Are the old, familiar Christmas tales more meaningful than we realize?
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The War With Pride, 5 of 5 from November 30, 2025
“In a world buying up every selfish whim we are spent by Jesus for others' benefit.”
2 Corinthians 12:11-21 by Michael Lockstampfor (@miklocks)
SUMMARY
This sermon on 2 Corinthians 12:11-21 examines how Paul’s dedication to the Corinthian church challenges modern views of love. Pastor Michael contrasts self-serving love with biblical love, which grieves over sin and guides others to repentance. Paul's refusal of financial support from Corinth is shown as sacrificial devotion to their spiritual health. Believers are urged to consider if they are "spent by Jesus" for others, instead of pursuing selfish desires, and to confront stumbling blocks in their lives, stressing that love sometimes requires addressing sin.
REFLECTION & DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
💬 Whose work on our behalf do we take for granted?
💬 Are we being spent by Jesus in the lives of others?
💬 What stumbling blocks have we been tolerating?
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
📖 Qualified Leadership (2 Corinthians 12:11-13)
📖 Demonstrated Faithfulness (2 Corinthians 12:14-18)
📖 Driving Purpose (2 Corinthians 12:19-21)
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Hey, good morning, church, and welcome to our neighbors. I've got to fill in the blank for you to start. It's not in your notes, so don't check the sermon notes or anything, but I gotta fill in the blank for you.
Here's the deal. This is a gut check. Fill in the blank. Okay? So there's some of you.
I'm with you. There's some of you that are gonna think about this a lot and be like, well, what does it mean? Like, how do I really wanna answer it? And you're gonna try to find the nuance. I'm not looking for any of that.
I'm not looking for nuance. I'm just looking for fill in the blank, the first thing that comes to your mind. Okay, we ready? All right. If you love me blank.
How would you fill in that blank? If you love me blank.
If you love me blank. Oh, you. Anybody want to share theirs? Grant was raising his hand.
Oh, okay. Anybody else want to share? Okay. Sharma.
Okay. If you loved me, I would know. Okay, all right, good. Anybody else join you? Let me have my way.
All right, I get it, I get it. Anybody else? Listen, we're all about transparency here. It's all good. Carolyn, you like me.
If you love me, you'd like me, okay? Xavier, you would show it. Okay?
Love me as I am. Okay. All right, good. Tyler, I see your hand moving over there, huh? Just a little switch, little scratch.
Okay. If you love me blank. All right, so I read this book a couple of months ago and it's by a guy named Tim Keller. And if you don't know Tim Keller, like, you should know Tim Keller because he's like your grandpa. It's if your grandpa had the Bible memorized.
But also every like, philosopher ever, like, he's really, really smart dude. And so. But as he was writing a book with his wife on marriage, which, by the way, is perhaps I think the scariest idea I've ever thought of. Like, I'm going to write a marriage book, that's one thing, but I'm going to write a marriage book with my spouse. That's next level.
And so he writes in this book and he talks about, like in the early stages of a relationship, everybody, like, there's all of these feelings of butterflies and lovey dovey and like, oh, you complete me and we're so perfect together. And if you go through that for a couple of months, eventually that kind of wears away. But he says it's interesting that at the beginning of the relationship, everything that you love about the person is something that benefits you. And everything that you love about them is how they make you feel and what they do for you and how they complete you. And that it's that he would say, and this is Tim Keller.
Like, it's not me, this is him. He said this. He's. Yeah. So you can write letters to him.
He passed away a year or so ago, so he won't get them. But he said every, the beginning stages of every relationship, everything you love about the other person is actually what you love about yourself. And I was like, oh, that's harsh. I'm going to have to chew on that for a little bit. If you loved me.
Blank. Now, the Bible actually answers that question, fills in that blank in a number of different ways. But as we come to, as we come to this text here, towards the end of the letter of Second Corinthians, it's going to answer. It's going to fill in that blank in a way that I would never have considered to fill in that blank. Okay.
And so are we interested to see how the Scriptures might answer that in a different way? Okay. All right. So you can go ahead and navigate to Second Corinthians. If you want to use the blue Bibles, they're kind of tucked in the chairs in front of you, kind of scattered around the room.
It's on page 1210. That's what I'm reading out of. And 1210 in the blue Bibles, Second Corinthians, chapter 12, if you want to navigate there.
