Scripture referenced 24 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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2 Corinthians 10:1 Paul entreats by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, saying he is humble face to face but bold when away
1 Now I Paul, myself, entreat you by the humility and gentleness of Christ; I who in your presence am lowly among you, but being absent am bold toward you.
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Keep this verse
2 Corinthians 10:3-5
weapons of warfare not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds and take every thought captive to obey Christ
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we don’t wage war according to the flesh;
4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the throwing down of strongholds,
5 throwing down imaginations and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ;
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2 Corinthians 10:7
if anyone is confident he is Christ's, let him remind himself that so also are we
7 Do you look at things only as they appear in front of your face? If anyone trusts in himself that he is Christ’s, let him consider this again with himself, that, even as he is Christ’s, so also we are Christ’s.
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2 Corinthians 10:8
Paul's authority given for building up, not destroying
8 For though I should boast somewhat abundantly concerning our authority, (which the Lord gave for building you up, and not for casting you down) I will not be disappointed,
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2 Corinthians 10:10
opponents say his letters are weighty and strong but his bodily presence is weak and his speech of no account
10 For, “His letters”, they say, “are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech is despised.”
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2 Corinthians 10:11
what we say by letter when absent, we do when present
11 Let such a person consider this, that what we are in word by letters when we are absent, such are we also in deed when we are present.
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2 Corinthians 10:12
those who measure and compare themselves with one another are without understanding
12 For we are not bold to number or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves. But they themselves, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves with themselves, are without understanding.
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2 Corinthians 11:1-2
Paul feels divine jealousy having betrothed the Corinthians as a pure virgin to Christ
1 I wish that you would bear with me in a little foolishness, but indeed you do bear with me.
2 For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy. For I married you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
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2 Corinthians 11:3
afraid their thoughts will be led astray from sincere devotion to Christ as the serpent deceived Eve
3 But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, so your minds might be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
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2 Corinthians 11:4
warning against someone proclaiming another Jesus, a different spirit, or a different gospel
4 For if he who comes preaches another Jesus, whom we did not preach, or if you receive a different spirit, which you did not receive, or a different “good news”, which you did not accept, you put up with that well enough.
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2 Corinthians 11:5
Paul considers himself not inferior to the super apostles
5 For I reckon that I am not at all behind the very best apostles.
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2 Corinthians 11:6
even if unskilled in speaking, Paul is not so in knowledge
6 But though I am unskilled in speech, yet I am not unskilled in knowledge. No, in every way we have been revealed to you in all things.
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2 Corinthians 11:7
Paul asks if he sinned by preaching the gospel free of charge to humble himself so they might be exalted
7 Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted, because I preached to you God’s Good News free of charge?
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2 Corinthians 11:8-9
Paul robbed other churches accepting support from them, brothers from Macedonia supplied his need
8 I robbed other assemblies, taking wages from them that I might serve you.
9 When I was present with you and was in need, I wasn’t a burden on anyone, for the brothers, when they came from Macedonia, supplied the measure of my need. In everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you, and I will continue to do so.
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2 Corinthians 11:16
Paul asks them to bear with him in a little foolishness
16 I say again, let no one think me foolish. But if so, yet receive me as foolish, that I also may boast a little.
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2 Corinthians 11:20
they bear it if someone makes a slave of them, devours them, takes advantage, puts on airs, or strikes them
20 For you bear with a man, if he brings you into bondage, if he devours you, if he takes you captive, if he exalts himself, if he strikes you on the face.
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2 Corinthians 11:21-23
Paul boasts he is a Hebrew, Israelite, offspring of Abraham, and a better servant of Christ
21 I speak by way of disparagement, as though we had been weak. Yet in whatever way anyone is bold (I speak in foolishness), I am bold also.
22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the offspring of Abraham? So am I.
23 Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself) I am more so; in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in deaths often.
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2 Corinthians 11:23-27
Paul lists his sufferings: imprisonments, beatings, stoning, shipwreck, dangers, hunger, cold
23 Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself) I am more so; in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in deaths often.
24 Five times from the Jews I received forty stripes minus one.
25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I suffered shipwreck. I have been a night and a day in the deep.
26 I have been in travels often, perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from my countrymen, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among false brothers;
27 in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, and in cold and nakedness.
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2 Corinthians 11:28
beyond physical sufferings, his daily anxiety for all the churches
28 Besides those things that are outside, there is that which presses on me daily: anxiety for all the assemblies.
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Galatians 1:8-9
if anyone preaches a gospel contrary to what was received, let him be accursed
8 But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you any “good news” other than that which we preached to you, let him be cursed.
9 As we have said before, so I now say again: if any man preaches to you any “good news” other than that which you received, let him be cursed.
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Matthew 28:19-20
the Great Commission to make disciples, baptizing and teaching them to obey everything Christ commanded
19 Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
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2 Thessalonians 3:16
read at the Advent candle lighting: may the Lord of peace give you peace at all times and in every way
16 Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in all ways. The Lord be with you all.
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Romans 11:33,36
closing benediction: oh the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, from him and through him and to him are all things
33 Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!
36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things. To him be the glory for ever! Amen.
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Romans 15:13
closing benediction: may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing
13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Pastor Ray came back from a two-week trip to Nepal with a lot to say, and it shaped the entire message. He walked through 2 Corinthians 10 and 11, where Paul defends his ministry against false teachers in Corinth, and then he laid his Nepal experience alongside it to show that the same kind of distortion Paul was fighting is still happening today.
What was said
Paul opens chapters 10 and 11 with a sharp change in tone. After chapters 1 through 9 of comfort and encouragement, he turns assertive. He tells the Corinthians he is humble in person but bold in his letters, and he begs them not to force him to be equally bold face to face. The reason for his urgency is that false teachers, people he eventually calls "super apostles" and then "false apostles," have moved into Corinth and are pulling the congregation away from the gospel he delivered to them.
Paul's defense is not built on rhetorical skill, which he admits he lacks. It is built on the content of what he preached and the life he lived among them. He preached free of charge, supported by churches in Macedonia, so no one could accuse him of doing it for money. And when he boasts, he boasts not of his accomplishments but of his sufferings: beatings, shipwrecks, imprisonments, sleepless nights, and, beyond all of that, his daily anxiety for the churches he planted.
His core concern is doctrinal. He says he feels a divine jealousy for them, like someone who arranged a marriage and now fears the bride is being lured away. He warns them plainly: if someone comes preaching another Jesus, a different spirit, or a different gospel, that is not a variation on the truth. It is a different thing entirely, and they are putting up with it far too readily.
Ray then described what he found in Nepal. He was asked by a church member to evaluate a ministry that man had been financially supporting. What he found was a traveling team doing scripted street skits, mass "decisions" counted without verification, and healing ceremonies where organizers urged crowds to raise their hands if they felt different and then recorded the results as documented miracles. At one school, the reported count of people who heard the gospel exceeded the number of people physically present.
