Hulshizer, Bruce: Overview Of 2 Corinthians-03 ~ New England Regional Bible Study

Okay, we're in chapter six, and we'll begin reading from verse eleven. Chapter six and verse eleven. Our heart is open to you, Corinthians. Our heart is, our mouth is open to you, Corinthians. Our heart is expanded. You are not straitened in us, but you are straitened in your own affections. But for an answering recompense, I speak as the children, let your heart also expand itself. Be not diversely yoked with unbelievers, for what participation is there between righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship of light with darkness, or what consent of Christ with Belial, or what part for a believer along with an unbeliever, and what agreement of G- God's temple with idols? For you are the living God's temple. According as God has said, I will dwell among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be to me a people. Wherefore come out from the midst of them and be separated, says the Lord. Touch not what is unclean, and I will receive you, and I will be to you for a father, and you shall be to me for sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us purify ourselves from every pollution of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in God's fear. Receive us. We have injured no one, we have ruined no one, we have made gain of no one. I do not speak for condemnation, for I have already said that you are in our hearts to die together and live together. Great is my boldness towards you, great my exalting in respect of you. I am filled with encouragement. I overabound in joy under all our affliction. For indeed, when we came into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted in every way, without combats, within fears. But he who encourages those that are brought low, even God, encouraged us by the coming of Titus, and not by his coming only, but also through the encouragement with which he was encouraged as to you, relating to us your ardent desire, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I the more rejoiced. For if also I grieved you in the letter, I do not regret it, if even I have regretted it, for I see that that letter, if even it were only for a time, grieved you. Now I rejoice not that you have been grieved, but that you have been grieved to repentance, for you have been grieved according to God, that in nothing ye might be injured by us. For grief according to God works repentance to salvation, never to be regretted, but the grief of the world works death. For behold this very thing, your being grieved according to God, how much diligence has wrought in you, but what excusing of yourselves, but what indignation, but what fear, but what ardent desire, but what zeal, but what vengeance. In every way you have proved yourselves to be pure in the matter. So then, if also I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of him that was injured, that injured, nor for the sake of him that was injured, but for the sake of your diligent zeal, excuse me, but for the sake of our diligent zeal for you being manifested to you before God. For this reason, we have been encouraged, and we the rather rejoiced in our encouragement more abundantly by reason of the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all. Because if I boasted to him anything about you, I have not been put to shame. But as we have spoken to you all things in truth, so also our boasting to Titus has been the truth, and his affections are more abundantly towards you, calling to mind the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling you received him. I rejoice that in everything I am confident as to you. But we make known to you, brethren, the grace of God bestowed in the assemblies of Macedonia, that in a great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty has abounded to the riches of their free-hearted liberality. For according to their power, I bear witness, and beyond their power, they were willing of their own accord, begging of us with much entreaty to give effect to the grace and fellowship of the service which was to be rendered to the saints. And not according as we hoped, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and to us by God's will. So that we begged Titus that according as he had before begun, so he would also complete as to you this grace also. But even as ye abound in every way, in faith, in word, in knowledge, in all diligence, and in love from you to us, that you may abound in this grace also. I do not speak as commanding it, but through the zeal of others and proving the genuineness of your love. