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Tucker Presbyterian Church Sermons

Tucker Presbyterian Church Sermons

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Sermons from Tucker Presbyterian Church, Tucker, GA https://www.tuckerpres.org https://www.facebook.com/tuckerpres© 2025 Tucker Presbyterian Church Christianisme Pastorale et évangélisme Spiritualité
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  • 2 Corinthians 12:1-13 - Christ's Power Made Perfect in Weakness (Rev. Erik Veerman)
    Jul 13 2025
    2 Corinthians 12:1-13 Christ’s Power Made Perfect in Weakness Please turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 12. That is on page 1152 of your pew Bibles. We are on the home stretch in our 2 Corinthians study. We’ll be wrapping up our series over the next 4 weeks. This morning, we’ll cover chapter 12 verses 1-13. It has one of the most well-known verses in the book. And it’s a great one. The Lord said to Paul “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” What a tremendous promise. As I read, listen for the context of that promise. Also listen for the unique experiences and gifts given to the apostles. Reading of 2 Corinthians 12:1-13. Prayer “To live is to suffer.” That well-known quote has been attributed to a couple of people in history. Again, “To live is to suffer.” Whoever said it has captured one of the common experiences of all mankind. To be sure, it doesn’t capture all the things we share, but it does capture the fact that we live in a fallen world. And part of that fallenness, which we all experience, is suffering. We each endure pain and suffering. Some to a greater extent and others to a lesser one. Some of our suffering is physical, other suffering is emotional. Some of it has been inflicted upon us by others. Some of our suffering is due to the imperfections of our minds and bodies. To use the words of Romans 8, the whole creation has been groaning… and we groan inwardly. You may struggle with chronic illness or live with the results of an accident. Or endure the effects of a disease that you had, or perhaps you were born with a condition of some kind that affects you every day. Maybe you have or have had cancer, or endure debilitating headaches, or struggle with vertigo, or seizures or mental illness. Or maybe the burden you carry is the suffering that a loved one is enduring. All of it is hard. All of it weighs on us. We lose sleep. We shed tears of heartache. Like Paul, we plead for the Lord to relieve our pain and suffering. We cry out for help. We long to be comforted and we long to be whole. Out of all the verses in the entire Bible, I think 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 brings the greatest comfort and hope to our souls. It directs us to the source of our comfort and it reveals from where we can draw strength in weakness. And that is, in Christ. I hope and pray that you will leave here today with a renewed strength in God as you endure suffering and sickness. But before we get to those precious verses, verses 7-10, let’s first figure out what this third heaven is and who experienced it, and then ponder Paul’s thorn in the flesh. I think understanding those things will in fact increase your comfort from this Word. By the way, I did get an outline in the bulletin this week. It’s there on page 4. We’re first going to look at Paul’s calling as an Apostle (you know, capital A, Apostle), including the things unique to his role, as well as the things we share with him. And then second, we’ll apply God’s grace in Christ in our own weaknesses. 1. Paul’s unique calling and our shared struggle So, #1, Paul’s unique calling and our shared struggle. Remember, the whole reason that Paul has entered into the foolishness of boasting is because of the so-called super-apostles. They’re mentioned here, again. They had elevated themselves. They taught a false Gospel. And they undermined Paul and his teaching. All of it threatened the stability and future of the church in Corinth. Therefore, Paul needed to demonstrate his trustworthiness and the truth of the Gospel he proclaimed. So, Paul had to boast, but it pained him. It pained him because he knew that any and all of the ministry that has happened through him was not because of himself. No, it was all attributable to God. Paul had a special calling as an Apostle, but he knew he was unworthy of that role, yet God had called him to it. So, he’s been boasting over these last 2 chapters only to counter the super apostles. And now, in chapter 12 verse 1, he continues to boast and says, “I will go on to visions and revelations.” And then look at verse 2. He begins, “I know a man” and then describes the revelations that this guy experienced. Who is that guy? Well, it’s Paul himself. He basically says so in verse 7. “So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations [you know, the thing he just described], a thorn was given me in the flesh” This is like saying today, “Asking for a friend.” Like “is it ok to wear the same pair of socks two days in a row? asking for a friend.” You say “asking for a friend” because you really don’t want to admit you are the one asking. But everyone knows, it’s really you. Paul referred to himself in the third person because he just can’t bring himself to boast about the amazing revelations he’s seen. This man, AKA, Paul, has been caught up into “third heaven.” What in the world is the ...
