Wept with them. And I remember reading that one day and I said, oh, Lord, that's such a beautiful picture That's a beautiful picture of his demeanor, that right in the midst of a problem that he knows he's going to solve. What does he do? He comes right into the nastiness of humanity. Even in emptying himself out, the Bible says in Philippians, of coming... ...out from heaven into this nasty earth. We don't have an idea of the glory of God. of Christ and His glory. And for Him to leave that and then come into the earth. We know the earth. We know the nastiness of life. And he left that to come here, what? Why would he do that? Because he weeps with his people. He cares for his people.
When you think about
John 11, there's a few things there that I think it shows about Jesus. Number one, and this is a hard one, he doesn't move on our timetable. They wanted him to come right now. But he gets there, Lazarus already been dead four days. Again, there's a broader theology to that, but in the humanity of it, you see how they could be frustrated. He was sick and now he's dead, and if you'd have been here, he wouldn't have been dead. And yet Christ says, I'm doing it for my glory. Maybe there's an area of your life that you feel like you need Christ to move. And maybe you're frustrated with his timing. I've been there. I want to encourage you to just rest in his timing today.
Here's the second one. Here's the second thing it really shows me in
John 11. He cares greatly for his friends. Maybe you're hurting today. Maybe you're hearing your believers say, Jonathan, I believe in Christ. Man, I've done everything right. I've served God. I've given up. This is sometimes when we judge God, we get bitter towards God. Lord, I've done everything you've asked me to do. And yeah, look at this. Look at this. That's a hard place to be. I get that. I get the pain and the emotion of it. But can I say to you, no matter what the outcome is, Christ is with you today. He's weeping with you. He's in your moment. Weeping with you.
Here's a third thing. He makes dead things alive. He resurrects dead things. Maybe you're here and maybe your whole person is dead. And what I mean by that is you say, Jonathan, I'm not dead. Jonathan, I'm not a Christian. I'm not a believer. I don't want anything to do with God. I wonder if God just brought you here. This moment to hear. He sees you. You might not see him. You might not think he sees you. But can I say to you, if you're in this room or you're watching a movie, or you're watching online and you think God doesn't see you, you're deceived by the enemy. Not only does he see you, he knows every, he knows the number of hairs on your head. He knows everything. He knows everything about you. He knows things about you that you don't even know. In all, you say, oh, Jonathan, man, you wouldn't, you, you would have no idea. He doesn't want to be around me. You know, I've gone to any inclination. God drawing you, I promise you haven't gone too far. Because Jesus gets right in the midst of pain and he weeps. So maybe it's... a whole person, you know, you just never committed your life to Christ. And maybe you hear you say, Jonathan, I'm a believer, but man, there's parts of my life that are dead. I've turned my heart away towards God, away from God. from God. I gotta tell you, this is one of those areas that the Lord continues to bring me around. It's so easy. I don't even know why this is. It's easy for me to harden my heart to things. So I'm a constant, Lord, search my heart. Lord, touch my heart. I don't want to be... insensitive to people. shield certain things from you. harden my heart. Maybe there's some things in your life that have just died and I would just say to you today, let the Lord really rest resurrect them today. Let Him really resurrect them today. Let Him resurrect you today.
