Good morning. Let's turn our Bibles today to 2 Corinthians chapter 1. Recently, Pastor Dee and Pastor Travis have walk us through some important passages in 1 Corinthians including Pastor D's recent sermon from chapter 16 that reminds us of this year's mission conference theme about how at the end of 1 Corinthians Paul talked about how the Lord had opened many doors of ministry and going forward and he was excited about that, he was encouraged about that at the same time In those closing remarks, he reminded himself and his readers that there are many opponents to the gospel. And we're reminded of that again today. This morning we're looking at 2 Corinthians chapter one, verses eight through 11. And today we're looking at that idea of open doors again, but open doors for peril, Prayer and praise. And this is on the other side of 1 Corinthians 16, now that Paul has walked through some of those open doors that he mentioned at the end of 1 Corinthians, and he mentioned that there were many opponents. He's now on the other side of that, he's been going through that, and he's going to reflect on that for us. So we'll read this as we go along. But let's pause again. and ask for God's blessing on his word. Let's go now again to the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank you for your goodness to us. As we sing about your word going to the nations, remind the Lord of how your word has reached us. It's reached our ancestors in different continents and different contexts. It's reached us, and we're grateful for that ongoing plan that you have to reach the peoples, Lord, even us. And we're grateful, Lord, that you've given us your word in our own language where we can understand it. And we can read these words, but Lord, at the same time, we need your Holy Spirit to help us to understand it, what you want us to hear. Lord, we need your Holy Spirit to meet us in our struggles and help us to believe in light of unbelief. So think about a recent challenge from Dr. Koister about repentance. We need your help to repent. We need your help now, Lord, to focus on what your Spirit would say to the church today. And we can only do that by your Spirit's help. Lord, I pray for your spirit's help for me and my weakness as we think about the open doors you have before us, the encouraging things, the challenging things. I need your spirit. We all need him to be at work in our hearts and minds today. And so, Father, we come to you now expectantly, depending upon you. We pray that in all these things, Jesus Christ will be praised. We ask in his name, amen. So this morning, we are looking at verses eight through 11 and chapter 11, excuse me, chapter one, verses eight through 11. And as Pastor D mentioned a few weeks ago when he launched our series, if you're new to our church, he reminded us that as we're in the Northex out here, we're seeing now all these flags from different countries. We're hearing about these upcoming opportunities that Pastor Travis mentioned during the mission moment, things that might be new to us. if you're just recently coming to our church, or you weren't here last year for the conference. Or perhaps you've been here for a while and you generally come to the conference. You look forward to it, you're here, but in light of what's going on in your life right now, it's hard to really think about that. It's hard to really think about the nations when all you can do is just think about what is right in front of your own face, your own pressing daily needs. And so as we think about this call that we're called to participate in missions, today we're going to think about the idea of prayer. Paul speaks to that very thing. Paul reminds us that the circumstances of life that God brings into our path, things that he refers to as peril, things that to us seem perilous. that God is aware, that God isn't distant from that. He's brought that into our life for good. It's difficult to think about people out there when all we think about is right here. This past week I was in Greenville, and I was tasked by one of my family members here to go by the mall and pick up this significantly large Lego set. One of my kids I knew was available at that mall, and so that was on my checklist of things to do. And so I brought that home on Friday. And as Travis prayed for and mentioned, we had the youth retreat, middle school retreat this weekend. This particular family member was on that retreat. Well, I hit a traffic jam coming back from Greenville and it was really just minutes upon my arrival home that we had to turn around and I brought him up here for that retreat. Now, if he were being interviewed and he was honest, his heart was set on opening up that box and working on it. It was raining, it was cold, and he even indicated as much. But we talked about, you know, this is right here in front of you, but there's things beyond you as an individual that are going on in the world that are important. Relationships. Dee talked recently about gospel relationships. We're going to look at that here this morning as it relates to missionaries. And so this family member of mine and I, we talked about this on the way to church, and we prayed for Travis as he would be preaching and teaching over the weekend, and prayed for his role in interacting with others. And so I was encouraged by, you know, fruit in his response. It could have been different. And he would tell you it wasn't easy, but I was encouraged by what the Lord's doing in him. To help him look beyond himself to what God's doing in our youth group. And then ultimately thinking about getting ready for the conference. And that's what's going on here. As Paul writes a church that has a lot going on. A lot of fighting, a lot of factionism, a lot of issues. Paul's aware of that. but he wants to remind them that there's something bigger beyond them. That's the call for us as individual Christians and as churches to think about what God's doing in the world. And we have to realize