 actually believes the word of God is the word of God and a genuine teacher communicates the word of God to people. So as Paul has been speaking here one he says there is the genuine teacher but there was a second workman that he referred to and that would be the one who could be called the teacher without knowledge or the ignorant teacher. Now as we were pointing out last time we're together these workmen are Christians but they're not building on a solid foundation. Often they may use their pulpit to teach their own position or their own opinion and sometimes they may teach it in such a way that it results in them receiving attention for themselves or the things that they strongly believe in. But because they rely on their own crafted image they begin to draw sheep not to Jesus Christ but sadly they can draw sheep to themselves. People fail to evaluate their message they don't check on the stories to see whether they're telling the truth. That in part is because the sheep are not being taught the word and therefore they have no discernment in what's being said they simply believe and so that's the teacher who is teaching in a way that is without knowledge. But then you have the third kind and we looked at that also the false teachers. Those are the false teachers who can impact from both the outside or they infiltrate and begin to work on the inside. Obviously a false teacher is an unbeliever and they are judged because they do damage to the church. And so Paul has been speaking concerning these kinds of teachers and then he had concluded that particular section by saying you need to understand that you are the temple of the Spirit of God and that the Spirit of God actually dwells in you. When you begin to understand that you are the temple of the Spirit of God your life changes. A lot of people consider themselves Christians but have not really come to the point of understanding that to be a Christian you need to be the temple of the Spirit of God and the way that you become the temple is not by going through certain rituals. The way you become the temple of the Spirit of God is when you're born again. When you see Christ as Lord and Savior and you say God forgive me a sinner and Lord would you enter into my life wash me by the blood of Christ and make me into a new person. By faith I trust you and I will hold fast to you and I open my life to you and open my heart to you and the Bible teaches that we become at that point the temple of the Spirit of God and he dwells within us. That is the result of teaching through the whole counsel of God that gives you insight as to how you can live for Jesus and be born again. So as Paul has been speaking about this in verse 18 he continues by saying let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age let them become a fool that he may become wise and so notice what he says let no one deceive himself. Deception. Deception that occurs by the influence of others is bad in and of itself. Somebody has deceived you. Somebody has caused you to believe or encourage your belief in something that is wrong. It's interesting very often the word deceive is the same Greek word that can be translated seduce. What an interesting thought. Because deception is what you would call mental seduction. Somebody is seducing you to believe something other than the truth and when somebody can seduce your mind if you will by sharing things that are inaccurate. That's bad enough. Some false teacher comes in and brings a doctrine that is not proper. That's bad enough and that kind of deception is a terrible deception and the one who does it is going to stand before God to give an account of themselves for that and be judged because of it. So deception by somebody else is a terrible thing but self-deception that's even worse and I have encountered it so have you and I have at a point in my own life prior to coming to Christ I have experienced self-deception. I am one who like many of you perhaps all of us in this room who are born again at this point. I have been an individual who was deceived. I deceived myself into believing that I was already a Christian because I had gone through certain rituals and therefore seeing that I had these things occur in my life I must be a Christian. I'm not a Buddhist. I don't practice Hinduism. I am not Jewish. I am not a follower of Islam. I was baptized as a baby. I went through these variety of things that my mom encouraged me to and all. I must be a Christian and when you asked me what are you I would have said I'm a Christian because that's what I and that is self-deception because I didn't have a relationship with Jesus Christ but I believed that I did and I have to tell you in my experience over the years I've come to believe that quite a number of people are self-deceived. Quite a number of people do have that even to this day that belief that they're really Christian when you ask them when did you receive the Lord their answer is well I've always been a Christian I was born a Christian. No you weren't born born again you know there's a point of time in your life that you become born again when you embraced Christ as your Lord and Savior and those things that relate to that oh no no I don't need to do that that's your brand of Christianity. My Christianity tells me that I'm saved by or become a Christian through and that's what they'll do and and I've had more than one conversation over the years with those who are self-deceived and that's what Paul is speaking about here he's speaking