Everyday Christian Life — 2 Corinthians 1-15
39 passages in this message
- 2 Corinthians 12:19-13:14 the text
- 2 Corinthians 12:20 the text
- 2 Corinthians 12:21 the text
- 2 Corinthians 13:1 the text
- 2 Corinthians 13:5 the text
- 2 Corinthians 13:9 the text
- 2 Corinthians 13:10 the text
- 2 Corinthians 13:11 the text
- 2 Corinthians 13:14 the text
- 2 Corinthians 1:1 the text
- 2 Corinthians 2:1 the text
- 2 Corinthians 3:1 the text
- 2 Corinthians 4:1 the text
- 2 Corinthians 5:1 the text
- 2 Corinthians 6:1 the text
- 2 Corinthians 7:1 the text
- 2 Corinthians 8:1 the text
- 2 Corinthians 9:1 the text
- 2 Corinthians 10:1 the text
- 2 Corinthians 11:1 the text
- 2 Corinthians 12:1 the text
- 2 Corinthians 14:1 the text
- 2 Corinthians 15:1 the text
- 1 Corinthians 1:1
- 1 Corinthians 2:1
- 1 Corinthians 3:1
- 1 Corinthians 4:1
- 1 Corinthians 5:1
- 1 Corinthians 6:1
- 1 Corinthians 7:1
- 1 Corinthians 8:1
- 1 Corinthians 9:1
- 1 Corinthians 10:1
- 1 Corinthians 11:1
- 1 Corinthians 12:1
- 1 Corinthians 13:1
- 1 Corinthians 14:1
- 1 Corinthians 15:1
- 1 Corinthians 16:1
Concluding Second Corinthians, this sermon examines church conflict, the call to self-examination, and the need to pursue repentance, maturity, and peace.
Outline and transcript
0:00 Introduction to Second Corinthians
Good morning. Good morning. Alright. What a what a joy and what a pleasure to to be here and to be with you. And, so let's go to second Corinthians, the chapter 12.
Today, we close out second Corinthians. I don't know about you, but I have personally been challenged and blessed by by our study, and we're gonna be moving on after today. But I hope you have been enriched by it. Nothing like opening the word of God and studying it. We're gonna start in chapter 12 and verse 19.
So let's read the text second Corinthians twelve nineteen. We're gonna go through the end of the book. All this time you have been thinking that we are defending ourselves to you. Actually, it is in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ and all for your upbuilding beloved. For I am afraid that perhaps when I come, may find you not to be, I may find you not to be what I wish, and may be found by you not to be what you wish.
That perhaps there may be strife and jealousy and angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances. I'm afraid that when I come again, my God may humble me, humiliate me before you, and I may mourn over many of those who have not... Who have sinned in the past and not repented of the impurity and morality and sensuality which they have practiced. This is the third time I am coming to you. Every fact is to be confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses.
I have previously said, when present the second time, and though now absent, I say in advance to those who have sinned in the past and to all the rest as well, that if I come again, I will not spare anyone. Since you are seeking for proof of the proof of the Christ who speaks in me and who is not weak towards you, but mighty in you. For indeed he was crucified because of weakness, yet he lives because of the power of God. For we also are weak in him, yet we shall live with him because of the power of God directed towards you. Test yourself to see if you're in the faith.
Examine yourself. Or do you do you not recognize this about yourself that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you fail the test. But I trust that you will realize that we ourselves do not fail the test. Now we pray to God that you do no wrong.
Not that we ourselves may appear approved, but that you may do what is right even though we should appear unapproved. For we can do nothing against the truth, but only for the truth. For we rejoice when we ourselves are weak, but you are strong. We also pray for this... I'm sorry.
This we also pray for that you may be made complete, or your bible might say mature. For this reason, I am writing these things while absent in order that when I am... That when present, I may not use severity in accordance with the authority which the Lord gave me for building up and not for tearing down. Finally, brethren, rejoice, be made complete, be comforted, be like minded, live in peace, and the God of love and peace shall be with you. Great.
Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. The grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. Amen.
Let's pray. Father, we just pray that every word spoken would be from you, and it would fall in... To find a room in our hearts so that we can practice and apply it. Whatever is not from you may fall to the ground. Pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen. Amen. Well, we have been really enriched every time we look at God's word. It's it's enriching and up building for all of us, and we know that this particular church was what I would call pretty pretty normal. It it had it had a lot of struggles, a lot of issues, and and the apostle Paul is constantly, writing them.
