The Real Gospel

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. It's kind of an odd thing, isn't it? To be thankful the hurricane's not probably going to hit us, but then you know it's going to probably hit somebody else, and am I supposed to be thankful for that? I don't know, right? And I think that is the case with a lot of things in life. It's like, thank you, Lord, you've blessed me in so many ways, but you know other people who are going through some really tough times at the same time. And so in the body of Christ, we're often rejoicing and celebrating and grieving and loving and serving and giving. At least that's the goal. I know there are churches where on Sunday morning you better be up when you walk in that door. Have you ever been, you know, it's like everybody's like got their best happy mask on for the day. And because if you aren't, you know, and it's all, and it's, you know, and the message is different than the message. Do you understand what I mean by that? We're going to talk about that a little more today. So we are, I am excited. We're in Second Corinthians. We've been going through this for, this is our seventh week and we're coming to the end. Next week is going to be probably one of the more famous passages of vulnerability you've heard. It's called the thorn in the flash. Okay, don't look at the person next to you and say, yeah, that's you. Okay, but maybe it is, but don't look at them. But we're going to kind of look at that and how we all kind of face that kind of reality. There's, we face a reality of pain and agony at time in our lives of disappointment and heartache, but of love and joy and peace and forgiveness and community. Right. It's not that the glass is half empty or half full. It's that your cup is still running over and just get a bigger cup. Just keep getting a bigger cup. Okay, so we've learned in this series, I think, that no one really likes being vulnerable. And yet everybody hopes other people are open and vulnerable to them. We've learned that confidence is not so much in ourselves and our abilities, but in the God who gives promises. We've learned also that God wants us to not live off kind of hard hearted or closed off or lose heart in life, you know, give up. But to live wholeheartedly and still openly, even through the difficulties of life, that God has an open appeal to trust. The gospel that he keeps offering himself to us. We see how reconciliation in this letter is hard work, but it's really what it's all about. Relationships and how we have freely received and we can freely give. That's the life of vulnerability today. We probably get in some ways to what why Paul wrote the letter all along, even more so. He's hinted at it before, but now he kind of nails it down here in chapter 11. And so we're going to hear about just briefly these quote super apostles who are, as I put it, smooth talking, proud walking, spiritual stalking preachers. They came and stalked out and took advantage of Corinth. OK, so this is what Paul he's writing, a very open, vulnerable and kind of gut wrenching section of this letter. He says, I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me, for I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray by a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept the different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. Indeed, I consider that I'm not in the least inferior to these super apostles, even if I'm unskilled in speaking. I'm not so in knowledge. Indeed, in every way we have made this plain to you in all things. Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted because I preached God's gospel to you free of charge? I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you. And when I was with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my needs. So I refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any way. As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia. And why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do. There's almost a sense of a spurned parent who is just distraught over a wayward child in this letter, isn't there? So I'm so thankful I've never had to write a letter like that or have a discussion like that. But some of you may have. It's that kind of agony. And we see it not just here in Paul, we see it all throughout the scriptures. This comes up in the prophet Hosea, which is one long love letter from God through Hosea to his people. And he's like, what am I supposed ...