SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning.
SPEAKER_00: My name's Ben.
SPEAKER_00: I'm also one of the leaders here at uh City Church.
SPEAKER_00: And uh you're welcome, very welcome here to our live stream this morning, to our Virch Church.
SPEAKER_00: As Mark said, uh, we're praying this is the last one, um, the end of our Sermon in Slippers series.
SPEAKER_00: Um looking forward to being together and in person in Chancery Place from next week forward.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I want to I want to give you a little story about the history of Ben here just for a minute as we get into this, as we get into this passage here.
SPEAKER_00: See, I've lived in Dublin um for about four years, a little more than four years.
SPEAKER_00: Before that, sorry, I don't know what's going on with my voice.
SPEAKER_00: Before that, I was living in California.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to stop you there because not that California.
SPEAKER_00: Invariably, when I tell people over here in Ireland that uh I'm from California, they automatically think of, you know, sandy beaches and hot weather and you know, uh movie stars and very glamorous living, that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's what you think of, that's what we associate with Southern California.
SPEAKER_00: I from Northern California, lived uh 18 years of my life in two stints in uh Northern California.
SPEAKER_00: And it's different, not just, you know, sort of geographically and climatically, but culturally as well.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, if you asked a Northern California person um what was going on, you would you would hear them say that Southern California people are very shallow, Southern California people are very superficial, you know, that they they're all about the way that they look, they're all about how much money they have, what celebrities they've met, what film projects they've been able to work on, flashy cars, big houses, you know, all of this kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: That's what that's what NORCAL people would say about SoCal people.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the thing about it is, whenever you are saying that another group is superficial, the implication there is that your group is not superficial.
SPEAKER_00: Well, here to tell you, friends, Northern California people are just as image focused as Southern California people.
SPEAKER_00: It's just a different image that they that they're looking at there.
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, instead of maybe name-dropping the time that they met Mark Wahlberg, they're gonna name-drop meeting Mark Zuckerberg, right?
SPEAKER_00: They're not gonna drive, you know, sports cars that are flashy and expensive.
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna drive sensible, hybrid, fuel efficient cars that are also flashy and expensive.
SPEAKER_00: You know, they're not gonna brag about being a movie extra in a movie that everybody's heard of.
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna brag about working in a company that everybody's heard of.
SPEAKER_00: So if Southern California, the image that they want to project is something about, you know, glamour and beauty and being cool, Northern California is more about being educated and employable and you know, woke and environmentally conscious, and all of these kind of things.
SPEAKER_00: So if Northern California would look at Southern California and say, gosh, those people are are shallow, Southern California would look at Northern California and say, gosh, those people are pretentious.
SPEAKER_00: Now, full disclaimer here, I'm I'm not trying to make stereotypes and everything like that.
SPEAKER_00: This is just general cultural stereotypes.
SPEAKER_00: It is not meant to offend or or point to any specific person.
SPEAKER_00: I have to say that for no other reason than because um Doreen was born in Southern California, my wife.
SPEAKER_00: So, anyways, we won't talk about that anymore, but it's a good example as we look at this because we have two very different, very opposing images that uh people in these in these different places are focused on.
SPEAKER_00: And the passage that we're gonna be looking at this morning in 2 Corinthians 10, Paul is gonna be looking at uh ways that uh the Corinthian church, people within the Corinthian church may have been focusing on one image or another.
SPEAKER_00: And both images are pretty opposed to one another.
SPEAKER_00: But spoiler alert, he's gonna be telling them that uh boasting in either one of those images is wrong.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna he's gonna get all of that going through there and might even get to see something positive and what is right out of this passage.
SPEAKER_00: But before we get to that, let's uh let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go to our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Father God, we do thank you for your word and we thank you for the opportunity to gather virtually.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, may it be the last time.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, may we be in person and may we see uh the trend go forward and we're allowed to meet more and more in person.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the sustaining that you've been in our midst over the last 14 months.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we ask for your help as we get into this passage.
SPEAKER_00: Ask that in all that we're reading here that you would be speaking into us, that it would be your voice and your spirit that is uh transforming us by your word.
