Episode Transcript
[00:00:19] Let's open our bibles together to first corinthians, chapter four. We have made it all the way to chapter four. That's awesome.
[00:00:31] I've had multiple different comments from other pastors asking where we're at and how we're making our way, how many weeks I am in. And I've had both extremes. Some pastors said, you've covered three full chapters in seven weeks. That's crazy. I could never do that. And some guys are like, man, you're going really slow. I would have been on second corinthians by now. We're right in the middle somewhere. So I think that's. That's probably a good thing. But I'm excited about where we're going today and as we're thinking about moving into this.
[00:01:05] Does anybody else in here love traveling? I know some of you do. I've talked to you. I absolutely love traveling. It doesn't matter if it's just 4 hours away, three and a half hours away to Danville, or if it's going across the ocean. I love to travel. It may be a disorder because there are a lot of negative things with traveling. People hate airports, people hate traffic. But I don't know. I just go into a whole nother zone when it's time to go somewhere, go on a trip. I love everything about it. One of the things I've discovered is that there are many different cultures around the world, and there are many different customs in countries. And I've listed out some of the craziest customs that I've heard of or have actually seen as I've traveled. The first one is one that I desperately want to attend sometime soon. It's in the country of Spain, and it's called La Tomatina. Does anybody know what that is? La Tomatina is the largest tomato fight in the world. They literally, I think it accidentally happened one day, and then this festival just adopted it, and they literally go out in the streets and have the world's largest tomato fight. And I want to experience that in my life before I die. That sounds amazing. There's one in India that I do not want to experience, and that is the smashing of coconuts on people's skulls. And that is in India. And it's actually very dangerous, surprisingly. I mean, but somehow, yeah, it continues. It has some sort of connection to the hindu worship and the temples, but that's something they're trying to stop, but it's continuing. There is a festival of scrambled eggs in Bosnia to usher in spring. I love eggs I love omelets. I mean, I think that's great. I can't see doing a festival for scrambled eggs, but apparently we have festivals in my house all the time because we love to scramble some eggs there. In Denmark, when you turn 25, everybody in your community and family throws cinnamon at you.
[00:03:16] I don't know why, but it's really funny. Is Abby 25? Well, everybody from now on has my permission to throw cinnamon outside, not inside, at Abby. I don't know what that is. Maybe it's good luck. Here's one I loved. It kind of made me gross me out a little bit when I first heard it. But they have what is called the monkey buffet festival in Thailand, and the thing that popped in my head was Indiana Jones and the temple of doom, where they, like, cut this monkey's head open, and they eat its brains out. And I'm thinking, this is disgusting. I don't want anything to do that. But it's actually a buffet that they prepare for the monkeys. They believe that the monkeys bring them good luck. So every year, they gather together and they prepare this huge table, and the monkeys can't wait for that day to come every year, and they come out of the trees, they come out of the woods, and they eat the festival. That's amazing. We could do that for bears at Hope church and start our own little custom and festival.
[00:04:16] The battle of the oranges in Italy is very similar to the largest tomato fight in the world. It's just the largest orange fight in the world. That sounds like it might be a little bit more painful, but I'd still want to try it if I was in the area at the time. Here's one that I don't want anything to do with. This is called the finger cutting of the Dani tribe. And when they lose a loved one, the top joint of a woman's finger will be amputated. I don't know why it has to be a woman. Why do the guys always get off easy? I don't know, but, yeah, they choose to do this, which is really bad. But surprisingly, it's not the worst. I would cut my finger off before I would do this next one. In India, they have what is called the baby tossing. And if you get married at the 50 foot high Sri Sainteswar temple in India, it's a tradition to return with your baby and throw them from the top of the 50 foot high tower into a cloth that is held by Muslims and Hindus below. They participate in this so the babies don't die. They live, but can you imagine being a baby and like the one you love, you love is carrying you up these steps and you're 50 foot high in there and then all of a sudden you don't breathe for like 30 seconds. That's terrible. So those are some of the customs that happen around the world. Some of them are horrible, some of them are funny and some of them sound absolutely amazing. The English have a whole new set of customs that define what it means to be proper. Did I say that right? I mean, how do you say proper? The right way? Proper? I don't know. Something like that. I'm getting closer. If I try it three or four more times, maybe I'll get it.