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sakes, he being rich became poor, in order that ye by his poverty might be enriched. And I give my opinion in this, for this is profitable for you, who began before, not only to do, but also to be willing a year ago, but now also complete the doing of it, so that as there was the readiness to be willing, so also to complete out of what you have. For if the readiness be there, a man is accepted according to what he may have, not according to what he has not. For it is not in order that there may be ease for others and for you distress, but on the principle of equality. In the present time, your abundance for their lack, that their abundance may be for your lack, so that there should be equality. According as it is written, he who gathered much had no excess, and he who gathered little was nothing short. But thanks be to God, who gives the same diligent zeal for you in the heart of Titus. For he received indeed the entreaty, but being full of zeal, he went of his own accord to you. But we have sent with him the brother whose praise is in the glad tidings for all the assemblies, and not only so, but is also chosen by the assemblies as our fellow traveler with this grace ministered by us to the glory of the Lord himself, and a witness of our readiness, avoiding this, that anyone should blame us in this abundance which is administered by us. For we provide for things honest, not only before the Lord, but also before men. And we have sent with them our brother, whom we have often proved to be of diligent zeal in many things, and now more diligently zealous through the great confidence he has as to you. Whether as regards Titus, he is my companion and fellow laborer in your behalf, or our brethren, they are deputed messengers of assemblies, Christ's glory. Show therefore to them before the assemblies the proof of your love and of our boasting about you. For concerning the ministration which is for the saints, it is superfluous my writing to you. For I know your readiness, which I boast, which I boast of as respects you to Macedonians, that Acacia is prepared since a year ago, and the zeal reported of you has stimulated the mass of the brethren. But I have sent the brethren in order that our boasting about you may not be made void in this respect, in order that, as I have said, you may be prepared. Less happily if Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we, that we may say not ye, may be put to shame in this confidence. I thought it necessary, therefore, to beg the brethren that they would come to you and complete beforehand your foreannounced blessing, that this may be ready thus as blessing and not as got out of you. But this is true, he that sows sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he that sows in the spirit of blessing shall reap also in blessing. Each according as he has purposed in his heart, not greedily or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver. But God is able to make every gracious gift abound towards you, that having in every way always all sufficiency, ye may abound in every good work. According as it is written, he has scattered abroad, he has given to the poor, his righteousness remains forever. Now he that supplies seed to the sower and bread for eating shall supply and make abundant your sowing and increase the fruits of your righteousness, enriched in every way unto all free-hearted liberality which works through us thanksgiving to God. Because the ministration of this service is not only filling up the measure of what is lacking to the saints, but also abounding by many thanksgivings to God. They glorifying God through the proof of this ministration, by reason of your subjection, by profession to the glad tidings of the Christ, and your free-hearted liberality in communicating towards us and towards all. And in their supplication for you, full of ardent desire for you, on account of the exceeding grace of God which is upon you. Thanks be to God for his unspeakable free gift. Paul was sincere in himself and in his ways, in his motives, in his manners, and as such, he challenged saints to sincerity, didn't he? We saw that in this passage. In other words, if we see the importance that I walk before the Lord, in honesty and genuineness before the Lord, then if I'm seeking to minister to the saints, I want to encourage them to do likewise. So Paul is stirring up the saints here in these chapters, isn't he? At the end, we just read about how he was stirring them up as to their previous decision to give to the need of the saints in Judea, and he's saying, you should follow through on that. Whereas he's, he's saying, you know, you don't want to just talk about it, you want to do it. Now, isn't that sincerity? There's peop- people can talk about anything. You can say anything you want, but when the rubber hits the road, as we say, there's the proof. So he says, I want to see the proof of your love. So he's calling them to genuineness, to honesty, to sincerity. And in, uh, and in chapter seven, he, uh, he had written that letter with correction in it, and he saw genuine repentance, and that's what he wanted. That's what he desired. As a genuine servant of the Lord, he desired to see genuineness, and there was great joy as a result of that. And then here at the end of chapter six, he's, he's challenging them about holiness and that, you know, if they're going to have fellowship with the Lord, real fellowship with the Lord, not just talk about a fellowship with the Lord, then they have to have a holy life. They have to be pure, as he says, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. And, uh, connected with that is, um, separation. So, I think maybe in his mind, and I apologize for saying I think, but I, I say that because