What is the “Christian” way to approach arrogance and pride?
WATCH
The War With Pride, 1 of 5 from November 2, 2025
“In a world fighting by arrogance and deceit, we triumph by meekness and integrity.”
2 Corinthians 10 by Michael Lockstampfor (@miklocks)
SUMMARY
This sermon explores the themes of humility, conflict resolution, and spiritual integrity as addressed by the Apostle Paul in the context of Second Corinthians. Pastor Michael discusses the challenges of maintaining unity and peace within faith communities, emphasizing the power of meekness and Christ-like humility in overcoming pride and divisive influences. The sermon encourages listeners to measure success and approval against Jesus's standards rather than worldly ones.
REFLECTION & DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
💬 Are the things we get defensive about building our pride or honoring our King?
💬 Whose measure of success do we use for our life?
💬 Who are we praying for?
💬 Whose approval are we living for?
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
📖 THE PROBLEM (2 Corinthians 10:1-6)
Paul did not want to have to deal with Corinth in an authoritarian way (2 Corinthians 1:23-2:1)
His posture from the beginning was comfort in affliction (2 Corinthians 1:3-7)
📖 THE PROOF (2 Corinthians 10:7-12)
The existence of a church in Corinth is evidence that Jesus has empowered Paul’s ministry (2 Corinthians 3:2)
📖 THE PURPOSE (2 Corinthians 10:13-18)
If we boast, we should boast in the Lord (Jeremiah 9:23-24)
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Well, hey, good morning, church.
We have been in job for four weeks and that has been beautiful, but it's also been really, really heavy. And I was like, man, it's just, it's heavy. And then I remembered like, where we started the year was in a series called Comfort and Affliction. So, like, as we were thinking about how we wanted to start the year, identifying that suffering is an inevitable part of following Jesus. And so we started that series kind of in the book of Second Corinthians.
And we're going to pick up again. We've stepped out of Second Corinthians for actually several months now. We're going to be stepping back in. But if you're new, like, this is a great. I'm going to try to explain it in a way that you can just jump right in and won't have missed anything.
Unless you want to go back and watch the other stuff. Then you can do that on our app or on our website, anywhere. Here's the deal. How many of us know, and I think even your neighbors would not fight you about this. How many of us know that it's only a matter of time.
If you are like friends with somebody that eventually you're gonna disagree with them. Like, has anybody ever had a long term relationship with somebody that you just never disagreed about anything because you should be speaking this morning? If that's the case, inevitably, if we've got two people together that are in relationship, there's going to be some kind of disagreement, there's going to be some kind of conflict. Disagreements happen. It's true.
And also reconciliation is difficult sometimes when we disagree, it can be hard for one or both of us to change our minds and come to a place where we are on the same page. Like that. That can be a difficult process. Anybody ever experienced something like that before? Okay, good.
Even more complicated would be if you're in disagreement with somebody and there's a third party that is really interested in making sure that the conflict continues.
Now, I think I could spiral off in a number of different ways and you would think I'm a crazy conspiracy theorist. And so I'm not going to take like that illustration anymore. But if you've got two people, two parties in conflict, and there's a third party party that really wants the conflict to continue, it can be almost impossible for you to get back on the same page. You're working for peace. They may or may not be working for peace, but the third party is just like, no, no, no.
You guys got to stay disconnected. There's got to be this confusion, and they're sewing dissent. Like, it can be almost impossible. And so as we are starting this new series called the War with Pride, like, that's exactly the situation that we're jumping into. So I'm going to introduce a couple of characters.
This. If you were. If this was a TV show, it'd be like last time in Second Corinthians. But what I. What I'm going to do is I'm just going to introduce the.
The main parties in the conflict and try to give you a little bit of background about what's going on here. So the first is a guy named the Apostle Paul. Okay, so Paul is a guy, and you might be like, oh, I know him. He usually has a halo on. And I know that we would say that because we know the end of the story.
But just consider for a moment Paul's beginning. Like, think about this guy. This guy was actively hunting Christians. Like a Christian killer who then comes to faith, like, literally meets Jesus on a road, is personally struck blind by Jesus. Now, I thought about that this week.
