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Other than that, we're here, and you can watch that on the Rick and Bubba YouTube channel, noon central, one o'clock eastern.

If not, then you can catch the archive, which comes out pretty quick after we're done, thanks to our producer, Eddie Van Adler, who does a phenomenal job.

So if you're wondering about themanchurch.com, that's who sponsors this Bible study.

We were doing it long before themanchurch.com launched, but themanchurch.com launched out of this Bible study. We were doing it long before TheManchurch.com launched, but TheManchurch.com launched out of this Bible study. We were working at the local church on how can we do men's ministry better. Now, we know that women are part of this Wednesday Bible study on the podcast archives and on the YouTube channel and the YouTube archives, and that's fine, especially if we're expository teaching. It's for everybody. But this at the heart is a men's small group that has been meeting on Wednesdays, like I said, for a decade.

A lot of the men in here right now have been here the entire time, and we have all grown so much studying the Word of God.

But we also send out speakers to go out and do the high challenge part of our men's discipleship strategy.

And if you want to find those speakers and where they're going to local churches everywhere, go to themanchurch.com.

We have some going out this weekend. Just look at events and find out where there's one near you. You can plug in there.

Once the men have gone to these services or these gatherings, they're then invited to go into small groups where we provide the curriculum.

We have four 40-week curricula that are available right now. A fifth, by the way, Adler, I saw the bumpers today on the fifth one, so we're about to finish it up. We have a fifth one coming out this summer. So you can get those at themanchurch.com as well. We offer individual resources for men to study on their own or maybe with another man or their sons. You can find those there as well. So it's a full turnkey men's discipleship strategy, and we are hearing great feedback from all over the country and even around the world. And if you want to join us, just go to themanchurch.com, click get started, and we'll walk you through the process, and then we'll answer any questions you may have. Okay, so let's open up in a word of prayer. Today we will be in 2 Corinthians. We're going to start chapter 13, and we're going to go through verses 1 through 10, if you want to turn there now.

Lord, thank you for today. We are celebrating answered prayer that we have seen even within the men of this group.

We see Jim Brandt. He's back with us today. His wife is back in Birmingham. She's got a long road ahead of her.

But what you've already done in both their lives has been amazing. Talking to Jim before the Bible study started and just seeing the opportunities you've already given them to glorify you. Continue to be with them. We have other men that are here with us today. They're facing what we've been studying, Paul, suffering, difficulty, things that are in front of them, and Lord, watching you work and you giving us the scriptures that we need, the words that we need to not be caught off guard by difficulties and to understand that you are always working. You're right in the middle of all of it. May we not miss what you're teaching, and may we not squander those opportunities when difficulty is allowed to come our way.

Lord, help us today to glean what will be a convicting message today, not just hear it, but to actually apply it. In your name we pray. Amen. All right, so let me go back to last All right, so let me go back to last Wednesday, if you will just let me.

And I have messed this story up several times, and you're going to find this. Now, sometimes I remember things. This whole thing with Billy Graham. So when I was talking about the shoe salesman and all that last week, the bottom line is some of the most impactful people in the church are people that just do the job God has called them to, and they're discipling people one person at a time. And sometimes I think we feel like that unless I have this big platform or this big ministry, I'm not being used by God.

And of course, that's not true. And so what I was telling you is how people use their platform. And I was trying to remember Billy Graham and the shoe salesman.

And of course, I didn't get it right. But here's what happened. The illustration where this comes from.

What we're talking about is a Sunday school teacher named Ezra Kimball who went by to visit Dwight L. Moody, who was an 18-year-old shoe salesman.

So Moody was selling shoes, and a Sunday school teacher came in and invited Moody to church, who was selling shoes, and led him to Christ.

So this talks about how just a Sunday school teacher interacting with people in their life led to Dwight Moody. Now, if we want to try to pull Billy Graham in, we can, because there is actually a link to this Sunday school teacher and Moody, and if you actually follow a chain, it'll eventually get to Billy Graham.

So I was a little off on my facts, but the overall message, in 1934, Billy Graham at 16 attended a revival in charlotte north carolina and accepted christ the evangelist was mordecai ham ham was invited by charlotte businessmen's uh club that grew out of a series of evangelistic meetings 10 year earlier led by we reference all the time billy sunday uh billy sunday worked for a man named J. Wilbur Chapman, where he learned about organizing evangelistic meetings. J. Wilbur Chapman was a friend and co-worker of Dwight L. Moody.

The relationship began when he was a student in college in the late 1870s, and he attended a meeting led by Dwight L. Moody in Chicago. After the service, met with Moody, who helped him receive certainty of his salvation.