SPEAKER_00: We ask this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Now, before we can begin, this this passage that we see, we're gonna we're gonna be reading the word boast a lot.
SPEAKER_00: And when we see the word boast, when we use it in our day and age, it typically means speaking highly of oneself.
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's certainly part of what this passage is about, but I want to look a little deeper, a little more fundamental, a little more heart level as we uh as we get into it.
SPEAKER_00: When we talk about boasting, um, there's ways to boast without ever saying anything, right?
SPEAKER_00: If we go back to my example of Northern California, Northern California people are never gonna come to you and say, hey, I'm saving the planet by my uh purchasing decisions here.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, they might have the reusable grocery sack that has the logo of a sustainable produce company on it, and they're communicating a lot with it.
SPEAKER_00: But even beyond the communication, just in our hearts, when we talk about boasting as as it pertains to this particular passage, I think it looks at what we place our confidence in, right?
SPEAKER_00: Where we where we find our significance perhaps, but where our confidence in life comes from.
SPEAKER_00: So when we're reading this, when we're looking at this, let's make sure and have that kind of broader view of boasting in mind.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you've caught some of the some of the previous talks in this 2 Corinthians series, you know it's written by the Apostle Paul, and he spent a lot of time in this letter uh responding to some criticisms that he's uh received from people within the church.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna call these people hecklers uh because they've really been kind of shouting down Paul, even though Paul is writing from far away, they've they've been kind of spreading stuff around and they've been accusing Paul of some something pretty, pretty terrible in their mind.
SPEAKER_00: Uh they're accusing him of being not very impressive.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: So so that's where that's where we begin here.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul, for his part, has given a strong defense, though not really a defense of himself so much.
SPEAKER_00: He's not he's not said, you know, you think I'm not impressive, but I am impressive.
SPEAKER_00: He hasn't really been defending himself, but he's been giving a strong defense of the gospel because that's really what matters.
SPEAKER_00: He's Paul is is really expressing and illustrating and living out the fact that the kingdom of God is not about influence, it's not about popularity, it's not about building your brand, you know, likes and shares and followers in our day and age, but it's about the good news of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So in this passage, we're going to see two things, like I said before, two ideas, two categories of things that people might boast in in the Corinthian church.
SPEAKER_00: So we'll start by looking at a couple of them.
SPEAKER_00: So the first thing Paul looks at here is people who boast in superficial things, right?
SPEAKER_00: In my example, again, it's just a just a stereotype, but in my example, this would be like the Southern California example, right?
SPEAKER_00: Who is impressive, who is popular, who's in the in crowd, right?
SPEAKER_00: So we can trace this through the passage.
SPEAKER_00: You want to follow along with us if you if you like?
SPEAKER_00: If you look at verse seven, and this is Paul comparing the value of those hecklers, the values that they're expressing to his ministry there.
SPEAKER_00: Verse seven says, if anyone is confident that he is Christ, let him remind himself that just as he is Christ, so are we.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this looks like he's addressing people who are claiming to be kind of in God's inner circle, right?
SPEAKER_00: Christians of a higher level.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul says to these folks, there is no inner circle.
SPEAKER_00: All right, there is no, there's no platinum membership in the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: You want to be an elite Christian?
SPEAKER_00: That's great.
SPEAKER_00: But everyone who has turned to Jesus in faith and repentance is an elite Christian.
SPEAKER_00: There's there's no levels, the the the ground before the cross is flat.
SPEAKER_00: We can see this in the example of Jesus Himself.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the one that we're supposed to model our lives on.
SPEAKER_00: To be a Christian is to be like Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was and is God himself.
SPEAKER_00: There's no more inner circle than that, than being one with the Father.
SPEAKER_00: And yet Jesus told his disciples, you look in the gospel of Mark, he told his disciples that he didn't come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
SPEAKER_00: In Philippians chapter two, another letter that Paul wrote to a church, uh, we read that Jesus laid aside his deity, that he emptied himself, that he humbled himself.
SPEAKER_00: See, these hecklers, they were trying to puff themselves up.
