 Today, we're in chapter four. Let's begin reading, and I'll only read verse six. We'll start at verse six, I'll read verse six, and we'll get into our study. And I chose to entitle this particular installment of our series through First Corinthians on display. And you'll see that, the reason for that in just a moment. Beginning at verse six and reading all the way to verse six. Now, these things, brethren, I have figuratively transferred to myself and apostles for your sakes. That you may learn in us, not to think beyond what is written. That none of you may be puffed up on behalf of one against the other. Interesting way to begin this, and what we need to do is we need to remember that the apostle Paul has been writing here in First Corinthians concerning ministry. And as we've been looking at this passage, especially in chapter four, he had been speaking concerning how to view a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And as he was doing so, he laid a foundation for them. He said, I want you to think of us in this way. Remember verse one, let a man so consider us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. So he described himself as a minister in two basic ways. He referred to himself as a servant of Christ. And so he's saying, listen, if you want to have a way, a biblical way to see us or to view those who are serving, he said, the first thing I want you to do is I want you to see me as an under-rower, basically. I want you to know that I have taken the lowest seat of the low. What I am, he's saying, is I am a galley slave. And secondly, he says, I want you to see us as a steward. A steward was somebody who had a responsibility over the affairs of somebody else. And so a steward didn't own the things that he used, he simply was left in charge of those things. And so he says, if you want to have a biblical view of those who are serving in ministry, look at us as slaves and look at us as individuals who are responsible for somebody else's things. Now, it's of utmost importance, and he said that in verse two, it's of utmost important for that servant and that steward to be found faithful. To be faithful in this context, the word faithful can speak of having faith, but it also can speak of being trustworthy. So in this particular context, that word is speaking of being trustworthy. What he's saying is God has entrusted me with the message. And the message that he's entrusted me with is the most important message that mankind has ever been given. And that is something, I don't want this to pass over your head. This is something that a lot of believers don't understand today, the power of the gospel. It is really an important thing that I'm about to try to say, and I hope it makes some sense to you. There are so many books that are being written right now. So many seminars that I'm invited to, that all pastors really are, it's not like they're looking up and get David over here, it doesn't matter, just if he has some money, we'll invite him. But there are so many seminars that pastors are invited to today. I get invited to seminars often, no less than once a month. I'll have invitations to go, not just to one seminar, but sometimes there's two or there are three. Very often the seminars in that month, in various places here in the United States, are seminars that are intended to encourage pastors to find the latest way to reach people. And so what you end up with in overwhelmingly almost every one of these seminars is a methodology of filling the pews, a way to get people to show up, messages to give. Do you know, and I would assume that all of us who have computers would know this, if you're interested, you can discover this, that you can go on a computer, you can Google up sermons, and you can find some of the sermons of some of the best known pastors that are, their notes are there for you. You can just go to their webpage, you can download their notes, and you can give their messages. You don't even have to have anything interrupt your golf game that week. All you need to do is just download their notes. I have been places where the pastor has said to us, if you want this message, it's gonna be on my page, all you need to do is download it. As a matter of fact, I can give you a series, all you need to do is open up my page. This is my web, you know, this is my address, and then you see these guys writing furiously so that they can get these guys notes. Why, because this is a successful pastor who's gonna teach you how to be successful in ministry. Ministry, it seems so very often, really is not necessarily seeing lives transformed a little bit at a time, which is what real ministry is, but ministry very often is regarded as being having a lot of people show up, having large budgets that produce large amounts of building and getting your name out in front of the public. And I hear this quite often. There are organizations that have contacted us and have asked information concerning our ministry. They like me to send them, they want me to send them the size of our sanctuary, the size of our grounds, how many staff members we have, things of that nature. Then they put those in magazines and they send that information out to other pastors. On my page, on my Facebook page, on the sidebar there, very often it'll say, sermons for pastors, click here. And anybody who spends any time in ministry knows that there are 101 different ways for you to discover how you can fill those pews, get the latest music, get the latest speaker, speak on the latest theme. The problem is, is Jesus is hidden behind all of that and very often you can't even find him at all. And what the real thing is for those kinds of gimmicks is to just build up the numbers of people who show up. And there are a lot of people