about self-deception and notice how he says it he says let no one deceive himself. Proverbs 2612 says it like this do you see a man wise in his own eyes there's more hope for a fool than for him wise in his own eyes do not deceive yourself if anyone among you seems to be wise in this age let him become a fool that he may become wise admit your need for God to illuminate your darkened understanding because according to the world to believe in Jesus Christ is foolishness but unto us who believe it's a power of God into salvation and so if you're going to have a relationship with God you need to realize that you have been self-deceived but now open your heart to him and you can be born again. Now as he's speaking concerning those things he begins to quote scripture verse 19 for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God for it's written he catches the wise in their own craftiness and again the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise that they are futile and so what he does is it's actually combining other scripture in verse 19 he's quoting Job 513 and the second scripture that he quotes is actually out of the Psalms at Psalm 94 verse 11 and what he's saying is if you truly desire to be wise then be be willing to be considered foolish by the world's standards you need to understand that human wisdom without including God is true foolishness and the reason why it is true foolishness is because human wisdom is useless in the discernment of spiritual truth in order to know spiritual truth revelation is required remember what we saw in chapter 2 verse 14 that the natural man receives not the things of the spirit of God they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them for they are spiritually discerned the natural or the unregenerate man the individual without born again experience does not see the wisdom that is hidden in the gospel of Jesus Christ it requires God's Holy Spirit to reveal these things to us and so a person in order to become wise needs to first recognize that they're not wise and they need to understand that that natural means are not gonna are not gonna work when it comes to discerning spiritual truth like it says in Psalm 36 verse 9 in your light we see light it's like what Jesus said in John 14 17 even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it does not see him neither knows him but you know him for he dwells with you and shall be in you the world cannot receive the world rejects the things of the spirit of God so in order for us to have a relationship with God we needed to receive the things of God and that comes to the conviction of the spirit of God and the Holy Spirit will convict your heart of sin righteousness and judgment the Holy Spirit is the one who through the word of God working together with the Bible and the message preached awakens me awakens us to an understanding of our lost condition it's what causes you to realize that no matter how many good works you ever perform no matter how often you might have gone to church or how much money you might have given or how much effort you may have given to to do special things and do the good works all of those things are useless because not one of those things or all of those things combined is equivalent to even a fraction of one drop of the blood of Jesus Christ as it comes to the necessary means of salvation and so he's making that very clear and then he says verse 21 let no one glory in men for all things are yours how do you treat ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ you give him lots of money in cars now how do you treat ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ well one recognize them as gifts to the body of Christ and respect them as such my pastor is Chuck Smith he's been my pastor for many years and I honor and respect him as honors do because he has been a faithful man in the side of God and others and so I recognize him and I love my pastor he's a he's a gift I respect him it says in Romans 13 7 give everyone what it what you owe him if you owe taxes pay taxes if revenue then revenue if respect then respect if honor then honor in 1st Timothy 5 17 let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor especially those who labor in the word and doctrine he was 13 17 obey your leaders and submit to their authority they keep watch over you as men who must give an account obey them so that their work will be a joy not a burden for that would be of no advantage to you so the scripture is very clear that you give honor to those who lead in the body of Christ you treat him with respect and things like that but the problem we need to remember that was occurring here in Corinth was that the Corinthians were dividing over personal styles and personalities as well as giftings the fact is benefit occurs wherever and whenever the word of God is faithfully taught and so what we need to do is develop a discerning ability to hear truth and as you do so you can grow how many of you have heard of a man by the name of a w tozer I really interested in that raise your hand a w tozer one of the wealth he's been referred to as as a modern-day profit and to some degree a w tozers writing ministry is very prophetic it's very prophetic and if you read his devotions which are available all you need to do is go online and Google a w tozer devotions and you'll get some fantastic devotions if you if you read tozer's devotions as I do every morning if you read his devotions he speaks with a thundering authority