Enduring Suffering

Well, these last, or this last week, and then this week is, I shared last week, I'd love to have, if I had one message to preach to the church at large, I would have shared that one last week with them, but then, thinking about this week, I would go ahead and make this part two. Very foundational, but very applicable. You know, there's coming a day, Jesus said, when many will come to me and say, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? Have we not cast out devils? Have we not done many wonderful works? And then he will say unto them, depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.

But you notice in their profession there, mighty works, prophecy, casting out devils. There's nothing in there about self-abasement. Nothing in there about suffering.

Nothing in there about what we've been talking about here in 2 Corinthians. So let's turn again to 2 Corinthians. Can you imagine the Apostle Paul there? Lord, you know, I know I'm yours because of my self-denial and living for you and my suffering, all the things that I've gone through.

As a testimony of the authenticity of Paul's Apostleship. So we've been looking at this idea of Paul's Apostleship. Paul has been trying to defend his Apostleship and he's not using miracles.

He's not using books he's written. He's not using his mega church. He's not using all the things that people seem to evaluate prophets and teachers on, but he is using two things.

And last time we talked about the first one and that is self-denial, self-abasement. In chapter 11, verse number seven, he says, have I committed an offense in abasing myself that you might be exalted because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely. One of the examples he uses here is that he gave and gave and gave and gave and expected to get nothing in return.

And so he has abased himself. And that's simply one of the ways that he abased himself in their presence. And he is saying, here's why I'm a true apostle.

These false apostles are taking and taking and taking and taking and asking for money and all the things they want from you. And I have come and poured myself out. And abased myself before you.

And then today, I'd like to take up the second part. His defense is dealing with his willingness to suffer for the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll talk about that here this morning.

But I remind you of Jesus' words. Some of you weren't here last week. And one of the basic requirements of following him, there was a great multitude that were following him one day.

And he said, if any man want to come after me and we can hear these words ourselves, if any man want to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. And those two things, self-denial, self-abasement and taking up the cross. And that cross represented the sufferings of crucifixion.

Deny yourself and take up the cross. And so, as I shared some last week, you can cut through all the false stuff, all the false pastors and teachers and prophets and apostles and even false believers with these two concepts, a self-abasement and a life of suffering. And I tried to emphasize this last week, but it's not just for apostles, it's for all of us.

Paul's going to call us to follow him. But in Philippians chapter one, verse 29, Paul writes these words, for unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, and we can all say there, hey, we're there, but also to suffer for his sake. And in America, that's a hard one.

In America, I know that it's hard. It's difficult for us. We are like the church at Laodicea in many ways.

We are rich and increased with goods. And the counsel that the Lord gave that church was to put some eye salve on those eyes of yours because you cannot see. You are blind.

You don't realize what's happening. And so just a reminder here again to open our eyes to the reality of what faith is. Last week, we talked about how Moses, though he had everything in the palace there in Egypt, he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy life, enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season.

Self-denial and suffering, that's the two things that the apostle uses to say, hey, I'm a true apostle. And these other people he mentions, the false apostles, they are not true. And here's the evidence.

So we've been talking some about Paul taking the liberty to boast. He is speaking as a fool. And in 2 Corinthians 11, this is all review.

2 Corinthians 11 in verse 16, he says this, I say again, let no man think me a fool. If otherwise, yet as a fool receive me that I may boast myself a little. That which I speak, I speak it not unto the Lord, but as it were foolishly in this confidence of boasting, see that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also.

These false apostles, they glory after their jets they're flying around in their three-piece suits, their wealth and all their luxury. Hey, they glory, I'm gonna glory too. My glory is gonna be in a different way.

I'm gonna glory in my self-abasement and self-denial. And then Paul also boasts in his sufferings and we'll look at the list of them here. But in chapter 11 and well, jump down here to chapter 11, verse 30, if I must needs glory or if I must needs boast, I will glory of the things which concern my infirmities, my weakness.