who think that because they're going into church, they are being taught God's word. When in reality, there are quite a number of well-known places where you don't get a real Bible study at all. All you need to do, and I don't encourage you to do this, I do this on occasion, is watch some of these programs that are on television. And the buildings are filled with people. But if you listen with discernment, there's no substance. Because people prefer entertainment over substance and they most certainly want to laugh more than experience conviction. That's just the way it is. And when you have a message that actually brings conviction, there are quite a number of people who have a real problem with that, because they cannot differentiate between conviction and condemnation. And so they believe that if they feel uncomfortable, they're being condemned. But in reality, it's God speaking to their heart, bringing a word of conviction, saying to them, there's more to being a Christian than what you're experiencing. Yield yourself deeper to me and watch what I'll do in your life. But because we want to be amused rather than edified, we will go from place to place until we find the person who says what my itching ear desires to hear. And I will heap unto myself teachers, because I do have an itching ear and they will turn me aside. But I will be voluntarily turned aside from the truth and I will begin to embrace fables. So Paul is dealing with that mentality all the way back 2,000 years ago in the early history of the church. There are already fan clubs that were established. We are followers of Apollo's. We are followers of Paul. We are followers of Cephas. We don't even need any club. We just follow Jesus. And so Paul is dealing with that. So he's saying, OK, how are you to consider us? Well, I want you to consider us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. I want you to know that what we are is the lowest of the low. So before you begin to pick us up and look at us as being some outstanding man, what you need to realize that in the kingdom of God, it is an upside down pyramid. In the world, you have the pyramid. And at the very top, you have their CEO. And at the very bottom, you have the lowest rung. In the kingdom of God, it's reversed. And so the servant, the steward, is the individual who gets out of the way so that people might see the one who's the most important. And that's, of course, Jesus Christ. And if we understand that, if we actually build our lives on Jesus Christ, then when our superstar turns out to have clay feet, we aren't going to be stumbled because we weren't worshiping that man. We've always worshiped the one that he represents. Every man or woman who ever takes the gospel in their mouth and proclaims it to somebody else, if they're saying it properly, we'll preach a message that is beyond their lifestyle. Not that they are willingly remaining in sin. Not that they're as bad as they used to be, but simply because the message is greater than the messenger. It always will be. When Isaiah has this moment with God where he sees the Lord and God is high and lifted up, and the train of his robe fills the temple, and he begins to hear those winged creatures, the seraphim, as they're crying out, holy, holy, holy. He sees the smoke, and he hears all the roar, and the sound, and all the unbelievable majesty. And the first thing he does is he realizes, and he says it. He says, I am an unclean man. My lips are unclean. And God takes a coal from the altar, and it's placed on his mouth and purifies him. But what are you saying? I'm an unclean. My speech is unclean. Isaiah, were you the cussing prophet? I mean, did you like to go out and use dirty words? There are people today, by the way, some of you may know this, others don't. There are some pastors who use profanity in the pulpit because they want to be real and authentic, you know? So they use cuss words. And the people say, yeah, this is real. Well, the problem is it is real. It's real carnal because what you're trying to do, what you're doing there is identifying with sin and not grace. And so what happens is you're lowering the gospel. Now, was Isaiah saying I'm a man of unclean lips? I'm just a cussing prophet? No, the chapter before he had been saying, woe unto you, woe unto you, woe unto you. And then he realized that those woes that he was given to others first began with him. And that's why in chapter six of Isaiah, he says, woe unto me. Because I've been given a message of woe to the nation. But in reality, as I see the one who was high and lifted up, I realized that I really ought to be pointing my own finger at my own self because I don't have the capacity to speak in the name of God in such a way that God is clearly identified by my speech. God is beyond what I can say. He is greater than any words that I might be able to form. And so that mentality is always, I am lower than the message. I do not live up to the holiness of God and the standards of God. So thank God for his grace, but that doesn't give to me opportunity to sin so that grace may abound. What that gives me is a sense of humility as I present the word. And so that's what Paul is speaking about, guys. That's what we've been looking at. We are servants and we're stewards. And it's required verse two again in stewards that one be found faithful, that one be trustworthy. People were evaluating his ministry. And as they were evaluating his ministry, it just really left something to be desired. That's why he said in verse three with me, it's a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by human court. In fact, I don't even judge myself for I know nothing against myself yet I am not justified by this. I have a clean conscience in other words, but I'm not justified