If Jesus takes the time out of his day to interrupt you and personally strike you blind, like, that's. That's kind of incredible, right? So he's hunting Christians. Jesus interrupts him, strikes him blind, and then he becomes a church planter. Like, God sets him aside for ministry, and he goes around and shares the gospel with people who have never heard it before and starts churches.
And one of the churches that he starts is in a city called Corinth. Now, there's a lot of ways that we could describe Corinth. It was a port city. It was really, really wealthy, but it had a reputation of what happens in Corinth stays in Corinth, right? So you've got this church planter who started a church, and then you've got this church that for all intents and purposes, is like, in Las Vegas, right?
They're really, really wealthy. They're really, really affluent. But they've come to this place where although they had all these material blessings, there was something empty in them. And they realized that, like, God was the one who was gonna meet their needs. And so they surrendered their lives to Jesus.
They began worshiping Jesus, and they have Paul to thank for that. Started this church in this really, really difficult environment. Okay? Now, there's plenty of things to disagree with a pastor who loves you and cares about you a lot for. And there's plenty of things to disagree with a pastor who comes and starts the church and then kind of has to go and start other churches.
So Paul actually didn't stay in Corinth. He left and continued on in his ministry. He moved to other places. And there's opportunities for division, and there was some suspicion and some conflict and all this kind of stuff. And all of that, we come to discover was sowed by a group of people that Paul is later going to call the super apostles.
He doesn't call them that today, but in a couple of weeks, he's going to call this group of people the super apostles. Now, these were. They were divisive underminers. They have an invested interest in Paul and the church in Corinth continuing to be in conflict. Now, what is their.
What is their interest? Like, what do they gain to benefit from a church fighting with their pastor? They are opportunistic entertainers. These are people who walk around, and their job is to go from city to city and talk eloquently and then get people to pay them for all of the nice things that they say. So they're like traveling preachers, and they go to Las Vegas because there's money in Vegas.
And they happen to discover that there's this group of people that get together on a weekly basis, and they have somebody get up and speak to them. And they're like, I could do that, and I want their money. And so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna insert myself and make sure that they don't trust that Paul guy who's not even in town. He's not even around. So that you will follow me.
So these are, like, they're entertainers. They're kind of influencer people. They really are just trying to build themselves up. And that's like. That's the conflict.
We see the characters now, what could go wrong here?
Paul, as he's writing. He is writing to kind of reconcile after this estrangement. So they've been in conflict. There's this initial conflict. Paul sends them a letter that we don't have in scripture that is apparently, like, really, really harsh and correcting.
And then they, like, are upset by the letter that he sent. And so he sends a personal, like, guy to go and speak to them and comfort them. His name's Titus. And now as he's moving and traveling, he's actually collecting an offering to go and help some people that are really, in desperate times. And he wants Corinth to participate because they said they wanted to participate.
And so now he's like, before I get there, here's all the things that I, like, want to address before I get there because we've got some issues to work through. All right? There's a lot of layers to this, and I think we're going to need the Lord's help. So I'll just invite you to pray together with me. It's our habit as neighborhood church to pray what we call the disciples prayer.
You might have heard it called the Lord's Prayer. It doesn't matter what you call it, as long as you pray it with your heart. And so the words are here on the screen if you're not familiar with it. And I'd love it if you pray it out loud. But again, like Jesus purpose in giving us this prayer isn't that we have a memorized magic spell to convince God to do what we want him to do.
His purpose in giving us this prayer is to help us shape our hearts to follow God's will. So let's just take a deep breath together, and let's pray.
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
I'd like to invite you to turn with me, navigate with me to the book of Second Corinthians, chapter 10. Now, if you want to grab one of those blue Bibles, it's going to be on page 1208. 1208 in the blue Bibles. And if you don't have a Bible study that's in a translation that you're comfortable with and you want to take that one home, like, just write your name in it. Take it home.
We're not going to check your bags as you leave. Let that be our gift to you. We're going to be in Second Corinthians, chapter 10. I'm on page 1208 in the blue Bibles. And let's just read a couple of verses here to get us started, and then we'll go back through and kind of chew on them and digest what's going on here.