[00:06:07] So proper is what something is truly said or regarded to be, something that is genuine, something that is suitable or appropriate.
[00:06:18] So here's some of these british etiquette rules that Reader's Digest listed a few months ago. Actually they said, these are twelve british etiquette rules that Americans need to adopt. Now I'm gonna take issue with this because, you know, I think we've got some pretty good rules ourselves. But tell me what you think. The first one is always arrive on time.
[00:06:42] That's a good rule. But do you know that in some cultures that is actually considered rude? I. In some cultures you're not supposed to arrive until an hour after the time that they tell you to. Give everybody time to prepare. That's what some of us do anyway. I won't name any names.
[00:06:56] Say please, thank you and sorry.
[00:07:00] That's good. I think they got that from us. Keep conversations light and don't get too personal. Is there anyone in here that wish people would apply this?
[00:07:10] There's some people that walk up and they just love to get up in your business, right? They want to know everything. They dig, they pry for information. So you're supposed to keep conversations light. When dining out, keep your fork in the same hand. I'm not sure if I know anybody that switches forks back and forth, but I'm going to start keeping an eye on that. From now on. If you go out to eat with me, just be warned. I'm watching you. I'm judging you. Only cut and eat one bite at a time. This is one I know, but I don't always abide by it.
[00:07:37] When hosting, offer guests a beverage right away. We do that here. Don't bring flowers to a dinner party. What? I don't know, just don't do it.
[00:07:49] The British know best. Avoid saying like all the time. That's one that we need to adopt. There. I think we can all fall into that. Like, yeah, certain situations, like, why is that so hard not to say? I don't know. Respect people's personal space. Never jump in line. This is apparently the biggest rule in England. Is there? What's it called? Queuing or whatever? Yeah, never jump. They take it. It's very offensive to them. I'm. I don't jump in line. What I do is called merging. I love to merge with existing lines, and it's a sign of respect in my culture. So here's another one. Don't wear PJ's in public.
[00:08:34] And all the Walmarts just went out of business because apparently there's a dress code at Walmart in our culture, and that's all you can wear there, I think. So there are some other ones. I'm not going to get into all those. But some of us have enough to worry about in our own country, let's be honest, without worrying about going to another culture and being judged by a foreign set of rules. Southern culture. I'm just going to go on record as saying southern culture is the best. Our culture is the best. Southern America. And what I mean by southern is, from this point down, anything above us, they're Yankees. I mean, don't tell them, but, yeah, anything from here down is southern. So I think our culture is the best, and it serves me well everywhere I go. That doesn't mean I don't get in trouble sometimes, but I'm proud to be Southern American. Right? So today we're going to be starting chapter four, and I'm going to be preaching on the topic, as you can see already, to be or not to be proper.
[00:09:36] Because what is more proper than Shakespeare, right? And he's the one that wrote that line. So let's look at chapter four, starting in verse one. And hopefully, as we get into this, you'll see why I chose to give that intro. Let's read this. Verse one. This is how one should regard us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. But with me, it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself, for I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore, do not pronounce judgment before the time before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God. I have applied all these things to myself and apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another. For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you have not that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? This is God's word for us tonight. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Before we go any further, Father, I thank you so much for your word. We believe that this is breathed out by you and that it is profitable for us, your children, for the church and God. I ask that you would edify the body tonight through your words and God. I pray that you would guide my words. I pray that you would give me wisdom. I pray that you would protect me. And I pray that you would use me to impact others lives. God, you've challenged me through this. And I pray that the Holy Spirit would take these words and drive them deep into our hearts, plant the seeds that would grow into fruit that would glorify you. And God. I pray that our words would not be the only part of our life that gives you praise. I pray that our lives would glorify and praise you. And, Lord, we ask all these things in Jesus name. Amen. So some of us need to grow in our etiquette. I'm just gonna be the first to say, myself and others in this room undoubtedly need to grow in our etiquette, but we all need to grow in our spiritual life. And that is what Paul is dealing with tonight. And to borrow from the British, what does it mean to be a proper Christian?
