I'm thankful to be here and to talk to you about today's text.
What's the toughest job you ever had?
You don't have to tell me all at once, just think about it.
I am going to be transparent with you about some of the jobs I
had.
You may think less of me but that's okay.
We'll figure it out together.
But one of the toughest jobs I ever had was a telemarketing
job.
Can you believe that?
I was one of those guys.
Before they were robots, they were college kids.
Okay.
And I worked at a place called Apex Marketing and we tried to sell
people weekend getaways at a resort so they could go through
another sales presentation for timeshare.
You guys want to?
Yeah.
Oh.
Yes.
That was not, that was a hard, what I'm trying to bring up is
that was a hard sell, right?
It was hard to make sales doing that.
That was one sales job I had.
Another sales job I had was I worked at a tuxedo rental place.
It was called Savvy Formal Wear.
And I, yeah, that was a good name.
I think it was fun.
And I would wear tuxedos, you know, and not every day, but we
would sell tuxedos and that was an interesting job.
The last thing that Brides think about are tuxedos and the last
thing that the guys think about are tuxedos, they all got to
get it.
I also sold discount furniture for a while and that was a good
sales job.
I got to connect it.
That was a lot easier than others.
The toughest sales job I ever had was convincing Megan Jennings
to marry me.
That was the toughest one.
So you know I can do a little bit with sales.
And she said yes, so that worked out.
But so yeah, sales is a thing.
I don't think of preaching as sales in that sense.
I know I'm preaching today.
Sales is about somewhat serving an audience.
It's also about there is a persuasion.
There is convincing.
And I'm not trying to sell you something today, but I am trying
to convince you of something because that's what the text is
doing.
We are studying the book of 1 Corinthians.
Did you come today to learn something from the Bible?
I hope you did.
Turn your Bible to 1 Corinthians if you are not already there.
Chapter 4.
And today I'm not trying to sell you something.
I'm trying to convince you of what this text is saying and why
that seems to be kind of a tough sell.
Why today's text is a little bit of a tough sell.
It's because it's in some ways very paradoxical.
How many of you have heard of the term paradox?
You know what a paradox is.
A paradox is something that seems to be contradictory at first
or seems to not be true at first, but when investigated and thought
all the way through, it's true.
I'll give you some ideas.
Like for instance, pain and discomfort and training.
Who likes pain and exercise?
Right?
Anybody here like pain?
Okay.
Who likes to exercise?
Right.
Like three of you.
Right.
Correct.
Nobody loves it, right?
But pain and discomfort and training done consistently will
lead to less pain and discomfort and aging.
Okay?
That's true.
In a sense.
Think about like, think about how weird it is.
I'm going to a building and they have a bunch of weight sitting
there and I'm going to pick them up and then I'm going to put them
down.
And then I'm going to pick them up again and I'm going to put
them down and I'm going to pay them to go pick them up and put
them down.
Are you with me?
I'm going to go to this place and I'm going to run on a thing
even though I could, and I try to get the first spot to go into
the place because I don't want to walk far.
To go in there and walk on the, it seems weird, right?
So at first it seems like why would you do that?
But people that do that with discipline, it's better for them.
Who agrees it's better for you if you actually, I'm not convincing
you.
See, it's a paradox.
Right.
Dave Ramsey says this, if you've listened to his radio show, if
you're writing a book, live like no one else so that later you can
live like no one else.
You get the idea.
It seems weird to say I have the money to spend.
I don't spend all my money, but the truth is you shouldn't spend
all your money.
You should save some of your money so that later you can have.
I notice that when I have it, that's good.
Right.
Here's another one.
Here's one true about relationships.
In relationships, this may be like new to you.
Okay.
Good relationships are good because of trust.
You with me?
It's better to trust than not to trust.
If you want to have a good relationship, you got to trust.
But trust only happens when there's a risk.
Are you with me?
There's a risk involved, right?
And so trust comes with a risk as a cost, but there's no intimacy
without trust.
So if you want to be close to somebody, you have to be vulnerable
to them.
There has to be some element of risk.
Does that make sense?
So it seems paradoxical, but it's true.
There paradox is in the Bible, for instance.
Salvation is free to us.
Who's glad for that?
Salvation is free.
I can look at anybody who's ever lived and say, God loves you.
I can say, Jesus Christ died for you.
It's free to us, but it cost him everything.
And while salvation is free, discipleship and Christ likeness
come at a cost.
Okay?