So page 1208, Second Corinthians, chapter 10, starting in verse one. I, Paul myself entreats you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. I, who am humble when face to face with you, but bold towards you when I am away. I beg of you that when I am present, I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh. For although we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.
For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy lofty arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience when your disobedience or when your obedience, excuse me, is complete. So he's taken a turn in this letter as he's been writing, and now he's addressing like this actual conflict with these so called super apostles. And he starts by saying, listen, I myself appeal to you. I know I'm on my way and I have plans to be very bold.
If nothing changes between my writing and my arrival, I will be very bold. But I am appealing to you. I beg you, don't let me. Don't make me have to be harsh with you. My heart towards you is to be tender and compassionate by the meekness and gentleness of Christ.
Paul did not want to have to deal with Corinth in, like, an authoritarian way. He didn't want to have to come in and drop the hammer. He wanted to be able to work together and collaborate in the ministry that God was calling him to. And he can drop the hammer. He's got every right to tell them what to do and expect them to follow.
But that's not the posture that he wants. We read together. Did we read these verses? No, we didn't. After the verses that we did read in chapter one and verses 23, he says he's like describing the way that he wants to come to them.
I call God to witness against me. It was to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth. Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith. For I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you. So he says, I've been delayed in getting there, but I did not want to come.
And for us to, like, still be active in this conflict. I want for us to come to peace before I'm there in person so that we can enjoy the fellowship of the ministry that God's entrusted to us. I can storm in there and I can flip tables, but that's not what I want to do. I entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I beg of you that when I'm present, I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us. So there's some people I know I'm going to have to be rough with, but I don't want to have to be rough with.
So please, like I'm entreating you, I'm begging you, I'm approaching you and asking for your help. His posture from the beginning was comfort in affliction.
He's coming in meekness and in gentleness. He's coming with an authenticity. Now, is meekness a word that we use very often? Not typically, and it's maybe not one that we like. Like, when I say meekness, like, what comes to mind?
Like, maybe a sheep. I don't know, something stupid and soft, right? It's like, I don't even know what meekness is. But meekness is strength under control. Meekness is having power, but having the power to control the power.
Often in, like, the. As philosophers and secular philosophers would in the ancient world would describe meekness, they would set contrast to rage and savagery. So how many of us know people who are strong and powerful and have no control? And how much profit is it for the people around them for them to have all that strength and have all that power and not be able to direct it towards something else if they are controlled by the thing that they wield and others are typically harmed by that? He says, I'm coming to you by, I have the power, I have the strength, but it is under control.
I can do with my strength what I intend to do.
This is silly. I used to work with a guy, and he was a power lifter, okay? Now, I worked landscaping, and I don't know if, you know, but landscapers scape the land. And so it was not unusual for us to have to, like, shovel gravel into a wheelbarrow and then carry the wheelbarrow and, like, take it to where we needed to go. Okay?
The simple, right? This guy's a power lifter. Like, he doesn't have a neck, right? He walks like this, okay? And he would just melt anytime we had to run a wheelbarrow because he had, like, refined his power so that it only worked in one very swift motion.
And so he could deadlift a million pounds, but he could not run a wheelbarrow. And it was infuriating. So his, like, His. He had the power, but it was a power in a very specific application. Right.
It was very controlled. He could definitely lift more than I could, but I had more endurance. Okay, that's not in my notes, but, like, it just was reminding me of that. Okay. This is a common.
Like, in ancient philosophers, they would say, this is something commendable in leaders. You want leaders to be strong. You want leaders to have power, and you want them to be in control. You really don't want them to be flying off the handle every time something goes a little bit wrong. And so the Bible would describe this as, like, slow to anger and patient and long suffering.
But it's interesting because in the philosophers, this meekness was never associated with humility. Humility was disrespectful. Humility was like, for the people who deserve to be walked over, humility was not something that they would characterize, something that a leader should have. And so for Paul to say, I entreat you with the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I, who am humble when faced with you, but bold towards you when I'm away. He's saying, you guys are accusing me of being humble, which is, like, derogatory.