by my clean conscience because I might be, there might be some sin in my life that I'm just not aware of at the moment. So ultimately I need to entrust myself to the one who judges me. And that one is the Lord. So even though you may not like what I'm saying, Paul says, or the way that I say it, to me it isn't of any great consequence to be judged by you. The one who judges me ultimately is God and God is the one who has all the information and thus he's the one who judges correctly. Now, Paul was not oversensitive. Paul didn't take things personally. When I do pastors classes, I call them wannabe classes. When my men who wanna be pastors come on the Monday nights that I have pretty much yearly, one of the things I'll tell the fellas is this and it's true. If you're thin-skinned, don't go in the ministry. Don't go in the ministry. Sheep may not be dangerous, but they do have teeth. And so don't be, don't go in the ministry if you can't take somebody walking up to you saying, I don't believe that or how could you say that? Don't be the kind of person who can't take correction because if they walk up to you, some sheep, man, they mean man, they're the meanest sheep on the block. Some sheep can be mean and they say some things that are just amazing. I've had sheep, I remember one in particular who walked up and said to me, when are you gonna leave again? You always have great speakers when you're gone. I mean, they say some real nice things, you know? And I told Marie, I said, honey, come on baby, you know? That is just a mean thing to say. How dare you say that about me? But the bottom line is we need to be aware of the fact that you can't be oversensitive and you can't take things personally. And he's not, he's not taking it personally. He's listening to what's being said and he's simply saying, listen, you can't weigh intense or desires. You don't know the motives of another person's heart. There's only one who does and that's God. In Romans 14, 11, and 12, it says, it is written as I live, sayeth the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, every tongue shall confess to God, so then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. The Corinthians on the other hand are carnal. And what they've done is they've begun making comparisons. In their mind, Paul's ministry is an equal to other ministries. So he reminds them, God is the final judge of ministries. There are men that are unknown by name with congregations that are numerically very small. The average church in the United States numbers less than 65 people. I don't know if you know that. On any Sunday morning, the average church in the United States has less than 65 people in attendance. There are between five and 600,000 Protestant churches in the United States. And the overwhelming majority has less than a hundred. A large church by any standard is 500. It's rather unusual that there are so many large churches here in Southern California. Because once you get into Northern California and go across the States, you'll discover that it's really an unusual thing to discover a mega church. You just don't find churches of two, three, four, 5,000, you just don't. The average church is a lot smaller. And so people can have a tendency, especially those who are in larger ministries, to even be more finicky and critical than others. And there are pastors in small fellowships, comparatively small, no church is small in the sight of God. But numerically, there are pastors who are a pastor in a small group of people who when they go before the Lord are gonna receive tremendous acclamation from God and tremendous reward because of their faithfulness, because of their love for those sheep, because they faithfully divided the word of God, because they were there in every way that they could be and God sees the faithfulness of their service. And there are others with huge ministries that man has said, oh, I'd love to have a church like that and this and that who may not have the same reward because they didn't have the same heart. And so it's just unfair for somebody to make judgments on other people's ministries. And that's what Paul is saying. It's a small thing that I should be judged by you. I don't even judge myself. There's only one who really judges, that's God. He sees my heart and though you look at the outer appearance and you make your judgment based on that, I entrust myself to God. So if you wanna make a judgment on me, that's between you and the Lord. But if you wanna make a judgment, judge me as a servant and judge me as a steward. Now, as he's speaking concerning this, because they're making comparisons in verse six, he continues by saying, these things, brethren, I have figuratively transferred to myself. These things relating being a servant, these things relating to making judgment. He says, I basically take this upon myself. Apollos and I are only servants. So what I would encourage you to is to follow our example and become a servant also. Use us as examples. If you wanna use us as an example, use us as an example of a true servant because a true servant will have a true ministry. And if you want to have a true ministry, you need to become a true servant of God. So he says that you may learn in us not to think beyond what is written. Use scripture to make your judgment. Use your Bibles to make judgments on whether or not a leader is leading in a biblical way. Use scripture to teach you how to view leaders because that'll keep you from arguing amongst yourselves. It is really a sad state of affairs in the church when you have members of the body of Christ arguing with one another about how great their church is and how great their pastor is. Every pastor wants to be loved by the sheep. Every pastor does. But every pastor ought