Second Epistle to the Corinthians

And what I began as a study, I think, boy, my goodness, over 30 years ago, has only deepened with time.

In fact, I did such a deep study in this whole area during this writing of this book, I must have had 40 pages on Paul alone from 2 Corinthians 10 to 13 on his leadership over and against the super apostles.

So we see, for example, in Jesus, I mean, everything about his ministry was weakness and limits.

The way he was born to a peasant teenage girl in Bethlehem, growing up in Nazareth, this small little village, Nowheresville, and just his choosing of these 12 people uh disciples from galilee again nowhere is bill and not of the best of the best from jerusalem and uh the the most influential uh or brilliant or charismatic and uh and and he was crucified in weakness yet he lives by god's power i mean i i preached it but i i i didn't i ran away from living like him so interesting isn't it and then of course paul was even more vivid And so clear.

If you look really closely at his ministry in 2 Corinthians, his struggle in Corinth, the church he planted, and the struggle there when some other super apostles followed him after he left Corinth, and began to basically push him aside and say, no, we're the ones who should be leading you.

And they had the charisma, they had the gifts, they had the anointings, they had supernatural visions and revelations and all that.

They looked so impressive.

There's no benefit to that after that point.

Now let's go to 2 Corinthians.

Y'all still with me? So this is all review, just...

Getting us up to where we're refreshing our memory after everything.

Let's look at 2 Corinthians chapter 8.

We'll start in verse 1.

Certainly the Macedonian church here, our example.

We're taught in Ephesians 5 and 11 to take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

Paul warns us in 2 Corinthians 6 about having no partnership between light and darkness.

And in 1 Corinthians 10, he reminds us that believers cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.

Even the modern commercial version of Halloween carries all the imagery of evil that characterized the old pagan festival, witches, demons, ghosts, graves, horror, and all that celebration of fear and death.

2 Corinthians 6 and verse 18.

Second Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 18.

Read it like you believe it and receive it while you are reading it.

Let's go.

I'm an old man.

that the Apostle Paul who wrote 1 and 2 Corinthians and Ephesians and of course 13 of the epistles that we find in the New Testament, that the Apostle Paul was not known as the Apostle Paul.

He was known as Saul of Tarsus.

Saul of Tarsus is first introduced to us in the scriptures in Acts chapter 8.

That's what the Bible teaches.

Now, you say, well, why is this important? Dan, you're spending time on this.

Because I would think, as you read 1 and 2 Corinthians...

A church that we know more about than any other church at that time.

It's important that we hang on.

Second Corinthians chapter seven.

I love this verse four.

It says I'm filled with comfort.

And there's some truth in that.

The Apostle Paul, writing in 2 Corinthians, talks about his thorn in the flesh.

We don't know what the thorn in the flesh was, but we do know that he didn't want it.

And he asked, he pleaded with God to take it away.

This is from the book of Romans, chapter 5.

"...we glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation works patience, patience experience, and experience hope." And then from 2 Corinthians, chapter 4, "...for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." While we look at the things which are seen, I'm sorry, we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.

For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you.