SPEAKER_00: And that's really the opposite of the example of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It seems like the entire church was getting swept up in this kind of wave of popularity and you know, trying to outdo one another and be really cool in that.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul's saying, this is not what the Christian life is about.
SPEAKER_00: As long as he didn't address this, the whole church would be swept up in it, and they would miss out on the Christian life, this abundant life in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This is a grace-filled walk before God, as we love him with everything that we have, everything that we are, and we love our neighbors as ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Now, we can look back.
SPEAKER_00: The passage that Mark preached last week, um, there's some pretty strong and almost aggressive language that Paul uses.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you look at verse four, if you want to scroll up there a little bit, talks about divine power to destroy strongholds.
SPEAKER_00: We talk about in verse five destroying arguments, taking thoughts captive.
SPEAKER_00: We look in verse six, we see being ready to punish every disobedience.
SPEAKER_00: And going on with our passage, we're in verse eight now.
SPEAKER_00: Paul writes about his authority as a pastor, as an apostle, and he says that it is, quote, for building you up and not for destroying you.
SPEAKER_00: So all of that aggressive language that we saw in the prior passage there, it doesn't change Paul's aim in writing this.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is harsh towards sin, he wants to root it out, he wants to confront wrong thinking, he wants to confront wrong behaviors, and he wants to help everybody to see what it is to live this Christian life and to live it well.
SPEAKER_00: But even so, even this, even this very aggressive tone towards sin is gentle when it comes towards people.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Every person in this world is an image-bearer of the Most High God.
SPEAKER_00: Every person in this world is loved by God.
SPEAKER_00: Our goal as a church, our goal as brothers and sisters in Christ is not to destroy each other, even when you know one person is doing something wrong.
SPEAKER_00: We're not there to destroy them, we're there to lovingly, lovingly correct.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 10 uh these hecklers are are classing Paul as as weak and unimpressive.
SPEAKER_00: But he's rather than responding and saying, okay, I'm not weak, I'm strong, I'm not unimpressive, I'm impressive.
SPEAKER_00: And let me show you how.
SPEAKER_00: Rather than doing that, he continues this message of humility, continues this message of gentleness, right?
SPEAKER_00: So all of this, all of this strong language is housed within this, within this gentleness.
SPEAKER_00: So he's been calling the Corinthian church to humility, to gentleness.
SPEAKER_00: And that's really what he's been living out among them as well.
SPEAKER_00: So what they're seeing as weak and unimpressive, this is just Paul's humility being lived out.
SPEAKER_00: He's not telling them, hey, you all be gentle, you all be humble, but I don't have to do that.
SPEAKER_00: And it seems like that's maybe some of what these hecklers were uh were living out.
SPEAKER_00: But he's not, he's not doing that.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 11 says, What we say by letter when absent, we do when present.
SPEAKER_00: So, in other words, Paul's saying, I'm not calling all of you to be humble and gentle while I'm busy puffing myself up.
SPEAKER_00: What you see as weak and unimpressive is me living out the humility that I've been preaching.
SPEAKER_00: So, once again, let's not be shallow.
SPEAKER_00: That's our first point.
SPEAKER_00: Don't get caught up in verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 12 has this idea of commending ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: We can always come out well when we're comparing ourselves to one another.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that true?
SPEAKER_00: Because we quite we kind of set the rules and and and make the make the grounds whatever we want them to be when we're comparing one another.
SPEAKER_00: Give you a great example.
SPEAKER_00: Great example.
SPEAKER_00: Um, when I did live in California, I used to cycle to work.
SPEAKER_00: Now, that goes along with this with this idea of being environmentally conscious and and and looking good as you're saving the planet.
SPEAKER_00: I did it because I hated sitting in traffic.
SPEAKER_00: That's another story for another time.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but really, that uh when I was when I was cycling to work, I was probably one of the best, one of the best cyclists in the Bay Area.
SPEAKER_00: Well, not compared to the guys who would cycle in all lycra, you know, the stretchy onesies and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_00: Those guys, those guys take it way too seriously.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm not even gonna consider them in my comparison here.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so yeah, so leave them out.
