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our hands to him, church. There is no name like your name, Jesus. It is the name that is above every other name. And we ascribe unto you all the glory, all the praise, Lord, your power that surpasses anything that we could even imagine. We bless you today. We honor you today in Jesus' mighty name. If you believe that, can you say a good amen? Just give him a hand clap of praise and a shout, would you? Lord, you're good. We bless you. You're worthy. Hallelujah.
We'll give somebody a high five as you're seated. We're going to release our lower elementary. Our upper elementary is going to stay here with us today. We've got a lot of leaders, a lot of students at camp this morning. Thank you, Art. All right. All right. All right. Well, good morning to you. My name is Jonathan. If I've not had the opportunity to preaching, pastoral team at Destiny Life, so good to have you with us. Lower elementary release, upper elementary will stay here with us. Just make sure that that's clear. I know there's a lot of movement when I was saying that. Speaking of kids, I'll just say that now, Jim.
I forgot to announce I was going to mention in my message. Many of you guys know that along with DLC, we have CCS or Claremore Christian School. God's really blessed Claremore Christian. This last year, we moved the lower, at least most of the lower elementary. Over to this building. The other is in Blue Star, the secondary. Really, the school has really grown and flourishing. That's left us with really needing some teachers. We've hired all the teachers except for two teachers. We need a fourth grade teacher and we need a middle school history teacher for CCS. Now, it doesn't have to be this, but that's part-time. The middle school history teacher is part-time. I'm thinking of maybe a spouse that doesn't work or somebody's retired and wants to work a few hours a day or something like that. So, I just, we want to put that out to the church family. We need a custodian as well for that. So, if you are interested or know anybody to be interested in that, Josh, wait. Josh Vaughn is our principal. You can talk to him after. His son is waving at us too.
You can come see you, Jude. Okay, yeah. No, you can talk to Josh after or call the office tomorrow if you know anybody that might be interested in that. And we just wanted to put that out to the church family. So, all right. Well, I wanted to say that before I forgot. I'm at the age where I just got it down. If I don't write it down, I forget it. Anybody else there with me? Glory to God. So, we just write it down. I'm thankful for my watch. Sometimes, I'll have an alarm go off three weeks later. I forgot I set. I'm like, what in the world was that? And when I was talking into it, Siri didn't understand. So, now I'm trying to decipher my own code word. So, I got all kind of alarms on my watch.
In 2 Corinthians chapter 11, as most of you know, we're preaching through the book of 2 Corinthians. And James did a great job last week covering the 2 Corinthians chapter first half of chapter 11. We are in a series called Steadfast. As you know, our theme for this year, 2026, is stand, really to stand firm. And so, this message today really lends itself to that. And I want to kind of summarize the first half of the chapter that James preached on last week because I think it really goes together in the context of the second half of what Paul is saying.
We talked about being steadfast in truth. And today, I want to talk about everybody's favorite topic of being steadfast in suffering. I know everybody loves the topic of suffering. But truly, my hope today is that you would leave encouraged and strengthened in the Holy Spirit, strengthened by God in your inner being, knowing that God knows exactly where every single one of us is, and that He utilizes every single one of us. And that He utilizes every single one of us. Everything in our lives to shape us and form us into His image and to conform us more into the image of Christ and to become the men and women of God that He's called us to be.
And so, the first half of the chapter there, he's talking to the Corinthians and he's talking to them about his concern that they are drifting away from the truth. He says to them, I'm afraid that you have been deceived just like Eve. I'm afraid that you have been deceived just like Eve. I'm afraid that you are believing a different gospel. I'm afraid that you are being preached to a different Jesus and believing in a different Jesus. I'm afraid that you are receiving a different spirit than the one that I taught. He was concerned about them drifting off of something. And it made me think about my wife's recent comments to me. Every husband here knows that there are things that your wife can say to you that a husband can never say to a wife. Here's just one of them. Is that what you're wearing out today? Men, we can never say that, but our wives could easily say, are you going to wear that outside today? Right? So, we're having this conversation, and not that I would need to say that to my wife, by the way. I'll just throw that out there. We were having this conversation the other day, and she just casually mentions to me, honey, I don't think that I trust your driving like I did 30 years ago. Like, I used to really trust your driving, but now I'm not so sure. And I started thinking about it, and I'm like, you know, before we take a road trip, some years ago, we take a road trip. I mean, we wouldn't be two miles down the road until she's asleep in the passenger side, and she's asleep the whole way. And I started noticing when she said that to me, like, she never sleeps anymore. How can I say this? Pretty regularly assisting me in my driving, I'll say that. And so, I told her she was talking to him. I said, listen, I pay taxes on both sides of this road. I'm going to use the whole thing whenever I want to, right? If I drift a little bit, then it's okay. You know, like, I'm not going to drift. I'm not going to drift. I'm not going to drift. I got my eyes on the road. I'm not texting. It's okay, you know? And I think she gave me one of those little chats right after, I think I had just kind of, I'm going to call it faded, okay? I just faded a little bit over to the right. And, you know, I guess they call it a rumble strip. I didn't really know.
