Abounding Grace

Pastor Ed Taylor: When you get down, tired, and discouraged, it's a good idea to remember what God is accomplishing in your life. This whole world from beginning to end, you remember as a baby all you did was sleep all the way to the end. It just makes you tired. Some of you are in some hard situations because of the world and it's making you tired. Some of you are in even harder situations and it's making you weary.

Some of you are in even harder situations and you're ready to throw in the towel. But I want you to know that as a believer in Jesus Christ, the risen Lord in the power of the resurrection, one of the work, one of the things that Jesus does is complete you. He's working to bring maturity and complete. He's using the word to thoroughly equip you. He's using the congregation.

Guest (Male): John Newton once wrote, "When people are right with God, they are apt to be hard on themselves and easy on other people. But when they are not right with God, they are easy on themselves and hard on others." So how do we know whether we're actually right with God? Or we could put it this way: how do we know we are really a Christian?

Let's examine ourselves to see if we're in the faith today on Abounding Grace. We're glad you could join us as we finish our study of 2 Corinthians. It's a good idea to examine ourselves from time to time, and we have that opportunity today with Pastor Ed Taylor.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Examine yourselves, church. Do you really have Jesus in you? You go, "Well, Ed, what am I supposed to look for?" Okay, jot these down. I'll just give you a few you can consider. Number one: do you have the witness of the Holy Spirit in your life? Romans chapter 8, verses 9 through 16. Do you have the witness of the Holy Spirit in your life?

Number two: do you love the brethren? 1 John chapter 3, verse 14. Number three: do you practice righteousness? 1 John chapter 2, verse 29. Number four: have you been born again? That probably should have been number one, but it fits. Have you been born again? John chapter 3, verse 16. Let me give you another one. Number five: are you led by the Holy Spirit?

Is your life led by the Holy Spirit? Romans chapter 8, somewhere in that range. Are you led by the Holy Spirit? I think they're good questions to ask ourselves. Am I saved? And then once the Holy Spirit confirms that work of salvation in your life, then submit yourself as a follower of Jesus and deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Him.

You can know that you're saved. You can know that God is in your life. You can know that you know. And with that knowledge, you can have confidence, especially as the enemy's trying to come and deceive you. Alan Redpath put it this way. He said, "To examine yourself, in fact, is to submit to the examination and the scrutiny of Jesus Christ the Lord. And this never is to fix our attention on sin, but on Christ.

To ask Him to reveal that in you which grieves His spirit. To ask Him to give you grace that it might be put away and cleansed in His precious blood." Self-examination takes the chill away from your soul, and it takes the hardness away from your heart, and it takes the shadows away from your life, and it sets the prisoner free.

Let me repeat that. Self-examination takes the chill away from your soul, and it takes the hardness away from your heart, and it takes the shadows away from your life, and it sets the prisoner free. You see, some in the church in Corinth, not all, were indeed disqualified. That's what he says at the end of verse 5. Make sure that Jesus is in you, unless you become disqualified. You're disqualified from even being involved in what you're doing.

But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified. You see, the false teachers, they demonstrated so many things in their life that disqualified them. And he's pointing that out to them. Paul's pastoral heart for the Corinthians is to pass, not fail. Notice verse 7. "Now I pray to God that you do no evil, not that we should appear approved, but that you should do what is honorable, though we may seem disqualified.

For we can do nothing against this truth, but for the truth. For we are glad," verse 9, "when we are weak and you are strong. And this we also pray, that you may be made complete." Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the authority which the Lord has given me for edification and not for destruction. See, a pastor's heart is to build up, not to tear down.

A pastor's heart is for completeness. That word in verse 9 at the end, that you might be made complete, if you like writing in your Bibles, just circle it. Right next to it: mature, mature. He's writing these things so you would grow up. You remember back when we first started studying 1 Corinthians, how much carnality had already entered the church so quickly.

And it just kind of took root in different areas. And now, many years later as Paul's writing, he's going, "No, no, my heart for you, I know we keep talking about the same thing because the same thing keeps coming up, but my heart for you is you could mature. I'm not doing anything against the truth. I'm serving you for the truth." No matter what it looks like, Paul's on the side of truth.

He says verse 9, "We're glad when we're weak and we're praying for you." This is what we pray: completeness. In other versions, that word completeness is translated "fully qualified," "restored to maturity," "come together," and "for your perfection." And one of the ministries of our risen Lord is that of perfecting His people. I want you to know that. That's one of the things Jesus Christ does: He perfects His people.