SPEAKER_00: And really, I had this, I had this old mountain bike that I'd put street tires on.
SPEAKER_00: So I probably not comparing myself to people who had like a proper street bike, you know, who had like a really nice one or anything like that.
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, we'll leave the we'll leave them out of the equation too.
SPEAKER_00: But really, among people who were cycling to work um in business casual attire and riding a mountain bike with street tires on it, definitely, definitely one of the best.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, that's just a facetious example.
SPEAKER_00: But truth is, in our lives, we can spend loads of time and effort comparing ourselves in disingenuous, in biased, in hypocritical ways.
SPEAKER_00: And we're just trying to compare ourselves one to another.
SPEAKER_00: It's important that we remember as Christians, our standard for living, what we're comparing ourselves to, is not this fellow or that fellow, this person over here, that person over there.
SPEAKER_00: Because, like I say, we can always compare ourselves favorably in those circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: Our standard as Christians is the risen Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And when you look at it that way, it's a little bit different.
SPEAKER_00: None of us, none of us is gonna perfectly meet his example, none of us is gonna live up to that.
SPEAKER_00: So rather than trying to, you know, jockey for position and and compare who's better and who's doing a little bit worse, let's just be about encouraging one another as we all grow in maturity, grow towards Christ-likeness and our faith.
SPEAKER_00: So that makes sense, I suppose.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be shallow.
SPEAKER_00: You probably already had that idea before, you know, probably already had a sense that you know you shouldn't be about shallow and superficial things.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: But maybe it's okay to put our our confidence in things that really actually matter.
SPEAKER_00: You know, as a Christian, do I and do I have the ability and the right to boast in the things that I do?
SPEAKER_00: Because, you know, some of us we serve in the church quite a lot.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I serve over here or I serve over there.
SPEAKER_00: You might be thinking, gosh, I serve over here and I serve this and I do that.
SPEAKER_00: I have this going for me, that going for me.
SPEAKER_00: Is it okay to boast in, for example, our Christian service?
SPEAKER_00: Well, spoiler alert on here too.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Paul's about to call out this kind of behavior as well.
SPEAKER_00: So this is our second point.
SPEAKER_00: Our first point is don't be shallow.
SPEAKER_00: Our second point is don't be pretentious.
SPEAKER_00: And when I say pretentious, I mean like the example that I gave up at the top, uh, trying to look smart, trying to look virtuous, trying to look capable, even just trying to look like you know a good Christian within the church.
SPEAKER_00: Let's take a look.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: All right, so we're gonna go on to verse 13, and it says, but we will not boast beyond limits, but we'll boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us to reach even to you.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's saying here, I'm not gonna boast, I'm not gonna take credit for work I didn't do.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna walk into a job that's 90% finished and say, look at all that I've gotten done here.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna slap a coat of paint on a wall and say, look at this house I just built.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: You can you can imagine people who say, Yeah, I'm really passionate about this ministry or that ministry, helping the homeless or or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: And then they're never around except when the cameras are out, right?
SPEAKER_00: So Paul's saying, I'm not gonna do this.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 14, he goes on and he says, We were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Now remember, this is the this is the context that we're that where Paul is contrasting his ministry to the accusations of these hecklers.
SPEAKER_00: So you can imagine hecklers saying, you know, who is this Paul guy?
SPEAKER_00: Who does he think he is?
SPEAKER_00: He's trying to express authority, he's trying to tell us what to do as a church.
SPEAKER_00: He's not even here, he's off planting churches someplace else.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the real people who are important and and and who care about this church are the ones right here.
SPEAKER_00: That's us.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul's saying, no, that's not actually true.
SPEAKER_00: We, you know, Paul and his group were the first ones to preach the gospel in the city of Corinth.
SPEAKER_00: You can read in the book of Acts, chapter 18, I think it is.
SPEAKER_00: Um, Paul was in the city of Corinth for a year and a half.
SPEAKER_00: He was there, he was preaching the gospel, he was planting the church, he was discipling people, and he was doing all of this while continuing to work his day job so that he wouldn't be a financial burden on anyone.