Would you stand with me? I want to pray. Over you today. If we could just keep them moving around to a minute. Just bow your heads. If you would. I'm gonna pray over us today. You know, wherever you find yourself today, Jesus is really keenly aware of it. Not only is he aware of it, that he really does care. He knows where you are, he knows what you need. He is, as he declares to Martha, I am the resurrection and the life. Maybe you're here today or you're watching online and say, Jonathan, I'm that whole person you talk about. I need to be. resurrected by God. I've never put my faith in Christ. If that's you, I wanna pray over you. I'm not gonna embarrass you. I'm not gonna call you the front. I do wanna pray over you. Would you just acknowledge that? Not even before me, but really just before God. Lord, I need to be resurrected. I wanna put my faith in you. My faith, hope, and trust in you, Jesus. Confirm right now. I think I can preach this without my notes, but somewhere over there they are. If y'all want me to stay with him, I can't stay with him a time frame. Somebody will probably get them for me. I said, why don't you use notes just to stay in the time frame. I remember, I think they're over there. I remember when I was, we were doing the four times we were preaching every Sunday, doing a nine o'clock, a 10 o'clock, an 11 o'clock. And the 12 o'clock and so I had to keep it to, is it not over there? Okay, well y'all are in trouble, okay. Oh, here they are, thank you brother, thank you. I had to keep it within a 33 minutes time slot. I had four extra minutes and for six years we did that. And we are now, if you're just joining us online, we're at 11 a.m., I believe. In Owasso, I think. Literally, I told someone I was gonna be preaching in Claremore today. And I had to text them back, nope, I'm in Owasso. We have a great preaching team and so we love it. I wish we could all be under the same roof at the same time. I like it. I don't like it. I like it that we have both locations, but I don't like it that we can't all be together at one time. So thank you all for being who you are. Being who you are. Thank you for your worship. I just, I'm energized and strengthened by the church. When I see saints worship. And it's real genuine. Not just songs. I mean, real genuine worship. And I want to encourage you. There is no insignificant. Gathering of believers. No insignificant gathering.
We're in a series, as you know, this whole year we're calling it Stand, Stand Firm. The strength of a new covenant people. Next Sunday we'll be focusing almost entirely upon that new covenant. Last Sunday and this Sunday we have been in a portion of the church.
2 Corinthians 2 and we're going to continue in that today called firm, meaning a statement. Being established firm in our calling. And maybe you've not ever saw or seen yourself as in a calling. But I want to talk about the calling. About the calling of Christ in you and on you and on this house. And on the body of Christ itself. And I want to subtitle that, Navigating. Difficult challenges or difficult times because, here's why. Healthy relationships in the body of Christ trump If you're like me, I like activity moving, right? But there's times we have to look at the call of God upon the house and where God and where God has placed you. And that's important because after all, in eternity, that's all gonna matter. All that matters is what you pour into life of someone else. And I've often said you're gonna be rewarded for three things, you're gonna be rewarded for your obedience to sin. To saying yes to him. And you're going to be rewarded for the people. God placed in your life. Were you faithful? Many Christians have never realized that God has placed people in their life. Jesus said to the Father, those whom you have given me out of the world, here they are. He was faithful. I don't believe that God makes you responsible for everybody, but I believe he makes you responsible And whether you realize it or not, starts in your home, mom and dads. Starts right in your home. Starts right there, doesn't it? He places you in a body not for a place for you to attend. But for you to attend each other. And find those God has placed in your life. So there is that calling. And then I also believe that you will be rewarded according to the faithfulness to the grace. Everybody has a different measure of grace. You could even have the same gift, but a different measure of grace within that. So you can't compare yourself as being with anyone else. Paul said it's unwise. But everyone has a calling. And so that's what really matters. And in Corinthians, Paul is carrying the burden of what has happened. He went to Corinth. He planted and got great success. As you know, our chapter... Or out of 1 Corinthians, you saw problems in the church last week. We addressed those. There was division. One saying, I'm Apollos. One saying, I'm Peter. One saying, I'm of Christ. There was no only division. There was sexual sin in the church that had not been addressed. There was a great need for order in the house. They were out of order. They had a lot of people. They had a lot of things going on. They were taking each other to court. So there's a great need in that. And Paul carried that and he said, he made a painful visit to them, we found out. And in that painful visit, he had to confront some situations that was in the church and now he's gone and he's grieving have they addressed this? Are they mature enough to be the church? And he trusts Christ in them, even to the point last week, he said, whatever you forget, whatever you've forgiven, I forgive. He trusts Christ in them. But here now he's carrying the burden of it.