They're making fun of him. He says, you say when I'm not around that I'm too humble to be in charge, but that I write well. And he's saying, like, humility and meekness. If we look at Christ, they actually go hand in hand. That's what Jesus does.
He says, there's an accusation that I'm living in the flesh, or that I'm living according to the flesh, I'm leading according to the flesh. And he's like, I am in the flesh, but not living according to the flesh. So in the flesh, according to. They're like two different things. You see him kind of parsing that out.
I beg of you, Verse three. Or some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh. For although we walk in the flesh, we're not waging war according to the flesh. So according to the flesh would be the driving motivation to satisfy, like, a selfish earthly ambition. So if I'm.
If my flesh, like, left to its own devices, my flesh just wants to build myself up. I think left to my own devices, I am the center of the universe, and you all should get on that program. And if I live according to the flesh, then everything I do is trying to build myself up and make myself look great, even if I'm not right. Says, we're not living according to the flesh, although we are in the flesh. And we're in the flesh.
Our spiritual aspirations are going to be reshaped by physical limits. But that's okay. Like God gave us physical limitations so that we do not forget that we are not God.
You don't. I don't care what your phone makes you feel like. You can only be in one place at a time. We are not omnipresent. We're not everywhere all at once.
We are only ever one place at a time. So our spiritual aspirations, the things that we want to do for God are shaped by our physical limitations. And that's actually healthy. That's called being human. So he says, although we are human, we are not like acting according to our flesh.
We're not building ourselves up. We're not puffing ourselves up with pride. And you're like, okay, what do you. I don't understand. Okay, so here's the deal.
You know this, right?
I know this is Florida.
What is the left lane on the highway called?
Fast lane or the passing lane. That is the name of the. The lane. I'm glad that you know that. I am so grateful.
I was. I was. I was. The car. Okay.
Is it an hoa? Of course. I picked the wrong photo. Okay. On the interstate.
On the interstate, the left lane is the fast lane. Okay? You can be in the passing lane and not be driving according to the passing lane. Right? You can be in the lane and not going fast enough to pass anybody.
In fact, if people are passing you on the right side, you should move. Okay? He's saying, although we are in the flesh, we're not operating according to the flesh. Although we are in the world. That does not mean that we operate by the world's standards.
Although you are fighting with me, puffing yourself up with pride, I am going to contend with you not by my own strength and wit and prowess and authority, but I'm going to contend with you by the humility and meekness of Christ.
Paul's point, or one author says it this way. Paul's point in these chapters is that he only appears to be weak and that he is really powerful in Christ, who works in his weakness. Where he gives Christ strength, or where Christ gives him strength is in the areas that he's weak. So I think Paul's got three goals in what we're going through today. And the first goal is this.
He wants for them to be obedient to Christ. Do you see that in 5 and 6? He's saying, I'm going to attack. I'm going to destroy every lofty argument or destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete. His goal in writing is, I want you guys not to obey Paul.
I want for y' all to obey Christ. That's his goal. That's what he's driving towards. Okay? So he's going to destroy their prideful, selfish ambitions by the meekness and humility of Christ.
In a world fighting by arrogance and deceit, we triumph by meekness, integrity.
Christians should not occupy the common sections of the Internet in the same way as everybody else in the world. We are ambassadors of Christ in every place that we go.
And in a world that is defined by fighting, by arrogance and by deceit, we triumph by meekness and integrity in the same way that Christ did.
This is more, I think, more than just taking the high road. This is more than just being the bigger person. Paul here is mercifully bringing Jesus true correction to them by humbly extending his grace. They are assassinating his character. They're saying, he's a weak person.
He doesn't have the force. Like, he's good writing on paper, but when he gets up to preach, he really doesn't have anything good to say. They're like undermining everything that his ministry is about. And he says, I'm not here to get defensive. I'm here to continue to point you to Christ defending Jesus prescriptions for living, but not being defensive against their character assassinations.
