Sermon Tone Analysis

I have a choice to appear strong in who I am, what I have done, my spiritual experiences etc or to be really strong in the Lord, in his grace.

When I am weak then I am strong.

·         I boast of my strength and I am really weak

·         I boast of my weakness and I am really strong

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*/2 Corinthians 11: /*I hope you will put up with a little of my foolishness; but you are already doing that.

*2 *I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy.

I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.

*3 *But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning,* your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ**.*

*4 **For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.*

*5 *But I do not think I am in the least inferior to those “super-apostles.”

*6 *I may not be a trained speaker, but I do have knowledge.

We have made this perfectly clear to you in every way.

*7 *Was it a sin for me to lower myself in order to elevate you by preaching the gospel of God to you free of charge?

*8 *I robbed other churches by receiving support from them so as to serve you.

*9 *And when I was with you and needed something, I was not a burden to anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied what I needed.

I have kept myself from being a burden to you in any way, and will continue to do so.

*10 *As surely as the truth of Christ is in me, nobody in the regions of Achaia will stop this boasting of mine.

*11 *Why?

Because I do not love you?

God knows I do! *12 *And *I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about*.

*13 **For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ.*

*14 *And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.

*15 *It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade *as servants of righteousness.

*Their end will be what their actions deserve.

*16 *I repeat: Let no one take me for a fool.

But if you do, then receive me just as you would a fool, so that I may do a little boasting.

*17 **In this self-confident boasting I am not talking as the Lord would, but as a fool.*

*18 **Since many are boasting in the way the world does, I too will boast.

19 *You gladly put up with fools since you are so wise!

*20 **In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or pushes himself forward or slaps you in the face.*

*21 *To my shame I admit that we were too weak for that!

What anyone else dares to boast about—*I am speaking as a fool*—I also dare to boast about.

*22 *Are they Hebrews?

So am I. Are they Israelites?

So am I. Are they Abraham’s descendants?

So am I. *23 *Are they servants of Christ?

(I am out of my mind to talk like this.)

I am more.

I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again.

*24 *Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.

*25 *Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, *26 *I have been constantly on the move.

I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers.

*27 *I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.

*28 *Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.

*29 *Who is weak, and I do not feel weak?

Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?

*30 **If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.*

*31 *The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying.

*32 *In Damascus the governor under King Aretas had the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to arrest me.

*33 *But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall and slipped through his hands.

I must go on boasting.

Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord.

*2 *I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven.

Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows.

*3 *And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— *4 *was caught up to paradise.

He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell.

*5 *I will boast about a man like that, but *I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses.*

*6 *Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth.

*But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say.*

*7 *To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.

*8 *Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.

*9 *But he said to me, *“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”*

Therefore *I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.

For when I am weak, then I am strong.**/

NIV/*