2 Corinthians 6: The 99 Problems of Paul

The "Las Vegas" of first century Rome has been on a long journey. The Apostle Paul is encouraging them to forgive one another, know who they are in Christ, keep their lives holy, and stay unified.

Overall Theme: Strength in Weakness The God of All Comfort

Strength in weakness. This is the central message of 2 Corinthians. Throughout the letter Paul turns upside down our natural expectations of the way life works. Contrary to the way the world and our own human hearts naturally function, God takes what is low, despised, and weak to accomplish his purposes.

Key Verse God of all Comfort

(2 Corinthians 1:3-4)God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. 4 He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Bible Breakdown Podcast
• 0:52 The 99 Problems of Paul
• 2:17 Paul's Honest Struggles in Ministry
• 6:11 Open Hearts and Unequal Partnerships
• 9:33 Finding Joy Despite Life's Problems
• 11:12 God's Comfort Through Our Struggles

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Hey everyone and welcome to the Bible Breakdown podcast. In this podcast, we will be breaking down the Bible one chapter a day. Whether you are a new believer or have been following Christ for a while, we believe that you will learn something new and fresh every single day. So thank you for joining us and let's get into breaking down the Bible together.

Speaker 2: 0:23

Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon. Today, 2 Corinthians 6, and if I were to give this one a title, it would be the 99 Problems of Paul. Right, the 99 Problems of Paul. This guy has got all the problems and, as I was telling you about before, one of the interesting things about 2 Corinthians is, as Paul has gone on this long journey with the church at Corinth, he is more honest in this particular letter and he shares more of the behind the scenes of Paul's life. We're going to get a little bit of that today and it's amazing when you realize all the things that Paul's experiencing. Yet he has joy and he loves these people so much. And I think it's a wonderful example to all of us, because all of us have got 99 problems in some kind of area. But to realize, I may have 99 problems but Jesus ain't one. And, as always before, we do that, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share and subscribe to YouTube channel. Leave us a five-star review on the podcast. It really helps us out a lot.

Speaker 2: 1:29

I would love for you to go to our brandoncannoncom website and subscribe to my newsletter every weekend. I think it's on Saturdays. Right now we're doing this, we're sending out like my favorite episode of the week, and then, as I'm just always going through the internet researching and looking at stuff, I love apologetics, I love what it is to live this godly life out loud in front of others, and as I find fun stuff like that and informative stuff and sometimes deeper Bible study, archaeological stuff, all the good stuff, I just send you some of my favorites of the week and so if you'd like to know more about that, you can go to BrandonCannoncom, subscribe to the email newsletter every week and then it's always where we come together every day is the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook. Thank you so much for coming together with us and I would love for you to do this. Put a picture on there and let us know a little bit about yourself. Give us a little bit of an intro, because we're trying to create this community where we're just growing and loving God's word together, and the more we dig, the more we find. Well, if you have your Bibles, you want to open them up with me to 2 Corinthians, chapter 6.

Speaker 2: 2:17

Once again, we're getting a little deeper into the story of Paul and a little more into the overall theme of this book, which is the God of all comfort. One of the things I love about this particular book of the Bible is when you read 1 Corinthians and you immediately read 2 Corinthians, you can really see some growth that's happening. So it's really interesting to see that in 1 Corinthians Paul is just getting onto these people. If you remember, the city of Corinth is like the Las Vegas of the first century world and man, they are just party all the time.

Speaker 2: 2:50

All this diversity, but underneath it all is a lot of division, a lot of bad things happening, a lot of just open, flagrant sin. And Paul's like you guys have got to stop. Y'all got to find some unity, y'all got to repent of some stuff and all this and over the course of what happened behind the scenes, a lot of that happened to the point that they kind of went overboard. So Paul is saying, hey, I'm glad you did that, but now it's time, as y'all have repented to one another, to forgive one another and to realize that God is not a God of judgment anymore. That was satisfied on the cross.

Speaker 2: 3:25

And then, when we sin, sometimes God allows bad things to happen to us because we brought it on ourselves all that. He's also a God of comfort and he wants to bring comfort to you. So it's a lot of hey God's for you and not against you, and I think that's important for us to all remember. And one of the things Paul does is just say, hey look, I got 99 problems too. I know I talk a big game and I got all this going on because I have such faith in my big God, but it doesn't mean I don't have problems. I think that's important for us. I think that people will respect you over your victories, but they'll connect with you in your struggles and your losses and your failures. And I think it's important for us to realize that everybody in our life has a private battle that nobody else knows about, and you shouldn't go around telling everybody all your problems. But I think it is important sometimes to pull back the veil and say, look, I'm not looking for a pity party and I'm not looking for sympathy. I just want to let you know that I trust the Lord, but I still have problems, like everybody else, and I think that that can help encourage people that if they have problems it's okay that I have them too, and I think Paul does a little bit of that today.