There was three letters. We only have two that god gave us. The third one... I'm sorry. The middle one is not there, but, he kept encouraging them and trying to build them in the faith, and they were really struggling.
4:46 The struggle with sin in the Christian life
As a result, they were falling victim to the sins that they had indulged in before they came to Christ. And the devil, who specializes in false religion, made his presence felt through false apostles who deceived many of the Corinthians, end quote. Wow. Doesn't that sound like today? If you think about city of Corinth, you would think about Las Vegas.
Sin City, as they call it sometimes. Right? Filth everywhere. But in reality, what's the difference between Las Vegas and and Cleveland, or any other city? There's no difference.
Right? And and I think we're we're in tremendous battle. I I honestly believe that the young people today, or not only the young people, but all of us now, are facing a lot more temptation than when when I was a young man. You know, we didn't have the Internet. We didn't have cell phones.
We didn't have all this stuff that's so accessible. Right? None of that was there. Unless you stumbled into some dirty magazine, you really didn't see all that stuff. And...
But today, even if you're not looking for it, it finds you. Right? And and so the Corinthian church, was really struggling. They came to Christ, and Paul tells, sorry. The Lord tells Paul, I want you to preach in Corinth even though they're they're...
It's so wicked because I have some people I wanna save there, and I wanna start a local church there. And Paul does, and Paul spent a lot of time discipling them. Then he leaves, and it wasn't long after he leaves that he gets a letter from one of the members saying, man, the church is a disaster. And so you're like, what? And he starts addressing it in first Corinthians.
And and then after he addresses that, he has to address, some terrible sin that wasn't, addressed again, and he does it. He came a second visit just to take care of that issue, and then now in this third letter, he's still addressing issues. And and as we look at some of the struggles they were going through, I think you're gonna say, wow. It's not just the Corinth Corinthian people, but in my everyday Christian life, I see that I struggle with these things as well. So the day...
Church's daily struggles, and here they are. Bam, look at that real quick. Strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossips, arrogance, disturbances. Now there's no way you can look at this and not say, wow, I've been guilty of that. Maybe not all of them, or maybe all of them.
If you're like me, 95%. Right? 95%. And so I can't look at the the Corinthian church that was struggling with some of those stuff and say, oh, man, those... What's wrong with them?
Because I look at my own life, and I say, lord, what's wrong with me? Sometimes I wonder why I I I keep going back to those things from which you saved me. And so you can imagine then the tension in this local church, because they were having strife, arguments, and they were jealous of one another. If you go to First Corinthians, you read it, they were taking each other to court, and there was all kinds of stuff going on, and then angry tempers. Does that happen in local churches?
Yeah. Yeah. Because we're human, aren't we? And sometimes somebody can make you super angry, and so there was angry tempers. Of course, this is not what you would want to see, but unfortunately, we see it.
And there was disputes and and there was slanders. Anybody here ever slander anybody? Unfortunately, I've done it in the past, and and I always feel dirty and guilty when I do that. Like, lord, please take that from me. It's not of god.
Right? And and gossip. Anybody ever do that? Right? Everybody's starting to hide under the benches now.
Right? It's like, oh my word. And arrogance. Who here doesn't deal with being arrogant at times, even though you know you have no reason to be, and yet there we are. Right?
Struggling with arrogance and disturbances. And and so when when I was looking at this, Paul says, I'm concerned that this is still showing up too much in the local church. I was thinking, wow. And like, if you were to look at me, you're like, come on, Ray. Come on.
You have to ask the Lord to help you to over... Overcome these daily struggles that that really shouldn't be so evident in your life anymore in this point in your Christian walk. Alright? And so I'm the Lord will convict us. Right?
Really, we should deal with these issues. And you're gonna come back to that in a minute. Maybe you're struggling with that. And you can be honest. In my daily Christian walk, I struggle with some of this.
And, we're we're gonna see in a minute how to address it more more directly. So you see that then in in chapter 12 and verse 20, and then when you go into 21, you're gonna see that the church needed to repent. Not only of these things that we just looked at, but if you notice, he he mentions three things, Impurity, immorality, and sensuality. They were all sexual things. And so what what do we all struggle with, and what's what's in the Internet?
This kind of stuff. Right? Alright. And so... But notice what he says.
They practice these things. Now it's one thing to struggle with it, or to stumble in it once in a while, and then say, oh my word, I can't believe this happened. But it's another thing to practice it. And that's why Paul was really disappointed and upset. He goes, oh my word, I hope that when I go there, some of you still aren't practicing these things.