I'm not, it's not explicitly stated. But it seems that in his mind, um, was particularly these, uh, false workers or deceitful workers, as he calls them in chapter eleven. When he says, uh, be not unequally yoked or diversely yoked with unbelievers. Certainly, uh, the application is true universally, though, that if we're the Lord's and and we're a living temple of the Lord, there there's a great difference between someone who's a a temple of the living God and someone who's not. There's a great, vast, infinite difference, really, between who you are. And, um, there therefore is just simply not a fellowship between the two. We can't act like we're the same. So certainly that would be applicable to marriage, to business partnerships, like we would apply this kind of passage. You know, the tendency, um, if we're not confident in the Lord, or if we're, uh, not doing everything as before the Lord, or if we're operating in the natural sphere, is to make alliances that we shouldn't make. Because we're, um, we're looking to men. We're looking to men to somehow make this work. And so it's common today in evangelical Christianity, as it's called, um, to do that. You know, there's, there's a, a yoking between those who are true believers and those systems of men that have been called Christian but are not, are not holding fast to the gospel of the Lord Jesus, and somehow we'll get along because we got a common opponent here or something, a political thing often, and so we'll league together. Now here, um, in Corinth, it wouldn't have been that broad because there weren't these established religions of Christianity, um, so-called Christendom, but um, inside the assembly itself, that there were these, there were actually unbelievers among them that they were kind of putting up with and trying to get along with, maybe in a false sense of congeniality, you know, that we want to kind of all get along, an idea. Instead of that holiness really is the standard, that perfecting holiness is the goal. Now, that doesn't mean that, um, all of us are perfect or ever will be. If, if our fellowship with one another was based on that we never did anything wrong, we wouldn't have any fellowship, right? Not one of us could get along with each other. But that should be the goal, shouldn't it be, is to be perfecting holiness in the fear of God, that we have God in his place, that he is God, and therefore we need to, to, uh, honor him in everything we do, perfecting holiness in, in the fear of God, purifying ourselves from every pollution of flesh and spirit. That should be a goal. Now, connected this thought connecting with the false teachers, if you look at other passages like second Peter chapter two about false teachers, it talks about them appealing to the lust of the flesh, don't they? So probably here Paul's addressing this because these false teachers are attracting the natural man. They're, they're telling people what they want to hear. They're making people feel good about themselves. That's a facade again, though, isn't it? That's a surface thing again. That's, that's not reality again, not sincerity. And so those that aren't, um, genuine, truly serving the Lord from the heart, so there's a lack of sincerity in themselves. There's a lack of sincerity in their ministry then too, that they're not aiming at the heart to see real change and real holiness. But the true minister knows that that's the only way to enjoy fellowship with the Lord, and that is the goal, isn't it? To enjoy fellowship with the Lord. Isn't that desirable? That these last verses here. Of course, we are the sons of God if we're saved, right? But here it's in a practical way, that we be practically enjoying fellowship with God, that, that our Father in heaven is our counselor, and he's guiding our steps and leading our ways, and that's what we desire. And so if we want to, to enjoy that, and if we're going to seek to minister to the saints, we want to encourage them in that, that they have holy lives to the Lord. Well, um, Paul had done that in his first letter, hadn't he? He called them to that. He called them on s- some specific things, like about following men. Should we be following men? Should we be, um, saying I am of so and so, and accolading men and all those kind of things? No, we shouldn't be. Should we be tolerating sin in our company? 1 Corinthians 5? No, we shouldn't be. Should we be trying to get attention for ourselves like they were trying to use their gifts for that? No, we shouldn't be. And so he called him on that, and he'd written that letter, like we, we noted in chapter two, and he did it with tears. And after he sent it, we had mentioned this before in verse, um, 8. For though I... for if also I grieved you in a letter, I do not regret if even I have regretted it, for I see that this letter, if even it only for a time, grieved you. You know, he's hinting there that he did really actually have a regret that he had sent that letter after he sent it, that he was feeling burdened in his heart because he loved them. He loved them. He says, you're in our hearts to die and live together. So true spiritual ministry, uh, aims at the heart, aims at sincerity in the, in the people