[00:12:22] What does it mean to be a proper Christian? Remember that Paul is still addressing division in the church. The first four chapters. That is what he's dealing with. And the reason the church was divided was because many of the people did not have a proper view of some things, especially in the church. So as believers and members of God's kingdom, we need to have a proper view of some things. First of all, we need to have a proper view of our leaders. We see this in verses one and two. He says, this is how one should regard us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. So I want to look at these words. If we have a proper view of our leaders, as Paul is trying to give us in this passage, we need to realize that leaders are servants of Christ, first and foremost. Now, in the Bible, there are many different words that are used for a servant or for a slave, and I've heard many of those, a couple of those other words addressed and preached on. I don't think I've ever heard this word preached on. I'm going to do my best to say it. It's Jupiter, and it means servants.
[00:13:45] But this is the only use in Paul's writings, and when we look at the context of this, you're going to see that it was not an accident why he chose to use this word. This word means an under rower, someone that was a slave in the galley of a ship under the deck, and they were rowing in the bottom of the boat when they were rowing. They are unable to see what is going on outside. Many times, they don't have any idea why they're doing what they're doing, or they can't see what their work is accomplishing. They simply took orders. The task was important. Obviously, the ship could not move without it. The ship couldn't speed up or slow down without what they did. But while their task was important, it wasn't celebrated. Does anybody feel like you have one of those jobs? Your task is really important. It has to happen, but nobody's showing up to give you a party. There's no ticker tape parades for what you do. I think all of us feel that way at some point.
[00:14:58] And in this particular task, people were very reluctant to serve. This did not possess the honor of the roman soldier. A soldier who served on the field was highly decorated. Sometimes they were paid very well, and they could rise up through the ranks, and it was something that was celebrated, and it was easy to recruit. But for someone who was a slave galley, a galley slave, a rowing slave, a servant, it was very difficult to recruit people for that job. Have you seen the movie Ben Hur? It gives a very good picture of what it would be like to be a slave. It was many times the job of prisoners or of a soldier that was being punished or a political prisoner. And as we saw in the movie Ben Hur, this comes from history. They said that sea battles were struggles of anonymous masses of people enclosed in wooden hulls. The reality at sea was very cruel. The hundreds of rowers dying in crushed ships or burning ships did not even see their enemy. They died wielding oars in their hands instead of swords, as was honorable with the Romans.
[00:16:23] So Paul uses this word of pastors. One of the most denigrated stations in the roman armies was this position. Many times reserved for prisoners or slaves. And he says that the leaders in the church, he says, literally, this is how you should regard us, as servants, as slaves, as galley rowers of Christ.
[00:16:53] He's fighting against the idea that pastors or preachers or traveling evangelists are some sort of celebrities.
[00:17:03] He's speaking out against that.
[00:17:06] MacArthur said that this word was a word that was used to denote the most menial, unenvied, and despised of slaves. So not only are you a slave, but you're the most, the lowest of all the slaves. That's what this word implied. And remember that Corinth was an active seaport. So this is something that they understood. They would see the ships coming in. They would see the warships coming through, being carried over the land. The smaller ones, as we looked at and were carted across on the tracks, and they would see the ones that would come into the port, and they could actually walk out and look at the holes in the side of the ship where the rowers were rowing the ship out into the sea.
[00:17:58] There was actually another use of this word in classical greek literature, and it was used for a messenger of the gods who had zero say about what they said, but they went with a specific message and with the authority of the one that sent them. So either way, you want to look at this, it's someone who is serving another person's desires with no affluence of their own, with no celebrity status of their own. In one corinthians, chapter three, verse five, Paul uses another word for servants when he says, what then is apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed even as the lord gave opportunity to each one. This word is diakonos. It's the word that we get deacon from, which is talking about someone who is humble, submissive, and serves others.