Now if you notice the text, he says this, they haven't repented. Let's look at that verse, verse 21, twelve twenty one. For I am afraid that when I come again, my God may humiliate me before you, and that I may mourn. Listen, he was really sad about it. He was mourning over many of those.
So there was a lot of them that were so stricken because that was so prevalent in their community, right, and in their city of those who have sinned in the past, notice, and have not repented. See, that's the issue. He's not saying, maybe as a believer, you... You've you've gone back to some of that, but then you repent. You say, Lord, help me.
Help me to get this right. But there was a number of them in that local church that hadn't repented of that. They were still doing it, and they were not repenting, and that's the problem. That's the issue. Okay?
11:55 The need for church discipline
This is the third time I am coming to you, so we know here he had come twice. And now he's coming a third time, and there are gonna be some discipline because some people hadn't repented yet. And every fact is to be confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses. Okay? So notice then that this was not a witch hunt.
They needed clear evidence that the accusation was true, was true. Just recently, speaking to an elder of another assembly, he told me that somebody accused one of the leaders of of a sin. So they did the investigation, and they realized that it wasn't true. So then they brought the accuser and said, this was false information. You shouldn't accuse someone unless it's a fact that's true.
Don't assume. It's a terrible thing to accuse someone of something that's not true, because the person, feels guilty and dirty and and and has to defend themselves. And so what does the Bible say? Second Timothy five nineteen to 20, do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses. Those who continue in sin, now it's a general statement, rebuke in the presence of awe, so that the rest also may be fearful of sinning.
And so this is what we call church discipline. Churches, we'll keep talking about this. Let's do some some more investigation. Proverbs eighteen thirteen. Who gives an answer before he hears, it is folly and shame to him.
In other words, if you make a judgment before you listen to all the facts, that's a shame. You shouldn't make assumptions, and you shouldn't judge until you get the facts down and correct. Okay. Proverbs eighteen seventeen. The first to plea his case seems right until another comes and examines him.
In other words, one person says, this person did me wrong. All right, well, let's let's have a meeting. Let's sit down with both. When you hear both things, it's like, seems like you did the wrong when we investigate this. Alright?
And so that's why you you have meetings to clear up the thing. You can't go on the first person's word. You have to hear both cases and be neutral. You hear that? You have to be neutral.
You can't take sides when there's discipline. Okay. So what did this church need to do? He was gonna come, and as you know, the whole second Corinthians is about the false apostles, chapter 11 and verse 13. Those guys are false apostles.
They're sent by Satan, and we're gonna correct it. And so they were gonna have a church meeting and call these men up, and they were going to say, look, you obviously are teaching wrong, and you're also slamming me, the apostle Paul, and, they were going to have to address that issue. And also, as we read in verse 21, they were going to have to address unrepentant sinners who were not repenting of immorality. Okay. Now, please notice the goal is always restoration.
The goal is always restoration. Notice chapter 13 and verse 10. For this reason I am writing these things while absent in order that when present, may not use severity in accordance with the authority which the Lord gave me. Listen, for building up and not for tearing down. Now, church discipline is important because God wants the leadership, the elders, to to make sure that the church is holy.
And it's not a witch hunt, it's not to be chopping people down. Paul says, look, when I come and the authority God gave me, it's not to just be throwing people out or or or just judging, it's for building people up. But God wants the church to be constantly acknowledging sin and repenting. Why? To restore.
And so you can see in first Corinthians, there was one man who wouldn't repent, and Paul says, that man, take him out of fellowship because he won't repent, and so they did that. Then you get to second Corinthians chapter two. Apparently, that man repented, then he want to bring him back. And he goes, wait a minute. Wait a minute.
You you took him out. He repented when you did that. That was good that you did church discipline. Now bring him back. Show him love.
Bring him back to the fold. And so we got to do both. You can't just do one and not the other. The other is just as important. And so it's always with with the goal of restoration.
And so Paul wasn't out for blood, in other words. He was saying, I hope I don't have to come and do this. I want to come in love. I want to come to build you up. But if I had to use my authority, we're going to take those out of fellowship who won't repent of false teaching and won't repent of immorality.
17:15 Examining yourself: the test of faith
Examine yourself. Or do you not recognize this about yourself that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you fail the test? And so Paul basically is saying this. Look, the third time I'm coming, there's some in there that have not repented of immorality because they keep practicing sin. You saw that.
