Lissara
  • Home
  • News
  • Devotions
  • Services
    • What to Expect
    • Why We Do What We Do In Worship
    • Series >
      • Misc Services
      • 1 Samuel
      • Mark
      • Exodus
      • Hebrews
      • Ezekiel
      • Romans
      • 1 John
      • Sermon on the Mount
      • Philippians
    • Telephone Service
  • Contact
  • What's On
    • Boys Brigade
    • Girls Brigade
    • Lissara Tots
    • Outdoorlissara
  • Resources
    • Toddlers
    • Age 3-8
    • Age 9-12
    • Teens
    • Women
    • Men
    • Parents
    • WSC
    • WLC
    • Apostles' Creed

Daily Devotions

Day 242

21/11/2020

0 Comments

 
Day 242

Pray (ACts)

Read - 2 Corinthians 10

Message - Scott Woodburn
The world needs more people like you. You never make mistakes, your motives are always pure, you aren't like everyone else, let's say it again...the world needs more people like you. Perish the thought! Allegedly G.K. Chesterton responded to the question "What's wrong with the world?" with two words "I am". He may or may not have said or written this, but it doesn't rob the statement of its truth. Whenever we're tempted to believe in our own greatness, it's time to pause.

Paul understood this completely. He referred to himself as a wretched man and the chief of sinners and here he makes it clear that he certainly won't extol his own virtues like the false apostles. He will not boast beyond limits (v13a) but only speak of the area of influence that God Himself has given (v13b). Paul would never have set foot in Corinth without the Lord's will. Paul would never have seen a single sinner saved without the Lord's will. Paul would never have been the first to preach the Gospel in Corinth without the Lord's will (v14).

The false apostles took a different approach. They had arrived in Corinth and immediately set about destroying Paul's reputation. They boasted about themselves despite the fact that the Corinthian church had been built by the grace of God through the labours of Paul (v15a). On the other hand Paul hoped that the faith of the Corinthian church would increase (v15b). Not to see himself glorified but so that Paul could preach the Gospel far beyond Corinth (v16a). He had no desire for his name to be exalted or to build on another man's foundation (v16b) instead he lived his life to preach Christ and Him crucified.

This is a useful corrective to our natural attitude that says we are the centre of the universe. Everyone and everything must revolve around me...or else. Brothers and sisters we have nothing to boast about except Christ. If we are gifted with talents, they come from the Lord. If we are blessed with influence, it comes from the Lord. If we see much fruit from our labours, it comes from the Lord. No wonder Paul quotes Jeremiah 9v23-24 when he urges the boaster to boast only in the Lord (v17). The full verse in Jeremiah states that the one who boasts should boast of this "that he understands and knows me."

Understanding and knowing God is the only source of boasting. Boasting not out of arrogance or pride but out of sheer grace saturated joy that we have been washed clean by the blood of the Lamb. We belong to Jesus! This is the difference maker. We can spend a lifetime trying to commend ourselves in the eyes of the world (v18a) but ultimately the only one who is approved, is the one who the Lord Himself has commended (v18b). This commendation comes only through faith in Christ which in itself is a gift of God so that no man may boast.

So to every "king of the castle" and every "daddy's little princess", the world needs much less of you and much much more of Christ. May we decrease as He increases, may He be gracious in giving us a platform to speak and influence among the nations, and when the God given opportunity comes, may we always proclaim "Behold the Lamb of God who comes to take away the sin of the world!" 

Pray (acTS)

Sing

WSC
Q20 Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery? God having, out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace, to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Alan
    Burke

    and

    ​Scott Woodburn

    Each Day we bring you a daily devotion on what we will be focusing on this coming Lord's day. 

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020

    RSS Feed

Registered Charity in Northern Ireland (NIC 105078) Streaming Licence (CCLI 422560/67937)
  • Home
  • News
  • Devotions
  • Services
    • What to Expect
    • Why We Do What We Do In Worship
    • Series >
      • Misc Services
      • 1 Samuel
      • Mark
      • Exodus
      • Hebrews
      • Ezekiel
      • Romans
      • 1 John
      • Sermon on the Mount
      • Philippians
    • Telephone Service
  • Contact
  • What's On
    • Boys Brigade
    • Girls Brigade
    • Lissara Tots
    • Outdoorlissara
  • Resources
    • Toddlers
    • Age 3-8
    • Age 9-12
    • Teens
    • Women
    • Men
    • Parents
    • WSC
    • WLC
    • Apostles' Creed