The Final Blessing

to the book of 2 Corinthians chapter 13. 2 Corinthians chapter 13. We'll be picking up in verse 11. Today, we will finish up the book of 2 Corinthians chapter 13. We'll be picking up in the book of 2 Corinthians. It's been an interesting book to go through as far as I'm concerned. It's been kind of a difficult book to teach. And I've shared this a couple of times with people. It would

be almost like taking someone's personal journal and teaching biblical lessons from it because this is the most personal of all of the books that Paul wrote. It really bears his heart more than all of them. I think that's why it's kind of hard to teach. But at the same time, though it's been difficult, I feel like I have learned a great deal and some things have been confronted in me that needed to be confronted.

And I feel like perhaps for many of you, it's been the same thing. We've confronted some very difficult things in the book of 2 Corinthians, but it all has been very profitable. And as difficult as this book has been, it's going to end on a very high note, on a very positive sort of note as he gives them some exhortation and then shares with them this final benediction. And so we pick up in verse 11 here of chapter 13, where it says this, finally, brethren, rejoice, be made complete, be comforted.

Be like-minded, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Now, as I was putting a message together, not this week, but last week, the one that I taught last Sunday, I originally intended in including this in that message. It was going to be part of

the final plea. The final plea that Paul makes, this final blessing, which is the title of this morning's message. But as I read that phrase, finally, brethren, I thought, wouldn't it be great to kind of recap what all we've talked about in the book of 2 Corinthians. So for the next 10 hours, what we're going to do, I'm just kidding. So what I want to do, y'all laugh like that's not going to

happen. So what I want to do is just, first of all, go over some of the things that we covered, some of the high points that we covered in the book of 2 Corinthians. Then I want to look at these exhortations that he gives us in light of what he's covered. And I want to look at these in light of what he's covered in the book of 2 Corinthians. And then we'll close up with the

benediction. We said that we gave the overarching theme of the book as lessons from the heart of a pastor. And in so doing, it broke down into three parts. First of all, he gave us the heart of ministry. And as he did so, he started off with what I think has been somewhat of a foundational message for me, if not for many of us in the church and the community. And that's that he told

us that he is the God of comfort. He shared with us that God comforts us in all of our tribulations, that we may be able to comfort those that are around us. That word comfort means to call to one side. And that's exactly what God does for us when he gives us comfort in our lives is in the midst of difficult things, in the midst of hard things, God calls us to his side and comforts us. As I shared when we went over this back in February, maybe it was late January,

I can't remember. I said the reason why Paul was able to make this statement, the reason why Paul was able to give this truth in the beginning of 2 Corinthians here is because he had learned it himself. We saw, and we'll talk about again here momentarily, the suffering that Paul went through as a believer in Jesus Christ and as an apostle of the faith. And in so doing, he went through incredible stuff. And as he went through incredibly hard things, he knew from experience that God is

the God of comfort because he saw God come alongside him and share comfort with him, both through the working of the Holy Spirit, as well as through the brothers that God sent along side him to serve with him. And so he could declare that God is able to comfort us in all of our tribulation so that we can then go and comfort those that are around us. And as I said, I know for me, this has become a very foundational truth from this book because I too have seen that God is a God of comfort because he comforts us no matter what's going on in our lives. We talked about the lesson of forgiveness. There had been someone that was a detractor of Paul,

someone that was not a fan of Paul within the church of Corinth who had spoken very badly about Paul. And Paul had confronted that individually. He said, it's time to forgive them. We talked about the importance of forgiveness, that forgiveness is the thing that we are required as Christians to do because of what we have been forgiven of. That it is good not only for our relationship with Jesus Christ to forgive,

our relationship with other people to give, but for our mental, spiritual, and physical well-being to forgive those that are around us. You see, if I'm not willing to give forgiveness to those who have hurt me, my relationship with Jesus Christ is destroyed because it is based upon the fact that he has forgiven me of everything that I've done. And if I can't then take that same forgiveness and give it to other people around me, well, then do I really know it myself? And so it affects my relationship with Jesus Christ. It affects my relationship with others when I

don't give out that forgiveness because now there is a bitterness that develops between me and the individual that has offended me. And when I don't offer that forgiveness to that individual, when I'm not willing to extend that forgiveness, then there's a brokenness between me and the individual. There's a brokenness in my relationship with them, with that individual, which in turn causes a brokenness in my relationship with Jesus. But not only that, when I don't offer forgiveness to people, it actually has a mental, gives mental issues in my life because it causes my mind to be occupied with a bitterness that should never be there. It has spiritual issues because it affects

my walk with Jesus Christ. And there are some who it has even caused physical issues in their lives. You ever known anybody that's lost a lot of weight and it's because of the bitterness that they've held against somebody and they can't even eat because all their food is bitterness and they're so angry and it affects them physically? That's what it does to us.

