Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Good morning. 945.
[00:00:07] Good morning. My name is Michael Fueling. I'm the lead pastor here at the church. If you are new, we've never met. Feel free. After the service, I'll be up here. Would love to say hello, shake your hand, and at least put a name to a face. We are in our third week in the book of two corinthians. So if you have a bible, would you open up to two corinthians? Chapter one? We're gonna be at the very end of that. We're gonna start in verse 23. This is one of those sections where I do have to do a little bit of setup to get us ready for this text. The reason being, second corinthians, we're kind of parachuting into a really messy church conflict. And bigger than that, the corinthian church is profoundly dysfunctional. And so this is one of those letters where, like, almost every chapter has these kind of background nuances that if you don't know what's going on, you're gonna jump in and be like, what am I reading? And what is Paul talking about? And this section of scripture, it's another one of those sections. All right. So there are some rooms you walk into, and you're aware that your words carry more weight than normal.
[00:01:22] But it's not just the words.
[00:01:25] It's the person delivering the word. So a critical word from an acquaintance or an enemy, I mean, it really means nothing. It's annoying. You shake it off. Got it. But a critical word from someone that I love or respect, it's a different word. Those land double or maybe even triple or maybe even more than that. They land heavy on my mind and my soul. And so God has designed us, and this is good. There are some voices that when they speak into your life, it lands heavy. And it could be a word of encouragement. Like, people will say nice things, but there are some people, when they speak encouragement into your life, it lands differently. Or it might be vision, where you speak vision into someone's life and it sticks, it lands, or it might be criticism. So there are some voices, and we kind of intuitively know this, but we are wired this way. So what I want to do is I want to outline six of the weightiest relationships. And what I've done is I've ordered these from least weighty to weighty. Of all the weightiest relationships, you can disagree on the order, but kind of my experience, this is how I would measure these. And I think it's really important that you identify these six relationships, because when they speak into your life, they land heavier. All right, number one is my healthy boss.
[00:02:48] Okay. If your boss is unhealthy, you know it. You've probably already, like, disregard much of what they say. They're not okay. They might be taking that not okay ness out on you. But if you have a healthy boss that you love, care about, and has treated you well, you probably have, like, a natural desire to know, like, okay, am I doing a good job or not? And that is. That's good. And when your boss gives you, like, affirmation, yeah, you're doing a great job. I appreciate this. Our heart goes, yes. Amen. All right, number two is my spiritual mentor, and this, too, has to be someone we both care about and look up to. By the way, if you're getting mentored by somebody that you don't really like, and you don't look up to get a different mentor. And so when you have a mentor in your life, their words matter. And when they speak vision or encouragement or criticism over you, it lands much, much heavier than someone else.
[00:03:41] Number three are my dearest friends.
[00:03:44] These are going to be your core friends. The small group of people. They show up in the highs, they show up in the lows. They might even be your extended family. And when someone who knows you and loves you, a friend, sincerely looks you in the eyes and builds you up and identifies something good that God has put in you, your heart receives it in a very special way. But sometimes when they criticize you, it crushes you in a little bit heavier way. And so our friends, this small group of people, words have this unbelievable weight in our life. Number four, I did wear this like this on purpose. My beloved pastor. Now, I'm not talking about me, okay? So, everybody, if you've been in church long enough, you've got that guy that's like, my pastor. So if you are, like, new to the church in the last, like, two years, statistically, the majority of you are gonna say this. Pastor Dean is my pastor. Right?
[00:04:44] He's just such a good shepherd. But it might not even be somebody from this church. You might even be newer. But, like, you've got that man in your life who pastored you and shepherded you when you were younger. And when you kind of just think about the weightiest pastoral voice, it's that person. When they speak into your life, it weighs heavier than the words of everyone else, right? And a pastor, their words are supposed to be one that pushes you to Christ. Now, pastors are authorized to rebuke. They are authorized by God's word to correct. But 99% of your interactions with your pastors should be to build you up, train you, and encourage you to call out what God has put into your life. All right, number five, we're getting closer to the weightiest relationship, but number five is my immediate family. This can be your spouse, it can be your kids, it could be your siblings. Okay? Moms and dads, your kids words can pierce your soul, can they not?