to be ministering not to be loved by the sheep but because they love Jesus Christ. That's the real key. Many years ago, and I'll just change the illustration and make it a different kind of one, but the application is the same. Many years ago, I was teaching here in this church it's been about 20 plus years ago. I still remember making the statement because of the response that it received. I said, my job is not to teach my children to love me. My job is to teach my children to love their children. Does that make sense to you? Did anybody here understand that? Hope y'all did. My job is not to make my children love me. My job as a parent is to teach my children how to love their children. That's what my job is. Well, I had one of the fathers in the church walk up and man who was old enough to be my dad. Pastor, I disagree with you. So I kicked him out. No, he's a pastor. I disagree with you. I believe it's my job to teach my children to love me. And I said, that's where you're wrong. Your children already do. Within them, God has placed this love for daddy. All of you know that. Even if you had a dad who wasn't there, there's still something in your heart that wishes he was. There's still this thing inside of you, even if he was mean and cruel. There's still something inside of you that loves him no matter what. That's just the truth. There may be pain. There may be memories that are hurtful, but there's always been this inside. Very few people, I don't know that I've ever really met one sincerely who just hates just to hate their father. There was still this argument within their hearts about what he was and what he's done, and I wish it was still there because that is there. See, so I don't have to teach my children to love me because they do. What I wanted to do was be an example so that they would take the love that a father has and give it to somebody else. See, in ministry, a pastor does not minister. I can, I'll personalize it. I do not pastor this church to be loved by the church. I don't do that. What I ask God for is love for the church, that I might love the church. If the church, members of this body, love their pastor, that's great. If they don't, that's their choice. It's up to them. If there's something about me that they love, I appreciate that. If they don't, that's between them and the Lord. That's a decision they make, and love takes time to develop. I've told pastors, again, in the class, it'll take you at least five years to develop a relationship with the sheep so that they know you're not going anywhere. It takes at least five years for them to begin to call you pastor and really mean it. I've had, I have people who've come to this church from the beginning, they'll walk up and they'll say to me, what do you want me to call you? They'll actually say that, what do you want me to call you? And I'll smile at them and I say, my name is David. You want me to call you pastor? And my response has always been the same. If I am, yes, if I'm not, my name is David. I don't have a problem with that. Because the day comes when you think I'm your pastor, you'll call me pastor. If you don't see me as pastor ever, my name's still the same, it's David. And so I don't force that on people. I don't walk around saying call me reverend or the very holy right reverend or the excellent reverend, the most reverend you've ever met, reverend. I don't play that, you know? What I am is who I am, like Popeye said, I am what I am and that's all that I am. And so from that perspective, you minister because you love. Pastors do that, Christians do that. That's just general. What is the mark of a Christian guy's love? What did Jesus said set you apart from the world, loving one another? That's what he said. By this shall all men know you are my disciples. If you are committed enough to go to a Sunday night, no. If you tithe, no. If you serve in the children's ministry, also called purgatory, no. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love. That's the mark, love one for another. That is the mark, loving each other. And love develops over time and it is activated by the will. It's not an emotional love at all. It's a mentality of commitment to one another that endures over time. And so Paul was simply saying I am a servant and I am a steward. Your judgment that you've made upon me ultimately doesn't matter because my judge is God. But you need to know what scripture says concerning how you should look at those in authority over you. And then you need to understand in that way how you can treat me. When you understand those things, it keeps you from arguing amongst yourselves. Then he asked this question, verse seven, who makes you differ from another? What do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you glory as if you had not received it? What a great question, huh? Who makes you to differ from another and what do you have that you haven't received? Now if you received it, why do you glory as if you hadn't? Who here has everything, your self-made person? Well obviously all of us, well there are some who would think, well I'm pretty much self-made, nobody's ever supported me. No, there was a man and a woman who created you. That's how you got here. And so from that point, from conception to where you are right now, not a single one of us can ever say we did this ourselves. Your eye color, where'd you get that from? The color of your hair, where'd you get that from? You know, your body build, your ethnicity, where'd you get that from? Everything you have, you received. Every single thing that makes you who you are, you received. And so that's how it works. Who makes you to differ from another? What do you have that you haven't received? Those are good questions. And so the point is that you don't