And so he teaches us this lesson of forgiveness that we are to extend the same forgiveness to others that Jesus has given to us. We talked about the fact that faith perseveres under pressure, that in the midst of all of our afflictions, all of those pressures, pressing down, pressing in, trying to squeeze us on every side. That faith in Jesus Christ is the thing that allows us to bear up underneath of those pressures. And the reason why that faith allows us to bear up under the pressures is because we know the ultimate victory that we have in Jesus. Because though Jesus faced death, which was

a great affliction, he was raised from the dead. Therefore, he has that great power flowing through him. And the same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead is at work within you, giving you the ability to stand up under the pressures of life. So, we discussed godly conduct. Oh, excuse me. I'm getting out of order here. That was number five. Number four is we discussed our eternal hope. Though our outward man is perishing, and for many

of us, we can declare that our outward man truly is perishing. Though our outward man is perishing, yet our inward man is being renewed day by day. This momentary light affliction is producing a far more eternal weight of glory because the house that I live in right now is actually simply a tent that's not intended to last forever. This tent is not meant to live forever on planet Earth because this is not my home. I instead have a home that is eternal in the heavens, not made with hands

that God has prepared for me. And so, I have an eternal hope that goes beyond here. Therefore, I live my life like I have an eternal hope. And so, I live my life very differently because the next thing that we talked about was godly conduct. That if my eternal hope is an eternal home with my savior, that my conduct should match that, that I should not take the grace of God in vain

by living a licentious life. In other words, living a life that says, well, God has given me his grace so I can sin as much as I want to, and I'll just put it on the grace master card and charge it to Jesus. We can't live that way because that's taking God's grace in vain. We said taking God's grace in vain means that we won't live a self-righteous life. In other words, I will not

take God's grace and claim it as my own and say, look at what I've done. And if you really want to live for Jesus, I will not take God's grace and claim it as my own and say, look at what I've done. If you really want to live for Jesus, you should watch me because I'm the guy that knows what's going on. I should not live in pride and take God's grace and say, look at who I am. Instead,

I should take God's grace and say, look at who he is. And I should not take God's grace and make myself apathetic because of it and say, well, I'm saved and I'm just going to be content with this is where I am. I'm not going to hell, but I'm never pursuing anything beyond here because apathy is a slap in the face of the grace of God. Because God's grace produces in us holiness.

God's grace produces in us humility and God's grace produces in us passion that can't be stopped by all of the apathy of the world. If God's grace is truly at work in our lives. And because of that grace, we are now ambassadors for Jesus Christ, representatives of him to the world around us. Therefore, my conduct should be fitting of an ambassador of Christ. We went on from there

to talk about wrapping all of this. The heart of ministry up with a message called the heart of ministry, where we talked about the fact that the heart of ministry is twofold. Number one, the heart of ministry is unity. And we're going to spend a lot of time talking about that this morning. The heart of ministry is unity because God's desire for us, first of all, is that we

would be unified with him through the blood of Jesus Christ that forgives us of all of our sins. And then that we would be unified with each other because as believers in Jesus Christ, we form not many disjointed members of a body, but one body that is fitted, together to all work together. Therefore, we should be not uniform, but unified under the headship of Jesus Christ. And that not only is unity the heart of ministry, but repentance is the heart of ministry. That the very thing that ministry is to do is to call believers in Jesus

Christ to a deeper form of repentance, repenting of the things in our lives that still don't match up with him. And in the ministry, our job is to take that message of repentance to the world around us. Because what was the message? It was to take that message of repentance to the world that Jesus preached. What was the first word of the first message that he ever preached?

Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. And so we saw this heart of ministry. And then we moved into the second part, which was lessons in giving, which could get a pastor in trouble if you're not in careful, if you're not careful. So I tried to make sure I maintain the heart of what he's talked about, that the heart of giving, the heart of the lessons of giving were, first of all, responding to Jesus and all that he did for us. All that Jesus gave for us,

requires all that I can give to him because he desires my whole self. And so with this aspect of the heart of ministry, with the aspect of this lesson on giving, when I respond to what Jesus did for me, I respond with a fully surrendered life in every aspect of my life. I respond to him with all of the things that I think being surrendered to him, all of the words that I speak, all of the actions that I do, all of the life that I live. And take note, even the way I spend my money, surrendered to the work of Jesus Christ in my life.

Again, I've been in the process of reading Andrew Murray's book, Absolute Surrender. And in the book, Absolute Surrender, I love this line that he gives. And I know I've referenced it before, but I don't think it can be referenced enough because the Lord just keeps bringing it to my mind. The most difficult thing about surrendering is being willing to be surrendered because sometimes it's really hard to give up our will. And I love what Andrew Murray says in the

first chapter of that book. He said, God is simply calling for a willing heart. And many of you, just like me, can find yourself saying, I don't have the willingness. He said, so you need to pray this, Lord, make me willing to be willing to be surrendered to you. And I don't know about you, but that's been my prayer here lately. And I hope that that's your prayer too, because that's what God's calling for

from believers in Jesus Christ, is a fully surrendered heart to him, even in the way that we spend our money. And then the last thing that we looked at, which should be the most fresh in your mind was the heart of the apostle. And in the heart of the apostle, it was really the defense of the apostle, where he first of all told us of his authority as an apostle. And then he shared with us the credentials of the apostle, which are nothing like what we would call credentials.