of a profit he really does and I really enjoy his his his devotions but if you listen to his his recordings if you ever have insomnia put them on I guarantee you'll go to sleep tozer spoke of the monotone and he's very very slow in his speech he makes pastor Chuck seem like pastor Chuck is speed reading that's how slow he speaks pastor Chuck had these famous pauses those of you who know Chuck Smith know that he had famous pauses there are times when Chuck would stop and you'd be maybe the tape turned off it was his pause and what he was doing was looking throughout the congregation it took him a while to do that but you don't know that you're listening to it on the radio or on on tape and you're going come on and come on Chuck you know come on Chuck speaks with tozer made him seem like he was speed reading that's tozer and I've heard tozer and his recordings it's much more pleasant to hear well actually to read you know because you can read at your own pace and you can add your own emphasis and so I know that it's easy for us to get caught with the way things are said to the degree that we might not even be hearing what is being said and sometimes what is being said has no substance but what's being said is being said in such a way as it's so entertaining and so energetic that we actually listen and take it in and think it's true and I have seen some people I have to tell you that are amazing communicators and and I I remember one in particular who was given a sermon that you would call a visual sermon and then before you know what this man's laying on the on on the platform dragging himself across a platform with this microphone and I'm just riveted that I'm saying my goodness that man can act but if you took what is being what was being said and you wrote it and you read it later on it doesn't have the impact because what you had was you had a visual stimulation but what was being said was being overridden by what you are watching and so one of the things that Paul would be saying is be careful because during the time of first Corinthians you had people say I'm of Paul you had others saying I'm of Apollo's others would say I'm of Cephas and as you know others are saying I don't need any of those guys I'm of Christ and so what you ended up with is division you had division and carnality and remember we've been looking at that and Paul was saying as long if you divide over personalities he said you're still men you have not grown into maturity yet because you haven't had your ex your senses exercise to discern good from evil and what you're doing is you're becoming people who follow a certain kind of celebrity and not the truth you need to stay true to the word of God now this is not to say that Apollo's was not anointed he was this is not to say that Paul wasn't anointed he obviously was and of course Cephas the Simon Peter was quite obviously anointed that really wasn't the question but when people became attracted to those to those particular speakers they were starting to act out like like like you would say like mere men unregenated unregenerated individuals and what you're doing is you're not understanding who these men really are what are these men well I want you to see this because he says let no one glory in men for all things are yours whether Paul or Apollo's or Cephas or the world or life or death things present things to come all yours because these things Apollo's Paul Cephas are gifts to the but these men are gifts of the body of Christ and the message that they have brought to you that sets you free gives you the ability to be in this world but not of this world to use things of the world but not to be owned by those things of the world and when you understand that these men were actually gifts from God to the body of Christ and that each one stands before God individually with their own gifts and abilities and you stop pursuing one over the other but start seeing the benefit of all then you can be blessed by God and that's how it works in the body of Christ all things are yours we are all in this together we all together belong to him completely and because of whom Jesus is all that is his has been given to us because we belong to him you are Christ Christ is God and the things that God and Christ have they have given to you and they are blessing you and benefiting you so don't be putting Paul or Apollo's or Cephas on a pedestal but see them for what they truly are he goes on into chapter 4 by saying let a man so consider us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God moreover it's required in stewards that one be found faithful but with me it's a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court in fact I do not even judge myself for I know nothing against myself yet I'm not justified by this but he who judges me is the Lord therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord comes who will both ring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts and then each one's praise will come from God and that's really where praise ought to come from not from man because man's praise is here for a moment and gone in the next moment that's how it works let a man consider us let's look at verses one and two let a man so consider us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mystery of Christ on a monthly basis I get magazines here they're sent to me I don't solicit them I don't ask for them they simply send them to churches and and I get these magazines that actually try to rank churches the