Right? They keep practicing it. And and and how do we know we're saved or we're not saved? How do we know if we're really saved or not? Because he said, test yourself.
Here's a faith test. Check if you're really saved or really born again. How do we know that? Alright. So let's talk about it.
A couple of things. MacDonald, in his commentary, said this. When you're saved, when you're born again, all of a sudden you love holiness. It doesn't mean you're always holy, but you want to be holy. And when you do sin, you hate it that you sinned, and you and you repent, and you say, Lord, give me hatred of that sin.
I don't want to do that. And so there's a love for holiness, and there's a love for Christians. You love coming to church. You love coming to be with the believers. That's a mark of a true Christian.
He loves fellowship, and it just don't just show up for one hour in Sunday morning and disappear. You love to be a Christian. You try to come as much as you can, and you're gonna be here tomorrow for the potluck and all that. Yeah. We love it.
Yeah. We're gonna be here. Amen. Yeah. We love to be with Christians.
And we practice righteousness. You practice righteousness. And obedience. Remember when we studied first John? If if you if you really love me, you're going to do what I say.
And there's just this fundamental obedience. And then there's a separation from the world. This is just a little general, little outline that kind of a faith test. Where are you? Are you really saved?
All right. Now let's look at John MacArthur's list. I kind of like both of them. I put them together, and there's others you can look at, but these are just a few things just so you can kind of do a little faith test. Where am I?
Am I really born again? Number one, they're they're they're known by a pentenance. Pentenance. Did I say that right? If I didn't, you read it correctly.
Alright. So in other words, you acknowledge and you confess sin. So as you're going along in your Christian walk, you're a real believer, you have genuine faith, you're like, oh, Lord. I'm a believer, but I can't believe I did that. And you acknowledge that sin, you confess it, and you forsake it.
Right? Proverbs 28 and verse... Is it 17 or 18? 13. Thank you.
13. And so whoever does that, you're gonna be blessed, the bible says. And that's one of the signs that you're truly saved is that you acknowledge that, oh, Lord, I I I, you know, I I got angry again. I I cursed again. I I did that again.
I can't believe it, but I but I I I confess it, and I repent, and I turn from it. Give me victory over this. And so that's one of the signs that you're really born again. That that you you acknowledge and confess it, and you repent, and you try your best with the help of God and the holy spirit to turn away from it. And then you try to do the right thing, a righteous life.
You try to do the right thing. And then submission to authority. A believer who's grown in faith knows that the Lord has established eldership, and you want to submit. And if you can't even submit to the church's leadership, you're not going to submit to the laws outside. Right?
And so this is a fundamental test of faith obedience, again, and you love God, and you love believers. You love God, and you love believers. Yeah. And so there's something about when you go to another city, and you go to another assembly where the... Where there's...
It's full of Christians, and automatically, you love them, and you feel connected because you have Christ that connects you. Right? And so it's an exciting thing. And and you love to be with believers because they love God, you love to worship the Lord Jesus. And so this is a good little faith test.
Alright. First John three nine. No one who is born of God practices sin because his seed abides in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. In other words, he cannot habitually keep doing the same thing. So I'm gonna put it this way as I was listening to Moody as they were addressing this verse.
They said, if if you're not a believer, it's sin sin sin sin sin sin. No repentance, no remorse, sin sin sin. You're a Christian, you're clean, and all of a sudden, you you sin, sin, and then you go, oh, Lord, I repent, I confess. And then you you keep clean, clean, then, oh, you did it again. Lord, I repent, I confess.
Give me victory. And so that's the Christian walk. But it's not sin sin sin sin sin, and no repentance, no confession, no turning away, then something's wrong. More than likely, you're failing the faith test. You're not born again, cause you're not practicing it, which means habitually doing it.
But there's been a transformation, a change. Alright. Let's continue. Therefore, if a man is in Christ, he's a new creature, old things pass away. Behold, new things have come.
The the the believer who's genuine, has real faith, has a testimony that said, I used to be this, but now I'm this. I'm an... I'm not what I used to be. Jesus got a hold of me, and he transformed my life. And now I'm a new man.
I have a new walk. I'm I'm a new creature in Christ. Alright. So to have real faith is to have the holy spirit residing in you, and he is steadily working in your life producing Christ like behavior. Produce Christ like behavior.
And so how are you doing in this faith test? Alright. So you might struggle, but you will slowly find victory in Christ. And it'll be more victory, more victory, and less stumbling. Okay.
