That if we read the exact same verses as last week, we would still benefit. but we're not gonna do that. Thank you for those amens. I appreciate your support, but we are going forward in the passage. We've read so far in 2 Corinthians chapter number one, that Paul comes to them bearing witness to the God of all comfort, the God of tender mercies. And if you suffer with me, Paul says, you'll experience the same comfort that I experience in my suffering. Pretty good deal. Then we came back the next week and talked about how the Lord has delivered us from so great a death. That was July 3rd. Then we came the next week, last week, and we talked about how the Lord uses the prayers of others to deliver us from certain failure and certain destruction and certain death. And we talked about how that when we're around the throne, verse 14, we will boast about one another's involvement in our lives here on earth. You remember? It was 168 or so hours ago. We pick it up in verse 15. After Paul says this, he says, and in this confidence, what confidence, Paul? The confidence that I will see you on that day of the Lord Jesus and we'll boast in one another. In that confidence, since I figured we had a relationship that will never end, Christian, ever, think about that. We're going to a place where we'll never, ever, ever say goodbye. Isn't that wonderful? If I'm here long enough, I will bury some of you and you'll be dead first. It's usually not a kind thing to bury people who are living. But if I'm here long enough, judging by my age, some of you will precede me in death. And thank the Lord, I plan on being here a mighty long time. And I want, yeah, thank you. Yeah, so much, so much, I won't say any names, I don't want to embarrass, but I told a brother in this church that I was looking to buy some cemetery plots, and that's how long I plan on being here, because I feel like there's plenty for the Lord to do through us here. But there's coming a day when we will do our last graveside service, when we will have done our last, think about it, our last Fallen Heroes Sunday. There's coming a day when we will have done our last goodbye to our aging loved ones who must go by way of death if the rapture does not occur. When we have said our last goodbyes to our little ones who sometimes precede us in death, we can't see that coming, we can't imagine it coming, the Lord gives and sometimes Sometimes it takes away. And those are soul-crushing times to be sure. But that's the confidence that Paul is tapping into, believers, when he says in verse 15, I intended to come to you before that you might have a second benefit or more grace from me. He says, I planned on my next missionary journey, I was going to come by and I was going to pass, verse 16, by way of you to Macedonia and to come again from Macedonia to you and be helped by you on my way to Judea. You know, I'd love to throw a map up there and everything and show you what is he talking about, but the important thing for you to know reading this passage is that you can find a lot of this in the book of Acts in real time. And what you can find is Paul intended on going one way and he decided all of a sudden, I can't go through Corinth. And he's about to tell us why on his third missionary journey he decided to not go through Corinth. Here's what he said in verse 16, verse 17 rather. Therefore when I was planning this, did I do it lightly? Did I just flip a coin and say, you know, I think I'll go through Corinth, and the next day he flips a coin, maybe not. Oh well, you know how coins flip. I guess I'm just not going through Corinth this time. And he's concerned about them thinking that he's just whimsically changing his plans. That we really don't need brother Paul around as much as he says we do. But Paul is getting into it here. In the middle of verse 17, the things that I plan, do I plan according to the flesh? That with me there should be yes, yes, and no, no. In other words, Paul says, do I want you to think that one day I'm saying, yeah, I'll be there. And the next minute, no, I won't be there. And you never know which Paul you're going to get. He said, hopefully, especially when we read verse number 12 last week, that he is simple and godly and sincere in a godly way. Paul is not about jerking people and disappointing them needlessly. So again, Paul is the one who planted this church. It is a big deal to them that he comes through town and gives them more of a grace, more of a blessing, like he said in verse number 15, and so verse 18. He says, but as God is faithful, our word to you is not yes or no. And think about what he's saying here. This is really important. We are text-driven. Not this. Bible text-driven. Okay? We are people that read the Bible and see why in the world does it matter. Thank you. up there on the Achaia Peninsula. Look over there. You see on the left, you see the heel of Italy's boot. Right over here is Corinth. Macedonia that he's talking about is in the north of that peninsula, right up on the front, top left corner of the map. That's the kind of people we're talking to right here. Thank you, Paula, for getting that. So then, Paul is interested in them seeing that God is not like I look like right now. Now this is really good, folks. This is really good. I would not have said, we don't want to preach July 17th, but let me. I know, I'm going to pick a topic on what happens when you misrepresent God. No, you don't typically, at least you shouldn't pick that. Your preacher thinks about next Sunday's sermon