You know, they dig grooves in the pavement, so if you get too far off the road, you hit that rumble strip, and it lets you know that, hey, you're veering off from your lane. And you don't need to just yank the car back. In fact, I remembered when I was talking to Wasa about this last week, and I remembered that I had a buddy, which some of you guys know, Nathatikonduadua. He's my Fijian friend. We've known each other for a very long time, and he's been here and ministered a couple times at our missions weekend. And I remember when Elisha and I, I think we were married. I can't remember if we were dating or married, but we were very early on in our relationship, and we went to a church about an hour away from where we lived, and we were driving back, or we were going to drive back, and I had a little Honda Accord at the time, a little hatchback Honda Accord, and I asked Nathat, hey, could you drive? I want to sit, you know, we were just young and in love, you know what I'm saying? You want to just gaze in each other's eyes and just, you know, spend hours talking and just, you know, all the things of just young love, you know? And so I said, why don't you drive, and I'll, you know, Elisha and I will just sit here in the back seat, and we'll chat. And so we start doing that. Now, he had not had his license very long, and that should have been a good indicator to me first off, all right? Because Elisha was like, honey, are you sure this is okay, baby? This is going to be fine. This will be fine. And so we're driving, and you know, we're just back there, starstruck lovers, you know, staring each other's eyes, not paying attention. And evidently, Nathat wasn't paying attention to the road either, because he just starts veering off, and in a minute, we're talking, and we hear, we feel that, well, he panics. And so he yanks the car to the left, and so Elisha has this thing when we're in a car, and like, she gets nervous or something. She starts saying, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. I mean, she like, in fact, she scares me more than what's happening in the actual moment. I remember, I should have known this, because literally the first time that I met her in the States, she came with Teresa to Florida, and I'm taking Teresa back to the airport. They lived in Venezuela at the time, and we're on the turnpike in South Florida driving a church van, and there's the concrete barricade on this side and a semi-truck on this side, and the front right tire explodes. And so it's trying to pull me into the truck, and I'm holding it like this, and Jesus, and up, Jesus. Elisha's screaming, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, and Teresa's going, ah, and I'm yelling, shut up, shut up. I mean, they scared me more than the semi or the barricade or the tire. So anyway, I'm with Nathat and Elisha, and she starts saying, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. And so I'm yelling it back to the right, turn it back. So then he whips the steering wheel to the right, and then he, you know, the car goes this way. So he panics, he goes, and we're literally like duck walking down the highway. Finally, I'm saying to him, Nathat, just let it go. So he lets go of the steering wheel, takes his foot off the gas. Thankfully, there was nobody coming, because we were on a pretty major highway. Thankfully, nobody was coming. And so Elisha's, you know, jabbing me, and they're, oh, dirt, and drive right now.
And, I can't remember if I did or not. I probably did, because she, you know, she said it. I probably did it. So I got up there, and I just began to think about how when you drift like this, the answer is not to make a hard right turn, right? By the way, guys, when we hit that little rumble strip there, the road didn't move, right? It wasn't the road that moved. We moved, right? We didn't quit. We didn't just say, all right, well, I'm going to go home now. I hit the rumble strip. I'm going to continue on to our destination, right? What did we do? We just recognized that that is something letting us know that we veered off of the right path, right? And Paul says to the Corinthians, I'm concerned that you veered off.
I'm concerned that you are acting like Eve did when she was deceived. And you remember when sin came into the world, and the serpent is there with Eve in the book of Genesis. And basically, he doesn't just slap her in the face with a lie. Plants a seed first. And here's the seed that he plants. He says, because God creates them in the garden, and he says, all of this is yours. Stay away from that tree. And so the serpent comes to Eve, and what he starts with, he doesn't even say, he didn't talk about the tree initially. What he talked about initially is he said, did God really say? Now, I've noticed in my own life when the enemy's coming, or I'm tempted in an area or whatever, it's like there's a seed planted in your right to just get you to doubt God. And then the serpent moves on to distorting the character of God. So not only does he say, did God really say, but he basically implies, he insults God's character. He implies that Eve's going to miss out on something, right? So-called FOMO, the fear of missing out, right? This idea that I'm going to miss out on something. And then finally, he says to her a blatant opposite of what God said. God said, if you eat of this tree, you'll surely die. And Satan, the enemy's servant, says to Eve, you will not surely die. So he starts from planting this seed of doubt to the blatant rebellion.
And I've just noticed in my own life, when it comes to sin, oftentimes it's that. It's this planting of a seed. So you see the outward reality of the rebellion of Eve and then of Adam, who ate the fruit, and that's how sin entered into the world. You see that, but what's, what I see is outward rebellion and action of outward rebellion really started with an inner thought. And I think that for us today, and this has always been true, of course, but I think today may be more so than any other time in our lifetime in history of our real necessity to really know the Word of God, to really apply ourselves to the Word of God, because we live in the so-called information age, right? Everything is at our fingertips, even beyond our fingertips. I mean, I can literally talk into my phone and, get any amount of information that I need in seconds. Now, let me give you a public service announcement today. Maybe you don't need this, but just for my own heart, I'm going to give it to you, okay? Everything on the internet is not true, okay? I just thought I'd put that out there for those that may believe that it is, right? Everything is not true, but we are completely bombarded with propaganda, with lies, with information, with truth at times, but with the truth at times, we can't know what's right or wrong. We can't know what's true or not true if you don't know the truth. The quickest way to understand and know that this is a lie is to know the truth. And the only way to be able to know the truth is to really apply ourselves in the Word of God. I appreciate James talking last week. You know, for a period of time in his life, he was traveling and preaching quite a bit. And when they moved here to Claremore and started being a part of Destiny Life, he was not preaching on a consistent basis, and he had to ask himself the question, am I going to study the Scripture because I desire to be a man of God and because I'm a believer, or was I just studying the Scripture to preach? Now, most people in the body of Christ will not be preachers in the sense of standing on a stage, talking to a congregation like I am right now. Now, unfortunately, we've made this the platform and other believers, and y'all know at Destiny Life, that's a strong message that we don't preach, right? That's not the reality of it. But every one of us has to ask ourselves, apply myself to really studying the Word of God. Obviously, reading the Word of God, but just really apply myself to studying the Word of God. And the only way to avoid error is to actually do that, to really apply ourselves to study God. So he says, I'm concerned that you're drifting. Well, now, this week, he's going to talk about the fact of not just being steadfast in the truth, but being steadfast in suffering.