[00:18:58] But Paul specifically uses this word. In this case, there's another word that is doulositive is another word for slave or bondservant or bond slave. And Paul only uses this word once in the book of corinthians, but first corinthians. But he uses this word in this particular case, not only of a slave, but the lowest of all slaves. Can't you see that Paul is making a point, like, going way further than he even needed to go to talk about his own station. And he was an apostle. God has used the apostles and appointed the apostles, but he's letting us know that they were servants to the church in their day and all future generations of the church.
[00:19:48] I love the story about Bill Bright, who is the founder of Campus crusade for Christ. This man has impacted many people, and the results of his ministry has seen millions of students be led to the Lord.
[00:20:03] And on his tombstone, the three words that he chose to put were slave for Jesus.
[00:20:13] That's something that I want to define my life. A slave for Jesus. I go where Jesus tells me to go. I say what Jesus tells me to say. I love like he tells me to love. I serve like he served. He tells us in the gospels, no one is greater than his master. Do christians today look like Jesus? Because that's what the word means.
[00:20:37] Little Christ, imitators of Christ.
[00:20:41] And we're ambassadors for Christ in this world.
[00:20:46] So he says that we are servants.
[00:20:53] But if you think that that word is striking, the next two words are even more striking. We're not just any servants. We're servants of Christ. It's the difference in being on a ship with an unknown captain and being on a ship that carries the Caesar.
[00:21:14] We are on Christ ship. Paul is conceiving of the christian church as a ship in this illustration, and Christ is the pilot, and his ministers are the rowers who do what he says. If you remember the movie Ben Hur, the way they kept tempo was with a hammer, and they kept a beat, a drum, and they kept this beat, and they would keep it slow, then they would speed up, then they would go to ramming speed, and it would just be this really fast tempo. And the rowers did what the captain commanded. They didn't get to make choices.
[00:21:53] Owl three, seat four didn't get to say, you know what? I'm going to row a little bit slower this time. I want to row the other direction. My arms are hurting. I want to push the opposite way, or I'm just going to lay down and take a nap. That would not have worked out very well for them.
[00:22:07] Our ship is captained by Christ.
[00:22:12] That gives significance to what we're doing. There's nothing lesser about being a servant of Christ. It's the highest honor that anyone could have in this life, to serve him and to work for him and to love him.
[00:22:26] But he also goes on.
[00:22:29] He says that leaders are stewards of the mysteries of goddess. So if servants speaks of subordination to Christ, then stewards speaks of accountability to Christ. A steward was a house manager.
[00:22:47] He was a house manager, and he was in total control of the household while the Lord or the master was away.
[00:22:56] And not only was he serving the household, he was serving the masters family, because usually families would not go on long trips with the father or the husband, the steward, would be in charge of providing for and teaching and protecting the family when the owner was away. Do you see why Paul uses this language? A steward is someone who is a house manager, and there's a root word that is connected to three different words.
[00:23:32] The church in scripture, in the Greek, is referred to as the oikos.
[00:23:38] God is called the oikos. Oiko despates.
[00:23:44] So it's another form of that word. And that means the master of the house. So the church is the household. The Oikos God is the master of the house. And the members, the individual members of the household are called.
[00:23:58] I can't even say it, but oykes, something like that. But it's the exact same word that is used in three different ways. So we're connected as individual people to the household of God and to the master of the house.
[00:24:16] That's what we get to be a part of.
[00:24:19] So when Paul is talking about stewards, we all have a job to do. Yes, this starts with leadership, but it also applies to everyone in the church. We all have a job to do. We work for the master, and pastors lead his household, his family.
[00:24:38] And Paul understood that his stewardship of the mysteries of God, which the church was the first mystery that Paul talked about. But he's also referring to the mysteries that are in scripture.
[00:24:53] So pastors are stewards of the mysteries of God, and they're accountable to Christ, who is the head of his household.
[00:25:03] So the secret things are the mysteries are the truths of the gospel, the whole counsel of God as found in scripture.
[00:25:13] So Paul is emphasizing that we're servants, were stewards.
[00:25:19] But then he says, moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.
[00:25:31] I love this word, faithful. It means to be trusting and trustworthy.
