Sunday Setup – 2 Corinthians 10

[Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] Hey, Cross Church and welcome to the Sunday setup. This is our time where we digitally gather together each week, Thursdays at 2:00, and we get to prepare our hearts. We get to set up our lives to go into the passage that we'll be preaching through this Sunday. Today, we dive back into our 2 Corinthians series, and we're going to be in 2 Corinthians chapter 10. And as we read through this, uh, we just want this text to really just take in. We're going to pray through it this morning. We'll be praying through this thematically this Sunday and be preaching through it, be praising through it, and our worship time also that we can put into practice this text next week. So, we're going to be in 2 Corinthians chapter 10 starting in verse one. You can either listen along or follow along if you have a Bible. And Paul the Apostle writes this. Now I Paul myself appeal to you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. I who am humble among you in person but bold to you when absent. I beg you that when I am present, I will need to be bold with the confidence by which I plan to challenge certain people who think we are living according to the flesh. For although we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh. Since the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but they are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds, we demolish arguments and every proud thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God. And we take every thought captive to obey Christ. And we are ready to punish any disobedience once your obedience is complete. Now look at what is obvious. If anyone is confident that he belongs to Christ, let him remind himself of this, just as he belongs to Christ, so do we. For if I boast a little about much about too much about our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for tearing you down, I will not be put to shame. I don't want to seem as though I'm trying to terrify you with my letters. For it is said, "His letters are weighty and powerful, but his physical presence is weak, and his public speaking amounts to nothing. Let such a person consider this. What we are in our letters when we are absent, we will also be in our actions when we are present. For we don't dare classify or compare ourselves with those with some who commend themselves. But in measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves to themselves, they lack understanding. We however will not boast beyond measure, but according to the measure of the area of ministry that God has assigned to us, which reaches even to you, for we are not overextending ourselves as if we had not reached you, since we had come to you with the gospel of Christ. We are not boasting beyond measure about other people's labors. On the contrary, we have the hope that as your faith increases, our area of ministry will greatly be enlarged, so that we may preach the gospel to the regions beyond you without boasting about what has already been done in someone else's area of ministry. So let the one who boasts boast in the Lord, for it is not the one commending himself who is approved, but the one the Lord commends. In this passage, Paul is defending himself, defending his apostilhip, but he's also calling the church at Corenth, not just of his qualifications as someone in Christ, but also a model of how we can disagree, how we might fight, how we might push back against people, but do so in a Christlike manner. And the first thing I want us to focus on here in our first prayer is in verse 7 Paul says if anyone is confident that he belongs to Christ and he says just as he belongs to Christ so do we. And that idea of we belong to Christ is so important because if we don't belong to Christ everything else in this passage really doesn't matter. And and I want us to take a minute to thank God that we belong to Christ. And here's our first prayer prompt is thank you God that I belong to Jesus by thank you God that I belong to Jesus by his sacrifice on the cross that I belong to Jesus because he's forgiven my sins that I belong to Jesus because he opened my eyes. Thank you Jesus because I belong to Jesus because someone shared the gospel with me. Reflect for a second on your salvation journey and what you can thank God for putting in motion. The reasons that you can be thankful to him that you belong to Jesus. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Laughter] Paul continues in this letter that because we belong to Christ, he he goes through the details of the way we should act, the way we should fight, the way we should respond to each other in our world. But here he gives the point of all of this. And through all this tension that is in this chapter, verse 14, he says, "We have come to you with the gospel of Christ." Verse 16, so that we may preach the gospel to the regions beyond you. All of this is for bringing the gospel and preaching the gospel. And and in this as we reflect on the fact that we are thankful for our salvation, that we belong to Christ, here's our second prayer prompt that we want to be able to share that salvation, share that good news, share that gospel with those around us. So our sh second prayer prompt is this is Jesus, help me share the gospel with. Jesus, help me share the gospel with and name your neighbors, your friends, your family members, those who are far from God. And in a season where there is so much going on in our world, who can you share the great news of Jesus Christ with and be praying intentionally for that? [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Laughter] Jesus, help us share the gospel with those that you have put around us. God, our co-workers, our family members, our neighbors. Uh God, those even those strangers that you might put in our path, let us as Christians be on mission. Let Cross Church stay laser focused on our mission of making Jesus known. Let our church be known for the fact that we tell others about Christ, that we proclaim this Jesus, that we preach this gospel to the world. And let throughout everything else that happens through the uncertain times that might come about that this remain our focus. this remain the thing that we do and what our lives are marked by. God, prepare our hearts in this of the names of people uh the ro the kind of rhythms of how we get to share and as we prepare for Sunday that we be inviting when we can, but we prepare our hearts to respond to your word that we hear so that we can continue to go out and be on mission in your kingdom as a part of what the church does. And we lift all this up in the name that we belong to and the name that saves us and the name that is worthy to be shared in Jesus Christ. Amen. Thank you guys for joining us. We'll see you Sunday. [Music]