typically about the time that we're walking out the door at 1230 on Sunday. Because that, and I don't have to guess, the passage tells me where we're going. And you're gonna see how powerful it is that the passage tells us where we're going. So I don't wait until the Late Late Show on Saturday to plan these things. I don't order it offline. I do believe that this book is phenomenal and I can't improve on it. So we do what it does. We go where it goes. That's how we roll at Sandy Ridge. And so he says, I don't want you thinking God is today yes and tomorrow no. Paul says, I can see why you would be a little bit turned off about God right now by the way that I'm acting. Think about it, this is good. Verse 19, for the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, by me, Silvanus, that's another name for Silas, and Timothy, he was not yes and no, but in him was just yes. God is just yes. That's powerful. Verse 20, for all the promises of God in him are yes. You don't have to thank God. God keep his word. Now, Paul is using his inadequacy to teach them about God's perfection. Paul is using his apparent fickleness to teach them about the steadfast, promise-keeping character of God in Christ. Really good. So, verse 21, now, he who has established us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. Why is he going there? We'll talk about it in a minute. Moreover, I call God as a witness against my soul. Now, that's someone who's telling the truth. Come here, God, we need you to bear a witness against my soul. Whoa. Well, Paul, you better be serious. Here's why I did not come, end of verse 23, to spare you. To spare us? Yeah, it was better for you that I didn't come. All right, verse 24. Not that we have demeaning over your faith. I mean, we don't raise you up and drop you to the ground. We're not that much over you in the Lord. We're fellow workers for your joy, for by faith you stand. I love it, I love it. "'But I determined this within myself,' Paul said, "'that it would not come again to you in sorrow.'" Now, this is the end of our passage for today. "'For if I make you sorrowful, "'then who is he who makes me glad, "'but the one who's made sorrowful by me?' He said, "'If I make you sorry by coming to you, "'since I know that me coming to you "'will make you sorry, full of sorrow, "'well, why would I come to you and make you sorrowful "'when I need you to cheer me up?' And I wrote this very thing to you, lest when I come I should have sorrow over those for whom I ought to have joy, having confidence in you all that my joy is the joy of you all. For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you." Wrote to you instead of what? instead of coming, thank you. For out of anguish of heart, I wrote to you instead of coming to you, with many tears, not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have so abundantly for you. All right, disclaimers, we get started. I believe every word of this book. All right, now we start from there, and it's all easy peasy, right? I want you to know this, and you are going to walk out the door with a simple thought this morning. Everyone is a theologian. Now, the reason that that kind of bothers us is because that's a big word. And we don't mind using big words at the factory. We don't mind using big words on the phone. We don't mind using big words in, I mean, just about everything. Real estate, banking, you name it, we use big words. We come into church, we use a word like theology, we call it like, ugh, you know. Theology just means the study of God. That's all it means. And so when I say you, sister, you, brother, are a theologian, what I mean to say is you are, whether you like it or not, an expert on God. We are teaching others and we are teaching ourselves. Now, Paul knew this. He said, well, I don't claim to be a theologian. Well, if you claim to be a Christian, it doesn't matter if you claim to be a theologian. Come here. What I said was, if you claim to be a Bible-believing, Holy Ghost-filled Christian who attends a church, you are, by just saying that you attend church regularly, that you're a Christian, you are telling the entirety of the cosmos that you are a theologian. Well, I'm not. Too late. You told everyone that you are. So this idea, well, I just don't know my Bible like you do, is nice, but you're still a theologian. Well, I don't know the big words like you do. Splendid. You're still a theologian. You speak for God all the time. And Paul knows this, and this is why he says that our behavior is being watched. I already broke that scripture down to you where he says, I said I was coming to you, and now I'm not, and I'm sure that's causing some consternation. Now let me talk to you about just the gospel for a minute. Typically, we Christians, we say the gospel, and usually, Angie, we think that that means that's that thing we repeat a prayer after in VBS or at Sunday school or five-day club or Billy Graham crusade, and then we put the gospel up here on the shelf, never to engage with it again. But there are at least seven or eight things that are in the gospel that will always be in your life day after day, yes, even today, when you choose to be a lousy tipper at the restaurant. All right? Here they are. First of all, and by the way, this is not the sermon. I'm going to whisk swiftly through these. Justice. Did you know that God had to kill Christ if we were to be forgiven of our sins? Justice is found at the cross. There must be an explicit standard. There must be an exacting accountability of those