SPEAKER_00: Paul worked hard in the city of Corinth.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody can, nobody can come in and say, well, you know, Paul, he really, really didn't do anything.
SPEAKER_00: This kind of gives us a clue and maybe a sense of why Paul is so deeply concerned for this church.
SPEAKER_00: These are these are people that he knows and he loves and he's been with.
SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, when he hears that these these hecklers are are throwing out different ideas and and coming in with wrong thinking and a false gospel, he's got to step in and he's got to say something about it.
SPEAKER_00: He's not some hit and run preacher, you know, fly by night, come in and get it done, try to build a following for himself.
SPEAKER_00: He's contending for the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Right.
SPEAKER_00: So if anybody is doing what verse 15 is talking about, you know, Paul doesn't say it explicitly here, but the idea of boasting beyond limits and the labors of others, that's really a description of what these hecklers have been doing.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: The thing about taking credit for other people's work, you can get away with it with some people.
SPEAKER_00: You really can.
SPEAKER_00: When I was when I was uh living in Nevada, I worked at a small company, and uh my boss, my boss was in charge of a project.
SPEAKER_00: It was a big project, big technical project.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I remember he struggled with it and had all kinds of issues and couldn't get this up and running.
SPEAKER_00: They were trying to open up a call center in another country.
SPEAKER_00: It's a big deal.
SPEAKER_00: And uh one day uh he calls me into his office and he says, I'm about to go on annual leave.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, I haven't gotten anywhere with this project, so um, I'm gonna leave it with you.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, can you see what you can get done on this project?
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm not a technical wizard, I know nothing about what he was on about.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't, I didn't have any expertise, I didn't have any experience with the project that he was on, and it was it was a bit overwhelming when I was sitting in his office and he was trying to bring me up to speed on it.
SPEAKER_00: But let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_00: The next week, when he was away, I got that call center up and going.
SPEAKER_00: Well, at least that's what everybody in the company would have thought.
SPEAKER_00: From the president on down, people would have believed that I got it up and going.
SPEAKER_00: Really, all I did, I got people, the different contractors and consultants and whatever, all together on the same conference call and didn't let them off until the thing was working.
SPEAKER_00: But and while they're on the conference call, I'm off doing my own work because I have no idea what these people are talking about.
SPEAKER_00: But everybody in the company would have believed that I was the one.
SPEAKER_00: I was the force behind getting this call center up and going, that where my boss, with all of his expertise, had failed, I had succeeded.
SPEAKER_00: And that would have stood until my boss got back from his annual leave, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because all he would have had to do is ask me one or two technical questions about what I did to make it work, and he would have seen right through that.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what it is in life, right?
SPEAKER_00: In our Christian ministry, especially.
SPEAKER_00: We can boast in the in the labors of others.
SPEAKER_00: We can take credit for stuff we didn't do.
SPEAKER_00: But God, God always sees, God always knows.
SPEAKER_00: And really, as we'll see in a little bit here, God is the one that we're living our lives to be commended by.
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, there's that.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to read from uh the second half of verse 15 on to verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: This is one of these kind of trademark Paul long sentences, but I think there's some good stuff that we need to understand in here.
SPEAKER_00: So let's let's break down.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna read it for you first.
SPEAKER_00: It says, but our hope is that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged, so that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you without boasting of work already done in another's area of influence.
SPEAKER_00: So there's a lot of things going on here.
SPEAKER_00: So let's chunk it, let's take it section by section here.
SPEAKER_00: First little bit here says, you know, but our hope is that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged.
SPEAKER_00: Now, is is Paul looking for this kind of superficial approval of man?
SPEAKER_00: What is he looking for popularity to grow his brand?
SPEAKER_00: Is that what he means by influence here?
SPEAKER_00: No, no, I don't believe that's what he's talking about.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about uh influence for the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: So he's saying as your faith increases, our area of influence uh may be greatly enlarged.
SPEAKER_00: This means that you'll actually be living out the Christian life, actually be doing what you're called to do, right?
SPEAKER_00: Instead of backbiting and jockeying for position, he's calling them to hold on to the truth, to preach the gospel, and to live with love and humility toward one another.