Let me take you on a little journey here in the Bible. Go back to Hebrews with me, chapter 13. One of the ministries of Jesus is to perfect His people. I love that. Paul was cooperating with the ministry of Jesus Christ here. Hebrews chapter 13, all the way back. Notice verse 20 with me, would you? It says, "Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, the great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well-pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen."

That's the work of the Spirit in your life. He is working to complete you and mature you. Grow us in maturity. How does He do that? According to 2 Timothy, He uses His word. His word is powerful. Turn over now, 2 Timothy chapter 3. He uses His word within the fellowship of the local congregation. He uses the body of Christ, the power of His word.

Notice, just for way of reminder today, in 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 16, the perfecting work, the completing work of Jesus. What is the tool? One of the tools is His word. It says, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and instruction in righteousness." Why? Verse 17. "That the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped."

Those of you that are hungering and longing for being equipped for the ministry, for having the right word, for being ready to serve, for being a better mom, a better dad, a boss, an employee, for being that person that you just long for the equipping of God, I want you to know that that's what Jesus is doing. He is working this completeness, this equipping through His word within the congregation. Now turn over to Ephesians chapter 4.

Within the work of believers, that's why, no matter what happens, whether you fall asleep or not tonight, no matter where you're at, whether you've listened to me, whether you're just like today was the worst day and I'm just sitting in, soaking it in subliminally. Whatever, you know what I mean. We all had long days today. No matter whether you're taking notes or you're just kind of hanging on tonight, I want you to know this.

It is much better that you are here than not here. You will be blessed that you came. There will be people that God had a word to speak to tonight that are not here. And they're not going to pick up the study later. They're not on the radio. They're who knows what. And it's not because God's measuring your church attendance and checkmark for good little boy. It's not that at all.

It's not that coming to church is going to make you any better of a Christian than anyone else. It's because in the congregation, God uses this time to grow you up. Even if it is just learning how to persevere when you're tired. Because if you want to serve the Lord, this whole world makes you tired. This whole world from beginning to end, you remember as a baby all you did was sleep all the way to the end.

It just makes you tired. Some of you are in some hard situations because of the world and it's making you tired. Some of you are in even harder situations and it's making you weary. Some of you are in even harder situations and you're ready to throw in the towel. But I want you to know that as a believer in Jesus Christ, the risen Lord in the power of the resurrection, one of the work, one of the things that Jesus does is complete you.

He's working to bring maturity and complete. He's using the word to thoroughly equip you. He's using the congregation. Even for those that again are joining us by way of technology, God honors that. It's a trip that you can go to church. I was sick this weekend, so I went to a lot of church. I just had my little iPad out and I'm just going from church to church.

I got to sit in with my Pastor Jeff and then I took a little screenshot and I texted it out. I said, "Just praying for you today, Pastor. You're teaching me all the way from Downey." And I was going around to the churches in Colorado, checking their live stream and I was here with Pastor Joel. I mean, I was all over. I don't want to stay home more often.

Here, I'm checking a service out right now. It's awesome. But that's not being here. It's a great tool, but it wasn't being here. I couldn't be here, I was sick, but I was almost here. Because God uses technology. I love technology. If you just think about it, 10 years ago you couldn't just watch a service on your phone. I mean, come on. That's crazy.

And God created it. All this technology that's being used for all kinds of nastiness, God's turning around and people are getting saved with a phone in their hand with some text message. God loves you. God loves me. I mean, it's amazing. The more and more I pray, the more and more we just want to go crazy with technology. Whatever's out there, we just want to use it.

We just want to find ways to find people and just give them the gospel, just use what's before us. But I want you to know it doesn't replace the local church. We're going to use it until we can't use it anymore, but it doesn't replace because God uses the local church. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11. "He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers."

Why? Verse 12. "For the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man, to the measure and the stature of the fullness of Christ." Notice verse 14. "That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head, Christ."

You ever feel like you just got so much more to learn? You feel like a kid. It's a little humbling thing when it comes. Somebody comes to you, they did devotions, they share a truth with you and you've been walking with the Lord for like 20 years, and they've been walking with the Lord for about 20 minutes, and they share some profound truth that you've never heard in 20 years.

You're like, "Man, I read that. How did I miss that? I've read that a hundred times." And you just feel like a child. But listen, that's part of the process so that you won't be a child anymore. God uses these gifted men and women in the church so that we would come together and we would grow up and that we would no longer be kids in the church, among believers.

