 Amen. So 2 Corinthians chapter 10, that's going to be our base passage for this morning. The title of the sermon this morning is Comparing Ourselves. So we're looking at 2 Corinthians chapter 10 where Paul is addressing a very specific issue here. But before we can get into this, this morning this couple of verses that we're going to look at from Paul talking to the Corinthian church here, a little context about the letters to the Corinthians. You just kind of, if you overview 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, Paul in 1 Corinthians was kind of ripping some face to the Corinthian church. I mean he was really talking to them. You remember 1 Corinthians chapter 5 is, I've done a whole sermon series on 1 Corinthians chapter 5. I mean just imagine this, he's writing letters, you know, saying these things in 1 Corinthians and he kind of references that tone in 2 Corinthians chapter 10 here. But he's literally writing letters to the church saying hey, you need to be kicking these people out of the church. You know, this is where 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 11 talks about the 6 things that aren't allowed to be in the church. He's telling them there's this guy in fornication in the church. He needs to be put out. He needs to be put out and let Satan deal with him. Let the world deal with him. Let God's chastisement come upon this man. So in 1 Corinthians chapter, in 1 Corinthians, Paul is like really giving some hard messages to the management of the church through letters. So that's why he says he terrifies them in letters here in 2 Corinthians chapter 10. But in 2 Corinthians he's kind of, after he's torn them down, he's kind of building them back up. He's talking about mercy and forgiveness and things like this. But it's interesting because something apparently maybe some people didn't like what Paul was saying in the Corinthian church and that's kind of what he's addressing here. But in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, we're going to start out in verse number 7 and kind of see what Paul's talking about here. But the title of the sermon again is called Comparing Ourselves, Comparing Yourselves. All right. How can we properly improve in our Christian lives? How can we properly improve in our lives in general? Because there's a wrong way to do it and a right way to do it. And just remember, you know, just a common methodology with God is it matters how you get there. All right. It doesn't mean I could just, I just need to achieve this no matter what. No. There is an unjust way to get where you're going. God cares how you get there. All right. And that's what Paul is talking about today. So look, there's ways to improve. There's ways to set goals. There's ways to get better. But it must be done in the right way. And that's what's going on here. Look down at 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Let's see what the Bible can show us this morning. 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Look at verse number 7. So now that we know the kind of the context of 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, look at verse number 7. They've just had a hard message delivered to them. All right. Do you look on things after the outward appearance? If any man trusts himself that he is Christ, let him also, let him think of himself, think this, let him of himself think this again that as he is Christ, even so we are Christ. So he's saying, he's kind of setting a tone here. He's saying, hey, we're all under Christ here, is what he's saying. All right. Look at verse 8. For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord have given us for edification and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed. So he's saying, look, I could come, I have the authority and it's through the Lord. Right. And he's saying, I could come and just like claim much more of this authority than I actually am. And I could like, you know, be bragging about my authority, but, you know, he's not. Right. Look at verse number 9. And the reason that he doesn't is that I may not seem as if I would terrify you by letters. So he's like, I don't throw, he's like saying, I don't just throw my authority, you know, at you as much as I possibly could because I don't want to just like scare you. I don't want to just like destroy you. But he's basically saying, like, look, I have this authority to say these things that I said in 1 Corinthians. I have this authority under God because this is my charge to say these things. Look at verse number 10. Because this is what people were saying about his letters. Right. It says, four, because his letters they say are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible. So, I mean, basically you got some people talking trash in the church here about Paul. Right. So, you know, he sends this really harsh message to them. And he's like really just telling them, like, hey, you need to get things in order in that church there. You need to be decisive. You need to do things the right way. You need to put these people out. You need to not allow these things in the church. And it's just some really weighty words. But you got some people in the church, you're like, but yeah, but have you seen this guy? You know, he's like, you know, he can't even speak well. And he's just this, you know, I don't know, fray. Whatever they're saying, they're just talking, they're talking trash about Paul, the people in this church. And look, I could preach better than Paul, you know, I mean, he's just the whole thing. You can about it. I can about imagine, right? So and so could deliver better messages than this guy, whatever. So, you got that going on. He's saying, look, what's best for you? Now, verse number 11. This is, this is what Paul says. He's like, here's what's best for you. Here's what's best for you to think of us. He says, let's such in one think this. So you got people saying, he's weak. He's frail. He can't even, he can't even talk good. And