People of Promise

Have you ever made plans, cleared your calendar and had someone not show up? Or have you been excited about the future only to have things not work out in the way that you had hoped. You trusted someone and they let you down. You had an agreement critical to your financial success and someone didn’t keep their word. These are painful memories and they deeply impact our trust of people and sometimes they impact our very trust of God.

The Apostle Paul let down the people of the church in Corinth a couple of times.

In 2 Corinthians 1:16 he writes to them and explains, “I planned to visit you on my way to Macedonia and to come back to you from Macedonia, and then to have you send me on my way to Judea.” – But this did not happen.

He had encountered trouble during his travels that forced him to change his itinerary. This departure from his announced itinerary was taken by some as characteristic of his lack of integrity. So he has to defend himself, which he does here in 2 Corinthians 1.
This passage is written to address human issues including doubt, insecurity and fear.

It was written to people who doubted each other (questioning Paul’s reliability and his word).
It was written to people who doubted God and His word.

2 Corinthians 1:17-22
17 When I planned this, did I do it lightly? Or do I make my plans in a worldly manner so that in the same breath I say “Yes, yes” and “No, no”?18But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not "Yes" and "No." 19For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by me and Silas[a] and Timothy, was not "Yes" and "No," but in him it has always been "Yes." 20For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God. 21Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, 22set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

This weekend at EFC I will be speaking on this issue related to the promises of God and His faithfulness. I will post the notes and the audio later on.