most powerful most important mess most prestigious church and this and that and they actually rank churches they rank churches by size they rank churches by their finances they rank rank them through their influence the size of staff they'll rank them on their impact in their community their evangelism their missions their programs they will even rank them related to the degrees held by the ministers of the same churches and they have rankings and I could show you these I mean I have I have magazines that come that I that I have in my office and and on occasion I'll look at them and I'll read some of the articles in them and I get them every month from one organization to another and so what they're doing is a creating a standard and they're creating a standard that measures greatness by outward appearances when you have though a standard that is actually by an outward appearance what that produces is it can at least contribute to pride of production in the hearts of the ministers and ultimately as they become proud because they have these large churches they have these mission programs they have these degrees and finances and all that influence what happens is it begins to slowly erode their credibility and ultimately because of pride it will disqualify them and that's what happens now some people say you know the reason you say those kinds of things is you're really not current you're just an old man up there when you're gonna retire well the fact is soon no the fact is when I got saved I had some things imprinted in me that have stayed in me all of my spiritual life 41 years all of my spiritual life and that was this when we went to Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa and songs were played to us by groups like Love Song and others like that that were well known amongst the Christians that was a time when they didn't have things called Dove Awards that was a time when they didn't have what they call the category of of of contemporary Christian music that did not exist those things didn't exist at that time you didn't have Christian radio stations playing what we called Maranatha music at that you didn't have that what you had was was those old pipe organ kinds of hymns that would be played at midnight from some some station broadcasting from Mexico that's what you had so you didn't have all those things and and some of you how many of you remember that I want to see do I have any old people in here yeah all right okay rattle your false teeth I see you we're here we're here we're representing but that's true that's true you didn't have contemporary Christian music you didn't have it Mike Macintosh used to take Maranatha albums and would go to different Christian bookstores and offer them copies and say to them would you carry this and they would refuse them oh no that's that hippie music that's that music with those guitars and drums and you know that that that's not good music at all you know that's devil music because what it is it's got a voodoo beat I mean that's what they would say I am not kidding you so you young people saying oh come on that's not true no it is true it is true they would say it's got that voodoo beat it's got that you playing those congas and everything that is voodoo and you know it and we said no it's not we're just praising the Lord we're just singing songs to Jesus no you cannot have a guitar up there and sing to Jesus with a guitar everybody knows that you have to have a flute and a violin and and a saxophone is the devil's instrument I mean that was I am telling you the truth we used to rent when I was an assistant pastor we used to rent this small church in Claremont and we had a contemporary worship band meaning that they had drums we had drums and and guitars and things like that and the church we were renting the sanctuary you know for services would not allow us to have guitars and drums on the altar because they believe which is the platform because they believe that we were desecrating that altar you can have drums and and electric guitars in the you can have them in the in the fellowship hall they said but you can't play drums and electric guitars in the main sanctuary but you can play acoustic guitars in the sanctuary and so it was kind of like you know God is with it when it's in the sanctuary as long as it's acoustical unplugged but he doesn't ever go into the fellowship hall and it made no it made no sense to us at that time but that's how people are and that's how churches have been and so what happens is we started an entire system you know which at one time was was good these people who are doing the music you know are doing it just for Jesus Christ these people who are going out and preaching are doing it simply because they love Jesus Christ and some in our movement in the Calvary Chapel movement some of the guys that you know well by name today well all of the guys pretty much that I would say that you know well by name the Mike Macintosh is the Steve mazes the raw Reese's the Greg Laurie's and and so many others of that genre of that of that group including myself we started by just doing what we do without expectation of anything without expectation of having buildings without an expectation of having a bunch of praise teams without expectation of having all the things that we have we started because we wanted people to know Jesus Christ and what Jesus can do in somebody's life and how God can forgive a sinner and every one of my friends that I've known for all of these years