2 Corinthians Series: Yoking Not Yolking Series

2 CORINTHIANS SERIES

YOKING NOT YOLKING

2 CORINTHIANS 6:1-18

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PERSON FROM CONGREGATION READS 2 CORINTHIANS 6:1-18 (ESV)

“Working together with Him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2 For He says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 3 We put no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, 4 but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; 6 by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; 7 by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; 8 through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; 9 as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; 10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything. 11 We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians; our heart is wide open. 12 You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. 13 In return (I speak as to children) widen your hearts also. 14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 17 Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, 18 and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me, says the Lord Almighty.”

INTRODUCTION… research.lifeway.com/2020/02/21/4-reasons-why-we-should-preach-hard-texts/ [adapted]

Ya’ll, today is going to be a hard sermon.

I was tempted to skip it, but I decided not to.

I decided not to so that we, as a church family, rely on God’s power to apply His Word. The Words we read in the Bible are not man-made or natural, but are God’s Word and supernatural. Sometimes God reveals Truth we do not want to accept or see. We need to rely on the Holy Spirit to apply those Bible passages that hurt us or we do not understand completely.

I decided not to because God is good and wants the absolute best for us. There are wonderful Truths in God’s Word (Psalm 119:18). Seven times in Psalm 119 King David writes and sings, “Teach me Your statutes” (119:12, 26, 64, 68, 124, 135, 171) because we do not always understand God’s ways. By giving us some things hard that are hard to understand, God has unleashed to us the need for Him… for His help… for His guidance.

I decided not to because we need to be able to think hard about biblical passages. We need to pray through and think through the Bible in complete honesty. Prayer and thinking are not mutually exclusive activities. Not for the believer in Christ. In fact, the Apostle Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:7…

READ 2 TIMOTHY 2:7 (ESV)

“Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.”

Yes, it is the Lord who gives understanding, but He does it through our God-given ability to think. With prayer, we are to think hard about what the Bible says. We are also to apply it.

I decided not to because at Cincinnati Christian Church we do not shy away from the Bible. Some Truths in God’s Word are difficult. Difficult does not mean they are not True. Difficult means we need to wrestle with them and I would not be helping you if I shy away from difficult Biblical Truth… I would be hurting you.

Ya’ll, today is going to be a hard sermon.

I was tempted to skip it, but I decided not to.

TRANSITION

We are going to dive into this passage in a moment, but before we do I want to first talk about the word picture that the Apostle Paul uses in the last half of the chapter. The word picture centers around yoking. Yoking not yolking. No I’m not mispronouncing the word joking, I’m talking about yoking not yoking. Got it?

THE WORD PICTURE USED: THE YOKE