It wasn't about a plaque that hung on his wall or a diploma that he received. It had everything to do, first of all, with the great love that he had for the church and then the suffering that he went through for the gospel of Jesus Christ. He said, you want credentials? I'll show you credentials. You don't live the life that I've lived without being called by God.

And then, of course, he capped off what I call the high point in the book of 2 Corinthians by sharing with us the brokenness of the apostle. Because though Paul had done amazing things for the Lord and God allowed him to see things that nobody else had seen, the Lord also allowed a thorn in his side. What he called a messenger of Satan to buffet him so that he would not think too highly of himself. And though he pled with the Lord three times to remove that from him, the message of Jesus was very clear when he said, my grace is sufficient for you.

My strength is made perfect in your weakness. And so Paul began to view himself as beautifully broken because he realized, he said, I will rather than boast in my infirmities because they cause me to be dependent upon Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, I will be well content with weakness and sufferings. Because those produce in me weakness. Because when I am weak, then I am strong.

Man, we've learned some great things in this book, haven't we? And so now, as we come to the end of it, we cap off with what is really a very positive and upbeat set of exhortations that he gives to us. And so six exhortations that I want you to pay attention to that he gives to us in verse 11. Number one, he says, rejoice. Now, some of your translations may say farewell.

It says, finally. Brethren, farewell. That's unfortunately a poor translation of the word. If you actually look it up, the word actually means rejoice. The idea of rejoicing is to be exceedingly glad. Webster's dictionary defines it like this, to feel or show great joy or delight. And so he calls them to rejoice. And so my question is, how does one come to a place where they're able to rejoice in their

life? Well, the place where joy truly comes from. Joy comes from a true walk with Jesus Christ. You see. Joy comes when my heart is right with Jesus. That's when I begin to rejoice in the Lord because I am fully aware of the grace that he shows me in my life. I'm fully aware of the forgiveness that he's given to me in my life. I'm fully aware of the riches that I have in Christ when my walk with Jesus Christ is

correct. You see, there's an old song that we used to sing. It's one of my favorite old songs. You know how much I like these old songs. I won't make you sing it, I don't think. It goes like this. It goes, J-O-Y, J-O-Y. This is what it means. It means Jesus first, yourself last, and others in between. So how do you come to a place of rejoicing? Well, first of all, you put Jesus first in your life.

Remember why we were created? Remember why we're here? My daughter's not in here. I can share this story with you, right? She'll never listen to this. My two daughters were having a conversation here recently. They were watching a movie and there was an advertisement for it. She's a Christian, maybe, but there was an advertisement for a movie. It's called To Save a Life.

It's about a young man that committed suicide and the friends around him that realized what they needed to be doing to prevent this in the future. And Nora asks Violet, she says, why would somebody do that? Why would somebody take their own life? And Violet said, well, some people don't have the hope that we have. They don't understand what their real purpose in life is.

And I'm at the top of the basement stairs and they don't know that I'm there painting a room. And so I holler downstairs. I'm like, because what's the purpose of life, Violet? And she said, to know God. I was like, that's right. You see, people aren't rejoicing in their lives because they don't know their purpose. The purpose is to know God. And sometimes as believers in Jesus Christ, we can forget the purpose.

That if things aren't right there, if Jesus isn't first and my purpose isn't knowing God, there's no real joy in my life. And so we begin to, first of all, put God first and then we put others first. And then us somewhere in the background and we find that our lives are full of exceeding gladness and we find that we are rejoicing. That's kind of what this book's been about, right?

So he tells them to rejoice. Number two, he says, be made complete. Be made complete. I appreciate the English Standard Version translation of this particular verse or this particular phrase. It says, aim for restoration. Isn't that great? Because that's the idea behind what the verse is. You may remember that we talked about this exact same phrase last week.

You see, I'm okay with the fact that I'm not going to be able to do it. I'm okay with the fact that I'm repetitive because Paul was repetitive. Jesus was repetitive. All the great people are repetitive, right? So I can repeat myself as much as I want to. Anyway, the same idea is given to us there. Those two words are real interesting. The word made is the same word that's used in the book of Matthew for the mending of nets.

Remember that? The idea is to sew back together, to mend back together. The word complete can mean restoration. So in other words, to mend together, to restore. That's to be our aim. What were they dealing with in the city of Corinth? What were they dealing with in the church of Corinth? They were dealing with division. And as they were dealing with division, both over the things of the flesh and over false doctrine,

as they dealt with division, Paul says, I want you to be made complete. I want you to be mended back together. I want you to aim for restoration. What does that look like? Well, first of all, it looks like restoration in my walk. With Jesus Christ, it looks like restoration there. And the only way that there can be restoration in my walk with Jesus Christ is if I first of all begin to confess my sin.

