Spiritual Leadership (part 2) - [1 Corinthians 4:1-7]

Bethlehem Bible Church

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1 Corinthians and you are going to be convicted this morning and encouraged.

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This is one of those passages in 1 Corinthians chapter 4 that has something in it that if you read it too quickly you'll miss it.

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And today you're going to be glad you sat underneath the teaching of the Word of God because there is a surprise in this passage that is going to make you, if you're a

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Christian, be delighted. 1 Corinthians. This morning we're going to look at spiritual leadership.

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Spiritual leadership. What makes a good leader? And if you ask yourself the question, well, am

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I a leader? Maybe you say, I'll never be a leader. Remember in 1 Corinthians, Paul is saying, don't divide over leaders.

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This is how leaders should act. He's saying, church, congregation, you need to look at leaders the right way so you act like they do.

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So this isn't a sermon just for people who are leaders. Actually, 1 Corinthians 4 is for the congregation as they look at leadership.

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What makes a good leader? Well, I found in my research this week, according to the world, this is what a good leader does or is.

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A good leader must have vision. A good leader, according to the world, must have passion.

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A good leader must learn to be a great decision maker. A good leader must be a good team builder.

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These are probably all fine and dandy, but I wonder how many of those we'll see in 1 Corinthians. Civil Air Patrol has some leadership traits that they look for.

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Selflessness, decisiveness, energy, commitment, loyalty, and integrity.

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I wonder if we'll see some of those today in our passage. The Small Business Association says if you'd like to be a good leader, you need to have emotional stability, enthusiasm, tough -mindedness, self -assurance, compulsiveness, and dominance.

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That's interesting. I wonder if we'll find those in 1 Corinthians 4. Charles Schwab said,

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I consider my ability to arouse enthusiasm among the men the greatest asset

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I possess. Other people say great leaders take calculated risks and are innovative and confident in their decision.

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I wonder what God will say about spiritual leadership. How many of these will apply?

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Well, let's turn our Bibles to 1 Corinthians 4 and find out. This morning,

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Paul is correcting the church at Corinth and their faulty view of leadership.

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They value the wrong things in leadership. And all of us, if we look at the world too often and for too long, we might value the wrong things as well.

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So this will take the ship and make it right side up. What does God want in a leader? And if God wants this in a leader,

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He certainly wants it in you. These are not just for the elders and deacons of the church. This is not just for the husbands.

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This is not just for the bosses out there and people who say, I want to lead. Paul says, look at the leadership.

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And as you look at them, verse 6 of chapter 4 and verse 16 of chapter 4, imitate them.

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That's what we're after. 1 Timothy, we saw last week, presents leadership qualities in elders, but they are something we all should aspire to be.

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And so Paul is going to set this evaluation that the Corinthians have this myopic view of things, and he's going to try to make this right.

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There's a leadership crisis. What do we do? Say, why would

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I even want to do this? Go back to chapter 1. Do you know we are a called people? The church of Corinth are called.

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Can you imagine if you're a Christian, God knew every one of the sins that you would ever commit, and He still chose you?

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And in light of God choosing you and then sending His Son to die for you, shouldn't you want to respond with,

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I want to make sure I view leaders properly and I'd like to live a holy life? Isn't that the Christian life? Christian life is not, be a good leader.

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Try harder, work faster, sweat more. Here's the Christian life.

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Remember what God has done for you and to you? And in light of who you are, in light of your position in Christ and all the riches you have, respond in a manner commensurate to who you are.

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If this is what God has done, wouldn't you want to please Him? You can think about it temporally as well.

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If you have been rescued, if you're in the ocean and you're about to sink, and the Coast Guard comes and rescues you,

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I think you would give more than the proverbial yawn to your rescuers. I think you'd try to look them up, find them by name, commend them to their officers and say, thank you.

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So how do you show your thanks to God for His great grace that covers your guilt?

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Well, you show it by being grateful, grateful enough to live a life that says,

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I want to honor you, right? That's exactly right. And so Paul says, I'm writing to call people. Look at chapter 1 verse 2, called to be saints.

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This is not, hey you, you need to be a saint. Call the kids in for supper.

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Five minutes or your brother eats your food. This is the effectual call.

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This is before time began, the Father, Son, and the Spirit with a triune love made a promise to one another that says, we didn't have to save anybody.