Ray confronted the group's leadership that night with the same argument Paul makes in the passage. Manipulating an uninterested or uninformed person into repeating words does not produce a disciple. It produces a false count that goes back to donors, and it makes genuine gospel work harder for the missionaries who actually live there. He asked to have his ticket changed and left early.
The contrast he offered was Rachel Babcock, a young woman from the congregation now living in Kathmandu, discipling new believers in a slum, sharing Bible stories with orphans across the street from where she lives, and training women in Nepali churches to share their faith. He also mentioned Melissa Landis, sent to Durban, South Africa. Both are doing what the Great Commission actually calls for: consistent presence among people, teaching them to obey everything Christ commanded, over time.
The closing point was simple. There is no formula. Saying a name is not the same as calling on the name in faith. What reaches people is the gospel lived out, carried by people who are genuinely infected with it and are around other people long enough for it to spread. A dead form of the gospel, Ray said, does not just fail to work. It inoculates people against the real thing.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Paul says he is 'humble when face to face' but 'bold when away' in his letters. When have you found it easier to speak hard truths from a distance than in person, and what does that tell you about how we handle conflict in the church?
- Paul lists 38 commands of Christ and says the Great Commission is about 'teaching them to obey,' not just teaching them what to believe. Looking at your own life, which of the commands of Christ do you find hardest to actually live out, and why?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Read the full transcript 11,110 words
0:00
So, if you would, stand with us and I'm going to invite both Scott and Bob forward and we're going to sing some Christmas songs this morning and Doyle Vaughn, come on up, please. Join us. We're going to sing around the OmniMic here and join in. Hymn number two fifty eight if you need your part to go tell it on the mountain. We've got some of those around here.
0:22
Amen. Good morning, everybody. That actually reminds me of something. The mountain, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort is gonna be doing church services starting January 1. They used to do just five a season.
2:30
Ben Paschal at the Presbyterian Church was the chaplain over there. He called and asked if Carl and I'd be able to to come over and do some of those. So it's kind of a joint venture between PCJH and First Beat that we're gonna try to do 15 winter Sundays out on the mountain. So we're gonna go tell it on the mountain. Awesome.
2:49
But it might require Carl being here for me once in a while or something like that, but we'll do we'll do about half of those, just letting you know.
2:56
You have to learn a yodel.
2:57
Oh, crazy.
2:58
I was top yodel.
3:00
I'll invite you. What's the next song? We do two, right? Oh, come all you faithful. Hymn number two forty nine.
3:07
Who knows this one? Come on, sing it out now. Let's praise Jesus this time of year.
5:26
Amen. Y'all can have a seat. Have a few welcome. Well, have a welcome. Hey, welcome.
5:31
Hey, y'all are welcome. I'm glad that you're here and I'm glad to be here. I missed the last couple of weeks for those of you who have been here and wondering. Carl in a tie, really? Last week while I was gone?
5:44
I am glad to be back. I was traveling. I was in Nepal and so they'll you'll hear more about that during the sermon but welcome. Glad you're here. The announcements, today was a scouting Sunday and so the scouts actually spent the night here last night and they handled the connect hour between services.
6:00
If you want some coffee, cake, or banana bread or something coffee, there's probably going to be some still left after this service but they have been meeting Actually, it's interesting because they've been meeting at First B for eighty three years. You imagine the Boy Scouts eighty three years ago were meeting at First B? Those guys have become man scouts and going on to be old man scouts by now. So, it was scouting Sunday this morning. Next week, we're gonna have a combined service.
6:28
There will be one service next week. I know they've announced this both of the weeks I was gone. Next week, it'll be at 10:00. So, it won't be at eleven. If you come at eleven, you're gonna be late.
6:37
If you come at nine, you're going be early. Maybe there'll be some coffee ready but ten is when we're going to do the greatest love. It was written, directed, and will be performed by our very own talented folks from right here. It's going to be great. So, that's next week at 10:00 in the morning.
6:54
Also, the following. So, this is not Wednesday. If you're from Georgia, you'd understand Wednesday week. It's Wednesday week. So, it's not this Wednesday but the next.
7:02
Ladies Christmas luncheon, December 16 from 11:30 to 01:30. That's at Snow King Resort in their grand Ballroom and this is for you ladies to invite your friends. It's for everybody, all ladies in the community. So, it's not just the people who are a part of the ladies Bible study this past semester when they did Romans. It's for everybody.
7:23
So, ladies Christmas luncheon, I do wanna ask you though to call the church office and do your RSVP. Let us know that you're coming. This service is better than the first service, honestly, about letting people know that you're coming. So, if you would call and let us know, we'd appreciate it. That thing has grown.
7:38
It's closing in on 200 people. So, it's gonna be a big event. Please come and enjoy. It'll be a fun time for everybody. December 20, annual Christmas caroling.
7:49
It's the Sunday before Christmas at 04:30 in the afternoon. We'll go out on a couple of trailers and trucks and sing. We'll stop by the living center and sing there and then we'll come back for the annual Buzzard Breath Chili Cook Off competition down in the fellowship hall and it's just a good time for all. So, Christmas caroling in Chile. Angel Tree.
8:10
I I don't know if you noticed but out here, we don't have the tags hanging on the tree this year. It's all decorated pretty out there but there are two cardboard animal mounts. Did y'all see those? They have tags hanging all over em and those are to help out needy families in the community resource center and other and other families that we have on our radar that could use some help during this Christmas season. If you would, grab some of those on your way out today.
8:35
You can bring the gifts back here. Some of em it says wrap, some of em say unwrapped but if you bring em back here and just take em into my office, that'll be the great place for em. We we will figure out to take em from there. Tanya has been coordinating that this year. And I'm going to invite up Joanne and Eric to light our second candle of the advent for Advent season.
8:58
Yeah, bring the fam. That's great. Very good. There you go. Well, good morning.
9:24
Good morning. We get to have the honor of lighting the second week of Advent candle here. We've got Joanne's son and daughter-in-law and our beautiful grandchildren here to help us today. We thought that'd be fun. So, here it is, December 6.
9:41
This is the second Sunday in Advent. This Sunday, the second in Advent, we light the candle of peace as we prepare to celebrate the coming of the prince of peace, we're reminded that God's timing is always perfect and his provision is always sufficient. This is from second Thessalonians three sixteen says, now, may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way, the Lord be with all of you. Thank you. Amen.
10:14
You got a narrator in your narrator career in your future. What a great voice you have. Doug Waka was here this morning. He's always been the narrator for everything and he moved. You you're it next time.
10:27
So, I think the next thing is high fives, hugs, or handshakes. I don't care which but get together, greet one another. The band will bring you back together. The band is us. The band.
10:38
We'll bring you back together with a song. Alright. Hymn number two sixty if you're looking for your part but I think it's a chorus and we mostly know it. Yes. Watch for the key change over the last.
15:20
Can I get the frontline team? Y'all can have a seat. If I can get the frontline team to come forward. And I'll pray. Lord God, I thank you for the joy of this season.