I believe I shared this last week. But the problem that many of us have is that sometimes we don't take enough time to sit and think. We don't take enough time to sit and allow the Lord to examine our lives so that we can know what's wrong in our lives, so that we can be made right in those areas of our lives. I believe that there should be a lot more. I believe that there should be a lot more praying, Lord, search me and know me and see if there's any wicked way in me.

Because then the next step that we take is confessing all of those sins to the Lord. Allow God to search your heart because he wants to do it. There's things in there that we don't even know are in there because either we've suppressed them for so long or because we've excused them for so long that we don't always realize that they're there until the Holy Spirit says, but now it's time for this one. But now it's time for this one.

It's time to deal with this. And as the Holy Spirit touches areas of our lives and says, that's what needs to change. That's when confession needs to begin to take place. And I'm talking deep, honest confession where you tell God not only what you did, but why you did it. Because sometimes I think we need to get down to the root of why we did it and really confess those things boldly to God.

Oh, the Lord doesn't want to hear that. Yes, he does. He already saw it. It's time to confess it. That's the only way. That's the only way restoration can be restored. That's the only way a relationship can be restored. And there's some of you here in your walks with Jesus Christ right now that are not restored. Because either A, you're suppressing sin, B, you won't confess sin, or C, you won't accept the forgiveness.

And so believer in Jesus Christ this morning, I want you to come to a place where you allow the Holy Spirit to do that and be made complete. But you know what? There's also some of you here that have never come to faith in the Lord, period. And today's the day for that relationship with God that he originally intended, your purpose to know God, that it needs to be restored.

Because I'm here to tell you right now, you're spinning your wheels. You're miserable in life, and you don't know why. Here's the reason why. It's because you have a purpose, and your purpose was to know the God who loved you enough to fashion you exactly the way he intended to. But the only way. The only way that can be restored is if the sin in your life is dealt with.

And the only way it can be dealt with is by coming to Jesus Christ and confessing your sin and allowing him to cleanse you. Aim for restoration. But you know what? We aim for restoration not only in our relationship with Jesus Christ. We aim for restoration in our relationship with each other. Oh, Ryan, that's where it gets real. I know. Because that's what God's word does.

You see, I believe that the church in the United States today is fractured. Because nobody will go and deal with the issues that they're having with each other. People won't deal with each other. We're walking around angry because we won't give forgiveness. We're walking around bitter because we won't ask for forgiveness. We have all these issues that we have with each other, and nobody will deal with it.

And we're not being restored. Meanwhile, Jesus is going, the whole reason I bought you was to restore you. And now you're good with me, but you need to be restored with each other. And there are some of us. There are some of us in this room this morning that have hurt people in the past. And we need to go and make it right. We need to go and deal with the restoration that needs to take place.

There are some of us that have been hurt in the past. And we need to go and confront and say, you don't know what you did that hurt me. But I want to offer forgiveness. So that true restoration can begin to take place. We need to aim for restoration. That's kind of interesting because that word complete can be translated. But in another way as well, it can also be translated mature, to become mature or fully equipped.

You're probably thinking, Ryan, you already said it means restoration. How can it also mean mature? Those are two different words. Are they? Are they two different words? I want you to think about something. We were, again, having a conversation with my daughter the other day. It was my wife and I and Glenn and Sandra Davis. It was after everything was done here on Wednesday night.

And we're sitting with my oldest daughter talking. And she always wants to have a phone. And we always say, no. And I said, you need to be mature enough. And she goes, what does it mean to be mature? And she looked at Mr. Davis and I. And I'm like, we're maybe not the two best guys in the world to ask. But our wives are here. I bet they can tell you what mature is supposed to look like.

And so we started talking through maturity. And basically we said this. Maturity is where you can put somebody else above yourself. Now, Webster's Dictionary would define maturity as the ability to forgo temporary pleasure. In other words, it would be really fun right now, but I'm willing to wait till later because I know it will be better then. That's maturity.

In other words, I can tell myself no for the good of somebody else. That's maturity. And so really, are those two words any different? What is restoration? It's willing to put myself aside so I can restore my relationship with you. You see, aiming for restoration means maturity. And I would tell you that you can't be mature unless you're also willing to be restored.

And you can't be restored unless you're ready to be mature. And so he goes on from there to say, first of all, rejoice, be made complete. Now he says, be comforted. Be comforted. The word comfort, as we've already mentioned, means to call to one side or to encourage. Some of the translations that you have may say encourage one another. It's more of a command, not only to be comforted, but to encourage one another.

So I want to look at those two translations real quick. First of all, how can we be comforted? Well, we can be comforted by God, right? We can be comforted with the truth of who God is. I remember Pastor Mark teaching when he was still alive. He taught about the fact that we need to learn to comfort ourselves in the Lord. It's the idea of what David did. Remember when David was, right before he became king, he got a little foolish there for a little while

and went and lived among the Philistines and was going to, fight with the Philistines, not against them, but with them. And they sent him back. And he and his mighty men got sent back to their little camp. And when they got back to their camp, their camp had been raided and all of their wives and children had been taken. And 300 mighty men look at David and they're like,

and David's like, my bad. And so David gets very concerned because these were not just your average guys, right? Like these guys made the 300 Spartans look like they were sissies, right? That's who these guys kind of were. And so he looks at him and he, he's a little bit freaked out, but then there's this great phrase in scripture. It says, David comforted himself in the Lord.

