Boasting in God and His Work, Not Ourselves or Our Work Please turn to 2 Corinthians 10. Our sermon text is chapter 10 verses 8-18. That is on page 1150. As you are turning there, be reminded that the apostle Paul has been defending his apostleship over and against the false apostles. This morning’s reading continues the contrast between true and false apostles. These verses focus on boasting and comparing. In whom should we boast and with whom should we compare ourselves. Listen for those things as I read. Reading of 2 Corinthians 10:8-18 Prayer As I was studying this passage, I realized that it’s pretty relevant for our church’s 5th anniversary. I promise I didn’t pick this text for that purpose. And then as I studied it, more, I realized, oh this is actually pretty convicting. I was reflecting back on all the feelings I was going through when we were organizing. This is going back to 2019 and early 2020. A big one was fear of failure. I had read that something like 80% of church plants don’t make it. That was hard to consider. My temptation, like other pastors, is to connect my identity to the success or failure of the church. When things are seemingly going well, it’s tempting to think that somehow it’s due to my gifts or leadership. And on the other side, when things are seemingly not going well, the temptation is to feel like a failure instead of turning to Christ and relying on him. So that was one thing. But also, I had feelings of rejection. Like when a person or family was exploring churches, but decided to go to another church, it was (and it still is!) easy to feel a personal rejection. Related to that, it has been tempting to compare myself with other pastors or compare our church with other churches. I have struggled with those but especially when we were beginning. I’ve had to ask myself some hard questions. 1. Is my identity wrapped up our church instead of Christ? That’s a hard question for any pastor. 2. Do I have a worldly understanding of success and failure? That’s another hard one. Am I focused on numeric growth or, instead, spiritual growth? 3. Am I comparing myself with others or looking for affirmation from others instead of from Jesus? Those are hard things to ask. The reason I’m bringing these up is because our text this morning asks and answer some of these very questions. Now, to be sure, none of us are apostles. No, Paul had a special ordained role as one of the apostles called by Jesus himself. Moreover, the office of apostle concluded in the first century when the Scriptures were complete. However, even though none of us are apostles, the foundation that Paul laid for the church, and the pattern that he modelled as a faithful shepherd certainly apply to us today. In these verses, as Paul compares the true apostles to the false apostles, we can see the pattern. On the one hand, God glorifying, Christ exalting ministry and on the other, man-centered, self-exalting ministry. As we work through this, my hope is that we, as a church, can hear and apply these words to us. In the outline provided, you’ll see 3 questions. 1. Whose standard are we using? 2. Whose glory are we seeking? 3. Whose message are we proclaiming? Actually, I want to extend that third question. Whose message are we proclaiming and what mission are we pursuing? Pencil that in. Again, whose standard, whose glory, whose message, and what mission. 1. Whose standard are we using? So, #1 whose standard? We’ve already considered that the impostors in Corinth critiqued Paul because he appeared weak in the flesh. Look at verse10: “For they say, ‘His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.’” There are really three critiques here. 1) Paul was physically weak or at least he came across as wimpy; 2) his speech was unimpressive. In other words, because he didn’t use all the rhetorical devices of the era, he was therefore sub-par... and 3) he was self-contradictory. His letters were strong but that wasn’t matched by a strong in-person impression. That last one is addressed directly in verse 11. Paul writes, “Let such a person understand that what we say by letter when absent, we do when present.” He was saying to them, you may have an impression of weakness when we are in person, however, we are living out our boldness in our lives when we are with you. And make no mistake, we are prepared to speak with the same boldness if necessary. What was the false apostles standard? How were they evaluating Paul? And the answer is, they were using the world’s standards. They were comparing Paul to what they considered superior. Verse 12 gets to the heart of their problem. It says, “Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.” They were measuring ...
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31 min