And we're gonna see a list of that weakness here in just a minute. So you say here, let's, and I know many people they take the apostle and they put him out on a shelf and say, well, he's a different person. And I'm on a totally different level.

So all these verses, all this teaching has no application to me. And that's something that happens in the human mind. I've seen this over the years, we check out.

It's like, it's not for me, it's not something for me. But I remind you, if any man come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, follow me. So that's a call to the multitude.

And Paul is an example. He's gonna talk about that here in just a little bit for us to follow his example. So let's pray and we'll jump in here.

We left off in verse 21 last time. I'm gonna go down through the entire chapter. It won't take that long, but we'll finish the chapter here this morning.

Heavenly Father, we do pray for that eye salve that you counseled the church in Laodicea to put on their eyes some medication, some spiritual medication that we could see clearly. We know that we're approaching the end and that now is our salvation nearer than when we first believed that the Lord's coming is soon and that we need to not be foolish virgins, but be wise and be seeing what's going on and what's happening around us. So Lord, help us, anoint us here with clear vision for our own life.

And so I pray your blessing on myself as I try to communicate and those who are here hearing. Lord, bless our time together. In Jesus' name, amen.

All right, we're gonna start in verse 21. I finished off in verse 20. Verse 21 says this.

I speak as concerning reproach as though we had been weak, how be it whereinsoever, thank you, whereinsoever any is bold, I speak foolishly, I am bold also. Now I wanna look at this idea of reproach. He talks about I speak as concerning reproach.

He's gonna mention a lot about reproach here coming up, but he's talking about this idea of reproach. And the word reproach here means to be reviled. It means to be chided, to have someone cast in your teeth.

You ever had that happen to you? They just gnash upon you with their teeth. There's anger. It means to be ridiculed.

Now, I understand this and I've gone through this in life. Nobody sitting here in their natural mind and in their natural body wants any of those things. Nobody desires to be ridiculed.

I mean, as young people especially. I remember in high school, the thing you so feared is your friends ridiculing you in front of others. It was such an awful feeling, the idea of being reviled or chided or ridiculed.

And what I'm gonna share this morning and what Paul is teaching is gonna go so contrary to us, so contrary to our natural inclination. And so that's where we need to come to the place where we truly want to deny ourselves. This idea of reproach.

Look here again at verse 21. I speak as concerning reproach as though we had been weak. Now, reproach definitely gives an appearance of weakness.

You ever been around someone who's being just ridiculed or who's being reproached and reviled and people are tearing into them, gnashing upon them with their teeth? It gives this appearance of weakness. Just take the Lord Jesus on the cross. He is nailed there.

He is bloodied. He is laughed at. The Bible says they come by and they wag their heads.

They say to him, you know, you saved others. Why don't you save yourself? Ha ha ha, you saved others. Come down from the cross and we will believe you.

You can see the things that are going on there. There's ridicule, there's laughing, there's mocking. I can imagine how much laughing and mocking there was in Noah's day when he's out there building the boat.

What are you doing? You are a fool. And people probably, you know, got a six-pack of beer and came down and sat down and just watched him and just laughed at him and just ridiculed him. And throughout history, that's been the case.

It gives an appearance of weakness, of weakness. And if you'd have looked at Jesus, the average person would have said, who wants to follow that? Who wants to follow that? And today the temptation is, you know, a man stands up behind a pulpit and says, I've got my Learjet out back. I'm traveling all over the world.

I got my Rolex on. My bank account is full. Everybody likes me.

And most people say, that's the kind of guy I'm gonna follow. It's the kind of guy, he's successful. He's the kind of person that encourages people to follow me.

Follow me. And so Paul is struggling with that whole idea at Corinth. You know, he's got people that are boasting in the flesh.

They're doing well. They're admired. They have everything going for them.

And here's Paul, I'm being ridiculed and I'm abasing myself and I am suffering and I'm calling upon you to follow me. And so there's a real temptation here. I'm trying to be real practical because when I go through this in my own private studies, you know, it's a challenge and I have to continue to push myself.