It's interesting, John Calvin, you might have heard of him. He says, all Christian teachers should make this their invariable method. First, to strive with gentleness to bring their hearers to obedience and to appeal to them kindly before they go on to visit punishment on rebelliousness. What Paul is modeling for us here is a masterclass and how we help to engage with people who really want to fight us.
So my question is this. Are the things that we get defensive about building our pride or honoring our king?
Because I get defensive. There are things that you can say, you can ask my sister. There are things you can say that get right under my skin. Like, that's the joy of siblings, is we know how to push each other's buttons.
But when we get defensive, are we defensive about our own pride? How dare you say that to me? Don't you know who I am? Or are we defensive about things that are honoring to our king?
Christ wouldn't approach that conversation that way. Let's keep reading. Second Corinthians 10 start. In verse seven, he says, look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ's, let him remind himself that just as he is Christ's, so also are we.
For even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be ashamed. I do not want to appear to be frightening you with my letters. For they say, his letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech is of no account. Let us let such a person understand that what we say by letter when we are absent, we do when present. 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.
So look at what's before your eyes. He's in this interesting dynamic where these people are, like, undermining his leadership. And he's like, just hold on a second. Take a look at what you see. The existence of a church in Corinth is evidence that Jesus has empowered Paul's ministry.
Because the trajectory that Paul was on was killing Christians until Jesus intervened. And now he is discipling Christians and planting churches. And he says, you yourselves are the fruit of my ministry. I started the church in your city. Just look at what's there.
He had written earlier in this letter in chapter two, he says, you yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts to be known and to be read by all. He says, if you want a letter of commendation, if you want me to tell you what my resume is, just look in the mirror. You yourselves are my letters. If you have any spiritual insight, if you trust Jesus at all, then know that I, like, passed that on to you. You are my letter of recommendation.
I'm just the mailman.
Paul did not seek to be a Christian. He was not looking for Jesus. Paul did not seek to be an apostle. He didn't apply for the job. In fact, before Paul even surrendered his life to Jesus, Jesus said of Paul, I'm going to show him how much he must suffer for my name.
But Paul is fulfilling his calling by using the authority that Jesus entrusted to him. He says, I didn't go looking for this, but Jesus gave me this responsibility. And so I'm not going to apologize for fulfilling the ministry that Jesus entrusted to me. A teacher in the front of the classroom should not be ashamed that they are teaching students, because that's the authority. That's Entrusted to them.
There's this question concerning, like, who actually has authority, but it's based on a perceived inconsistency in his leadership. In verse 10, they're like, he's inconsistent. He writes strong, but when he's present with us, he's kind of nice. And when he speaks, it's not really that clear. And he's saying, there's not an inconsistency.
My writing, he says, I could be scary, but I'm trying not to be scary. I don't want to frighten you with my letters. My writing reflects my actions. And so he's saying, I am consistent with what I say and what I do. And my friends, if there's nothing else that I think we need to be reminded of is that we ought not to talk, Jesus talk.
If we don't walk, Jesus walk to say, oh, you know, I go to church, I'm a Christian, blah, blah, blah. And then to live the exact opposite way of how Jesus would invite you or encourage you or command you to teach is a problem. And Paul's saying, I'm not like that. But by saying I'm not like that, he's drawing attention to the areas of conflict that they have in their own lives, these super apostles.
His goal, though, is their edification. Edification is just like a fancy word for, like, building up. I want you all to be built up. His goal is their edification in Jesus. Did you see it in verse 8?
For even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave, he gave authority for building you up, not for destroying you. He says, I can come in and I can stomp on all the toes. I can break feet. The orthopedic surgeon's gonna have a field day. But I'm not doing that.
I am here to build you up. I wanna edify your faith in Christ. That's the goal of what I'm trying to do. Because in a world fighting by arrogance and deceit, we triumph by meekness and integrity. But these opportunistic entertainers are kind of trapped in a zero sum, like, comparison game.
He's like, when they compare themselves to themselves, by themselves, for themselves, they are just wrong. They're deceiving themselves. You can win every game that you play against yourself. I suspect that I am the easiest person for me to lie to. He says, if you put yourself up against yourself or you put yourself up against the other guy who can kind of talk good, then you're already losing.