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Everybody's going to be damned. They were damned in Adam and by their own sins. But we're going to rescue some sinners to show just how merciful we are, how gracious we are, how kind we are, how powerful we are.

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We're going to rescue sinners. And we're going to call them. And call in the New Testament epistles means to carve out, to call out, to say

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I'm going to call you by name and I'm going to choose you. I'm going to choose you.

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I'm going to choose you and I didn't have to. And you're called people. And he says it again in verse 9.

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God is faithful, chapter 1, verse 9, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son.

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Salvation is what God did to you. He did it all. Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe.

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That's exactly what's happening here. Go further in chapter 1, verse 24.

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But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, God calls these people.

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The effectual call. And He says you're going to be Mine. You might resist gospel preaching for a while, but one day your day is up and the

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Spirit of God will quicken you and make you alive. He says it again in verse 26.

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This is the Christian life. It's not navel -gazing. It's not introspection.

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It's looking back in time to see what God has done. For consider, look at verse 26, consider your calling, brothers.

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Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth.

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But God chose. Verse 28, God chose. And if you realize that you've been chosen by God, it will change everything about you.

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You say, well, I don't like that choosing. I don't like it that God chooses. Well, I don't know what to tell you.

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Today's not on election, although I wish it would be. God is the only being in all the universe that is free to do whatever

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He wants. He has no external compulsion. No power greater.

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No one smarter than He is. Nobody influences Him. He doesn't report to anyone. He doesn't have to do what they say.

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He gives account to no one. And God said it's my nature to choose people.

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I choose Israel and no other country. I choose some angels and not all angels.

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And aren't you glad that He chose some saints to be His bride because He didn't have to choose anyone?

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And if you really realize that you've been chosen by God and called by God when you were an enemy,

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God demonstrated His own love towards us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

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And if He died for you, the response is, I know that whole salvation thing.

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We just kind of need to move forward. That's a tragic thing in evangelicalism today. Oh yeah, I'm all set with God.

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I'm good to go. And we've got that salvation gig done and now we're off to these other things. Show me the money.

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No, for the Christian life, it's a continual reminder that says, don't forget that God chose you.

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He could have picked anybody. He should have picked no one. And in light of that you say, well then

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I want to act properly in the church. It's not my church. I didn't buy the church. And so I don't want there to be any kind of factiousness or divisiveness.

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In light of what God has done for me, I want to do my part for church unity. And that's what chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4 is about.

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Christianity is always about what God has done for you. The indicative statement of fact. Jesus died for you.

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He was raised from the dead. And in light of that, here's your imperative or here's your command. That's the way the

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Christian life is. If you're struggling with sin, you probably should go back to the indicative.

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Who is Jesus? What has He done? And who am I in Christ? Jesus. So we look at chapter 4.

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Let's go to chapter 4 verses 1 through 7. This morning to look at eight descriptions of Christ -like leadership in light of what

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God has done for you. The called people. Adopted people. Number one.

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Christ -like leaders must be servants. We just touched this last week. Look at verse 1 of chapter 4.

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What we do at this church is the passage preaches itself. 1 Corinthians 4, 1.

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This is how one should regard us as servants of Christ.

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Based on chapter 3, So then, based on the analogies that were going on, there are some people that build well, gold, silver, precious stones.

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They help build the church well. They'll receive their reward. Some, they just use worthless materials, and it's wood, hay, and stubble.

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They're not going to get their reward. It goes on to say, but there are some that don't just build well or in a shoddy fashion.

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They try to destroy, and God says that I'm going to destroy those people. And in light of that, how should leaders act?

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They should act like servants. Paul, an apostle, calls himself here an under rower.

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Show me a ship full of slaves that row through the oceans in the Mediterranean, and you go down to the final bottom level, and that's the under rower, the galley slave, the menial person, and Paul says, that's me.

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Who exalts galley slaves? We shouldn't. And if Paul's one of those,

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I wonder what I must be. We don't worship them.

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We don't exalt them. If Paul knew cities were named after him, he'd go apoplectic. St. Paul.

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St. Paul, the menial galley slave person. I'm just a servant doing my job. I'm under subjection.

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He's retained me. He's bought me. I'm subordinate to him. I'm bound to obey him. I have to say this, that if you're a leader in a local church, or this church, we serve the body.