[00:05:42] And I mean, kids, you already know this about your mom or dad, but like husbands and wives, like some of the words that have landed the deepest and most painful in our hearts have been from a spouse or a sibling or a child. There are some people with deep sibling wounds that go back decades they've never addressed, because the words of their sibling are just reverberating in their mind. Now, number six, lastly, is my parent or my guardian? Enough said on this, but there is no one in our lives with a more powerful or influential voice.
[00:06:15] Some parents have not used this to the glory of God. Some have. But no matter how you slice it, we as young people are just designed to hear these words, and they weigh heavier than every other word from any other person on the planet. And half of you are in therapy trying to overcome what you received from your mom, your dad, your grandma, or your grandpa. Don't say amen, especially if they are in the room next to you. So each of these roles, they have a unique weight to them. And if you have, like, a 7th roll that I'm not thinking about, like, come let me know. And the 1115 service, they're gonna get, they'll get that. But these roles have a unique weight, and. And we're not done yet.
[00:06:52] They're what we call weight multipliers, meaning they're already carrying more weight than the average person. But when you throw in a multiplier, what could be a five x weight could end up being a ten or 15 x weight. So here are the three multipliers. Number one, if an authority holds multiple roles in my life, so if my dad is also my pastor, or if my parent is my boss, or if my immediate family member is my mentor, or if my really, really good friend is my boss, so what happens? Is that a pain point or an encouragement from them? They don't just land. They land almost with a weight multiplier. It's bigger than just if you were just a friend or just a boss, or just a parent or just a pastor. Number two is if the person has loved me well. And the more intentional someone is to love you. Well, the deeper and heavier their words are going to land in your heart and soul. And so if you have a dad who was just not kind to you, they're going to have hard words, they're going to land heavy. But if you have a dad who is really, really kind and has a bad day and has a really hard, critical word, that word might land on your heart and soul more deeply than you ever expected.
[00:08:09] Multiplier number three is if I have past authority wounds. So if some pastor or some boss or some friend wounded me in the past, here's what we do. This is normal. We put up all of this protective armor around our heart, and we're like, I'm never going to let somebody in that position or role ever do this to me again. And then we heal a little bit and we open ourselves up.
[00:08:34] And if you have a position of authority in someone's life, if you have a heavier voice and somebody in your previous role hurt them and you hurt them, it's going to land, like, way heavier than you ever expected. And you're like, I thought we were just talking, and then they're crying. And so these are weight multipliers. And some of you, like, you know when a word sticks, but let's just identify how do you know, like, if a word is sticking, number one is, it's like velcro to you. You can't unforget it. You're ruminating on it. And by the way, it could be a positive word. There are some people, when they speak into my life, positive words, I can't unhear them. And it's like the Holy Spirit doesn't want me to forget it. And there are some people, they speak negative words into my life, and I'm like, ruminated on it. And I'm like, trying to get the thought out of my head. It's because it's a weightier word the second way. You know, a word is like heavy for you. It doesn't just stick to you. It actually changes your behavior. It's a word of correction. If it comes from somebody that you really respect, it's a weighty word. Hopefully you're going to shift your behavior away from sin or a lack of wisdom into something good. Sometimes those people will criticize us, and it really does send us to, like, a really bad place. It changes our behavior. For the negative, it sticks to you. Listen to proverbs 1218.
[00:09:52] There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. And I love this. The author of this proverb understands that not everyone's words have the power to be sword thrusts, but some do. Some people don't have power. They're nerf swords, like. Right. That's great. Good luck.
[00:10:16] But some people in our lives, their words have the power to be received in our hearts as sword thrusts, and we have to know who those people are.
[00:10:25] And also the author of this proverb understands that there are some voices that when they speak into our heart and life, they bring real healing. And this is a beautiful thing. Which brings us to second corinthians, chapter one.
[00:10:40] In the first century church, no one other than Jesus carried more weight than an apostle, period. Now, to be clear, we don't have apostles anymore because the requirements to do them are unable to be met. You need to be alive in the time of Jesus and the resurrection, et cetera. And so now we have Jesus and pastors and elders. Those are kind of the highest spiritual authorities, if you will. But you have to understand that in the first century with the corinthian church, an apostle walks into a room, and they carry an unbelievable weight. And I so appreciate. You're gonna notice, as Paul writes the book of two corinthians, he does not just know the scope of his authority, what he's authorized to do under Jesus.