15:36
I thank you that that you came As a baby, you grew up being tempted just like we're tempted. You grew up going through the same kind of stuff that we go through, lord. Yet, you are without sin. I thank you for that perfect life that you live, lord. I thank you God that you inspired by your Holy Spirit within your son, Jesus, and obedience, a profound obedience that never sinned, that consciously did your will, oh Lord.
16:09
And Jesus, I thank you for voluntarily laying down that perfect life, well lived, to pay for hours that have not been well lived. All of us, lord, sin. We fall short of your glory. God, I thank you for that. For Christmas, for Easter, for these times where we just look and just are in awe of you.
16:30
You're coming into the world at Christmas, lord. I'm dumbfounded. So, lord, would you help us to carry your good gospel that the truth to the ends of the earth? Would you help us do that, lord? Would you use these offerings as we give back part of the good and perfect gifts that you've given us, lord, our sustenance, our daily bread.
16:53
If we give back that to you, lord, would you do with it as you will, multiply it so that your gospel, your kingdom will advance and have no end. We humbly submit before you, lord, and we're in all of you. In Jesus name, would you take these offerings and multiply? Amen. Well, good morning.
20:06
I'm I'm glad to be back. I'm trying to get to there we go. Okay. So, I know it's Christmas time. I know we're getting into that and it's first Sunday in December and you kinda expect a Christmas message.
20:19
I'm gonna stick with our current theme that we've been going on. I know that Carl brought messages from Philippians for the past two weeks and I was thankful for that. Got a chance to hear those. They're great and I just love him. He's doing a great job on Monday nights.
20:33
He does that every single week and I I really really appreciate him. I wanna go into second Corinthians and that is chapters ten and eleven. That's not just 10 verse 11. It's not ten one through 11. It's chapter 10 and chapter 11.
20:46
So, it's two full chapters of scripture this morning and then after that, I wanna defend my mission trip to Nepal. So, Paul defends his ministry for two chapters and then Ray defends his Nepal trip but when I start off here, I want you to notice that there is a marked change in tone. Now, we've been going through first Corinthians chapters one through nine. Paul has presented in a very meek and loving, authoritative certainly but he has been comforting them and encouraging them and he has been rejoicing about the good news that Titus brought him about what's going on in Corinth. So, chapters one through nine, meek and mild, full of comfort, encouragement, rejoicing, great theology, good pats on the back, the God of all mercies, and all comfort.
21:34
We'll comfort you so that you can comfort others. All that good stuff but chapter 10 through 13 take on an almost aggressive tone. For four straight chapters, Paul is leaning in and asserting a very assertive and and asserting. Sometimes, it even sounds like agitated and aggressive. So, this morning, I'm gonna try to read it that way.
21:57
So, y'all know me. You know me pretty well. You know, I'm a big tent kind of Christian guy. I love the church, the capital C Church. I love that we have ministries in this town that are slightly different.
22:11
There are folks that are to the charismatic end of the spectrum and there are folks that are in towards the Calvinistic cessationist end and I love both of those preachers very very much and they love me and if we felt the need, we would call each other out, I promise, okay? But I feel like everybody that is ministering that's really going forward in this valley, I'm a big tent guy. I'm praise God for him. I'm like, Philippians where Paul is confronted with other people preaching the gospel. They seem to be doing it with different motives and he says, either way, the gospel is being preached.
22:43
That's my general thing and I think most of y'all who go to church here know that. But my tone is changing today. So, let's go with Paul first and then we'll go to that Nepal trip. So, let's just start off right here. First Corinth second Corinthians 10 verse one says, I, Paul, myself, I entreat you by the meekness and the gentleness of Christ and then, he's anything but meek or gentle.
23:08
For the next four chapters, I entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. I, who am humble when face to face with you. I am soft, he's saying, on you. When I'm face to face, I'm humble. I don't overstep my bounds.
23:20
I'm humble when I'm face to face with you but I'm bold towards you when I'm away because it's important. I can't check up on things. When I'm away like I can when I'm with you. I can't see what's going on. I'm humble when I'm with you but I'm bold when I'm away.
23:36
I beg of you that when I am present, I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh. Now, there were people he's mentioned them a couple times. In this chapter or the next chapter, he calls him super apostles. Very shortly thereafter calls him false apostles. They're sent ones but they are teaching a different gospel.
24:01
They're teaching a different doctrine. And he's saying, I'm praying that to the overwhelming majority of you, I don't have to be nearly as bold as I'm going to be with some of you. Some of those who are meddling with God's word, who are meddling with the hearts of the people that I know have accepted his good gospel. So, he's being kind of harsh. I beg of you.
24:23
Don't make me come down there. Do you understand? For though we do walk in the flesh, we're not waging war according to the flesh. Yeah, we're men. We do have to get around.
24:40
We do things but we're not waging war according to the flesh. It's not the same thing that they're doing. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but we have divine power to destroy strongholds. He'll get into a little bit of what the weapons of the flesh are, what the weapons of warfare that these other guys are using are an incredible flare or panache with rhetoric, oratorical skills. They've got em and Paul doesn't.
25:07
Face to face, they said, no. Worthless. Worthless teaching, the way he presents is terrible. Who's he gonna win over? It's crazy.
25:18
Well, he had the truth though. He had the message and that's what he's saying. The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh. It's not just in a flare for being able to do things in the world the way that the world does but we have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion that raises itself up against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ.
25:44
So, when Paul is writing to them, he's writing to correct their theology, to correct their practice, correct their doctrine, to instruct them in the ways of goodness and great God's good gospel. He's saying he's destroying worldly arguments and every lofty opinion but I want you to notice this, why does he take the thought captive? You hear people say from time to time, you need to take that thought captive. In some circles, they even say, oh, don't speak that. Don't speak that into existence.
26:13
Don't say those, don't utter those words. You'll talk of, that's primitive religion. That's not the Bible, okay? Take every thought captive to obey Christ. That reminds me, I think of this a lot.
26:27
The great commission. Our great commission is therefore, go, be going, or therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them what? Teaching them good Sunday school lessons? Teaching them to obey everything that I've commanded you. Teaching them to obey everything that I've commanded you, and surely, I'm with you even to the very end of the age.
26:54
How do you teach somebody to obey? You do it. You obey. It's something that you can teach by example, by being there, and by doing the things that God has called you to do, to obey. There are 38 commands of Christ.
27:11
If you look at the scriptures and somebody borrowed my copy that was up here this morning. Actually, I gave it to her. I I had said in the first service, go ahead and make a copy this after and I said, just go ahead and take it. I'll print another one but I didn't do it. There are 38 commands of Christ.
27:27
Forgive everyone who wronged you. That's one of them. Clothe the naked. Feed the hungry. Abide in me and allow me to abide in you.
27:48
Those are the commands of Christ, right? There are a bunch of those. They're hard to do, some of em. There are 38 of em. If you extend that to the ones that are probably not for all Christians at all times like cast your nets on the right side of the boat, fishermen.