Jesus says, if any man come after me, let him take up his cross
and follow me.
Okay?
So while salvation is free, discipleship has a cost.
It's expensive, but it's worth it.
It's worth it.
Here's another one.
Jesus said, those who gain their life will lose it, but those
who lose themselves, for my sake, in the Gospels, the same shall
find it.
Humility and giving up your rights.
Here's another one.
Humility and giving up your rights can lead to harmony and
incredible relationships.
But pride in demanding my rights can kill relationships.
Again, at first it seems counterintuitive, but it's true.
Honor and glory come by way, Jesus taught us, of humility and
service.
You know, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall
lift you up.
So in today's text, it's kind of paradoxical.
If you, at the end of this sermon, you're going to look at the
three points that I give you and you're going to go, yeah, that
kind of is a hard sell.
Because if you just read them out there and what Paul is trying
to tell these Corinthians to do, it doesn't seem super marketable.
But I'm telling you that we ought to follow what he has said
and it is so worth it.
Paul is calling on the church at Corinth and then by implication
us to live differently than the way they were living.
He's giving them a new way to think about themselves, a new
way to think about their leaders, and a new way to think about
their lives.
Specifically, he's calling them to live faithfully, to live
faithfully as stewards.
Everyone say the word steward.
Steward, steward is someone who manages something that they do
not own.
The stewards of the gospel, he's calling them to live as stewards
of the gospel faithfully and as members in their local church
together and that faithfulness would cost them.
That's what he's saying.
So today the lesson is you should live in a way that costs
you.
You should live in a way that expends energy on your behalf
for others.
You should not always think about yourself.
You should think about others.
You understand why this is a hard sell?
They didn't like the cost, these Corinthians.
This is why they were acting with the wisdom of men and not
with the wisdom of God.
And Paul is calling them to think and to live to be faithful
stewards of the gospel and members in their church.
So this is the question that we're going to try to answer.
And it's the answer that will be hard, but in the end we'll be
worth it.
Here's the question.
What does it mean to live faithfully as stewards of the
gospel and as members in a local church?
Paul gives three examples of the kind of thing that it takes
to be a faithful steward of the gospel and of life in the
church.
Here's the first example he's asking us to command, that he's
telling us it's a way to live, it's a way to think.
Here's the first one.
Number one, end your pride.
End your pride.
He's pretty straightforward.
Verse six, I'm going to cover just the first thing.
And these things, brethren, so he's continuing what he talked
about before.
When Paul says these things, he's referring to all that he's
talked about up until this point.
Specifically, he's speaking about how to think rightly about
ourselves and our leaders.
Throughout the last three chapters, Paul has, and leading into
this fourth chapter, Paul has referred to himself, to
Apollos, to Cephas, which is Peter, and then to Christ.
If you've been here the last few months, when we've talked
about this particular passage, he says, some say I'm of Paul,
I'm of Apollos, I'm of Cephas, and I'm of Christ.
And this is in part because that's who these people were
following as influential people and the problem was they were
dividing over these people.
Who has heard me talk about that as we preach?
Some people say I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos, I'm of Cephas,
I'm of Christ, and they were kind of dividing over that.
Paul's argument against this is that the Corinthians were
approaching the gospel in the church in the wisdom of men and
not in the wisdom of God.
He says over and over again, he gives clear teaching that the
wisdom of God is Christ crucified, Christ crucified.
He had continued to use himself then, and this is what I'm
going to show you in these verses.
He continued to use himself in Apollos as examples of people
who in the end were not really anything compared to Christ.
And just to give you an example, 1 Corinthians 3 verse 4,
back in the last chapter, he says, for a while one of you,
one meaning one of you, one of you Corinthians says, sayeth,
I'm of Paul and another I'm of Apollos, are you not carnal?
What he's saying is you're thinking fleshly, you're thinking
temporally, you're thinking in this world's way of thinking,
you're thinking like an unbeliever, you're thinking like
people who don't understand eternity and Christ and all that,
he did.
He's saying you're thinking like everybody else in the world
thinks.
Who then is Paul and who is Apollos?
But ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to
every man, I have planted Apollos watered, but who?
God gave the increase.
In terms of the gospel, in terms of the church, who's
important?
God's important.
Without God, none of this happens, right?
And so we don't need to divide up over which guy we like.
The guy we all should like is God.
Jesus is number one.
Everybody is far down the line past that, right?
So he's continuing to teach them and to get them to see
leadership the way God sees it.