Now, y'all know that I love Oklahoma. I call myself an Oklahoma evangelist. I'm an Oklahoma advocate. I don't let people talk bad about the state of Oklahoma. I'm going to just let y'all know. I know we got our problems, but it's like this. You can talk about your family, but nobody else can talk about your family, right? So I don't let...and I consider myself an Okie now. I don't let people talk about Oklahoma, but there is one area that we fall really, really short, okay? Our roads in Oklahoma, I mean, they're bad, bad, bad, right? So I'm thinking that, like, if you veer in Oklahoma, and you get on that rumble strip, and you get yourself back in the lane, you might not even really know the difference. You know what I'm saying? Like, you might still be on kind of that bumpy road, right? And that's kind of, in essence, what Paul talks about this week, because he's...what do you do with that? What do you do? You know when you're on the rumble strip, it's supposed to be bumpy, but what if I feel like I'm right where I'm supposed to be? You know, what do we do when it's like, God, I did obey you, but I don't know you. God, I am doing what I'm supposed to do, and yet still the road feels bumpy. You ever been there? You ever felt justified in your frustration with God of like, Lord, I did everything you told me to do, and yet I'm still walking through this challenge or all of these pressures that are coming against me? I'm going to talk a little bit about that today.
So kind of here's the big idea, for lack of a better term, this week is this. Steadfast believers remain faithful even when you're walking through affliction, right? Steadfast believers remain faithful even when you're walking through affliction, and that God is the one that really comforts you in it. I want to make sure you hear that. He really comforts you in it, and then He uses what He forms in us in those seasons. He uses that for us to then help bring comfort to other people. I could look around the room. I know many of your stories. I could tell multiple stories of many of you, men and women of God, that have walked through real challenge and hardship, and you've responded to it maturely, and God has used it to solidify your life, and then you have used that to really minister to other people, and I'm grateful to be a part of a house that that is the case. Let's start reading in verse 16. Paul says, I repeat, let no one take me for a fool, but if you do, then tolerate me just as you would a fool so that I may do a little boasting. In this self-confident boasting, I'm not talking as the Lord would, but as a fool. In other words, he's saying, when listening to these so-called super apostles, which were not really apostles at all, they were guys that had infiltrated the Corinthian church, and it basically said, like, you know, commended themselves to the Corinthians and said, don't, Paul, this guy's a hot mess anyway. Don't listen to him. Listen to us. We have our stuff together, and they start bragging on their accolades, and Paul says, let me just for a moment, let me brag like they're bragging, but it's foolish.
I'm acting like a fool right now. I'm going to do this, but I'm going to brag like them. Since many are boasting in the way the world does, I too will boast. You gladly put up with fools since you are so wise. Paul the apostle is very sassy at times. He says, in fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or puts on airs or slaps you in the face. To my shame, I admit that we were too weak for that. In other words, we didn't treat you this way. He said, whatever anyone else dares to boast of you, you're a fool. You're a fool. You're a fool. You're a fool. I also dare to boast, but right in the middle of that, he says, I'm speaking as a fool, right? I'm not talking as the Lord would, but I'm going to temporarily act like these Corinthians are so that I can prove a point to you. He says, are they Hebrews? So am I. Evidently, they were bragging on. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham's descendants? So am I. So he calls this boasting foolishness multiple times. And in essence, he's bragging about the fact that he's saying two can play at this game, right? But I recognize how foolish it actually is. So he's not endorsing talking this way. He's just exposing the ridiculousness of these super apostles and them commending themselves to the Corinthians. So here's the first thing I want to say to you today. We as people, we've got to choose our measurement.
What do you mean by that, Jonathan? Here's what I mean. The world measures people by what we can see and what we think is right. And what we think is impressive, right? But that's not how God measures.
He measures by what he calls faithfulness. All of us have seen people that are put together. All of us have seen people that project themselves in a certain way. And that stuff is not wrong in and of itself. But when that becomes the primary avenue of evaluating somebody's spirituality, now we've crossed over into a line that we shouldn't cross, right?
See, they confused what we think is right. What attracted attention for God's actual approval? Because what they saw in these so-called super apostles was confidence, or that when they saw the confidence that those guys were projecting, they saw that as authority, but it really wasn't true authority. Has anybody ever met somebody that projected a lot of confidence? Has anybody ever met somebody that projected a lot of confidence that probably should not have projected a lot of confidence, right?
We call that arrogant or cocky, right? They looked at... Domination. Paul says they're exploiting you, they're dominating you, even to the point of smacking them in the face. Now, I don't know if that was literal, if they literally smacked them in the face, but obviously they were dominating them.
And the Corinthians were looking at these guys and said, oh, they must be so powerful. They're so much strength in them because they're so aggressive in their personality. We have a tendency at times to kind of admire strong personalities. That person will just tell you what for. I don't know if that's so great all the time. Jesus didn't act that way. Just throw that out there. They looked at Paul's suffering and what he walked through as weakness. In other words, these guys are coming in saying, I want you to look at us, look at all that we do, look at all we've done. We're from the right family. We're right this, we're that. And they are talking about how great they are. And they're looking at Paul and saying, look at all that this guy's walking through. He does not have his stuff together. Don't listen to him, listen to us, right?