28:01
If you want to pay attention, that one is a command to Christ, that's fine with me but 38 commands that are probably for the church universal of all times. If you count each individual one in the gospels as separately, then it gets up to about a 125 but 38 straight up commands of Christ and when he says, teaching them to obey all that I've commanded. You can look over that list. It's easy to find and say, am I doing this? Am I forgiving everyone?
28:25
Am I abiding in Christ? Am I doing the things that he said in order to be saved? Am I trusting him? Trust me. 38 commands right there.
28:37
So, Paul says, we destroy arguments in every lofty opinion, human philosophy that's raised up against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete. Now, when your obedience is complete, is that's accepting him, taking what he says at face value, accepting Christ, being born again but once that's the case, Paul's saying, I do and can exercise some authority to say, hey, you're off the track here and I'm ready to say, no, that doctrine's bad. That's wrong. That's not the same thing as God's gospel. Do you understand where I'm going with this?
29:16
He's he's willing to get that right. You gotta make that right, people and he had written first Corinthians. He'd written a severe letter. He'd written a couple other times to him. This is probably the fourth, at least the third letter he had written.
29:30
Corinthians ten seven says, look at what's before your very eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ, if you're confident that you're a Christian, then, let him remind himself that just as he is Christ, so also are we. He's saying, I'm not saying this as any loftier person. I'm a Christian. I accepted Christ the same way you do.
29:50
I've been given the same gift that you have. We are all equal at the foot of the cross. For even if I boast just a little too much of my authority or our authority which the Lord gave to me, he did give it. He gave me his good gospel before you got it. I delivered it to you straight up for what it was.
30:09
I didn't demand any payment. I just brought the gospel as it is. Jesus's perfect life in exchange for your imperfect one. Even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord did give for building you up and not for destroying you, then I will not be ashamed that I'm boasting. I don't wanna appear to be frightening you with my letters.
30:30
Are you with me? It's a it's a harsher tone, but he's saying, I don't wanna be frightening you with them. For they say, these are the super apostles say, well, his letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech is of no account whatsoever. Oratorical skill was very, very important to the Corinthians, and they're saying Paul doesn't have it. He's pitiful.
30:52
He's a stammering mess in person. But his letters are weighty and strong, and he acts big and bad when he's not here. But when he gets here, he's kinda wimpy. Let such a person understand that what we say by letter when we're absent, we actually do when we're present. When Paul talks about living by the spirit and not by the flesh, he's saying, I write that down and I live it.
31:17
I live it in your presence. I live it while I'm there. I live out the things that I'm telling you that are so hefty in my letters. What we say by letter when absent, we do. We practice when we're present.
31:29
Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. Though some are the super apostles. When they measure themselves by one another and they compare themselves with one another, they're completely without understanding. Human beings looking around and going, that guy saved a thousand souls at that rally but I saved 1,200 at mine. That's ridiculous.
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Jesus is the one who saved souls. Comparing themselves and their ministry with one another. They're complete without understanding. They don't get the point. You don't get to brag about this.
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If Jesus is doing it, Jesus is doing it. It's not you doing it. I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness, Paul says. I didn't write that. Paul wrote that.
32:14
I wish you'd bear with me and just a little foolishness. Now, do bear with me. I'm going to let myself be drawn into their argument. For I feel a divine jealousy for you. This is second Corinthians eleven one and two.
32:29
For I feel a divine jealousy for you. Since I'm the one that betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. Are you hearing Paul's heart here? He's saying, I'm the one that presented Christ to you and I know that you accepted him. I am the one who is there at the marriage of these two.
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You being the bride of Christ. I see you coming into this and I feel a divine jealousy that you'd stick with him and not go a wandering. You get my drift? Yeah. I I do lots of weddings and I have the privilege of putting people together in Holy Wedlock in a union.
33:03
I'm the one who gets to do that and I always tell everybody that I marry. I'll do this. If you'll promise me that you ever feel like you've fallen out of love or you feel like you don't want to be with this person anymore, that you have to come back to me and look me in the eye and tell me and I'm gonna try to put you together because it's an eternal thing. This is what God puts together. Let not any man's put us under.
33:24
I have a divine jealousy for each one of those unions that I put together. Paul does that with that whole church. I betrothed you to this one husband to present you a pure virgin to Christ but I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and a pure devotion to Christ. He's saying, I'm afraid that the super apostles. Now, at this point, we don't know what the the beliefs are of the super apostles exactly what it was that they were preaching.
33:54
We get a little bit of a picture of that. I'll show you later on in the sermon. They could have been legalists that were pulling people away from the gospel and basing things on works. They could have been. They also could have been licentious and saying, yeah, once you got Jesus, I mean, all you had to do is say his name, call out on him, and then do whatever you want to.
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Grace. Let it abound. Could've been either way. Neither one of those is the good old gospel way. Straight up down the center.
34:20
Your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. That's what I'm afraid of. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus, almost never does Paul say, Jesus, just Jesus instead of Jesus Christ or Jesus the Lord or Christ Jesus but here he says, if somebody comes and proclaims to you another Jesus from the one that we proclaimed and live out or if you receive a different spirit from the one that you receive, the Holy Spirit. That's what you receive. If you receive a different spirit from the one you received or if you accept a different gospel, a different set of good news from the one that you accepted, that I saw you accept, that I saw, that you were putting into practice in your life.
35:06
If you accept a different one, then that and then he follows it up with a little bit of a sarcastic biting comment. Y'all can barely see it. It's in green on the screen up here. It says, because you put up with it readily enough. You get the tone in that?
35:20
He goes, if you receive this or that or receive that because I tell you what, y'all are putting up with it. There are people that are promoting some things that are absolutely heresy among you and y'all are putting up with it and the chances are if you keep on putting up with it, eventually, you'll accept it. This is from Galatians but even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one that we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before and now I say again, if anyone's preaching to you a gospel that's contrary to the one that you received, let him be accursed. Do you think Paul, this, does this matter to him?
36:01
It matters to him. He knows that they had accepted the truth. He does not want for them to now be led astray or to lead others astray, to make the gospel something that's meaningless or just words. Indeed, I consider that I am not in the least inferior, inferior to these and he mockingly calls them the super apostles. I'm not in the least inferior.
36:26
My speaking skills, he goes into that. Even if I am unskilled in speaking, I'll admit that. I'm not, I don't have all of that that they have. Even if I'm unskilled in speaking, I'm not so in knowledge. I know this stuff.
36:39
Had a direct confrontation with Jesus. He has shown me his way. I believe it and I live it every single day. I'm not so in knowledge and indeed, in every way, I've made this plain to you in all things. I've not shied away from telling you the truth whether I was with you or when I was away.
36:58
I know what I'm talking about. And then he goes into this, or did I commit a sin in humbling myself? So that you might be exalted. Humbling myself because I preached God's gospel to you free of charge. Now, when Paul was in Corinth, he knew that money was very important.