We've been in a series called the War with Pride, and we've moved through chapters 10, and now we're going through 12 in this letter of Second Corinthians. I'll give you some background to all that. But before we really get rolling, like, let's spend some time in prayer.
It's our habit as neighborhood church to pray the disciples prayer, or you might have heard it called the Lord's Prayer. And this isn't like a magic spell or anything. It's just the way that Jesus said we ought to pray. And so I think it's wise to do what Jesus says. So the words are on the screen if you're not familiar with it or not familiar with this translation.
But more important than the words is that our heart is in what it is that we say. So let's pause for a moment and we'll take a deep breath.
We Pray together. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Amen. 2 Corinthians 12. I'm just going to start reading verses 11 through 13, and then I'll go back and give some explanation, get our bearings here.
Second Corinthians 12, starting in verse 11. I've been a fool. You forced me to it, for I ought to have been commended by you, for I was not at all inferior to these super apostles, even though I am nothing. The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works. For in what were you less favored than the rest of the churches, except that I myself did not burden you?
Forgive me this wrong. We'll pause there. If it sounds like we're just kind of jumping into the middle of a conversation is because we are just kind of jumping into the middle of a conversation. We're in this section of the letter that's. That's kind of negotiating a conflict between three different parties.
Okay? So shortly after Jesus resurrection, he commissions this guy named Apostle. We call him the Apostle Paul. Jesus sends him out to be his ambassador. And Paul travels around and he starts churches.
He preaches the gospel. People believe in Jesus Christ, and then they begin to gather together. He starts churches. And one of the cities that he. That he started a church in is a city called Corinth.
Corinth was a port city. There was a lot of trade, a lot of commerce. It was kind of a wealthier city. But it also had a reputation for having, like, some really loose morals. So when I think of Corinth, I think of, like, Las Vegas.
So those are kind of the two. The two parties. We've got Paul, who started the church in Corinth. These are believers who trusted Jesus, but in an environment that really values wealth and status and all kinds of things like that. But then as Paul is away, there's this third party that comes in, and I call them the influencers.
They're people that. They just kind of are braggadocious. They really want everybody's attention on themselves. They will say they'll get into a room and figure out what people want to hear, and then they'll say what people want to hear so that people will like them. And their goal is to is to make a living.
Like, they show up in Corinth and they're like, hey, Paul's done a really good job of gathering this group of people together. And they get together once a week and they take up an offering, and maybe if that offering came to me, then I could make a living. And so they get up and they start to talk and they talk eloquently and they talk, they say audacious things. I can't believe that they just said that. And they become these, like, influencers.
But they start to pull the church away from Paul and they start to take this congregation and make them question whether Paul, like, actually loves them. Because one of the things that Paul did as he went around as a missionary starting churches is he would often take financial support from the churches that he started, except for in Corinth. Now, go to any church planting conference, they will say, like, you need to understand your demographics and you don't want to plant in a community that's not going to be able to support a church. And it really, like, makes me queasy when they say this kind of stuff. But Christians do say that kind of thing today where they'll say, like, if you are going to start a church, you're going to start a church in, like, a middle class kind of community so that they can actually pay the bills of the church.
And Paul's like, I'm going to the upper class. I'm going to Las Vegas. I'm going to where they got money to throw away, but I'm not going to take money from them. I'm going to take money from the poorer churches that have supported me in my mission. And I'm going to use that to preach the gospel here so that they can say, I didn't come just to get their money.
Right? And so now as he's gone through and he has written 12 chapters of this letter to this church in Corinth, he's pleading with them, consider the relationship that we had. He's gone off and said some kind of crazy things. He's like, you guys are being ridiculous. And so I'm going to be a little bit ridiculous, too, to try to show you how ridiculous you were being.
And so he starts off in verse 11. I've been a fool, you forced me to it, for I ought to have been commended by you. He's. He's really just trying to move the conversation forward. But we've seen over the last couple of weeks, and if you missed those, you can catch them on the podcast or on our YouTube channel, on our website.
They should all be there. Actually, it won't be last one. Most of them will be there. And he's. He says, you guys are bragging like you're the ones who are in charge here.
And he says, you know me and you know what I've been through. And he starts to list off all of the crazy things that have happened in his life. He says, I said when I started that list, like, I didn't want to do it, and then it would be foolish for me to do it. And then I did it, and now I have been a fool. Like, you drove me to it.
You made me list the things that would have qualified me to, like, be loved by you.