that it's not about us, that we know that intellectually, but Paul reminds us we have to learn that and experience it. So this morning I want to begin by looking at first, God opens doors of peril. He reminded us that he opens up doors of ministry, and as we think about those doors, we're also reminded he opens doors of peril, so that we'll trust him rather than ourselves. So first I want us to see, as we think about the mission conference and those gospel relationships with missionaries, and our struggle here this morning about our own stuff, our own lives, our own issues, that things that we're going through now, the struggles that we're going through, is designed by a good God to take their eyes off of ourselves. First, we have to come to trust in God. Before we can think about the missionaries and those dynamics, we have to realize we've got to look at the Lord first. That's going to transform the way we think about relationships. So let's think first. God opens doors of peril so that we'll trust Him rather than ourselves. Beginning in verse 8. For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experience in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril and he will deliver us on him We have set our hope that he will deliver us again. Think about the realities of Paul's transparency here, the things that he has experienced since he's last been in contact with the church. It's hard for us to imagine someone like Paul, who goes on to say in this very letter, he was permitted to see things in heaven that no other human had seen. He'd been privileged as an apostle to see the risen Lord Jesus. He's writing part of the Bible. He consciously knows that he's inspired in what he's writing. Yet he openly admits that he had begun to believe that it was a hopeless situation that God had brought him into. It's hard for us to think about what he's going through, but if we think about our own situation, if we're honest, maybe we're frustrated at the Lord or we're questioning why he's doing the things that he's doing, why he's bringing us to these circumstances. A few years ago, a lifelong friend of mine came to visit here. He and his wife came to visit us in Georgia. And as it turned out, I needed his help in moving some things, moving some furniture. And that wasn't the goal of him coming here. And so in that process, we had a few detours. And he looked at me and said, I didn't sign up for this. I didn't sign up for this. He mentioned that a few times. He was saying that tongue-in-cheek because we've known each other forever and we joke about things like that, but that's not unlike us as we think about the Christian life. I know I need to be forgiven. I don't want to go to hell. I want to enjoy eternal life. I want to be with my family and friends forever. I want those things. But I didn't sign up for these things that Paul's talking about. And in my situation with my friend, we're reminded that in friendships, a true friend is with you throughout whatever comes your path. That friend is not just there to laugh with you and enjoy the good times in life, what we would consider good, but also to walk with you during difficulties. When we commit to being a friend, we do in fact sign up for that. That's what we're signing up for, if you will, when we become followers of Christ. It's not just about Jesus and me, it's about Jesus and his wife, about his bride, what he's doing to prepare that bride for the wedding day. And Paul lives for that. He knows that. He focuses on that largely in 1 Corinthians, reminding us about the unity of the body of Christ, regardless of our differences. But here, right now, at this point, all you see is the sentence of death. This is a phrase that's used in secular literature of the time. It talked about official decrees that were handed down. for people to be executed. And Paul looked at this recent trial and experiences he's come through like that. Like he's been handed the sentence of death and that shadow hung over his life for a long time. The friend I just mentioned, we grew up going to a small Christian school, and anytime you were sent to the principal, you were to go to the principal's office with a slip of paper that indicated the offense, and that principal had to sign that, and then it would be sent home. And this same friend and I, we received those sentences and were sent to the principal's office, but he was occupied for a while on the phone, and so we sat there for what seemed like an eternity. It was casting this long shadow over us, and we were greatly anxious. Now we deserve to go there. Paul didn't. Here he's being persecuted, we find out later. He's being opposed by those that are against Christ and his gospel. Paul says, ultimately, this is a good thing, that God opens these doors of peril to force us as his children to take their eyes off of self and put them back onto him. He says this was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. John Piper, referring to this passage, has a very memorable image. He talks about how God is weaning us off the milk of self. We rely on our abilities that God has given us and it's easy when times are going well for us and we're seeing success and getting good feedback. We will never say it openly, but the temptation is to fall back on self. I remember years ago, one of our presbytery meetings, a son of our church, Brian Moore, he was coming for licensure and ordination, and I remember the pastor that spoke that day charged Brian and told him, at various points in your ministry, you're gonna be tempted to think, if not by the very words, but by the actions of, I've got this. You might be pressed for time and preparing a message or a lesson. or visiting someone, discipling someone, and you're gonna be tempted to just rely on sheer ability and leave the Lord out of that equation. Even as pastors, and Brian's now a missionary, he knows this is a constant temptation to rely on ourself, but Piper reminds us, as Paul reminds