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Those people knew they were wealthy and he knew that that was something they put a lot of value on. So, because he knew that, he went to him and did not ask for that. He's like, keep your money. I'm not worried about your money. I just want you to find out this message.
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Jesus Christ, perfect life in exchange for your imperfect one. I wanna give you the gospel free of charge. He said, I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you. They were folks out of town. They already were convinced.
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They were the ones that were paying me to be there with you. And when I was with you, I was in need. I didn't burden any of you. For the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my need. Now, we talked about Macedonia three weeks ago.
38:00
They were broke, flat broke but they believed in the cause. They believed in the cause of the gospel's advance and so they were sending Paul into this rich area. These folks, imagine Appalachia sending missionaries to Jackson or to New York City. It's funding them to be able to be there and live there. That's kinda what this would be.
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For the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my need. So, I refrain 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. He said, I'm not going to start taking money from you now. I'm going to keep on doing it and I wouldn't dare give you any cause to say, oh, he just does that for the money.
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And why? Because I don't love you? God knows I love you. God knows I do. So, Paul's already asked him to forgive him a little bit of foolishness as he gets into the mix but he is expressing himself.
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Are you hearing it? Can you hear me this morning? Are you hearing it? Okay. I repeat then, let no one think me foolish but even if you do, accept me as a fool.
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He's saying, y'all are already accepting a bunch of fools. I'm on their ground now. I'm speaking like them. I'm gonna boast for a minute. He said, let no one think me foolish and then he says, what the heck?
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Accept me as a fool. I don't care. I'm going to boast a little bit here. What I'm saying with this boastful confidence, I say, not as the Lord would because Jesus like a sheep before his shearers was silent. He spake not a word.
39:35
No complaint did he utter about the cross he carried. Not as the Lord would. He says, I speak like a fool right now. Since many boast according to the flesh, I too, I'm going to boast right here, right now. Paul, for you gladly bear with fools.
39:52
You get that? Being so wise yourselves. For you bear it, if someone makes a slave of you, if the legalist, I know you gotta do this. You gotta add this to the gospel. You have to be circumcised.
40:06
You have to do all of these Jewish laws, festivals, holidays, all that stuff. They're making a slave of you again, a bond servant. Or someone devours you or takes advantage of you or puts on airs, maybe on this side. Or strikes you in the face. To my shame, I must say, I'm too weak for that.
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I can't take that. Eleven twenty one goes on to say, but whatever anyone else dares to boast of, now I'm speaking as a fool here admittedly. I also dare to boast of that. Are they Hebrews? So am I.
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Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the offspring of Abraham? So am I. You get where he's bragging the same things they're bragging about?
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Are they servants of Christ? I'm a better one. I'm a better servant of Christ than they are. I'm talking like a madman. It's like, with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, countless beatings, and often near death for the gospel.
41:07
Five times I received at the hands of the Jews, 40 lashes minus one. Three times, I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked. The night and the day, I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from the Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, false brothers, super apostles. In toil and in hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and in thirst, often without food and cold and exposure.
41:45
And apart from all these things, there's the daily pressure on me for my anxiety for all the churches. You get that? Paul had planted a lot of churches and he wants to see em do well and beyond all of that list of physical stuff he had to go through, he's also concerned with them and their doctrinal purity and their love for one another and for Jesus. Who is weak? I'm not weak.
42:08
He's saying, look at the list. Who is made to fall? Who's made to fall? Y'all are the ones that are bearing with fools that are spreading heresy. Who is made to fall?
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And I'm not indignant about that. I don't have a certain amount of righteous anger when someone leads you away. If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and the father of our Lord Jesus, he who is blessed forever knows that I'm not lying. I'm upset, people.
42:37
I'm angry. I'm angry with people who would lead you astray. So, second Corinthians ten and eleven, Paul defends his ministry. He goes on to continue doing that in twelve and thirteen. For the rest of the hour and probably a little bit more.
42:53
Ray will describe and defend his recent trip to Nepal, Nepal, okay? So, if you would, I wish you would bear with me in a little bit of foolishness here. Do bear with me. So, started on Wednesday a couple weeks ago. I started out in Jackson, flew down to Salt Lake City, then flew to Chicago, spent the night at the, oh, yeah.
43:12
That's the way those little Canada regional jets look when you're six foot six. You see that? Quality in near the airport? I would not recommend it. Yeah.
43:24
Whoo. Smell smell like a football bus ran over a goat. Ugh. Terrible. That is the that is the line for Etihad Airways.
43:34
Etihad is is an airline that is based out of Abu Dhabi on the Arabian Peninsula, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. There are 444 people, about 420 of them were in front of me in that line. Going from there all the way down through here. It was less than a week after the Paris attacks and all of us had in our heart that we're getting on an Arab airline and there was a suitcase right here, an empty suitcase. You know, they say don't leave any baggage unattended.
44:01
It was left right there and we were in line going, I don't like that. We had called police. We've called different people. Everybody's on their phone saying, hey, there's an empty bag over here. Somebody come check that out.
44:11
Bring the bomb squad or whatever. We just kinda watched. It was an empty suitcase because they have really, really, really stringent restrictions on overhead baggage for that airline. So, people were abandoning their suitcases if they were a little bit too big and putting it in their pocketbook. We went from Chicago.
44:28
I actually met up with the team in the Chicago Airport, the team that I was going with. Now, I want to back up just a second and say, I went on this trip because a guy who goes to church here part of the year when he's in town, he goes to church here. He lives somewhere else For the rest of the year and he had found out about this ministry and had been supportive of them because they asked him to and he had the means but he didn't feel exactly right about it. So, he asked me if I would go and check them out. He says, you're a missiology guy.
44:55
You've got the education behind you. You love people and you love God's word. Would you go check it out and see if what they're saying is accurate and right? So I said, yes. Until then, I said, no, thanks.
45:06
I got my people here. I love that. But he said, would you just go check them out? And I said, yeah. With that being the case, yeah, I will.
45:14
So we get to Abu Dhabi. We had about twenty minutes to get on the next flight. That's a long flight, by the way. It's thirteen hours. And Etihad Airways has this little thing that rolls around on your screen every once in a while, lets you know where Mecca is so you know which direction to be praying.
45:35
Just a little shocking for us. We went from Abu Dhabi to Kathmandu, Nepal. Nepal is a landlocked country in between India and China. The whole country is shaped like this. The Himalayas are on the north, and then this is less than a thousand feet above sea level on this end of the country.
45:55
This end goes up to 26,000 something. And it's narrow, a narrow strip. Since they passed their constitution in September, they have had a fuel crisis because somebody was not happy with the new constitution. India, the Madesi part, the Tarai of Nepal, they were unhappy that they about the representation in the new democratic congress that the new constitution formed. And so they made an unofficial embargo of fuel, petrol, going into Nepal.
46:27
There used to be 300 trucks a day that went in, and now there are less than five. And those five are used by the people that are causing the embargo. No gas stations open in the whole country. That's something to be walking into for a mission trip, isn't it? Can you imagine if the price of gas in Jackson went to five times what it is right now by next week?