He says, I've listed off all of these things that maybe I would cling to, maybe I would wear as medals on my chest and badges of honor. He says, but I don't do those things because in a world that is clamoring for some extraordinary insights and prestige and honor, we're content with Jesus. He says, for the sake of Christ. I'm content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Paul knows something that I hope my heart continues to learn. If we only have Jesus, we have more than enough.
And it's fascinating. You forced me to it. I ought to have been commended by you. He says, look, if you want a letter of recommendation for what kind of guy I am, don't you think, like, you would be on my resume? Remember how you didn't know Jesus, you'd never heard of him.
You weren't even following, like, the God that Jesus preaches. You weren't following the Jewish God. You were following every other God under the sun. Remember how I came and I told you that there is one God and that his son Jesus is the one who made it possible for you to be reconciled to the Master of all creation. Remember that.
Like, you ought to have been my letter of recommendation. And now you're asking for my credentials. Like, what is it, what is it that we're even talking about here?
But it's interesting. He knows his role in the lives of the folks in this church is actually minuscule in comparison to Jesus work. I was not at all inferior to these super apostles, these influencers. I was not at all inferior to them, even though I am nothing. He says, sure, I came to you, I was sent to you, Sure, I preached to you, and sure, you believed, but my work was minuscule in comparison to what it is that Jesus has done.
He's the Lord of all creation. And he came down. He came down and allowed himself to be born as a human. The God, infinite creator of the universe, puts on skin so that he can win men back to himself. Like he did the work.
I'm just telling you what he did.
In a world bragging of its own greatness, we disclose our weaknesses in order to highlight Jesus strength. He's demonstrated every evidence of apostleship. Apostle, like, we use that word like it's. Like it's a big office. And sometimes it is like used that way in scripture.
But apostle just means somebody who sent. Like somebody who is sent out. We think of ambassador might be another word. Like it's sent to represent somebody else. So the apostles are the disciples who were sent.
Did you know Jesus had more than 12 disciples? 70 at one point. Talk about 120 and talk about more than that, like there were more disciples. But these were the 12 who were sent, the authorized ambassadors. So Paul says, I was sent.
I preached the message of Christ. You guys repented not to me. Not to declare your loyalty to me as your pastor, but to declare your loyalty to Jesus. You repented of your sin and you became betrothed to Christ. Miracle of miracles.
And apparently he even demonstrated his apostleship through mighty works and wonders. Did you see that the signs of a true apostle in verse 12 were performed among you with utmost patience with signs and wonders and mighty works. Like. Hold on a second, Paul, I would like some more information, please. Tell me of these mighty works.
Tell me what signs you did that demonstrated that your message was actually authoritative. And you know what? Paul gives us nothing. He didn't say anything about that. Didn't say anything about miracles that he worked.
Okay, so. Okay, good. Well, Luke was the doctor. He was the one that was like, entrusted with the responsibility to make sure that the history of the early church was recorded. And he was a traveling companion with Paul.
Right. And so surely Luke, the great historian of the early church, will record what are these signs and miracles and wonders, these miraculous signs that Paul gave to the church in Corinth so that they would believe his message. You know what Luke says? Nothing.
Because the point was not the signs and wonders and miracles. It was the Lord of creation that they were pointing to, who is reconciling lost humanity to himself.
The sign of true apostleship is not that apostles, like shine all the spotlight on themselves, but that they are used by God to shine the spotlight on Jesus Christ.
He makes light of the miracles that God's worked through him because he doesn't even articulate them. He doesn't even say what they were. And he even states them in a passive way. Remember, he could be saying, like, remember when I did this to you? Remember when.
When Jason was healed. Remember? He doesn't say any of that. He says, the signs of an apostle were worked among you with patience. He didn't even say he was the one that did it.
In a world fighting by arrogance and deceit, we triumph by meekness and integrity.
And so he closes and he asks, like, what? Were you less favored than the rest of the churches? Where did I give you less credit? Where did I love you less? The only thing I did that was different, except that I myself did not burden you.
I did not accept financial support from you.
How did I not love you? Well, all of his ministry has been an expression of his love for them, including his refusal to accept financial support.
In a world absorbed with manipulating appearances, we openly practice faithful love. Paul says here, if I've loved you too much, forgive me.
I've got a friend who said he started reading the Bible one time. He didn't get very far before he closed the book and said, God, I don't know why you put up with all these idiots.