[00:11:22] Paul is palpably aware of the heavy weight of his physical presence and the heavy weight of his words. When Paul's in the room, people don't act the same. And when Paul speaks, people don't hear it like they hear other voices.
[00:11:41] So if you tracked with us in the book of two corinthians, Paul wrote four letters to this church. And you might be thinking, I thought we only had two books. We only had two books. Two of them are lost.
[00:11:52] Each of the letters, one through three, get increasingly more blunt, increasingly more severe. So by the time we get to the third letter, it has actually been dubbed the severe letter. It's a lost letter. We don't have it. We got the vibe of the contents. So Paul, with all the weight of his authority, his third letter to this corinthian church was very, very harsh, and it was very severe. But before Paul sent the third letter, this is very important to understand what's happening in second corinthians. Paul showed up with his physical presence, looked at this church to their face, and said, you are in sin.
[00:12:35] And we talked about a handful of these just to give you an illustration of how ridiculous this church was. Like they'd be celebrating communion. The rich people would go get drunk, and then they would tell the poor people, you can't eat till we're done. And then they would get done with communion. And if there were scraps left over, they'd let the poor people eat. Could you imagine, guys, if you went to a church that did that in communion? Like, why is everybody running around drunk and then leaving the poor people in a separate room? This church is just not okay. So Paul shows up, and he is authorized and required by God to confront their sin. How do you think that went? When Paul, with the full weight of all of his apostolic authority, came into the corinthian church in person and confronted them? Not well.
[00:13:11] In fact, it went so bad, it appears that he left after a couple days. And as he was leaving, he looks at the church and says, all right, this isn't going well. I'm gonna come back in person, and we're gonna deal with this.
[00:13:24] Well, Paul leaves, and he's wrestling, and he's like, okay. I said I was going to go back, but they don't really handle my physical presence very well. I think I need to take a different route. I think I need to write a letter. And that's third corinthians. Again, we don't have it. But that's third corinthians, the severe corrective rebuke to this church. I. When I get to heaven, I'm gonna ask Jesus, could you please show me? I'd like to read the third letter. We don't have it. We just know it was bad. Not sinful, but just harsh. Very direct, very blunt. And so, with this context, Paul says, two corinthians 123, but I call God to witness against me.
[00:14:08] So whenever you're like, I call on God to witness. Like, this is. He's defending himself. He's emotional, and there are things going on, and he's a bit upset about it. Got it. This deep emotion. But verse 23, look what happens next, says, I call God to witness against me.
[00:14:26] It was to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth. And they're like, but you said you were gonna come. You said you were gonna show up. You said you were gonna be here. And they're upset about this. They're like, you told us you were coming, and you're writing a letter. Like, who does that? We're fighting with each other. Paul is fighting with the entirety of the corinthian church. And I need you to remember something about the context here. Paul planted this church. Most of these people became christians through Paul. Paul spent three years of his life planting, establishing, and building this church. This isn't just like another church where he writes a letter. This is a deeply personal group of people to Paul. It would almost be fair to say there is no other church in the New Testament that Paul maybe had a deeper affection and relationship with than these people. So if there is a broken relationship between the whole of the church and the pastor and apostle who started the church, this is a really, really big deal.
[00:15:25] And so he's like, listen, we already had a bad meeting.
[00:15:29] We don't need to have another bad meeting.
[00:15:31] Apparently, my physical presence with you was not beneficial to reconciliation. I know I told you I'm gonna come back in person, but I think we need to take a different route. And of course, there are a group of people in the church who are like, he's weak. He's pathetic. He's afraid. He doesn't want to show up. He's strong with his words on paper, but when he gets in the room, he doesn't have any, like, real guts, right? And all these people, like, there's a small group in the corinthian church just don't like him.
[00:15:56] But he's like, listen, no matter. No matter what these people are saying, I want this to work out. I want me and you to be good.
[00:16:07] And I'm not willing to show up again and try the same thing that failed last time. I'm sorry. I told you I was going to come again, but I'm going to send a letter, and I'm going to send it with somebody that I love. And to be clear, the corinthian church was in rampant and blatant sin. Paul was not just authorized, but required to address it. And this is his decision. Do I write a letter or do I show up again?
