This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

This is our last day together and looking at 2nd Corinthians chapter 7.
Throughout this chapter, we've been talking about how to deal with difficulties
in our relationships as believers. Verses 12 to 16, we've talked in much of this
chapter about what I would call the negative side of that.

What do you do when you have to have a difficult conversation? What do you do
when you have sorrow in your life? How do you respond in a good way?

And we've seen the positive that comes out of that, but we've talked about how
do you confront difficulties. In verses 12 to 16, we look at it from more of the
positive side. As I read through these verses, there are six words in these
verses that are to be a part of our authentic and growing relationships as
believers.

When you understand these words, you understand a depth of relationship with
other believers that many people never get to. They're very simple words, but
there's a very deep relational aspect to our lives as believers that comes out
of these words. So let me read through these verses, verses 12 to 16, and listen
for those words as I read.

So even though I wrote you, it was not on account of the one who did the wrong
or of the injured party, but rather that before God, you could see for
yourselves how devoted to us you are. By all this, we are encouraged. In
addition to our own encouragement, we were especially delighted to see how happy
Titus was because his spirit had become refreshed by all of you.

I had boasted to him about you, and you've not embarrassed me. But just as
everything we said about you was true, so our boasting about you to Titus was
proved to be true as well. And his affection for you is all the greater when he
remembers that you were all obedient, receiving him with fear and trembling.

I'm glad I can have complete confidence in you. Now let's walk back through
those verses and look at those six words. Six words that would be a part of our
authentic and our growing relationships as believers.

First word is devotion. And as Paul talks about our devotion to one another as
believers, he says something very surprising. I don't know if you caught it.

It's hard to hear it. It's easier when you look at this. He says, "I wanted you
to see how devoted to us you are.

" That's a surprise. We expect him to say, "I wanted you to see how devoted to
you we are. " But he's speaking for them.

Paul's saying something very strange here at first glance. "I want you to see
that you're devoted to me. " That may sound selfish to you, but that's not what
he's talking about at all.

You see, we struggle with each other at times as believers. Have you noticed
that? Because we're all human beings.

We all struggle. We're all sinful. And when we struggle, it's important that we
do so in a relationship of commitment.

I'm irritated by you. I struggle with you, but I also know I am committed to
you. It's important that we do so in a relationship even of devotion to each
other.

What Paul is saying here is, he talks about this word devotion, is you don't
have the option to just write off another believer because you disagree with
them or even because they've hurt you. You are devoted to them. You are tied to
them in ways that are beyond your understanding.

And Paul says to the Corinthians, "When you see how devoted you are to me, you
are angry with me. But when you see that you're also devoted to me, can you be
angry and devoted at the same time? " Yeah, parents, those of you that are
married, of course you can.

You can be both at the same time. So you have those emotions and an attitude and
a commitment of devotion. Now, devotion does not tell you what the relationship
has to be like.

I totally understand that there are some believers that even though you're
devoted to them, you're not going to spend every moment of the day with them.
I'm not talking about spending every moment of the day together. I'm talking
about realizing you're connected together no matter what.

There's some people, believers, you're connected to them, but they won't connect
with you. You can't force that relationship. You can't make that happen.

Some people go down that road, "Oh, I'm to be devoted to them, so I have to keep
trying and keep trying and keep trying. " At some point, you've tried, now you
need to leave it in their hands. So what does devotion mean then?

You can decide to never forget the devotion that you have towards them and keep
praying for that person. You can decide to realize, no matter what happens, we
have a commitment to each other. That's part of what it means to be a believer.

That's true of every believer you know in your family, in your church, but also
every believer that you know around the world. We are devoted to each other,
tied to each other because of the Spirit of God who is within us, the cross of
Christ, Jesus died for us, the resurrection, we're one in Him in ways that we
don't even understand. So we've got to see that, Paul said.

That's the first word. And the second word he uses is the word encouragement. If
you want a depth of relationship with other believers, you have to understand
this word encouragement.

Paul says by this, we are encouraged. He was encouraged by hearing the good news
of their response to Titus's visit. We're to encourage each other as believers.

In fact, Hebrews 3. 13 says we're to encourage each other day after day, every
day. Encouragement is to be a daily part of my relationship with every other
believer in my life, daily part of your relationship.

Paul is encouraged that they've started to turn things around and he encourages
them by saying I've been encouraged. It's so easy to point out the wrong things
in other people's lives, to see them. It takes a lot more energy.

It takes a lot more strength. It takes a lot more faith to see the good things
in people's lives that you can encourage. But when you encourage those good
things, God does good things.

So who can you encourage today? Who can you encourage in the next five minutes
after you hear this encouragement? The third of these six words, devotion,
encouragement, and then refreshment.

He talks about Titus and he says Titus, his spirit was refreshed by all of you.
That's what it's supposed to be like in our relationship as believers. As we see
other people living for Christ, we are refreshed in our love for Christ.