And really quickly he's like, oh, maybe I also am the idiot that God is putting up with.
And so it's really easy to look at Corinth and be like, you guys. You guys are jacked up. Y' all need some Jesus. Come on, now. And yet, I wonder whose work on our behalf we take for granted.
It could be any number of things. Like, the thing that pops into my mind initially is just like the ready access of an English translation of the Word of God. Like, for generations, Christians would memorize what they could get on Sunday. Like, they couldn't read it themselves. And we not only can read it ourselves, we have the literacy.
We also have many, many translations of the book in ways that we can access. And most of the time, we're good with just moving on with our day, as if the word of God isn't sitting in our living room. And that's not easy. Like, translation is not easy work. Like, it's not one and done.
It's an ongoing thing. Like, if you've ever met a translator, they're weird people because they've got to do some hard work. And yet, so often I just open up the ESV and take for granted that God's speaking to me.
But there may be people that are closer to you that have worked diligently that have. That have picked up the phone, or people that have gone out of their way, people that have labored and are constantly there and faithful and trustworthy and reliable, and you have just come to depend on them to the degree that you take them for granted. Whose work on our behalf do we take for granted?
Because we live in a world that's selfish, and in a world that's buying up every selfish whim, we are spent by Jesus for others benefit. In a world buying up every selfish whim, we are spent by Jesus for others benefit. I don't think it is an accident that. That we're in this passage as we go into the holidays where every selfish whim is cranked up to 11 in a world buying up every selfish whim, we are spent by Jesus for others benefit. All right, I get the selfish whim thing.
Okay, maybe. But what do you mean being spent? Let's read some more. Let's look at verse 14.
Here for the third time. I'm ready to come to you, and I will not be a burden, for I seek not what is yours, but you. For children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. I will gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less.
But granting that I myself did not burden you, I was crafty, you say, and got the better of you by deceit. Did I take advantage of you through any of those whom I sent to you? I urged Titus to go and sent the brother with him. Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not act in the same spirit?
Did we not take the same steps? Paul is keying in on this situation where he's refused to take financial support from the church in Corinth. And he says, I did not take support from you because I want it to be clear. I don't want your stuff. I want you.
I don't want what's in your pocket. I want your heart surrendered to Jesus. I'm not in it. I didn't come to you because it was a good strategy. I came to you because I'm a servant of Jesus and this is where he sent me.
And I didn't want anything to be a distraction. They didn't want anything to be a distraction from knowing that Jesus is the Lord of all creation and the Lord of you, too. It's interesting. In the previous letter. In a previous letter, he's writing and he's kind of addressing one of the ways that this kind of Self centered attitude manifested itself in Corinth is they all kind of divided up into teams.
They picked their favorite teachers and divided themselves that way. So some were saying I'm of Paul, and some would say I'm of Apollos, who was a Greek guy, but he apparently was really eloquent speaker. Some people were like, well, I follow Peter. And he's like. And some were like, well, I follow Jesus.
And he says, look, you guys are all putting on different jerseys. Don't you know we're on the same team? He says, don't you know that, like the leaders that you follow actually suffer pretty poorly? He says he's describing like those who have been sent in First Corinthians, chapter four. He says we're fools for Christ's sake.
That he contrasts them with. He contrasts these leaders that are sent with the Corinthians who are comfortable back at home. He says, we are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor.
But we in disrepute to the present hour. We hunger and thirst. We're poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless. And we labor working with our hands. When reviled, we bless.
When persecuted, we endure. When slandered, we entreat. We have become and are still like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things. That's usually not how we think of apostles. I don't see a halo growing out of the dung heap like that.
But that's how Paul talks about the Job.
In the next verse he says, I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the Gospel. I urge you then be imitators of me. He says, look, I know that there are other teachers out there, but I don't come to you as just another teacher.
I'm not just another guy who's trying to get like and subscribe like I came and I labored among you. I have loved you well, like I have worked hard and been spent on your behalf. I became your spiritual father. You would not know Christ if I had not introduced you to him. And so, because I am your spiritual father, I consider you my children.
He's not just a church planter out trying to make a career out of starting, not for profits. He's a father taking care of children and trying to teach them how to do this thing called faith in Jesus Christ.
He's a father, and he's a father of betrothed. Like the children have grown up to a degree of maturity where now he has a protective stance. Remember in chapter 11 where he says, I'm jealous over you because I have to guard you because you've been betrothed to another. You're not betrothed to me. You're not engaged to me.