SPEAKER_00: So this influence that he's talking about is not a self-seeking, not a self-serving influence.
SPEAKER_00: This is uh influence for the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he's talking about there.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, the second bit here is so that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Paul's heart is for the lost.
SPEAKER_00: He has been uh equipped by God to be the apostle to the Gentiles, and he's looking around him, going, There are a lot of Gentiles, there are a lot of people out here who don't know Jesus, who have no sense of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, Paul was writing to the Corinthian church.
SPEAKER_00: Corinth is way over here on the uh east side of the Mediterranean.
SPEAKER_00: He wrote in another place that he was hoping to bring the gospel all the way over here to Spain, right?
SPEAKER_00: So to cover the whole breadth of the European continent as he's sharing the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And I think what he's saying here is, you know, as you, as your faith increases, as our influence among you enlarges, as as you begin to live more like you're meant to live, and you're able to look after yourselves in a spiritual sense and a leadership sense, that will free me up, that will free Paul up to go and preach the gospel in other places.
SPEAKER_00: So he can keep his eye on that prize.
SPEAKER_00: And the final little final little uh phrase there is without boasting of work already done in another's area of influence.
SPEAKER_00: This this is the same idea that we were looking at a minute ago, but it's just another contrast between Paul's ministry and the ministry of the hecklers, right?
SPEAKER_00: God has uniquely gifted Paul to serve, uh, to take the gospel to many places and plant churches and all of that.
SPEAKER_00: And he's not looking to do this for his own brand, for his own glory, but he is indeed looking to see his purpose as given by God lived out.
SPEAKER_00: So that's that.
SPEAKER_00: All of this comes back to our second point, which is, of course, don't be pretentious.
SPEAKER_00: Don't live uh for the applause of others in how smart you are and how capable you are.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it wraps up nicely in verse 18, the last verse of our passage, which says, For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.
SPEAKER_00: We, as people, may have great standing in the world, we may have great standing in the church.
SPEAKER_00: It may be based on superficial things like we talked about earlier, things like popularity, things like influence.
SPEAKER_00: It might be based on work we've done in the church, ways that we've served, ways that we come across like a good Christian.
SPEAKER_00: But the approval of the world, and really even the approval of the church, is not what the Christian life is about.
SPEAKER_00: The example of Paul's life, just in general, shows us far more about what it's like to be opposed, to be rejected by the world, to face difficulty in the world.
SPEAKER_00: And so our lives are to be lived out before the audience of one, and that's the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So moving on from those two points, two things that we're not supposed to do is can we synthesize this and say, you know, we're not supposed to boast in the superficial, we're not supposed to boast in pretentious things, something meaningful even.
SPEAKER_00: Is it fair to say we don't boast at all?
SPEAKER_00: We're not people who boast in anything.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm gonna say no.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll I'll tell you why.
SPEAKER_00: There's a few places in this passage where Paul talks about boasting in his own life, where he boasts.
SPEAKER_00: Now, is this Paul saying, you know what, you guys don't boast, but I'm allowed to boast because I'm better than you or I'm above you?
SPEAKER_00: No, no, take a look at it.
SPEAKER_00: Let's flip back up to verse eight if you can.
SPEAKER_00: It says, if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave, right?
SPEAKER_00: Keep that in your mind.
SPEAKER_00: And verse 13, which says, but we'll boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us.
SPEAKER_00: These are examples of Paul boasting, which I remember I said boasting in this sense means finding confidence, right?
SPEAKER_00: Finding his confidence in the Lord's provision.
SPEAKER_00: So where he talks about boasting of authority, it's not in, again, a self-serving way, building his brand, building his popularity.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me, look at me.
SPEAKER_00: No, he's he's boasting in the authority that God has given him.
SPEAKER_00: He's he's confident because God gave him this authority.
SPEAKER_00: And he knows that this authority is not for his own personal gain, not for his own personal use, but it's both from God and for God.
SPEAKER_00: He can boast in the area of influence that he has, not to say, wow, look at how influential I am, look at how great this area is, look at how amazing my ministry is.