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We don't fleece them. I have to say this, because so many people out there say, send

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Jesus your money. Here's my address. Playing to people's greed to get money.

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Dear Sister Dorothy, God spoke to me. God leads me to tell you how to follow his holy instructions to break the devil's spirit that has been assigned to buffet and confuse you.

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The devil is mad. Boy, is he ever mad. He cannot stand it, because you've decided to follow God's ways.

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Here's how you break demonic spells. Go into a quiet room and say this prayer.

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In the name of Jesus, Lord, this is Sister Dorothy. I don't know how many people prayed,

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Dear Lord, this is Mike Abendroth again, remember me, but let's stay back on point. I realize that the source of all my problems has been the spirit realm.

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Then, open the holy water by tearing off the end. Take the spirit.

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Take the spirit, soak prayer cloth out of the packet and anoint your fingers. Then, anoint every piece of money you have with this water.

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Yes, that's right. Every bill, every piece of change, and even the checks and credit cards that you have. Anoint them with this holy water of the holy lands.

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Next, take this holy water and anoint the picture or photograph of the person that you care about deeply, the one who the devil's spirit has been afflicting.

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If you do not have a picture or photograph, then anoint something that you have touched instead, perhaps a letter or a piece of clothing.

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God will show you. Then, since God moves because of a seed, re -anoint your two largest bills and send them to this ministry in the enclosed envelope.

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First thing tomorrow morning, along with the water of the soaked towelette, that spirit soaked, this way the holy spirit water will have made a complete circle from me here in Dallas to you there in Canada and back to me.

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God may lead you to send a check for exactly 59 .19 instead of your two largest bills.

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If your two largest bills were $100 bills, but that's another point. This will represent Isaiah 59 .19,

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which I am praying for you. When the enemy comes in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against it.

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Beware of people who are fleecers of the flock of God and not servants.

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Number two, Christ -like leaders must be servants of Jesus before they're servants of the church.

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You see that in verse one. Christ -like leaders must be servants first of Jesus before they're servants of the church.

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This is how one should regard us as servants of Bethlehem Bible Church, servants of the church of Corinth.

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Is it good to serve the local body if you're a leader? But you've got to be very, very careful as a leader to not say, well,

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I'm going to try to please them because you can please people at the expense of pleasing the holy God, can't you?

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Let's see. Let's just take a poll of the people. What does Tom want? What does Nick want? Let's just do a little, you know, and what they want,

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I'll give them. And here, these people, you need to remember that before I serve you and before I say to myself along with the other elders, we want to please the people.

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I want to please the Lord. And frankly, I'm glad you're happy when I do that. But if you're not happy when

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I do that, I hope one day you will be. But that can't be the main concern.

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It's going to sound self -serving, but it's from the text. Church, you are not the master of your leaders.

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So many churches, not this one, praise the Lord, but these churches hire pastors and they fire pastors, don't they?

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Show me a church that fires a pastor and within two and a half years they'll fire their next one according to 80 % of the rules.

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We hire and fire you. You work for us. We tell you what to do. We drive by the church. You're not there at the church parking lot.

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You need to give us your timesheets. You need to write down the sermon outlines and present them to the board of trustees before you can preach that sermon.

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Doesn't that sound weird? Hallelujah that that's so far gone. And if they're servants of Christ, spiritual leaders are servants of Christ, why would we rank them?

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Well, here's where I put the pastor. Here's where I put the chairman of the elders. Here's where I put this other guy. That's what they were doing with Paul and Apollos.

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He says we're menial servants of Christ. Now if you thought of a time back in those days with servants in the home and slaves and you would go over to somebody else's house and you'd go to a free person,

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Roman citizen gym, and you'd sit around and you'd watch gym servants, I don't think you'd say to yourself, you know, that's really a good servant and they should be doing continually a good job.

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And there's another servant over there. He's not doing a good job. And according to my ranking, gym servants go one, two, three, and a close four.

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Well, that would be dumb because they're not our servants. Why would we rank someone else's servants? People rank today pastors by personality and degrees and numbers.

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Especially when I go to pastors' conferences, I see it all the time. You probably go to conferences and they ask you this question too.

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Oh, where do you go to church? A Bethlehem Bible Church. And the very next word's out of people's mouths. What are you doing?

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Oh, I'm pastoring a church in Massachusetts. I can tell you the exact thing that they're going to say next.