[00:25:37] So you can't be trustworthy if you're not trusting. You've got to be trusting in God to be trustworthy as we trust in him, as we're fully convinced in who he is and what he's doing in our lives, we become fully committed and trustworthy in our service. It's required that stewards be found faithful, trusting in the master, obedient to him, and trustworthy to be entrusted with the mysteries of Christ throughout their entire service. This is a lifelong pattern. Faithfulness.
[00:26:16] I said recently that faithfulness is obedience over a long period of time. It's the climate of your life. We all have good days and bad days. A climate is made up of high temperatures and low temperatures. But the climate is something that is over years and years and years. The averages are what they call the climate. What is the average of your christian life? Yes, you have good days. Yes, you have bad days. Let's take those out of it. What is the average, what is your normal christian life look like? Are you following hard after Christ? Are you stewarding your gifts for Christ? Are you doing the job that he's calling you to do? We are called to be faithful. So as we look at this, I love how it takes the focus off of the pastor, the teacher, the shepherd. And where does it place the focus on Christ?
[00:27:15] He's the Lord, we're the servant. He's the master of the house. We're just the steward of the house.
[00:27:23] So we're not to view our leaders in the wrong way. We're to have a proper view of our leaders, but we also need to have a proper view of our judge. He goes on in verse three, and he starts talking about judgment. He says, but with me, it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself, or I am not aware of anything against myself. But I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore, do not pronounce judgment before the time before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God. So he tells us three things in this. Number one, we are not ultimately judged by others.
[00:28:13] Now, other people do judge us. We know that we judge each other, but ultimately, their judgment carries no weight. You can judge me and I can judge you. That carries no weight.
[00:28:28] We're not ultimately judged by others. Stop worrying about that. Don't live for others approval and don't die from their disapproval. That's something important that we all need to learn.
[00:28:40] We're not judged by others. Also, we're not ultimately judged by ourselves.
[00:28:45] And again, we do judge ourselves. Sometimes we're very hard on ourselves. Some people are very easy on themselves.
[00:28:55] But ultimately, our judgment can't convict us, and our judgment on ourselves can equit us can acquit us.
[00:29:04] I can't get off by my own judgment of myself. I'm not going to get to heaven and stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and God's going to say, hey, buddy, how did you do?
[00:29:12] I know what my answer would be. Amazing. I got this. This is 100 a plus. I wouldn't ever say that that would be a lie.
[00:29:20] But God's not going to ask us what we think, how we did, because, as I said, our judgment doesn't convict us, and our judgment doesn't acquit us. I'm thankful for that, because sometimes I condemn myself.
[00:29:34] Sometimes I'm more focused on my failures than I am in the evidence of grace in my life. I believe all christians have evidence of grace, evidence of the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives, evidence of growth.
[00:29:50] But, man, I tell you what, I don't grow as fast as I want to. I'm not growing in the way that I need to. And sometimes I can be really, really hard on myself. Sometimes I can justify myself and explain away my failures. And that doesn't honor or glorify God either.
[00:30:08] But we're told in proverbs not to lean on our own understanding. And Paul's reminding us here, it's not others judgment that matters. It's not how harshly or easy you judge yourself that matters. Ultimately, number three, the Lord judges us.
[00:30:23] And as I was studying this and writing these words out this week, man, it had a profound effect on me just writing these words that God sees all, God knows all. God will one day bring all things to light, and he will disclose the purposes of our hearts.
[00:30:48] That should bring a serious reverence and fear to the heart of all christians, because we all fall short in some way.
[00:31:01] And again, this puts the focus not on other people, not on ourselves. It puts the focus on God. The Lord is the one who judges us, and he tells us that he will either commend us or condemn us.
[00:31:19] So just as stewards and servants puts the focus on Christ, judge puts the focus on Christ. We will all stand before his judgment seat one day as believers, and we will give an account for our lives. Now, they're not. God's not going to weigh our good works and our bad works and let us into heaven. If we have more good works and kick us out if we have more bad works, that's Islam. That is not Christianity. If you are saved, if you are born again, one day, you and I will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and all of our works will be judged. The intentions of our heart will be judged. And as we studied a few weeks back, we saw that some of our works will be burned up, and some of our works will survive the fire.