then you got Paul saying, look, here's what's best for you. Here's what's best for you if you just think this way. He says, let's such in one think this, that such as we are in word by letters, when we are absent, because look, Paul just can't be everywhere at the same time. You know, and he kind of goes into that a little bit here in a couple verses, we can't be, I mean, look at how much he travels. Look at ax chat, you know, look at the book of ax, we're going through, it's ridiculous. The guy's all over the place, you can't even, we try to track him through maps, it's hard to do that. He's all over the place. So when we are absent, such, he's saying, such as we are in word by letters when we are absent, such will we be also indeed when we are present. You know what he's saying? He's saying, just picture us as powerful and as elegant as the letters sound. That's what Paul is saying. He's like, that's what's best for you, for you to look at things that way. He's like, just, he's just asking them, hey, think the best of us. You know, think the best of us. Look at verse 12. He says, for we dare not make ourselves of the number or compare ourselves with some, now these are the people, and we'll talk about, you know, this type of attitude in a, in a few minutes towards the end of the sermon, with some that commend themselves. But they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise. And that's what we're really going to look at this morning is these people that were, they were numbering people. They were ranking people. They were probably ranking the apostles as we see that other places in the Bible. They were probably saying, oh, you know, so and so is a better preacher than so and so and you're probably ranking all the different apostles. Paul's saying, don't rank us. He's saying, don't rank us. Don't rank yourselves. He's like, it's not wise to do so. Look at verse 13. But instead, like, well, what should we do then? He says, but we will not boast of the things without our measure. But according to the measure of the rule, which God had distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you. So he's saying, we will not respond by saying, no, I am better than so and so. He's like, we're not going to jump into this game and play this game. So now he explains. So the first point is really this. How do we measure ourselves then? If you can't measure yourselves against other people, measure yourselves against maybe people that are better than you or worse than you or whatever, how do you measure yourselves? And Paul says you measure yourselves by the rule. And what is the rule? The rule is the word of God. The rule is the authority that God has given Paul. So he's saying, look, you don't measure yourselves by amongst yourselves or amongst the apostles or whatever evangelist is coming to you, you measure yourself by the rule, the Bible. All right? Look, in this, what he's saying is the importance is what is said. The importance is the message, not how it is said. It doesn't matter how it said, it matters what is said. Is it the rule or not? If it's the rule, it shouldn't matter how it is said, how it's delivered. Okay? Unfortunately, though, nobody operates this way. Unfortunately, look, people really seem to care how it is said. You know, as a pastor, I that that's true. Like I look, I want to get as good as I can at preaching and delivering a message. I don't want to be up here delivering a message and having people sleeping and just being the most boring person in the world. You know, I don't want to be fake and like pushing the pulpit over and you know, being crazy either. But I mean, the point is like, I want to be like personally, I want to be good at delivering the rule. I mean, but the point is, it doesn't, it shouldn't matter how it's delivered. What should matter is what is delivered. And if you look at that, you can say, look, look, I mean, here's the thing, folks, some messages in the rule are harder to deliver than others. And that's another thing you need to realize. You know, there's always going to be people look, I've had this thought when I've heard messages, you know, where I've had the thought of like, I wouldn't have said it that way. We've all had that thought. But look, this is the point I'm trying to get at. And this is the point that Paul is trying to get at is no two people would deliver a message the same way. And no two people will receive a message the same way. That's just, that's just human nature. That's why someone has to be in charge. That's why God put all this structure, right? God put all this structure in the family. He didn't say, Hey, here's a family. Here's a husband and a wife and children and like everybody's in charge, because it would be a disaster. He didn't say, here's here's a family. That's why he said no, no, the man is in charge. God ordained that the man, the husband, the father is in charge of his family. So there's going to be like, look, leadership is doing things because no two people, even in a family would do things the exact same way. That's why somebody has to be in charge or the family would be going in every single different direction. It would be a train wreck. So to understand that, you have to understand that if you're following somebody, the message may not be delivered how you would deliver it because no two people would deliver it the same. You just have to receive it and be like, Hey, you know, I'm not in charge. My job is to receive it properly and not compare myself and not, you know, have this wrong attitude. You think about, think about a church. You know, God puts a pastor, you know, over a church, of course, you know, the rule is over the church, the rule is Jesus Christ over the church. But as the under shepherd, somebody's got to be in charge of the church. So somebody, you know, I wouldn't have said it that way, or, you know, I can speak better than that or whatever. None of that matters is what Paul is saying. What matters is the rule. It's