He was a man who had labored, hadn't he, intensely? You know 2 Corinthians chapter 11, the five times 40 lashes minus one. Five times. 39 lashes. Three times beaten by rods. Think of the man's back. Think of the lacerations on his body. We get a cold and we think, I don't know if I can get into the pulpit today. My nose is dripping. It actually is dripping. Three times wrecked on a shipwreck for a day and a night. He speaks of his journeys. He didn't travel first class. He traveled in danger. natural danger, rivers, human danger, robbers, and danger from his own people, and danger from the Gentiles, and danger from false brothers. Where this man went, his life was never safe. It was as though he never had an occasion where he was in physical refuge, and danger in the city, and the danger in the wilderness, and danger at sea, and toil and hardship, sleepless nights, and hunger, thirst, often without food, and cold, and exposure, and on top of all that, daily pressure of his anxiety for all the churches. We labor in congregations, and we have the travails of dealing with those people that we love. We have the travails of bringing to them the Word of God. We have the travails of praying for them before Jesus Christ. And we bear the burden of those people. And we come and we say to God, God, are you going to conform them to the image of Jesus? You have promised that you're going to predestine them to conformity in Jesus Christ. Not just salvation from a lost eternity, but you're going to make them holy in Jesus. And we preach week after week after week. And they come out the door and we think, when are we going to see increasing conformity? When are we going to see a word or hear a word that they love the Lord? with all their heart, soul, and mind. That wasn't a bad sermon today, Pastor. I wonder when the snow is going to start.