But God saw something entirely different. Now, I just throw this out there. That's why that today... Today, 2,000 years later, we're reading the words of Paul, and we don't even know these guys' name. Not one of them. Why? Because God measures differently, right? He measures differently. They had a lot of what they had, but it was a counterfeit. It would be like this. Anybody ever played Monopoly, and you just, you won, and you just had stacks of money, and you just, I'm rich, especially when you're a kid. I mean, you're just counting that junk like it's real money, right? And then you think, oh, I wish I had all this money as you're counting. If you were to take... Two suitcases full of those... I think they got $500 bills in Monopoly now, right? Maybe. And you just stacked two suitcases full, packed them, Chris, and you went over here to Super Walmart, and you went to the... You put groceries in your buggy, and you got up there, you put them all out, and when the cashier asked for your money, you swung those two suitcases up there, opened them things up. I got $2 billion of Monopoly money, and you couldn't even buy a pack of gum. Why? Because it's fake. But that, when we're commending ourselves, when these guys are bragging about things that don't matter in true spiritualness, in true spiritual authority, in essence, that's what they're doing. They had a whole lot of it, but it was worthless in God's measurement. Now, again, there's nothing wrong with projecting yourself in a certain way in the sense of, like, dressing well. And, you know, if you're going to a job interview or something, put on some clothes. You're going to a job interview or something, put on some clothes. Put on a nice outfit. Get the mustard off your shirt. Brush your hair. Brush your teeth. In fact, I just throw this out there. If you're going out of the house, you could do that too. Forget the job interview, right? Just anytime you leave, you could, you know.
So nothing wrong with presenting ourself in a certain way, but if that's all there is, right? If that's the strength of what I want to show people and there's nothing behind it, what is it? It's counterfeit. It's fake. And Paul is saying there's a counterfeit currency here, right?
It doesn't... It doesn't... It doesn't buy anything, right? God measures by his own approval and by faithfulness, not just by what attracts attention. You might remember 1 Samuel when the prophet Samuel goes and he's going to find the next king of Israel. And he goes to Jesse's... God tells him to go to Jesse's house and anoint one of his sons. And he's got these sons that look really impressive. And, you know, Samuel thinks, surely this is the one. And he just goes down the line.
Many of you know the story. And then, you know, basically, he comes to the end and Samuel... Now, if anybody... If anybody had reason to have insecure daddy issues, it'd be David because, basically, Samuel presents... Or Jesse presents all his sons. Samuel anoints all of them. And then Samuel has to ask the question, is this all your sons? And then Jesse's like, oh, I do have one more son. And then David comes and, you know, many of you know the story, becomes greatest king in Israel's history.
But Samuel makes this statement to Jesse. He says, man looks at the outward, but God looks at the heart, right? God really sees the heart. So Paul, once he kind of corrects the Corinthians' definitions of what impressive is and what great is, that it's not the external, but it really is the internal, he starts talking about what his own faithfulness has cost him. So first, he kind of changes their measurement. And now, he's counting the cost. He talks about remaining faithful when obediently... Obedience hurts. Have you ever been obedient to what you felt like God wanted you to do, and you felt like the circumstance didn't change at all? You're on the rumble strip, and you got back on the road, and you're in Oklahoma, and you're still bumping down the road. You still felt the press of that.
Well, this is what Paul says. Look at verse 23. Remember, he's saying, are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. He says, are they servants of Christ? And he says, I'm out of my mind to talk like this. I am more. In other words, I'm a better Christian than they are. I'm more of a servant of Christ than they are. I've worked my...
Any of the things he lists here. I've been in prison more frequently. I've been flogged more severely. I've been exposed to death again and again. Now, look at this. We kind of read through this real fast. Look at verse 24. Five times I have received from the Jews the 40 lashes minus one. That means five different times he was beaten with a whip 39 strikes a time. Five different times.
I was beaten with rods. That's what the Romans did to him. Once I was pelted with stones. Remember that story in the book of Acts? They drag him out of the city, stone him. They think he's dead. So they stop. They leave. He comes to... He must have been unconscious.
He comes to, walks right back into the same city that they just drug him out of. That's like the manliest... I mean, I'm just like, Paul, why would you... Anywhere. Come on. We think we're hard today. No, and nobody in here has gotten stoned and got up and walked right back into the... He did leave after that, but he walked back in there. Three times I was shipwrecked. I don't think...
I wouldn't get on a boat with Paul. I said, Paul, I'll take the next one, bro. You go ahead. I'll take the next. Now, I got to be honest. This next sentence right here, probably the most terrifying. I don't want to go through any of this, but I think I would go through all of it if I didn't have to do this. I spent a night and day in the open sea. I got to tell y'all, that just terrifies me to just be out in the middle of the ocean floating around. I'm just like...
I wouldn't want to do that. He said, I've been constantly on the move. I've been in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my fellow Jews, danger from the Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the country, danger at sea, and in danger from false believers. In other words, I cannot escape this. I've labored and toiled, and I've often gone without sleep. I've known hunger and thirst. I've often gone without food. I've been cold and naked. In other words, I have endured in this. Can I say to you that affliction does not mean that God has abandoned us?
You might be on the bumpy road and right smack dab in the middle of where God desires for you to be. And we don't like that because we like comfort. And I say we because guess what? Jonathan likes comfort like anybody else. And yet we might be right in the midst of what God is desiring for us to be. This suffering almost casually, you know, but every one of those really represents a painful season that he endured. It also tells you that a lot of what happened to Paul is not chronicled in the Bible. I mean, it is in this sense right here, but like even the book of Acts, when we're hearing of his troubles, we know about him getting stoned. We know about him getting beaten a time or two, but we don't know all of this right here. Sometimes church being faithful to God is just between you and God.
Nobody may know. Nobody may know. Look at what he says at the beginning of this letter to 2 Corinthians. I think this is the reason that Paul can say things like this, that he can chronicle all that he endured by serving Christ, by the way. He was out of his obedience to Christ. It wasn't sin. It wasn't him acting in rebellion. It wasn't bad decisions. It was out of him serving Christ, answering the call of God on his life, being obedient to God. That is why he endured every single one of these things that he endured.