And then Dwight Moody was 18 years of age and a shoe salesman when the Sunday school teacher came there. So if you follow all of this, it really does tie together.

But the shoe salesman part is actually Dwight Moody was an 18-year-old shoe salesman and a Sunday school teacher just simply invited him to church and led him to Christ.

And then that just went down the line, eventually sideswiping Billy Graham.

So there you go. But the message is still clear. Use where you are. And these little things like our life group just this past Saturday, we met together and just went door to door.

By the way, the new ring cameras really mess up door to door stuff now. People see you, and they know exactly, and the fear.

I did get one payback, though. One of our houses ended up being Mormons, and I thought, well, how's this? A little payback for you. So that was good.

But these little conversations with people and just simply sometimes inviting them to church and asking where they are with God, that's what we were called to do.

The big stuff's good, but it's that stuff that makes the difference. All right, so let's talk about Paul now.

Let's go to 2 Corinthians 13. 2 Corinthians 13. Here is Paul wrapping up this letter. Now, I don't know about y'all.

This has been one of my favorite studies we've ever done. And I think I went into it, you know, when you start talking about, you heard me mention, we're going to study the Revelation.

Well, everybody just, you know, and we're going to study Genesis and everybody's, we're going to study Romans. And then you go, we're going to study 1 Corinthians.

Okay, we're going to study 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians? I don't know about y'all, but I have gleaned so much from this study, this 2 Corinthians, this letter, and everything revolving around it. And here's going to be something big to ponder here, because I guess I didn't realize how much of the biggies are in this letter that Paul wrote. So what he's going to do now is he's getting to the end. And I told you last week, we will get official confirmation from Paul that this visit he's about to take into Corinth is the third visit. We get total confirmation on that because he says that. Look at verse one. He's going to say, this is the third time I am coming to you. Every charge must be established by evidence of two or three witnesses. I warn those who sinned before and all others, and I warn them now while absent as I did when present on my second visit, there it is again, that if I come again, I will not spare them. So he begins with a warning. Paul says that they face a crisis. Paul wants to clarify what he's been talking about on his resume, that he has a divine witness. Now remember, when he says this is the third time he's coming to Corinth, he said that I am part of a threefold witness situation. Now, why is he saying this? Well, he's saying this because most of those that were opposing him in Corinth were Judaizers. These were Jewish people that rejected his apostleship, and they did not think Paul should be listened to.

We've been very clear on that. Well, inside, if you go back to the last book of the Torah, Deuteronomy, you find in Deuteronomy 19.15 that they were all very familiar with.

It says, before a charge could be sustained, it requires three witnesses.

And so Paul's citing this. And Paul, according to some, now not everybody thinks this is what he's talking about thinks that paul means his three visits would constitute a three-fold affirmation of the truth of his testimony in any case what what he he's made up his mind that he's going to conduct an investigation upon his arrival at Corinth.

And what he knows, he's saying, I know y'all say you got to have three people to confirm something as being true.

I have I've been there. This is my third time. You'll know once and for all. And he's also saying, I have a divine witness, Christ, which he's been saying all along.

And he and he says, I got no doubt that the required number of witnesses will be forthcoming. So that's one other view, but he's not saying the three visits constitutes fulfilling Deuteronomy 19.15, but he is saying, I'm coming a third time, and when you add this visit to the two before me, I have people who are speaking up for me. I'll have more than three, more than enough to constitute that I have integrity. Either way, he's making the point that he has fulfilled that requirement. So he begins a series of warnings. Now, this visit will be decisive. He's warned and warned, and he's held his hand. Now, remember this.

Paul has been writing and warning and warning and warning, and apparently his first visit, the people against him sort of were saying, well, he talks a big game in his letters, but when he came here, he was kind of passive.

So then he comes back a second time, and once again, they're saying, kind of passive. So then he comes back a second time. And once again, they're saying, well, you, you, you write big words, but, uh, but you, uh, you, you don't do that when you come here.

So Paul's acknowledging that he has been holding back when he comes and faces them in person, try not to cause chaos, try not to being sin. And he says this thing where y'all say that I write with a lot of passion, but I'm a coward in person, I wouldn't count on that again. I appeal to a divine witness.

And then he begins to prepare them for the visit. So he's telling them in verse two, his first warning. And the first warning that he wants them to hear is that they need to prepare to listen well.

He confirms that he's been twice and that it was painful. He told them that his patience with them was nearly exhausted.

He said, my warning stands. I told you before, before I make this third visit, get your house in order.

I'm coming. And I'm coming, and y'all need to be prepared to listen well.