[00:16:32] If I show up again, I'm going to blow everything up, and the relationship will be over with these people that I love. If I write them a letter, it won't be as heavy as my presence, but maybe, maybe there's a chance. Now, personal aside, I get asked, so do our other pastors, but I get asked to enter into people's conflicts and to confront their sin. Okay, we have a hard rule. Unless I am directly involved as the pastor, I don't show up in your conflict to address other people's sin for you. Why? Because if I show up and, let's say somebody's hurt your feelings and you've had a fight, and you're like, I'm bringing in Pastor Michael. It's never just me who shows up, even if it's just me, because I walk in and dump me. I'm like, it's just me. I'm your buddy. It's Michael. We're friends. We've been around. I've been your pastor for whatever.
[00:17:26] But when I walk into your conflict, I bear the weight of the entire elder board. So let me tell you, I've learned this the hard way many, many, many years ago. When I walk into a room to help somebody deal with sin, the person who is in sin goes, you brought the senior pastor in.
[00:17:43] And then they'll open up the scriptures and say he's not supposed to come in until at the end you're supposed to bring another friend. And then there's a whole process here.
[00:17:51] And so what I found is that, like, I don't show up until I am required biblically because even just the weight of my office messes things up. And Paul understands this. There are some rooms that when you walk into the very weight of your office, confuses people and makes everything a little bit weird. And so we have these practices, like, I want to help you and give you wisdom as how to address it, but I can't walk into that room with you unless it involves me or there's danger involved. And in that case, we're going to still try to find the best solution that doesn't involve the senior pastor because of what the position represents. And by the way, like, this is a part of how you lead. But you know this as a boss, you know this as a parent. There are processes. There are moments when you walk into a situation that you might not be the best person for the moment. Verse 24. Paul is explaining his rationale for writing this. Third letter. Lost severe letter. Can you tell they're upset that he didn't show up. They're like, why didn't you show up? And he's like, here's why.
[00:18:51] Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith. Okay, so Paul's acknowledging I have every right, every right to show up in person.
[00:19:09] Paul has every right to cast people out of the church. As an apostle, he is authorized to do this. He has guys every right to invoke judgment on specific people in the church.
[00:19:21] He has every right to shut down this church.
[00:19:25] But rather than lead out of his authority, which he has every right to do, Paul realizes that there is a better way. And the better way is to lead out of love, relationship and goodwill.
[00:19:38] I had my first training in spiritual leadership. I was 19 years old at Michigan State University, and the first lesson I ever learned was unforgettable. You might have heard me say this authority is like a bar of soap. The more you use it, the less you have. So use it sparingly as a parent or a boss or a pastor. You might have authority to do a bunch of things, but it doesn't mean you need to use it at every corner because there's only so much of that. And if you can lead out of love, goodwill and relationship, the possibility for working things out is exponentially higher.
[00:20:15] And if you lead out of authority, you'll get what you want, but you will lose the relationship. And Paul understands this. It might even be possible that when he went in person the first time, he went and used all of his authority. But when he wrote the severe letter, he used a different tact. But he wrote that letter somehow out of his heart. And it seems that this letter was much more effective than leading out of his authority. Chapter two, verse one, I think, clues us into something really special about Paul's pastoral heart.
[00:20:47] He says, I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you because the last one went terrible.
[00:20:56] Verse two, he says, for if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I've pained?
[00:21:07] Let me just jump 2000 years and apply this to maybe our context.
[00:21:13] Your pastors need you to understand something.
[00:21:17] We're not just your people, you're our people.
[00:21:23] And when you understand a pastoral heart, like some of you might have had pastors who are just distant and disconnected, that is just not the way we function.
[00:21:30] And so when the pastor and the church and the relationship is broken, it's not just you who is broken, it's us who's broken.
[00:21:42] And so this reality for Paul, he's just like, if we're broken, I don't have anywhere else to go.
[00:21:50] You're my people.
[00:21:52] And so, like, we gotta work together and figure out how to keep this thing unified.