And I want you to see this because we're going to be in
2 Corinthians 2:12. We're going to go over into. The next chapter a little bit. Because there Paul is carrying the burden. Now it wasn't. The fact that Paul didn't want anybody to disagree with him because there are times that disagreement happens, you saw where were he and Barnabas were the first two sent out of Antioch. Chapter 14 says, we apostles. So they were sent out as apostles of the Holy Spirit, not of the original 12 of the apostles of the Lamb, but they were sent out, post ascension apostles by the Holy Spirit, sent out there in
Acts 13 and 14, they were called apostles and Barnabas and he labored together but there came a time that there was division among them. In the great dissension it said in the scripture, because a nephew, some translation says, a cousin of Barnabas, his name was John Mark, and he was on Paul's team at one time. And he quit. And Paul said, I don't want him to go on the next trip. And Barnabas said, being family dynamics there probably. I think you ought to go. And there was contention over this so much that they split up. But there were no grudges. You can disagree as a mature believer without holding. They saw it differently. Let me tell you why I know that because later on Paul writes and says, tell John Mark I need him. And even when he wrote to the church at Colossae, he said, and by the way, John Mark, greet you. So he was back on the team. But Paul knew that the beatings and the stonings and the prison, he was going to, he was going to face, you couldn't have someone that wasn't mature enough to be on the team. And he said, you can't go right now, later on, later on you can. So there's time for disagreement. But no place for grudges. Somebody help me preach. So what he's bearing in his burden with the heart of the church, last week we understood what is a biblical defense and I won't go back into that today, but go back and listen to last week's message if you didn't about how worship how we take on new offenses. Biblical offenses are really a sin. It's not just a hurt feeling, but but he's carrying the weight of the church of Corinth in this. So listen to this as we read through here, okay?
2 Corinthians 2:12. Furthermore, he says, now he's talking now. Furthermore, I went to Troas to preach. And a door was opened to me by the Lord. And
I had no rest in my spirit because I did not find Titus, my brother. But taking my leave of them, I departed from Macedonia. Now, thanks be to God. Who always leads us in triumph in Christ and through us diffuses the fragrance of his knowledge of his knowledge in every place Possibly quoting 2 Corinthians 2:13–14. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved. And among those who are perishing. Think about that. To the one. We are the aroma of
death leading to death. And to the other aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient? For these things Possibly quoting 2 Corinthians 2:16. For we are not as so many. Peddling the word of God. But as of sincerity. But as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ.
Then chapter 3. Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation You are our epistle, written in the book of Revelation. Written in our hearts. Known and read by all men. Clearly, you are an epistle of Christ. Ministered by us. Written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart. And we have such trust through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves, but to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God. It's from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant. Not of the letter, but of the Spirit, for the letter Killeth, but the Spirit gives life.
Now, in this setting, Paul is... is carrying a burden. And I want to talk to you about some times of the firmness of your calling when open doors are not enough. When opportunity is not enough. It's interesting how Paul arrives Troas about 500 miles or less to Mesut. But he arrives in Troas and there's a door that's open to him. The gospel is advancing. It looks like there's opportunity presented. If you were doing a church growth book, you would say, go for it. If you're strategizing, you'd say maximize the moment. There's an open door. And this open door was set not by him but by God. Listen to this. But Paul can't preach. He can't preach the gospel. Because the spirit's not at rest. Why is that the case? There's two reasons we're gonna talk about. One, he is not heard. about the situation in Corinth, whether or not they have dealt with it properly. I don't think any of us can imagine the weight that Paul carried for the church because we, we use the word church, we think of like dusty life or first Baptist church or first, no, no, no, no. This was going into, was going into an area where the gospel had never been preached. And birthing the church of Jesus Christ and seeing it grow. And to know that there would be those who would mislead it. And then to hear the report that there was sexual sin and there was division and out of order and all this. Can you imagine? That's Christ in that city. And I birthed that and how's it doing right now? And he's waiting, he's waiting to hear about what's going to take place because he's waiting for Titus. And so Paul makes a statement. I think it's quite interesting that we just read. Let me read it again. He says, furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ gospel, I think it's quite interesting. So it wasn't his own plan. A door was opened to me. By the Lord. Now I want you to think about this. A door was opened by the Lord to preach the gospel. Didn't Paul pray regularly? Didn't that open door be given to me? And this was done by the Lord. And yet he said,