have anything of your own but God has been good to you and given you all of these things. Now when he says who makes you differ, in other words it's not just the individual but who makes you differ as a group? What makes your group superior? He also asked the question, what do you have that you didn't receive which would include by application even your teachers? And third, he said, why are you boasting? Because he's ultimately saying that if you have, you have nothing that makes you different and you've received everything, then you have no basis of boasting. You see that's really a warning against pride in ministry. When he says, you're claiming that you belong to a group of superior Christians, that still happens to this day. Well I could go into this for a long time, I won't. It happens to this day. One example, I mean there's so many you can give on this, superior groups. Sometimes some of the groups and part of the reason by the way I'm teaching First Corinthians is we're gonna go into chapter 12 eventually, one of these days, and we're gonna start in chapter 12, look at chapter 13, move into chapter 14, and take a look at spiritual gifts. And to me that's a very, very, very important subject, spiritual gifts, and I look forward to arriving there in 2015, we will get there. But many years ago, many years ago, when we rented Ontario High School, it was a Sunday night, and we had worship, we had the word, I gave an invitation, people came forward, it was just a great night of ministry. And I was walking up the aisle to the back of the church when a lady stopped me. She said, Pastor, I'm a first time visitor and I wanna ask you a question. I said yes, and she said, when does the Holy Spirit move here? And I smiled at her, and I said, say again? She goes, when does the Holy Spirit move here? I said, when does the, and I repeat. See, I have a tendency of repeating so that I'm sure I'm hearing what you say, so I'll repeat what you said. It's not because I'm senile, it's because, okay, I'm gonna give you a chance. I'm gonna repeat what you're saying. When does the Holy Spirit move here? Yes, Pastor, when does it move here? This is my first time that I've been here, and I just wanna know when the Holy Spirit moves here. I said, were you here the whole service? She said, yes, I was. I said, did you participate in the worship? She said, yes, I did. I said, the Holy Spirit was moving. Did you stay for the Bible study? She said, yes, I did. I said, then the word of God was taught properly? Yes, the Holy Spirit was moving. I said, did you see the invitation? Yes, I did. Did people come forward today? Yes, they did. The Holy Spirit was moving. I said, I want you to look into the front of the church because we're in the back of the church, the building. I said, I want you to look around. There were groups of people all through the area holding hands and praying. And I said, those people are ministering right now. The Holy Spirit is moving. So your question really is this, when do we speak in tongues? She goes, yeah, that's when the Holy Spirit moves. And see a lot of people have taken God and put him into a box. And they think that if he does certain things, then he's moving. When in reality, God is moving. But sometimes we simply don't see him because we're looking for something else. And when we're looking for something else, then we miss it. Now, if we use certain things as a badge, that makes us different and superior, that's what's happening in Corinth. That's why Paul is asking that question, who makes you to be different from another? What makes you different? What makes you, he's saying, think that you're part of a superior group of people? You see, in church life, it is possible to believe that you belong to a group of super spiritual believers. You can believe that the group you belong to is spiritually superior to other groups. Jesus had to deal with that in his ministry, Luke chapter nine, verses 49 and 50. Master said, John, we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him because he's not one of us. Jesus said, oh, shut up. Why do you do this? No, he said, that's why I'm not Jesus, I promise you. He said, do not stop him for whoever is not against you is for you. Don't stop him, he's not part of your group. So if he's not part of your group, he's really not the real thing, right? This mentality even occurred before the church itself was birthed on Pentecost. There were already people who were pushing people away and that was the apostles, the A team, pushing people away. It started with the apostles. The body of Christ is not a carnal business organization. The body of Christ is just that, God's body. Now, a second thing, what do you have that you did not receive? In other words, any gifts or offices that you hold have been given to you by God. It's the Lord who puts you in positions of ministry and it's the Lord who can lead you out of positions of ministry. Sometimes as a pastor, I have approached somebody or I've seen somebody or been approached by them and they have said, I'd like to do this ministry and I'll think about it, pray about it and I'll think, well, perhaps the Lord is in that ministry and then it's happened in the past where I'll say, you know, I'd like to see you, let's give this a try. Let's see what the Lord wants to do. And they get real excited. Oh, hallelujah, praise God, you know, this man hears from God. He's a man who hears the voice of God, you know, and then it doesn't fly and I approach him and say, you know, we're gonna have to remove him. This guy's a devil. This guy doesn't hear from God at all, you know. See, it's easier to put somebody into ministry than it is to take him out. They're always more ready to go in than they are to come out. And so if there's no