Sunday Setup – 2 Corinthians 12:14-21

[Music] [Music] [Music] Hey, Christ Church and welcome to the Sunday setup. This is our weekly time where we gather digitally across our platforms to prepare our hearts for the message that we are going to hear this Sunday, the passage that we are going to dive into. And as you listen to this, whether you're driving or at the gym, uh at work with your family, uh we just want this time to where we get to pray through this piece of scripture that we'll be preaching through, that we'll be praising through on Sunday so we can go practice next week. And we see today we'll be in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. And this is the second half of this chapter starting in verse 14. And Paul, as he's getting closer to the end of this letter and wrapping up his communication with the Corinthians, he says this in verse 14, look, I'm ready to come to you this third time. I will not burden you since I am not seeking what is yours, but you. For children ought not to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. I will most gladly spend and be spent for you. If I love you more, am I to be loved less? Now granted, I did not burden you. Yet sly as I am, I took you in by deceit. Did I take advantage of you by any of those I sent you? I urged Titus to go, and I sent the brothers with him. Titus didn't take advantage of you, did he? Didn't we walk in the same spirit and in the same footsteps? Have you been thinking all along that you we were defending ourselves to you? No. In the sight of God and we are speaking in Christ and everything. Dear friends, this is all for building you up. For I fear that perhaps when I come, I will not find you to be what I want. And you may not find me to be what you want. Perhaps there will be quarreling. Perhaps there will be jealousy. There will be angry outbursts. There'll be selfish ambitions, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorder. I fear that when I come, my God will again humiliate me in your presence. And I will grieve for many who sinned before and have not repented of the moral impurity of the sexual immorality and the sensuality that they practice. Paul in the second half of this chapter really gets very honest with the Corinthian church and talks about some of the personal struggles that they have had and really bears his heart on the line. But a few of just the the parts that I think I want us to pray through and think through as we prepare for this passage. In verse 15, he says, "I will gladly spend and be spent for you." Paul is talking about how he's giving his life up and being spent for the Corinthian church. But really, this is a shadow. This is a following. This is an example set by Christ. So, we think of Jesus. His life was spent for us for our salvation. So here is how I want to start this time is just start with a prayer of thanksgiving is Jesus thank you that thank you for spending yourself by. Thank you for spending yourself by giving up your life for my sins. By loving me even when I had cursed you and even when I disappointed you is whatever that is is thank Jesus for spending his life on our behalf. Heat. [Music] [Laughter] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Laughter] [Music] Jesus, thank you for spending your life for us by coming down to earth, by living a life, pursuing us, by teaching us, by healing, by performing signs to show you are God. Thank you for spending your life by dying on the cross. Thank you for spending your life by raising again so that we could know something else, so that we could have a new birth, a new creation in you. Lord, we thank you that you lived a life spent for us here on earth. So that we could live a life spending eternity glorifying you. But Lord, we not only thank you for the life that is spent, but Paul continues in verse 19. And he says that all this is done that this this hardship and and going back and forth in this relationship between him and the Corinthians. He said this was not to tear them down. This was not to hurt them. This was not to have personal videttas, but he said it's for building you up. And and God builds us up through the church, through one another uh in many ways. And here is our second prayer. As we thank God for Jesus spending his life for us, now we want to reflect on how we want God to continue to move. And and here's our second prayer prompt is God, build me up by God, build me up by maybe spending time in the church. Build me up by getting into your word. Build me up by surrounding me with godly men and women. Build me up by going through trials that form me, that shape me. God, build me up by [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] God, build me up by just showing your purpose, your way that our lives should go down. that we not be distracted by all that happens in busy seasons and craziness in our everyday life. But Lord, we are built up to do your will. We are built up through hardships, through trials, uh through times that are not fun. But Lord, it shapes us. It molds us. It directs us down the path you went. God, as we look at this passage that is so centered on love, it is centered on love and the fact that none of this is possible without Christ being spent on our behalf and none of it matters if we are not being built up into something greater. And Lord, as we just dive into this text, as we prepare our heart for this text, as we look at the love that Paul had for the Corinthian church because of the love that Christ has for us, Lord, that then we can extend that love to the world around us. And Lord, we just thank you for this time. We thank you for preparing our hearts as we are set up for Sunday. And Lord, we just ask that you be with us this week. And you as you bring us together this weekend, God, you do a powerful work in our lives so that we can leave changed, we can leave encouraged, and we can leave on mission for you. And God, we just lift all this up in the loving, in the building, in the spent name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Thank you guys for joining us. We'll see you Sunday. [Music]