to me, but the more you live and try to live the right life and live righteously, you're going to find yourself, yes, you're going to be exposed to a lot of sorrow, but there's always hope and there's always reason to have joy. Always. Always. As poor, yet making many rich. Now, the reason why we're talking about as poor is because we're not interested in the goods of this world. That's not our goal. That's not why we're here. We're not looking to make ourselves rich. But you know what? We care about the betterment of others. And again, the poor, I think, would be more like the physical goods, but making others rich, it's not because we're giving them all of our physical riches. We're making them rich in the eternal sense, in the heavenly goods, in the heavenly economy. We're willing to spend our physical goods to help make others rich spiritually. It's not the, hey, I'm going to make myself poor by giving you all of my money so that you could be rich. That's not what this is talking about. Right? Because that would be kind of stupid because if everyone was going to follow this, then you'd be like, well, no, here. And then, no, here. You know, like, if it was physical money, like, oh, I'm going to be poor, you're going to be rich. No, no, no, no, I want to be poor, and you're going to be rich. You know, like, that's not what it's talking about. The worldly sense, we're poor, but in the heavenly sense, we're making others rich. That's the goal. It's being mindful of other people. As having nothing, right? You're poor, you have nothing, and yet possessing all things. Well, how could those two be, you know, it seems contradictory. It's not. Because on the one hand, we're having nothing in this world, yet we can have all things spiritually speaking. We can have these great possessions and even a mansion in heaven and all these rewards and stuff laid up for you while, even though while here, you seemingly have nothing. But actually, we have great riches. That's how you live the Christian life. This is how you approve yourselves as the ministers of God. You need to get through life the right way. Doing things righteously. Verse 11. O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged. Ye are not straightened in us, but ye are straightened in your own bowels. Now, you know, the word straighten there, it's not with a gh of like not crooked. This straightening is a narrowing. So what he's saying is that our heart is in, we're enlarged towards you. Our heart is enlarged towards you and you're not straightened in us. We're not making you more narrow. You're doing that to yourself. He says, now for a recompense in the same, I speak unto my children, be ye also enlarged. It's like we want you, we're not trying to straighten you, we want you to be enlarged too. In the same fashion, in the same respect of your heart being enlarged. Right? That's what he's saying that he wants for them as unto his own children. Verse 14. Another important point here that fits with the same theme, be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. So we just got done talking about how we're going to approve ourselves as ministers of God, how we're not going to give offense, how we're going to be able to live this life and do the right thing. Well, you know what? One of the ways is by not being unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Now, let's keep reading here because we want to be careful, we want to be careful with the truths of God's Word and they are truths, and we want to apply them all appropriately and definitely not take anything for granted and give serious consideration to what the Word of God is saying, but we do want to be careful not to go to an inordinate extreme. And I'll give you a real quick extreme example to help you understand what I'm trying to express here. Some people can say, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers as saying, well, we can't really have anything to do with unbelievers because I don't want to be unequally yoked here so let's go out and form a compound out in the middle of nowhere and barricade ourselves in. Now look, I think that illustrates a point to what I'm saying, but you're going to have to agree, though, there's going to be a point to where you're going to have to say, no, where this makes sense versus where it doesn't. My extreme example is something that you could have plenty of other scripture to back up why that's ridiculous and how we're supposed to go to unbelievers and preach the gospel unto them and everything else. But you don't also want to just take one extreme to whitewash or just make the verse of none effect either. So we want to be careful as we apply these things because you think about what does it mean to be yoked together, first of all? Well, when you're in a yoke, you can't really get out of that yoke. You're putting yourself in a situation where, okay, now I'm just stuck with you. And I think that's one of the key elements here that's important to understand about yoking yourselves up with unbelievers. Because I don't believe, and some people may try to use this to say, well, you can't ever do any business with unbelievers because now you're yoked up with them. I don't believe that. But some people may take that to an extreme to where you start applying it too much. That's why I gave the extreme example, well, let's just all move off and live on a compound somewhere, right? So you don't want to jump that far when looking at verses like this, but they definitely need to mean something. I mean, they absolutely have to have good application in your life. Very good, very solid, very true application to where you are being very mindful not to be yoked up together with unbelievers. Because we want to make sure that we are approved as ministers of God and that we're not going to cause the name of Christ to be blasphemed or anything like that. We want to do things right. But let's keep reading because it does provide a little bit more context to what's being said here, which is always important, right? The context. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial, or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And it's using these opposites. Righteousness, unrighteousness, light, darkness. Christ, Belial. Belial is Satan, okay? It's a devil. He that believeth with an infidel. Infidel means you're not faithful. It means you don't have faith. It means you're an unbeliever, okay? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God. As God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Now, it looks to me like this context in this passage is pretty spiritual. It's spiritual in the sense of, like, he brings up the idols, he's talking about Christ and Belial, he's talking about, you know, you're the temple of the living God, and when it comes to yoking up, one of the applications that I make with this is not being ecumenical. Not yoking up with these unbelievers and all of their idolatry and all of their, you know, false worship and pagan worship and saying, look, we need to be separate from them. We need to be separate from these groups and from these people who want to, who think they may be serving God, but, you know, they're caught up in idolatry. I mean, the most blaring example would be the Catholic Church, of course, that's just riddled with idolatry and pagan practices and things like that, but, you know, they're definitely unbelievers. They're infidels. There's multiple ways, though, too. I mean, you could think of being not unequally yoked together with an unbeliever. Well, there's a pretty big yoke in marriage, right, of not getting in that yoke, and there's plenty of other scripture to actually back that up as well, not taking wives of the heathen and to, you know, that the woman who's a widow can marry who she will, but only in the