David encouraged himself in the Lord. What does that mean? It means reminding yourself of the truth of what God has to say. That's encouraging myself in the Lord. You see, as believers in Jesus Christ, we're going to go through difficult things, but we must remind ourselves of the truth of what God says and who God is in the midst of that. Let me give you another little example.

Friday night, so there we were. Got 70 little kids in here, 70 little crumb crunchers running around, 50 adults running around, and I'm up here embarrassing myself by singing songs and doing motions. So I'm getting warm, right? I think that's not an abnormal thing at that point in time. I always get a little warm when I'm up here, but especially this night.

And it was like 100,000 degrees outside. And I was like, dude, it's really hot in here. Why is it so hot? Why is it so hot in here? And everybody leaves the sanctuary to go to their places. And I go look at the thermostat. And Alan and I look at each other like, yep, that's bad. The air conditioners died. Only it wasn't just the sanctuary air conditioners that died.

It was every air conditioner in the building that died. And we're running around trying to figure it out. We're not electricians. We got Ross Lumberd on the phone, and he's walking us through. It's the most amazing thing I've ever seen, that a human being can tell you what to do from 65 miles away. He walks us through. We get it fixed. But the whole time, we're just going, what are we going to do?

Well, you know what the theme of the thing was? God is faithful. Trust God, right? Like, that was the theme of the entire thing. And Alan and I just kept encouraging each other. We're like, God's got this. Listen, this is the enemy. We're talking about Jesus tonight. We're giving out a salvation message tonight. This is the enemy. And we just try to encourage each other and ourselves

with the truth that God is in control. That's the idea of being. That's the idea of being comforted. But not only that, I believe we should encourage each other. I do think that there's an aspect of this that's a command. Encourage one another. Listen, brothers and sisters in Christ, we need each other. We need the encouragement of fellowship. We need the encouragement of the body.

And I think it's a wonderful thing when we as believers in Jesus Christ are willing to come alongside somebody, put our arm around them, and remind them of the truth of what God's Word has to say. Say, you know what? God is still in control. None of what's happened to you has taken Him by surprise. And He is so much bigger than what you're dealing with right now.

And we encourage one another. There is such a need for that in the body. You say, Ryan, I don't talk to people. It's time to start talking to people. Ryan, I'm not very good at encouraging. Then just tell them what the Bible says. That's how you do it. We need to encourage one another. But I want to say one more word about this. And that's the... Some of us need to allow ourselves to be encouraged.

You see, I think sometimes there are some believers that I know that can believe God's Word for everybody but themselves. And they want to offer encouragement to other people, but they won't receive it for themselves. They won't receive it from the Lord, and they won't receive it from somebody else. There is nothing more frustrating than to come alongside somebody that's going through a hard time, offer them a word of encouragement, and have them tell you how that's not true for them.

And you're going, but it's God's Word. It's true for you. You need to just believe it. And sometimes we just need to allow other people to encourage us. And so if that's you, if you're the person who's like, I can believe it for everybody else in the world, it's time to start believing it for you. And as you get into God's Word for yourself, take those truths and apply them to you.

And so he says, Number four, he says, The word means to agree with one another or to be of the same mind. I don't know how many of you have been paying attention to life in the last year and a half, but one thing we have learned is that nobody agrees with each other. I don't care what subject it's on. You know what? Do me a little favor. No? Okay, yeah, I'll do it.

I did this first service too. I was like, no, it's a bad idea. Yes. Okay, so let's do it. Do me a favor. Go have a conversation with somebody about a vaccine and tell me how long you agree with them. Right? It's the clearest way to know that we just don't agree with each other. Listen, get vaccinated. Don't get vaccinated. I don't care. Do what you feel like you're supposed to do.

But that's an area where we don't agree with each other. And yet Jesus tells, or Paul tells us right here, that we are to be like-minded. That we are to agree with one another. Now, there are always going to be areas of our life as believers in Jesus Christ that we don't agree with each other. But there's always going to be one thing that we should find at the center of all of our like-mindedness.

And that is who we are in Christ. And I mean the real Jesus, the one that's talked about in the Bible, not the one that's being preached in most of the churches today. The truth of who Jesus is. That's what we gather around and we're like-minded about. Because I'm well aware that when we come together on a Sunday morning, we all look different. We all think different.

We all have different ideas. I mean, my gosh, some of you don't like the Kansas City Chiefs, right? I don't know why, but you don't. I shared it for a service too. There's a couple of y'all that are Patriots fans. I don't get it, right? Okay, listen, I suppose Jesus still loves you if you're a Patriots fan. That's okay, right? I mean, it's just life. And that's okay.