that they're ministering to. In other words, they, we don't want them to just act like they're Christians. We didn't want them to know the Lord and enjoy fellowship with the Lord and to be coming along in the maturity in the Lord and living lives that please him. And so there's a real heart burden in a minister of the Lord then, a real concern, and then there's going to need to be some difficult investments made, maybe difficult things said sometimes, like Paul had to here. Even a grieving, and sometimes the people that you're ministering to might not appreciate it. Right, then we get that idea here in chapter seven? You know, he grieved them. You know, who wants to grieve somebody, right? Unless you really have their best interest in mind. Kind of like parenting, right? That if you, if you have your children's best interests in mind, you don't just give them what they want. You don't just say anything, go, yeah, whatever, you know, just help yourself. You can, you know, if you want to eat sugar all day, go ahead, that's fine. No, you, you want what's best for them, and you know that that's not going to be good for them, and so you're trying to bring them along, and, and they might not appreciate it sometimes. Right? There might be some grief, both of the parents and of the children. But chapter seven here is beautiful. You see, there was this heart desire for the Corinthians, and so a a an acting out, a a a ministering towards them in a way that was difficult. But Titus, you know, came back with a report that they had responded positively. Now, if he had never written that letter, there never would have been that joy, right? In other words, if we don't, if we don't make that our goal to see genuine spiritual growth and fellowship with the Lord, if we don't even a- address things that aren't right with people in grace and in wisdom from the Lord, then there, there won't be the other side of it. There won't be that joy of, of growth in the Lord, that joy of them coming around like the Corinthians did. And so though he grieved them, there was this indication of, of godly sorrow, because godly sorrow works repentance. Again, you know, there's sincerity again, godly sorrow versus the sorrow of the world. Is there that sorrow of the world that, you know, you're sorry that you got caught? And then there's the sorrow of the, uh, there's that godly sorry that you're sorry that you did it. There's a difference, isn't there? There's the inside, and there's the outside. And so the minister of the Lord is aiming at reality. He wants reality because he genuinely loves the saints. And so he desires godly sorrow and and repentance, the change, and he describes it there in verse eleven, ah a real burden and and zeal and diligence and fear and clearing of themselves that T- Titus witnessed. And in response, there was actually a real love for Paul, that he loved him enough to... to deal with him. And so Paul's there in Macedonia. Remember he had gone from Troas, he was, he was so burdened in his heart, no rest in our flesh. He's in Macedonia, he says combat's without, fear's within, and Titus arrives. You know, the God that, that he was serving, that he was so troubled about because of serving God. It wasn't just natural things, this was like spiritual trouble that he had in his life. The God that had brought him into that work and given him the burden, because after all, it was God's burden after all, wasn't it? He just shared it with Paul to be part of it. It's the same God that encouraged him, that lifted him up, and how he lifted him up, what joy. He says, well, first of all, the coming of Titus brought us joy because Titus was a dearly beloved brother. They threw our arms around him and was so happy. But then Titus told us about your response, and so there was great joy in that. And not only that, but we had great joy in seeing Titus's joy in your response. See, that's, that's wonderful, isn't it? Um, but you don't get there easy. Man, that's uh, tough. And so, um, if we're, if we're gonna be servants of the Lord, we're gonna have to be willing to, um, go the hard road, right? So he says to, uh, to Titus, um, if I boasted, verse, verse fourteen says of Titus, because if I boasted to anyone anything about you, I've not been put to shame, but as we have spoken to you all things in truth, so also our bo- boasting to Titus was- has been the truth. He must have, you know, told Titus that I just know that they're going to respond this way to it, and and it showed up that way. He says, we, we've always spoken to you all things in truth. Now, that's not just speaking the truth, right? That's the scripture, but we've spoken everything in truth. We've been genuine, we've been straightforward, we've always, w- where there's no facade about how we do things. We don't try to be s- to show up like we're something more than we are. Eh, isn't that key to living? Key to to serving, key to key to life is that we do everything, we speak everything in truth. Later on, I I think it's chapter twelve, he he says that very thing, that we don't want people to think that we're something more than we are. Just we are what we are. And we're not glorying in anything we're falling