can say the same thing I'm only equating what we say amongst ourselves that's what it is God moves through Jesus Christ and yet what happens is because God is moving because Jesus is there people begin to take notice and over time they start wanting to give you honors and they begin to want to invite you places and they want you to speak and they want you to give your story how this happened and then you get people writing notes oh what I need to do is this and what I need to do is that oh and we have to do this and they use it as a formula and then before you know what they're honoring you as being a great this or that and the humility that God was honoring can go out the door because you've become something special and that's one of the ways I am telling you may not minister to you it's ministering to me as I'm reminding myself that's one of the ways churches are destroyed it's when the pastor becomes honored in a way that is reserved only for Jesus Christ you do not glory in men you glory in Christ you always keep Jesus center number one he is the reason for all things you see and Paul would teach that that's what he is teaching here glory not in men don't be thinking that Apollo's is special because he's so eloquent don't think that Cephas is so special because he walked with Jesus don't think I'm so special because I have a special anointing to do what I do keep your eyes focused on Jesus Christ who are we we're stewards and that's what he's simply saying here let a man so consider us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God that word servant in the original language literally speaks of somebody who's called an under rower he is the lowest galley slave the under he's on the very bottom at one point I was considering going into the Navy I actually signed up for the Navy I actually had date that I was supposed to appear in order to be inducted into the US Navy my dad was in the Navy my brother was in the Navy and I thought well I'll go into the Navy but I decided I didn't want to go into the Navy but that's another story what happened was my brother said no listen David when you get assigned to your ship he said you scrambled to get the top bunk because he was in the Navy for almost four years get the top bunk and I said why would I want to get the top bunk he says because when you're out in the open sea and people are starting to experience seasickness and if you're on the bottom guess what you become you become their target he said get the top bunk under rower the lowest galley slave is what he's speaking about we are at the bottom not at the top we're at the bottom and you want to consider me in any way consider me to be the most menial and if you see me as the most menial I will also be the least envied as a matter of fact I could even be despised because the underroars were actually oftentimes during military confrontations chained to their oars because when they were in the midst of conflict they may want to escape so they would chain them to the oars so they couldn't pull away and there are accounts of where they actually pulled their own hands off their bodies when the ships were going down to try and save their own lives they were chained to the oars and Paul is using something that the people would understand he said we are the most unenviable of all men rather than looking at us as something special why don't you see us for what we really are you see ministry is not a stepping stone to greatness it's not a stepping stone to influence Paul would say it's humble work it's service it's it's a ministry it's tending to those who heard he also refers to himself as a steward that word steward is a house manager it's it's somebody who is responsible to supervise somebody else's property the stewards had various functions let me give to you stewards so you can understand his point one as somebody who actually supervises someone else's property they stewards spiritually would manage what belongs to God we need to simply understand that all we possess belongs to God our responsibility is to manage it faithfully like it says in Psalm 24 1 the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof the world and they that dwell therein so one he would manage what belongs to God he's saying I simply manage what belongs to him to stewards were to oversee their master's business three stewards may oversee other servants they would do that in a faithful manner and then for a steward would care for the children of the master and so as stewards Paul is simply saying we are going to be a good example of believers we want to educate and encourage younger believers so that they'll have a relationship with God and that's what we do we manage the affairs of God to encourage others now notice in verse 2 it's required in a steward that one be found faithful to be a good minister you have to be faithful filled with faith as well as trustworthy you know the Bible says in Proverbs 20 verse 6 most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness but a faithful man who can find well one of the ways to see whether or not you're growing in your walk and as you're listening to your favorite teacher whomever it may be all you need to do is ask yourself after you've listened have you been built up in your faith for the Lord Jesus Christ do you love him more and you want to serve him more that's how you can start to test whether or not you're being taught or not whether or not you're being encouraged or not do I want more of Jesus do I want to