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Here's the next question. How many people are at your church? And I told you,

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I started lying just to save face. So years ago, I just said, forget it. I'm not going to say it anymore.

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I'm just going to look at people in the eye and get a straight face and say, about 3 ,000, give or take. And then you know what they do?

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Wow! 3 ,000 in New England is like 30 ,000 in Texas. Wow!

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Man, you're somebody. 30 ,000 people. But if we answer as leaders to the

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Lord, and the Lord has built His church through God -ordained ways, and if He's brought 30 of us here, our 3 ,000, that's

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His doing. We're servants of the Lord first. That's valid Christian leadership.

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You can ask yourself the question, too, do I work in nursery? Do I work in the sound room? You don't work ultimately for the pastors, for the church.

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Your ministry is to the Lord. And by the way, you'll do a much better job, a more thorough job, a job that's thinking more about the kingdom than if you say, you know, this is the job

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Abendroth gave me, and I'm just going to do it. Number three, a third description of Christlike leaders that Paul said he should be,

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Apollos should be, all leaders should be, yes, but at the end of the day he writes these things. You can see it right there in verse 1.

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This is how one should regard us. This is a sermon to the congregation about leadership. Number three,

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Christlike leaders must be good stewards of the mysteries of God. Good stewards.

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Well, this is excellent here. What's a steward? A steward is someone who has been entrusted with the belongings or possessions of someone else.

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And so if I'm a house ruler, that's what the word means, house law, house ruler, and someone says,

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I would like you to watch over my house while I'm gone. I go out of town during the summertime, and Bernard is my house steward.

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Watch over these things. And I hope Bernard thinks to himself, I'm going to take better care of this than I would with my own stuff.

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I'm answering back to someone who's over me. Stewards entrusted with responsibility for the master's entire household.

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And back in those days it was for food, servants, clothing, buildings, field, money, and sometimes they were even entrusted with the master's children.

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Stewards weren't freelance operators, independent contractors. Will I just do what I want, when

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I want, how I please? No, this was a major responsibility. One man said they were not the owners of the treasures of truth and grace that are entrusted to them.

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As they administer these treasures, they must remain aware of their dependency and of the accounting that they will give.

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News bulletin, I did not come up with sovereign grace. I did not come up with redemption.

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I did not come up with election, calling, propitiation, reconciliation. I didn't come up with it, and I can't effectuate them either.

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So what do I do if I want to be a good steward of these mysteries? This isn't mysterious stuff.

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Mysteries in the New Testament, remember, were things that were not known to man, but now are through the revelation of God.

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We didn't know about the triune salvation. God told us, now we know. And it's my job not to do new things, novel things, interesting things, fun things.

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My job is, tell me the old, old story about Jesus and His love. And we like new stuff.

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You think, oh yeah, I'm going to grade the sermon today. And was it a good sermon that Mike preached? Well, I learned something new today, therefore it was good.

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Well, new already in the text, but new to you, that might not be so bad. But after 30 years, 40 years, 50 years, you shouldn't be learning new things from the pulpit.

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Pastors shouldn't say, well, this is the new way to do church. Steward? This is the new way to preach.

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Steward? This is the new way to kind of operate. No, stewards don't do that.

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They've been entrusted with Christ Jesus. And as people, stewards ought not to be tempted by new things.

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Number four, marching through here. What about stewards? What should they be? Christlike leaders, number four, when we look at servant leaders in the church that should be emulated,

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Christlike leaders must be trustworthy. Here we go. And by the way, let me say it right now so you get it, and I'll say it again in a minute.

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This is within the reach of everybody. If it's IQ, popularity, eloquence, power, persuasion, giftedness, oh, you know,

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I just can't do that. But if you've been given a job and your job is faithfulness, is that within reach by the grace of God?

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Absolutely. God has only called me to be faithful. That's all I need to do. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found, what?

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Trustworthy. Corinth, you grade leaders on how well they speak.

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Rhetoricians, they're eloquent, they're powerful, they have philosophy of the world. You're grading people the wrong way.

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You should be grading them on, are they faithful? Above all things, stewards who take care of other people's property, possessions, and people should be faithful.

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I ask you the question, if you've got a ministry here at this church, is that the one thing that could define you?

