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Hi, this is Pastor Tom and I want to welcome you to 2nd Corinthians chapter 6
this week. This is day one, we're going to focus on verses 1 and 2. Before we
look at those verses, let me just catch us up with where we are.

Remember 2nd Corinthians is a kind of servant survival guide. It helps us to
know how to survive the realities of life as God's servants. And so we've looked
at actually six specific ways to survive in a sense up until now.

We've talked about how do you survive despair. Paul talks about that in chapter
1 verses 3 to 10 and the survival principle there, one of the key principles is
God will comfort you so that you can comfort others. That's what you recognize
and realize when you're going through tough times.

We've talked about how do you survive misunderstandings in chapter 1 verse 12
through chapter 2 verse 4. And the principle there is that you can have a
confidence based on a conduct that's marked by holiness and sincerity in your
life. As you live out your life before Christ, you can have confidence before
others, even when you're misunderstood.

We've talked about surviving offenses when somebody offends you and the
principle there is you'll need to learn how to forgive. That's in chapter 2.
Chapter 2 also talks about how do you survive accusations, chapter 2 and chapter
3.

When somebody accuses you, just because you're serving Christ, they accuse you
of a wrong motive and you know it's not a wrong motive, what do you do? You
recognize before them openly that your confidence comes only from God. You don't
try to prove yourself, you just realize I'm just a servant serving him.

We've talked in chapters 4 and 5 about how do you survive a loss of heart,
looked at the principle that you fix your eyes on what is seen, not on what's
unseen. And now in chapter 6, we're going to look at how do you survive everyday
life? How do you live?

We're going to see in these verses so that no one will find fault with you, but
instead they'll see in you the presence of Christ. Listen to what Paul has to
say as we begin this chapter in verses 1 and 2. He begins not by talking about
the survival of everyday life, but he talks about how you can really begin to
thrive and begin to feel abundance in everyday life.

He starts by talking about salvation and how it's something we experience every
day of our lives as believers. In verses 1 and 2, Paul says, "As God's fellow
workers, we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain, for he says, 'In the
time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you. I tell
you, now is the time of God's favor.

Now is the day of salvation. '" When we talk about daily life and surviving
everyday life, one of the things we have to ask ourselves is what's urgent?
What's urgent in your life?

Truth is, if you're like me, a lot of things seem urgent, but few really are.
The gift of salvation Paul talks about here, he says that is truly urgent. This
gift that God has given you of new life in Christ, it is more urgent than you
realize.

You don't get saved and then put it on a back burner. You get saved and realize
it's a now thing. It's a thing that's a part of my everyday life.

God's incredible gift of salvation. Many people know about it, but never even
open it. They don't even see the urgency of opening it.

And there are other people who you open it up, but then you put it on a shelf
somewhere in the back of your mind and you forget it as a part of everyday life.
What is it that causes this to happen? What keeps us from unwrapping, from
enjoying God's gifts?

What keeps us from unwrapping or enjoying in daily life God's gift of salvation,
this new relationship that we have with him, the fact that I am forgiven by him?
Why does sometimes the little things of life seem to overwhelm our life and seem
so much more urgent than this most important thing of life, the truth that God
loves you, the truth that he saved you, the truth that he has forgiven you? What
keeps us from unwrapping or enjoying this gift?

There are a lot of reasons, but I want to focus on three specific reasons.
Sometimes, one of the reasons is sometimes we're afraid. Sometimes we don't open
a gift because we're afraid.

We're afraid of what God might do in our lives. I remember when our son Ryan was
a little boy in preschool, we sent him with a little snack one day for his
preschool class, came home, snack was unopened. And we said, "Ryan, you didn't
eat your food today.

" And he said, "Well, I didn't open it because I was afraid I might not like
what was inside. " A few days before, his mom had sent him some barbecued soy
nuts and he opened up the bag, he ate those things and he did not like them. So
he didn't open the bag because he was afraid of what might be inside.

We're like that sometimes with God. We think if I really go to God, really enjoy
all that salvation means, maybe God's going to spoil my fun. Maybe God will just
make me feel guilty.