the same thing at, you know, secular jobs or work or whatever. I mean, you sit there, we've all had the thought like I wouldn't have made that decision or I wouldn't have done that. But here's the thing, you're not the boss. You're not the boss and no two people would be the boss exactly the same. That's just the way it is. So don't compare yourself against those things. Think about the government. Well, that's not even go there. I'm changing the sermon right now. Turn your Bible to Romans chapter one. I'm just kidding. The point I'm trying to get at, folks, is life in general is this way. Life in general is this way. And here's the thing, when two people lead differently and two people follow differently in order for this whole thing to work as God has structured everything in the family, in the church, in your life, don't compare yourselves amongst yourselves or you will not be successful. That's what Paul is trying to get at here. The attitude, by the way, it makes it impossible, in Paul in this case, having this attitude, it makes it impossible for the messenger to succeed as well. So it really wrecks both the messenger and receiver relationship. The importance is the rule. That's point number one. The importance is not the messenger, not what he looks like, not how he delivers it. The importance is the rule. Look, I can tell you there has been many hard sermons that I have personally heard that, I mean, they just hit home and they're just like, and you just, maybe you're even a little upset, but you just got to tell yourself, like, you just kind of like, comb yourself back down and just be like, but is that what the Bible says? That needs to be the answer for the successful Christian, all right? Always going back to the rule. That's point number one. The rule is everything. Now, look, if that's not what the Bible said, then that's a different story. But the rule is the, the rule, the Word of God, Jesus Christ is the focus of us all. So these people were just, they had their focus on the wrong things. They were ranking with the wrong ranking system, and it's not going to work. Now, let's talk about getting it wrong. Let's talk about getting it wrong. You say, well, there must be some measurement, right? We're talking about, you know, these people were measuring themselves against themselves. They were measuring the apostles against the other apostles. You know, but what about growth? What about knowledge? What about, you know, goals and skills and all these things? How do we go about doing this? I mean, we all want to be better, right? We all want to be better at what we're doing. You know, at everything we do, right? It's, it's all about the reference point is what these people had wrong. And the reference point was not the Bible. It was not the message. It was not the rule. Now, the problem is this. Everything that the world teaches is exactly opposite of this. It's just, it's just another one of those things where the world, it's not like they teach something that's a little bit different. They teach the opposite of this. I'm going to show you some examples. But they teach the literal opposite of this. Turn to 2 Samuel chapter 15. What the world teaches is to compete against one another. What the world teaches is to measure against one another. This is what the world teaches everywhere. Go to 2 Samuel chapter 15. You know what this leads to? This leads to a bunch of people that are not focused on the right reference point, but a lot of people that this leads to comparing themselves, competing against one another. This leads to people who are trying to look good. This leads to people that are, they're not trying to improve. They're just trying to look better than you. And they're trying to look, they're not trying to be better than you. They're trying to look better than you. This is against everything that the Bible says. There's an example of this. Look at 2 Samuel chapter 15. Absalom. Absalom is a perfect example of this. Absalom when he comes back, look what he does immediately. Look at verse number one of 2 Samuel chapter 15. And it came to pass after this that Absalom prepared him chariots and horses and 50 men to run before him. Notice those two words there it says prepared him. You know what that means? Look, Absalom didn't come back, wasn't invited back by David and all of a sudden when he was back in the city he had all these people that just wanted to follow. No, he prepared them himself. He went out and he hired a bunch of people to follow him around and make him look like he was this big important person because it was all about perception to Absalom. Nobody's going to follow him voluntarily so he went and he prepared himself people to follow him. Why? So he could look better than other people. In this case, his own father. He said he's just trying to, you know, look like a leader. Alright, the question is well what about the rule with Absalom? Look at verse number two. And Absalom rose up early and stood beside the way of the gate and it was so that when any man had a controversy came to the king for judgment. So did they come to Absalom? They came to the king then Absalom called unto him and said of what city art thou? And he said thy servant is one of the tribes of Israel. Look at verse number three. And Absalom said unto him see thy matters are good and right but there is no man deputed of the king to hear thee. Absalom literally, he cares nothing about the rule as a matter of fact he's going absolutely against the rule and he's saying to all these people I am better than the king is what he's saying. He's like the king doesn't care about you as much as I do. Alright, look at verse number four. And Absalom said moreover, oh that I were made judge in the land that every man which had any suit or cause might come unto me and I would go and do him justice. He's saying I am better than your king. He literally did the opposite of the rule but it was all about perception because he's trying to you know