us, that God's getting us off the bottle of self. He's weaning us off of that to get us to rely on the Lord. C.S. Lewis famously said that pain and suffering in our life, that's God's megaphone to us, to get our attention. He says God speaks to us during times of pleasure and times of ease. He still speaks to us. He's always speaking to us. He's always at work. But it's particularly during suffering that Lewis says that God shouts through that megaphone. Think about the retreat this weekend. I remember going on one of those retreats a few years ago. At the time, Dean Edson was our youth intern, and he had a bullhorn, and he would get all kind of feedback as he would call the kids to assemble, or he would give out instructions to one of the games. It wasn't a pleasant sound to hear that thing crackle and pop and give feedback, but it got your attention. You knew where you were supposed to be. Regardless of how much you were enjoying whatever you're involved in, it was time now to transition. And that's what C.S. Lewis says. Lewis says, as Christians, we know we're called to die daily to self. But pain, when it comes our way, it insists upon being paid attention to. His megaphone shatters the illusion that all is well. It shatters the illusion that what we have is our own and that it's enough for us. Lewis says, it's hard to turn our thoughts to God when everything is going well. We find God an interruption. We look at God as a parachute. We're in a plane, we hope we'll never have to rely on it. But Lewis reminds us that God is good to interrupt us. God knows that our happiness lies in him. He knows that we will not seek it in him, and so he takes away the sources of false happiness. It is just here where God's providence seems at first to be most cruel. that he deserves praise. That's what we'll wind up looking at in the end this morning is that all this is driving us as individuals to come together as God's people to praise him. And Lewis says that God uses this megaphone of pain and suffering and hardship to get our attention, to draw us back to him. There is a place to lament our suffering. The Bible is full of passages like that. But ultimately, John Piper and C.S. Lewis remind us that we must ask, what is God trying to say to me here? What is God doing here? It's in these moments that we find Christ to be most dear, that we wouldn't in other times. Isabel Allison was a Scottish Christian who was executed in 1681 by the Scottish government for her faith. In her last diary entry before she was executed, she writes this, I bless the Lord, praise his holy name that he has made my prison a palace to me. Who am I that he should have dealt with me this way? Oh, how great is his love to me that he has caused me to rejoice in him. I bless the Lord that he gave me a life to lay down for him. She referred to her imprisonment as a palace because it forced her to focus on the king. And that's what Paul is saying is going on here. God opens doors of peril. We're seeing that He does that to cause us to focus not on ourselves, but to focus on Him. And secondly, God opens doors of peril for us to pray for each other. Verse 11a says, you also must help us by prayer. Reminded that The Apostle Paul, as unique as he was in God's purposes in history, is like all of us in that not only does he suffer and struggle, but he recognizes that we need each other. We go through struggles, not only to reorient us towards the Lord, but to reorient each other. Not only to pray in our own struggles for ourselves, but to pray for each other. That means we too are being drawn away from our stuff to focus on the Lord. I mentioned Brian Moore, a son of our church. tremendous friend. He was on our staff for many years. Pastor Dee invested heavily in him. Bob Bishop invested in him. He, in turn, invested in Travis. He invested in me, and I value his insight. He's younger than me, but I learned from him. And as I came to preach this passage this weekend, Here's what his thoughts are on this passage as we converse. He said, let me start out, he's talking to you now, let me start off by clearly saying that our experience in Germany is nowhere near as difficult as Paul's description here in 2 Corinthians. Paul and his companions have clearly endured immense suffering. This has not been our experience. So Brian, like we all do, he recognizes that Paul has just gone through some excruciating periods. And Brian, even though he's away from the comforts of living here, away from their families, away from their church family, he'll be the first to say that that's not our experience. I can't fully appreciate that, but he says this. However, where we very much do relate to Paul is when he claims in verse nine that these things happened so that they would not rely on themselves. And so as Brian and Megan think about their own ministry in Germany, he says this in light of this being forced around the Lord. It's easy to think that, quote, if we could only learn the language, if we could, quote, only crack the cultural code, If we could, quote, only figure out the right methods, we could be effective in Germany. And so Brian admits, he says, often we ask for prayer with these intentions in mind. And yet, we too have learned that our experience leads us more and more to rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. We have no hope, Brian says, apart from him. And here's where we come in. It's one thing to hear Brian relate to Paul and Megan relate to Paul, but here's where we come in as we think about open doors for us. Brian says, we consider church planning evangelism, discipleship and more. We have no hope apart from the Lord. We can do nothing. And so in the same way, Paul asked for prayer in the face of his otherwise hopeless situation. We too need your prayers. Not just as a comfort or just out of duty, but because our entire work depends on your prayers. The work that you have sent us to do is impossible unless you pray. Brian and Megan have been called