I had no rest in my spirit because I did not find God. Titus, my brother Possibly quoting 2 Corinthians 2:13. So I left him. And I went on to Macedonia. Man, what's he saying? He's saying there's something about relationships, particularly in leadership, that's more important than opportunity. There's something about the health of the church. That weighed on him. More than even an open door of activity of ministry. Now I know that there are seasons and times that we walk through that we need to be aware that God has collectively put us together. This is true in your home. It's true in every area. You have to know that though there might be opportunity for activity is the health of the relationship right is it right because you can move ahead and miss what the Lord is doing in your life. I'm able to preach through this right now by preaching to the scriptures, well aware that we're not in the Bible so I can speak with all liberty to you. Don't you like going through the Bible? You don't have to wonder, did he listen in on my phone call last week? Did somebody talk to him? No, no, no. I'm not talking to y'all. I'm talking about when we get there. Maybe they're in your own family where you have... ...not seen this. I had a brother call me a few years ago and he said, I think I'm supposed to step down from being an elder. And I was so happy. It wasn't here in this house, so you don't have to wonder about who that was. It was another city, and I was happy, not because he wasn't qualified. In fact, other guys who sat as eldership, he was one of the most successful. Most spiritually qualified. But his home. Needed some attention. And he was working so much, his wife felt like he was always doing something else. And I told him, I said, brother, if you do this, this is gonna be the greatest day of your life because you're gonna demonstrate what it's like. To really take care of what's I say, you're going to be an example. Did you know he walked through that a year, two years, three? Right now, today, I would lay hands on him in a minute. And reordain him. Because his wife is engaged, his home's engaged, his family's engaged. Because he knew the open door of opportunity wasn't always the priority. I remember when we went through some difficult times in the 80s. Amy, you'll remember this. I said to you and I said to the Lord and I finally said to the church, I don't care if we go any further. For the next five years, we got to get healed before we go any further. You remember that? I didn't know I was prophesying. All right, I narrowed that down to two years. But it took the five years. Because you never know what it's going to take. Now Paul understood the burden of leadership that people would walk in this because he's teaching us that ministry without relationship is hollow. Paul invests that they would know that spiritual authority has sensitivity to the power. To the ones God has called you to. Here's what I would say. Reconciliation is more urgent than expansion. I'm gonna say it again. That might be yours. That might be where you are. That's true in business, isn't it, Jeff? When I said that, it just came to me. Man, we want to go do this. What about this? 2000, 2001, we had Cesar Castellanos. Pastor, 250,000 people from Boca, Colombia. Come and speak at our summer conference. You can hardly speak English. So he had a translator, interpreter. And at the end, before we went out to preach, we're joining hands together. He said, I have a vision. I wanna talk to you about vision. I thought he was talking about the vision of the church. We went out to dinner. And he tells this story. He said, I saw a man. In the foundation of the church, a dead body. And he sees vultures are coming and kicking the dead body apart. And he said, if you don't address that dead body, the church can't double. But when you address the dead body, the church will double. Turn to him. 24 years ago, five years ago. Six, five years ago. And I said... Cesar, I'm the dead body. Something happened to a pastor before you came. And he was wounded. And until you addressed him, you will not double. I said, maybe so, but I'm the dead body. I had him come over the next day and share with all the elders in our home and he shared the same vision and I got on my knees. In our dining room that says, oh, I'm the dead body. He said, no, no, no. This is a pastor before you. The church wounded them. You got to deal with it. So we did. We went back to the very first guy that ever pastored. I knew about some of his wounds. We brought his family in. We washed their feet. We confessed and asked forgiveness on behalf of They got great healing. It was a great deal.