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My desire is that I would be faithful. That's my goal. My goal is not

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I want the elders to see. My goal is not I want other people to see. My goal is not I want this to take off and I want people to write books about my ministry because I know how to duplicate things and reduplicate things.

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God, make me faithful. Timothy 1

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Corinthians 4, beloved and faithful. Epaphras, Colossians 1, a faithful servant of Christ.

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Tychicus, Colossians 4, any guesses? A what kind of servant? Faithful servant.

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Not initiative, not success, not drive, not good decision making, faithfulness to preach the word.

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We don't make stuff up. We don't originate new doctrines. We want to be faithful.

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Turn with me if you would to Acts chapter 20. I want to just flip over to Acts 20 and you can just get a flavor of everything

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I've said found here in Acts chapter 20 and one of the most moving passages in all the book of Acts.

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I like to call Acts not Acts of the Apostles but Acts of the Holy Spirit.

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Acts of the Holy Spirit. Luke writes this and when you look at Acts chapter 20 you just feel 1

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Corinthians chapter 4 oozing out of Paul into this chapter. Acts 20 .17

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Now from Miletus, Acts 20 .17 He sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him.

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When they came to him he said to them, You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the

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Lord with all humility and with tears and with the trials that happened to me through the plots of the

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Jews. How I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our

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Lord Jesus Christ. And now behold I am going to Jerusalem constrained by the Spirit not knowing what will happen to me there.

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And then he goes on at the very end and if you see down in verse 36 after he's done speaking to them when he had said these things he knelt down and prayed with them all and don't you love it and there was much weeping on the part of all they embraced

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Paul and kissed him being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken that they would not see his face again and they accompanied him to the ship.

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Paul said what? I'm a steward, faithful, trustworthy

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I'm a servant of Christ and now I'm going to go follow Christ and probably go get killed someplace.

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Back to 1 Corinthians chapter 4 we're up to number 5 on descriptions of Christ like leaders and the wow moment is just around the bend buckle up sometimes when

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I study the scriptures I stumble upon something and see it and see it in all its glory and then

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I can hardly wait I am restraining myself because I want to skip over this part and go to the next one but I dare not so number 5 because this is important Christ like leaders can't ultimately care what other people think of them they can't be people pleasers and furthermore they can't even be concerned about what they think about themselves you'll see this flesh itself out in verses 3 and 4 let me read 3 and 4 now remember the

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Corinthians followed Seneca and other philosophers and at the top of the ladder for authority was conscience let your conscience be your guide for the

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Christian it's Bible then conscience if you say well you know my conscience won't let me you know evangelize well then your problem is within your conscience because the

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Bible says go evangelize right? preach repentance to all nations Luke 24 but Paul's living in a culture where conscience ruled you did whatever your conscience would allow and nothing else that was the final arbiter and watch what he says here but with me verse 3 1

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Corinthians 4 it's a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court in fact

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I don't even judge myself for I'm not aware of anything against myself but I am not there acquitted thereby acquitted it is the

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Lord who judges me if he's really a servant of Christ if he's really a steward of Christ then there's one person that he wants to say good job to him there's one person that he's longing to hear well done good and faithful servant is it the church?

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is it himself? boy I really did a good job I think I did a good job way to go I mean people talk that way my kids in school and they have these school classes and you know you have to have these mottos and pledge of allegiance to yourself

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I love me you know I can do some Barney routine but some of you wouldn't know what that was judgment day is coming what will it matter what other people thought of you on judgment day?

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will it matter at all? nil empty set nothing on judgment day what will it matter when you think of how you yourself did?

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now this could be positive or it could be negative the church of Corinth could say Paul did a really good job way to go

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Paul says doesn't matter the church could say you're not like any of these other teachers you're lame and that's kind of what they were saying

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Paul says it doesn't matter on judgment day it doesn't matter when you think I really did a good job

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God was sure lucky to have me in his kingdom and you stand before God on judgment day or you could say to yourself you know

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I feel like I just never can contribute I don't get enough done I serve the Lord several hours a week in the ministry nobody seems to notice nobody seems to commend me

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I don't know what's going on but on the judgment day he will know, won't he? he will know

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Paul is not saying I don't care what you say it doesn't hurt me Paul could be hurt by what they would say

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Paul was hurt by what they said but it didn't change the way he did things people can say mean things and you can be hurt

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I have been hurt but I shouldn't say to myself well then I've got to change what

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I'm going to do so I don't get hurt the human court and the human conscience are insufficient tribunals of justice that's what he's saying no human judgment is omniscient final exhaustive is it?