[00:21:57] And I don't wanna lead out of my authority. I wanna sit down with you and have a real conversation. I have to say something right now. I am not about to confront the church on anything. Some of you are like, oh, God, I'm just preaching through second corinthians. Okay, so this is what's coming up. Like, there's not, like, something at the end where I'm gonna come to you, be like, Anne, I wanna talk to you. I am so glad you are not the corinthian church. So glad. You are incredible to pastor.
[00:22:20] My heart breaks for Paul. He pours so much time and energy into these people, and it's just. It's chaos. They are immature, right? This is heartbreaking to watch this. But here's what Paul knows, and I think you know this intuitively, too. Confronting sin, it is actually one of the riskiest things to do, because you know deep down inside that the moment you confront it, that relationship could be over.
[00:22:46] Verse three clues us into Paul's current emotional state.
[00:22:52] He says, I wrote you as I did. He's defending the letter as opposed to showing up in person. I wrote you as I did so that when I came in person, I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice, for I felt sure of all of you that my joy would be the joy of you all. And you're gonna start to catch this, especially in the next verse. But Paul's not doing okay, and he's gonna be really honest about it.
[00:23:19] In fact, there's this experience where it appears that for Paul, he's like, listen, I wrote to you because I don't actually have the energy. I don't have the ability. I am so broken, afflicted in pain that if you reject me face to face, I don't think I can bear it. So he sends a letter, like, if you're going to reject me, at least reject the letter. And then I can hear news about it two months later after the messenger delivers it and brings it back.
[00:23:46] And he's just not okay. He's persecuted, he's afflicted, and he's going to describe this in the next verse. He says, I wrote to you verse four, out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, like Paul's penning third corinthians. And he knows this could very well be the end of the relationship. Like, it's gonna go one of two ways. They're either done with him and the people that are his heart, his people, the people that he spent three years with, the people that he makes regular visits to. Like, these people are out or they're in, and it really comes down to one thing. Are they gonna repent of their blatant, gross sin?
[00:24:26] And you know what? People don't like to repent of blight and gross sin, do they? And so this is his risk, and he knows it. I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain, but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you. And you might be reading this, and you might be asking, how is writing a severe letter that you know will cause pain an act of love?
[00:24:53] Proverbs 27 six. Faithful are the wounds of a friend.
[00:24:59] Or how about we just change the last word? Faithful are the wounds of a caring pastor.
[00:25:07] Or ask any parent when you have to use your authority to discipline, not out of vengeance, out of love. Right. For the sake of the future and the sanity of your family.
[00:25:17] Faithful are the wounds of a good parenthood or those of you who are teachers. And you have to discipline the class or a couple students because you're trying to protect this learning space from going into utter and total chaos. Faithful are the wounds of an effective teacher.
[00:25:35] Just because an authority needs to intervene, though, does not mean an authority enjoys it. I have rarely, and I am actually trying to think of someone. I don't know anybody who loves conflict or loves confrontation. Some people are better at it. Some people run into it a little more hastily. But I've never met anybody who's like, yay. I get to confront somebody on sin and jeopardize the entire relationship. It's going to be great. Like, that's not a normal thing.
[00:25:58] For the apostle Paul, he's like, I love you.
[00:26:01] I am authorized and required by God to confront you. I love God more than you, and I will lose a relationship if I have to. My first approach of showing up in person, ineffective. I underestimated the weight of my presence. And now I'm gonna write you a letter. And he's praying over this, crying over this, and all he wants is to know that him and the corinthian church are gonna be okay and praise God. The fact that we are even in the book of two Corinthians, which is the fourth letter, shows that it actually went well. The church received his severe letter, repented, and he was able to show up in person, unified together, to work through things. Paul wrote this letter, second, Corinthians, to defend his choice, to kind of quiet some of the murmuring, but doing this, knowing he was reconciled with his church. I have two. So, number one, I talk to those of us in the room who you do have authority. You might be a parent or a boss or a pastor or a mentor, have a healthy awareness and respect for the weight of your words and your presence.
[00:27:10] I hinted at this, but I want to say it. The three heaviest words for a soul to carry.
[00:27:17] Number one, words of encouragement. And this is great.
[00:27:21] And so if you're in a position of authority. We want to use our words to build up.
[00:27:27] Number two is words of vision. I want to be very clear, everyone in this room, and again, we'll go 99% for the exception of those of you who don't need this.