Lord, and there's, you know, many other passages that explain that we ought to be marrying believers also. This would be one more that could support that doctrine as well. But what we're also seeing here is just the call to sanctification, because that's what it means to be separate. It means you're sanctified. It means you're gonna walk in a holy way and not just get yoked up into these ways of darkness and into these, you know, and you're gonna have to apply this in your life as you see it, because there's too many examples, I think, to be able to give on what you're gonna end up ultimately considering to be yoking up with unbelievers, but I think if it's gonna cause you to defile yourself in some way, you know, to get involved with some idolatrous practices or just to really get involved with something that is unholy, that's what we're seeing here. So going to work for someone who's not saved, I think, is one thing, but that's not necessarily yoking yourself up if that employer's not causing you to then, like, end up blaspheming God or His word by the things He would have you to do. Does that make sense? Like, if you're just doing things that are not sinful, there's nothing idolatrous or wicked or bad or wrong, that's not what this is talking about, about yoking yourself together with unbelievers, because this is talking about the people who are, you know, just completely on the opposite spectrum of everything against God. Now, one place I'm gonna have you turn, we're gonna close on this, is 1 Peter chapter 3. 1 Peter chapter 3, this passage we're gonna read, we're gonna read a few verses, is very parallel with the theme of what we've just been reading in 2 Corinthians chapter 6, so I kind of want to just look at this, too, and it'll just help bolster the doctrine, the teaching that we're learning from 2 Corinthians chapter 6. Look at verse number 12 of 1 Peter chapter 3. The Bible says, For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers. But the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. And who is He that will harm you if ye be followers of that which is good? But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye, and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. You know, it says, Sanctify the Lord God in your heart, you're setting God apart in your heart. You're setting Him high, and He's holy to you, right? When you sanctify the Lord God in your heart, you don't have to be afraid of their terror, of other people. If you're suffering for righteousness' sake, you know, we were reading earlier in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 about being in imprisonment and in stripes and having, you know, afflictions, how we ought to behave, and we're seeing something similar here, and he's saying, like, Who is He that's going to harm you if you be followers of that which is good, if you have a good rapport, if you're living righteously? He says, but and if you suffer for righteousness' sake, so but if it does end up happening, right, because when you're doing good, you shouldn't suffer, right? Because there's no reason to. When you're doing evil, yeah, you can expect to suffer. Not just at the hands of God, but even at the hands of man. I mean, when you're doing wicked to other people, you better expect to reap what you're sowing, right? But if you're doing good, he's saying, yeah, you should be able to expect to live without harm, without anything, you know, evil coming upon you. But, he says, but if you do suffer for righteousness' sake, because you're doing righteous anyways, and you still suffer, he says, you know what? Happy are you. One, because you're going to have a good conscience. You're doing the right thing. You know you're pleasing the Lord and God's with you, and just as I said earlier, hey, the eyes of the Lord over the righteous and his ears are open under their prayers, so knowing that you have the ear of God when you're being afflicted, that's pretty comforting in itself. Say, I know I'm being afflicted for my righteousness' sake. Well, you know what? God's ear is open unto you. And not being afraid of the terror that other people would want to instill on you, these unbelievers or these infidels, neither be troubled. Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Look at verse 16. Having a good conscience that whereas they speak evil of you as of evildoers, this is as of a bad report and a good report, they speak evil of you as an evildoer, like, oh yeah, that guy's an evildoer, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. Let them be ashamed. They're going to try to cast out your name as evil. They're going to try to punish you. But he says, you know what, when you're doing right, when you've sanctified the Lord God in your hearts, when you're following Him, when you're being obedient, you know what, they're going to be the ones that are ashamed. Let them be ashamed. Why? Because they're falsely accusing you. And that's how the ministry is not going to be blamed. And that's how you can be the most effectual minister of God. Because you can get through those times, and people will be looking closely to all of your actions as you go through, especially the difficult times. But when you can make it through all of that with patience, and humility, with long suffering, with meekness, when you make it through, that will also speak volumes to those who are watching. When you don't tuck tail and run or turn your back on the Lord, because if you're not doing anything that's going to cause the ministry to be blamed, then the ministry is going to grow that much more. Stand fast in the Lord. Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Approve in all things, approve ourselves as the ministers of God. Main takeaway from this sermon. Let's bow our heads in the word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for the admonitions, for the teachings from your Word. I pray that you please help us, Lord, to be able to continually get the sin out of our life and be able to live more righteously and more holy, and that nothing that we do would ultimately end up in causing a stain on our ministry, but that you would guide us, you would lead us, and strengthen us, dear Lord, and help us to reach more people, Lord, and that any hardships and any trials that come our way, that we could come through like gold, dear Lord, that when we're tried, we would abide that fire and make it through. And we ask for your help with that and strength and, Lord, help us to not have fainted love here towards one another, but that we would actually care enough to make our own sacrifices to help people when they're in need. And, Lord, we love you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, we're going to sing one last song before we're dismissed. Brother Peter, please lead us. All right, church, if you could open up your hymnals to Psalm number 406. Psalm 406. It was on the Lord's side. Psalm 406. It was on the Lord's side. Not for weight of glory, not for crown and palm, enter we the army, raise a warrior's song, but for love that lay made, rise for whom he died. He, Jesus' name, must be on his side. While I love him singing, while I praise him high, we are on the Lord's side, Savior, we are kind. Jesus, thou hast bought us, not with gold or chair, but with thine own blind blood for thine iodine. With thy blessing failing, peace would come to thee. Thou hast made us willing, thou hast made us free. By thy grand redemption, by thy grace divine, we are on the Lord's side, Savior, we are thine. Fierce may be the conflict, so may be the foil, but the King's own army, the can of her glory, round his center ranging, between us and full. For his truth, the changing, makes the trial true. Joyful in his King, by thy grace divine, we are on the Lord's side, Savior, we are thine. Thank you.