They're commending themselves. While Paul is promoting Jesus. They compare themselves to one another while Paul is comparing himself to Christ. And there is no comparison. I don't come to serve me.
I come to serve Christ. Now, it's interesting because they don't seem to question that Paul is an apostle because they're commending themselves over his name. They say, yeah, Paul's an apostle, but we are a super apostle. Paul's good, but we're better. Which is kind of a backhanded statement because they're saying, paul's an apostle, but we're super apostles.
They're like, hey, go back to where he's an apostle. When did you meet Jesus? When did Jesus stop his day to personally come down and strike you blind? Like, okay, you want to. Let's just assume he's an apostle.
Like, he's an apostle. He's an apostle. After, like, all the twelve apostles were kind of that. That was closed. There's a weird thing that's going on there where Jesus appoints him.
He's saying, if you're going to accept that I'm an apostle and say, you're a super apostle, then you should probably just consider whether your math is going to work.
And I think the question for us is, whose measure of success do we use for our life?
When we're thinking about whether or not we're winning or losing, what's. Who's the person that we're comparing ourselves against?
I just want to be the best. The best what?
The best student. It's crazy to me how many. How the GPAs work. Like, we went to the forest graduation last year, and there were, like, four valedictorians. Like, I don't.
I didn't know this could be a thing. I thought there could only be one.
I'm not going to comment on, like, the math of that because y' all know I don't math very well. But I'm just like, what is the standard that we're measuring ourselves against? Whether it's in school, whether it's at work, whether it's in our home life.
You can win if you lower the bar. But what Paul is inviting us to and what Christ himself invites us to is to build our identity on who Christ is making us to be. To look not to my neighbor for validation, to look not to my neighbor for a metric for success, but to look to Jesus for that. Because in a world fighting by arrogance and deceit, we triumph by meekness and integrity. Let's just read a few more verses here.
Verse 13. But we will not boast beyond limits, but will boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us to reach, even to you. For we are not overextending ourselves as though we did not reach you, for we were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ. We do not boast beyond limit in the labors of others, but our hope is that your faith increases, 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. Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord, for it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.
It makes me a little bit uncomfortable sometimes when I read Scriptures, and this verse in particular kind of struck me as odd. I'm like, boasting. Boasting is bad. Like, boasting sounds like a naughty word that sounds a little bit sinful and dirty. And so I did the research, okay?
And I looked at the different translations, okay? And all of the major translations, they're like, do you want to know what boasting means? It means boasting. He said what he said, but will not boast beyond limits, but will boast with regard to the area of influence. He's saying, yeah, I'm boasting about the thing that God has entrusted to me, but his goal is Jesus influence.
He says, I'm hoping that your faith will increase, which is one of my goals, so that we can preach the gospel in the areas beyond you. Like, we want for Jesus area of influence to be increased. My goal is for. Well, do I have a slide for that? Didn't mean to throw it.
His last goal is expansion of Jesus influence in the regions beyond Corinth. They say, well, we're glad the gospel came to us, and we're just going to sit here and argue about how it works. And he says, look, I'm coming back to you so that we can be on the same page, so that we can take the mission farther. And it's interesting. He says, my boast is in what the Lord has done in me.
Now, this is like my. These are my favorite verses, and so I'll never miss an opportunity to point people to them. This is out of Jeremiah, One of the prophets in chapter nine says, thus says the Lord, let not the wise man boast in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man boast in his might. Let not the rich man boast in his riches.
But let him who boasts boast in this that he understands and knows me. It's the Lord speaking that he understands and knows me that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord. If I'm going to brag about anything in my life, it's going to be the fact that I know who God is and which is crazy, because I would not know him if he had not revealed himself to me. I would not trust him if he had not given me the ability to trust him.
I would not have learned about him if he had not spoken.
I think it's interesting because Paul is really clear on his life that he knows my goal is expansion. And so I'm going to go and I'm going to plant churches. Now. Jesus may call us to missions in a foreign field. I got to give you one more.
Okay. God may call us to missions in a foreign field. You may be. You may not believe it today, but God may be doing all the circumstances in your life so that you can leave where you're at right now and go somewhere else to tell people about Jesus. That's a possibility.
