6/21/20 2 Cor. 6:1-13 “Going to the Edge of Life and Death!”

19 Jun 6/21/20 2 Cor. 6:1-13 “Going to the Edge of Life and Death!”

6/21/20     2 Cor. 6:1-13   “Going to the Edge of Life and Death!”

I remember several years ago when we went to Spirit Lake Reservation near Devils Lake on a mission trip.  We were in an area of the state where there are many people who don’t have very much.  They don’t have many of the things that we take for granted.   Unfortunately, one of these things is food.  Sometimes it might be heat in the winter time and this is huge in our area.  And right along with this is often times they have a lack of spiritual guidance.  The same can be said about many other people that we know in other areas including where you are.  I also think that often times we take our dads and moms for granted.  As this weekend is Father’s Day, try to do something special for dear old dad that you normally wouldn’t do.  I am sure that many of us today can think of other things or people that we take for granted.  This is also something that happens to us sometimes in our spiritual walk with Jesus.  And when this happens, we leave ourselves open to attack from the dark side which can result in some pretty bad consequences.  Today we are going to look to see if we can see ourselves taking our faith for granted.  Then let’s see if we can find a way to better these situations.

I recently read an article by Scott Cramer about jumping out of a plane with a parachute.  This is one activity that you will never have to worry about me doing.  I can really see no point in it unless the plane is about to crash.  But there are many people who really enjoy this pastime.  There are a few who enjoy it so much that they have gotten bored with it.  So, they invented what they call “swooping.”  This is a highly dangerous sport.  There are several people killed every year doing it.

This is what they do as I understand it.  They use a very undersized parachute and then they free fall well past the margin of safety.  The chute opens and they are very close to the ground or water.  At this point they can maneuver this special chute so that they will swoop and run parallel to the ground or water.  One can readily see that if they don’t do it quite right the results could be bad injuries or death.  These people are thrill seekers of the nth degree.  This would be called an extreme sport; a very extreme sport and I would not recommend it.  But it shows how we like to flirt at the edge of safety, in this case death.  Often times we are the same way in our spiritual life.  Sometimes we like to get as close to Satan as we can and then try to come back to Jesus.  It doesn’t always work.

In our opening verse, Paul is telling us not to do this.  Do not take your faith in vain.  Paul is talking to a corrupt church in Corinth.  Some of them were of the opinion that they could carry on with their old lives of sin and at the same time be Christian.  They thought that they could do whatever the rest of the city was doing and still be a Christian on Sunday.  They thought that they were better than Paul and they told him so.  They seemed to think that they could make up their own Christianity as was the custom of the area.  At that time, people would take a little of this religion and a little of that one and make up a new religion.

This is a problem we can see today.  I don’t even know where to begin on this one.  Many people come to know Christ and they think and sometimes want their old lives back.  They are like the Israelites coming out of Egypt.  They want the old ways back.  They are too young in their faith to realize just how good God is for their lives.  They don’t realize how destructive they are being by going to the bars all the time, or swearing all the time, or cheating people in business in the name of Jesus.  These things are terribly destructive and I will get back to them in a minute.

We also have many people who know more about God than everyone else.  I believe that there is something like 2000 different denominations in this country.  Just think about that for a minute.  That is a staggering amount of dissention.  Every one of these began because someone didn’t like something.  It probably went something like this.  We don’t like the songs or the music you play and we can do better so we are going to move over here and start our own religion.  Or one of my favorites is that your church isn’t preaching the ‘Word.’  I used to cringe with the fear that maybe I wasn’t preaching the ‘Word’ when I heard this.  But it didn’t take me too long to see that it was only that I might not be preaching what certain people wanted to hear.  They only wanted to hear their favorite parts of the Bible.  They didn’t want to hear the tough parts.  They wanted their own religion.  I have also heard that certain churches don’t pray enough, or they are too mission-minded, or their sermons are too short or they are too long.  Or maybe they serve ice cream that is too cold.  I don’t mean to find fault in any established churches but I do sometimes question the validity of starting a new church on some whim.  This would be taking your faith in vain.

This all ties into the second point that Paul is making here, he was telling the Corinthians that they had to be careful in how they presented themselves in daily life so that they didn’t scare people away from Christ.  They were not to be destructive.  Some of their actions had become stumbling blocks for others to come to faith.  Apparently, things had been happening there that were a discredit to Christ and his followers.  He doesn’t tell us what had happened but whatever it was, it was worth this letter.

Once again, we live in a similar world.  Some of the reasons I just stated for starting a new church are a discredit to Christ.  Whenever we have a huge disagreement in our church, it is a discredit to Christ.  Whenever we openly sin, it is a discredit to Jesus.  You may be saying to yourself about now that this is hard to do.  I agree.  This is hard.  But it is necessary that we steer away from these behaviors and I will show you why with this little illustration from Steve Shepherd.

It seems that there was a young Christian man who had a lot of charisma and was especially influential with young people.  He wanted to be the youth pastor at his church.  One day he went to a baseball game where he bought a beer and was carrying it back to his seat when he ran into a couple of junior high kids from his church.  They stopped and chatted a bit and laughed a bit.  He could tell that these young people looked up to him.  He went to his seat and sat down and he began to think.  He thought, “Wouldn’t it be awful if tonight those young people decided to go out and drink beer because of me drinking beer today.  And because of this they got into trouble or worse yet if they would get into an accident.”  That beer that young future pastor had would be the last one he ever had.  He never had another one because of the love he had for these young people.  He didn’t want to be a stumbling block for these people.