short of, I don't mean it that way, but we're not trying to make ourselves, you know, you know how men can do that if you're operating in the natural sphere, you know, you, you dress them up and you put the lights on and you put the big show on and, you know, you're like these big concerts and things, and I mean, come on. Like there's something big and impressive about them. You know what's big and impressive is reality, you know, substance that, that labors for the saints, that, that aims at the heart. Those are the things that should impress us, because after all, that's what God does. That's what the Lord Jesus did, didn't he? You know, if there's anybody could have put on big shows, it was the Lord Jesus. And you know, when he fed the five thousand, um, he didn't do it like a show, did he? You know, he actually gave it to his disciples to give it out. It just kept. But then the, the people realized it came from him, and they, they chased him down the next day. Remember that? I think it's at, uh, John chapter six. And they, and it says that they were seeking Jesus, and they come to him, and he says, um, you seek me, um, not because you saw the signs, in other words, realized who I am, but because you, you want food. He wouldn't do it. I mean, he's peop- here's people seeking Jesus, and if he was seeker sensitive, he would have put on the show, right? I mean, look at this big crowd. I mean, all right, let's do it again. No, that's not the Lord Jesus at all. That's not Paul at all. That's not a minister to the Lord. That's not the way it is. That's not the way we're supposed to serve. Now, we're going to see it again in later chapters. I keep alluding to him, but, you know, the servant of the Lord actually, because he's aiming at the heart, he's aiming at reality, he's aiming at sincerity, he's aiming at substance, he's aiming at inside. So much of the time when he, when he's working, nobody knows about it. He does it in secret. He does it, nobody can't even see it because, you know, the things that are done with the big show and stuff actually don't amount to much of anything. Certainly don't last, right? There's a surpassing glory idea. It's this introduced with glory, but not living up to what it was trumped up to be, pumped up to be. Well, here we see the heart of Paul. I just think it's beautiful. Recommend you're meditating on chapter seven, Looking at even the, just the terminology that's used, the diligent zeal and the joy. He talks about, you know, exceeding those kind of things. Um, so do we, do we desire that? If we want to have spiritual joy, um, the spiritual burden comes first, and the spiritual sacrifice and difficulty comes first. You don't, you don't get the, the joy without the trouble. Well, chapter eight and nine, Paul is, is aiming at their heart and aiming for reality in their living. Um, it's important to, that Paul himself had been genuine before them, so then it's a natural progression that he would call them to genuineness then, right? Um, if he had just been kind of a show, and why not them be a show too? But he was genuine in all his, his service and his labors and his love for them. And so he says, you know, a year ago you, you talked about that you wanted to gather some money to help out the saints in Judea that were in need and that were poor. And, um, I- I'm sending Titus ahead of time before I arrive because some Macedonians are probably going to come with me, and uh, let- let's settle the matter. Let's follow through on it and complete the desire that you expressed before. Um, I don't- I don't want it to be that we show up and it's not what it was trumped up to be. You see that false show again? It's like, yeah, Acacian, I've talked about you to people, and I saw this zeal in you, this desire, but I guess there must have been some kind of hint of them just not following through. And so he's, we say, you know, holding their foot to the fire, you know, this idea, like, like, let's, let's, let's show it, let's do it. So he says that, he says it very, um, clearly, it's verse eight, this idea. He says, I do not speak as commanding it, but through the zeal of others. That's he's talking about the Macedonians, and proving the genuineness of your love. Proving it, the genuineness of your love. You talk about loving, let's, let's prove it, let's demonstrate it, bring it out into action. Well, that certainly is a practical challenge to us, isn't it? To me. Um... Does my love for the saints, uh, work out into practice? In my time, in my money. You know, if, if I really love the saints, if you really love someone, you invest in them. You want to bless them. Now you want to really bless them. You don't want to just, you know, want them to like you. You want to really bless them. You want to really help them, encourage them. So it, it worked out, um, what he's challenging it to work out. He uses the example of the Macedonians. He says, from their great poverty, the abundance of their joy overflowed into them just giving abundantly. And he says, it's not like we, like, twisted their arm into it. It says they first gave themselves to the Lord and then to us because the Lord told them to, by the Lord's will. He didn't