to go to Germany. We may not have received that same call, but Notice what Paul is saying here is exactly what Brian is saying. Think about the call to worship and the response of reading. Think about what he's saying here. Paul isn't singling out the leadership to pray for he and his ministry partners. If you think about the scope of all of his different letters, how many times does he single out the children? He singles out widows, he singles out couples. He's talking to the entire church, regardless of our age or life stage, regardless of the other things in our lives. Brian is reminding us, Paul's reminding us that this is the calling of a Christian, to pray for the advancement of the gospel. As God opens those doors of peril to take our eyes off of ourself and onto him, is ultimately with a view towards his bride as well. He's opening these doors for us to pray for missionaries in the advancement of the gospel. And the end result is not just that Brian and Megan are able to reach people there in Germany, their church plant goes well and that people come to faith. The end goal is praising the Lord. We've seen how God opens doors of peril to take our focus off of ourselves and onto him. We're seeing now that he opens doors for us to pray for missionaries. And lastly, God opens doors of peril and prayer so that others will praise him. Coming back to our last verse, verse 11, he says, you also must help us by prayer so that Many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. This is the goal of missions. Talked earlier about how it's easy for us as an individual Christian to be glad and have assurance that I've been forgiven. Not because of what we've done to appease God, but because of what He's done in sending His perfect Son for us, because of His perfect life, His death for us on the cross for our sins, His resurrection, His ascension, His intercession for us. That's where our hope lies, is in Jesus. We're glad for that as individuals. We're thankful we don't have to worry about that. That's something the Lord wants us to know and to enjoy. It's not just us isolated from thanking God for saving us, but if we think about what He's done for us, what He's rescued us from, and we're grateful, how much more then do we want that same one that saved us to receive more and more glory? Because He's worthy of it. If we really do grasp what He's done for us, that should move us to praise Him, to cherish Him. As we think about beyond our situation, We want people in Berlin and around the world to praise him, throughout Germany, throughout Europe. John Piper says that, Paul indicates here at the end of this section, that's what fuels him. Certainly, Paul has gone through experiences where death was staring him in the face, but at the end of the day, what's ultimately driving him is not just surviving, but it's that he survives to finish the task he's given, that others would come to praise him. So, as we close, I want you to look with me now at the back of your worship guides. Think about what you're gonna be asked to do soon. You'll see on the back of your worship guide. About halfway down. If you want to, if you're new and you want to learn how to pray for our church, maybe pick a day and start with the staff there at the top, and then you can pray for our elders, our deacons, you can pray for our women's leadership team. We all desperately need it. We desperately need your prayers. But we're gonna ask you, in a few weeks, to make a commitment to pray for those that fall on the rest of the back of this page. You'll hear more about this in coming weeks, but we're gonna pass out cards, and you'll sign up your email address, and you can receive emails from our missionaries, like Brian and Megan Moore and others, that are giving you very specific requests. Sometimes, if you're like us, you're not around your nieces and nephews that live out of state, and a lot of times, when you don't know exactly what's going on in their life, you give them a generic gift card. They're glad for that, but when you know them, you're able to give them something specific and unique that really speaks to their interests. And we can pray generically for our missionaries, if the Lord opened doors to provide for them. Those are all important requests, but when we receive those requests, we're getting to know them. We're praying specifically for very pressing needs that come up. And so you'll have opportunity to sign up through that card, or if you wanna just start slowly, you can sign up. The individual missionaries that will be here, they usually have a clipboard on their display table, you can sign up. If you've never done anything like this, then do something like that, just start out slow. Maybe you came to faith as a college student, sign up for one of the college ministries on the back here. One of our current elders had never done anything like this before. By the time he and his wife arrived at our church, the Moors were already in Germany. But he began to start slow, and he began to pray for the Moors. So by the time they came back to see us during the mission conference, he already knew them, he knew what was going on in their lives. And that has motivated him then to expand his prayer life for other missionaries. So that's the calling, that God's opening doors for us to pray for our missionaries, that others would come to praise him. So let's close now in prayer. Finally, we thank you for those you have raised up from our church family to go and to serve you. We think about Will Owens tonight, Lord. So thankful for Will and pray you would bless him as he opens your word to us. So thankful for our missionaries. I think about the many names and individuals and families in the back of this bulletin, Lord. Lord, we thank you for giving us the blessing. You've opened doors to pray for them. And so Father, prepare us to do this. Give us joy in doing this. And Father, we commit this all to you, Lord, expectantly in Jesus' name, amen.