But who wants to follow weakness? Who wants to follow these kinds of things? Who wants to follow someone who is hanging on a cross? Who wants to follow someone who is being chased by the authorities? Who wants to follow someone who is mocked and ridiculed? Who wants to follow them? No, there's an appearance of weakness. Give me the guy with a nice suit. Give me the guy with the gold ring.

Give me a guy with a Rolex. Give me the guy that's got a wad full of money in his pocket and everybody likes him and he's good at what he does. We'll follow him or her.

One thing Paul is learning and he has learned and he tells the church in 1 Corinthians, his letter, he says some of the same things, but turn over to chapter 12 here in verse number nine. Here's something he is learning through life. And he said unto me, this is God speaking to Paul, my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, that's that word he uses, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake for when I am weak, then am I strong. And so he understood something, that I like this position of weakness, I like the ridicule, I like the infirmity, I like the reproach, I like having nothing, I like being the, we're gonna see here, the off scouring of the earth and I like it because it's when I am weak, that's when I am strong spiritually.

And you know, Paul's gonna go on later on, he's gonna talk about, you know, he's many mighty things, God has done mighty things to me. And so one of the first things that I think we all have to get past, especially in America, you have to get past this idea of strength. You know, I got it all under control, I got it together.

You know, it's, people like me, I got plenty of money, I got all these things, we're rich and increased with goods, now in need of nothing, we're strong and yet blind and naked and all the things that the Lord mentions there to the church at Laodicea. So Paul understands some things and that is that he embraces reproach, he embraces the things that make him weak and so the spirit of the world, young people, especially although the older ones, myself included, need to understand this, that the spirit of the world is going after the successful people, they're going after the admired people, they're going after the popular and the wealthy. Those are the ones you follow.

But Paul says, I want you to go after the ones who deny themselves, take up a cross. That's what you wanna follow. And he says then, he says to these people, follow, follow me.

Now I want to read in his first letter the things he wrote to Corinth right out of the box. Chapter one, here he writes, I'm not gonna read the whole thing, but he concludes it this way, when he writes to the church, he says in verse 26, for you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not the philosophers and the wise men, the ones in the college, teachers and professors, there are not many wise, not many mighty, not the strong, not many noble, not the high up officials, the elite. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.

This is a principle. God wants to take foolish to confound the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty. That's his choice.

And this is the way things work in the spiritual realm. God is looking for the weak and the foolish because he wants to take them and bring to naught the wise and the strong. And the base things of the world, the things which are despised, have God chosen.

Now that's a hard one for us to embrace. I agree with you. Weak, despised, and the foolish.

And so in a sense, the Lord's looking around for the weak, the despised, and the foolish. I'm looking for people who are willing to step into weakness, to step into being a fool in this world, to step into being despised so that I can be strong. The base things of the world, the things which are despised, have God chosen.

Yea, the things which are not, to bring to naught the things that are. So that's why a little David comes out there. God could have chose Israel's mighty, strong warrior, but he chose a little boy, and there was mocking and ridicule.

What is this kid coming out to fight me, the giant of the Philistines? Well, the Lord loved him. He said, just give me a boy. Give me a boy.

I'll take a boy. And I'll destroy the giants. That, verse 29 says, that no flesh should glory in his presence.

And so, Paul has an understanding of this. And so, he looks at these false apostles there at Corinth who are deceiving the people. He sees they're strong, they're wealthy, they have things under control, they're great orators, they have all the things that the world seems to want to follow.

Here I am. I'm weak. My speech is contemptible.

I can barely see. And people mock me and they despise me. And then I'm trying to prove to them that I'm an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Wow. You're an apostle. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm an apostle. So, Paul's body is weak, his speech is contemptible. He's already said that.

His eyes are bad. He's living hand to mouth. He's not taking anything from the church at Corinth.