All of us at best, if you're one of us, raise your hand.
Yeah, all of us.
What does all mean?
All.
All of us at best are just stewards of God's gospel and God's
gifts.
The gifts of the Holy Spirit.
In the end, anything good that happens happens because God
uses us as we are faithful to him.
But in the end, he's the one that does it.
He's the one that does it.
What's required of us then?
Well Paul tells us in verse 2 in the same chapter, chapter 4.
Let a man, so how should we think about these apostles,
these leaders, how do we think about them?
Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ.
You know what that means?
We are slaves to Christ.
We are servants of Christ.
That's who we are.
Who's in charge?
Christ is in charge.
So when you're dividing up over us, you're just like, which of
the servants that are like me that owe everything to God, by
which God does things through, which one of those are we?
We are in some way of think.
All of us at best are stewards.
Let a man so account of us as the ministers of Christ.
Stewards of the mysteries of God.
Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.
So Paul gets through all of that.
So that's the things he says.
Now let's go back to the verse.
I have in a figure, he says, and these things, brethren, I have
in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your
sakes.
You know what he's saying?
He's saying, I have decided to keep referring to Paul and
Apollos, and I'm doing it so that you get something.
What he's saying is, what Paul's saying is that he has been
using himself and Apollos as examples of these truths for
the Corinthians.
If the leaders, think about this, if the leaders that they were
dividing over have a humble and right view of themselves,
meaning God's everything and we're nothing, then we're just
stewards, then the followers of these leaders must have a
humble view of themselves.
Do you get it?
If this, I think it's hanging, falling out.
If this is, let's go over here, where's Corey?
Okay, if this is Team Corey and this is Team Dave Fawcett and
this is Team Miles and this is Team Ben, okay, whoa, almost
died, okay.
If we were literally divided up by that, right, and we're
fighting with each other based on who we like in the church,
okay, who thinks that would be bad?
Because I love all these people, right?
If these guys were to stand up in front of all these factions
in the church and say, it's not about me.
And he's saying, yeah, it's not about him or me.
And Dave's like, it's not about me, and Corey's like, it's not
about me, and Miles is like, it's kind of about me.
No, I'm joking.
If we're all saying, guys, stop fighting, it's not about us,
it's about Jesus, then don't you think that they don't have
really an excuse?
That's what he's trying to say.
He's saying, you guys have no, I keep using ourselves as
examples of people that are just being used by God because
that's all we are, and if we think in this way about us, you
need to think that way about you.
That's what he's saying.
You hear that?
That's snow coming off the dome.
Okay, I'm glad it's not in here, amen.
Yeah, okay.
Hey, by the way, I just want to say, we've got a great
maintenance staff around here.
Jeff Couples, Rhonda, Bill Baer volunteers all the time.
Bill was out here volunteering.
He did the twice this week.
He cleared out the parking lot.
Aren't you glad for that?
That's awesome.
So what Paul's saying is, here's the point.
If I had a figure transferred to myself and to Paul's for
your sake, here's why I'm doing it.
That you might learn in us not to think of men above that
which is written.
So what he's saying is, I don't want you to think higher of us
than what the Bible says about us.
Okay?
I want you to think about your leaders the way that God
thinks about your leaders.
Then no one of you be puffed up.
Puffed up means prideful, arrogant, me before you,
instead of you before me.
The whole reason I'm using myself as an example is not to
promote myself.
It's literally the opposite, Paul says.
I'm trying to get you guys to stop fighting.
Put everybody, put everybody else, don't be puffed up one
against another.
See, we respect our leaders but we don't go beyond what
Scripture says about them.
We all should see ourselves as stewards of the mysteries and
gifts of God.
The word here for above has the idea of beyond or more than.
He says, I don't want anybody to think of themselves beyond or
more than what, it's not got a boundary, more than what God
thinks about them.
Paul says, I've been telling you that I have nothing more than
a steward of what God is doing so that your pride will end.
We boast in Christ, nothing more.
We preach the wisdom of God.
Christ crucified.
Why did he die?
Because we, including me, including any other leader, we are
sinners.
But we've been saved by the grace and mercy of God.
Why do we have the ability to lead and minister in the
mysteries of God?
Only because of Christ.
The gospel is His.
The gifting He gives to ministers are His.
We are just stewards of everything that we have.
He goes on to make this point with some questions.
So here's the question.
Look at verse seven.
For who maketh thee to differ from another?
What makes Justin different than Robbie?
Different than Chris?