fruit there, it's not happening. They don't want other people to say that because they take it so personally. So the real question is what do you have that you didn't receive? If you have gifts and you have offices, those are from the Lord. The Lord gives and the Lord can take away. Some maturity is revealed by both how you act when you're put in a position and how you react when you're removed. And then third, the question, why do you glory as if you had not received it? In other words, why do you act as if you deserved your position? The arrogance that position brings up of people sometimes can be sadly revealing. There are some that I've encountered over the years who had this humble attitude until they were placed into ministry. And once they were given authority, they began to lord it over other people. You need to understand that it's not proper to be that way at all. You don't act as if there's something intrinsic about you that makes you better than the average person. Therefore, that's why you have this position. God has a tendency of putting the lowly into places, simply so that he gets all the glory. Never forget that. Never forget that. Because that's how it works in the kingdom of God. He goes on in verse eight. You are already full. You're already rich. You've reigned as kings without us. And indeed, I could wish you did reign that we also might reign with you because of your arrogant boasting in your teachers, you've taken the wrong turn. You consider yourselves beyond other Christians, which is the fruit of trusting in men. So you are already full. In other words, you are super Christians. You have totally arrived. You consider yourselves to be superior. You think of yourself as extremely mature in the Lord. And this attitude actually reveals spiritual maturity and spiritual poverty. We have had experiences in this fellowship where people have entered the campus and have tried to convert members of our congregation. And they've been successful. We found out only after the fact, to come to their church because they would come and nitpick the things of our ministry. You know, from the fact that I don't wear a suit when I teach and everybody knows that when Jesus was walking the shore of Galilee, he wore a suit and penny loafers. Everybody knows that. You know, from silly things like that to other things. And one of the things that they were really pushing and we had to deal with it, we had to deal with it. This was a few years ago now, was that I was a bad teacher, an improper teacher, a false teacher because I was not teaching this church that you can be sinlessly perfect. They believed in perfectionism, sinless perfectionism is the doctrine. And they believe that here on the face of the earth, you can become sinlessly perfect. And because I was not teaching that doctrine because it's error, I was not teaching that doctrine, they began to proselytize. And they spoke, as a matter of fact, I used to have a young man who worked on the grounds. We discovered this after the fact who had these people who were talking to him to the point that he eventually quit his position here, went to their church and began to blog about how bad this church is because we don't teach the truth of how he really is a perfect human being, you know. And we discovered that. And so what we had to end up doing is basically welcoming these people not to come, not to be on the campus. Because it was a time when they would come in and buy Bibles because the Bibles you buy in our bookstore are the best priced Bibles you'll find anywhere. And they were coming here and they were buying their Bibles, distributing it to people and using the Bibles there kind of like we were their Bible warehouse. And we began to realize that they were twisting scripture. And in a way we were funding there, we were actually helping their ministry and several other things that were involved in that. To the point where I said, you know, when you see these guys walk on campus, walk them off. Because there's this mentality of the superiority that they had and they thought they were super Christians. Paul would differ with that. Scripture obviously differs with that but Paul would have said, I haven't arrived. As a matter of fact, he did say that. Philippians chapter three verses 13 through 15. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. One thing I do, forgetting what is behind, straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. I do not consider myself to have arrived. Paul made that very clear. Now as he's going through this with them, he says in verse nine, I think that God has displayed us. The apostles last as men condemned to death for we have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake but you are wise in Christ. We are weak but you are strong. You are distinguished but we are dishonored. Even to the present hour we both hunger and thirst. We are poorly clothed, beaten and homeless. We labor working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless. Being persecuted, we endure it. Being defamed, we entreat. We've been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things until now. God has displayed us the apostles last. Notice this as men condemned to death. Qualifications of a true minister. He outlines what really takes place in the lives of Christian ministers of the gospel. It's interesting in verse nine that he uses terms that describe criminals or even gladiators that died in the arena. He uses the word displayed there. When he uses the word displayed, I think that God has displayed us. The word display simply means he has exhibited us. He has exhibited us the apostles last. That is the finale. We are being displayed exhibited last. We are the final battle in the arena. And he speaks of the