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it's premature so these people that always want to be liked

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I think they want something better they just don't know it to hear well done good and faithful servant the

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Corinthians, any guesses? do you think they thought highly of human judgment? or they didn't think very highly of human judgment?

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it's what moved them what do other people think of me? Paul says, it matters not who cares?

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you could ask yourself the question verse 4 for I am not aware of anything against myself clean conscience maybe there's something that you did but you've forgotten he says

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I am therefore not acquitted by my conscience it is the Lord who judges me it's the

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Lord who judges me now he could be saying I'm acquitted by justification through faith alone that's my ultimate acquittal but more in context he's just saying this my faithfulness will be determined by Jesus and Jesus alone that's it the verdict is still out when people criticize you in ministry you've got to learn to have what pastors need to have and that is big hearts and thick skin well you know

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I I'm really glad you do the bulletins but I've already noticed during the sermon I've noticed 15 typos there oh sorry oh but I'm so faithful I know

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I'm faithful God will find out just how faithful we are at the end I'm so not faithful I wish

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I could do more God will find out at the end He'll evaluate number six 1

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Corinthians chapter 4 verse 5 this is it right here this is the big as we say in New England the big kahuna right here

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I mean we are waiting for this I'm going to take a drink of this this is going to be the best now before I read the verse don't read the verse don't look down and read the verse remember the tone the last few weeks in 1

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Corinthians 3 some build well but others are just kind of shoddy

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God's going to see it and reward them or not reward them other people they don't build well they actually destroy

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God's going to destroy them build well do the right thing he's talking to this church of Corinth that's fairly carnal and his attitude is pretty rough so you can imagine now

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Paul is going to continue that roughness and continue that kind of judging do the right thing in light of your calling

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I mean if I was going to write this next verse it would have just kind of a have you ever cracked one of those whips you know those kind of Roy Rogers whips and when

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I was a kid I don't know if it was some Daniel Boone whip I had or what it was and you have to kind of snap your wrist because at the end of this long rope it just stings doesn't it or if you take a towel and wrap up the towel and do one of those things the scorpion's tail that's what this has the feeling and out of nowhere

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Paul does the exact opposite Paul's going to say something that you're going to just have your proverbial mind blown and nobody has this verse underlined is my guess but you're all going to underline it you're going to say to the person to your left could

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I please underline that inside joke verse 4 no verse 5 1

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Corinthians 4 Christ like leaders must only be evaluated by the Lord verse 5 therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time before the

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Lord comes who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness you bet he will and will disclose the purposes or motives of the heart then each one will receive his dressing down each one will receive what was coming to him each one's going to receive his minuscule reward

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ESV doesn't translate it well so let me translate it the right way then when the

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Lord comes when he sees what's in the darkness when he sees what's in your heart then each one will receive his praise from God can you imagine for the things that you've done with the right motives in light of the cross on judgment day yes there'll be a sizing up and at the end of the day guess what there will be from God to the sinner to the person that would have killed

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Jesus Christ if he would have had arms long enough to the one that deserved the wrath of God there will be this from God it means loud applause it means clapping it means praise now if I'm not careful

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I'm going to get too emotional so you don't want to try to rouse people with undue emotion but my father provided for us but he was a drunk and he was old school drunk you know you can't really look at your son in the eye and say

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I love you you had to do the kind of love you I wanted my dad's praise so much just to have my dad say that was a good job

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I'm really proud of you my dad's been dead for 21 years so it's long gone but to hear from your father the ones you look up to and respect who's provided for you who's loved you by safety and other things for him to just say

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I love you great job it's not like he didn't do anything right

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I remember one time I was in the basketball league I was 5 foot and under league and I actually had to wear baggy sweatpants so I could kind of bend down just a little bit underneath the thing because I was 5 foot 1 and I was on the 5 foot and under league and so therefore

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I was center and I went to a really bad part of town I went to this bad part of town and I was playing you know you're all warmed up and doing layups and so we went for the jump ball and you shake the guy's hand who's also the center who's going to jump

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I started to shake the guy's hand he pulled it away and he said if you don't let me win this jump ball I'm going to kill you after the game oh