Different than Megan?
Who does it?
God does it.
There are two ways to take this question.
First it could be what makes you better than anyone else?
If all of us are, all of us, any of us are people who have been
saved and gifted by God.
Another way to think of it is who do you think you are to be so
puffed up?
What kind of self-delusion makes you think you can judge someone
else and make yourself better than them?
That's what he's asking.
The answer is I'm in the same position as everyone else who
is in the same position.
That's the answer.
Who makes you to differ from one another?
The only difference that comes between me and is all because of
God.
Look at the next question.
And what has thou, thou didst not receive?
What does that mean?
Anything good I have came because of God.
Right?
Who gave you life?
Okay, this is not hard.
I want everybody to answer.
Ready?
Who gave you life?
Who gave you salvation?
Yeah.
Who gave you spiritual gifts?
Who put you where you are?
You get a trend.
What makes you different?
Who is the only one that would make you different from somebody
else?
God.
Now if thou didst receive it, he says, why does thou glory as
if thou didst not receive it?
Why are you acting like, man, God is lucky to have me.
Lucky to have me.
Recognize the skills.
Right?
The breath in my lungs comes from God.
I don't have a right to be prideful.
You know what that sounds a lot like?
Ephesians 2.8.
Four by grace.
Are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves?
It's a gift of God.
Not of works lest any man should boast.
You guys are on it.
Faith is not a work.
Receiving Christ and all that comes from Him is not something to boast in.
Again, it's grace.
What's Paul trying to get them to do?
He's trying to get them to end their pride.
Because their pride is what was causing the division in the church.
And pride is a wrong way to think about yourselves.
I love that song we sing.
It's kind of a new hymn.
My worth is not in what I own.
Right?
Two wonders here that I confess.
My worth and my unworthiness.
My value fixed, my ransom paid at the cross.
What does the cross teach me?
What does Christ crucify?
What does the wisdom of God teach me?
That God loved me so much that He gave His Son for me.
And that I deserve death.
And if I get anything other than death,
it's God's grace and mercy in my life.
Receiving Christ and all that comes from Him is not about something to boast in.
It's grace.
When their pride ends, then the division would end.
This is what Jesus...
Hey, you want the attitude Jesus wants you to have?
Here's what Jesus said in Luke 17.
But which of you having a servant plowing or feeding cattle will say to him by and by when he's come from the field,
go and sit down to meet and will not rather say to him,
make ready wherewith I may sup and gird thyself and serve me till I have eaten and drunkened.
And afterward thou shalt eat and drink.
What he's saying is it's pretty natural for the person in charge to get the people that aren't in charge to serve them.
Who is Jesus?
He is Lord.
Verse 9, does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him?
I try not.
No, that's not what happens.
So likewise ye.
So what's your way of thinking?
When ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you,
say, we are unprofitable servants.
We have done that which was our duty to do.
What's Jesus saying?
My responsibility to Jesus, to God is to obey him.
And if I obey him, even that is God's grace in my life.
There's a humility that comes when we understand that grace and mercy afforded to us by Jesus Christ.
So Paul goes on and gives a severe rebuke.
And if you don't think there is sarcasm in the Bible, check this verse out.
Verse 8, now ye are full.
Now ye are rich.
You have reigned as kings without us.
And I would to God ye did reign that we also might reign with you.
It's kind of hardcore, isn't it?
This seems to be a sarcastic rebuke of the way that the Corinthians were acting.
They were all trying to have the preeminence over each other.
They were trying to use their connections to other leaders to raise their standing in the church.
Paul is confronting this pride in this verse saying that they were acting as if they were already glorified and reigning with God.
If they were truly reigning as God had planned, then Paul and Apollos would be reigning along with them.
All of this to say that the problem that the Corinthian church was dealing with was a problem of pride.
They all wanted the preeminence.
And to live faithfully as stewards of the gospel and members of our local church, there really is no room for pride.
Putting yourself first is contrary to the gospel.
It's not even how Christ lived.
It's not what we're called to as students.
We're called to faithfulness.
We're called to putting God first and others ahead of ourselves.
So what do we got to do?
We have to end our pride.
And to see ourselves rightly.
That leads us to number two.
Ready?
We're going to live faithfully in the gospel.
We got to end our pride.
Number two, we got to know.
Number two, embrace your role.
Embrace your role.
Verse nine.
For I think that God has set forth us the apostles last as it were appointed to death.
For we are made a spectacle unto the world and to angels and to men.