Look at what he says though, at the beginning of this letter in chapter one, right at the beginning of the letter, verses three and four, he says, all praise to God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful father. And look at this, and the source of all comfort. That means that God is not just comforting himself. He is the actual source of that comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles. And then he tells us why, we'll talk about this in a minute, so that we can comfort others. If you read through those, I think verses three through seven, he mentions comfort 10 times in that. He mentions affliction five times in it. So he's talking about the reality of being afflicted for the sake of Christ and how God comforts you out of it.
Now, let me just take a moment to define affliction. I've heard people say before that they were being afflicted, but really what they, they were not being afflicted. They were just suffering the consequences of their sin and rebellion. Walking through the consequences of sin and rebellion, that is not affliction. That's the consequences of sin and rebellion. Affliction is when you're suffering and you're suffering because you are walking through obedience to God and you're being fed. It's not punishment for personal sin. It's not something that you bring on yourself. That's a key distinction because there's times consequences of our own sin. Now, I'll just say this, God is so merciful and even consequences, they're not even punitive at times.
He uses those to bring our heart back to him. I mean, there's a lot that we could say there. He says that God is the source of all comfort. And can I say this? Because this is huge. And I, you know, this might be hard to hear, to be honest with you, from if we're only listening with our flesh, but here's the reality of it. Comfort flows from who God is, not from changed circumstances. Let me say that again. Comfort flows from who God is, not from changed circumstances. Paul, you rarely have ever hear Paul praying to get out of something.
We pray all the time to get out of something. We preach this series. Y'all have heard me reference this before. We preached this series several years ago. It's been probably 10 years ago now, I think, called the prayers of Paul. It wrecked me in the best possible way. It's just, it changed my life. I can't get away from it because the constant question that came to me personally is I'm preparing those messages. I'm praying through those messages. I'm asking this question.
I'm praying through those messages. I'm asking this question. Jonathan, does the content of your prayers match the content of Paul's prayers? And sometimes I can say yes. Other times I have to say no, it doesn't. Because we sometimes pray checklist prayers, right? We come to God and we say, Lord, I need you to do this, this, this, this, and this. And then we leave. And then we come back the next day or the next week or the next year or whatever. We say, all right, Lord, you answered three of those.
But if you could get to those other four, I would really appreciate it, right? Or we could boil our prayers down to this statement. God, please get me out of this. Now, there's nothing wrong with bringing our petitions before God. That's right and proper. But if that's the only time that we're praying or the only type of prayer that we're praying, we're missing it. Paul didn't pray that way. And that's what messed me up so much as we're preaching through those series and reading his prayers. He's praying for the believers to be strengthened in their inner man. He's praying for them to know God more.
He's praying for them to be rooted and grounded in truth and rooted and grounded in him. These things, oftentimes, they don't even have anything to do with him. And how much is the content of our prayers consumed with our needs or our wants, right? He says he comforts us in our troubles, in our affliction, not just out of it. Now, I was telling the first service, how many ladies in here, you got a diamond? Wave at me, ladies. You got a diamond, diamond ring, okay? Now, let me ask you this question. If, when your husband, your husband proposed to you, he took you to this nice, romantic, beautiful spot, he got down on one knee, and he had gone over here to Super Walmart, and he had bought a bag of charcoal, and he had taken one of those briquettes, I think that's what you call them, right? One of those charcoal briquettes, and he got down on his knee, and instead of giving you a diamond ring, he gave you one charcoal briquette and said, honey, I love you.
You're the greatest. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Here is this, charcoal briquette, and I'm giving it to you to put on your finger. What would y'all have been saying? Bye, son. That's what you should be saying, bye. Now, I'm not saying that the ring, you know, I kind of joked with the first service and said, you know, we talk about diamonds like they're rare, and I'm saying, how rare can they be? Everybody's got one. They're not rare. This is the biggest hustle in the history of mankind, right?
That's a whole nother message, okay? But that diamond and that charcoal briquette are the same element, carbon. Here's the only difference, the main difference, pressure, because that carbon, where they get that carbon for the charcoal is, you know, surface level, not very far under the earth, easy to harvest. The diamond is carbon, but it's way further in the earth, a lot more to mine, a lot more pressure, a lot more time that transpired, and it's the difference between something that we call precious jewel and a piece of charcoal that you can buy, you know, 250 pieces of for $6. What's the difference? Time and pressure. I wonder if in our own life, when God is forming us, all of us have met people that you interact with them and you sense the depth of their spiritual authority, the depth of their spiritual life. I've never met a spiritually mature person that has not walked through many trials. What happened? They walked through the trials and they responded in a correct manner, because you can walk through trials and not respond in a correct manner, and God used it, that time, that pressure, if you will, to form them into the man or woman of God that he's called them to be, and Paul is listing these things out that he walked through, because there's a reality to them shaping.
It's not pain for pain's sake, okay? I'm not saying we just go out and try to go through pain or try to bring things on ourselves. Obviously, we're not saying that, but it's a recognition that in the midst of serving God and being a obedient to him, that we're going to walk through trials, that things are going to happen to us, they're going to come to us, and God is going to use it to form us. Just because of the roughness of the road, just because you're on a rough road does not mean that you've taken a wrong turn necessarily. I remember growing up, I grew up in a movement that I think it was explicitly said, definitely implied, that if you felt from your perspective that things were not going well in your life, you would make a statement like this, be out of the will of God. I must have missed God, because things are going so terribly for me. And sometimes I would say now, I'd say, well, what if you took the right step? Because when you were serving Satan, he didn't really have any reason to mess with you, right? Like when you were just serving him, there wasn't, but now that you really, because I've met a lot of people, they really submit their life to Christ, and they would start walking through upheaval. And it's kind of interesting, like my perspective was totally different then, but it's interesting now to think, such a radical change to commit your life to Christ.