get these people to he's trying to manipulate these people. Absalom was actually using his knowledge of people who do do this that Paul is talking about in 2 Corinthians chapter 10 to accomplish his manipulation. He knows that people compare themselves against themselves. He knows that people compare leaders against leaders and he's using this to his advantage so he's making himself appear that he is better than David, that he cares more than David, that he loves the people more than David. He's even tearing David down a little bit behind his back by saying yeah he just doesn't have time for you but I do and so these people are comparing what are they doing? They're comparing Absalom and they're comparing David and they're elevating Absalom. Look we know it worked. He was able to take over the kingdom at least for a time but it is people comparing themselves and comparing their leaders against other leaders or perceived leaders that allowed Absalom's plan to work in the first place. This is the world today. This is what the world today teaches. Let me give you an example. Feminism. This is I mean you know how much I love feminism. This is exactly what feminism teaches in an extreme way. You say how feminism is literally teaching women to compete with men. That's what it's doing. It's literally teaching women to compare yourselves not even amongst yourselves but amongst someone else and not amongst a different you know it's it's convincing women, young ladies to compete against something that isn't even themselves. It's really an amazing feat when you think about it. I mean they've literally convinced young ladies and women in in this culture to compare apples with oranges. It is what they've done. I mean what happens then? You compare you tell an apple that they must compete with an orange and you're like but that doesn't make any sense. Just follow me for a second. You tell an apple that no you must compete with an orange. You're like but I'm not orange. I'm red. Like no you must compete with an orange. So what happens? Look I actually I largely blame feminism for clown world in general because what happens is apples become oranges or they try to become oranges. They try to look like oranges. They try to act like oranges. They try to smell like oranges because this philosophy teaches that you must compete. You must compare. This is where it all started. Now we don't even know what an apple and an orange is anymore. You see how this started out like I mean look you must you must act like an orange. You must look like an orange. Look there's this idea somebody even told me this out so when in the other day yeah you know come as you are that's what the Bible is. Can you show me where that says that? I mean yeah you know people come and into a church and and and they grow and but no God cares how you look. God cares how you act. God wants women to look like women. There's a reason that women wear dresses and have long hair and all these different things. Bible wants men and women to look different have different roles. We think these things aren't a big deal maybe not us because we've been indoctrinated in our society today. Where do the blurring of the lines get us folks? I mean look today. This is where it got us. This is where comparing ourselves amongst ourselves. So here we are we're literally the laughing stock of the world at this point. Our men have become as women Jeremiah chapter 41 said about the men of Babylon this mighty empire of Babylon that lasted just a few years after they took over Israel. Remember when they went back from captivity it was the Persian king that was sending everybody back you know back to Jerusalem after the captivity was over. Why? Because why have we gotten here? Because we've compared ourselves amongst ourselves to the extreme. And we threw what? We threw the rule out the window. That's the problem. I forget the rule. What's the rule? Nobody even knows what the rule is anymore. Go back to 2nd Corinthians chapter 10. 2nd Corinthians chapter 10. Here's another thing I want to point out about people that do this. People that compare themselves amongst themselves. Here's that here's another point I want to make to you this morning and I skipped over it on purpose in verse number 12 but comparing leads to commending is what you need to understand. Comparing leads to commending. Another thing that is completely opposite of what the world teaches and what the Bible teaches. This is what Paul is really rebuking here. Is these people that were commending themselves. Look at verse 12 again. We dare not make ourselves of the number or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves. Paul is saying there's people in your church that are what are commending themselves. They're boasting. They're boasting and he's like we are not going to go down that road. Look at verse number 15 he says the actual word. He says not boasting of things without our measure that is of other men's labors but having hope when your faith is increased that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly. Look at verse 16 to preach the gospel in regions beyond you and not boast in another man line of things that things made ready to our hand. Now look at verse 18 again he says for not he that commended himself is approved but whom the Lord commended. Look boasting is always bad is what he's saying here. These people are just commending themselves. They're just boasting. You know there that's another thing that the world gets wrong. They literally teach people to boast. Teach people to commend themselves. I looked up I went to like the number one job site and I just pulled up like I went to indeed.com and it's like the number one job search thing and I was like they always have all these articles that are popping up and I was like hey how to get ahead in my job and I looked at what indeed came up with. I'm gonna read it to you like the world literally teaches for you to do exactly what Paul was saying not to do