You're not loyal to me. You're betrothed to Christ. And when he comes, I want to present you to him. Faithful, pure, spotless in a world buying up every selfish whim. We are spent by Jesus for others benefit.
And Paul's saying, I'll put it all out. I'll be spent for you. Anything I've got. You want my body, I'll lay it down. You want my money?
I'll work harder. I'll work overtime. I'll sell more tents. You want my presence? I'm on my way.
In a time when travel was pretty difficult, he says, I've sent people to you. And now there's a thing that could be going on in the background here. Sometimes philosophers would not allow themselves to be entangled in financial matters. So what they would do is they would hire a finance guy. And so the teacher would never.
The teacher would never take money from anybody, but he would hire an enforcer who would go around and make sure that all of the students paid their. Paid their tuition. And so he's saying, well, I sent people to you and did they, did they exact money from you? No, they wouldn't accept the support either. I'm not working through third party back channels to try to make it seem like I don't owe you anything socially while still getting the material benefit of having been your pastor.
He says, no, my cards are on the table and everybody I've sent to you has been acting in good faith. You know Titus, you love Titus, you know Timothy, you love Timothy. If you love the people I've sent who have come as my ambassadors, why do you think that I would have mixed motives?
Suspicions have been allowed to fester even though he has consistently demonstrated faithful love by whom he sent and by how he's operated.
There's a church in South Florida, and one of the phrases that's become part of their culture down there I think is so beautiful and so helpful. He says, oftentimes we don't know it all. Anybody feel like that we don't know it all. And sometimes when we don't know at all about another person, we tend to fill Those gaps in our understanding with suspicion. And the phrase that they've kind of adopted that I pass on to you, I've said it before, and I'll continue to say is to fill the gaps with grace.
If we're people of faith and if we're people who are walking with Jesus and somebody who we know like has done something and we're like, that's out of character for them, they wouldn't normally do that. Instead of filling that gap with suspicion and blowing things out of proportion, fill the gaps with grace. Believe the best about people who are on Jesus team.
Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves and fill the gaps with grace.
In a world buying up every selfish whim, were spent by Jesus for others benefit.
So I wonder, are we being spent by Jesus?
Like inventory of our lives, would you say that your life is being spent by Jesus?
Not buying and building up for ourselves, but being spent by Jesus?
The Biblical word for that idea of being spent by Jesus is stewardship. And if you're like, I'm not quite sure about that, we've got at the beginning of the year, we're going to open up the year talking about stewardship and being spent by Jesus. I actually was thinking about your water pipe illustration this morning as I was thinking about that series.
But are we being spent by Jesus not just trying to accumulate more and more and more and more for ourselves, but like actually being put to use by him? Here's the other part of that, though. Not being used by others. Because there are some of us who naturally are just very self, are just naturally very giving. And we will allow other people to use us and then mask it as though Jesus is spending us.
Are we being spent by Jesus for the benefit of others? Which means that we take our direction from Jesus and how to love. We take our direction from Jesus in how to serve.
Let's close with a few more verses here.
Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves to you? You? It's in the sight of God that we've been speaking in Christ and all for your upbuilding, beloved. For I fear that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish. That perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit and disorder.
I fear that when I come again, my God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over those who sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality and sensuality. That they have practiced.
He's no longer speaking like a fool. And he kind of calls back to that. He says, hey, do you think I've been defending myself this whole time? Do you think that I actually have stooped to the level of these ridiculous super apostles who try to boast themselves up with this claim to undermine my claim on you? Like, do you think that that's what I've been doing this whole time?
This whole time, everything I've written has been to edify and encourage you. I've tried to eat away at the foundation of what it is that they're building up for themselves. But it's not because I want to attack them. It's not because I want to build myself up. It's because I want to build you up.
Corinth. Do you know that if you allow these people, if you continue to follow these people, they're going to keep you from following Christ, they're going to keep you from growing. And how do I transfer allegiances not from them to me, but from them to Christ? Through me? Because I can see by the fruit of the relationships that are growing as you follow their influence, the fruit of the relationships being quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder.
Because I see those things growing in your community, I know that those leaders will lead you to death. And I don't think that I'm the only one who can lead you to life, but I'm the one that's going to get you there quickest because you've demonstrated that you don't trust people who are leading you to truth.
