2 Corinthians 10:1-6

Battle-ready Christians require the right tools, for the right fight.

WHEN WE SEEK HIS PRESENCE, WE FIND HIS PURPOSE, AND ARE FILLED WITH HIS POWER.

Christians need to seek God’s presence, to determine God’s purpose, and experience God’s power.

Welcoming

Good morning! It is such a privilege t be with you today. Katie and I both have been looking forward to coming down, seeing a lot of familiar faces, and enjoying spending time with you, and just resting! It’s a nice break from work, and before we go back to school! We are grateful to be here. Thank you especially to Pastor Adam for inviting us.

I thought I would take a moment to introduce both myself, and Katie, my wife. For those of you who do not know myself or Katie, we are both Bible College students attending Vanguard College in the same year, and program. We met at Vanguard, and got married just a couple of months ago in June. We are going into our fourth year at Vanguard, with just under two years left in our degrees. Katie and I both feel a call to pastoral ministry - particularly in rural areas and small towns. We both share a love for Canada and particularly Alberta. Both of us are so excited to see where God is taking the church, and excited to see Christians empowered for the work of God.

So, that’s us! Thanks for having us today!

Introduction

In prayer about what to preach on, I was convinced that I should speak on boldness today. Not just any kind of boldness, but boldness of speech. We, as Christians, are equipped with the ability to speak and live in a way that takes boldness, and courage. Yet it is our calling. Some of you may heard the saying “God is in the business of getting souls.” How true! He longs for each one of us to be welcomed into His family. We are precious in His sight! Yet He also uses us to spread the good news boldly. Without boldness in living, and the boldness to go out and proclaim the gospel, we are lost in a sea of religions and false teachings that lead people constantly down futile trails, with no hope of recovery.

A few weeks ago, our pastor back in Edmonton was preaching on a passage from 2 Timothy. During his sermon, he referenced, 2 Corinthians 10 3-5. It hit me.

Introduction

As I was praying through what to bring to you this morning, the Lord impressed upon my heart the topic of boldness, and specifically boldness in sharing the gospel. We, as Christians, are equipped with the ability to speak and live in a way that takes boldness, and courage. Yet it is our calling. Some of you may heard the saying “God is in the business of getting souls.” How true! He longs for each one of us to be welcomed into His family. We are precious in His sight! Yet He also uses us to spread the good news boldly. He empowers us to tell others about this amazing message, and to be ready to give a defence for the hope that is in us.

With this in mind, today I wanted to start with reading 2 Corinthians 10:1-6. As I do, particularly notice vv. 3-5. You are welcome to follow along with me in your Bibles or on your devices, or on the screen behind me.

2 Corinthians 10:1–6 ESV

I, Paul, myself entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away!— 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. For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

For our understanding’s sake, it is important to understand that Paul - the writer of more than half of the NT, including 1 & 2 Corinthians - is shepherding from afar the church in Corinth. He cares deeply for these people, but has had to quickly and harshly deal with problems in the church in his earlier letters. (1 Corinthians 7 is an example of this). Now, Paul desperately does not want to come to them in person boldly, even as he did in these letters. His desire in to come to them in meekness and gentleness, without harsh exhortation. Yet, while he wishes to be able to do this with the believers, he knows his approach to the false teachers present will be bold. He must make a stand, and defend both his own character, and the character of the gospel that he witnesses about.

That’s the setting for this chapter, seen in vv. 1-2. These teachers are claiming that Paul is “walk[ing] according to the flesh.”(ESV) Another way of saying this is to say that Paul is “liv[ing] by the standards of this world” (NIV). Thus Paul comes against this, even in his letter. Now, here’s the part that brings goose bumps:

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete. (ESV).

OH! How this gives me chills! Do we understand how powerful this message of grace and hope is? To be able to take any argument, any opinion, any stronghold of the enemy, and completely rip it apart? This message, and the God that is proclaims, can break even the thickest of chains! People, we have been endowed with a powerful message!

For the next few moments, I want to dive deep into the richness of this text. What I want us to realize from this is that

We are equipped with the gospel message to proclaim boldly, and live boldly.

There is nothing about Paul’s statements here that are weak, mild-mannered, or inconsequential. Looking at this passage, we see that we can have boldness because we are engaging i the battle for souls a powerful weapon, that can destroy whatever argument the enemy hurls against it. It’s like wielding the ultimate weapon! The gospel gives us the power - by the Holy Spirit - to be bold in our proclamation of God’s Word.

Even in the Bible, there are examples of people being empowered by God’s messages of hope and deliverance - even up to the greatest one (Christ’s sacrificial work on the cross.)