serve him with more of my life and that's what stewards are supposed to do provoke people to have that relationship and now I want to give to you something and this is really a study that should be separate but I'll give it to you very quickly here notice what he says in verse 3 and 4 with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court in fact I do not even judge myself for I know nothing against myself yet I'm not justified by this but he judges me as the Lord now this could be a separate study and I'm not going to give you a separate study I'll just fill it in and give you some things that you might find interesting hopefully you will I want you to see this Paul is answering a condition in the church at Corinth people are evaluating his ministry and they're making judgments on him and finding his ministry to be less than they desire I want you to think about that for a minute this is the apostle Paul the pride that would be required on the part of somebody to actually compare themselves to Paul and to find his ministry wanting is amazing it's an amazing pride to actually think that they have the ability to look at this great man's ministry a man who traveled the entire world preaching the gospel he made it his aim to give the name of Jesus where Jesus's name had never been mentioned when he begins to speak concerning the things that he has suffered that the things of Christ there's nobody who's matched it he was beaten with rods shipwrecked he was left to die after being stoned I mean this is a man who gave every ounce of his effort to take the gospel and preach it this was somebody who wrote majority of the letters in the New Testament this man before he was a Christian was the number one chief student of Gamaliel this was the intellectual kingpin in Judaism he excelled more than his contemporaries when he speaks of his own self in Philippians 3 he says I was elevated above them all I knew you want to speak concerning what you have and your advantage I can trump that with what I had Paul was the man that is of absolute excellence in a way that that very few people will well nobody will ever match that outside of Jesus Christ he was unbelievable when you read what this man did how would you like to be chained to a prison wall and to stay there day in and day out with no ability to take care even of your own biological functions to actually have somebody who has to come from the ceiling they had a ceiling and the ceiling he was it was a cave that was that was carved out of rock and the ceiling actually had a manhole cover where they would lift it and they would drop his food to him and some friends would come down sometimes and minister to him and then go back up and he would say I'm so cold please send my cloak and make sure that you give me the manuscripts I need the word of God I want to I want to continue my walk with this man was amazing he was beaten at midnight was Silas and they sang praises to God I mean look at the man's life who can match what he gave for Jesus Christ nobody and yet he had people who were weasels weaseling into the church and I don't like Paul why you listening to him what's he know when you read when you read second Corinthians I mark I'm gonna give you these things right now you will find second Corinthians the second letter to the church of Corinth to be his most open hearted letter you want to read something from man's heart second Corinthians and when you read it he was dealing with accusations no less than 21 accusations are dealt with in second Corinthians you have to you have to see the way he's writing and understand where he's coming from but this is what he dealt with these are accusations and I'll give you the verse and I go kind of quickly so you know sorry chapter 1 verse 12 they were saying of him he is selfish hypocritical and he uses fleshly wisdom chapter 1 verse 17 he changes his mind and his plans easily chapter 1 verse 21 Paul is self-appointed chapter 1 verse 24 Paul lords it over the church he dominates their faith chapter 2 verse 4 he is an unemotional intellect chapter 2 verses 5 and 6 Paul is legalistic he forces people to leave the church chapter 2 verse 17 he uses the gospel for personal gain he pedals the word of God chapter 3 verse 1 Paul has no proper credentials he has no letters of commendation chapter 3 verse 5 Paul is self-righteous Paul is self-sufficient Paul labors with the energies of the flesh chapter 4 verse 2 Paul is crafty and deceitful he uses impure tactics Paul twists God's word to ensnare you chapter 4 verse 5 Paul preaches himself not Jesus chapter 5 verse 13 Paul is a madman he's beside himself chapter 7 verse 2 Paul is wronged corrupted and defrauded the church chapter 8 verse 4 Paul uses guilt to get money from people chapter 10 verse 1 when Paul is with the people of Corinth he is cowardly chapter 10 verse 3 Paul uses fleshly means to perform spiritual work chapter 10 verse 7 he's ugly that's that's true chapter 10 look up chapter 10 verse 10 he writes weighty letters but he's weak and boring he's untrained in his speech chapter 11 verse 5 he is the spiritual inferior to the super apostles that have entered into Corinth chapter 11 verse 7 he's not even worth supporting you shouldn't compensate him and then chapter 12 verses 14 through 16 Paul is deceitful and uses guilt to ensnare people's hearts when I teach pastors at pastors conferences or I teach or train pastor leaders these are things that they need to understand these are the things that every minister