under the standard. What else do we find at the cross? Compassion. Loving people who may not be lovable. God loves us despite our unloveliness, brothers and sisters. Isn't that grand? Some of you are like, well, of course he loves me. I'm lovable. No, no, no, no. Don't compare yourself with so-and-so next to you or behind you or in front of you. Compare yourself with the standard of God's justice, absolute sinlessness that none of us live up to. What else can we find on the cross? Condescension. That is someone coming from an exalted state down to be in the midst of people who know nothing of that heavenly state. Have you condescended to someone? I didn't say, have you been condescending? I said, have you condescended down to someone's world this week that didn't deserve your goodness? And we could just go on and on. Provision. God providing things we did not earn. Have you been gracious to anyone this week? Yeah, and I told everyone about it too. All right, you have your reward. Congratulations. What else do we find at the cross? Reconciliation, God having Christ restore a people who are in enmity with him back to himself, and he did it in Christ. We'll find that later in the book. Forgiveness, someone taking things that you've done and just forgetting about that, and just not choosing to bring it up before you anymore. We find that at Calvary. Suffering for someone else's deeds is a gospel element, ladies and gentlemen. Brothers and sisters, if you haven't suffered for something that you haven't done, then you have not yet experienced a particular grace that we find as gospel believers. Submission. You know, if Christ doesn't submit to the Father, you and I all char in hell forever. Those are principles that we find at Calvary that we fill our lives with. Paul knows that. And so Paul says that there is a reality that our conduct may contradict or appear to contradict our mission. You might notice verses 15 through 17, verses 15 through 18, he says, here's what I plan to do. But at the beginning of verse 18, but God, but God is faithful. Please, he says, please don't let me disappoint you to the point where you get disappointed in God. Now I can hear two or three voices floating through the air. Let me grab them quick and address an issue. That doesn't mean that a person has an excuse for rejecting godliness or holiness or Christianity because you messed something up. Everyone has an individual accountability before God, but Paul is honest enough, and you and I ought to be honest enough, Sandy Ridge, to say, you know what? The way I do things, it teaches people about God. Here's Paul. Why does he bring up God's faithfulness and his promise keeping? Because it looks like Paul doesn't know how to keep his word. Y'all with me still? All right, my wife told me that she can hear amens around here and I can't. I think it's because of this AC that came off the arc with Noah that keeps functioning on and off. Anyway, I can hear all kinds of things, just none of it's you, all right? Oh well. So basically, Paul wants them to understand, verse number eight, that the reason I'm not coming to you is because I was in horrible trouble, deep trouble, and I don't want you thinking that old worn-out Paul is going to come here and wear us out next and get on our cases. And so Paul, as you saw in the passage as we read it, decided to write a letter instead of visiting, and it caused them great, great concern. But there's another thing. Our conduct can also teach bad theology. Okay, so what am I talking about? Look at verse 19 again. This is why we don't lie to our children. Verse 19, look it. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who is preached among you by us, by me, is, you know, it's not yes and no, it's just plain yes. We don't say things to our kids in a promised sort of way. Let me say something that I think, I think is harmless right now. I think so, particularly because I think Children's Church is going on right now. In fact, I know it is, and so I'm pretty sure that if you're guilty of this, your kids don't know right now, per se. But here we go. This is why we don't tell our kids things like, there's a Santa Claus. He's omnipresent and omniscient and knows everything and has vast resources to give you whatever you want. Because what happens when they get old enough to realize that mom and dad have been lying to them? And then they wonder, are mom and dad lying about Jesus too? Is anyone omnipresent? Sandy wasn't. Santa Claus wasn't. Is anyone omnipresent? Does anyone come to my bedroom with me? Does anyone suffer with me in a car wreck? Does anyone really go with me all the way? Because for my first seven or eight years, I was told there's this fat guy who gave me presents and he knew everything I did and had this gigantic list and could travel to all the households in one night. And I guess it's not true. So I wonder if there is anyone like that. I guess that's what I'm trying to say is when we speak, we teach theology. If you don't keep your word about ball games and commitments to relationships, and if you don't follow through with promises, then what should I believe about the God that you serve? Well, I hope you're right. Maybe I hope you can hear him out there. Christ's character drives us to be honest. Doesn't it? Doesn't an honest son of God make us want to be honest? Doesn't a gracious God compel us to be gracious? Don't we want a God who is as faithful as we say he is? And then we want him to fill us with that same goodness. We all know about those who are busy complaining. but want to explain after they complain about how good they are in Christ. And it kind of goes like this. This is a fresh illustration. I heard about it this week. Hey, do you go to church anywhere? No, I don't go to church anywhere, but I love Jesus. Typically, people that are transgressing against God's reputation are quick to explain why they do it. Do you love Christ? I do. Listen, I don't know if you understand this or not, but living out of wedlock, having marital relations out of wedlock is still in the Bible and it's called fornication. Well, I know that, but I love God. We need to reassure those around us of the truth that we adhere to. So, point number one. I only have three points. This is almost like a regular sermon. Point number one. Alright, number one, it may appear that our lifestyles contradict what we believe. Is it always a bad thing? Paul would say no. Bill Sturm is not getting up here this morning saying, Paul, you wretch. I cannot believe you misappropriated God's goodness in you and you misrepresented the Lord, you horrible apostle. That is not what I'm doing. So what am I doing? Okay, here's what I'm doing. We need to do what Paul did in the wake of that perceived contradiction. Because whether you like it or not, your parents, your kids, your brothers, your sisters, your aunts, your uncles, your co-workers are learning about God when they watch you, the professed Christian. My neighbors, they're learning about Christ. Yes, even the ones right down here, four doors down from the church. They learn about Christ through me. How well does he treat his family? How well does he treat his dogs? How well does he care for his home? Even if they don't know that someone comes over and mows it on behalf of the church, and I am so thankful for that. And we're talking about, you know, there's a lot of things I'm grateful for. That's one of them. So I teach my neighbors a lot about how to talk to a spouse or not to talk, or how to treat my kids or not to treat them, how to take care of a vehicle or... Don't take care of your car like that guy does. What does he do? Well, it's like minus six and he takes off with that thing squealing the tires. If that's how God teaches you to be a steward, well then I don't need to go to his church. So we need to reassure people around us that sometimes we are inadequate reflections of God. So sometimes I sing. Typically it's out of the hearing of others. But there's a song I've been listening to for 21 years, maybe 22 years, and someone introduced me to a man by the name of Keith Green. Anyone ever heard of Keith Green? Yeah, I love that guy's music. I'm not saying he's always theologically sound, but I sure do like the message. And he wrote a song called Song to My Parents. Here's how it goes, just part of it. No throwing money or rotten tomatoes, okay? Alright, they both hurt, okay? Alright. I need to say these things cause I love you so And I'm sorry you get angry when I say that you just don't know But there's a heaven waiting for you and me And it seems every time we talk I'm only just trying to make you see that it's only that I care. I really only want just to see you there. But the second verse is incredibly powerful. Again, if I had been listening to this for 20 years, I wouldn't be singing it to you. This is how much it means to me. Please try and overlook my, my human side. I'm such a bad example and you know I'm so full of pride. But Jesus isn't like that. No, he's perfect all the way. I guess that's why we need him because by ourselves there's just no way. And it's only that I care. I really only want just to see you there. So there's a man that encapsulates how he feels in a song. And so, when you are wondering if you are being a good example of God to your loved ones, perhaps it's time to just square up and tell people, I have been, well, a less than perfect example of my Lord. I remember when we were living in Fayetteville for about a year, we rented a home from someone who's now a member. It worked out pretty well. The Lord led people to our church because we lived in their home from 05 to 06. And I remember we had been living there on Gardenwood Court for six months, and it dawned on me one time that I was teaching my neighbors just how unurgent it was to be a Christian. how unurgent it was to be a Christian. You see, here's how our gospel kind of goes. Either you believe in Christ and you put your faith in the gospel, you trust Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, or you go to hell forever and ever and ever and ever. I'm not happy about any of that other than the way out of hell. Do I have any other witnesses here? Are you glad about the gospel? There's a part of me that's incredibly happy that people that don't belong in heaven won't be there. Yes. But I want lots of people there. I want my grandfather, 94 years old, I want him to be there. And every time I visit him and I don't bring it up, I'm teaching him the lesson that I taught my neighbors after living by them for six months. So I realized that I was teaching them that theologically, I believe that there's a hell that you'll go to forever if you don't get saved, but it ain't worth bringing up to you. Penn and Teller. You know them? I think it was Penn. It was the one that doesn't talk. I'm talking about the other guy. The guy that acts like Harpo Marx. Which one is it that talks? Penn. Penn. The guy with the ponytail. That's how I look when I'm 86. I have a ponytail with glasses. Everyone will think it's cool. And I might even, I might, my wife doesn't think I'll ever have the gumption to get on a motorcycle, but maybe by then, who knows? Who knows? Maybe by then. But Penn said, here's what Penn said. Penn said, let's just say that you're telling the truth. Let's just say there is a God, and that there is a Jesus, and that Jesus really did pay for your sins, and that the only way out of hell's fire is to be saved. How much do you have to hate me to not tell me? He said, I'm gonna tell you why I don't believe in your God and your Jesus and your Bible, because you don't think it's important enough to tell me about it. So, off I went to my neighbors on that court, one at a time, except for our next door neighbors right next to us, they went to church with us. But I went to every one of our neighbors, there was only six or so of them, I knocked on their doors, and when they came to the door, here's what I said. This would be good for your heart if you do this once or twice, particularly maybe start with your spouse. This is where it doesn't work. I'm talking about saying you're sorry. That actually has some healing agents to it, okay? By the way, I find it's usually needed for me anyway. So anyways, I knock on these doors in my neighborhood and they came to the door one by one. Listen to me, I'm not trying to tell you how spiritual I am. I'm trying to tell you that I've been confronted with the issues I'm preaching to you about and either I live what I preach or I don't. It's one of the two. And if I don't live what I preach to some degree, to some degree, you ought to find a new preacher. Okay? Everyone falls short of the testimony they're trying to uphold in Christ. Paul even said he did, right here in this passage. But my goodness, folks, we need to practice what we say we believe. And so I went to each and every one of those neighbors, knocked on the door, door would swing open. They wanted to know if I was there to sell Mary Kay or Avon or Amway or if I was a Jehovah's Witness or a Mormon, you know. Who else knocks on your door? And I said to them, hi, I'm Bill Sturm. I live over in that white house over there, and I want you to know I'm sorry. Why? And they immediately start looking at the house, looking for egg spatterings and, you know, mailboxes missing from their posts and stuff like that, you know, maybe a slashed tire. But no, I said, here's why I'm sorry. I'm sorry because I've lived here for six months and I've never told you how you can be delivered from the wrath of God. And I have taught you by my silence that it just ain't that important. So sometimes, We just need to quit making excuses and we need to make an apology. Paul says God keeps his promises. And here's what he says, the avenues of God keeping his promises are in Christ. Please, please look at verse number 20. All the promises of God in Christ, in him, are yes, and in him, amen. So he says, look, look, look, God keeps his promises, and he says in verse number, verse number 20 and 21, look what it says with me there. He says all the promises of God in him are yes, verse 21. Now he who has established us, or who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God. Now that word anointed, you should circle that and draw a line to Christ and circle Christ. It's the same, essentially, same Greek word in the original languages. It's, in other words, here's what Paul is saying, now he who has established us with Christ and has Christed us is God. We are little Jesuses and we are emblems of kept promises. Now think this through. How powerful is this? Paul is using his shortcomings to teach them about God's overachievement. That's very skilled. You and I, we think that we're not able witnesses until we have a perfect life to exhibit before our parents and grandparents. And Paul does just the opposite. He takes his inadequacies, he takes his apparent contradictions with the lifestyle of God. Listen to me, he is just very skilled. You have all the tools in your bag to be a witness before the Lord. All you have to do is admit you've done something maybe not in keeping with his character. That's pretty easy stuff, folks. And we can't be assuming at family reunions, you're in the South, you're a Baptist, you must be saved. We've got to stop doing that. And what about people that live in our house? Are we giving a good example in our home of what God is like? What do my children think about God the Father because of the Father in their home? And if you want to know why a lot of people grow up in homes having a warped view of God, it's because, well, their daddies were either not there or they gave them poor examples of what a father is. So what do I do when I mess things up with my children? I typically go to them and apologize if I know about my error, typically. Say, oh, Lang, you sure are bragging on yourself. No, I'm trying to follow the spirit of the passage. Paul said, let me tell you about how great God is in contrast to how ungreat I am. And so, we are his witnesses. Now, he goes to great degrees here to say a lot of things about them. Now, let's take a look at three things. We'll mention them in passing quickly, and then we'll land this plane with our last point. Okay, here we go. Look at verse number 20, 21. Notice what he calls the Corinthians. He has anointed us. Verse 22, he has sealed us. Verse number 24, stand. like I stand. You might notice at the end of the verse, and at verse 24, we do not have dominion over your faith, but our fellow workers for your joy, for by faith you stand. Here's what Paul is saying. I haven't been able to do everything for you that I wanted to do. I had a reason, and I'll get into it in a minute. I haven't been able to do everything I wanted to do for you in Christ, but God will do everything for you that he intends on doing, that he's promised doing in Christ for you. He will do it. Is everyone with me still? All right, so he uses that as an opportunity to brag on the character of God. What is God like? He's totally dependable, unlike how you feel like I am sometimes. So there have been many times that I've taken my 17-year-old son, and I can remember some of those painful times in my life are when I was a horrible father. I don't know if anyone out there can, you ladies probably cannot, probably never been a father. So it'll be a little harder for you to relate. But some of you men who are fathers, maybe you can relate when I tell you some of my worst failures are when I mess things up and misrepresent God. And I have an opportunity there. I can either act like it didn't happen, kind of smooth it over and offer him ice cream, or I can take him aside and say, son, that is why I need the Heavenly Father as much as you do. I'm sorry. We will not allow our children and grandchildren to endlessly use us as their excuses for why they are not in church. We will have our say, we will say what we need to say, we will be honest in our confession, and we will point them to the changeless, perfect character of God and his son, Jesus, and we will be better fathers, God willing. Mothers, same deal. You know that people technically usually think about the Holy Spirit what they think about their mothers. The spirit of the home. What am I saying? I'm saying that you're going to start thinking about Jesus what you think about in some cases. Some of you are, like Paul says here, you're as sealed as I am. You're as saved as I am. You're as anointed as I am. You're as standing in the faith as I am. You're not going to be shaken, but some of you need to be reassured that I have no advantage over you. I love that word, verse number 22. He's sealed us and given us a spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. That's kind of a subliminal message for the second coming again. Now let me see if I can demonstrate this. Next slide. Maybe. All right. There is the house that we made an offer on 10 days ago. I don't know, I can't remember. I can't remember. They required earnest money. You know, what do they call it? Good faith money? I don't know. Come on, some of you realtor gurus out there. It's called earnest money? All right. Basically, it means Bill Sturm is gonna be back for his stuff. One way or the other, I am interested in closing on this house. You have my money that I understand is non-refundable. Typically, right? Isn't that the whole point of it? Typically, unless there's something wrong in that good faith, blah, blah, blah, due diligence, yada, yada, got it. But typically, Typically, unless there's something really wrong with the house, that money is not yours anymore. It's an earnest money. And the old King James here in this verse uses the word earnest. It does in Ephesians 1. It does in Ephesians 4. And basically, Paul is saying, God has put earnest money down on you. He'll be back to get you. Your salvation is as sure as I am, even if you feel a little shaky sometimes, like I do. And what is the earnest money that God put in us? The Holy Spirit. So he put a stamp on us, he's coming to get us one day, and to promise that, he left the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Why do we never feel at home here? Look, before you decide to move to the next town, or the next church, or the next... I'm gonna be careful here. Before you continue to think that the next move, the next new thing will be the cure in your life, I want to just remind you that if you're a believer, you're not supposed to feel at home here, anywhere on planet Earth, because you are built for another place. Amen. So thirdly, let me wrap this up. If after I apparently present a contradiction to the world about God, And if I then try to reassure people of the truth of God, then what do I do? Well, third and lastly, I try to explain, perhaps, my actions, if there's explaining to be done. Okay, so what do I mean by that? That means, okay, that means, you can take that slide down, or everyone's gonna be wondering where they live in relation to where I live, okay, so. And you know, there's only so much home warming, house warming. All right, so anyway, okay, I'm just kidding, sort of. All right, all right. My dad always used to say, son, always have an excuse ready. And he was a tad bit, tad bit sarcastic. That was his way of saying, do not always have an excuse ready. And here Paul says, I have an excuse. Look at verse 23, chapter one. We're almost done. Hang with me. Say, we're with you. Oh, thank you, yes, all 11 of you, I love it, thank you. Verse 23, moreover, I call God as a witness against my soul that to spare you, I came no more to Corinth. I didn't come to Corinth. Now, why? We already read it. He didn't want to make the people sorry that were supposed to be his encouragement. But I want you to see, please, in verse three, as we wrap this up, and I really mean that. Verse number three, verse four, out of much affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote to you with many tears. Now folks, if you can say, I have apparently, apparently misrepresented God, but I did it despite the fact that it caused me an immense amount of grief, then you might have a good reason. And you just need to explain how good God is and that there'll never be these apparent contradictions once we reach the other shore. Did you hear me? But, if, now let me see if I can best demonstrate it this way. Okay, we're landing the plane, the gears are down, we're taxiing, okay? If, and throw this with me, if you're apologizing for something you've done to somebody, and the biggest thing that you hope to get out of it is that you don't feel bad anymore for making someone angry, then you're selfish even in your apology. I had someone call me the other night from the church we came from. particular person offended their spouse and wanted to know how to get that spouse to get over it quickly. I said, well, you're full of sins still. Let's admit that. I said, if your biggest concern out of apologizing to someone is that they hurry up and forgive you so you no longer feel like you're under the burden of wronging someone, you're still full of sin. We can't turn an apology into a selfish thing. And Paul says, look, me coming to you, it hurt me. Paul said, I know it looks like, and we're gonna get into what was the errand he's gonna write him about, okay? But we're gonna get into it. But you need to know Paul thinks like a man who's filled with the gospel. I know it looks like a misrepresented God, but I need you to know this little change of plans about coming to see you, it hurt me too. So, let me give you a real-life, honest-to-goodness, I give you 50% of my notes, honest-to-goodness example of how this might work, okay? What are we teaching people? Now, I don't really, please, please be merciful to me. I'm not fostering a particular political party, so just be easy on me. Love me like I'm loving you, okay? Let's just be nice here, all right? Don't tell me, please don't tell me. Think about how you're going to vote. And I want you to think about how you're going to vote in this coming election, which it's more than just presidential election. There are a ton of things at stake with this presidential election. Yes? Yeah, yeah. There's going to be a lot of judges that this coming president appoints. I think three, in memory service. So we're more than talking about just the presidential election. We're talking about presidential election and the state of the Supreme Court of the United States. And we're talking about a whole lot of the climate when it comes to international affairs and everything else. If I'm boring some of you, you need to be aware that this is your country. So you need to think about how am I going to vote and which way, what will I teach people about God when I vote? Now you're saying, maybe you're one of those folks that you're just holding out for that third party, okay? Maybe you're just one of those folks that's holding out for the third party, all right? Maybe you're right, but I guess this next minute is not talking to you, okay? I guess not, all right? Let's just say that there really is two primary choices, no pun intended, two choices, okay? You need to ask yourself if this one is totally honest and follows through with her promises. And, hang with me, I gotta walk over here. Be patient. And if this guy follows through with every one of his promises, think through this, now I don't think this has ever happened before where both people are going to be totally full of integrity and follow through with their promises. But let's just say it happens, okay? No matter who gets voted in, both of them keep their promises. If both of them keep their promises, please don't answer! If both of them keep their promises, how much better will the Christian church in America be in either case? If this one keeps her promises, will we be a better Christian nation? If this one over here keeps his promises, will we be a better Christian nation? It's not, well, they're just the same. No, don't let yourself off the hook like that. That is a cop-out, good neighbor. They are not exactly the same. You need to ask yourself, if I vote for him and he doesn't keep his promises, well then, what have I done? Well, I've made a choice, the best choice I could. If I vote for her and she doesn't keep her promises, what happens? Good, well, anyway. You have to think through, good heavens, you have to think through what happens if I vote for her and she doesn't keep her promises. In either case, in either case, the circumstances, the consequences are different, but you need to view this election of what happens if she does exactly what she's promising to do about same-sex marriage, about abortion, about immigration, about economy, about foreign affairs, about the Christian church if she keeps her current policy and keeps her promises, will, please don't answer, will America be better than if he keeps his promises? Now listen to me, I want you to know something, you will not be able to say, well I just didn't vote because I didn't feel comfortable. You need to understand that you are complicit with the downcastness of America if you decide to not open your mouth on election day and cast a vote. And as an added touch, I want to tell you this as well. If you think that way, do not join a Baptist church. We vote. So if this is true, if this is true, some of us have some reassuring of loved ones this morning. Here's what I've done. I did it this way. This is why I did it. It might have misled you about the Lord and I want you to know if it did, I'm sorry. And here's what you need to know about God. Amen? Let's all stand together. This is a time of