He's being ridiculed, mocked, and reproached from city to city. Then he has this claim that I'm an apostle of the great King of Kings, the Lord Jesus Christ. You can imagine the temptation.

I mean, in the flesh, people are sitting there, give me the guy that's got the Rolex. Give me the guy that's got everything. Give me the guy that's driving the Mercedes.

He's the guy I want to follow. He's the guy that's blessed of the Lord. And you see it all around today.

No, it's not the guy who's ridiculed and mocked and for standing up for Jesus. It's the guy that's got the money. It's the guy that's got the TV show.

It's the guy that's loved by everyone. So, reproach. He talks about reproach here.

I want to read some passages for us regarding reproach. This word is used throughout the Bible. Paul speaks about it on a number of occasions here.

You don't have to turn. I'm just going to go down through a couple of them. First, Timothy chapter four and verse number 10 says, for therefore we both labor and suffer reproach because we trust in the living God who is the savior of all men, especially of those that believe.

In Hebrews chapter 11, verse 24, by faith Moses, when he was called to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt. That was his understanding. I have a choice between all this Rolex and the money and all this stuff or reproach.

He looked at it and said, I'll take reproach. This stuff over here is going to give me great reward in life here with the Egyptians and probably authority in the kingdom of Egypt. This one will bring eternal reward.

So he made a choice. He chose reproach. And by the way, that's not reproach because of bad behavior.

Sometimes people are reproached because of bad behavior. It's not talking about that. It's talking about reproach for the name of the Lord Jesus.

Here's an interesting verse in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 32, but called to remembrance the former days in which after you were illuminated, you endured a great fight of afflictions, partly while you were made a gazing stock both by reproaches and afflictions and partly while you became companions of them that were so used. I like that word gazing stock. You know what that word means? Comes from the word theater.

You know, you go to the theater and someone entertains you. These people were entertaining, you know. Look at these people.

You probably come down and look at these. They actually, I believe in the Roman world, they threw them to the lions and people would come and sit in the Coliseum and be entertained by lions devouring Christian. The theater, a gazing stock.

One of the words we use is laughing stock. It's the same word, an object of ridicule. I can imagine, I'm going back there to seeing these people burning at the stake.

There was probably people there weeping, maybe people who knew this person. There's probably a lot of laughing and ridicule about these individuals. You fools, fools.

You won't deny some Jesus and you're willing to go and die for it. Yeah, 1 Peter, one more I'll read to you here. Speaking of this word reproach here in 1 Peter 4, verse 14 says this.

If you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you for the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part, he is evil spoken of, but on your part, he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or as an evildoer or as a busybody in other men's matters.

Yet if any man suffers a Christian, let him not be ashamed. And that word is important. Let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf.

One of the great challenges, and I know where it's at because I go through this and I've gone through this, especially as a young person, as a Christian, the word ashamed, ashamed. Do not be ashamed. And the Lord said, if you're ashamed of me, I'll be ashamed of you, but do not be ashamed of the greatest hurdles in ministering and being a public testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ is this challenge and shame.

And all of you face it. We all face it. We're humans.

I don't want to be a fool. I don't want to be a fool. I don't want to feel that I'm some sort of an outcast or someone strange.

I like to fit in. All of us like to fit in. Do you agree with that? We like to fit in.

We like to be a part of a group. Nobody likes to stand out. Somebody mentioned this morning, you have to stand on your own.

Nobody likes to stand out. But as a Christian, we are called to not be ashamed. Not be ashamed.

And I can remember the first couple of times standing on a street corner and just declaring the Lord Jesus, the shame that you have to overcome. Shame. What am I doing here? These people are just, why are you out here? Get out of here.

And they're laughing and mocking. And what am I doing? And it was a hurdle, a great hurdle. I have got to get past this shame I feel for standing up and preaching Jesus.

So that's a challenge. Look with me, and I'm staying in 1 Corinthians. We can go to other places in the Bible.

Look with me to 1 Corinthians 4 once. These are the letters that Paul wrote to the church. He's keeping on subject here.

