Despite what we struggle with in life, for the believer the glass is always mostly full. There is always a light at the end of the tunnel. As we prepare for Advent, a month of celebrating the greatest gift ever given to humanity, let us rejoice and be thankful for God's amazing grace!

Relationships can be tough. In a throw-away society like the one we currently live in, it can be tempting to just write off a relationship when things aren't going well. But like the apostle Paul, if we truly love God and we truly love others, then writing off relationships will always be the last resort. In this passage Paul provides us with a wonderful example and some wonderful guidelines to follow when struggling with difficult relationships.

Christians are called by God to do all we do for His glory and the blessing of others. Whether we are appreciated or not, recognized or not, should not matter. We know this and yet this can be difficult for many Christians. This was not the apostle Paul. He had an incredible love for people because he had an incredible love for God. This is what we will examine and learn from Paul's deep love for the saints from 2 Corinthians 12:14-18.

The world is in desperate need of pastors who will preach the Word of God without watering it down or messaging the text to ensure no one is offended. However, those who do so run the risk of becoming the target of attacks. Not just from those outside the church, but also from those within the church. These bold preachers can weather the attacks if their church rallies around them. However, many preachers will be driven out of their church for preaching boldly (i.e. Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Jonathan Edwards). The apostle Paul was not immune from this. He left Corinth in the face of withering accusations and will address his ill treatment by the church in Corinth in a very personal manner.

When it comes to theology, Christians are often like pack rats--attracted to new things that sparkle. In a time when we have so much information at our fingertips, when getting multiple degrees can be done from the comfort of home, and when a person's social media presence can be quite misleading, it can be easy to be drawn to new ideas that everyone else is latching on to. However, all that glitters is not gold. And when it comes to theology, new is not always better or trustworthy. In fact, new is usually not better or trustworthy.

Sometimes we can become so preoccupied with others, with what others are doing, what they are thinking, or what they think of us that it can effectively distract us from focusing on God and on what God would have us do. This can be unhealthy and dangerous and is exactly what Satan wants us to do. Paul was not immune from this line of attack from the devil, but he never fell for it. We will see in this passage what Paul kept his focus on and how.

It can be tempting to compare ourselves to those around us, to other Christians or to the standards of the world. However, when we do that, we are focusing on the wrong thing. We should not care what others think. We should not compare ourselves to those around us. And we certainly should not allow the culture to dictate how we live and what we believe. Our only goal should be to please Christ. That's what we discuss from 2 Corinthians 10:7-12.

Many Christians mistakenly think that when they placed their faith in Christ and became a Christian, they were joining the Peace Corp--a life of ease and comfort--or they were enlisting in a peacetime Army. Nothing could be further from the truth. When we placed our faith in Christ, we raised our right hand and enlisted in combat arms to be on the frontline of a wartime Army.

Why does God bless us? Why does he do good things for us? Why are some blessed more abundantly than others? These are questions we will be dealing with in this message from 2 Corinthians 9:10-15.

There are few things in life that are guaranteed, especially when it comes to investments. Yet, Americans spend much of their time, energy, and money investing in things that have no guaranteed return. But there is one investment which offers us a guaranteed return--God.