Speaker 2: 4:23

So let's jump into this together and read 2 Corinthians 6, verse one, and following here we go verse one. As God's partners, we beg you not to accept this marvelous gift of God's kindness and then ignore it. For God says at just the right time I heard you and on the day of salvation I helped you. Indeed, the right time is now. Today is the day of salvation. I helped you. Put into prison, faced angry mobs, worked to exhaustion, endured sleepless nights and gone without food.

Speaker 2: 5:12

We prove ourselves by our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness, and by the Holy Spirit within us and by our sincere love. We faithfully preach the truth. God's power is working in us. We use these weapons of righteousness in the right hand for attack and on the left hand for defense. We serve God, whether people honor us or despise us, whether they slander us or praise us. We are honest but they call us imposters.

Speaker 2: 5:42

We are ignorant or we ignore.

Speaker 2: 5:44

We're not ignorant. We're ignored, even though we are well known. We live close to death, but we are still alive. We have been beaten, but we have not been killed. Our heart aches, but we always have joy. We are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others. We own nothing and yet have everything.

Speaker 2: 6:05

Oh, dear Corinthian friends, we have spoken honestly with you and our hearts are open to you. There is no lack of love on our part, but you have withheld your love from us. So I'm asking you to respond as if you are my own children. Open your hearts to us. Don't team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness? What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil? How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever? And what union can there be between God's temple and idols? For we are the temple of the living God, as God said. I will live in them and will walk among them. I will be their God and they will be my people. Therefore, come out from among the unbeliever and be separate, and separate yourselves from them, says the Lord. Don't touch any filthy things and I will welcome you. I will be your father and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.

Speaker 2: 7:04

So what Paul is saying is is he is saying I got problems too. I got 99 problems, just like you do, and I've opened my heart to you. Won't you open your heart back to us? He's saying I'm going all in in this relationship. I am telling you everything that's going on in my heart. Can we have this relationship together? And then he says by that I'm telling you. I'm telling you to do hard things. I'm telling you to not partner with unbelievers. I'm telling you to live righteously in a world of wickedness. I'm telling you to be a source of light in dark places. It's hard, I know it's hard, but I'm not telling you this from a distance. I'm telling you this from living right up, close and personal, right along with you.

Speaker 2: 7:51

The reason why this is is because Paul understands that it's one thing to say you're a Christian. It's another thing to we would say in our current context to read God's word and then live like one. It's very easy to say, hey, let's separate ourselves from evil in our life, let's get rid of the sin, let's get rid of sexual immorality, let's get rid of all these other things and let's live pure and let's live holy. It's easy to say that it's another thing to live that way. And what Paul is saying is I'm right, here with you, I'm dealing with struggles, I'm dealing with difficulties. I'm doing all this. I'm doing all of it because I want to be a faithful minister. I'm opening up my heart to you. I got 99 problems. I know I could probably impress you with my greatness, but I'd rather connect with you in my weakness. Won't you connect with me and let's do this together? That's amazing. That's amazing that he's willing to say that. And can I tell you that is still a wonderful lesson for all of us.

Speaker 2: 8:43

You know the Bible says that God is the God of all comfort. And you know what's amazing, that in all of those difficulties that Paul is experiencing, that he's being honest about, none of them has caused him to give up. Notice, it didn't say in any of that that well, and that was the one I almost gave up on. No, instead he is saying actually, I may lack a lot of stuff, but I still have joy, Because when you understand the goodness of God, the result is God. This is light and momentary compared to the eternal glory that is within all of us.

Speaker 2: 9:15

So I want to ask you this question Will you be willing to partner with God's word, partner with Paul, the way he's asking the Corinthians to, to say, hey, I'm going all in in this, I'm doing everything I can so I can be faithful. Will you go all in with me too, because we're all in this thing together and the God of all comfort. When we do that, the more we separate ourselves from the sin in our life and the broken places, the more we're able to see God. And then what's even more amazing is that when we do that and God comforts us, we're then able to comfort others. My question for you is are you willing to go all in, like Paul is encouraging the Corinthians to as well?

Speaker 2: 9:53

I know it can be a hard one, but when we do, that's when we can truly see God and where God's word says that I will live in them, I will walk among them, I will be their God and they will be my people. He says I will be your father and you will be my sons and daughters. That's what God wants for you is. He wants you to be part of his spiritual family. Let's pray together, god.

Speaker 2: 10:16

Thank you so much for your word. Thank you that your word is good. Thank you that your word reminds us that, lord, you want to be our God and you are God, whether or not we serve you. But what's amazing is you also want to be our heavenly Father, you want to father us, you want to lead us and guide us, and what Paul is begging them to do is to take the journey to separate ourselves from our sins so we can live righteously, because it's then we can truly see you.

Speaker 2: 10:45

I pray, god, that we will realize that, that your word is there as a guide to help us get closer to you, and I pray you will help us to take those steps today. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen, amen, don't forget. God's word says in 2 Corinthians 1, god is the source of all. Say it with me comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. How has God comforted you today, and how can you share God's comfort with someone else today? I love you no-transcript.