[00:27:38] But I think almost everybody in this room has needed, desired, or wanted someone in authority spiritually over them to have vision for their life, to be able to look at them and say, here's what I see God has put into you.
[00:27:53] I think God might be leading you in a direction like this.
[00:27:57] These are the areas of your life where you uniquely bear fruit. And for somebody to look into your life and have vision for you, this is the desire of most people. Most of us are left to ourselves to figure out our own vision for our own lives, because far too spiritual leaders or mentors will speak that into the heart, the mind and soul of the people they lovingly lead. And so you have this position of authority.
[00:28:22] If God gives you vision for someone and you see something God has put inside of them, it is good and appropriate, if you have the right relationship with them to call it out and to call them up to that. But number three, the third heaviest word to carry is a word of criticism.
[00:28:36] And these can be the ones that form us and shape us in the most negative way. And so if the criticism is true, inaccurate, maybe it wasn't even done out of a heart of love. We have to separate those things. I want to repent where the criticism is true. Right.
[00:28:51] But I also, I also know this. There's a lot of people who love you and don't love you, will say a lot of things, and at the end of the day, are they true and consistent with God's word, and are they true and consistent with the people who do love you? We have to weigh all of these words, but our words and our presence have unbelievable power. I want to share with you an equation.
[00:29:14] I never actually put the equation together until I did this message, but it's this thing that I have to intuit on a regular basis when I have heavy words to share. Again, heavy words are usually good words. Authority plus love, meaning we love each other plus a weighty word, a word of vision, encouragement, or criticism has a heavy impact.
[00:29:38] And so I got to know that given my role, whether it's my kids, whether it's employees, whether it is pastoring, whatever it is, I got to know when I'm in these roles that if I have the authority and we love each other, and I'm going to choose to speak encouragement, vision, or criticism, it's going to land five x or more on the heart and mind. And so I have to be thoughtful and careful.
[00:30:02] There's a phrase I've come to appreciate, and the phrase goes, like, become who you are sounds weird. How do you become who you are? It's like, as a parent, you become a parent. And I'm like, I've never parented before, so I am a parent now. I've got to figure out how to become a parent, right? Or if you ever, it's like if you're a boss, the first time you ever became a boss, you're like, I mean, I have ideas, I've read books, I've seen what I don't like and what I do. Like, when you become a boss for the first time, you've never bossed before. So I'm like, I am a boss, but I gotta figure out how to become a boss. Like, that's weird. And for pastors, like, when you become a pastor, you've studied stuff, you know, stuff. You shepherded people, but until you're actually responsible with the weight of pastoral authority, nobody knows how to use it. So, like, everybody has to kind of figure out who they are. You have to figure out how to become who you actually are. And here's what I've learned. When it comes to saying hard things, we all naturally are not good at it. Anyone else, we're just not born. Like, I'm a great conflict resolver and I know how to walk into situations like, I've never met a parent who's like, I'm great at resolving conflict with my kids. No, you actually have to make a lot of mistakes. I've never met a boss who's like, pretty much the perfect conflict resolver. And it doesn't matter who I have in my office, I just kind of bring everybody together and peace flows out of everything I do. And I've never met a pastor who's like, yeah, every single conflict I've ever walked into, everything is just worked out. It's been great because we don't know how to do this stuff. And do you know how you learn how to do this stuff? By messing up a lot of times.
[00:31:26] And then, and then just because I can do it well with my wife sometimes doesn't mean I can do well with anybody else. Because the way you resolve conflict isn't the way they do it. And so, yeah, there are transferable principles, but it is not uncommon that when we are in relationship with somebody and there is a conflict, whether or not we are in the conflict or called in to resolve the conflict, that we don't handle it perfectly, but we learn and we get better at it. And this is a part of the process. And so what? Number two to all of us under authority, myself, that's everyone appreciate the imperfect risk someone takes to call out hard things.
[00:32:04] Some people love bluntness.
[00:32:06] Some people crumble under a blunt word.
[00:32:09] Some people say they love bluntness, but then actually crumble under a blunt word.
[00:32:15] Everyone's figuring out how to do the right thing for the person in front of them. And what you don't always know are the multipliers where you're like, oh, I just said a thing, and before you know it, they're in tears, or I just gave them an encouragement. Before you know it, it's like they're melting, mess on the floor, and you don't know until you're there. And so, like, part of life with one another is the process of just learning. How do we say things?