spectacle. We've been made a spectacle. That word spectacle speaks of the ones fighting wild beasts to the death. What he's speaking about is God has put us in the place of having an open humiliation, one that is seen by all. Christian leaders are targets of public humiliation, entertainment and scorn. One of the things, and I can say this with deep certainty that has occurred even in the minds of Christians that has come through the failure of certain well-known individuals is that pastors like me and others like me who have served faithfully for many years are looked at and disrespected by even members of the church who are expecting me to fall at any given moment and anticipate that. I will never forget when somebody approached me a few years ago and said that somebody had said to them this. They said, pastor David claims to love his wife Marie, we're just waiting to see him fall because we know he doesn't. There are things that people say that you would never believe. We had a mail carrier who used to drop the mail off at our house and there was somebody who was wanting to destroy me and what he did is he found out where I lived and when he found out where I lived, he mailed a postcard to my house and it was a postcard, it wasn't sealed in any sort. So all you need to do is when you're looking at the address and all to put it in, you can see the words in the top of it. It said, Marie, we're sorry to tell you David is committing adultery with one of his secretaries. It was a flat out lie of course but it was there in the mail. So the mail carrier who went to our church had the opportunity to read this. We have, I could go on, I could tell you story after story after story of things that we have seen over the years that attacks have come in such a way as to try and bring discredit to our ministry in ways that were so absurd and yet the funny thing is, is so many believed them. And one portion in the history of this church many years ago now over the course of one summer because of one person who was lying about me, we saw, I believe it was between three to 500 people leave the church and they did that because they believed the lie. The things that were being said were never true and yet people have a tendency of believing a lie before they believe the truth and the funny thing is out of all the hundreds of people who left, only one person ever spoke to me and the one person who spoke to me just happened upon me, I was doing time, I was in purgatory, I was at the mall and Marie and I were walking together and a lady approached me and she said, I wanna apologize to you. And I said, for what? She said because I left the church and believed a lie about you and I remember saying and the lie and she shared with me what I already knew and I said to her, would you do me a favor and she said yes. I said, would you answer one question and she said yes, I said why did you believe it? Do you honest to goodness believe that I can stand up there every Sunday, every Wednesday and speak the way that I do and I'll along be lying to you. Do you really believe that? She said, well I didn't know you and the one who told me is somebody that I spent a lot of time with. That's how it usually works, isn't it? They get to know somebody else who claims to know you and then that person says things about you that is unverified and the individual receiving it never even comes to you and says I just have to ask you, do you do this or have you done this? There was a rumor going about 16 years ago that I had a three-story mansion that I lived in. I mean, I wouldn't mind that but I don't, you know. And they actually contacted a private investigator to check on my address to see whether those things are true. I can tell you story after story of the absurdity of how people can actually be, you know. And it only takes normally a few people to drive a pastor from one church because they get tired of hearing the nonsense. Apostle Paul is being called into question. He's, you guys are superior. You are the super ones, aren't you? The spiritual ones, aren't you? He says it's an amazing thing to me because you guys are acting as if you're already full and already raining but me he says I have to let you know. I haven't arrived. Christian leaders can be targets of believers and they can also be targets especially of the unbelievers. Notice how he says, and I'll wrap this up by just touching on a few things. In verse 10, we are fools for Christ's sake. You are wise. We are weak but you are strong. What that is is a rebuke to their pride. You want the world's respect? Bottom line is you need to grasp the basics of true Christianity. You don't understand the cost of discipleship. You see to the world we are fools, we are weak and we are dishonored because the simple truth is it costs to follow Jesus Christ. That's what Jesus said in Luke 9.23, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me. So Paul knew through years of personal experience what that means. This was a man who had suffered in the name of Jesus Christ. The suffering that he had done, the things he had gone through should have caused those Corinthians to love him but they didn't. You see the Corinthians, he said, are living like kings but we apostles, we live like slaves. Jesus and Matthew 8.20 said it like this, foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests. Son of man has nowhere to lay his head. In verse 13 he says we are off scouring. That's an interesting term. We are the off scouring. What is the off scouring? Well everybody here who cooks knows exactly what he's talking about. You've cooked something in a pan and you walked away for a while, you came back and uh oh, it's the side of the pan has gotten all this residue on it that's now baked onto it. That's off