You've been serving Satan, or you've been an enemy of God, and you have now committed your life to Christ, and he's transformed your life. Why would we think that our life would be anything except upheaval? Because now God is ripping out every bit of the roots of serving Satan that was there and shaping us into the people that he's called us to be. And the enemy doesn't like it because you don't belong to him anymore. So now he's coming against you as well. So why would we think it'd be anything? But Paul says right in the midst of all this, connects his suffering to obedience to Christ, the advance of the gospel, the love of the church, and faithfulness to his calling. So really the question, it's difficult, the question for us is this, am I remaining faithful to Christ right in the midst of it? When I'm on the bumpy road, can I remain faithful to Christ? That's a good question for us, isn't it?
Look at verses 28 and 29. He says, besides everything else, so he's listed all these things that he's walked through. He says, everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who's weak? And I don't feel weak. Who's led into sin? And I don't, and I do not inwardly burn. In other words, I'm caring for you besides all of these physical things. All those were external, physical things that happened to me. Beyond all that, I'm carrying the weight of a burden to see Christ formed in you because he had birthed this church, right?
So not just the Corinthian church, but all these other churches that Paul, that he's in relationship with and caring for. He says, I'm carrying this heavy burden. So he says to him at first, I want you to choose what you're measuring by. You're not measuring by the right thing. You're measuring by outward appearance and God is measuring by faithfulness. And he's, in essence, he doesn't come out and say, count the cost. But in essence, that's what he's doing to say, I've counted the cost myself. In fact, he tells us in Philippians that he said, all of these things that I could brag on or that I've accomplished, all of them are rubbish. They're in comparison to knowing Christ. That's what I want to really know.
I want to know him. I want to know the power of his resurrection. So he says, I want you to choose your measurement. I've counted the cost. And now he's saying, I'm carrying the churches, right? I'm carrying the churches. I'm letting this faithfulness build people. See, the strength and the comfort that we receive in that affliction that we're walking through, that we receive out of who God is, he then uses us in that to help other people. Now, most of us in this room and watching online are not apostles. We're certainly not Paul the apostle, but I believe for us right here in 2026, we can read this scripture, read it in the context of what he's saying to the Corinthians and take it to our own self to say and ask this question of ourselves, who am I caring for?
Who do I look around? One of our core values and philosophies of ministry at Destiny Life is that every member is a minister. We don't mean that everybody's going to stand on the platform and preach. Everybody is not gifted or graced in that realm, but every single believer is a minister of reconciliation. Every single minister or every single Christian is an ambassador for Christ. Every member is a minister. And that's why we have to ask this question, who am I caring for? See, Paul didn't minister from this removed emotional place. I know there's a need for boundaries at times in relationships, but he wasn't ministering from a spiritual place. He wasn't ministering from a safe emotional distance.
He's saying when believers are weak, I entered into their weakness. When someone stumbled, I felt their burden. When the churches struggled, I carried them in prayer, right? The heart of true spiritual ministry is this. Fake ministry asks, what can these people do for my ministry, right? True ministry asks this, what can I endure to see Christ formed in these people? And that's not just true for an apostle that's overseeing groups of people. That's true for every believer. In their realm of influence, what am I doing? Out of what God has done in my life, who am I caring for?
Who am I ministering to? Who am I praying for consistently? Who am I helping to grow in Christ? Who am I encouraging through their weaknesses, right? Or through weakness? Who am I walking with through difficulty? See, mature and steadfast believers don't only ask who's carrying me, they ask who has God entrusted me to carry? Unfortunately, and this is a... A little bit of a soapbox for me, so forgive me, but I think in the United States, we've created this, I'm going to call it consumer mentality in the church. Help us, Lord.
Your only reason for being a part of a church or congregation is what you can get out of it. You're missing it because it's joint supply and joint. Now, I know I'm a preacher and I preach week to week, but again, I'm just going to say this straight to you because I'm not the only one that preaches, but this idea, when I hear people say, I'm just, I'm going to that church because I'm not being fed. I got to tell you, inside, I just... Now, listen, I believe in preaching the word of God. I realize there's some congregations and preachers that rely much more heavily on the word than others. I get that. And I'm going to give people the benefit of the doubt and say, that's what they're trying to say. But there's not anybody in this room that you only ate one meal this whole week. So the idea that the only spiritual meal I would eat would happen on a Sunday morning is so backwards.
What in your life would you eat? What you're telling me is you're not feeding yourself. You're not mature enough to have been a self-feeder. You're still a one-year-old Christian that, you know, somebody's doing the airplane with the little, you know, I mean, that's what I see in my mind. I'm sorry. He said to say that. There's a reality to it. We're a consumer in our mindset. Now, listen, and I really do mean this. I'm grateful to God to be in a house.
I can look around this room and see many seasoned, mature men and women of God. I'm grateful for that. I don't think that that's the case for Destiny Life. I honestly don't. We don't have a consumer mentality. But I think in the church at large, there's this idea of like, just feed me, just give me, rather than looking around and saying, Lord, you've placed me in this body. Who have you connected me to in this body that you desire for me to care for and minister to? I operate from this assumption. If the Lord's called you to be a part of a congregation, here's the assumption that I operate from. There's something in this congregation that you need, and there's something in you that this congregation needs.
I just operate from that assumption. If somebody says, God's called us to be a part of Destiny Life, my assumption is this. There's something in this body of believers that you need and something in you that you're going to add to this body of believers. Why? Because it's joint supply and joint. I know that's true for the universal body of Christ, but surely that's true where God connects us locally to his body, to his church, right? Who am I caring for? Galatians 6, 2 says, bear one another's burdens, and out of that, you fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 4, Paul says he labored there until Christ was formed in them. 1 Thessalonians, he talks about ministering to them as a nursing mother.