We also need to be careful in what we do.  It is not just the pastor but maybe some other leaders that people look up to for guidance and leadership.  All of us are looked upon as people who are special.  You are people who have been set apart by your love of Jesus.  This in turn makes others look to you for things that you may not even know you have.  And when this does happen, trust God and let him be your guide.

So, we are not to be stumbling blocks for others but we are to be trampled upon by the world.  Paul is telling all of us that we are servants of God and we will have hardships and troubles in His name.  We will be thrown into prison, beaten up and we will be hungry.  We will have many things happen to us that are not very nice.  But fear not when they do happen.  Jesus Christ is only a prayer away and He will always help.  Even though all these things and more will happen to us, we will still possess everything.

The people in our Scripture were in a real dilemma.  They lived in a world that was full of sin.  Everywhere they looked, bad things were happening and these bad things that were happening were considered by the world to be good.  So, they could either follow the ways of the world else or they could stick with Jesus Christ.  But what the people wanted was to follow both ways.  Paul is telling them that when they follow Jesus, then all of these worldly bad things may happen to them.  He is telling them not to worry about it because they are no longer of this world.  Jesus will give them everything and more if they follow.

Some of the things I have just talked about here in these ancient times are a parallel of our modern world.  Following Jesus is hard work.  You may be ridiculed by the masses for doing this.  You may be put down.  You may be called names.  You may be given the silent treatment.  All of these things have happened to me at one time or another in my wonderful walk with Jesus.  Sometimes these things really hurt me but I would not give up Jesus for anything.

One of the things that I feel is fortunate.  I’m fortunate that I haven’t had someone try to kill me yet.  I’m fortunate that people haven’t tried to harm my family.  I’m fortunate that these people who have already done bad things to me, don’t have enough power to starve me to death.  I am very fortunate when compared to many people throughout the world who live in countries that absolutely hate Christians like so many are beginning to do in this country.

But I also feel very sad about many of these things.  I’m sad because people hate Jesus so much that they have to try to hurt me.  I feel terrible for these people who are so stuck in their terrible sin lives and cannot see that they are even in it.  I’m saddened by the people of this country who seem to think that we have to change this wonderful Bible we have so that it fits our society.  We are to be doing just the opposite.  We need to be taking this society of ours and changing it so that it fits this glorious book.  And the people who want to change this book are not liberals or conservatives or anything else.  They are just plain messed up.  They want to have their old way of life along with this new way of life in Christ.  Unfortunately for them, it just doesn’t work that way.

But these people are relentless.  They will stop at nothing as they want to have everything their way and not God’s way.  This is the same type of thinking and actions that have gotten people in trouble for centuries.  We can read about it over and over again in the Old Testament.  And now this ugly head is being raised again.  I think that it is sad that we think that we are so smart and learned but we fail to grasp the basics and keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again.

But fear not, Jesus is in control here and not us.  Paul says that they have poured their hearts out to the Corinthians.  They have given them all they have.  This is the Good News of Jesus Christ.  All that they gave them was all the Jesus had given the disciples.  In other words, Jesus had given them all that He had to give.  And still people withheld their hearts from Him.

It is the same today.  People everywhere in this country have been given to and they have been given to richly.  We are probably the richest country in the world and yet, according to what I heard at a conference, among English speaking countries of the world, we are the 3^rd largest mission field.  We are the 5^th largest mission field of all countries of the world.  We are so rich in material goods yet so poor in Spirit.  Just look around to see this happening.

And one of the reasons for this may be that people like me don’t offer people who hear me a choice.  Many of us are just content to entertain you for an hour.  Instead we should be asking you some questions.  How is your life?  Is it going nowhere fast?  Are you spinning your wheels in life and not getting anywhere?  Has your life spun out of control?  If any of these things are happening to you or if things just don’t seem right to you, then ask Jesus to live in your heart.  Jesus has been the cure for all things in all lives for all the ages.  He loves you and wants to help you as much as He can.  Confess your sins to Him and let Him into your life.  You will never regret this decision even though you still will have some rough times.  In those rough times you will now have someone to turn to for help.  That is a promise that Jesus makes to all of us as we accept Him.

I began this with the story of the parachute sport called swooping.  These people like to live on the edge of life and death.  If you have an urge like this then let me make a suggestion.  Forget about the airplanes and the parachutes.  Enter into a life in Christ or take your life that you already have in Christ to the edge.  Take it to the people who don’t know Him.  Take it to the people of Spirit Lake Reservation or any mission field near you.  Jesus loves you so much that He will take care of you as you are out there serving Him.

It all starts with helping one person to know Christ.  If you can help one person, then we will maintain our numbers.  If you help two people then our faith will grow.  That isn’t a lot of people to help in a lifetime.  If you have already helped someone, then find someone else to help.  You will find it a little easier with each person you help.  You don’t have to bring them all the way to Jesus, you only have to plant the seed or water the seed.  The Holy Spirit will take care of the rest.

You know that you are not supposed to be a stumbling block, so let’s be a building block.  Let’s not waste our faith on the things of this world that don’t have eternal value.  Let’s use our faith to help others find their faith.  Jesus loves you more than I can ever tell you.  He loves you and will never leave you.  These are the facts of life.  Let’s go to Him now in prayer and let Jesus put His loving arms around you.  And thank you Jesus for first loving us.  Let’s pray.