Paul and the Corinthians were living in a Roman culture.
And in this Roman culture, they had these things called Colosseums.
And in the Colosseums, they had gladiatorial fights.
How many of you guys have ever seen that on TV?
Right?
Gladiators going.
And the last people they put, the last act of the whole thing, whenever they would have these gladiator fights, was the most vicious battle, essentially.
The battle that was the bloodiest.
The people were there to see carnage.
They were there to see violence, right?
That's why they were there.
And what Paul is saying is he's kind of referring to the position of the apostles like those gladiators.
And he says, I think that God put us last and like the gladiator that's going to give himself, that's going to die, that's what we're like.
We're made a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men.
The grand finale of the events was the most bloody and the most gruesome.
And I want to tell you this, that all of the apostles, according to historical accounts, all of them were martyred except for John who has left, you know, the world.
Alone on a, he died naturally, but he was, what's the word I'm trying to, exile.
Thank you.
You guys should help me write my sermons.
Exiled, right?
Why was that so important?
One thing is they were testifying the gospel.
They had seen Christ.
They had seen the risen Christ.
But the other thing is the fact that they were willing to die for it substantiated their message, right?
Nobody dies for a lie that they know to be a lie.
And so these guys, he's saying, Paul's saying, my role is like the role that's ready to die.
Like many Christians being fed to the lions, fighting gladiators and being burned at the stake.
Paul says that he thinks that God appointed him to be a spectacle to appoint people to Jesus.
He goes on to describe his role.
And he says, we are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise.
Fools to the world, but wise in Christ.
What's the wisdom of God?
Christ crucified.
He says, he goes on, we are weak, but ye are strong.
Ye are honorable, but we are despised.
In the world's eyes, as they divided and promoted themselves, they would come out wiser and stronger.
In the world's eyes, as they divided and promoted themselves, they would gain more honor.
Paul is saying, you guys are just thinking like everybody else in the world.
The more self-reliant we become in attitude, the less we need God and the less we depend on him.
The more self-promoting we become in attitude, the less we proclaim Christ crucified.
It's when we embrace our own weakness and acknowledge our need for God that he then can use us in ways that make much of him.
How many of you have ever, and I'm right here with you, I'll be the first to raise my hand.
You guys have ever been prompted to speak up for Jesus to someone that needed to hear about him, and you were scared to do it.
Right.
And me too.
And why?
Because I'm worried what the other person will think.
I'm worried what they may do to me.
And what Paul says is, we got to make ourselves willing to be fools for God's sake.
We need to be seen as weak and be willing to be seen as weak.
And obviously when we do that we're strong.
We need to be willing to be despised to embrace Godly wisdom.
And you know what?
This is absolutely the issue in relationships all the time.
We try to push ourselves up and put others down.
Finish the sentence.
My way or the highway.
If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody.
That's just ungodly.
Why are you laughing?
My desires are more important than your desires.
Me before you.
I want mercy and grace, but I don't want to forgive.
Are you with me?
These are attitudes and practices that destroy relationships, institutions, churches, businesses, and families.
This is the kind of attitude that makes us a poor steward of the gospel.
If we only minister or share the gospel when it's convenient or makes me look good,
then we'll not share the gospel faithfully.
If we only share when it's not going to be awkward, then we're never going to share.
Someone might say, but what if I'm taken advantage of?
What if they think I'm weird?
What if they reject me?
What if they hate me?
To those people, Paul says, we are fools for Christ's sake.
This leads to this final example.
Are you ready?
Have I stepped on your toes?
I stepped on mine.
Number three, endure your suffering.
Endure your suffering.
Isn't this happy?
Know your role in your pride.
Endure your suffering.
It's not very marketable.
It may seem discouraging, but it's right for me to deliver the mail as God sent it.
Verse 11, even unto this present hour, Paul says, we both hunger and thirst and are naked
and are buffeted and have no certain dwelling place.
You know, it's another word for that.
We are homeless and labor working with our own hands.
Paul says, here's his current status.
Hungry, thirsty, naked, persecuted, homeless, all while working.
Right?
Does that sound like a prosperity gospel?
What does he get from his work from others?
He says, being reviled, we bless.
Being persecuted, we suffer.
Being defamed, we entreat.
What does that mean?
When they're leveraging accusation against us, we're saying, yeah, you think we're weird.
Come be a part of us.
You think this is wrong?
We're right.
Come suffer with us.
We bless.
Encourage.
Help.