[00:32:03] And we're called to do works that honor God as if we will be judged for it one day. Because guess what? We will be.
[00:32:17] So as we think about being judged by Christ, we need to remember, first of all, that in Christ, as christians, we are loved and accepted. And we already have God's approval, not because of any work you do, but because of the work of the Christ, of Christ on the cross. Because Jesus died on the cross, you are loved. You are approved. You are accepted. You are God's child. He sees you as if he's looking at his son. That's amazing. That is a breathtaking truth, and it's one of the only hopes I have in my life because I have the imputed righteousness of Christ. He took my sin. He gave me his righteousness.
[00:32:59] But as we think about our works for Christ, as a Christian, those works will be judged, and God alone is our judge. But you need to remember that God is just.
[00:33:12] He's perfectly just, but he's also merciful. Perfectly merciful. And as christians, we must always fall on his mercy. When we fall short, we need to remember that it's not our works that get us to heaven.
[00:33:28] But we also don't need to explain it away or justify ourselves.
[00:33:32] We need to confess our sins. We need to repent. We need to walk in righteousness and obedience for God's glory. But when we fall short, we fall on, on his mercy, which leads us to our final point. We also need to have a proper view of ourselves.
[00:33:50] We need to have a proper view of leadership. We need to have a proper view of our judge, of our God, our Lord. But we need to have a proper view of ourselves. And that's what he addresses in verse six.
[00:34:03] He says, I have applied all these things to myself and apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us and not go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another. For who sees anything different in you? What did you, what do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?
[00:34:29] That's a little bit of a tongue twister, a little hard to read out loud. But the truth of what Paul is saying is, I'm taking this view of myself. I'm applying it to myself so that you can do the same thing, so that the church can apply these things to themselves and not go beyond what is written, not go beyond what God tells us in his word.
[00:34:53] So Paul had a proper view of himself. He models this, Will. Think about what Paul is doing in this book. He literally spends four chapters fighting against being exalted. Now, who's going to spend that much time when a bunch of people are celebrating you?
[00:35:11] When a bunch of people are like, they love you, they can't wait to talk to you. They're bragging about you, they're spreading. That is very tempting as a leader, to be drawn into that and start believing the fanfare. Start believing it when people are flattering you. But Paul is fighting against this.
[00:35:35] And we need to remember that pride is one of the most dangerous sins in the Christian's life. Pride is a dangerous sin for everyone. And it's been said, and I agree with this, that pride is actually the mother of all of the other sins. Because it's through pride that our hearts are lifted up to think that we deserve all of the other sins, to think that we are somehow worthy of rebelling against God, that our rules for our own life are better than God's rules. And I heard it this week in Asheville. I heard it in multiple conversations about people that are saying things out of their I mouth that was created by God with the breath that God gave them in their lungs. And they're speaking words against their creator and they don't care.
[00:36:33] They don't believe in him.
[00:36:36] And they are so arrogant and puffed up and proud that they think that they can stand and speak publicly against what God has spoken and his eternal word.
[00:36:50] And pride is usually an emotion that arises from our own actions. Right? We love to pick the things out that we do well and we brag about it. We even humble brag about it to the point that we don't look like we're bragging, but we still want everybody to know, right?
[00:37:10] And we're all good at doing this.
[00:37:14] And we feel proud of our own successes. Of our own accomplishments.
[00:37:22] And we spread the good news about what, me? The good news about myself. We do it in different ways. Some of us tear ourselves down in order to get other people to say good things about us. And some of us say good things about us to make sure that everybody knows so they can repeat those things or so that we can convince them of those things. But there's this crazy, amazing phenomena that happens and you've all seen and experienced this. And I'm just going to go on record and admit that I have done this many, many times. It's a temptation. There's this amazing phenomena where people take pride in something that is outside of themselves.
