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Hi, this is Pastor Tom and I want to welcome you to the end of our study of 2nd
Corinthians. We're going to be studying 2nd Corinthians 13 this week, the last
chapter in this great book about how you and I can survive as God's servants.
Let me just remind you before we read the verses for today about where we've
been through this study and maybe remind you of some things that God has done in
your life as we've walked through this study together.

We've talked in this study about how to survive 10 specific things in our lives
as God's servants. First, how do you survive despair? We talked about the
survival principle that God will comfort you so that you can comfort others.

When you feel down, when you feel like there's nowhere to turn, God's going to
show up for you. But not just for you. He's going to show up for you in such a
way that you can show up for somebody else someday.

And maybe God's been doing that in your life, I would guess that just about for
every one of us He's been doing that in our lives because we all have these
moments of despair. Secondly, we talked about surviving misunderstandings, the
misunderstandings of others. And you survive it, we talked about, through
holiness and sincerity, through clearing your conscience and clearing the air.

And maybe you've needed to do that with someone or need to do that with someone
now. We talked about surviving offenses when someone offends you, sins against
you. And the principle there is you learn how to forgive.

Jesus has forgiven us, so we forgive others. Maybe that's one you need to be
applying in your life right now or have applied these last several weeks. Number
four, we talked about surviving feelings of inadequacy and the need to embrace
humility when I feel inadequate.

We all feel inadequate at times and the temptation is to become more prideful,
to prove myself even more. But God's Word tells us, no, you embrace humility
instead. We talked number five about surviving a loss of heart and you do that
as you fix your eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.

We do have a loss of heart in this world sometimes because this world is not
going to last. So you fix your eyes on what is going to last. Number six,
surviving everyday life.

We talked about the fact that in every situation you and I need to act like
God's servants. That's how you survive in everyday life. Remember, no matter
what the situation, you're a servant.

That's why God put you on this planet. Jesus came to seek and to serve. We're
here to serve.

Oh, number seven, we talked about surviving hurtful relationships, one of the
most important things we need to survive in our lives as believers. And what do
you do? You keep your heart open even if they close theirs.

Number eight, we talked about surviving selfishness and the principle there is
sow generously and you will also reap generously. Just keep on serving, keep on
giving, keep on loving. That's how you serve.

Number nine, surviving criticism. We reminded ourselves of Paul's great truth,
"Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. " So you keep boasting in the Lord.

That's how you survive criticism in life. And number 10, surviving weakness,
that great principle from chapter 12 last week. The principle that God's power
is perfected in weakness.

So you don't worry about your weakness. You realize that God can work even in
your weakness. So now we come to the end of this book and Paul begins at the end
to talk about some ways that they can live out these principles we've talked
about all through the book.

Listen to what he has to say in the first four verses of chapter 13. "This will
be my third visit to you. Every matter must be established by the testimony of
two or three witnesses.

I already gave you a warning when I was with you the second time. I now repeat
it while absent. On my return, I will not spare those who sinned earlier or any
of the others since you are demanding proof that Christ is speaking through me.

He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you. For to be sure,
he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God's power. Likewise, we are weak
in him, yet by God's power we will live with him to serve you.

" As we come to the last chapter of the book, Paul in this chapter is going to
remind us of three things that we need to keep us going as servants. The first,
he talks about in these verses, the first is a healthy respect for God's
strength and your weakness. If you wanted to put that into one word, it would be
the word reverence, a healthy reverence for God.

And so he talks about power and weakness and strength and weakness in these
verses. And one of the things he brings out as he talks about our reverence for
God is this statement, "Jesus is powerful among you. " Never, never lose sight
of the power of God.

Don't mistake God's grace for weakness. The fact that he is a forgiving God,
that he is a loving God. Do not mistake God's patience for weakness.

Too many people do. They think that because God is patient, he doesn't
immediately judge a sin. I sin or someone else sins and immediately the
lightning bolt hits from heaven, zap.

God doesn't do it that way. He is patient. He is growing us.