46:50
That's what happened in September, and that's what's still going on there today. So flying in, we fly into Kathmandu. Beautiful, beautiful valley. This is what I wake up to the next day, so on our in our hotel looking off. The Himalayas are in the distance back there.
47:05
Can't see them because of the smog. With fuel crisis, everybody is cooking with wood. And so there's lots and lots of smoke and fog. Cooking oil is not to be found. Gas is scarce and diesel is scarce.
47:18
So that's what it looks like. I just like that picture. Little bird flying up there. And I saw this out of my window when I woke up that morning. It says jack and on that thing right there and that is a generator and it woke me up because they are rolling blackouts because of the fuel crisis but it says Jackson though spelled wrong but I think that's funny.
47:38
Shiva, When I walk out of my room and looked out, this is one of the Hindu gods. They have. I've asked multiple people in Nepal. Said, how many gods there are are there in Nepal? And they said, 37,000,000 was the most common answer I got.
47:53
37,000,000. There are 33,000,000 people and when they greet, they say, namaste. And namaste means the God inside me greets the God inside you. Not the almighty God but the God inside me, my little god that I am, greet you. So, we went immediately into training.
48:12
Training for me that day was I was thrown into an all day drama practice with 20 or so other volunteers. Can you all imagine that? Chris might can imagine this. The last staff. It was an improv.
48:24
No, wasn't an improv. They trained us on a specific drama that they called Ragman. It was a skit. I've seen the skit before in a couple other places and it's been good kinda in some places. This was not a good version of it.
48:37
There were four people in this skit. One of them was a drunk, druggie. That person was to pretend to be drunk and druggie and then freeze and then there was thief that kinda came out all sneaky, stole something from the drunk, stole something from the other people whose backs were turned and then, there was Jesus and then there was another guy and the other guy was an angry man. By the time I got into drama practice, after I had written on my form, I cannot act and don't wanna do drama. Please, let me fix things.
49:09
I am not an actor. I'm definitely not a clown because there was a part for a clown. I was the angry man. That was the next part. So, there's an angry man, drunk, druggy, thief, and this skit, they played out.
49:24
Jesus would hear from heaven, take power immediately from heaven, and blast people with it and they immediately became happy, content, love Jesus, and moved on with their lives. That's what the skit did and it was all day. We did that all day. To music. Actually, I wanna mention this.
49:42
I didn't mention the first. The music was a new age song from about ten years ago by ERA and it was Do you all know that song? It's terrible. I looked up the words for it and I looked up the words thinking, what does this mean in Latin? Because I like to know what I'm, you know, acting to or whatever.
50:01
I want, what's my motivation? Anyway, I'm checking this out and the writer of the song said, it doesn't mean anything. It is pseudo Latin. It is basically babble. It doesn't have a meaning.
50:13
The words are non existent. I put Latin ending on to make it sound important. So, that was the background music for the skit that we were doing. That was the extent of my training. There was no cultural train.
50:24
There was no mention of Hinduism or how people in that part of the world thought or did things. So, Sunday came. That was Saturday. My training was Saturday. Sunday, there was a pep rallying church service at the hotel and during that pep rally, he gave the stats from the previous week The stats from the previous week were 104,300 people.
50:46
Praise God. Excuse me. I'm making fun of them right now if y'all didn't notice that. Paul is defending his ministry. I'm defending mine, okay?
50:55
There is such a thing as the real good gospel. I've been sharing that all this service but this is hogwash. So, I'm just want to point that out. He gave the stats from the previous week. A 104,300 people had heard a clear presentation of the gospel in language they could understand.
51:10
65, zero of them had accepted Jesus. Glory. Two ninety five had had documented miracles. You know what it takes to document a miracle? You just write it down on a piece of paper.
51:21
Don't have to be real. Don't have to be true, apparently. The objectives for the following week were that skit that I showed you and there is a three page our three page street ministry guidelines right here. This is it. They sent it to me about two or three weeks before we left.
51:40
Asked me to memorize every word of it. Ask everybody on the team to memorize every word because that's what we're going to do in eight cities all over Nepal culminating in big festivals. Objectives for the following week were even greater things were to come. They had stated the objective that they were gonna double the number of Christians in Nepal in this two week period. Then, at our pep rally, they took up an offering and pledge cards from the people who were on the team.
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They did not give an option to know, I'll just pray for y'all. It was how much are you gonna give? How often? And I folded mine, passed it to the end of the row. I wanted to write something on it, but it was not a nice thing to say.
52:24
Sunday afternoon, I got on Buddha Air. I almost have frequent flyer miles on Buddha Air. I've ridden Buddha Air more in the past year than anybody else I know. Went to Nepal last year in November too. So Buddha Air is the way you get around in Nepal.
52:37
So the longest domestic flight from Kathmandu to Far Western Nepal to Dungari, and we rode to Dungari together with about 20 or so. We had a couple of different teams who were going around and doing this GV Street ministry. That's what we're going to do. We stayed that night at the hotel devotee. Very very nice place in Nungri.
52:57
Nicest place in in town. No hot showers but nicest place in town. It was really nice. We stayed on the 4th Floor. It's like a penthouse.
53:05
It's beautiful. 41% of the people that live in this area below the Nepali poverty line. We stayed there. Bubble's a clown. This is the part that I said I would not do.
53:20
Please don't make me a clown, whatever you do. And they still tried to do it when I got there. Bubble starts off. Hey, boys and girls. I've got a bag of tricks.
53:29
There are a couple of props and things that they do. This is India looking from Nepal. That white stripe on that tree there and that white stripe on that tree there show you that that's India. Nepal's on this side, India's on the other side is completely porous border, which means that everybody who's got a motorcycle and a couple of buckets is going to India to buy gas and bring it back into Nepal to sell to their friends and neighbors for five times the price. It's destitute.
54:00
Absolutely poverty stricken. In fact, that's a I know what it is. Y'all can barely tell from this. This is a brick works where slaves, real slaves, and indentured servants are making bricks out of clay, and they're baking them in the sun, and then they put them in an oast. It's hot works about 95 degrees when I took that picture, and those folks work all day long every day sun up sundown making bricks we rode right past them that is unequally yoked sermon those are two equally yoked oxen right they're pulling a cart This is Ganesh, the elephant God that our taxi driver had on his thing.
54:38
That is Hanuman, the flying monkey God that our taxi driver was carrying us around with. The first school that we came to, my first experience with the ministry, I did not know what exactly we'd be doing except for the rag man skit. And I knew I was supposed to have memorized these things, which I did not do because they made me mad when I started reading them. I was had the part of reading the creation story. It was the only thing I could stomach, so this is what I read after Bubbles.
55:08
Bubbles the clown held a star and a fish as props. And I said a long time ago, God created heaven and earth. He put the stars in the sky and the fish in the sea. He created every animal. He created you and me.