Everything he has permitted himself to say has been out of love. And love, like permeates this section. He asks them about, like, what favor, how they've been less favored in verse 13. And of course I have favored you, he says, I have increased in love that you've not returned. In verse 15.
And here in verse 19, he calls them beloved, like everything he does. Through here, he's saying, I'm trying to communicate that I love you and I have loved you and I will love you, and I'm not going to take your money, but that doesn't mean I don't love you.
His driving purpose is that they would be built up in Christ. Here's the deal. They've postured themselves as, like, Judges over Paul. Like Paul, you really have a lot to answer for. You need to impress us with your record.
You need to impress us with your speech. Like we really are the ones who evaluate whether or not you're good at your job. And he's like, listen, you can't judge me. You don't judge me. You're not the judge.
However, I will be judged based on how you respond to the gospel, not by you. Who is it? Who is it that brings him humbleness or humiliation? I fear that when I come again, my God may humble me before you.
He says, you're not the judge. But I'm going to be judged based on how you act. Because I'm being spent by Jesus for the benefit of others. And if others have rejected the benefit that Christ is trying to give them through me, then I'm going to be humiliated before God.
If I show up and you guys are fighting with each other, if there's this unhealthy jealousy over one another, if your church is defined by anger and hostility, if y' all are talking bad about each other, not just me, but about one another with slander and gossip, conceit and disorder. Like, if that's the definition of your church, then I should be humiliated before God.
You don't judge me, but I failed. And the judge will know.
And there are some selfish ways to respond to that.
There are some ways to come down heavy and bring correction.
There are ways that I would be tempted to respond. I think.
He says, I fear that when I come again, God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality and sensuality that they've practiced. He says, I'm going to be humiliated. And that doesn't mean that I'm going to work harder. It doesn't mean I'm going to preach louder. It doesn't mean I'm going to preach longer.
It means I'm going to grieve.
If you loved me, blank, If you love me, you'd actively grieve over my sin and work diligently to guide me towards repentance.
Because love actively grieves over sin and works diligently to guide towards repentance.
That's not how I would fill in the blank.
That's not what my neighbors are asking me to fill in the blank with.
But you know what? That sure does sound a whole lot like Jesus weeping in the garden, asking for another way.
Love actively grieves over sin and works diligently to guide towards repentance.
Just ask you again, who are we praying for?
Because if we're not committed to seeing people turn from themselves to Jesus, if we're not Asking the Holy Spirit to move first. It won't happen.
Heavy on my heart this week is the fact that there's none of us who chooses Jesus unless Jesus softens our heart first.
And love actively grieves over sin and works diligently to guide towards repentance. So I don't know how to word it exactly, but the question is something like, what stumbling blocks have we been tolerating?
He gives a list. Gossip, slander, sensuality, sexual sin. These are things that I know about and you guys have just kind of, meh. We'll deal with it sometime. Maybe these things are stumbling blocks that are going to keep you from running after Christ.
What stumbling blocks have we been tolerating.
In ourselves? What pet sins have we just kind of wrapped our arms around and made sure nobody can kind of get at?
What stumbling blocks have we been tolerating in others?
Where have we hesitated to call a spade a spade and ask people that we care about to repent?
Because love actively grieves over sins and works diligently to guide towards repentance.
Michael, that's hard.
They might say something mean about me. Mm.
But in a world buying up every selfish whim, we are spent by Jesus for others benefit.
Why does it matter that much? We'll just close with this. C.S. lewis wrote, Both good and evil increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance.
Let's pray together. Lord, I thank you for this day. I thank you for this text, challenging as it is in so many different ways.
Lord, in the places where we don't have understanding. God, I pray that you would continue to make us be curious about you and your heart and that we'd continue to seek after you, your leadership and your lordship in our lives. Lord, in the places where we have understood all too clearly and we're not comfortable with that. Lord, I pray that you would grant us repentance.
As stumbling blocks have come to mind, Lord, either in our own hearts or in the hearts of others. Lord, I pray that you would give us the courage.
To bring you into those situations, to be spent by you as your voice and your ambassador, speaking boldly to call sin sin because you have paid for it all, not lording it over people as though we've mastered it, but, Lord, simply crying out to choose life.
Jesus, I pray that you would lead us and guide us and that you would season our words with your grace. Lord, I pray that you would allow our hearts to receive your words with grace.
We thank you. It's in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