He's working in us. But don't mistake either his grace or his patience for
weakness. Paul says here, "Jesus is powerful among you.

" And as he's talking to the Corinthians in these verses, he says some things
that confuse us a little bit, the ways he's speaking, how he's going to deal
with things, how people are going to see God's power in the way that he deals
with sin. Because Jesus is powerful, Paul is reminding us here, sin must be
dealt with. He dealt with it on the cross in his power, and he wants us to deal
with it in our lives, and he's going to deal with it and put it away for all
eternity.

If you think about your life right now, the power of Jesus means that sin must
be dealt with in your life, in your relationships, in your family, in the
church. And Paul is dealing with it as a leader of the church here. Some read
this and they think, Paul seems so judgmental here.

Does the fact that we deal with sin mean we don't forgive sin? Of course we
forgive sin. Jesus has forgiven us, so we forgive others.

But the fact that we forgive does not mean that we don't deal with the reality
of a sin. The fact that you forgive sin does not mean you minimize sin. Jesus
died on the cross for that sin.

That's the depth of how deeply that sin needs to be dealt with. So when Paul
says, "I'm going to deal with sin," it's not out of a spirit of judgmentalism,
it's out of spirit of knowing that sin can, in fact, and affect every part of a
person's life, in every part of a church, so it has to be dealt with in a spirit
of, "God's forgiven us all in Christ, but we're going to deal with sin, we're
going to be honest about it and deal with it. " And Paul was able to be honest
about it.

Too often we're not able to be honest about it in our lives. Too often we're not
able to be honest about it in church. We sweep it under the rug, pretend it's
not there.

One of the great things about the leadership of the apostle Paul is he said,
"Hey, we've got a problem, let's deal with it. " Jesus is powerful among you. We
don't deal with it based on our power, but based on his power.

And then he talks about weakness and strength once again. We talked about it all
last week, and he has these awesome statements. He reminds us that Jesus was
crucified in weakness.

When you look at Jesus on the cross, if you were there that day, you would have
seen what seemed to be weakness, someone who was under the control of someone
else, under the control of the Romans who put him up on that cross, under the
control of the priests and the religious who put him in trial under the control
of the crowd that was jeering at him and throwing insults at him. But the truth
is, what seemed to be weakness was actually God's power. He was crucified in
weakness.

He allowed himself to be humbled in weakness, but now he lives by God's power.
And then Paul turns this into our lives, into your life, my life. How are you
going to live today?

And he says, "When you look at your life right now, in one sense you're to take
up your cross each day. " So to see each day that we are weak in Jesus. We do
not have the strength or the spiritual power to make it through this life on our
own.

We're weak in Jesus. When I come to Jesus and say, "I'm going to depend on you,
Jesus, for the life that I need," I am admitting my own weakness. That's why
some people never come to Jesus, by the way, why they never start a relationship
with Jesus.

They're not willing to admit their own weakness, even though it's so obvious to
them and everyone else. They're just not willing to admit it. They think someday
it may dissipate, it may go away, I don't know.

We're weak in Jesus. But once I admit that, just like once Jesus was weak on the
cross, he was seen to be the power of God for our salvation. Once I admit my
weakness in Jesus, then Paul says, "Then it's by God's power that we live with
him to serve others.

" So you want to be a great servant today? Paul reminds us here that the
beginning place is saying, "Jesus, I'm weak in you. I need your strength.

I can't do this on my own strength and power. Let's do that right now. " Jesus,
that's the exact prayer we pray.

We're weak in you. We cannot serve a world that has so many needs on our own
power and strength. We get overwhelmed, or even if we have a success, we get
prideful, we get caught up in ourselves.

We need you, we need your strength, we need your power. And by God's power,
because you died on the cross, because you were resurrected, we can live with
you in order to serve others. I pray that that would be our experience today,
Jesus.

As we live with you, show us the places that we can serve in the ways that you
would serve. We ask this in your name, amen. Tomorrow we're going to look at the
test that you must take in order to live by faith.