Comfort.
We suffer.
Endure.
Patience.
We entreat.
Pleading with people to do right to believe the gospel.
And are the off scaring of all things unto this day.
You know what off scaring is?
It's like, we're the filth on people's shoes.
And that's exactly how some people see Christianity.
It's a weakness.
By being faithful stewards of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Paul's experience was suffering.
And what he did in response to the suffering, what was the response?
Blessing, endurance, and continued ministry.
I experienced so much blessing from this ministry.
Folks, I love you.
I love ministering here.
It's pretty much all good.
There's some bad.
There's some hard.
But it's amazing.
But there are times where anybody that's doing anything in this ministry, all of us, we're
called to look like a fool.
There are times when I have to tell people to do the right and biblical thing even though
it's going to cost them.
I say things like, and you should say this too.
I'm not like, this would be stupid for me to be arrogant by giving you examples.
I'm not trying to do that.
I'm just trying to give you an example of how to live this out.
To some people you say, you should forgive.
To which they would say, but what if they hurt me again?
To which you say, but you should forgive.
But what if they hurt me?
You should forgive.
You should not leave your marriage.
But what if my spouse doesn't change?
You shouldn't leave your marriage.
But what if...
You should tell your friend about Christ.
Have you been to my office?
Have you been to my school?
You know what I would have to go through?
If I start telling people about Jesus, you should tell people about Jesus.
You should repent of that sin.
It's no big deal.
You're not perfect either.
You should repent.
You should hold that person accountable.
What if they hate me?
What if they reject me?
You should hold them accountable.
And you should hold them accountable considering your own selfless.
You also be tempted.
Take the plank out of your own eye so that you can see the speck in your brother's eye.
What's being taught here?
Embrace the hard.
Embrace the suffering.
End your pride.
Embrace your role.
And endure your suffering.
Why?
What was Jesus' teaching?
I'm going to give you two things to end the sermon.
Jesus' teaching and Jesus' example.
Here's Jesus' teaching.
One of many places.
And he opened his mouth and taught them saying,
Here's the paradox.
Remember I said a paradox?
Here's the paradox.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are ye when men shall revile you.
What?
No. Blessed are ye.
Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you.
And shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my name's sake.
Well Jesus, no that's bad, isn't it?
No, blessed, why?
Rejoice.
You know what that means?
Yes.
Am I weird? I'm weird.
Woo!
They're talking about me at work.
Yeah!
It's for Jesus, right?
Rejoice and be exceeding glad
for great is your reward in heaven.
For so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
What was Jesus' teaching?
Think heavenly, not earthly.
Think with God's wisdom.
What was Jesus' example?
I think it's good enough just for me to read without much commentary.
If there be therefore any consolation in Christ,
if any comfort in love, if any fellowship of the spirit,
if any bowels and mercies,
fulfill ye my joy that ye be like-minded,
having the same love, being of one accord and of one mind.
What does that sound like?
Stop fighting.
Get on the same page.
Let nothing...how much?
Let nothing be done through strife
that's fighting, needless arguing,
you before me.
Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory.
Popularity, me before you.
But in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves.
Look not every man on his own things,
but every man also on the things of others.
Let this mind be in you.
Which was also in Christ Jesus.
Who, being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God,
but made himself of no reputation.
What does that mean?
It wouldn't be wrong for him to claim to be God.
He did claim to be God.
But what did he do?
He gave up his rights.
He made himself of no reputation and took on the form of a,
everybody say it, servant,
and was made in the likeness of men,
the thing he created.
And being found in fashion as a man,
he humbled himself and became obedient unto death,
what kind of death?
Even the death on the cross.
Wherefore, here's the paradox.
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him,
and hath given him a name which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus,
every knee should bow of things in heaven,
and things in earth, and things under the earth,
and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord
to the glory of God, the Father.
You can't be a faithful steward of the gospel,
and you can't function in the local body with pride.
With me before everybody else, that does not work.
You have to understand all of our role before God.
It's all about him.
It's not about us.
It's all about him.
No, no, no.
All of it is about him.
It ain't about us.
So that means sometimes we endure.
We do the hard thing because it's the right thing.
And you know how you do it?
You know that one day you're going to be rewarded.
Rejoice and be exceeding glad.
The persecution is an opportunity for reward.
You guys are like, not convinced.
It's a lot easier preach, I'll admit, than it is to live.
Would you pray for me?
I'll pray for you.
Would you bow your heads and close your eyes?