[00:38:01] It's external to them. This is what this group of people are doing. They're taking pride in their leaders. They didn't prepare Paul's sermons. They didn't prepare Paul's sermons, but they're bragging as if they did it. It's secondhand. They're taking credit for something that someone else is doing. If someone feels like they don't have anything to boast about within themselves, we find something attached. We find something outside of ourselves to attache our pride to that is external to the extent that sometimes we draw our value and our worth from something that we have nothing to do with, something that we are entirely separate from.
[00:38:45] Psychology provides us with two concepts of what it calls other related pride. I think that's a pretty good term for what we're seeing in this passage of scripture. He's saying that they are puffed up in favor of one against another, so they're proud about what their favorite preacher did.
[00:39:03] So the two different concepts of other related pride in psychology are vicarious or secondhand pride, which refers to someone feeling proud of another person's success while being perfectly aware that they did not contribute anything to it. That can be a positive thing, that can be a healthy thing. Then there are, then there's what they call a fans expression of support that has a motivating effect on the team.
[00:39:33] Thinking about this in sports, when you cheer for your team, it actually helps your team perform better, right? If you're at the stadium, I don't think it has any effect when you're watching on tv or whatever, other than them knowing what the ratings are. But when you're in a stadium where everybody's yelling and cheering, it can get you fired up, and that can be a healthy thing.
[00:39:59] If we're aware that we did not contribute. This can be loyalty or commitment to a team or to a country or even to a church.
[00:40:12] But there's a type of other related pride that can be very unhealthy and can look like secondhand arrogance. And we've all seen fans of sports teams that do this. Sports fans can be the most arrogant people. And the funny thing about it is they didn't do a single thing. What I'm talking about is men who can barely stand up out of their recliners, who paint their faces, wear their costumes, and they scream praises or profanities based on the outcome of the game to their team's performance, and they become puffed up and proud when they literally did nothing to accomplish it. And I've done this.
[00:41:01] I didn't sweat, I didn't get tackled, I didn't run down the field, I didn't even practice.
[00:41:08] But I cheer as if I was the one on the team, and I brag as if I was the one that accomplished it. And I'm not knocking sports. I love sports, but I didn't have anything to do with that. And I see fingers being pointed in here. I'm just gonna point a finger at myself. Cause I do the exact same thing I can. It's bizarre. I draw pride from something that someone else does, and that's okay. I'm going to keep cheering for my teams. You're not going to convince me not to. I love Carolina basketball, so I'm going to keep doing that. And by the way, we just had an incredible recruiting class. That's all I'll say about that.
[00:41:46] This is why I'm preaching to myself tonight. So I've got a book recommendation for you. I want you to write this down. If you haven't read this, it's a book called not a becoming a completely committed follower of Jesus by Kyle Ottleman. If you've read it, you're shaking your head with me, and you know, it's an amazing book. If you haven't read it, you need to read this book. I've done it with multiple small groups, read it multiple times myself because I need to be reminded of this. And he takes this, this concept of being a fan of a sports team, and he makes the point that this is one of the worst analogies for christians, and I just want to read his own words. He says this in the book. My concern is that many of our churches in America have gone from being sanctuaries to becoming stadiums. And every week all the fans come to the stadium where they cheer for Jesus, but they have no interest in truly following him. The biggest threat to the church today is fans who call themselves christians, but aren't actually interested in following Christ. They want to be close enough to Jesus to get all the benefits, but not so close that it requires anything from them. Ouch.
[00:43:04] That's enough. That hurts bad enough. I'm gonna keep reading. He says, it may seem that there are many followers of Jesus, but if they were honest about defining their relationship that they have with him, I'm not sure it would be accurate to describe them as followers. It seems to me that there is a more suitable word to describe them. They are not followers of Jesus. They are fans of Jesus.
[00:43:31] Here is the most basic definition of fan in the dictionary. An enthusiastic admirer.
[00:43:39] And he takes this sports analogy. He says, it's the guy who goes to the football game with no shirt and a painted chest. He sits in the stands and cheers for his team. He's got the signed jersey hanging on his wall and multiple bumper stickers on the back of his car, but he's never in the game. He never breaks a sweat or takes a hard hit in the open field. He knows all about the players and he can rattle off their latest stats, but he doesn't know the players.
