This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to day two of our look through 2nd Corinthians chapter 6. We're going to
look at verses 3 to 7 today. We're talking this week about how you live your
daily life for Christ in this world.

And Paul in these verses talks about the fact that we live our life not just for
ourselves or within ourselves, but we live our lives before others, before God
and before others. And so he talks about how we do that in these verses. Listen
to what Paul has to say, verses 3 to 7.

And as Paul talks through these verses about how you and I live our daily lives
in this world, he's talking here about how you live your life before others. And
he puts it pretty simply. He says, don't put stumbling blocks in others' way.

Instead, commend yourself in every way. Don't put stumbling blocks in other
people's way, but instead commend yourself in every way. Don't put stumbling
blocks in the way.

Try to live in such a way, New Living Translation, verse 3, is try to live in
such a way that no one will be hindered from finding the Lord by the way that we
act. And so no one can find fault with our ministry. Don't let the way that you
live hinder someone from coming to know Christ.

Instead, don't just not do that negative, but instead do the positive. Commend
yourself. The word commend begins with the idea of bringing two things together.

So live in such a way that someone else can be brought closer to Christ. Paul
says, as a servant of God, commend yourself as a servant of God. In every
situation, act like God's servant.

Commend Christ in every situation. Let the way you live draw yourself and other
people closer to Christ. How does that work in daily life?

Paul is very specific about this. He talks about six ways that he does this.
We're going to look at the first five today and then look at the sixth tomorrow.

He says, "The first way that I do this, that I commend myself, commend Christ to
others," he says, "is in troubles, hardships, and distresses. " In fact, he gets
very specific about this in his own life. We all have troubles and hardships and
distresses.

Paul's troubles are worse than probably any of us could list, or very few of us
would have these on our list. For him, he puts the list here. It's beatings and
imprisonments and riots and hard work and sleepless nights and hunger.

You may have a few of those, but not like the apostle Paul did. Paul went
through a lot of troubles in his life just because he was a servant. And he says
even through the troubles, in fact, he begins with this.

Through the troubles, through the struggles, through the difficulties, that's an
opportunity to commend Christ, to let other people be drawn closer to Christ. I
think one of the questions we all have is why do we go through troubles in this
life as believers? I mean, I'm trying to serve God.

I'm trying to do the right thing, and I'm still going through troubles. Someone
on our research team asked about these verses, "The fact that my problems
continue for such a long period of time, it's making me start to doubt myself.
I'm wondering, am I doing the right thing?

" Well, Paul's life, Jesus' life, is an example of the fact that just because
you have troubles does not mean you're doing the wrong thing. Troubles do not
mean you're being punished necessarily. Sometimes God disciplines us through
troubles, but other times you just go through troubles because life is full of
troubles.

Sometimes you go through troubles because you're being persecuted for your
faith. Now, I don't know all the reasons for the troubles you're going through
right now, but I do know that in every trouble, every hardship, every
difficulty, there is an opportunity to commend yourself, to commend Christ to
others, to recommend faith in your life. Because think about this with me.

When everything's going right in your life, those who don't know Christ who are
around you look at you and think, "Well, of course they're a Christian.
Everything's going great in their life. I'd be a Christian too if everything was
going great in my life, but I don't have that kind of life.

" But when things go wrong in your life, people look at you as you continue to
serve Christ, continue to love Him, and they think, "Look what a difference
faith can make in a person's life. They're walking through this with strength.
They're walking through this with hope.

They have something in their life that I want, I need. " In troubles and
hardships and distresses, you can commend Christ to others. A second group of
words that Paul uses here is a second way that we commend Christ in our lives.

He talks about purity, understanding, patience, and kindness. These are words
that all have to do with the outgrowth of your character into your daily life.
Because you have a character of holiness, then you act with purity.

Because you have a character of wisdom, you act with understanding. Because you
have a godly character of love, you act with patience and kindness. Because of
who Jesus is in you, you choose purity.

You choose to understand. You choose patience. People see in your patience the
love of Christ.

That's one of the ways you commend Christ to others. So who do you need to be
patient with today? Who do you need to share understanding with today?

In what situation do you need to have integrity today? That's a second way we
commend Christ. A third way we commend Christ, he says, "In the Holy Spirit and
in sincere love.

" Really, those two go together. Because you have God's Spirit in your life, you
have the power to sincerely love. It's one thing to have a fake kind of love,
the kind of love that's, "Well, you're a Christian.