We can disagree on that. Some of you like country music. And I don't get it, right? That's okay. We can all still be friends. Sometimes we think differently about stuff. Some of you listen to Nickelback, right? And I still love you. And so we can be different in some of those areas. And that's okay. We always have to come back to the same thing that our unity that we have is in Jesus Christ.

The real truth of who Jesus is according to what scripture has to say about him.

I deal with difficult situations on a quite frequent basis. People that have been through very, very, very hard things. That sometimes they don't even know how to put into words. And every now and then as a pastor, I hear about some of the squabbles that take place, whether they be within our own church or other churches. And what they usually come down to, according to James,

they usually come down to the fact that we haven't gotten our own selfish way. I didn't get my way on this. And sometimes when I hear about some of these things, or even when I take part in some of these things, I'm then reminded of some of the things that I do on a week-to-week or month-to-month basis. I think about the families that I've worked with that have had loved ones that have committed suicide that I've had to do funerals for.

I think of the fact that my cousin is in a hospital right now because he just had to have a brain tumor removed at the age of 17. I think about families that I've worked with that have lost children that you should never have to lose at that age. And when I start thinking about some of those kinds of things and the comfort that people need in their lives and the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ that they need in their lives, and then I hear about how somebody didn't get their way in the most trivial way possible, I just go, I don't care because you've missed the point. You've missed the point of what this whole thing is about.

It's not about getting our way. It's not about doing our thing. It's about the fact that we need Jesus in our lives, and there's an entire body of people as well as world of people that are so desperately hurting right now because they don't know Jesus. They don't know the truth of Jesus Christ or because they've been through something horrific that you should pray you never have to go through.

And as believers in Jesus Christ, we've got to start laying aside all the little squabbles that we have and get back to keeping the main thing the main thing, and that's that I want you to be close in your walk with Jesus Christ, and I want to bring people that don't know Jesus to know him. I want people to know that Jesus is better because that's the point. I want people to know that Jesus is better. That's why he says, be like-minded.

He goes on from there in verse, or that number five, he says, live in peace. Live in peace. I wish I had some sweet definition or something like that or translation to tell you. I don't on this one. Other than the fact that peace seems to be a theme that runs throughout scripture that's very, very important. I'll reference two places. One's out of the book of Romans.

I love what Paul has to say because he says, do all that is within your power to live at peace with all men. Do all that's within your power to live at peace with all men. There are some people that you've done everything that you can to live at peace with them, and they still hate you. I have a couple of people like this. I've done everything I can, and they still hate me,

and I can't change that, and that's okay because I know with a clear conscience that I've done everything within my power to live at peace, and that's all we can do. That's why he says live in peace, but the question should have come into your mind, why is that so important? Well, because think about what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the peacemakers, right?

Because Jesus is our peace, we're told in the book of Ephesians. He broke down the middle wall of separation to bring peace not only between us and him, but between us and each other, which is why if we want real peace in our world, we must see the one that is real. We must see the one that is real. who is the true author of peace, the one who truly breaks down all of the walls, the one who breaks down all of the walls that are racial barriers, the one who breaks down all of the walls of the gender barriers, the one who breaks down all of the walls of the socioeconomic barriers, because he is our peace. And he calls us to live in peace. And then number six is the promise of God's

presence, the promise of God's presence. I'd like you to take note of what he says here at the end of verse 11. He says, and the God of love and peace will be with you. Now there's two different ways we could take this particular part of the verse. Number one, we could say, if you live in peace, then the God of love and peace will dwell with you. Or you could say, live in peace and

realize there's a whole separate sentence here that says, and the God of peace and love will be with you. You see, one carries with it the idea that all of the dependence is upon me. The other carries with it the idea that all of the pressure is on God, that he is the one who dwells with me. I tend to go with it being the second one, because everything is dependent upon God. You see, we're no longer under the old covenant.

It's no longer, if you will, then I will sign God. I've seen that recently. It's no longer that. It's the old covenant, right? Now it's, I did, I will, now you follow. And so when I read this, what I see is, and the God of love and peace will be with you. I see that it is the promise of the presence of God to be with me, giving me all of the love and the peace

that I need in order to rejoice and be made complete and be comforted and be like-minded and live in peace. You see, I see the promise of his presence. I love it. What J. Vernon McGee said in his commentary, he said, this is a wonderful promise of the fact that you are not alone. When we were on vacation out in Colorado, I had all the time in the world to have Jesus time, because we're an hour, it was an hour off. So when it was seven o'clock here,

it was six o'clock there, and I'm getting old now. And so I have an internal clock that wakes me up right now at seven o'clock in the morning. I can't wait until that internal clock, it's like 4.30, right? Like I know that day's coming for me. I didn't want that day to come, but it's coming. And so when we were in Colorado, I woke up at six o'clock every morning,

like clockwork. I was like, it's like Groundhog Day, right? Like, so anyway, so I'd get up and have all kinds of Jesus time. And one of the great things that took place is I was reading in the book of second Kings about Elijah. Remember the story of Elijah, Elijah, when he challenged the prophets of Baal to a contest, and then God won the contest. And then Elijah killed all the prophets of Baal. And then Jezebel, who was the evil queen at that point