In 1 Corinthians 4, there's a rather lengthy passage here starting in verse number nine I'd like to read. This is, by the way, this is through the Bible a lot. This is not a side note here, a small thing.

But in 1 Corinthians 4, verse nine, he spends some time addressing this issue. For I think that God has set forth us the apostles last as it were appointed to death, for we are made a spectacle. You know what a spectacle is? It's not something I'm wearing up here on my head.

We are made a spectacle unto the world and to angels and to men. People look at us like what are you doing? Even angels, what are they doing? We're a spectacle. Nobody likes to be a spectacle, but Paul was a spectacle.

Verse 10, we are fools. We're fools for Christ's sake, but you're wise in Christ. We are weak.

And by the way, he's gonna rebuke them here in just a minute. We are weak, but you're strong. You are honorable.

Everybody loves you, but we are despised. Even under this present hour, we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted and have no certain dwelling place. By the way, you can see the church there in this first letter, they're going after these people that are strong and are honorable and these false apostles.

Even under this present hour, we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted and have no certain dwelling place and labor, working with our own hands, being reviled, we bless. Being persecuted, we suffer it, being defamed, we entreat, we are made as a filth of the world. Wow, how many want to get into that group? We're gonna start a new club now.

Filth of the world club. Not for me, not for me. We are made as the filth of the world and the off scouring of all things under this day.

You know what off scouring is? If you look that word up, it sets parts. You know, when you ladies, you cook, I remember my wife, we butchered a pig and had that big kettle out there and they put some of that fat and that bone in there to make, what's that called, honey? What's that called? Hedge cheese, whatever that is, I don't know. Scrabble, my wife calls it scrabble.

And after it cooks for a while, they scrape the scum off it, you know? The scum. You know, you say, boy, I wish I was like, I wish I was with Paul back in their church. I would love to have been with him.

No, you wouldn't have. Most Christians would have, I'm out of here, I'm alone. I don't want to be the filth of the world.

I don't want to be the scum, the off scouring of all things, he says. It's probably not what you wanted to hear this Sunday morning, did you? I'm here to preach the Bible. We gotta go through it verse by verse.

Verse 14, I write not these things to shame you, but, now notice this, but as my beloved sons, I warn you. Now, if Paul were here, he'd be saying, we're supposed to be the filth of the world, the off scouring of all things. I don't say that to you people to shame you.

I say it to warn you, to warn you. I know there's things going on here, and there are false apostles who want to take you down this road of wealth and ease and Rolexes and Mercedes, and God is going to bless us, and here we go. And I'm here to tell you, this is the wrong.

Look at verse 15. For though you have 10,000 instructors in Christ, there's a lot of people who want to teach you, yet have you not many fathers? For in Christ Jesus, I have begotten you through the gospel wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me. Ah, there you go.

Now, this is the church, followers of me, and where are we going? We're going down this road. It's difficult. Fools, a spectacle unto the world, and I know that's a hard one for people to get past, but if you truly have given up on this life and you don't need to impress anybody, I think we can get past it, amen? And say, you know, Paul didn't say, like many people believe, he didn't say, listen, that's for me, I'm an apostle, yes, I got to go through all that.

You guys can live like kings. No, he said, I'm going to warn you. This is the path, follow me.

You know, Paul said this, I follow Christ, you, you follow me. Be ye followers of me. I like verse 17.

For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son and faithful in the Lord who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ as I teach everywhere in every church. My ways, this is the way to go. And I know that this would not be received in 95% of the churches in America today.

And here's how we do it. You know, you read the Bible and you get to places like that and either check out mentally and go on or, you know, you pick out a few chapters you like and focus on those and don't read anything else. That's the way many people live.

They're not, they don't have a balanced view of the scripture. So let's bring in some balance because here in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, Paul is going to address the things he has gone through that prove that he truly is an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. Back to 2 Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 22.

