Welcome to the defender bible study. A weekly encouragement to equip the body of Christ through the study of scripture and prayer to manifest the gospel to orphans and vulnerable children around the world. This podcast is a ministry of Lifeline Children Services, where we believe that defending the fatherless begins by being rooted in God's word.

Hello. My name is Nate Bruns, and I'm honored to open scripture with you this morning as we take a look at second Corinthians chapter 3. I am blessed to serve with Lifeline Children's Services here in the state of Kansas and Missouri, and, we're honored if you are listening today and utilizing the study today to open the word and, to see what god maybe has to say to you and to those whom you serve. It's been a while since I've received a handwritten letter. I don't know if you remember what that was like.

That was before there was digital, things like, email or or more so even text message. Now maybe if you have received 1, it's been the form of a greeting card or a a birthday card or or even a letter that was written to you on mother's day or father's day. That being said, there's something about a handwritten letter that brings a flavor of care to the reader more than anything else. And Paul here today is writing this letter, this handwritten letter to the Corinthian church. And as he writes this letter, he wants them to hear his heart and his passion for the gospel.

Not but not just so that they understand his passion. He wants them to be reminded of their call to follow Christ themselves and what that looks like and how it plays out in their day to day life for the glory of God. You see in 2nd Corinthians chapter 3, Paul writes this in verse 3, these words. He says, you show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living god, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. Paul tells them that there's something about a written letter that is great.

You can write your testimony down, but and there's something about stone tablets, like like the 10 commandments that that Moses would have received from God. But but that being said that being said, there is nothing like the testimony of one's heart that one that others see their lives and and how it is that how it is that that testimony can have an impact on the world around them. You see, a believer's salvation needs to be legible enough that the that the world might come to believe in the in the one who saved us. You see, there's a temptation for us sometimes, at least for me, to live life in conjunction with the will of God, but just far enough away that that that it doesn't, well, it doesn't create inconvenience. It doesn't create a an issue with others around.

Now now some might say, well, Nate, we, you know, we we wanna as Paul writes, we wanna be in the world, but but not of the world. That is correct. But Paul is not writing that here. Rather, he's reminding them that they are the ministers of the new covenant. They're the ministers of the gospel.

The spirit that lives in lives in them is the spirit of God that's meant to be a testimony to the world around them, greater than or any handwritten letter and greater than any any ten commandments put on, tablets of stone, but rather their life is meant to be, well, a demonstration of Christ himself to others. You see, the thing that that also Paul writes to them is that he wants them to be mindful that this ministry does not depend on themself, but rather it depends on it depends on the spirit living in them. You see, in verse 7, Paul writes this, the second Corinthians 2. I'm sorry. The second second Corinthians chapter 3.

Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory. So the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, will not the ministry of the spirit be even more glorious? You see, when Paul writes this that that that the holy spirit lives in them, that lives in the Corinthian church, lives in us today, he wants them to to remember and to take hold of is that even as great as it was of the experience on the mountain for Moses and how he he shined that others, the Israelites couldn't even look at him because he was in the presence of god. How greater will be the glory is the glory of the spirit of god living in us? And the dependence that we have on that holy spirit needs to be the focal point of our day to day walk with Christ.

Seeing the world around, we can fall to the trap of climbing the climbing the corporate ladder. We can try to do it on our own accord. We we we can, in our lives and relationships as parents, try to depend on our own wisdom to guide and direct our kids to what? Well, to what to to what we hope to be as Christ, but sometimes it can just be what we want for them. For others, maybe it's not relationships and it's not work, but rather it's just your identity, that we are focused and you become focused on doing it on our own and by our own accord.

But rather, Paul says, we need to depend be dependent on the holy spirit and how glorious is it that God's spirit lives in us. More glorious, mind you, than even the receiving of the 10 commandments by Moses on the mountain that day. You see, Paul wants us in this third principle, I believe, in this passage here to apply today is the old the old often gets in way of the new. You see, for if you've walked with Christ at any for any length of time, we know that our natural inclination, our sinful inclination, many times is to go back towards and go back to what it is that we previously knew. We result back to what it is that that we feel comfortable with.