[00:44:05] He yells and cheers, but nothing is really required of him. There's no sacrifice that he has to make. And the truth is, as excited as he seems, if the team he's cheering for starts to let him down and has a few off season, his passion will wane pretty quickly. After several losing seasons, many fans jump off the fan wagon and begin cheering for some other team.
[00:44:33] He says Jesus has a lot of fans these days.
[00:44:38] Fans who cheer for him when things are going well, but who walk away in difficult seasons. Fans who sit safely in the stands cheering but know nothing of the sacrifice and pain of the field.
[00:44:51] Fans of Jesus who know all about him, but they don't know him. They are not true followers.
[00:45:02] So what does it mean to be a proper christian?
[00:45:09] Well, as a Christian, we need to understand that we're servants, we're stewards, we're not the boss, we're not the captain, we're not in control. We're following our lord and savior. We have to understand that God is the one who's judging us. And yes, he's very merciful, but he's also truth. He also knows every thought and intention of our heart.
[00:45:35] And the Bible says God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.
[00:45:42] So we need to have a proper view of our leaders.
[00:45:46] Anytime we exalt a leader beyond what God intended, we dishonor Christ.
[00:45:52] Anytime we exalt others or ourselves more than we exalt Christ as being our judge, we dishonor Christ. And we need to have a proper view of ourselves.
[00:46:04] We need to know how broken we are. We need to know that we fall short. But we also need to know that God loves us, that he died for us. He shed his blood and he offers us his righteousness.
[00:46:20] And he wants to use our lives for eternal purposes. He wants to use us to make an eternal difference in this world and throughout all history.
[00:46:34] So for our application tonight, thinking about these three points, having a proper view of ourselves, proper view of the judge, proper view of our leaders, I just have a singular application tonight. Focus on Jesus.
[00:46:50] That's ultimately what Paul is saying. Throughout four chapters, he's repeating himself over and over again because repetition is the best teacher. We need to focus on Christ. Stop focusing on human wisdom. Focus on God's wisdom. Stop focusing on human leaders. Focus on the leader, the Lord, the savior. Focus on Christ. Christ gets all the glory. Christ gets all the honored. We are blessed to serve Christ. It's the greatest honor of anybody's lifetime to serve Christ, to live for his kingdom. It's a great honor and privilege to be called his steward as a pastor, as a shepherd, to steward his flock, to steward his household. To love and shepherd his people is something that I don't deserve. And if he went around picking people that deserved it, I would not be standing here.
[00:47:50] I believe many times he chooses the weak in order to glorify himself, and I'm a living testimony to that.
[00:48:00] Focus on Jesus because he will judge.
[00:48:05] So we need to live for him, not for acceptance.
[00:48:10] We already have his acceptance. We need to live from acceptance. We're accepted in him. So now let's live for him. Let's obey him. Let's love him. Let's serve him, not to gain his approval, but because we have his approval in Christ. Let's move forward in victory, in confidence, even when we fall, even when we fail, even when we mess up. Press on. Live for Jesus. Focus on Jesus and give him all the glory.
[00:48:36] As the bank comes forward, I want to lead us to prayer.
[00:48:39] Father, I thank you so much for your word.
[00:48:44] Lord, I literally stand in awe tonight of your grace and your mercy to allow people, broken, fallen people who've been saved and redeemed, to serve you and to be your stewards. And God, I pray that as stewards, we would be found faithful, that we would be trusting, constantly leaning on you, looking to you, obeying your commands and loving you in our service and being trustworthy, not just for a few days or for a season of life, but as the overwhelming pattern and climate of our life. God, I pray that you would receive glory and honor through our days and our weeks and months and years here on this planet. God, I pray that you would help us to have a serious response to this sermon tonight. God, I pray that we would assess our lives, take a serious look at ourselves and see ourselves through your eyes with your justice and with your mercy and your grace.
[00:50:02] Father, we all need your grace and your mercy tonight. Please speak to our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Change us. Make us more into the image of your son.
[00:50:12] Lord, we love you and we just want to continue to give you the praise tonight as we sing it.