55:19
He created us because he loved us and he wanted us to be close to him. But because men didn't listen and disobeyed God, we were separated from him, but God had a plan. That was my part. Then, I played the angry man in the skit and then after the skit, which showed Jesus miraculously saving people which Jesus does save people. Don't get me wrong.
55:39
There's a such a thing as real missions and then there's this. God sent his son, Jesus to Earth. Jesus never did anything bad. He only did good. Agree, agree.
55:48
Jesus showed people how much God loved them by healing people. He healed the blind so they could see. He healed the lame so they could walk but some men were jealous of Jesus and wanted them to die so they put Jesus on the cross and Jesus died. All of us put Jesus on that cross by the way. It wasn't just people who are jealous of him.
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All of us. Put Jesus on the cross. That's not what this is. So, we could be forgiven of all the bad things that we've done. That was God's plan but something happened on the third day.
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Can you count with me boys and girls? Can you count with the clown? One, two, three. Jesus is raised. He rose from the dead and he's alive.
56:21
He's still alive today. He made a way for us to be forgiven and go to heaven. So my friend Bubbles has three cards. They hold out three cards. Props, you know, cards.
56:34
That's three cards. What's this card? What's this number? Two. What's this number?
56:38
10. What's this one? And in the middle, it's the king of hearts, which for us in English, king of hearts. Yeah, king of hearts. That's kind of cute.
56:46
I see where this is going. King of hearts. So they hold them upside down. Now one of the kids bubbles the clown, draws somebody from the audience and they pull out. Hey, it's a card.
56:55
But it's not a king of hearts. It's a picture of an Anglo guy with long hair and a beard. It looked like me. It was supposed to be Jesus. I shaved so I wouldn't look like that.
57:08
No, not really. That was it. Do you want Jesus to be the king of your heart, boys and girls? Well, it's an Asian society. If you ask him a question, are very, very politely will say, yes, thank you.
57:24
And so, let me get to that part right here. Jesus wants to have a relationship with you and give you eternal life. Today, you can be sure that you'll go to heaven when you die. How many of you believe what we just said? About Jesus.
57:38
Raise your hand. All you have to do is pray. Say it with your own mouth. All of you should be raising your hands right now, boys and girls. Because this is the greatest gift we could ever receive.
57:50
I want everybody to repeat this prayer after me. After the translator, say it in your own language, with your own mouth. Everyone bow your head and close your eyes. Dear God, I believe Jesus died on the cross for me. Forgive me for all the bad things I've done.
58:03
I'm not making fun of the sinner's prayer. If this is sincere, by all means, Jesus always answers it. Always. I believe Jesus rose from the dead and is alive. Jesus, I ask you to come into my life.
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I want to serve you. Be my lord in Jesus name. Amen. Immediately and with enthusiasm, it says, after that, if you prayed that prayer, you just became a child of God. You can know today that you will go to heaven for eternity.
58:29
The whole time, there's somebody that was tasked with counting the people in the crowd, counting how many of them raise their hands or percentage wise at least. How many of them did this? And then, this is the next part. If you pray that prayer, you just became a child of God. You can know you'll go to heaven for eternity.
58:45
Not only did Jesus die for our sins but also suffered so we don't have to be sick. Jesus healed while he was on Earth. He still heals today. If you have sickness in your body, Jesus is going to heal you right now. Everyone of you.
58:56
Is there anyone here who's sick or in pain? Do you have a tumor, a deaf ear, blind eyes? Put your hand where the sickness is and as we pray, Jesus will put his hand on yours and heal you right where you are. In the name of Jesus, we command every sickness and disease to leave these people's bodies right now. Tumors disappear, cancer disappear, cataracts, glaucoma, whatever it was.
59:16
Ears open in Jesus name. From the tops of their head to the soles of their feet, be healed in Jesus name. Now, begin to do what you couldn't do before. If you couldn't move your leg, begin to move it now. How many of you can tell a difference in your body?
59:28
Raise your hand. If anybody raise their hand with the repeated urging to raise your hand, then they brought him to the front and they kinda asked him quietly what it was, what was going on, how long you've had it, and if you feel better now. First school. This school right here, I took this picture of the whole crowd. It's a 177 people.
59:50
The stats from this were 300 had heard the gospel in language they could understand. There were only a 177 people there. 300 of them heard the gospel. 85% prayed to accept Jesus. 85% is 300.
1:00:03
Of 300 is 255. That is a miracle. If two fifty five people accepted Christ, there were only 177 of em there. Several documented miracles of which one of em was this one. They counted this one.
1:00:16
This guy right here is the miracle filter. He is to see if it's real. Now they didn't interview anybody coming in the door. They didn't see anybody coming in. They just listened after the fact and they coerced this little kid to come up on the stage.
1:00:29
They said, how are you feeling today? He had a bandage on his arm. I'm fine. How's your harm? It's okay.
1:00:35
How was it when you got here today? It's okay. It was okay when I got here today. How long has that been hurting you? It's been fine.
1:00:45
I'm listening to this. I actually recorded this. When did it happen? Two weeks ago, fell down. Okay.
1:00:56
So, he's had the miracle was he had had this hurt hand for two weeks and now he's better. I don't doubt God's ability to heal somebody. I've seen God heal somebody in a way that I could not explain. For his glory but you can't schedule it. You can't schedule it and you can't broadly proclaim that he's gonna do it right now.
1:01:18
And that kid didn't think that it was a miracle. Nobody did except for the miracle filter. I have a tighter filter. Second school, same thing. Third school, same thing.
1:01:29
Just a bigger crowd in each one. There was an unexpected Hindu cultural festival that we rolled up on where we were gonna eat our lunch at a picnic area. There are about a 100, maybe a 150. It's hard to tell when people are dancing and having that much fun. How many of them there are, but I didn't wasn't able to count them.
1:01:44
There were over a 100 that were there. They had a huge booming system, and they were dancing to Hindu music in a Hindu festival, and they rolled up. We ate our sandwiches, and the leader of my little group said, we're gonna do this right here, right now. What? They set up the sound system.
1:02:01
Said at that point, I said, I am not doing this. He said, what? I said, I am not doing this. What do you mean? What's wrong?
1:02:09
Why? I said, because it's wrong. Do you want me to list the theological reasons, the cultural reasons, or what reasons do you want me to start with? Because I'm not doing this. Not ever again, not today, not tomorrow, not ever.
1:02:18
We did the three schools we scheduled. I can't do this anymore and get conscience. I'll sit in the car. Y'all finish if you have to. I'd rather you didn't even do it.
1:02:27
That night, I played with the leadership in the group, the same sermon that I'm teaching, preaching right now. This is crazy. This is nonsense. Tricking an uninterested, uninformed, and unsuspected person into pray in the name of Jesus for your salvation count is dead wrong. It is ridiculous.
1:02:45
It is not the gospel. It holds no power at all. It does more harm than good. There are missionaries who live here that have to put up with the the aftermath of what you're doing right now and it ticks me off. Quite honestly, it just makes me mad.