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I guess that's what they mean by inner city I don't know I mean I just I have no idea what's going on but I looked over and there sitting on about the third row was my father 6 '4, 250

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I looked at this guy and he was 5 foot 5 foot and under league I don't want you to get the impression that he never cared for me but he just didn't say things like great job nobody else was looking but I saw what you did

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I noticed good job way to go the savior one day for his saints behind the scenes diaper changing behind the scenes chair setting up behind the scenes study for bible study all the things done in the name of Jesus and evangelism how about God praising you some people can have selfish motives and be very popular and then at the end of this what does he say then each one will receive his praise one commentator calls it a clear acclaim of commendation approval recognition

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Bauer the lexicon says the act of expressing admiration of approval praise approval recognition and you know even though I long for my father if I had his voice on a

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VCR which we didn't have back in those days and had him on videotape good job Mike and I could go back and just replay it and say yeah

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I bet you he'd probably be changed now and he'd say that it doesn't matter because there's going to be one who's going to say something one day for the faithful great job praise why live before other people don't you want the praise from God D .A.

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Carson says the king of the universe the sovereign who has endured our selfless rebellion and sought us out at the cost of his son's death climaxes our redemption by praising us what this way of concluding the paragraph shows is that in this case at least

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God judges less sternly than the self -appointed judges in the church they never clap they never say good job they never praise you but God Paul here

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Carson goes on to say presupposes that the leaders in question are not to be disciplined shut out ignored they are bonafide

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Christian leaders and on the last day God himself will praise them you've got false teachers kick them out but if you've got frail leadership that's faithful you might say good job but there's one person they should be thinking about saying that well done good and faithful servant well two more we've got to finish two more number seven found in verse six

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Christlike leaders should contribute to church unity as leaders to be followed and imitated contribute to church unity by being a leader who can be followed and imitated verse six

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I've applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit he's not preaching to the leaders he's talking about leadership so the congregation understands 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 some of the things

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Paul's been saying I don't quite get it I can't tie it together it's a little abstract Paul says now let me make it perfectly clear this is what

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I'm after and he gives kind of a general statement don't go beyond what is written in the

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Old Testament just don't go beyond that the praise should be for the Lord the boasting should be for the

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Lord the pride should not exist farmers, builders, stewards, servants they serve, they serve the

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Lord so don't be puffed up because you follow the good one don't be factionist because you don't like the other guy's leader and then finally number eight found in verse seven

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Christ -like leaders must be seen as gifts from God verse seven

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Christ -like leaders must be seen as gifts from God for who sees anything different in you? what do you have that you did not receive?

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speaking of leaders in the church if you then received it why do you boast as if you did not receive it?

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he switches the you there he's been talking to the group now he talks to the individual there must be somebody sitting out there he says at this church who's thinking this way what person do you think you are when you've received all this?

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and so he doesn't name him by name but he calls him out if you then received it why do you boast?

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somebody's boasting there's a bigger principle everything we have we've received from God we shouldn't be puffed up I close with these words

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I don't want you to turn there I'm not even going to tell you where we are but I want you to see if you can get a flavor of this great final judgment that includes praise from the words of Jesus Christ for it will be like a man going on a journey he called his servants and entrusted them his property to one he gave five talents to another two to another one to each according to his ability and then he went away he who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them and he made five talents more so also he who had two talents made two talents more but he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them and he who had received the five talents came forward bringing five talents more saying master you delivered to me five talents here

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I've made five talents more his master said to him well done good and faithful servant you have been faithful over a little

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I will set you over much enter into the joy of your master and he also who had the two talents came forward saying master you delivered to me two talents here

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I have made two talents more his master said to him well done good and faithful servant you have been faithful over a little

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I will set you over much enter into the joy of your master he who had received the one talent came forward saying master

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I knew that you were a hard man reaping what you did not sow gathering where you scattered no seeds so I was afraid and I went and I hid your talent in the ground here you have what is yours but his master answered you wicked and slothful servant you know you knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have scattered no seed then you have ought to invested my money with the bankers and at my coming

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I should have received what was my own with interest so take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents for to everyone who has will more be given and he will have abundance but from the one who has not even what he has will be taken away and cast the worthless servant into outer darkness in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth our heavenly father what a great master you are thank you so much that we can have a paradigm a template for godly leadership and I pray for each person in this church who is a