will go through not every one of them but a good a good good portion of them many of these things every pastor goes through you know you're boring you're unattractive you you know you you coerce people you use your authority in the wrong way you're a bully you know who who who who appointed you as pastor what letters do you have who is I've heard many of these things especially he's ugly I've heard so many of these things you use guilt to ensnare people's hearts you hear these things and Paul said it is a small thing that I should be judged by you I don't even judge myself he who judges me as God that's the conscience of the minister the conscience of a minister has to be pure before God Paul was simply saying listen as I have waved through my life I can't find a self-accusation but that doesn't mean that I'm guiltless because I might deceive myself so what I'm gonna do is two things one I'm gonna continue ministering regardless of what you think about me and the effectiveness of my ministry and what is influencing you I'm gonna continue ministry and two I'm gonna entrust myself into the hands of God who judges righteously God knows my heart he knows my modems he knows the works he knows the fruit that's being produced God knows all those things and because God knows all of those things well I think I'll just trust him I think I'll just trust him there have been times in in this ministry and I'll say that very quickly that I got to the point where I started saying maybe my time's up maybe it's time for me to leave maybe the Lord is moving us somewhere else is there something else that you want me to do you know I think every minister ought to how to think those things through ought to pray those things through and then I come to realize that much of the reason that I think that maybe it's time is because there are things that I've been hearing or some things that have been you know they're coming to my attention that are that are difficult and so you begin to think well maybe maybe my effectiveness here has ceased maybe there is another place that people can go where they can get fed and loved properly and if I'm not the one to do that then Lord Jesus who am I to remain but you have to come to the point of saying and I say this to pastors you have to come to the point of saying but Lord you're the one who leads me and you're the one who's supposed to tell me when to go on what I'm supposed to do and until you do that I'll remain put until you say move when you say go I will go when you say stay I will stay I will follow where you lead me that's how it works you see Paul you're saying to these Corinthians listen you may have 10,000 instructors but you only have one father I begot you in the gospel I'm the one who brought you into the kingdom of God and it's amazing to me how you can outgrow the one who knew enough to bring you to Christ through the influence of someone who doesn't even know Christ who have put that into your mind that Paul isn't even worth taking care of or ministering to he's so boring and ugly and every way why would you even waste your time when these super apostles have entered into Corinth and they're bringing this great experiences with God and all that they know and all that they've done and comparing themselves with Paul and there will always be people who don't have a love and loyalty for men like Paul who are attracted to the next big thing that enters into town and Paul would say don't be like children toss to and fro with every wint of doctrine with the cunning of men because they have secretly crept in in order that they might ensnare you and make you a follower of them that's why Paul said you know what we are we're simply stewards we are simply servants Jesus is everything and understand who we are so that you and I can have you would say the right relationship it's a small thing that you should judge me I don't even judge myself but it's God who judges and because I know God judges I will trust him in 1st John 3 20 John said it like this if our heart condemns us God is greater than our heart knows all things Psalm 139 verse 4 there's not a word on my tongue but behold the Lord you know it all together Jeremiah 1710 I the Lord search the heart I test the mind even to give every man according to his ways according to the fruit of his doings and so with that in mind we live our lives as purely as we can before God and before man when he said in verse 4 I know nothing against myself my own heart isn't accusing me and it's not excusing me either I know I could be self-deceived but God is the judge and I'm gonna entrust myself to him therefore verse 5 judge nothing before the time until the Lord comes because it's the Lord who brings everything to light God is able to bring motives to light so don't pass judgment on people's motives if you do anything do it as unto the glory of God do it all as into the glory of God here's the last thought for you I think it's humorous how the Lord puts sometimes it puts a man and a woman together there's so much alike in many ways I mean it's the things that are alike that keep us together and the things that we're not alike and make it interesting right and we make adjustments over time my wife Marie is the kind of woman who wants to know all the details why you know she's doing ministry what why how did this happen how long ago did it all the details that's Marie she's a detailed person me I'm a I don't care this is what they do I have no way of knowing why they do that let's just