Sermon Tone Analysis

2 Corinthians 6:3-7:1

Paul told us in chapter 5 that we are ambassadors for Christ, he begins chapter 6 telling us we are workers together with Christ and that today is the day of salvation, it is time for us to get to work.

We made it that far last week through verse 2 of chapter 6.

He continues on with this thought in our chapter and actually has to continue to defend his credentials as an Apostle to this church and gives what we might think of as his resume, But before we get to all that…I want to say that...

I missed not being in Growth Group this past week, because I love the process of sitting down after the message sometime during the week, meditating on it, answering the questions for discussion, and then being challenged and strengthened by the others in my group.

This idea of being Ambassadors, workers together with Christ, and servants of Christ has consumed much of my thoughts over the past week....so much so, that I changed the title of our message this morning from what you have in your bulletins, to Actions speak louder.

You may have heard an expression like that when you were a kid, especially if you had good parents…You remember it don’t you?

Actions speak louder than....words.

What in the world does that mean?

Wrong, it does not mean silence!

Let me tell you guys something, I know we have some ladies here this morning, as I said during announcements, a huge number of our ladies are away for the weekend, being encouraged and strengthened at our ladies retreat....So I considered hammering away on our men, or challenging our men in a way that is difficult to do when we have a mixed crowd, because then you think I’m calling you out in front of your wives, but god said no to all of that.

And truth be told, I’m proud of everyone of you fellas that did what you had to do to make it possible for your wife to attend, so I thought about having a really short message today.

but then realized you’ve had to parent all weekend and if I kept you in here and your kids out there for a couple of hours, it might be a nice break, the only problem it, I’ve got some guys back there taking care of them, and it’s just not smart to push that any longer than necessary, so lets pray and see what the Lord has for us.

I know you thought you got out of it, but what does this mean?

Actions speak louder than words....What you say doesn’t matter if it’s not what you do!

Because what you do says more than what you say.

Probably easier to just say actions speak louder than words.

So I’ve been challenged this week by what does what we do say?

I’m not going to talk in riddles all day, just these have been some of my thoughts…and verse two from last week, well the end of verse two…especially.

2 Cor 6:2

And I encouraged those both here and online to make that truth in their life.

If they hadn’t yet received Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, meaning you acknowledge that the Word of God is true, that Jesus is the only way to Heaven.

Remember, we read that verse last week that I told you was the doctrine that made that possible, back in chapter 5, the last verse there, verse 21…2 Cor 5:21

Jesus came and lived a sinless life, and was put to death, the death on the cross to pay the price, or the penalty for your sin and mine, that we might, or could, become the righteousness of God, that we could be made right with God.

And I read the first two verses of this chapter because it all goes together…verse one says 2 Cor 6:1

Meaning, and I won’t re-preach the whole sermon, but in short, if we continue to insist that we want God to judge us base upon what we have or haven’t done, rather than based upon what Jesus did for us, then We have received the grace of God in vain, because Jesus’ death was in vain for you.

I can’t tell you how many examples I came across this past week of pastors and Christians that had shared the gospel with a person or group of people and they decided that they weren’t quite ready, they wanted to wait, weren’t ready to decide, and then before that opportunity came, a tragedy occured, and that second or third, or tenth chance never came.

Rather than share those stories, or any stories, I’ll just remind you…to not decide is to decide, you are making a choice and the Bible tells us that those opportunities are limited.

I’ll go further to say that Hell is full of those that weren’t ready to decide, those that wanted to wait until they were ready.

Paul says today is the day.

We pick up our study this morning in verse three with this idea of actions speak louder than words..

Paul says in verse 3 we give no offense, knowing that if we do, it negates every other thing that we do.

Let’s look at it together...

Paul knows that we can give offense in the things that we say, the things that we do, text, post, tweet, snap, tic, eat, drink, right?

Remember the whole pagan taco truck from Paul’s fist letter, well from us, when we were going through the first letter 1 Cor 8:9

So not just bad things, but grey areas, or even things that might technically be OK are not OK if they bring offense in a way that could tarnish your ministry.

And then he goes on in verse 4, and I think just emphasizes his point…2 Cor 6:4

And I know I’m not getting very far and I didn’t finish the verse, but I want you to see, I want you not to miss, that he says in ALL THINGS.

Not some things, not even most things, or in all things except…Paul says in all things we commend, we validate, show ourselves to be authentic, to be the real deal as ministers of God (if we were to say the same thing about ourselves, and I realize were not apostles here, just plan old ordinary Christians…but if we were to say we commend ourselves as ministers of God…how much evidence from our lives could be produced to show that’s just not true…what offenses are in our lives that would contradict that?

Now, I said I’d get back to the verse, but I want you to see that Paul gives us a list here of examples, I think there’s 10 of them...see they are all proceeded with the word in, “I” “N”

So in much patience, and I don’t want to bust out the Greek here, well I do, but I don’t know Greek, but I can tell you that if you look this word patience up, how it is used here is different than what we might think of it as.

Many of you think you’re being patient when I go 2-3 minutes minutes over and you don’t get up and storm out.

Or the ability to sit in a boat and wait for a fish to bite, or a foursome to move onto the next tee so you can hit your approach shot, or if you have a teenage daughter maybe waiting for your turn in the bathroom.