So he says in the last part of verse 2, now into 3, you need to look out. I will not spare these threats.

What I'm writing and what I've been telling you, I'm not going to hold back on that. I will not hesitate. I will not be indecisive. All of that's over. I will act on this visit.

I'm going to do whatever it takes to purify this church when I get there. So don't count on hesitation. Don't count on indecisiveness. None of that is going to happen.

Don't count on hesitation. Don't count on indecisiveness. None of that is going to happen. I will confront. I will take it. And I will take this on. So I told you before, get your house in order. Do not underestimate me. I will act. I will, by the way, and I haven't done it before, and some of y'all question me. The power I have as an apostle, this time I'm going to use it. I'm coming with the power of being an apostle.

I'm going to use my relationship with Christ. I'm going to use the authority that God has given me.

Do not ignore or underestimate me, and this is what he's saying, ignore or underestimate me, and this is what he's saying, underestimating me, this is in 2B, will be a huge mistake.

Do not underestimate me. Number three, look at verse three. He says in verse three, he says, since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me, he is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you. Now, this is that where they say you talk a big game, but then you come here and you act differently. I'm done with this murmuring against me. To murmur against me, listen to this statement, to murmur against me is to murmur against Christ. See, I think this is a warning to all of us be very careful with with with murmuring and gossiping and undermining people that god sends because what we're doing is if somebody may come in i say this all the time even when when when taking big stands i'm not against you i'm just for god i mean i don't have a place to to stand in authority over you i'm i'm not against you. I'm just for God. I mean, I don't have a place to stand in authority over you.

I'm not against you. I don't hate you. I don't dislike you. I'm just for him. Well, we have a belief that you don't believe in, and you're not pulling any punches. You tell us you don't agree with this, or you're even saying that you rebuke us. That's right, but I'm only rebuking you because you're violating his standard. Now, if you want to violate my standard, that's a very low standard, but I have been called by him that I don't compromise him, so I don't against anybody.

And so Paul is saying, you got to get this right. I'm so confident in my divine witness. I'm so confident that I'm speaking on behalf of the Lord, I'm so in sync with Jesus that if you go against me, you're going against him because he's the one who told me to say it. Now, be sure that we can say that, that we're not making up our own theology, that we're not making up our own version. One thing that I'd like to see all of us to remove from our vernacular is the, well, here's what I believe.

Well, nobody gives a rip what you believe. And we need to be real careful about saying this is what I believe, even though Scripture says something different.

We believe what Scripture says, period. Well, you know, I know about the Bible says that. You ever heard people say this, well, here's what I believe.

Well, now you really, I'd rather you just say that. Say, here's what I believe because I don't know yet. You know, don't say you've read it, but here's what you believe.

Or you've heard it, but I don't agree with that. Here's what I believe. That's real, you're on shaky ground when you start that.

So he says, to murmur against me will be to murmur against Christ. Verse 4.

For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you, we will live with him by the power of God. Now, he's saying a lot now. He said, you know, there were times when people thought Jesus was weak, but they were wrong. I know some of y'all see me as weak, but you are wrong. Because just like the mistakes people made about Jesus when God decided to lower himself, that somehow that was weakness, that was a mistake.

And to think that about me will be a mistake as well. And so, and he says, remember the authority of God's son. Well, if you understand that this is big right here, if you understand the authority of God's son, then you must also acknowledge the authority of his son's servant. Everybody with me?

Y'all do realize that, right? You know what you have access to? You know what the Holy Spirit gives you access to? The power of God.

You realize the Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead. And we have access to that? And we act like that we have no victory over sin? We have no victory over the things that are in front of us? We can't, hey, I don't know that I can do that. You're right. Good. The quicker you realize that and the quicker I realize that, the better. But can God do it through my obedience? Yes. But remember what we say all the time, but any old bush will do. You just have to be willing. I bet you a lot of you are like me.

I've been allowed to do things that somebody else probably could have done better. They just weren't willing. So God says, well, I mean, I'll use what I got because it's me anyway.

And that's what Paul's saying. But I want to talk about this power of the Holy Spirit again. There's a young man, and I want you all to pray for him uh I'm not gonna say his name just pray for it God's brought him into my life and I will say this that and and and one of the guys in here thank you sent me a video of a guy talking about this and and he said I'm using with him right now because he knows enough about the Bible even though he doesn't believe it's god inspired inspired word and he doesn't believe in god he just kind of believes in a kind of a deist kind of thing and i and he said i says you don't believe the new testament he said i don't know i don't know about these accounts of jesus and the resurrection and all that and i said okay okay so let's let's take that on um i said let's just use common sense and we need to remember this because we need to be sure we're not guilty of this Okay, so let's take that on. I said, let's just use common sense.