There's nothing like it. This is no gathering, this is not a country club. We're not going to have cocktails and cheese after service and go do a round of golf. This is the church of God where the Word of God is taught and the presence of the Holy Spirit is here, and He desires to change you and grow you and make you someone that you're not when you walked in the doors.

That's how God uses the church. He uses brothers and sisters to refine us, to grow us, to help us. You're not going to like this one. You want me to go on? He also uses suffering to grow us up. Let me show you 1 Peter chapter 5. I don't like this one, but He does. There's an end. There is a work of the Spirit even in suffering, to perfect you, to grow you, church.

Chapter 5, verse 10, 1 Peter. "But may the God of all grace who called us by His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you've suffered a while," you might want to circle "a while." That means you're not going to suffer forever. That's what those two words mean: a while, just a temporary. Remember Paul said, "I don't consider this temporary, this suffering that's temporary."

Notice what happens after you've suffered a while: that you would be perfected, established, strengthened, and settled. Those are yours by promise, by faith. The God of all grace who's called us by His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you've suffered a while, perfect you, establish you, strengthen and settle you. Any of you want to be perfected, established? Anybody need strength? Do you need to settle down?

You ever find somebody say, "Man, just settle down." Well, the Lord is settling me down right here. It says the God of all grace is going to do that by His calling in my life after I suffer, through the suffering. God will use others, it says, if you want to come back to 2 Corinthians, within the body and including leaders to sharpen our focus, mature us.

Verse 10 again. "Therefore I write you these things," he says, "being absent, lest being present according to the authority which the Lord has given me for edification, not for destruction." See, God has given authority to spiritual leaders to help bring edification, bring maturity, bring growth in our lives. Sometimes the minister will have to tear down before he can build up.

In a loving way, not in a hurtful way, but it's going to be painful if you have to have something torn down. I remember the first time I was ever introduced to this. I was asked in the previous church that I served in, I was asked in my first opportunity to pastor, I was invited to become the pastor of the adult singles there at Calvary Chapel in Downey.

I counted it a great honor to serve singles for almost two and a half years. My wife and I served together. Loved those people, we just enjoyed that time of ministry so much and learned so much about the single life and the difficulties and all the ups and downs. We were able to see so many of them get married and move on and it was just glorious. It was wonderful.

But in the beginning, I prayed about it. I was really praying like, "God, what am I supposed to do and how do I start?" I've had a lot of different experience, but I didn't want to lean on my understanding. You can jot it down, you can look at it later, but God gave me a verse. I'm like, "Yes, I want a verse. I need a verse. Tell me what to do."

It was Jeremiah chapter 1, verses 7 through 10, I think. It's the whole verse where Jeremiah was told he's going to go in and tear down and root out and it's like—and I said, "What?" So I went to the pastor that oversaw me, my pastoral overseer, and I said, "Pastor Rick, you won't believe this, but the Lord gave me this verse."

And I said, "I don't think I want to do this." And he says, "Oh, no, Ed, if God gave you that verse, you're going to need to obey Him." And as we went in to begin serving that wonderful group of people, it was very clear that the fulfillment of that verse is that that whole ministry had to start over. It just had to be wiped clean and start over and brand new leadership and brand new everything, of which wasn't well-received.

It was hurtful to many people. They were figuring that we would just pick up where the last pastor was. But God already had a plan for that group, and I was just—it wasn't my plan. I was just showing up with the plan. God already had a plan for that group so that we would grow together. And I would say maybe 200 singles were a part of that group to begin with.

And under my fine leadership, I think I grew it to about 30. Because God was doing a work and it was a very difficult time. And I thought, "Man, Lord, this is not good." And He kept saying, "No, this is very good. This is exactly..." And over time, by the time we left, it was well over that number of just many people, many of them coming back and fresh and new and reviving.

You can thank, if you ever wonder—you love the ministry here and what God's done here, as far as my life's concerned, part of your prayer, thanking God for the work of God throughout the ministry here, you can just thank the singles of Calvary Chapel Downey during that time. Because God used them to root out and tear down things in my heart as well.

It wasn't just for them. It was also for me. And so we all grew together. But it was painful. I didn't understand it, but the Lord was showing us all to obey. The fruit of beginning afresh and anew was from Him and He blessed abundantly. That's where Paul is here. He doesn't want to, but he will if he needs to.