Patience here is something deeper, steadfastness, constancy, faithful endurance to the end, he goes on..in tribulations meaning being under intense trials, stress pressure, what I want you to get as we go through this list....Paul is saying as ministers of God, as servants of God, these are the times when he had to remember that he was a minister of the gospel...., he goes on in needs, in distresses - literally pain, anguish, the type that is pressing and closing in.

I was going to use a picture of the Ever Given ship when it was stuck in the Suez Canal, I I thought a better picture could be painted if I used an image of what they call fat man’s misery, on the loop trail section on Tumbledown Mountain in Maine…pressing in on all sides with nowhere to turn.

2 Cor 6:5

BY stripes he means lashings the 40 minus one, which Paul received several times, ....tumults think of an angry mob, or riot, in labors, some of these were chosen by Paul so that he could faithfully endure, no one made him work so hard, this contributed to sleeplessness along with having to be alert even at night due to the constant dangers he faced, and in fastings.

AND here, these weren’t just denying the flesh for the sake of prayer and presence with God, it was due to the scarcity of food that he experienced at times.

Church, people aren’t just watching us when things are good, or when we have an opportunity to share our faith, or to share the gospel, they are watching your lives and how you react when things go wrong.

When there is a loss in your family, when there is a diagnosis, or even when we pay to have our daughter’s exhaust repaired in Maine last weekend, and then pay 6 x’s as much to have it repaired again a few days later in MA...

So if these are examples that Paul gives us when he had to remember he was a minister of the Gospel, what is the personal application for us?

If we claim the name of Christ, if we profess to be Christians, then we need to act like it.

Our walk had better match our talk!

Now in verse 6 Paul starts with a list of 9 by statements.

Some say these are the mental and then the spiritual things he endured, I don’t think that’s it though, these seem more to by the this is how’s, these where what was in our tool bag that we used…verse 6, 2 Cor 6:6

Kindness even when others where not kind to them or refused to receive it.

The power of God, Paul tells us what that is, in 1 Corinthians 1:18

and he ends with 2 Cor 6:7

Think of that as the armor of God having both offensive and defensive weapons.

In verse 8 he begins a series of contrasts, and I think it what others judged him as, and who he really was in Christ Jesus.

I want to just summarize what we have so far in this chapter.

Paul says, look church…we’ve had all kinds of troubles, but we have been faithful and we’ve patiently endured all of these things by focusing on our walk with Jesus and our witness for Jesus.

Specifically, the things that we say and the things that we do.

We’ve responded to all of these things with pure kindness.

Asking ourselves what would Jesus do here, or what would he have us do here?

So that no matter what we face we remember that Paul’s defense of his ministry was to be able to say, say what you want, but I’m living it everyday.

But in All of these things we commend ourselves he could say…again application for us in this world, in this post Christian nation, as ambassadors, co-laborers, and servants of the Lord, we have to remember that our lives may be the only Bible some people ever read.

Meaning what they see of Jesus in us may make them thirsty for more.

We are called to be salt in this world.

What they see of Jesus in us can cause them to realize the darkness in their own lives, we are called to be light in this world and illuminate darkness, shine a light on it.

But again, what they see in us when we exercise our liberty, or are rotten, unforgiving, or prideful, they can look at your life and conclude, they don’t have anything that I need, and they then take the grace of God in vain, and die apart from Jesus.

Make sense?

Actions speak louder than words.

So we, like Paul should seek a life of purity.

I’ll go further and say that if you are truly saved, then God will give you a desire to live a life that pleases Him.

AND as you grow, there will be evidence that you are becoming more and more like Jesus.

He said, John 14:15

Verse 11

Now specifically in the context of this letter, Paul is talking about false teachers, but the principle is found throughout the scriptures, back in Deuteronomy it tells us to not yoke unlike things together like a big oxen, with a donkey.

They are not the same.

One is far more powerful than the other.

And if you picture a yoke that ties two animals together, and one is an ox and the other is a donkey, what is going to happen when they try to pull the load, they are alway going to go off course.

That’s what it does to us, Christians should not be yoke together dating or in marriage with a non Christian, if you are, break it off, very rarely does it work out like you’re hoping it will.

Christians are wise to not partner in business relationships with non-Christians, you have completely different goals, or you should, you are playing with fire.

Pre-maritally, I think there can be an unyoking with one Christian that is on fire for the Lord, and another who’s pants smell like their on fire because they are just barely outside the gates of hell.

Amos 3:3

There’s actually a biblical example of the perils of yoking with an unbeliever in business.

Some of you might remember the story of King Jehoshaphat

Distant father David, I think his biological father was King Asa.

If you read through the story of King Jehoshaphat, he thought he had a good business opportunity, in 2 Chron 20:35-37

SO bad deal, and it doesn’t honor God.

Paul goes on with his list

If we want to have an impact for the Kingdom of God, we are going to have to live lives of purity, lives that honor God, and we need to live for Jesus Christ.

For some of you it is time to go all in.

Time to stop just being Sunday morning Christians.

Let me warn you.

Because most of what you see on Christian television, or hear on the radio or internet podcasts, is that if you follow Jesus, and go all in, wallet or bank account included, then everyday is going to be like working on a farm that raises puppies and dolphins, that are all kinds of beautiful colors because all they eat is skittles and prime rib.

Well that’s not the Christianity in the Bible, and it’s certainly not Christianity in 2022.

If you decide to step up and fully live for Jesus today in this county, it’s going to cost you something.

So you’d better chose.