SPEAKER_00: That's glory seeking, that's puffing up the ego, and that's not what Paul's talking about here.
SPEAKER_00: He's able to boast, find his confidence in the Lord, and dive into this work that God has entrusted to him.
SPEAKER_00: He's working wholeheartedly for God's glory.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see the distinction there?
SPEAKER_00: Paul's not boasting in himself, he's not boasting in his achievements, he's not boasting in his position.
SPEAKER_00: He's boasting, and it goes along with verse 17, which is itself quoted from the Old Testament book of Jeremiah.
SPEAKER_00: Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's the same idea from a passage that I love in the book of 1 Peter.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter chapter 4 talks about how Christians, all Christians, every believer in Jesus, everyone who's trusted him in faith and repentance and followed him as Lord of their lives, everyone is equipped for service in God's kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Now, on one hand, you could very easily get hung up on this and say, which gift is better, which one makes me look better, how's my equipping compared to your equipping?
SPEAKER_00: And you know, I'm I'm very superficial about this, very, you know, shallow about my gifts.
SPEAKER_00: But that passage makes it very clear.
SPEAKER_00: First Peter passage makes it very clear.
SPEAKER_00: It's God who equips, it's God who enables that equipping to be useful, and it's God who gets the glory in the end.
SPEAKER_00: So, like I say, we can miss what this is about if we are too busy focusing on how good it makes me look.
SPEAKER_00: But we can also miss it, and this is this is what I think this is key in this passage here.
SPEAKER_00: We can also miss it if we let our fear keep us from doing anything.
SPEAKER_00: If we're not able to boast in the Lord, if we're not able to find our confidence and our sense of identity in the Lord, it can paralyze us.
SPEAKER_00: And it can even be from a good place of not wanting to be too proud, not wanting to, you know, be glory-seeking.
SPEAKER_00: It's good not to be glory-seeking, but it's not good to let that keep you from doing the work that God has for you.
SPEAKER_00: Both of those extremes, the look at me, look how great I am, or the, you know, I'm not going to do anything so as not to draw attention to myself.
SPEAKER_00: Both of those, those focus on self.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul's saying, don't focus on self, focus on the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: If I'm boasting in the Lord, if I'm finding my confidence in him, I'm acknowledging two things.
SPEAKER_00: And both of these things together are very empowering.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, I'm focusing, I'm acknowledging on the fact that I am not enough.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, I'm acknowledging he is enough.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Paul, more than most people, would know and understand that it's not about us.
SPEAKER_00: Paul, as I said, spent 18 months with the Corinthian church.
SPEAKER_00: And you can read his letters to them, and they are filled with uh signs that this church was struggling in a lot of ways.
SPEAKER_00: They were getting it wrong in a lot of ways.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is sending them a lot of things that they need to fix, a lot of things that they need to correct.
SPEAKER_00: And this is after he's spent a year and a half pouring into them.
SPEAKER_00: This is after he has labored tirelessly, you know, teaching, discipling, modeling the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: If we compare this example to the example of the Thessalonian church, right?
SPEAKER_00: Thessalonian church, Paul planted that church, preached the gospel, and then not long after had to leave.
SPEAKER_00: He had to leave town.
SPEAKER_00: And that church, where he was only at a short time, uh, Paul's letters to them would reflect a church that is that is healthy, that is doing well, that is doing the right things.
SPEAKER_00: So if you were looking at it strictly from a human perspective and saying, I spent a year and a half with the Corinthian church and they're a mess.
SPEAKER_00: I spent, you know, just you know, a few weeks, a few months with the Thessalonian church and they're doing great, how can you conclude anything other than it's not about your efforts?
SPEAKER_00: And Paul could look at both churches and all the other churches that he was involved in.
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, whether they're doing well, whether they're not doing well, whether, you know, whatever issues they have going on with them, he could still boast in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So for us here this morning in Dublin, sitting in our slippers in our living rooms or watching on TV, whatever it is, let's be like Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Let's boast in the Lord, this idea of godly courage.
SPEAKER_00: It's not courage that's based in myself, it's not based in shallow things like how pretty I am or how popular, or uh it's not boasting it, it's not based in pretentious things like how smart I am or how devoted I am.