And I'm gonna read down through this list, just comment on some of them for sake of time. Verse 22 says, are they Hebrews? He's talking about these false teachers. Do they say they're Jews? Yes, so am I. Are they Israelites? Yeah, they say they're Israelites.

By the way, if you're gonna be apostle, you need to be a Jew or an Israelites. So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. All right, we're on the same page. Are they ministers of Christ? They say they are.

I speak as a fool. I am more. And now he's gonna give us a list here of how he will elevate himself above these who say they're ministers of Christ.

Now notice none of this list has anything to do with, I've planted 20 churches. I have written 15 books. I have done all these wonderful miracles and works and none of that.

But he's gonna talk about his suffering and that will separate him from that which is false. Boy, I tell you what, if we use that today to separate the true from the false, boy, that'd cut a lot of false out, wouldn't it? Remember we read last week, they that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.

Young people, listen, don't let yourself be deceived. Young people, there's a spirit in this age that says you can have the world and pursue your dreams and desires and have Jesus too. Well, Paul's gonna contradict that here.

Verse 23, are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool, I am more. And he lists here a bunch of things. Let's read them.

In labors, more abundant. In stripes, above measure. In prisons, more frequent.

In deaths, often. Now, if you have a resume, maybe you used to write a resume, here's his resume for the fact that Corinth, I'm a true apostle. Here's my resume.

I have been in stripes above measure. You know the Jews can only stripe a man 39 times. He's gonna talk about that.

Look at verse 24. Of the Jews, five times received I 40 stripes, save one. The Jews whipped me five times, 39 lices.

Five different occasions. However, he starts off with in stripes above measure. Those Romans, they'll hit you a hundred.

Those Greeks, they'll take you and they'll kill you. I mean, they'll hit you 80 times and won't even think about it. Stripes above measure.

In prisons, more frequent. In deaths, often. Deaths, under a pile of rocks.

I don't have to read the story, but they left him for dead. Now, why would you say that when you're trying to show you're a true apostle? Because Jesus said, take up a cross. If you're my apostle, you'll take up a cross and you'll deny yourself.

So I'm gonna show you that I have taken up the cross. I've been beaten. I've been thrown in prison.

I've been left for dead on a number of occasions. Now, I'm not encouraging, you know, not saying that we all have to go through all that, but we should move in that direction, amen? I mean, we should certainly not be ashamed of Jesus and be willing to be reviled. Verse 24 says, of the Jews, five times received I 40 stripes, save one.

Thrice was I beaten with rods. Once was I stoned. Thrice I suffered shipwreck.

Three times. Boy, saw this young man that was, 260 people died in that Indian plane crash, explosion, and one guy survived. Incredible.

Paul survived so many things like that. Just amazing. A night and a day I have been in the deep.

You say, where's the blessing of God in this man's life? Wow. What's going on here, Paul? Where is the blessing of God? Well, you know, this is the opposition of the devil right here. This is someone who's wrestling with principalities and powers.

And this is someone who is, by the way, in Job's day, you know, some of these things happen. Yeah. And this opposition is fighting.

Do you face any opposition? You say sometimes, you know, we have these catastrophes, but oftentimes those things happen because of our own failure, our own sin. But it was a difficult life. Now Paul was given a heads up about this at his conversion.

And yes, I will acknowledge that, you know, the apostle here is told ahead of time, it ain't gonna be easy. And we ought to have been probably been told that too. You know, we were told to count the cost, right? Whether you have sufficient to finish it.

Well, Ananias is told to go and tell Paul this message. The Lord said unto Ananias, go thy way for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel, for I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. And so, yes, I do believe that Paul was probably down the road and he suffered more than probably anybody will ever suffer.

But he does turn around to us and say, follow me. Verse 26, in journeyings often, in perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils amongst false brethren. You know, everywhere he went, it was troublesome.

Got on a boat, wrecked. False brethren spying on his liberty. Robbers, how many times was he robbed? Just everywhere he went, in the city, Ephesus, a riot, in the wilderness, perils, constantly being under attack.

