A New and Holy Influence

Sermon Series:

Renewal In Christ

Sermon Text - 2 Corinthians 10:13–18

“But we will not boast beyond limits, but will boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us, to reach even to you. For we are not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach you. For we were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ. We do not boast beyond limit in the labors of others. But our hope is that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged, so that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you, without boasting of work already done in another’s area of influence. “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.”

Sermon Summary:

Most days after my kids come back home from school, I take them outside to practice some sort of sport. For the last year, we have been working hard at basketball. Initially, I set the rim at 8ft. When they mastered 8ft, we went to 8.5 feet. We then went to 9ft. Then 9.5 ft. We have now arrived at the full 10ft. It has been an enormous struggle. Simply looking at how high the rim was from their height was extremely intimidating. They are being asked to launch a heavy ball over two times their height! To encourage them, I lowered the goal back down to 8ft and reminded them how far they had come in barely a year. When they were reminded of their journey, they instantly had hope that they could get a few shots to fall at 10ft. There is a process for everything and sometimes that can be very annoying. In this week’s text, Paul reminds us that reaching the nations with the gospel is also a process. Expanding the Kingdom of God is a slow and steady march through one community at a time. However, this march cannot commence without the commitment of a faithful local church. Paul uses this truth to encourage the Corinthians to continue in their obedience to Jesus so that they too can join with him in the expansion of the gospel to new and unreached lands. Likewise, God has also called NCF to this journey. Come and find out how we too can join God’s mission to reach the nations with the truth of the Gospel.