So he says, I'm going to come visit you for the third time. I hope when I come that I don't see all that stuff still. Right? All that angry tempers and strife and slamming people and jealousy and all of those things that shouldn't be part of your life. I hope that's not there.
And when I come, I'm afraid that there's some that haven't repented yet from the false teaching and from immorality. We're gonna have to address that. Now check yourself. Are you really in the faith? And they said, let me give you some final instructions then as I close this book out, and so let's consider what he says.
24:21 Praying for maturity and rejoicing
Your bible might say, be mature. Be mature. You know, grow in your faith. To make... Be made complete means to mend or fix what is broke.
This word is used also in Mark chapter four when when the disciples were mending the net. So in other words, the net is very useful, but when it gets a hole in it, you have to fix it, and if you don't fix it, it's not going to be effective, because the fish will get through. So basically, he's saying is this. There's some some jealousy, there's some strife, there's some angry tempers, there's some disunity. You know what you need to do as a believer?
Be mature and go and fix it. That's what he's saying. So maybe those things are there, but this is what I'm praying, that that you would go and mend those things to return to a healthy Christian life by mending or fixing that which is broke. And so are you studying struggling with strife, with your angry temper? Then ask the Lord to help you fix it.
What are you struggling with? We saw that list. Let's make it right. And then he says this, look, you need to get to a point where you're rejoicing in the Lord. In spite of the struggles of the Christian walk, and all the difficulties, and all the trials that come in life, you know chapter 12 and chapter 11, where he explains all the trials that he was going through.
Chapter one, he says that the trial was so bad that we thought that we might even die. And he says, look, in spite of all that, the believer has joy in his heart. And so that should be a reflection. You should be showing that joy of the Lord. Right?
The the joy of the Lord is the strength of my life. Then he tells them, be comforted. Be comforted by the fact that in spite of the difficulty of the Christian walk, of the struggles we have with the flesh, of all of these issues that we have in our our city, and all of this stuff coming at us, and the wiles of the devil, in spite of all that, be comforted that God doesn't give up on you. But he keeps working with us. And so here here's Paul.
I'm coming a third time, and I'm not coming to use my authority to pull out a whip. I'm coming because I want to build you up in your faith. So you should find comfort in the fact that he who began a good work in you will not quit until the day of redemption. Right? He won't quit working until the day you die.
I find comfort in that. And so then he says, be like minded. Now be like minded in this case doesn't mean we all think the same, because then we would all wear the same color clothes, our houses would all look the same, our cars would be the same color, we would all think the same. He's not saying that. Be like minded in this case is of doctrine.
Unity of faith. Because God gave us different ways of thinking, different lights and flavors and tastes. Some of you like spicy, some of you like bland. And those of you who like bland food, I pray for you. What's wrong?
Yeah. So spices are next to godliness, and you didn't know that. Now you know. Alright. So...
Spicy Christian life. All right. So so be like minded in faith, unity of faith. In in other words, we'll get to some some fundamentals in a minute in in that regard. But what what an important thing.
We come here, we're not contradicting contradicting each other in regards to fundamental doctrine. We're like minded. Then he says, live in peace. Well, obviously, when you looked at the church at Corinth, was that a church in peace, or was there tension there? Oh my word.
You can almost feel the tension just by reading the the the book. Right? There was angry people, and they were slamming each other, and they were just attacking each other, they pop out like, woah, woah, hold on. Hold on. That's not the Christian walk.
The Christian walk is to live in peace. Now, it doesn't mean that... So so if you struggle with strife or angry temper or slander, whatever your issue is, it it doesn't mean that it's over. It means that that somebody got me angry. You go and talk to them, brother.
I got angry, I shouldn't have done it, and I insulted you. Forgive me, you make it right. You make it right. Live in peace. Because we're going to get each other upset, and somebody's going to get you mad, or maybe you slammed somebody, or maybe, I don't know what you did, but you have to go to that person and make it right.
Be at peace. Be at peace. That's what the Lord wants from the body. And so, remember, be made complete. That means go fix the issue.
So go fix it, whatever it is. Correct it, and that's what the Lord wants. Repent from it, and then keep walking the life that Christ has for you. And then he says, what's the result? Notice, the God of love and peace will be with you.
29:48 The presence and favor of God
When when we sin against each other, we make things right. When when you're not right with God, you repent, and you forsake and turn away. And when we meet together, we're we're meeting in peace and in unity, because we... It's about Jesus Christ. It's not about us, and we wanna have that love that the holy spirit is producing amongst us.