What's he trying to say? We cared for you tenderly. We weren't harsh. We cared for you. We wanted to minister to you. So there was a recognition of understanding what are we measuring here? There's a recognition of really counting. What do we do when our obedience costs us something? There's a reality of God using that affliction then to really help us minister to others. And lastly, let me finish with this.
He basically says, if I'm going to boast, let me boast in the things that reveal my weakness. Look at verse 30. He said, if I must boast, I'll boast of the things that show my weakness, that God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who's to be praised forever, knows that I'm not lying. In other words, he's saying here, the false apostles, they boasted in what they were doing. They boasted in what they were doing. What appeared to make them strong. And he is saying right here, I'm going to boast in what makes me look weak because it reveals a total and complete dependence on God. Where are we this morning? Am I presenting myself like I'm strong or am I presenting myself for the recognition that I'm weak and I'm totally dependent on Christ? And next week, he's going to talk about his thorn in the flesh or next chapter, he goes into a thorn in the flesh of the reality of when he's weak, what then he's weak.
He is strong. We're going to talk about that. Last scripture here. You might remember Genesis 32, Jacob wrestling with God. Remember this story. You got two sons, Jacob and Esau. Esau born first. Jacob, his name means deceiver. I think literally grasper of the heel. Esau comes out of his mother's womb first.
Jacob's got him by the heel and they grow up. And basically, Jacob steals the birthright from Esau, which we don't have a lot of understanding. I don't think in our culture, but culturally, he steals his birthright. And Esau is kind of a man's man. Jacob is kind of a mama's boy. And so in a fight or a tussle, Esau would have really probably worked him good. And so Jacob fears for his life. And so when he steals his birthright, he leaves. And he's away for a lot of years. God really blesses him in a massive way materially.
And so now he is on his way back. He's going to meet Esau after a lot of years. And he's nervous of how Esau is going to respond. He hasn't seen him. And so he sends his family ahead. He sends flocks ahead. He sends an offering ahead to him. And he spends the night there with God. In Genesis 32, he meets this angel of the Lord, Christ. And so he wrestles with this angel of the Lord for the whole night.
And Jacob declares to him, I'm not going to leave until you bless me. So he grabs hold of him. I'm not going to release you until you bless me. So he has this. He says later, he recounts it as he's talking about it. He says, I met God face to face. I met God face to face. And when he says, bless me, I'm not leaving until you bless me, what he did was touch him in his hip and he walked with a limp. James was making a point between services, which I thought was a very good one, is that he asked for a blessing and he got a limp. I don't know if we would have counted that as a blessing, but he did.
You know why? Because for the rest of his life, we don't know if he limped for the rest of his life, but certainly for a period of time, every time he thought about that limp, you know what he thought about? I met God face to face. I met him face to face. And can I say to you today, one thing that we preach a lot of and believe in in Destiny Life is the processes of God. We call it oftentimes the dealings of God and walking that out in a process. And so many things are not instant. And so we are patient in that in our own lives. We're patient of that in people. And I think that's right.
But let me say this too, along with that, oftentimes those processes are initiated. Out of encounters with God. Moments in the manifest presence of God, when he speaks something to you, he ministers something to you, and you encounter him in a way that you never had before. Now, out of that encounter, I begin to walk out that process. That's why we have encounter, we call them encounter retreats. The reason we have those is to encounter God in a way that we might not otherwise. And then out of the encounter retreat, we go into 201. Not that a class is discipleship. It is an opportunity to walk out in process what God did when I encountered him in that weekend. Jacob has spent his whole life, and his name means deceiver.
He spent his whole life being a hustler, right? He was a hustler. He was a deceiver. He's a planner. He's manipulating. He's relied on his own strength. And then he has this encounter with God. And out of this encounter with God, it permanently changes his life. In fact, God changed his name from Jacob to Israel, right? It radically changed his life.
And then out of this encounter with God, it shifted everything about him. Now he's walking with a limp. He's got a new name. He's been transformed. All out of this encounter with God. See, this rumble strip on the road, if you will, kind of our beginning analogy. Maybe you're here, and you've drifted off a little bit, and the Lord's saying, I want you to come back onto the road. Or maybe you're here, and you got back to the road, but you're in Oklahoma, and the road is bumpy. And you're saying, Lord, wait a second. I'm on the road, Lord.
Why am I still walking through this? I'm on the road. I'm on the right path. I'm on the right path. I'm on the right path. I'm on the right path. I'm on the right path. I'm serving you. I'm obedient to you. And yet I'm still walking through difficult times. I want to say to you that God is using that pressure to form you into the man or woman of God that he's called you to be. I know this is hard for us to get our heart around, but can I say to you, I've observed it over and over again. And I don't say this lightly or flippantly, because when I see people walking through tragedy, my heart hurts. I can remember, I think it was 2018, when our theme that year was love goes by his spirit, something like that. And the year was compassion. I don't remember if we said this or it was something that the Lord spoke to me, but my prayer in my own personal life that year was, Lord, would you fill me with compassion? And I don't know that I've ever had a prayer that was kind of, I mean, that's almost like an intangible prayer in some regards, like, you know, fill me with compassion. And I knew that, but in essence, I was saying, Lord, would you really help me in this area? And I don't know that I've ever had a prayer answered more so in that way of kind of praying for something that was kind of out there where I really, it was like tangibly the Lord did that. And from that time till now, and I got to be honest with you, there's times I don't like it, that something will happen and man, I feel it. I had never really been, I just had never really experienced that. Just true empathy for people, just the, oh. So I don't say this out. I don't say this out of, you know, a lack of sympathy for people walking through hard times. Some people walk through just tragedy, but can I say to you, God is faithful. And my prayer for you today would be, if that's where you find yourself, that you, I'm going to pray here in just a minute, and that you would really know and lean into God as the source of comfort, that the Holy Spirit would really give you a tangible peace that you would just sense, not the circumstance may not change at all, in this moment, but your perspective, your heart, the peace of God in you, all of that can change really in a moment. And my prayer is that that would happen, that there would be a course correct, and if it's needed, that the pressure would remind us that God's forming us, and that when you encounter him, that you're walking with that limp, and it just reminds you that you might have a limp now, but you're still walking. And it's the blessing of God in it, and not allow the difficult road to convince you that God's abandoning you. Here's our challenge for today, and then we'll pray. Let's stop measuring our life by the smoothness of the road, and let's start resting in the faithfulness of God. Would you stand with me? I want to pray over us today. You don't have to do this, but I lift my hands a lot when I pray, just really as a sign of surrender to him. Father, would you help us today? Lord, we may not be whipped and shipwrecked and left at sea and stoned and the things that Paul the Apostle walked through, but Lord, all of us walk through challenge in life. Would you help us? Lord, there may be some here in the room or watching online that have drifted. Would you bring us back into the lane? And Lord, there may be some that are really right in that lane and yet are really walking through challenge and difficulty, just like Paul the Apostle, out of preaching the gospel, out of doing what you called him to do, out of obedience to you. I pray for every person, on the sound of my voice here, that is walking in obedience to you, and yet they're walking through trials. They're suffering. They're walking through affliction. I pray that right now that there would be a tangibleness of your Holy Spirit to manifest in their heart and life. Would you help them? Would you guide them? Would you direct them? Would you give them a peace, Lord, that would be far beyond our own understanding? Would you help us as brothers and sisters in Christ today to be source of an encouragement one to another? Lord, there may be some that they're walking through a really wonderful season in life. Would you help out of that wonderful season for there to be an overflow to minister to brothers and sisters that are walking through difficulty this morning? Would you help us? Would you guide us? Would you direct us? Would you help us to be steadfast in the midst of suffering? Lord, we're steadfast in truth. Would you help us be steadfast in the midst of suffering? I thank you that the enemy would get zero glory in and of it, that you would have all of the glory, all of the honor, and all of the praise. I pray that over my brothers and sisters today. I thank you for it. In Jesus' name, if you believe that, say a good amen. Go ahead and give God a great big hand clap. Jim is going to come and lead us in a couple other areas. Thanks, Jim. Thank you, Jonathan, for such a powerful message. As we close out the service, I'll have the prayer teams come up here towards the end because I know in a message like this, I know that there's those who are going through some things and we can come alongside and pray and believe God faithfulness and his comfort and pray with you and walk alongside with you. So we will do that at the end of the service here. At this time, we're going to worship the Lord in our giving and just honor the Lord and his faithfulness and blessings in our lives, and we're so grateful for that. So the information is there on the screen, text to give, and there's the ways to give there. You can text the amount there, whether you're giving your regular tithe or an offering or, giving to missions, you can jump out in there. And if you're giving by check, there should be an envelope right there in front of you and the seat back, and you can just fill that out. And then as you leave this morning, just drop it in the bucket at the end of the service. Also, I failed to mention also, there's a black book there on the end of your aisle. If you have not passed that back down to the other end of the aisle, do go ahead and do that. And we appreciate that. And if you're our guest this morning, this is your first time, or maybe you've never filled out a card. And we would love for you to fill out a card that's right there in the seat back. And we'd love to have your information and just get better acquainted with you. And so if you'd fill that out and then drop that in the offering bucket as you leave this morning, we would appreciate that so much. So as we prepare your giving, let's pray together. Father, we just thank you, Lord, for your faithfulness in our lives, blessings in our lives. You're our Jehovah Jireh. We meet every need, and we just thank you, Father, for that. that. Thank you, Lord, that you have added to us. Lord, we thank you, Father, for every giver in this house. Thank you, Lord, your blessings upon their lives and bless the offering. Lord, bless the giver. I pray that you would do that, Lord, 30-fold, 60-fold, 100-fold, Lord, within their lives, that you would just bless them abundantly, Father, as they're faithful to give. We just thank you, Father. We honor this, Lord. Honor you, Lord, with our giving today. In Jesus' name, amen. As you prepare your giving, check out the announcements that are happening around DLC. What's up, DLC fam? My name is Teddy, and we are so glad that you're here with us today. Check out just a couple of announcements that we got coming up for you. It's almost time to kick off our discipleship groups for this fall. Christianity 101, Ministry 301, and Doctrines 401 begin August 5th. For all info and to sign up, visit dlc-signup.com or scan the QR code on your seat flyer. Are you summer? Summit has begun. Youth camp is happening this weekend. Let's continue to lift up our students in prayer as they seek God together this week. Our next Christ College class, hermeneutics, begins tomorrow, July 27th. For all info and to register, visit christcollege.us. Our Meet the Family dinner is next Sunday, August 2nd, on the Claremore campus. If you're new to DLC, or relatively new, this is a great way for you to get to know some of our pastoral team while sharing a free meal. To let us know that you're coming, please visit dlc-signup.com. That's all the announcements that I got for you this week. If you have any prayer needs, please let us know. We would love to walk alongside you in prayer. With that being said, have a good week, DLC. Well, you can stand with me as we close out the service. And prayer teams, I want to invite you to the front here. And again, if you have a need within your life this morning, we would love to minister to you. There's an area that you just desire the body to just reach out and agree with you in prayer. This is your opportunity as we close. Father, we thank you, Lord, for the powerful message this morning given. And we just thank you, Lord, that you are faithful in all things. You're the God of comfort. We've been encouraged by that, Lord. So today as we leave, Lord, we thank you, Lord, that you remind us again that we can walk and grow in your strength, Father. And we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless.