You're supposed to love in that kind of way. " But there's a different kind of
love that truly cares for somebody else. There's a depth of concern.

And Paul's going to talk about that more later in this chapter. But here he
reminds us that with God's Spirit comes sincere love. And with sincere love, you
are commending Christ in ways that are beyond your imagination.

Sincere love comes from God. God is love. And when people see it, they know it's
different.

And that's one of the things that shows Christ in this world. A fourth thing
that Paul talks about, he says, "In truthful speech and in the power of God. "
Because, I see this this way, because you have the power of God in your life,
you have the power to be truthful.

You're able to take away some of the blinders that cause us to have to lie to
ourselves and others. You're able to get a clarity of thinking in your life
because God has enabled you to drop the pride and fear in your life. Now, none
of us are going to totally get there in this life.

We're all going to struggle the rest of our lives with our own pride, our own
fear. But we struggle our way to God's power. And we struggle our way to being
more truthful.

And as we get there, the Bible says the truth, Jesus says the truth will set you
free. So we're set free by that. Now, I want you to notice Paul says it's in
truthful speech.

Not just truthful actions, but truthful speech. This is a reminder that as we
commend Christ to others, a lot of people want to say the way to commend Christ
to others is just by acting in Christlike ways. And they will see it.

It's also in speaking in Christlike ways. And Jesus was truthful. It's hard to
be truthful.

It's hard to be truthful sometimes because it's not what you want to say and
it's not what the person wants to hear. But when you, with sincere love, say
something that is truthful by the power of God, that's different. That's
something people aren't used to hearing.

Now, you're used to hearing somebody say something that seems to be truthful,
but really is just an attacking kind of word. But when it's put together with
the power of God, that is something different. So it's not just in your actions.

It's also in your words. And then Paul lists the fifth thing. He's talked with
us about what it means to love Christ and to show Christ in our daily lives.

He says, number one, you do it in troubles and hardships. Number two, you do it
in purity, understanding, patience and kindness and the outgrowth of your
character. Number three, you do it in the Holy Spirit and sincere love.

Number four, you do it with truthful speech and the power of God. And number
five, he says, you do it with weapons of righteousness in your right hand and
your left. Weapons.

And he's talked about patience, but now he's talking about weapons. And he's
reminding us that this is a battle. As you commend Jesus to others, you're in a
battle.

You're in a battle for people's eternity. You're in a battle for people's souls.
And that battle doesn't mean that you have to be-- Some people think that
because we're in a battle for people's souls, that somehow that means we have to
be offensive in that battle, that those weapons are things that we swing at
people.

When that happens, it happens so many times, people wonder, what's gotten into
that person? Remember earlier, Paul said, we're supposed to be patient. We're
supposed to love.

We're supposed to be kind. So these weapons of righteousness in the right hand
and the left, they enable you in situations where you would rather strike back
to be patient. They enable you in situations where you'd rather think about
yourself to love.

They enable you in situations where you would rather just let it go to speak the
truth. They enable you in situations where you would rather do what's best for
you to make the decisions to be kind to others. That's what these weapons allow
you to do.

They're weapons of righteousness, of acting in different ways. Now as you look
at your life, as I look at my life, I see all the imperfections. I see all the
ways that I don't live for Christ.

And Lord, please help me to grow in those ways. Help me to change. But today I
also want you to see all the ways you do live for Christ.

The times He allows you to be patient, to live in a different way because you
know Him, and to build on that, to build on who He is in your life. Let's pray
together. Lord, let us commend ourselves as servants of Christ today in
situations and circumstances where it'd be all too easy to live for ourselves
and do what we want.

Instead, Lord, help us to choose purity. Help us to choose patience. Help us to
choose love.

Help us to choose truthful speech. Help us to choose your power. Help us to
choose, rather than fighting with our weapons, our ideas, our strength, our
energy.

So Lord, realize you've given us weapons of righteousness through your word,
through your love, through your spirit. Instead of commending ourselves as
wonderful people, help us to commend ourselves as your servants. Instead of
commending ourselves as people to be impressed with, help us to commend
ourselves as your humble servants today.

Lord, we need your strength to do that. We can't do that without you. So do that
in us, we pray.

In your name, Amen. Tomorrow we're going to look at a final way that we
recommend faith to others in the way that we live.