SPEAKER_00: It's based on God.
SPEAKER_00: Let's be confident.
SPEAKER_00: Let's be confident not in ourselves, but in the power of God working in us and through us to achieve magnificent things.
SPEAKER_00: As an example, we think about sharing the gospel with those in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: What kind of things keep us from sharing the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: What kind of things um hold us back there?
SPEAKER_00: Uh maybe we're scared that it'll make us look bad, right?
SPEAKER_00: We won't be one of those uncool Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe we're scared that as we share with people, we won't be able to answer all of their questions or all of their objections and we'll look silly, we'll look foolish.
SPEAKER_00: Let's not let those shallow or pretentious things keep us from boasting in God.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Jesus in the book of Acts, right before he ascended into heaven, he called his disciples to be his witnesses.
SPEAKER_00: What is a witness?
SPEAKER_00: A witness is someone who gives testimony.
SPEAKER_00: And what better testimony can we give than to boast in the Lord, to boast in what he has done and what he continues to do in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Let's have this mindset as we look at one another as well.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy, even in Christian circles, even within the church, maybe especially within the church sometimes, to apply the values of the world without even realizing it.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we look at a church and evaluate how good of a church it is based on how many people go there, rather than how faithful they are at living out the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we nominate people for leadership or for service based on how fun they are, how friendly they are, rather than reviewing the biblical criteria, biblical qualifications for leadership.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe we go the other way.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we are harsh toward one another.
SPEAKER_00: We see a brother who struggles with sin, or we see somebody who's who's going through a hard time and and we're harsh with them.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of living with them with grace and encouragement, uh, we come down hard on them.
SPEAKER_00: We are, ladies and gentlemen, each of us, a work in progress.
SPEAKER_00: None of us has it all together.
SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, obviously, where there's sinful behavior, we need to call it out for one another.
SPEAKER_00: We need to encourage each other to do the right thing.
SPEAKER_00: But this always needs to be done out of a sense of concern, out of a sense of care and love, because we want to see one another doing well, we want to see one another living this abundant life in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It should never be out of a sense of superiority or judgment or condemnation, right?
SPEAKER_00: So it should always be in this loving way that Paul models and lives out in the Corinthian church here.
SPEAKER_00: And finally, one last thing that we can take from this.
SPEAKER_00: Let's learn something as a church, as individuals.
SPEAKER_00: Let's learn something from Paul about his passion for the lost.
SPEAKER_00: He is eager for the Corinthian church to get it so that they can look after themselves and not need his attention and his time in the same way.
SPEAKER_00: Because he is so compelled to share the gospel with those who don't yet know it.
SPEAKER_00: We know living in 2021 here in this world, there are parts of the world where Jesus is neither named nor known.
SPEAKER_00: We know that here in this country in Ireland, there are communities with very little to no Christian witness.
SPEAKER_00: And like I was just talking about, there are there are people in our lives, each of us has people in our lives who don't know Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So let's be about looking for the opportunities to speak truth to those around us, even as we support missions that are on a nationwide level, uh, missions and church work on a nationwide level, and missions and church work on a global scale.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father God, we thank you.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for your uh your unending love, just the way that you care for us, the way that you bring us along by your spirit, through your word.
SPEAKER_00: I pray, Lord, that we would give a second look to some of the uh issues brought up in this passage, uh, that we would not be about uh superficial things, shallow things, Lord, that we would not be about uh building our brand on uh being smart or having everything together, but that we would boast in you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Let that boasting, let that confidence drive us to do things that further your kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, that we're not seeking the glory for ourselves, but we are seeking uh your glory, growth of your kingdom, and for people who desperately need uh to know your truth, to be able to take advantage of this abundant life in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, thank you for your church.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for working with us patiently, grace, graciously.
SPEAKER_00: Pray that we would remember these uh lessons and think deep on them as we go.
SPEAKER_00: In your son Jesus' name.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That's us, friends.
SPEAKER_00: Click in for uh tea and coffee.
SPEAKER_00: I'll talk to you then.