As we see somebody else take a step of faith, we are refreshed in our ability to
take a step of faith. As we see someone else put hope in Christ in a difficult
circumstance, we are refreshed in our hope in Jesus Christ. So the question I
have for you is this, who refreshes you in your faith, hope, and love?

And the encouragement I'd have is spend time around those people. Those are the
kind of people you need in your life. Refreshed and encouraged.

A fourth word that Paul uses in these verses is the word boasting. Our boasting
about you, he says, proved to be true. We talked in the beginning chapters of 2
Corinthians about the fact that we'd come across this truth of boasting again
and again in 2 Corinthians.

Boasting can obviously be wrong if it's done pridefully. Paul shows us in this
book that it can be right when it is done selflessly. In fact, it should be done
selflessly.

You and I are to lift up the Christ-like qualities in another person's life.
We're to lift up the Christ-like qualities in a church's life. Now I know some
people out there say, "Oh, no, no.

We should never do that because that would cause pride in their life. " Well
Paul did it. Paul did it under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

So obviously that's not true. And the truth is when you lift up Christ-like
qualities in somebody's life, that causes them to become more Christ-like. They
could choose to become prideful, I understand that, and people sometimes do, but
if they're going to choose to become prideful, that's their problem.

When you boast about a Christ-like quality in somebody's life, it's an
invitation to become more Christ-like, a strong invitation. Boasting is
something we're to have in our relationship as believers. A fifth thing we're to
have is affection.

Paul says his affection for you became greater and greater. We're to love each
other as believers. I think we all realize that, but we're also to like each
other, to have affection for each other.

Now Paul says here that Titus's affection was all the greater because he
remembered their obedience. We're to love each other, we're to like each other,
and Paul says what Titus liked was the way you follow Jesus. The foundation for
his affection was their obedience.

His heart went out to them. He liked seeing in them the fact that they were
following the Lord. There's something in me when I sit with our church and we're
singing a song and all of a sudden I can hear everyone else singing.

I like that. I love what God's doing in his people when I hear that. There is an
affection that I feel, not just for the individuals that are singing around me,
but for the whole body of Christ that's singing together in those moments.

It's almost beyond explanation for me. There's those moments in your life when
you see people following Jesus and you think, I like that. Now Facebook is all
about what you like and what you maybe don't like.

There's a different kind of like that I'm talking about here. It's affection,
genuine affection for other believers. And then there's a sixth word that Paul
talks about in a depth of relationship as believers, the word confidence.

I'm glad, he says, I'm glad that I can have complete confidence in you. Do you
always have that with every other believer? Let's be honest, you don't.

We trust the Lord and he is always trustworthy. You can always have complete
confidence in Jesus Christ. We are to trust each other, but as human beings,
we're not always trustworthy.

So sometimes people break your trust or sometimes you don't know them yet. You
don't know whether you can trust them or not. So what we're to work for, to work
toward as believers is a place where we can have confidence in each other.

Confidence in the fact that although we're different, God's going to use our
different gifts to bring glory to himself. Confidence in the fact that although
we struggle, we're going to come to him with those struggles and not only sense
his forgiveness, but repent and follow him. Confidence in our integrity,
confidence in our motives, confidence in our actions.

When that happens in a small group, maybe that you're in, when that happens in a
church that you're in, when that happens with a brother in Christ, with a sister
in Christ, when that happens in your family, when you sense I can have
confidence in this other believer, not that they're perfect, but that they're
growing, that they're an example to me. When you have that, Paul says, I am glad
I have confidence in you. You should be glad to the depth of your soul.

That is an incredible gift from God. And that's what we're to work toward in our
lives. Now as we end today, as we pray together today, I want to pray for my
relationship, your relationship with other believers.

Would you pray with me? Lord, you see us, you know us, we're human beings. And
some relationships we have with other believers, they're great.

Lord, we need you. With the good relationships, we want them to be better. We
want them to be deeper.

We don't want to settle for just where they are. Well, that would be easy for us
to do. But Lord, in the depth of our soul, that's not what we want.

So cause those good relationships to keep growing, we pray. And Lord, those
relationships that we struggle with, I pray that you'd help us to love people in
spite of the struggles that we have. I pray that you'd help us to see places we
could encourage.

And I do pray that because of our love for those that we struggle with, Lord,
there would be some miracles where we'd see a lack of confidence, a lack of
trust grow again into a confidence in that relationship. Lord, whatever the
things that you're doing in my relationships today, I know that you're at work
there because you're a God of love and you're working to create a new depth of
love in me. So I pray that instead of just thinking about the other people in my
life in terms of who they are and how they live and how they struggle, you'd
help me today to see what you want to do in my life through those relationships
and help me to make these choices we've talked about today.

The choice to have confidence, the choice to have affection, the choice to
boast, the choice to encourage, the choice to, in my daily life, have a sense of
genuine liking for those people in my life and be built up by them. Help me to
make these choices, I pray, Jesus, by your strength, by your power. In your name
I pray, amen.

Next week, chapter 8, Paul starts to talk about the powerful impact that a
giving heart makes on our daily lives.