in time said, surely I will kill Elijah. And even though Elijah had seen such massively amazing victory, Elijah had a mental breakdown. And he said, surely she will kill me. And he was determined that he was the only one left in the entire land. What really stuck out to me is that because of the pressure of the ministry and everything else that he had, he had been doing,

he went through a mental breakdown because he felt like he was all alone. And one of the things that God spoke to me at this conference or at that, on that vacation was the fact that I am not alone. Well, if you keep following the story of Elijah, he goes and he runs and hides out by a river where God sends ravens that drop food, good food, not weird stuff, drop food on him that he eats for a little while. And he sleeps for a whole lot longer. And then an angel comes and gives him food. And then he's able to run for 40 days.

I have no idea what you eat that allows you to run for 40 days, but I need that, right? Next time I go run a race, I want to be like, Jesus, the angel food, maybe it was angel food cake. I don't give that nearly enough of a try, right? Anyway, so he drops his angel food on him. He runs for 40 days and he runs to the top of this mountain. At the top of this mountain, three crazy natural disaster

sort of things take place. And God wasn't in any of them. And then finally, it says, in a still small voice, and I love the little note in the margin, the New King James Bible, it says, a quiet whisper was the voice of God. And God said, you are not alone. He said, I'm the only guy left, God. Everyone else has bowed their knee to Baal. I'm the only one left who's true to you. And God says, I've got 70 prophets of me that have not

bowed the knee to Baal. You are not alone. And my friends, what God told me that entire week, by being around all of my family, by being around all of our friends, by being around the body of Christ as we worshiped God together, is he kept reinforcing to me over and over and over again, you are not alone. Brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, you are not alone. You're not alone for two reasons. Number one, because you are surrounded

by the body of Christ. And I shared this in first service. I'm going to do the same thing this time. That's why we meet together as the body of Christ. And I'll say it to those watching online again. If you're watching online and you can get to a church, it's time to get back to church. If you're in another town and you're watching online, you can send me a message and I will

help you find a church in the town that you're in. Because while I love that you're watching this message and it's neat to know that God's word is going out to all kinds of different people, if you're not around the body of Christ, then you can't be mutually encouraged, and you can't be mutually convicted because you're alone. It feels very alone. One of the worst things that happened to us last year is we felt very alone and isolated. And that's a tool

of the enemy. He wants us to be isolated. He wants us to be alone. And so it's time for, I love that all of you are here this morning. This is wonderful. But if you've become content and satisfied, with simply watching online, it's time to come back to church. Because you need the comfort, encouragement, and like-mindedness of the body of Christ. And so not only are we not alone because we have each other,

but we're not alone because we have the presence of God with us wherever we go. When you look throughout all of scripture, all of the great people that God used, he said the exact same thing over and over again. I will be with you. It was that promised presence of God that was with us. All of them. It was wonderful because first of all, I read about Elijah and then

I came along and I read about Paul and Paul was in Corinth. There in the book of Acts and while Paul was in Corinth, I thought it was kind of ironic that we're in Corinthians and that's where I was. Paul was in Corinth and there was so much evil, so much sin around him and he was facing so many issues from the religious leaders that he was pretty scared. You know how I know he was scared because it says, an angel of the Lord showed up and told him don't be afraid, you're not alone.

How do we accept that glorification? So he took the Lord and answered him, he laid him down on a stone gate, He never stood up a step further from the解year. I have many people in this city. Isn't that great? Because God is with us. We are not alone. And so he encourages them with this, with this promised presence of God. Well, then we move on and we close this up with the benediction.

Notice what he says. He says, Greet one another with a holy kiss and all the saints greet you. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. He says, Greet one another with a holy kiss. We would call that a holy high five or a hug or a handshake in our culture. We don't kiss each other. And this kiss was not considered inappropriate,

although at some point in time it seemed a little inappropriate. Only two other men in my life besides my dad have ever given me a kiss. One was one of my uncles and the other one was a guy that I went to Bible college with. We called him Pete the Egyptian. It's because his name was Pete. He was Egyptian. So... We got super creative like that. And I remember he would,

every now and then he'd come in and go, Whoa, Pete. Nope, I don't think so. But every now and then he'd give the holy kiss on both sides like that. Well, anyway, that's not what's meant there. High fives, handshakes, holy hugs. All the saints greet you. Then he closes with this. I love verse 14 because there's so much in it. We won't cover it all today. We'll just do the best we can.

It says, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice what he says there. That unmerited favor that is purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ. Because the only thing that would bring restoration in their lives was the grace of Jesus Christ. The only thing that would restore them to being whole in their relationship with the Lord was the grace of Jesus Christ.