In 1 Corinthians, you don't have to turn there, chapter 15, he says this in verse 30. And why stand we in jeopardy every hour? I protest by your rejoicing, which I have in Christ Jesus, our Lord, I die daily. You know, he woke up every morning.

I might die today. I mean, I don't know, I don't know what's gonna happen. I'm in peril all the time.

I get people after my life continuously. So follow, follow me, follow my example. A perilous life.

Verse 27, in weariness and painfulness. Oh, this is a tiring life. This is tiring, weary, painful.

I thought about that, you know, I mentioned it last time, but painfulness. How long did he suffer after he died? You know, I had my tooth pulled, I told you that, suffered for about two weeks. And I thought it was, you know, a big issue.

But can you imagine being beaten 39 times by the Jews and what it does to your back and how long it takes that back to heal? And then once it's healed, you get lashed again on top of it. And then you get thrown under a barrel or a truckload of rocks and they look at you and he's dead. How long does it take to get over that? And pain comes off.

Sure makes my little tooth pull a nothing. And we in this country, praise God, the Bible says to pray that we could live a quiet and peaceful life, you know, pray for our authorities. Praise God in this country, folks, we don't realize what we have.

We can go out and speak freely of the Lord Jesus Christ and not be scourged for it. You know, in the early church, if you did that in Jerusalem, they'd scourge you. And then after they did that, they'd throw you in a prison cell for six months.

And here we are in America. We can live a quiet and peaceful life while we're serving God. Yeah, we'll get a bit mocked and ridiculed, but watchings, painfulness, weariness, painfulness in watchings often, that's like all night prayer meetings.

In hunger, in thirst, in fastings often, in cold, and in nakedness. You know, there's many times that Paul sat in a jail. Days on end.

I thought about 2 Timothy 4, he wrote the cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus. When you come, bring it with you. You know, of all the things, he could have went down to the thrift store, just got an old coat, couldn't he? No, they couldn't do that back then.

Bring me my coat, it's cold in this jail cell. Verse 28, beside those things that are without, and that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. All these things I just mentioned are without.

Things coming at me from without, but I got things on the inside too that are difficult, and that is the care of all the churches. He was a very passionate individual about the churches, the people of God. If you go over here in 2 Corinthians 12, verse 14, he says this, Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be burdensome to you, for I seek not yours, but you.

For the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. We think of that here in our relationship between parents and children. Here's a Father's Day.

But what he's saying is this, I am your Father, your spiritual Father, and I'm not asking you to lay up for me, I am laying up for you. And he describes it when he says in verse 15, I will therefore gladly spend and be spent for you. Though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.

How can a person, think about this, how can a person do this? How can you? I mean, we go through a little bit of difficulty, and it's like, oh, how can a person live like this? Just, well, number one, they have to have a great faith, right? As was mentioned here, the mustard seed. Paul said it this way, I have fought a good fight, I have kept the faith. You know, the devil tried to wrest that seed out of my hands too, and I've held fast the faith, I've fought a good fight.

It's been a fight. And it ought to be a fight, shouldn't it? I mean, if we just kind of cruise through life and enjoy life, probably on the wrong road. So all these things are, here's my apostleship proof.

I've spent myself for you all, I didn't take a dime from you, I've abased myself, and I have suffered. And these other people, they're taking, they're taking and taking from you, and they're living at ease. They're false apostles, they're on the wrong, the broad road, they're not on the narrow road.

Verse 29, let's keep going here. Who is weak, and I am not weak. Boy, I can see that.

Who is offended, and I burn not. If I must needs glory, if you want me to boast, it won't be in my Learjet that I'm flying around, I'll boast in this. I will glory of the things which concern my infirmities.

Now, we learned a few weeks ago, we're not to boast at all about ourselves, but Paul is speaking as a fool, and I'm gonna boast, he says, but it's gonna be about my suffering. So I give you the liberty, if you wanna speak as a fool, to get up here and say, I've suffered this and this. I speak as a fool.