twist money out of them. And it wasn't money for himself, incidentally. It's not like he was trying to get money for himself here. This wasn't sending around letters and asking for money. This was, uh, the assemblies are trying to help out saints in another part of the world because they're in need. Kind of like, you know, earthquakes in Peru or things like that, that the saints here would be burdened to try to help them out, or maybe that you know of some other things that have happened. And so Paul is, um, addressing that. And so he challenges them by the example of, of the Macedonians. And this comes back to this idea of fellowship, doesn't it? Um, that the... that the Macedonians thought about the saints in Judea as connected to them, that they were part of the same body. And so if they were hurting, then we're hurting. If they have need, they don't have enough food to eat, I want to help them out. I have enough food to eat. It's a beautiful thing to think about fellow saints that way. We want to, uh, be a blessing to them. And he uses a, a beautiful example, and I've enjoyed seeing verse nine in this light, in other words, as coming out of verse eight. He says, uh, I, I say this as proving the genuineness of your love, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might be enriched, might become rich. Genuine love, proven genuine love, right? It's not like the Lord Jesus stayed up in heaven and said, I love you. He said, he said, I love you in action. The great grace is like love in action, right? The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. He, he was rich and he became poor so that you who are poor could become rich. You just follow his example. So, um, in this, in this giving, you see this idea of sharing in a fellowship. He talks about this equality idea. Now, at the end of the chapter, uh, uh, 8, 8, uh, 16, uh, he says that Titus had this diligent zeal for you. He wanted to come back, and we sent along this other brother who has a good testimony among the assemblies, and then another brother, so he's these three brothers coming along here. Why did they have all these brothers involved with this gathering, you know, this gift together? Well, he says, verse uh twenty and twenty one, avoiding this that anyone should blame us in this abundance which is administered by you, for we provide for things honest not only before the Lord but also before men. There's a very helpful s- practical principle, isn't there? That they had multiple people, three men, involved with this gift, because money is a sticky thing. You know, handle money wrong, it's bad news. And so he said, we- we're not only going to be honest before God, you know, in other words, you could say, well, we gathered the money. I know exactly how much I was given, and I delivered it all. Before God, I can say that that's true. That's good. But he wanted to be blameless before men too. And so they conducted themselves in a careful way then with regard to money, that there couldn't be any kind of these guys are out, out trying to get money, you know, taking slices or whatever. Nothing like that. Very careful in their handling of money. And they put it in the hands of faithful men, known men who, who they knew were reliable, that love the saints and loved the gospel. And so there's that principle, a very practical principle regarding giving, this honesty, um, concern. With that principle of, of sincerity. Now, in chapter eight, he, uh, gives some teaching and some encouragement for them in giving, uh, and he uses the idea of sowing seed, and that it should be a cheerful giving. Um, that, you know, if you, if you spread the seed and you want to reap a harvest from it, the more you spread, the more you harvest. You spread a little bit, you get a little bit. You spread a lot, you get a lot. And then he, he goes on to say that, you know, this, this giving, um, it, it abounds. It's, it's not just like, all right, you give fifty dollars and it, and it accomplishes fifty dollars worth of something, like it gets fifty dollars worth of food for the saints in Judea. It- it abounds. It actually is- is a great investment, in other words. You know, it- it gets a fifty dollars worth of food, but- but they have a- a love and a fellowship with you that- that comes out of it. And- and not only that, but they- they give thanks to God for it because he answered prayer and provided for their needs. See how it abounds? It's much bigger than fifty dollars if you invest that way. You know, you make your investment in the stock market and get ten percent, twenty percent returns, but this is, this is a great harvest that comes out of it, right? A spiritual harvest from a physical thing. That's a beautiful thing to be part of, isn't it? So I challenge my own heart, um, how am I doing in that? You know, do I... You know, we shouldn't just give, um... Well, we should give cheerfully, and we should give, um, as the Lord provides. We don't have to feel guilty that we can't give more. He says that as the Lord has provided. Um, but we should give spiritually, shouldn't we? In other words, we're, we're, our aim is spiritual end. We're trying to, to encourage and to, to be used of the Lord and, and