The only thing that would empower them to continue to do the things that he just exhorted them to do was the grace of Jesus Christ. And then he says, And the love of God. Because God is love. He doesn't fit into the definition of love. He is the definition of love. And then he says, And the fellowship of the Spirit. Because the thing that allows us fellowship

is that presence of the Holy Spirit in each one of us individually and flowing through us corporately. I love it because it's Trinitarian in nature. We see the Trinity right there with the Son, the Father, and the Holy Spirit. It's kind of interesting that Paul did those a little backwards than usual. Usually it's Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But at this time,

we have the Son, the Father, and the Holy Spirit. And I love that he closes with this because it shows us that everything in the Corinthians' life, everything to do with their spiritual well-being and their church well-being was completely and fully resting upon the power of God, upon the grace of Jesus Christ, upon the love of God, and upon the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Amen? This morning is Communion Sunday.

And so the ushers are about to bring the kids in. And as the kids come, or before the kids come in, I'd like to have just a quick discussion with you about communion. Because honestly, communion is what we talked about this entire time, whether you realize it or not. Because communion celebrates the oneness that we have with Jesus Christ, and it celebrates the oneness that we have with each other.

You see, sin is what broke our relationship with Jesus, and the grace of God through the shed blood of Jesus Christ is what restored it. And so on that last great night of the feast, Jesus took the bread and he broke and he said, this is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And then he took the cup and he said, this is the cup of the covenant in my blood, of the new covenant in my blood.

As often as you drink this, do this in remembrance of me. And so Paul tells us that every time we come together and celebrate the Lord's Supper, that we proclaim the death of Jesus Christ. We proclaim to the world that the only reason that I can be right in my walk with Jesus Christ, the only reason I can be right with God is because of the body of Jesus Christ. Because of the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

Otherwise, I'm just a sinner. I love that song that we sing because I am just a sinner. If it's not one thing, it's another. But God takes brokenness aside and he covers it with his blood. And so as we come together, we proclaim that. We proclaim the unity that we have in Christ, but we're also told that we're to do so in a worthy manner. And there's two ways that we do so in a worthy manner.

First of all, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, this morning, we do so in a worthy manner by making sure that we're doing it in a worthy manner. We do so in a worthy manner by making sure that we're doing it in a worthy manner. We do so in a worthy manner. That we're being like-minded, that we're being made complete, that we're living in peace with each other, and that we're living in peace with God.

And so in just a few minutes, the worship team's gonna come up and they're gonna sing one last song. And as they do, I would encourage you to pray that prayer. Lord, search me and know me. See if there's any wicked way in me so that I can make that right with you. And then pour out those areas of failure to the Lord. But if you're here this morning and you're not a believer in Jesus Christ,

then all this represents to you is a little cup of juice and a sad little cracker. And it won't mean anything to you because you're not proclaiming or celebrating anything. But I want you to know something. If you're here this morning and you don't know Jesus Christ, the unfortunate truth is, is that sin is what dominates your life. And the wages of sin is death.

But the gift of God is eternal life. And salvation is simply a prayer away. It's simply a confession. It's simply a confession of sin and an acceptance of what he's done for us. And so if you're here this morning and you've never invited Jesus into your heart, then as they're playing this song, it takes nothing mystical. It takes nothing magical. It doesn't even take the right words.

It just takes the plain old saying, I'm a sinner. You're a savior. Come into my heart. And just like that, you'll become born again. And then all of a sudden, this isn't just juice and crackers anymore. This is a celebration of the fact that you have been born again. You have brand new life in Christ. And so as they take this time to sing and as the kids are coming in,

allow the Holy Spirit to search your heart and let him do in you what he wants to do in you. As the ushers come forward to hand out the elements, as you receive your elements, if you would please stand and we'll partake together.

Worship you. Worship you.

Worship you. Worship you. You are. We make a miracle worker. Promise keeper. Light in the darkness. My God, that is who you are.

Miracle worker. Promise keeper. Light in the darkness. My God, that is who you are. You are touching and worship you. Worship you.

Worship you. My God, that is who you are. You are. Light in the darkness. My God, that is who you are. We never stop working. Never stop. You never stop working. Even when I don't see it, you're working. Even when I don't feel it, you're working. You never stop. You never stop working. You never stop. You never stop working.

This is who you are. Would you bow with me? Father, we come before you. And Lord, I just want to thank you so much for your body that was broken for us. Lord, for the penalty for sin that you took in your own body on the tree. That you took all of the things that rightfully belong to me. Lord, I thank you for your blood that was shed. That was enough to cover sin.

That was enough to do away with sin. And to make us brand new. That though our sins were as scarlet, you've made them as white as snow. Lord, I thank you for your love that you have for us. For the unrighteousness of our sin. For the unending grace that you have for us. And Lord, I pray that as we partake of this spiritual meal, Lord, that you would make who you are more real to us now.

Father, that our lives would be dedicated to loving and following you. And that we would know you in ways that we haven't known you before. We just thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's partake.

Me one more time. Lord, we come before you. And Father, as we prepare to... Head out into another week. Lord, I ask that you would... Take your word and sink it deep into our hearts. Lord, that we would apply it to every aspect of our lives. And Father, that we would know you more deeply. Fashioning us the heart of men and women of God. We just pray these things, Father, in Jesus' name.

Amen. Be blessed.