scouring. So what do you do? You scour it. You have to put it into the water, you soak it for a while, you put some scouring powder on it, you get that heavy whatever that thing is called. I've watched Marie do this many times. And you clean it off. And the stuff that comes off the pan is off scouring. That's what he's saying we are. We are off scouring. We are that which has been baked onto a pan that has been cleaned off. That's what we are. And we are the lowest of the low. That's how the world looks at us. And here's the sad thing. You're taking that kind of view of us too. You don't see us of having any value at all. How did he survive? Notice that we're defamed. We're like the filth of the world. We're the off scouring. How do you survive? How do you, how do you survive? The average pastor spends an average of five years per church. I've told you this. Five years. They spend five years in the church. They look for another opportunity. Then they move to a new church. They are always looking for a bigger church in a better neighborhood. So they may start in one area. They put their time in, but they're looking in the horizon for some better opportunity. The average is five years. After they spent five years in the church, they move to another. Within five years, you've developed a relationship with some of the saints. And others are gonna be happy when you leave. That's kinda how it works. They even expect you to be gone within a few years. Then they'll bring somebody else in because that's the rotation. So you're never really a pastor so much as a hard hand. You're never really the shepherd of the sheep so much as somebody who basically just does their time as you're looking for greater opportunity. That's how it usually works. Now, within the confines of those few years, you can begin to receive so many wounds from people that you begin looking for the opportunity to get out. And so you get out and you start it over again someplace else until the day finally comes when you reach a certain age, perhaps 65, and you've built up a little bit of a retirement. If you're part of a denomination, you've been putting some money away. You have retirement and you move on and you do whatever it is that you wanna do from there. Maybe teach in a seminary, maybe go on the road and take your message to some churches that you used to pastor. That's what happens. What keeps you faithful for six years, for 10 years, for 15, 20, 30 years? What keeps you faithful? You look past. You always look past the pressures of the moment to the joys of the future. You look past the things that are going on because over time you come to realize that those who remain and are faithful, they will continue to be support and grow. Sometimes people stay for only a short time. They have to leave for a variety of reasons. But the bottom line is, is you need to know what you're supposed to do, and that's how it worked with Paul. He knew what he was supposed to do, and that's how it works with pastors who remain. You have to remember one thing, and Paul has this, that he's just passing through this world simply temporary and I am gonna be in a better place. It's like Moses in Hebrews 11, 24 through 26 by faith Moses when he had grown up refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt because he was looking ahead to his reward. That's how you do it. You always look ahead. You never keep your eyes on the moment. You always have your eyes ahead. You're always looking down the road. That's how I do it. That's how I as a pastor have continued to minister over the years, 38 years. That's how I do it. I keep my eyes on the future. I keep my eyes on the price and I have this great joy of seeing what God does over time. And sometimes people who may be your greatest critics can turn around to become a great support because the Lord has a way to work in their lives. He has a way of breaking them down and he breaks you down through the things they say. You know, one of the things that every minister needs to learn to do is to listen. Sometimes what people are saying, they may not be saying it right, but there's some truth in it. So rather than putting walls up in barriers saying, oh no, you don't understand, the Lord taught me a long time ago listen to what they have to say because he may be speaking right now. I just might not wanna hear it. But if I listen to what he's saying through them, my life can change and the ministry gets better. Some people say things just to be mean. Some people just don't know how to speak. They're just kind of awkward. They say things that are on their heart and they just, that kind of comes off kind of awkward. And other people have an articulate way of speaking encouragement and then others have a sword for a tongue and they know how to just lance you as, you just can't, this is like Greg Laurie once said, all the good people say, don't believe it. All the bad people say, don't believe it. You're somewhere in between, just dressed in the Lord. You're somewhere in between. You're normally not as bad as everybody thinks, maybe even worse, but you're never really as bad and you're certainly not as good as you think or some others may think. You're somewhere in the middle. And if you keep your eyes on the prize, you can go through anything and you can make it and you can hold fast because we're just passing through. And so if you have that attitude and you have the attitude, I wanna bring people with me like Paul did, I want all people to know Christ and be saved, then you'll just keep going till the Lord takes you home. That's how it works. Ministers really don't retire. Can you imagine some of the guys, Calvary guys in a retirement home together? Wouldn't that be a crazy thing? Oh, I don't even wanna think about it.