here. Look at verse number one if I want to get ahead at work this is what I should do. This is what indeed.com says. It says communicate with your manager. It's important to have regular discussions with your manager about your work responsibilities and performance. This can help ensure your manager understands the scope of your work on various tasks and projects include when you go beyond expectations for an assignment include that information in your updates. So what he's saying is regularly go to your boss and tell him how awesome you are. That's what they're saying here okay. Number two build relationships. At the end of this point number two it says building relationships with your own co-workers can make them more likely to recognize you for your work. Literally go make friends just so they will think that you're awesome and good at your job. This is the purpose of building these relationships at work so people will realize you can go boast to your friends and then they'll boast about you to your boss. Number three I love this one. Acknowledge your efforts. I mean it's hard to read this in a straight face. While discussing a project in a meeting like tell me if you don't know this guy first of all. While discussing a project in a meeting explain how your work contributed to the final outcome. That's real. I mean that's a person in a meeting everyone's in the meeting and they just accomplish this big thing and you're just like really it was what I did that allowed this to happen. Look I mean have you ever worked with that guy first of all that just claims credit for everything? What do other people think about that person? You know just some pragmatic you know advice there. Look at this number four. Observe others. There may be people on your team in the company who receive consistent recognition and praise for their work. Observe those employees to help you understand why they're reaching receiving this acknowledgement. He's like find people that boast and then boast more. That's what they're saying. All right so they're saying find people who are good at boasting and then mimic their boasting. This is exactly what Paul is saying he will not engage in. Paul is saying there's people that are commending themselves he's like we're not going to do that. We're not going to go down that road. It's like these people aren't wise look at verse number 13 of chapter 10. Verse number 13. Paul literally says he says but we will not boast of things without our measure. But according to the measure what God had distributed to us a measure to reach even unto you. He's saying the only thing that we're going to say to you is things from the rule. That's it. He's like we refuse to join in to what these people are doing. All right so look the world teaches exactly the opposite of this in so many different ways. So many different ways. The conclusion though is whenever you hear think about this just think about this church. Whenever you hear something that you don't like or that you know upsets you and it could throw you down this road just remember like first of all too much positive and reinforcement is not good for anybody. It's not good for your kids. I mean that's is not what they're teaching today and kids just positive reinforcement on everything. It doesn't work. You're going to raise a bunch of spoiled brats. Sometimes I hate to break it to everyone here but sometimes the things that I'll just I'll throw myself in here too. Sometimes the things that we do are wrong. And sometimes the things that we do need to be rebuked. That is the whole point of the rule. And look that goes for work. That goes for home. That goes for church. So I mean go to 1 Corinthians chapter 14 or 10 verse 14. How do I handle that? And Paul kind of gives the answer here at the end and look what he says here. For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure as though we reach not unto you. For we come as far to you also in the preaching of the Gospel of Christ. Not boasting of the things without our measure that is of other men's labors but having hope. He's saying look he's like we write letters because we write letters because we can't physically be there all the time. It is what he's saying here. And he says not boasting of the things without our measure that is of other men's labors. We're not boasting about anything anybody else is doing. But having hope. Now this is the key. He says having hope in what? Hope in what? He says when your faith is increased that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly. What Paul is saying is here's how it should work. He's saying here's how it should work. We should give these messages to you because we just can't be there all the time. We should give these messages to you. You should compare these messages not against some other preacher not against some other evangelist but just against the Bible. And if that's what the Bible says just do it is what he's saying. Just forget about how we look forget about how we sound when we're there we can't be there all the time. So just consider that we're just as good. He's like we're probably never going to be there again. You know Paul didn't go to these places many times. I mean the Ephesians he was there for a long time but many of these people I mean he saw them and he saw them for the last time. And he went to Jerusalem and then Rome. But the point is his goal is that their faith is increased. Why? Because what will happen is if you receive the message if you compare it to the rule and you just receive it and you just consider that Paul is just as elegant as he is in the letters then your faith is going to increase meaning you're going to grow. You're going to grow in your Christian life and then that will enlarge Paul. You say how? According to our rule abundantly. Look at verse 10 I mean verse 16. You say how will you know that enlarge Paul? What is Paul's main goal in his whole life? Look at verse 16. To preach the gospel in the regions beyond you and