Even if we've not had great experiences, even if it's been damaging in our lives, we we result back to it. You see for the Corinthian church, I believe there probably is a little bit of this taking place is that some came from a certain background or heritage, others came from a different background in heritage. And and when they became dependent upon themselves, they became dependent upon the old, not the new, not the spirit of god living in them. And instead, what happens is their past in the past when they gravitate to the past, and many of them would have lived in a place of legalism, is that they became trapped and independent upon even more of themselves, and therefore, they did not experience fully the freedom of Christ. Because the one passage that maybe we've heard from 2nd Corinthians chapter 3, the one passage that maybe is embedded on a placard in our home, or even in in this quoted when when we are thinking of scripture is this, 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 verse 17.

Says, now the lord is spirit, and where the spirit of the lord is, there is freedom. Freedom. Where the spirit of the lord is, there is freedom. You see, if there's a book into this this section, now, of scripture, now we know that Paul wrote this letter, did not have big numbers of chapters and little number of verses, but I believe if there was one verse that he wanted them to get into highlight on their page, on their papyrus, it would be this, that there's where the spirit of the lord is, there is freedom. In other words, if the spirit of the lord is embedded in us and if he's living in us and we lean into him, there will be freedom.

Where our heart where our hearts are transformed by the spirit of by the spirit of god, our hearts will experience freedom. Freedom that cannot be made by man, that cannot be purchased by man, that cannot even be formed by the greatest thinkers that is man, but rather, it is it shapes and crafts our testimony. The freedom that comes from the spirit of God, lets us be more dependent upon him and less dependent upon self. The freedom that comes from the Holy Spirit allows us to see tomorrow in a way that we've never well, we've maybe never seen before. It allows us to look at our past and to and to delineate out of what was good and what was not of what was good and what was of God and what was bad and what was what was not of God.

And we gravitate towards what is of God. We do not repeat the past. You see, but we do all this not by our own efforts, but by, well, by the dependence of the Holy Spirit. You see last but not least in this where there is freedom. When we lean into the spirit of the Lord and we experience that freedom, it brings us back full circle, back to the beginning of chapter 3, is that it allows us to demonstrate our testimony, the testimony we've been given by the salvation of Christ to death to demonstrate that salvation to others so the world can have an opportunity to believe.

You see, for me, as I think about it living now in my 43rd year of existence with a wife and kids and a job and and all that the world has to offer, I'm learning more and more every day that there is a there is a lot that God desires for me to experience, to find joy in, to find peace in. Why? Because he's the creator of it. But where it gets distorted is where I try to do it on my own accord without the movement, without the leaning into of the holy spirit embracing his movement and trying to do it by myself, and therefore I fall flat and I do not experience the freedom, the freedom that God has to offer. So today, I leave you with these two things that I believe that Paul gives to the Corinthian church and he gives to us.

Number 1 is this, to experience freedom, we need to experience the holy spirit. To experience freedom, we need to allow the holy spirit to lead us and guide us and direct us. Number 2 number 2 is our testimony is best written when it is written by God himself. Now I know we like to edit, we like to jot notes and add some cliff notes, but but be mindful. Your testimony is my testimony, our testimony continues to be written by God, and it's written by the holy spirit and us leaning into his guidance and us experiencing the freedom that he only he has to offer for the world to see.

I hope you've taken something from second Corinthians chapter 3 today. I know I continue and desire to continue to lead and to live and to follow to follow in a way that is that in a way that is glorious, experience the glory of God. And that will only happen in my life, and I believe in yours too, is if we lean into the Holy Spirit that's leading today. Hope you have a blessed day. Take care.

Thanks again for joining us for the defender bible study. If you enjoy making this podcast a part of your weekly routine, we'd love for you to take a moment to subscribe, rate, and review the defender bible study to make it easier for more people to find. For more resources and information on how you and your church can partner with Lifeline, please visit us at lifelinechild.org. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter by searching for Lifeline Child. You can email us directly at info at life line child dot org.

We look forward to seeing you again next week for the Defender Bible Study.