Maybe he'll send me to some uncivilized corner of the world that I don't want to
go to. It's the barbecued soy nuts way of thinking about God. And that's not how
God is at all.

Now, he does ask you to do sometimes things that you think you don't want to do,
but once you do them, you realize, "Well, this is what you made me for. This is
why I'm on this planet. " God will challenge you to do things and that scares us
sometimes, but that is a fear that's worth overcoming.

"Don't be afraid," God says, "because I have great things to do in your life. "
Sometimes though, we don't open up this gift because we're afraid. Second
reason, let's just be honest, is sometimes we're stubborn.

We're selfish. We want what we want when we want it. And so because of that, we
think God may not give it to us when we want it.

Instead of enjoying the gift of salvation, we go after the things that we want
in life. We're selfish. Or sometimes we're stubborn because we're prideful.

We've tried every way that we know to make it work our way, and it just hasn't
worked. So we keep trying to prove ourselves right. We keep trying to make it
work our way.

We're like a gambler who just keeps putting more and more money in the pot
thinking, "I'm going to win this time. " What we really need to do is back away
and say, "God, what do you want in my life? " If you never struggle with
stubbornness, well, we've all struggled with that.

If you don't think you've ever struggled with it, there's a pride probably in
your life because we all struggle with this selfishness and pride. Sometimes
we're stubborn. Sometimes we're afraid.

But sometimes we miss out on God's gifts. In fact, I think maybe most of the
time because we just procrastinate. We just put it off.

We know we're going to enjoy the gift. It's just I've got something else to do
today. Something seems more urgent today.

So God puts an impulse in my life to do this or to serve in this kind of way. We
think, "I'm going to do that. I'll just do it tomorrow or the next day or next
week.

" We're buying into a myth when we do that. The myth is that you can act on a
spiritual impulse at any time. I've got this sense of how I should serve or how
I should love the Lord or how I should pray more or whatever it is.

The myth is I can act on that at any time. The truth is God is always ready. So
when it comes to God, he's always going to be ready to accept the way that you
act, the way that you serve.

But we are not always ready. The fact that I have a sense, a feeling of what I
should do today does not mean it's going to be there tomorrow. So when I have a
good impulse to do something good, I better act when it hits me or I just don't
know what I'm going to miss.

Do not confuse the fact that God always stands ready to help you with the fact
that there are opportune moments in our lives and you don't want to miss those.
I found I better act now and God puts one of those opportune moments into my
life for change or for prayer or for praise or for serving him or for
appreciating what he's doing in my life. If I don't, other things get in the
way.

If I don't, I get busy. If I don't, complacency sets back in and six months
later, six months down the road, I am kicking myself that I didn't act earlier.
What's going to happen when you unwrap this gift?

This is what really makes it urgent. What do you find in the gift of salvation?
You find thousands of things.

God's gifts of a daily difference in our lives. In these couple of verses, there
are two now phrases. Now is the time of God's favor.

Now is the day of salvation. What's urgent in your life? What's now in your
life?

God's favor is urgent. God's love for you and the blessings he wants to put into
your life. What's now in your life?

God's salvation is now in your life. If you've never accepted it, accept it now.
Why wait?

Why wait until tomorrow? Why wait until some stubbornness or selfishness or fear
or procrastination gets through in your life? Why not begin to enjoy now this
gift that God has given?

If you've never accepted it, you open it now. If you have accepted this gift of
salvation, you begin to enjoy it now. Enjoy what God has done in your life.

A question as we come to the end of this day of looking at these verses is, how
are you going to enjoy God's gift of salvation today? Let's pray together. Our
Father, thank you for this great gift, the gift of forgiveness and life through
Jesus.

And I'm like everybody else. I can walk through the day and not enjoy that gift,
get caught up in what I'm doing, get caught up in the details, see other things
as more urgent, more important. Lord, help me today to enjoy the gift of
salvation.

In everything I do, everything you've given me to do, help me to enjoy the fact
that you love me, that you have a plan and purpose for my life, and to live out
that plan in whatever I'm doing. Now you've given me your favor. Now you've
given me your salvation.

Thank you, Jesus. In your name. Amen.