Finally, brethren, verse 11, farewell. Become complete. Be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. We don't do that anymore. We do the holy hug. But in the Middle East, it's still very much a custom. I remember the first time we went on a mission trip to Cairo and we met the precious saints in the church there.

Those guys—not just the girls, but the guys, because the girls kiss the girls and the guys kiss the guys—and let me just say, they were boom, boom, boom, boom. I'm like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" And stubble and they're all scratching and they understood what a holy kiss was. There was no ulterior, there was no weirdness. The ladies were on one side, the ladies were kissing the ladies and the guys were kissing the guys and it was a true—it was my first experience.

It's very much like sometimes you're giving a hug here and you know how you give the one hug and then somebody else gives a real hug and you're like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! That's a holy hug." They're serious. They're like, "Go greet and give someone a hug," and that person's just, "I have been waiting for that instruction because I'm a hugger."

Hey, when I walked into a church, I was not a hugger. Definitely if you would have tried to kiss me—whoa, man! A hug was enough, a handshake was like, "Whoa, I don't know you." And yet the love of God, that was a common—it's still very common. It's not so common now because the enemy has just ruined it. It's just made it something that it's not.

And so we have to be careful and modest, which is wise and wisdom. But it's just our sexually charged society has messed so much up. And so we do now, instead of the holy kiss, we do now give a holy hug or a holy handshake or whatever, set apart. Because it's a holy kiss, it has no sexual connotations to it.

It's not weird. It's an expression of love. And so they said, "Hey, make sure you guys are expressing love to one another." Verse 13. "All the saints greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you." See the Trinity right there in verse 14? You look for—you see our God revealed in His Godhead, you see it all over the Scripture, even in this last little, "Hey, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit."

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ reminds us of His birth, when He became poor to make us rich. The love of God takes us back to Calvary where God gave His Son Jesus as a sacrifice for our sins. The communion of the Holy Spirit reminds us of Pentecost where the Spirit of God came down upon the church and the church was formed.

And the Corinthian believers then, and all believers now, desperately need the blessings of Calvary-Aurora, desperately needs to experience the blessings of grace, love, and communion. That's the value that we have, not backbiting and contentions and disappointment and shortcoming, but that grace might overcome and that love might prevail and that communion would draw us closer to Jesus.

The Judaizers then, the cultists today, emphasize law instead of grace, exclusiveness instead of love, independence rather than communion and fellowship. And all it does is lead to competition in the flesh. And the world just looks at us and goes, "There's just another group of believers that say one thing and do another." Oh, that we would learn from our beloved pastor, Apostle Paul.

Relationships matter, friendships, those that God would use to bring us to salvation, those that God would bring into our company of believers, those that are struggling now, those that are hurting now. Those that are backslidden—you know, those that are backslidden, that's somebody's son and daughter. That's somebody's sister and mom and dad. The brother that puts himself in rehab, that's a brother that was sitting with us that needs to be delivered from the addiction that is destroying his life.

The brother that is, or the sister that has fallen into sexual sin, needs to be brought to a place of true brokenness and repentance so that he or she might come back, not to a position, but to a place of intimacy with their Savior again. I wonder how long it's been for you, where you just enjoy Jesus.

Guest (Male): We'll leave you to think over that very important question. This is Abounding Grace, and Pastor Ed Taylor just finished up 2 Corinthians. If you missed any part of our study, it's not too late to hear them. Just go online to aboundinggraceradio.com, or you can listen through our app too. You can search for that in the App Store or Google Play, just look for Ed Taylor.

At Abounding Grace, we're committed to bringing the truths of God's Word to the radio and internet every day, but we can't do it alone. We look to the Lord and our listeners to help us provide these daily studies. And today, when you give a donation of $25 or more, we'll send you *Just Do Something* by Kevin DeYoung. Has this thought ever crossed your mind: why won't God reveal His special will for my life already?

Kevin DeYoung would answer, "Because He doesn't intend to." With pastoral wisdom, he debunks unbiblical ways of understanding God's will and points to a wonderful and biblical alternative: live like Christ. He also exposes the frustrations of our waiting games and underscores the freedom of finding God's will in Scripture and then simply doing it. Request a copy right now by calling us at 877-30-GRACE.

That's 877-30-GRACE. You can also order it online at calvaryco.store. Then join us next time when we'll have another great study in the Word from Pastor Ed Taylor, here on Abounding Grace.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church Colorado here in Aurora.