And when there's that unity, and we want to be together, and we love one another, and we tolerate each other, and someone comes, they're gonna say, man, I can feel the presence of God here. I can feel his presence. But they can also feel the tension when there's tension. They they can also feel this unity. I mean, I can feel it when I go to...
As you know, I speak at a lot of places. Right? And I can go to some places, I can feel it. The air is thick. And so when people walk in here, what are they seeing?
What are they feeling? Are they saying, man, these people love God. These people are at peace with one another. There's a unity there, and I desire it. And the holy spirit will work with such power when that's true.
Now this expression, the god of love, it's the only time it's mentioned that way in the whole bible. Isn't that interesting? Now it does say God is love, but the God of love, this is the only place that says it. And so when you think of God, he's a God of love and peace. Now think about it.
You got three persons in the trinity, god the father, god the son, god the holy spirit. And the lord Jesus Christ doesn't say suddenly to to the holy spirit, hey. You're getting too much attention. It's my turn. You know?
Or the holy spirit doesn't say to Jesus, I'm tired of exalting you and making everybody believe in you and worship you. How about I get a little bit of it? You see, that never happens among the trinity. They never have had an argument. They've never been jealous of one another.
They never disagreed. See, God is a God of love and a God of peace. And he says, that's... When you are practicing in the local assembly love and peace, then guess what? God is there.
God is there. The presence of God will be notable. It'll be evident, and the Holy Spirit have freedom to work and to bring people to himself and to the Lord Jesus. And so he's a God of love and a God of peace. Alright?
So did you notice then, and the God of love and peace shall be with you. Verse 11. Now notice, he doesn't ever leave you nor forsake you. Hebrews 13, he said that. He's talking about you're going to feel his presence.
You're going to feel his presence. Okay. So a benediction. Now, there's a lot of benedictions in the bible. This is one of my favorites.
I like Jude 20 also. The the benediction of Jude is powerful as well, and and Romans, but this one does something to me. Alright? The blessing of the the holy trinity. Now for those of you who you're gonna hear a lot of arguments, there's not a trinity.
Yes, there is. It's all over the bible. This one right here is clear as can be. Right? The love of God, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
33:34 The Trinity and fellowship
Now this morning, the love of God was expressed pretty clearly, how God loves us in the Lord's Supper. It was evident, wasn't it? Everybody was here. It was a wonderful meeting this morning. But also the grace of the Lord Jesus was talked about today.
That... The the fact that that he gave us what we didn't deserve, that Jesus was so full of grace that he was willing to leave heaven and to come to earth so he can draw us to himself, we can belong to him, so he could save us, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's also talked about in second Corinthians chapter eight. You know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, being rich, he became poor so that we can be enriched. Amen?
And then the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Fellowship is this. You know what? We hang out together. Hey, come over to the house.
Let's let's let's burn a burger, and let's sit down, and let's talk. Right? And let's have some food, and let's just enjoy time together. When the meeting's over, we stay, and we talk, and we enjoy fellowship. And so what the Holy Spirit is is is saying is that, you know what my part is?
That to bring you together and have fellowship with God, the Holy Trinity, with the believer. He calls to have fellowship with us. Wow. What a blessing to have the Holy Spirit that not only gives us fellowship with the Trinity, but also with one another, with one another. Now, the Holy Trinity.
This is something that you have to understand. The Bible teaches that there is only one God, yet it calls three persons God. Therefore, the three persons are the one God. I'm gonna read it again. The Bible teaches that there's only one God, yet it calls the three persons God.
Therefore, the three persons are the one God. Alright. Let's take it to another little step. Maybe this will help you. There's one true God who has eternally existed in three co equal, co eternal persons.
Did that help? Alright, there's one true God who has eternally existed in three co equal, co eternal persons. That's what the bible teaches, and that's what we're gonna preach here, because our obligation to you is to teach the word of God. Father, we just thank you so much, for your love. Jesus Christ, we thank you for your grace, and holy spirit, we thank you for the fellowship that you produce amongst us.
Oh, thank you that you don't give up, and we wanna be a church of love and peace. Lord, help us. Help us to be that way. Help us to forgive one another. Help us to make things right so that your presence would be notable amongst us.
Be glorified, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you.
Transcribed by machine from the recording, so it has the odd mistake in it. Any timestamp plays from that point.
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