2 Corinthians 11:1-15

Intro:

I want to explain a little of what God has done in my life in the last month

A month ago I got up in front of the church and let everyone know that the Coast Hills deals fell through

The Next morning I woke up with stiffness in my left calf which wouldn’t work itself out

On Tuesday we found out there is no office space for the church to lease

On Thursday morning I got a call that Debra had suddenly passed away

That night I got sent to the hospital with a blood clot in my leg

On Saturday, my birthday, my daughter gave me Covid for a present

On Monday I went home and was in bed for three straight days

During that time God made Himself so real

I was laying there thinking through everything

Did I lead the church off a cliff by selling our building and having no where to go?

From there it was a chain of negative thoughts and memories

God then began to speak

I took away your success, I let you experience loss in a close relationship, and now I have taken away your health. Am I still enough for you because I love you exactly as you are right now

God brought me to that moment and stripped me of everything to show me He is more than enough and that His love isn’t conditional on what I do for Him

I would like to say it was all rainbows and angels singing but after a fever spike and my oxygen diminishing a week later I was in the hospital

But through the whole thing the peace that passes all understanding was on me

Is Jesus more than enough for you and do you know his love isn’t based on who you are or what you do?

You will go through periods where God will shake your foundations to show what is true, He will sift you like wheat to remove that which isn’t real, and then he will strengthen what remains.

Read 2 Corinthians 11:1-15

Transition

Jewish wedding are a bit different than western weddings

In Paul’s day the fathers would bargain a bride’s price when a girl was as young as 8 years old

They would determine that the son and daughter would marry around a set time

A year before that set time the young man would begin to add on a room to the father’s house.

This will be the home he and his bride will live in

He spends all year making it perfect often asking the father, “Is it done?”

The father would reply not yet and the son would continue working on it

One day the father would say it is finished and then the son would go and gather his friends and they would start towards the Bride’s house

It was great fanfare with often the whole town joining the parade

The Groom and his groomsmen are making noise all the way to alert the bride it was time

As soon as they heard the trumpets the bride and her party started rushing around getting the festivities ready for the arrival of the wedding party

The Bride’s father would then present the bride to the groom and the celebration would commence

This morning I want you to picture Paul as the dutiful father

Paul is trying everything he can to present the Corinthian church as a perfect bride

He is running into some hiccups because of a false gospel and apostles that have invaded the church

This morning he shows his desire to present a picture perfect bride

I. A Betrothed Bride vs. 1-2

Paul saw himself as a dutiful father

He wanted to hand off the bride to Christ without any issues

That was being hindered by a group of super apostles who were going around bragging about how good they were

Sadly, the church was starting to believe these guys and the false gospel they preached

The last thing that Paul wanted to do was brag about himself.

He had too much on his plate, but was being forced

So he asked for the Corinthians to bear with him while he put a beat down on the false apostles

vs. 2 Divine jealousy

When Paul says he is jealous for Corinth, it is like father who is giving his daughter away

He is your typical dad who understands his responsibility is raising his children

He isn’t flashy, has a dad bod, but cares deeply for his child

He isn’t instagram dad who is always showing the highlights of his life and all the envy inducing activities he does

This is Paul’s way of saying that he has cared for Corinth way more than these false apostles

He wants them to be a pure bride for Christ and these false apostles and their false Gospel is threatening that

II. Deceived by Another Gospel vs. 3-4

A betrothed bride owes her loyalty to one person, her groom

The fact that the church was being deceived as Eve was shows us that they are flirting with being unfaithful

People have come into to the church and preached another Jesus

Satan is at the heart of this

He is the serpent who is trying to deceive and lead them astray

He will use men who are thirsty for power and the adoration of the crowd

There are a lot of false apostles and false gospels out there today

The prosperity Gospel is one of them

God wants to bless you beyond your imagination

There are a couple other fake gospels creeping into the church lately

The first is what they call Critical Race Theory

It states that the Bible and the church is all about White supremacy and that people need to repent and make reparations

Another one, far more dangerous, is the American Liberty Gospel

This one seems so right because it is based on our freedoms we enjoy as a country

Where it goes wrong is when we demand our liberties more than we dwell in our freedom in Christ

Paul was a full Roman Citizen with all of the rights that most people would kill for during his time

No where in his writings do we see him demand his rights

Paul & Silas in prison

Instead he rested in his liberty in Christ and would allow his rights to be trampled so that the name of Jesus could be proclaimed

1 Cor 9:19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.

III Not Inferior vs. 5-6

The church in Corinth were playing the compare game

While Paul was the dutiful dad and built the church from the ground up, he didn’t possess the pizazz of the flashy apostles

They hadn’t forgotten what Paul had done but what these guys were doing was more attractive

It’s kind of like a faithful pastor who ministers to a family through all of the stages of life; there during trials, dedicate, baptize, & marry kids, and counsels them during difficulty.

Then a new flashy church comes into town the the family leaves the church without notice and ghosts the pastor

It’s not that the pastor is inferior

Paul wasn’t going to let these thoughts go on without addressing them

“I may not be most skilled speaker but I superior in knowledge and I minister in power”

IV. Did not Burden You vs. 7-10

Paul takes it even further with Corinth and tells them I didn’t burden you by accepting one cent from you

This might be Paul’s biggest dig at the church and false apostles

Corinth prided itself on being a wealthy city

The main reason there was a challenge to Paul in Corinth is because the city was wealthy

They weren’t trying to take over Philippi or Thessalonica

They wanted to get rich off of the people in Corinth

Paul worked as a tent maker and accepted money from poor churches to do the work

He didn’t want the charge that he was a burden to the church

The False Apostles tried, unsuccessfully, to say Paul was deceiving them by taking the offering for Jerusalem and keeping it for himself

Paul answered that by having Titus and a couple of others guys collect it

vs. 10 Paul’s boasting was really the reputation that was circulating around Achaia about how Corinth didn’t support him

No matter what Corinth said, everyone knew by Paul’s actions that he loved the church in Corinth

V. False Apostles vs. 12-15