to, to result in thanksgiving to the Lord. Be an answer to prayer. You'll be an answer to prayer. People have been praying. So that's a great, great practical, uh, privilege that we have. And it should be done with confidence too, because he says, you know, you're gonna spread out the seed, but you know where the seed comes from? Comes from the Lord, right? He who provides seed to the sower and bread to the eater. It's, it's all coming from the Lord. And so we can give with confidence. This idea of confidence runs throughout the book, doesn't it? That confidence in the Lord, that the Lord can handle this, that the Lord, and here in a very practical way, confidence in the Lord, that, you know what, if the Lord's burdened my heart, especially if I made a commitment to give to something, I, I should follow through on it, even if it's sacrificial and I can't see how this is all going to work out, that, uh, we're gonna, we're gonna give because the Lord said so, and after all, he feeds all the birds. He can handle me. That's what the Lord Jesus said, right? So, um, takes care of the lilies, awful lot of them around, and he, he can provide for us. And so this confidence in a living God, and that a living God that he can actually provide for us. A lot of times we think of God as, uh, impractical. You know, like, yeah, there's God, but then there's reality. You know, I need money, you know, we need, we need to pay the mortgage, you know. Have to put food on the table for feed the mouths or whatever. We shouldn't have that view at all, should we? The living God who's, who's worked everything out. I seek to encourage my heart in this. You know, he w- he created the world. That was a very big project, and he, he handled it. He worked out all the details. Um, the history of the world, all kinds of things involved with that. He worked all that out, hasn't he so far? Uh, the salvation of our souls. Has he handled that one okay? He, he knew all that was involved with it, right? All, all the power, all the wisdom, all the love, all that was needed to work it out through the Lord Jesus. He's worked it all out, and he has to even teach us what he worked out, because we didn't even realize it was needed. So can we trust him? Can we trust him to provide for all of our needs? Can we trust him when he says go, when he says stop, whatever he says, can we trust him? We can trust him. And so Paul's life actively demonstrated that, didn't it? A confidence in the Lord. I think we have a few minutes, right? We going till a quarter after here, or or we're just about done? Just a couple minutes. Okay, let's just read the first, uh, three verses here of chapter ten that'll introduce into our next session. Chapter ten. Now I, but I myself, Paul. So here Paul is, um, it was Paul and Timothy. Now he's saying, uh, step back, uh, Paul's gonna talk now. But I myself, Paul, entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of the Christ, who as to appearance when present am mean among you, but absent and bold towards you. But I beseech that present I may not be bold with a confidence with which I think to be daring towards some who think of us as walking according to flesh. For walking in flesh, we do not war according to flesh. So Paul is gonna address this very thought of walking and warring according to flesh. We've, we've seen hints of it along the way there. We've seen very foundational thoughts that, that, that are gonna be important. Now he's gonna address it very specifically, that there's people in Corinth, in that assembly, that, um, really are belittling Paul as unimpressive. He's just, he just doesn't have it. I mean, he, he writes these powerful letters, but then he gets there and he's such a, a lame person. He just doesn't have that charisma, you know? And so there's people in Corinth that were big men, a lot like Saul. That's what Paul's name used to be. How about that? Saul, which means big, and Paul, it means little. You know, he got saved, and he thought of himself as little. But, you know, the children of Israel wanted a big man. People in the flesh want a big man. God gave them Saul because that's what they wanted. They wanted a big man. He's going to go out before us, you know. He's our hero. And so Paul, um, is getting belittled on the flesh plane, and they're saying, you know, look at us compared to Paul. I mean, when he gets here, you know, he's just kind of this little weaselly lame-o, and we are champions, you know, we go out before you. Let's pray. Father, let's, uh, we pray, Father, that, that you might teach us and, and let our eyes, uh, be, um, seeing beyond the surface and seeing beyond the, um, the temporary and seeing beyond the show. And Father, we do pray for, um, help for ourselves in dealing with our own hearts, that we would be genuine and, and honest and straightforward and, um, before you and really led of you. And we pray that as we would seek to minister and encourage the saints, that we would aim for the, the same in them, um, that you would work in their hearts to, to bring forth genuine, uh, godly, Christ-like characteristics in service. That is a blessing, um, to others. We pray these things in the Lord Jesus' name. Amen.