I just want you to know that. So that may be something hypothetically that God might possibly do consider, pray about it. But if not, he absolutely has called us to missions in our neighborhood. Paul is saying, it's been entrusted to me in the circle, the area of influence that I have to preach the gospel with you. And I want for that to expand.
But I have been faithful wherever the Lord has given me opportunity to declare the gospel. And he says to us then that we should take a look at our areas of influence. We say now our mission is inviting our neighbors to meet and follow Jesus. The pastor before me, he would say, we are making disciples who make disciples in our communities and spheres of influence, which. It's the same thing, just worded a little bit differently.
Spheres of influence is kind of a goofy word. But what he was driving at by that, and I think what Paul is driving at here is you have influence. Influence. How many of you, like, if you say something to somebody, they will listen to what you're saying?
Well, I'm not in charge around here. I just kind of do the thing. Yeah, but when they. When you talk, do they listen? So you have influence.
And if you have influence, then make sure that you use the influence that you have in the place where God has placed you to be on the mission of Jesus, inviting people to know who he is. And to then choose to follow Him. Like, that's the game. That's the whole thing we're doing here.
So who are we praying for?
It's been a couple of weeks, but I have not forgotten. 3, 2, 1. Do you still have your alarm set at 2 o'? Clock? Who are we praying for?
Because God is not forgotten. God is asking us to be praying strategically and purposefully and regularly for people who are lost. And regularly and purposefully for people who are spiritual companions. And regularly and purposefully for people who are spiritual leaders. Like, we spent some time going through this.
This was not a once and done deal. Our hope is to grow in the habit of praying for people regularly because we will not ever see any spiritual growth in the lives of ourselves or anybody else if the Lord doesn't do it. And so we start with asking. So there's more of these in the hallway if you want to revisit that again. Who are we praying for?
And one more verse. As we close, look again at verse 17 or verse 18. Excuse me. For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.
This is going to sound harsh. And so I want you to know that I love you and I say this to you because I don't know if anybody else will say it. I don't care how you feel about how your life is today. If Jesus does not approve of your life, then you're not approved.
If Jesus has not given his. If you're not living in a way that Jesus would say, that's my boy, that's my girl, then you are not approved.
There is no other committee that we can appeal to. You cannot speak to Jesus. Manager and so our whole life, our whole life is designed and going to be answered to. How did we live for him? It doesn't matter if your husband or your wife thinks that you're doing a good job right now.
What matters is whether or not you're acting in integrity before Christ. It does not matter if your boss is convinced that you're doing a good job. It matters. Whether or not Jesus thinks you're doing a good job does not matter if your kids like you. It matters how Jesus is leading you to parent them.
So the real question is, whose approval are we living for?
Because these influencers, they're looking for the approval of whoever's got the most money. And they'll say whatever they have to say to get a little bit out of your pocket. And Paul says, it is not the one who commends himself. It doesn't matter what you say about yourself, but the one whom the Lord commends, pray God, it's hard, it's hard to hear, and it's even harder to wrestle with what happens in our hearts when we hear it. Lord, there may be instances of pride that have just surfaced in the last two minutes.
We may have had some kind of violent response in our souls to think that you are the only one who can judge us and you are the only one who can improve our life. So, Lord, I pray that in these quiet moments that we're going to set aside to sit with you, that you would speak clearly. Jesus, I hope. I pray that these folks in the room know that they don't need to live for my approval. I don't get the answer.
I'm not asking people to jump through my hoops. I am asking all of us to consider how we live before you and Jesus. I trust that you are the pastor of these people. You are the shepherd of this church, and so I pray that you would do the work in our hearts that only you can do. God, if there was something, some idol that just surfaced, some pride that just surfaced, Lord, I pray that you would help us to agree with you about that and surrender it to you.
Lord, if there's some burden that we're carrying that we're beating ourself up over that you have not placed on us, Father, I pray that you would help us to lay that down.
Lord, you're the one that we live for. We don't commend ourselves, but we live humbly before you. Would you shape us to look like you? It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen
