Over a year ago I had the realization that many of my prayers for New City Church were rather small. I was challenged to pray bigger prayers. Too often I limit God by my own limited imagination. I shared this challenge with the Council of Elders and we came up with a list of several “big prayers” that we began to pray. We haven’t been praying for big things out of a sense that God is a genie in a bottle or that he somehow owes us big things. Instead, we began to pray big prayers out of a conviction that God wants to do great things in and through New City.

As we pray for our church, the elders pray for our faith to grow. We pray that each one of us and the church as a whole would grow in faith and in maturity. Even as we have prayed for a very specific request, we are shocked and humbled and amazed at the greatness of our God as he has answered one of our big prayers.

Last week we received word that a donor (who wishes to remain anonymous) was giving New City Church a gift of $225,000 to pay off our mortgage. We have received that gift and as of this morning, New City is debt-free! This enables us to be more generous as a church. God is good.

The truth is that as we become more like Jesus, we become more generous, for our God is the very meaning of generous. For some this means giving the widow’s mite. For others it means paying off a church’s mortgage. For most of us, it is something in between, but all our gifts are given as a response to the kindness of God in Christ through his Spirit.

Our God is present and active in our midst! This generous gift is but one of countless examples of God’s good work among us. We recently baptized three people. We continue to see lives changed and transformed by the amazing power of God. We see God’s hand at work in our lives in many ways. This generous gift enables us as a church to continue with God in his mission for this world.

Let’s praise our God today for who he is and for what he has done.

Though Paul had planted the church in Corinth, having preached the gospel in that city and seeing God bring many men and women to faith in Jesus, his bona fides as an apostle seemed to be always questioned by the Corinthian believers. In each of his letters to this church he defended his role—and authority—as an apostle. In his second letter to them he defends his apostleship by appealing to his sufferings as an apostle. He lists multiple struggles he faced, from shipwrecks to beatings to stonings to the anxiety he felt for the churches he planted. Paul’s life as an apostle was not an easy life, and he offers this as evidence of his calling.

He also boasts, at least a little. In chapter 12 he offers a teaser of a boast.

I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows—and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses—though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me.

2 Corinthians 12:1–6 ESV

Paul says that fourteen years earlier he had been taken up into God’s presence, where he was shown things, marvelous things. He doesn’t know whether he was taken into God’s presence in his physical body or in a vision, but he knows that he was in God’s presence. He also knows that he saw amazing things. The obvious question is: what did he see? He can’t tell us. Think of this boast. Paul says he’s seen things, but he can’t say what he saw. Uh-huh. Sure, Paul! This sounds like a guy at the local playground who brags about his ability to dunk a basketball but when asked to prove it says, “I don’t really like jumping in these shoes.” (It’s gotta be the shoes, right?)

How does this function as evidence of his apostolicity? It doesn’t. The outcome of this privileged revelation does, however.

So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:7–10 ESV

The evidence that Paul had received truly mind-boggling revelations of things in heaven, things that he could not share with others, is that a thorn was given him in the flesh. There have been myriad speculations as to what this thorn was. Some think it was epilepsy or a terrible problem with his vision or some other physical ailment, and some think it was the constant physical threat from his opponents. Most likely it was a physical ailment, given his reference to his “flesh”, though it was not enough to keep him from traveling and serving and enduring physical hardship from others. Whatever the actual thorn, Paul says two things about it. First, it was a messenger of Satan to harass him, that he might not become conceited (for the knowledge he possessed). Second, he pleaded with God three times for relief, for the thorn to be taken away. Paul wanted to be rescued from this affliction. Think of those prayers! He had been taken into the direct presence of God and shown things that few—if any—other humans had seen. We know this because he was forbidden to tell any other human what it was that he saw. If anyone has an inside track to God’s ear, it’s Paul. Paul was truly on the inside, with an amazingly privileged position. Notice closely God’s response to Paul’s repeated plea: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” That’s a fancy way for God to say, “No.”

It is more than simply denying Paul’s request. There is a plan and a purpose to Paul’s suffering. It isn’t merely part of the ordinary difficulties of life, like stubbing your toe when you try to make it to the bathroom in the darkness in the middle of the night. God tells Paul that his grace is sufficient for Paul, which means he will get Paul through whatever difficulty he faces. His grace is sufficient. Paul does not need anything more than God’s grace. It is his grace and his grace alone that will get Paul through each day. He does not need to be taken out of the struggle, for God’s grace will carry him through the struggle.

God also declares that his power is made perfect in weakness. We often think of power as overcoming struggle or pain. Real power is victory over the enemy. This was the reason for Paul’s original hatred of Jesus and his mission. How could Jesus be God’s Messiah if Jesus’ “power” resulted in his death on a cross? The greatest display of God’s power was the crucifixion of Jesus, and Paul has come to realize this. Paul doesn’t need God to take away the pain of whatever affliction he was enduring; he needs God to sustain him through the affliction, that God’s power would be most evident.

We must recognize that any suffering we experience is an opportunity for us to experience both God’s grace and his unlimited power. God can, and often does, grant our requests. This is why we pray for healing, for example. Sometimes, though, God makes it clear that healing will not come, at least not until the resurrection. Sometimes God makes it clear that he will not take away the struggle or the pain. We must remember that whenever God says “no” to a request like this, he does not leave us to ourselves. Instead he promises that his grace is sufficient for us, and his power will be on full display as we trust him in the midst of the affliction.

If you wrote a loved one a letter—let me stop there for a moment. A letter is a bit like a text or a post on social media, but with literal paper and ink, and generally only read by the person to whom it is written, and you send it through the mail, which takes two or three days to deliver it. Imagine with me that you wrote a letter to a loved one to express the reason(s) you are thankful for that person. What would you write? It could be a sibling or a parent or child or good friend or maybe even a co-worker. What we are thankful for often reveals something profound, both about us and the person for whom we are thankful.

The apostle Paul expressed thanksgiving in each of his letters—well, except for the one to the Galatians. They were compromising the gospel of Jesus and were in danger of corrupting it so there was very little for Paul to express gratitude for, but in every other letter he begins by identifying himself and his co-authors, identifying the recipients of the letter, and then expressing his thankfulness to God for them. Consider this beginning to his second letter to the church in Thessalonica.

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,

To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.

1 Thessalonians 1:1–3 ESV

He writes to the church of the Thessalonians and blesses them with grace and peace, and then he expresses his thanksgiving to God for them. He says their faith is growing abundantly. As Jesus explained in a number of parables, faith begins small, but grows and grows. Faith must be exercised and challenged and strengthened. Paul thanks God for the church there, for their faith is growing and is growing abundantly. The growth was evident.

He also thanks God for the love they have for one another that is increasing. Like faith, love grows. Their love for one another in the church is evident as it continues to increase. This is the very thing Jesus himself prayed for, that we would love one another. May we all aspire to love one another in ever increasing measure!

If Paul had moved on at this point to the matters he’s writing to address, it would make sense. He’s identified himself and his co-authors (Silvanus and Timothy), he’s identified those to whom he is writing (the church in Thessalonica), and he’s expressed thanksgiving for them (for their growth in faith and love). But he’s not done. The very next thing he writes is,

Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring.

1 Thessalonians 1:4 ESV

If I were to write to a church that is suffering persecution and affliction, my guess is the first thing I’d write about is how amazing their faith in the midst of suffering is! What would stand out to me is their ability to endure suffering because I don’t like to suffer, and I certainly do not like to exercise patience, which is necessary to endure suffering. That is not what Paul identifies first.

In the midst of persecution and affliction, what stood out to Paul and to others was the growing faith of the Thessalonians, and their growing love for one another. Oh, and they endured persecution and affliction, too. I find this remarkable. So often when things do not go our own way, we turn inward and begin to wallow in self-pity and also in self-interest. We become the focus of our attention. I become the focus of my attention.

It is difficult for faith to grow meagerly, let alone abundantly, when our attention is on ourselves. It is just as difficult for our love for one another to increase if our we focus exclusively on ourselves and our problems. We should, of course, take care of ourselves by pursuing healthy habits and disciplines, both physical and spiritual, but our pursuit of self-care should never be exclusive. In the midst of suffering persecution and affliction, the church in Thessalonica was known for two things: their growing faith and their growing love for one another.

We don’t know the specifics of the persecution they were suffering, but Paul addresses God’s coming vengeance for it, which indicates the severity of it:

This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering—since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

2 Thessalonians 1:5–8 ESV

Whatever the form of persecution they were experiencing, Paul uses strong language to describe God’s response to it. What is remarkable to me is that in the midst of this great suffering, the church’s faith and love for one another were growing. One might even say that it was because of the church’s suffering that their faith and love for one another were growing.

Life can be difficult and painful, but let us always look to the one in whom we hope, for in him we place our faith and as our faith grows, so will our love for one another. The evidence of faithfully enduring suffering is not merely endurance, simply getting through it. The evidence of faithfully enduring suffering is increased faith in the Lord and increased love for one another. Let’s pursue these together.

I recently saw a comment online that gave me pause. The claim was that unless a preacher loves to spend hours and hours studying Scripture, he’s not really preaching, but is putting on a show. There is certainly some measure of truth to this claim. There are those for whom preaching is self-centered. Some desire to be perceived as funny or articulate or profound or engaging or even simply entertaining when they preach. This is a great danger to the individual and for the church. Proclaiming God’s word is too important, too weighty for such self-interest. But is the statement actually true? The answer affects each one of us, regardless of our individual spiritual gifts.

My spiritual gift is teaching. I love to study. I love researching the background historical context and analyzing the grammatical structure of a text and I love thinking through how a particular passage fits in not only with the broader book it is found in, but in the broader scope of Scripture. As a regular part of my responsibilities I get to pour over Scripture and see the rich tapestry of how it all fits together. This is part of having the gift of teaching. Loving to study and teaching go hand in hand.

This raises a question: is preaching merely an exercise in teaching? If it is, then the online claim I mentioned above must be true. But is it? I don’t think so. A clear case in point is last Sunday’s sermon by Jim. Jim’s primary spiritual gift is exhortation. The sermon was rooted in Psalm 32, yet Jim did not spend hours studying historical context and grammatical structures, etc. Instead, Jim spent hours sitting in the text itself, allowing God to drive it into his heart, so that he could speak on God’s behalf to the church. When Jim preached this sermon, he was exhorting us, not teaching us—and man, were we exhorted! In a couple weeks Dan will preach. His primary spiritual gift is wisdom. Since Jesus is the wisdom of God (see 1 Corinthians 1:24), the gift of wisdom is more than simply knowing the right thing to do in a situation. It is the ability to speak the good news of Jesus into a situation. For example, one may be struggling with a particular sin. The gift of wisdom is often able to help that individual see the way(s) in which he or she is not believing the gospel and how the gospel addresses the issue. If the person is struggling with pride, the real issue may be a failure to believe that the righteousness of God given in Christ is sufficient and therefore he or she does not need to try to stand out on his or her own. If Christ’s righteousness is sufficient for me, then I don’t need to be sufficient.

Whether the originator of the aforementioned comment intended to do this or not, he was elevating the gift of teaching above all other gifts, at least in the act of preaching. While one of the qualifications for elders is the ability to teach, being able to teach and having the gift of teaching are not the same. An elder must be able to articulate and defend sound doctrine, as this is one of the primary roles of a church’s council of elders. The apostle Paul has some encouraging words about spiritual gifts in his first letter to the Corinthians.

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

1 Corinthians 12:4–11 ESV

Notice Paul’s emphasis on God in Trinity throughout this paragraph. There are various spiritual gifts and various capacities in which to serve with these gifts, yet every single gift is given and empowered by God in Trinity. When we serve according to our giftedness, we are demonstrating what it is that the Lord would be doing if he were physically present. We are serving by the power of the Triune God.

Also notice that while spiritual gifts are entrusted to individuals, they’re really given to the church. Paul says: “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” He wrote this to the local church in Corinth. The common good is the good of the whole church—the local church.

This means two things for us today. First, we must be very careful to avoid elevating any particular gift of the Spirit of God above any other gift. You have a gift and I have a gift and even if the gifts we were given are similar, they may not be given in the same measure. God is the one who gives them and he gives them as he sees fit. He is wise and he knows how best to enable us to serve him. That’s the first thing. The second thing is that since the Sovereign God has determined which gift(s) you have, and he therefore determines the services and activities in which you (and I) must use them. Spiritual gifts are given for a purpose, so we must use them in the local church.

Many do not know what their spiritual gifts are. The good thing is that our giftedness is best determined in community. Ask others in the church. Ask those in your City Group. Ask those with whom you pray regularly, for we tend to pray according to our giftedness. Do your prayers for others focus on encouragement or on their physical, emotional, or spiritual well-being? Do your prayers for others tend to focus on holy living or on knowing God better or that others may come to faith and repentance? This may point you in the right direction. Don’t rely on your own understanding, however. Be in community in the church and ask those who know you how God uses you in their lives.

The book of Proverbs is filled with wisdom. This wisdom covers all sorts of topics related to a life of faith, from the very pursuit of wisdom (Proverbs 2:1–15) to avoiding adultery and other immorality (Proverbs 5:1–5) to the call to avoid laziness (Proverbs 6:6–11). A significant part of true wisdom is knowing and understanding the Lord. In chapter 6 we read of seven things the Lord hates, and these seven things reveal something of his character to us.

There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

Proverbs 6:16–19 ESV

This list is one most would readily acknowledge. Pride is often revealed through haughty eyes—looking down on others. We easily recognize the evil of lying, particularly the one who lies repeatedly. Murder is, of course, a great evil. All evil is evil, but there is something particularly sinister about those who devise wicked plans, who carefully craft their plans for wickedness. These are often the same people whose feet are quick to run to evil, to participate in the wickedness of others. False witnesses are a plague on any society. If a nation’s justice system is corrupted by those willing to lie under oath, we all suffer the consequences.

Most people throughout the world would recognize these six things the Lord hates. None of these is particularly insightful into the character of God, though all reveal his character. Our natural sense of what is good and right reveals these things are evil. The author uses a literary device to call attention to the seventh. When he writes, “There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him,” he is calling special attention to the seventh. The six are things the Lord hates, yet the seventh is the one the author is emphasizing, and it is the one that is the most revealing.

The seventh thing the Lord hates is the one who sows discord among brothers. By placing this seventh in the list, the reader is called to understand the Lord better by recognizing the particularly evil nature of this behavior. The one who sows discord, or disunity, among brothers is committing a special evil in the eyes of the Lord.

We’ve all known such people. They play one person against another in the office–or in the church. They spread bits of gossip that is intended to divide. They often complain about everything, tailoring their complaints to the person they’re with. They don’t merely sow discord; they pursue it.

Why is this the thing the Lord hates most? Consider the Lord’s prayer. No, not that one—the one he prayed for us in John 17.

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

John 17:20–23 ESV

When the Lord Jesus prayed for his disciples, he also prayed for us directly. He said he wasn’t praying only for the disciples who walked with him, but for each one of us who have believed through their word. Every follower of Jesus is a direct spiritual descendant from the apostles for we have the gospel through their witness.

Notice how Jesus connects our unity in the faith to himself. He prays for our unity for our unity is a mirror reflecting the unity of Jesus and the Father. Further, our unity points others to Jesus and his mission, which is to save many from their sins. He prays that we “may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me”.

Why does the Lord hate the one who sows discord among brothers? Because such behavior is directly counter to his mission. It is counter to his own character. It is, in fact, the spirit of antichrist, for disunity is in opposition to the mission of God in this world.

Pursuing unity, then, is a witness to the world. We live in a broken and fractured world that lacks unity in nearly every area of life. In an election year this disunity we experience in our broader culture is even more pronounced. A quick perusal of social media will readily confirm this.

What this means for us is we can be a light to the world by pursuing unity in our church! We can demonstrate the reality of God in Christ by being united even though we are black and white, Asian and Hispanic, even though we are rich and poor, even though we are Democrats and Republicans and Libertarians and Independents, even though we love sports and hate sports. The importance of unity is proclaimed throughout the New Testament Scriptures. It is a significant theme throughout Paul’s letters to the Romans, to the Ephesians, and the Galatians, and to the Corinthians. In Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave or free, male or female. The point in this is our unity in Christ, even in the midst of our very real differences.

We have an incredible opportunity over these next few months leading up to election day—and the days and weeks after—to demonstrate the unity our great God and Savior desires of his people. We can avoid the very thing the Lord hates, while demonstrating his greatness to the world around us that desperately needs unity but is trapped in disunity. Let’s show the world what our God is like.