1:03:03
I understand the last four chapters of Corinthians better now than I did before this trip because Paul is saying, they're distorting the truth and these people are distorting the truth and they're causing immeasurable harm and I'm going do everything I can to tell this organization apart. Just letting you know. It's wrong. It's not good. It needs correction and I'll try every path to bring em back around but it is just wrong.
1:03:28
So, Beetlejuice. I don't know if you know Beetlejuice but his name, yes. If you say Beetlejuice three times, something happens. Jesus done work that way, okay? Rumpelstiltskin?
1:03:37
Yep, he works that way too. If you can figure out the name of Rumpelstiltskin and pronounce it, then, yeah, you get your baby back. Spinning gold and all that stuff. That's a fairy tale though. That's not the way Jesus even works.
1:03:47
Now, he answers the call of faith every single time. Whether you're in desperation or you've studied all world religions and you say, lord, I have exhausted every opportunity. If you're real, I'm putting my faith in you. I want you to be my savior and my God. He'll do it.
1:04:04
He'll do it. When you call out in faith. Pleading with leadership did not work. In fact, that's got through the whole of everything that I've said to you, basically. And then I said, so last year, we have two options.
1:04:17
Either I can fly myself back to Kathmandu or y'all can change my ticket. And so I talked to a local pastor, actually. He changed my ticket. They said, just take the ticket you have. Buddha Air is not nearly as finicky as Delta.
1:04:28
Take the ticket you have for Saturday and use it on Tuesday. It'll be fine. So I followed this person who's hurting. They have a gas cylinder there for their for their what they cook in, and they're following back. I get back on Buddha Air.
1:04:44
I go back the longest domestic flight back to Kathmandu like this. This tiny little plane carries 18 people. And I'm thinking of this the whole way. Therefore, go and make disciples. Actually, it's a participle.
1:04:59
Be making disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the holy ghost and teaching them to obey, not teaching them what to say, Not teaching them to raise their hands at a at the appropriate time so you can get a good count of how many people heard this so that you can tell your supporters back home. In fact, Tanya and I started our ministry officially fifteen years ago. These folks started there seventeen years ago. I don't know how many people we've reached. I have no way of telling that.
1:05:28
I don't know. The gospel is good, and we hear great stories, and we're thankful. If you go on this website, they say that there are 1,775,000 souls into the kingdom because of their ministry. That's distorted math. That's wrong.
1:05:50
I'm sorry. The bottom line is that there is no magic formula to world missions or local ministry. Consistent application of the gospel in my own life and in your lives over time is what brings people to Jesus. Y'all remember last year when we were sending this young lady off? This is Jack and Bev Babcock's granddaughter, Rachel.
1:06:13
It's actually Samantha Compton's first cousin, Rachel Babcock and please pray for her. Continue to. We sent her off to South Asia last year. When she left here, she's going to India for training and then she lives in Kathmandu. So, when I left that group, I'm glad she gave me her Email address because I Emailed her ahead of time and said, hey, I'm coming to see you and I've got two or three others but if you could point me towards somewhere that I could stay that wouldn't be dangerous in this fuel crisis, I'd I'd love it.
1:06:41
And she said, come on. She actually helps to manage the NPL guesthouse, the no place left guesthouse. No place left as in, we're going to go to the ends of the earth until there's not a tribe, tongue, or nation that doesn't know and we're to go and live among them and we're going to be Christians among them. She is a Green Dot Christian that grew up in a place where it is saturated with the gospel and she went to a place that is not. It's less than 1% Christian.
1:07:08
She lives there every day. Consistent application over time and she's great and I just want to commend y'all to pray for her and she's doing a great job. This is her.
1:07:18
First feed, JMSE. That's how we greet believers here in the fall. It means victory in Jesus. And I wanted to say hi to pastor Ray. Thank you so much for coming and encouraging me this past week as we visited Nepal.
1:07:31
Also, he was able to do some of the ministry that I'm involved in, which includes discipling two new believers in a slum and sharing Bible stories with an orphanage with kids, 15 kids there across the street from where I actually live, and then training 100 believers, women in different churches all around Nepal to go out and share their faith with other people. Please continue lifting up just the ministry that we have that we would continue to be able to share with unreached people groups here. And even as a trek, just meeting people to share his good news with. Never ever heard.
1:08:10
Jamey Yes, sounds good. Jamey Singh means hail Jesus or victory in Jesus. All the other Nepalis greet with the God inside me, greets the God inside you, and what they say, hail Jesus. She's living it across the street, she said, from an orphanage. So, there are orphans that are growing up without parents, without the Hindu culture all over them, all of the threats of the gods, what they're gonna do to you if you don't sacrifice, if you don't do this.
1:08:36
They're going up across the street from the no place left guest house and she and Nicole, her ministry partner, are able to minister to them every day, consistent application over time. One more thing. So that's now that we're back in Jackson, I wanna go one last thing. This morning, I was telling them, if you take 43 North 110 West on the map and you dig a hole straight through the earth all the way out the other side, it does not go to China as many of you think it does. It actually goes to right here in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
1:09:07
It's directly above a tiny little Antarctican island, which is not not there aren't any people really on that island. But that place, the nearest place with people on it to there is Durban, South Africa. Ain't that cool? So to the furthest extent of the earth from where we are right now, we sent Melinda Melissa Landis back to Durban, South Africa to witness there, to live her life among people, to just be a Christian among non Christians. Amen.
1:09:43
To the ends of the earth. The Christmas message is fantastic. I know when you came in here, you expected something about baby Jesus in a manger. We'll get to that on the twentieth, I hope but I I just appreciate that there is a real and good, gracious, loving, and gospel way to do missions and that's what we try our best to always concentrate on here at this church and there's a very very bad way that we need to do everything we can to keep from happening ever again. So, I think that's it.
1:10:12
That is it. The Boy Scouts this morning took care of the connect hour and I think we're to the last song. Would y'all come back up? We are going to sing a Christmas song. If you wanna come see me this week, I know I've I've got my hackles up.
1:10:24
My passion is going but I think it fit very well to me with the way Paul was feeling about those super apostles, those false apostles. Would you stand with us and sing, Doyle, if you wanna come on up, come on up. We're gonna end up with joyful, joyful, we adore you. Missed Christianity spreads like an infection. Have it.
1:12:06
Carriers of the gospel. Carriers of this infection spread it to other people And living their life and being with them, being around them, breathing but there is a way to inoculate somebody against the gospel and that is to share with them a dead form of it. That is a different gospel. It is not just calling on the name. It is really calling on the name, okay?
1:12:31
Do y'all get that? Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge, actual knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory forever. May the God of hope now fill you with all joy and all peace. I know I've upset you.
1:12:52
It's upsetting me too. I'm sharing it with you. May the God of all hope fill you with all the joy and peace and believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope. Amen.
1:13:02
Amen. Amen.
Topics
False GospelsMaking DisciplesMissions AccountabilityNepal MissionsSpiritual ManipulationStreet Evangelism
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