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    30 min
  • 2 Corinthians 11:16-33 - Boasting as a Fool (Rev. Erik Veerman)
    Jul 6 2025
    2 Corinthians 11:16-33 - Boasting as a Fool Please remain standing. Our sermon text this morning is 2 Corinthians 11:16-33. Please turn there. It is on page 1152. In this passage, the apostle Paul comes back to the theme of boasting. He introduced it in chapter 10. Remember, our boasting should be in the Lord and his work, not ourselves and our work. That was in contrast to the super apostles, who boasted in themselves. That is why, at the beginning of chapter 11, Paul had the most pointed critique of them yet. They taught a different Gospel and were actually messengers of Satan. That brings us to our text this morning. As you will hear, Paul hates their boasting. But to counter the super apostles, he first sarcastically boasts in his credentials and then surprisingly he boasts in something very different. Listen for those things as I read. Reading of 2 Corinthians 11:16-33 Prayer On the world stage, there is no shortage of bragging and arrogance. I’m talking mainly about world leaders. I think there’s been an increase over the last couple of decades. We certainly saw it back in the late1990s with Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. Vladimir Putin in Russia has certainly displayed a confident arrogance in his 25 years of power. And no matter your political opinions, I think everyone here would agree: our current president is quite the self-promoter, and I’m being kind. Now, don’t be distracted by that comment. Stay with me. Let me say that none of this is new. If we go back to the first century in the Roman Empire, boasting was at a similar high. In fact, I read in a commentary this week that Ceasar Augustus, one of the great Roman Emperors, raised the bar of self-promotion. Near the end of his life, Augustus wrote a short treatise about himself. Listen to the title - “The Deeds of the Divine Augustus.” It was released in the year of his death, AD 14. In it, Augustus highlighted all of his successes – his military accomplishments, his public works, his diplomacy, and his reforms in the empire. You can find it online. In it, you will read over and over. “I did this, I did that.” I triumphed over such and such nations. I built the senate house and the capital building. Four times, I helped the senatorial treasury with my own money. I restored peace to the sea from pirates. I gave shows of gladiators under my name. I extended the borders of the empire… etc. etc. This kind of self-absorbed boasting permeated the culture of the Roman Empire. And to give a little historical context, it was published about 60 years after Corinth was re-settled as a Roman city; 20 years before Jesus’ crucifixion, and about 40 years before Paul wrote 2 Corinthians. So, it is no surprise that the false apostles in Corinth praised themselves. That is what you did if you were to be known and honored. We’ve seen it over and over, these “super apostles” did not live by the Spirit with a humble and contrite heart. No, rather they lived by the world’s standards and beliefs and lifestyle. And part of that was to elevate themselves and their own self-defined credentials. As we just read, the apostle Paul hated it. In verses 16 to 21 he calls it all foolishness. In fact, look at verse 19. He writes to the church, “for you gladly bear with fools.” So, not only was their boasting foolish, but the false apostles themselves were fools. That word fool or foolish, if you remember from our Proverbs study, can be understood either as passively ignorant, you know, not really knowing any better… or being foolish can be understood in a more active way, someone being unwise with a senseless arrogance. That second understanding best fits the context. Paul even sarcastically calls the Corinthians “wise.” You see that in the second half of 19. “For you gladly bear with fools, being wise yourselves!” It wasn’t wisdom at all, but rather foolishness. So, that was part of the problem in Corinth. The arrogant boasting of the culture had come to the church through the super-apostles. So, what does Paul do? Well, for a brief moment, he enters into their boasting. It is like he is saying, since you are foolishly boasting, let me show you what this foolish boasting is like. He doesn’t want to toot his own horn, but he feels like he has to in order answer the super apostles. That why he says in verse 16, “…let no one think me foolish. But even if you do, accept me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little.” He goes on in 17, “What I am saying with this boastful confidence, I say not as the Lord would but as a fool. Since many boast according to the flesh, I too will boast.” Can you sense it? Paul can’t stand boasting. Nonetheless, he is compelled to do it. The false apostles were enslaving the Corinthians with their lies and deceit. To use some of the other words in verse 20. They were “devouring” them and “taking advantage” of them. The false apostles had “air” of superiority. In all of ...
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    31 min
  • 2 Corinthians 11:1-15 - A Sincere and Pure Devotion to Christ (Rev. Coleman Erkens)
    34 min

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