I shouldn't be speaking about myself. Here's something else that Paul wrote to the church at Galatians. God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

Let me ask you a question. Was the cross glorious? The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. I will glory in the cross.

I will glory in my infirmities. I'll glory in that. I'll glory in the weakness in being nailed to a cross.

I'll glory in the suffering. I'll glory in the ridicule. I'll glory in the mockery.

I'll glory in that. Some of us think, I'll glory in the cross. It's like this nice little gold cross that we wear or something.

No, you glory in that? Yeah, we'll glory in that. Too many of us, we were repelled by it. We were repelled by it.

Paul was not repelled by it. He saw that as entrance into power. And into eternal life.

He saw that. When Jesus said, follow Me, he saw that as the direction to walk. Well, verse 31.

This is interesting here as he closes this out. He says, The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed forevermore. Can you imagine that? Now, this is a real challenge.

You've gone through all these things in life and God has put you through this great suffering and He says, He is blessed forevermore. Well, you talk about some people like the Israelites coming through the wilderness and they had a couple of days of no water and didn't eat and murmuring and complaining and wanting to turn back into Egypt. The Lord, Paul's gone through this and the grace of God is letting him say, I bless Him forevermore.

And this God who I bless forevermore knows that I lie not. I'm not lying about any of this stuff. And then he mentions one story in verse 32.

In Damascus, the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison desirous to apprehend me and through a window in the basket was I let down by the wall and escaped his hands. I wonder why he threw that in there at the end. It seems like not a very big deal.

You know, here I was preaching Jesus. It's right after he was converted on the road to Damascus. He's there in Damascus.

He immediately starts preaching Christ and they come after him. And he tells the story here at the end of his suffering. Here's what came to my mind when I saw that at the end.

Like, why did he throw that in at the end? Doesn't seem like a very big deal. First impressions. In that way it is with life.

The first time you really have to suffer for Jesus is the thing you really remember. I remember after I was just converted, Paul says, there in Damascus I started to preach Christ and they went after me and they had to let me down the wall in a basket and I escaped their hand. I'll never forget it.

So he throws it in at the end. He never forgot that first time. You think the apostle, I thought about this.

Do you think the apostle Paul could apply for pastorage today with this kind of resume? You know, there's no mention here of Bible school, theology. There's no mention here of his previous pastorates. He's not asking for a $200,000 salary with a car and a parsonage and all that, but this is not gonna make it.

But it's the truth. And for all of us, I mean, let's just face it. If any man come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, follow me, right? And if that's not your heart, then you shouldn't be here.

You shouldn't be here, right? This is a church and let's put forth the message. And I believe that, you know, those that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, I believe many people just like the seed and the sower, many people come and they say, I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and with joy they receive him. But when these things start to come into their life, immediately they're offended and they depart.

So it's a call to deny yourself. It's a call also to embrace reproach, embrace it. Peter says, those that embrace reproach, the spirit of glory of God rests upon them.

So that is his defense. And he's going to go into a vision here and then he's going to bring it to them and say, listen, the way I see you all living, I have to question whether you can be in the faith. Examine yourself.

Are you in the faith? Are you even following the Lord Jesus? Is your faith real? Well, we'll go into that here again, but we're going to talk next time about this vision that Paul sees and he gets caught up to the third heaven. By the way, he's so humble, he can't even say it was me. He said, I knew a man, I knew a man.

I'm tired of glorying in myself, but I knew a man many years ago who caught up to heaven. So let's not allow our minds to say, well, that was Paul. That was back in those days.

No, Paul encourages us to follow him. And if I remember right, the wise man Solomon said, there's nothing new under the sun. It's the same here as it was back then.

Humans are no different. If you stand up for Jesus, you'll get knocked down pretty good. As much here as back then.

So let's consider that and ask the Lord to up our game a little bit. Amen. Anyone have anything you'd like to share this morning?