And we need to remember this because we need to be sure we're not guilty of this. They were, at times, quite cowardly before when? Before they got the Holy Spirit. Before the resurrection, they could act quite cowardly. They would say things and be bold and then not follow up and cower away, run from Jesus, don't want anything with him. But I said, you know, have you noticed the change in these men after the resurrection when they received the Holy Spirit? Now, you don't understand the Holy Spirit yet, talking to the guy. I said, but you can grasp the resurrection, right? Yeah. right yeah so you you think if someone died on a cross and you thought it was all over and then they walked through the walls of where you were sitting and appeared before you fully resurrected that that might change your boldness well yeah it would well they did they're not the same men anymore they all go on they go from running from from Jesus because they didn't want to be killed to every single one of them other than John being martyred because they would never denounce the deity of Christ again. Something happened. Why would you do that? None of us would die for what we knew was a lie. None of us. And so they all did because they knew what they had seen, but they also were given the power of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Now here's the challenge to us. Some of you have heard me teach this before, but we need to keep teaching this in the church.

The church age is on the other side of Pentecost. So every single person that repents and turns from their own authority and places their faith fully in Christ and come under his authority receives the Holy Spirit.

And I think too many times, especially men, we dumb down the standard and we act like the disciples prior to Pentecost, and that's wrong. That's not where we are. We have access to what they got after Pentecost, and they were different people. The standard goes way up, way up. And what we do is we still like to fool around in the Garden of Gethsemane and run from Jesus and think that that's relatable to the disciples.

That was before Pentecost. Some of us are still running out of our clothes. Some of us are still denying him three times and don't want to be associated with him because we're afraid of the persecution of it.

Well, let me tell you something. Those men didn't act like that after they got the Holy Spirit. And if you're redeemed, you're supposed to already have it. So if there's no boldness in your life, I wonder if the Holy Spirit is there.

And Paul's going to get there in this study this week. We're about to get there. He's going to put that question in front of the church.

So now Paul says, my weakness, as we just learned, he said, like Christ, I may at times look weak, but I have the power of God.

As I just taught y'all, as I just taught you in chapter 12, what we call chapter 12, what I just taught you earlier in the letter is what he's saying, is that my weakness is actually my strength.

Weakness is actually my strength. Y'all see me as weak, but what you don't understand, the fact that I come across as weak, that only means that I lean on Jesus more, which actually makes me quite strong. I'll tell you when we're really at our weakest, when we start relying on self. That's when we got problems.

Because I don't know about you, my self has never steered me very good at all. And it's not very bold. Now, our problem isn't a lack of strength. Our problem is a lack of weakness so we get real strength from the Holy Spirit.

And I don't mean to be passive. I mean to be selfless, to deny self, to count the cost, to pick up the cross.

And so now he says, now here comes advice. I have some advice for you. Now this next, this is ugly coming right now.

And I told you all last week that I have preached the verse 5 and 6 so many times.

Usually, and we'll likely preach it maybe even Saturday night, because I usually lead with it no matter what the message is.

Because the message here is what he's going to tell them. You know, we've been through a lot in this letter.

We've been through a lot on these visits. I see some things in the church that shouldn't be there. I keep addressing these things.

Y'all keep opposing me. You know what? It may be that you're just not of the faith. Have you ever thought about that?

Have you ever thought about the reason why you can't ever seem to quite get right with God is that you're just lost? Have you ever thought about you don't see the fruit of the Holy Spirit flowing out of your life because you don't have the Holy Spirit?

Have you ever even considered that? I'll take this on because I've said it before too, but listen to me now. You know, because I'll take this on because I've said it before too, but listen to me now.

I've used this excuse and this is what I'm about to say, truth, but I'm going to ask you to examine it a little closer. Because we're going to see the word examine yourself coming up next. When we say, which is true, I'm just a work in progress. All right, now listen. You've included the word progress in that so if you're truly being sanctified and you're being matured in the faith which is an ongoing process sanctification sanctification isn't taking place if that word progress doesn't apply see when you say you're a work in progress but there is no progress you're not if you're not growing you're the problem because the power is there you're not accessing it or maybe you don't have access to it that's the worst and paul's about to lay that down i'm going to ask y'all in the room and i'm going to ask y'all watching and listening, is everybody ready to examine yourself?

Because when you go to the doctor, what do they say you're coming for? An examination. What are they looking for?

To see if you're sick. See if your heart's working right. Fill in the blank. I just had to go do a stress test not too long ago.

And when they...