to not boast in another man's line of things made ready to our hand. He's saying as you get stronger as you receive this message properly you don't compare you quit doing this on this foolish comparing he's like you'll get strong you're going to preach the gospel he's like more people end up getting saved. He's like that helps us because us is this whole idea of growing the kingdom of God. That's the goal. And he's saying look if you receive these things properly he's saying he's saying basically when your faith is increased you know he's talking about James chapter 2. He's talking about moving that needle from James chapter 2 the spectrum is dead faith and perfect faith. It's not talking about losing your faith completely it's just talking about a spectrum that you shouldn't be on the dead faith spectrum side of things meaning you just have very little works with your faith. He's like as you get more works and start doing the things that we're telling you to do your faith will get more and more and more perfect. Are we ever going to have perfect faith? Never. But we need to move towards that perfect faith end of the spectrum by what? By getting our works right. By getting what we're doing correct. And our lives and guess what? Who will benefit from that? Everyone. Because Paul's like we write letters because we can't be there. We can't be everywhere at once so we need more people to go places. And do what? Spread the kingdom of God. Preach the gospel. Paul is teaching them how to succeed here and how ultimately look this is what you need to understand. He's teaching us how to succeed. And here's what you really need to understand. For you to succeed in the Christian life means the gospel succeeds and means other people succeed. That's how important this is. I hate to break it to you but it's not all about you. I mean really when you come down to it Christian life is really nothing about you. It's about you getting things right so you can stay in it even though it may not be pleasant all the time. It may not be perfect all the time. You may not even feel the joy that you're supposed to feel all the time. But you need to stay in it otherwise. I mean quite frankly people are going to go to hell if you don't. So that's what Paul is trying to patch here. He's trying to patch this wound that is going to cost these people their Christian lives. Not their salvation but their value, their profit to other people. James chapter 2 again. Just like if you just slide towards this dead faith your whole life it's like it's just you're going to be of no profit. So if you graph them they go together right? They're exclusive together. Right? They as your faith goes to the perfect side of the spectrum your profit to other people will increase. And that is what Paul is trying to do here. And guess what here's another thing. Just on a personal level comparing, comparing yourself against other people and not the rule it will discourage you. I mean it will discourage you. I mean because I hate to tell you but I'm learning this as as church goes on and I get more and more experience as a pastor. There's always going to be someone ahead of you and behind you. That's just life. I don't care where you're at in your life. There's always going to be someone ahead of you. You don't focus on them though. You focus on the rule. A church, a church will be filled with people that are at different stages of growth. Always. It's always going to be that way. It will never, that will never change. And look as I you know it's about proper application of the rule though. Because many people look and this is this is irony. This is irony right here. It's not hard to understand but it's ironic because many people that boast about many people that may tend to think that they're a more mature Christian in their own mind. They boast about their Bible knowledge. They boast about how much they know. They just apply none of it. Those are the people that are in danger in their Christian life. The person that comes in and really doesn't have any Bible knowledge and just like I just don't know all this stuff. I feel like I'm you know I feel like you know I don't know the whole Bible and I don't know what nobody knows the whole Bible. We're going to be learning the Bible until we die. All of us. But no matter what stage you're at it's not important the stage you're at. It's the important of the state of mind that you're in. You're not just comparing yourselves against people that are above you, exalting yourself about people that are below you. You think you have all this Bible knowledge. You know what that means? It means everybody in your own mind is below you. And that is the pride that's going to destroy your Christian life. That's what Paul is really pointing out here. I mean it's the boasting that led, it's the pride that led to the boasting that destroyed their Christian lives in this church. I mean it's the humble though it's the humble. It's the humble that says I am nothing. I am nobody. I have a long way to go and just learns as much as they possibly can. It just keeps applying the rule, applying the rule, applying the rule. You say well how do I compete with this attitude out there? Here's how you compete with it. In Luke chapter 14 Jesus said take the lower seats. Turn to first Peter chapter five. Ask yourself this. Look at one of the greatest men in the Bible, Daniel. How in the world Daniel took credit for nothing? Daniel did some of the greatest works that are recorded in the Bible. He interpreted these great dreams for these great kings. I mean Daniel and he took credit for none of it. You say how in the world did he rise to second in power basically running two empires? Twice. I mean look that's a trend. We should try to follow that. All right. So how did he do it? Was he just constantly boasting and bragging about himself? Was he doing the things that the world is teaching us that we were supposed to do today? No he gave all credit to God. No matter what as soon as Nebuchadnezzar is like, oh you're the greatest. This is unbelievable. That's you know he interpreted these dreams and these great prophecies. These prophecies that we look at today he's like, no it was God. Right away. He didn't miss a beat. You look at every single time that Daniel was praised and the next verse is like this is because I serve the one true God. He's just saying it's all God. So how in the world do we expect to get ahead? Well first of all you know you shouldn't want to be ahead of everything in your life first of all. That's the first thing. But here's all you have to worry about. Look at first Peter chapter five. Look at verse number six. The Bible says here's the answer for you. Okay? Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. So you know what that means? He's like, hey you just don't worry about it. You just take Luke chapter 14 advice from Jesus wherever you go, wherever you sit, whatever meeting you're in, you just sit in the lowest chair, shut your mouth unless somebody asks you to speak or whatever, unless you have something valuable to say, don't ever exalt yourself. Humble yourself. You say, but how can I humble myself in front of these people? You don't have to humble yourself in front of those people. You humble yourself in front of God. Because God's always there with you. You serve anywhere you go like you're serving the Lord Jesus Christ. And you humble yourself before Jesus Christ. So you're the most humble person in the room. And guess what? God will exalt you in due time meaning it might not be right away. It may not be at all on this earth. This is why you're not going to see, you know, talk about this more tonight. You're not going to see a lot of Christians in like the super powerful positions. Because they're the ones that it matters how you get there. So our paths to those positions, number one, we don't have the desire for those positions. Number two, our paths are limited. Where all these other paths that these people have can use Absalom's methods, use all these manipulation tactics, can use all this boasting and comparing themselves. Because quite frankly you have a lot of leaders out there that just hear people saying how great they are and they just believe them. I mean it works. I mean that's why the job sites are all saying go do this and because it works in the world. But for you it won't work anyway. Because God will make sure that that is never rewarded for you in this Christian life. All you have to do is just keep yourself as humble as possible in whatever position you're in. Look especially leadership positions. Look if I would compare myself against some of the pastors that I'm friends with it would be really depressing. Because look I mean I'm in a pretty great group of men that have done some really great things and are doing some really great things. And look those are all things to strive for but I'm just focused on the rule. I'm just going to focus on the rule. I'm going to focus on you know we're going to be comparing ourselves. I could do that to myself without anyone boasting. You can literally put yourself in that box. By just comparing yourself constantly to other people. No you compare yourself to the Bible is what you should do. All right. Look the person that can maintain this humility because look as you grow this danger is always with you. As you grow as you get better maybe people give you you know more things to do maybe you're being more effective this is what's going to happen to you. You're going to become more effective and more effective and more effective in your Christian life and this danger you could you could argue this danger gets greater. The more effective you become in this Christian life number one because Satan's going to be after you even more. And number two just because you're going to see the prophet and that should give you joy in the Lord though. It should not you got to always check your pride with these things because you're going to see results here. You go out soul winning you're going to see results. You got soul winning preaching the gospel you're going to get people saved because there's still people out there even in America today that want to hear the gospel. You're going to see results and you know if you attach those to yourself that humility can go away and this danger can really become real in your life. But the person that can maintain this humility the person that can do what Paul is saying here they will succeed in this Christian life. And God look God will exalt you. I mean that's I mean you look at 1st Peter chapter five verse number six that's that's one of those statements that's that's a promise. Boom. It's like I'll exalt you in due time when what time what time God whenever when when he decides. You know so it's really a matter of faith. Right. If you feel like you sit for the Christian to go and start doing what these people were doing it's really a lack of faith. It's really a lack of faith that God can exalt me. Man can I really you know get better and succeed in this in this the world that we're in out here. You know by just being humble and just not bragging like everybody else is doing. Can I really do it? Yes. You can. And God promises that when he decides to exalt you he will do so. Just keep focused on the rule and ultimately it's all about keeping you in the Christian life. So if your pastor gets up it screams in your face says something that hurts your feelings or whatever what he's trying to do even though maybe you didn't like the way he said it he's trying to keep you in the Christian life. That's what Paul's trying to do. He's trying to keep these people in the Christian life so they can what? For all the other people that aren't in the Christian life yet. That is the ultimate goal of everything Paul said. Keep these people right get them right so they can get forward get strong and get people saved. That's the whole idea. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.