[00:32:39] And all of us have weight, an unusual amount of weight in someone else's life.
[00:32:46] And we also want them to give us grace and to be kind and tender as we sort of figure things out and make mistakes. But that means we gotta give it back. Amen.
[00:32:56] Now, one of the things I appreciate about God is that he is a great confronter of sin. And you might be here, and you're like, all right, I'm not a Christian. What is all this? And I want to just share something with you before we close.
[00:33:09] God confronts humanity on their sin in a handful of different ways. The first way that God does this, and you know this voice, it's called your conscience.
[00:33:18] The conscience is that voice when you do something sinful or dumb, and it's like, don't do it. What are you doing? And you're like, shush. I don't. Listen to me right now. I want to do it right. The scriptures say that our conscience testifies against us.
[00:33:30] And so this is the first line of defense that God has put into every single human being on the planet. You have a conscience.
[00:33:36] The second thing that works to actually help confront you with sin is the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit draws people to himself, and the Holy Spirit is convicting the world of unrighteousness and righteousness. So the Holy Spirit maybe not in you, right? But does have the ability to communicate with you. And you might be like, is that my conscience or indigestion or the Holy Spirit? Many people don't even know it's the Holy Spirit until after they become a Christian, and they're like, wow, the Holy Spirit was drawing me to himself, confronting me on my sin.
[00:34:04] Well, the third thing is really just the word of God. Like, people grow up sometimes. The word of God is taught to them, and this word throughout their life testifies against them. It's why I love our Awana program, because you take these kids and you put the word of God in their heart and mind, and they might walk away from the Lord. But throughout the rest of their life, the word of God stands to testify and to confirm them when they're not aligned with God. And they might even say, I don't believe in God. But the word is still true and it still testifies against them.
[00:34:30] And then there are christians. They come into your life and they look at you and they say, listen, the Bible says that you're a sinner and you and God are not okay. And what I so appreciate about scriptures is that they are so clear. Anybody, anywhere, anytime can be reconciled back to God if you apologize and believe in the life, death and resurrection.
[00:34:51] What a. Honestly, I can't think of better news. The God of the universe, whom I already know him and I are not okay, is literally offering me once for all and forever forgiveness if I apologize and acknowledge what is already reality. God became flesh. Jesus died for my sins, was raised again from the dead. Like, that's unchangeable facts. So if I just acknowledge reality and come to him and say, will you forgive me, please? His answer is always yes. And then he gives you the Holy Spirit who helps us and when we make a mistake, comforts us and trains us and makes us, over time, more and more into the image of Jesus village. As we close, I just want to tell you, thank you for not being the corinthian church.
[00:35:35] Thank you for not being the corinthian church. And thank you for not being the corinthian church. It is a delight, an utter delight to pastor you and to open up this book and to learn about what happens in the messy life of a local church. And this is just one. But the principles are everywhere. Are there broken relationships? Yep. Is there authority here? Yep. Do we need to learn how to wield this better? Yep. Do we need to learn how to love better? 100%. So let's continue to learn from this church, but never be like this church. In Jesus name, Lord, we love you.
[00:36:06] So thankful that you record the flaws of pastors, of apostles, of Abraham, Moses, Adam, and just across the board, you're so transparent with the flaws of people in scripture, and we get to learn these churches. There's no perfect church. There's no perfect anything. Jesus, you're it. Jesus, I thank you that any space we let you into, you can bring about healing. And so we're just very grateful. I'm thankful that Paul learned from not meeting these people physically, but writing them a letter and that you were able to bring reconciliation between the corinthian church and Paul. We get to be on the receiving end of these words. And so, Lord, for every one of us, if there is a next step, if there's something that your Holy Spirit is just convicting us or prompting us to do, God, may we be tender to that.
[00:36:56] It might be reframing an evil word. It might be listening to a positive word.
[00:37:03] It might be wielding the weight of our authority with more wisdom and intentionality. Whatever it is, God, may you give us the insight and the courage to do whatever next step you're asking us to take. And thank you for the blood of Jesus that covers all of our weakness, frailty, and failures. You're amazing. We love you. We pray all of this may do it in Jesus name. Amen.
