I'm looking at verses 1 through 10 here today. Last time we were together, and after all the interruptions, we were looking at the Ministry of Reconciliation. and that we have been given this ministry. Paul was given the ministry of reconciliation. In other words, giving the gospel to people so they can be reconciled to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we ended up understanding that we were told to do our job. That as believers, we need to be busy about doing our job and giving the gospel. And as we come into chapter six, Paul is gonna go back to defending the attacks which are against him as a person by the false teachers within the church at Corinth. And as they are attacking him, some people are beginning to believe that Paul is not a worthy leader. He's not a leader to be followed. And we're going to be addressing authentic marks of biblical leaders As Paul begins to identify, hey, I am an apostle and this is my ministry, as we look at that, we are reminded of what we should be looking for in leadership. The preachers you sit under, the preachers you listen to, that's a danger, one of the dangers of listening to preachers on the radio. You don't get to see their life. You don't get to compare who they are and what they are doing. I remember when I was in college, a lot of the CCM music started coming out and these pop star singers, and they were singing these glorious hymns about how wonderful Jesus was. And then it would come out in the tabloids or the newspapers about the wicked lifestyle. And this one singer I always appreciated some of the music. She was singing, she ended up leaving her husband and shacking up with her drummer on the band. And then after that, it was, I don't know, probably five years later, ten years later, That was dissolved and then they had a picture of her sitting back watching a football game, kicking back on beers, saying, you know, beer and a football game, there's nothing better. This is while talking about how much she loved Jesus. So be careful. The people you listen to, CCM, music, the people you listen to on the radio, they can say all the right things. They really can. But Paul's going to go on a little bit further here. He's going to say, no, I want you to see something. I say the right thing and I try to live it out. And the only really people we get to observe and witness are the people that we're connected to in the physical presence of a local church. And so it's important that the churches you identify with are churches where the leadership is seeking, not perfectly, seeking to conform to the word of God, to live it out themselves, to be consistent. they're not only speaking the word of God but they're seeking to conform to that word so as Paul is being attacked by these biblical leaders some of the congregants are convinced that maybe they shouldn't follow him and we have here in verse 1 we then as workers together with him beseech you also that you receive Not the grace of God in vain. He says, listen, I poured my life into giving the gospel, and I beseech you, I call attention to you, please don't receive that message in vain. Because these Judaizers, these others who were talking about another gospel, you're about to give your allegiance and follow them, and you make the gospel powerless. If you will follow their teaching, you're going to end up undermining the very gospel that saved you. And be careful of those that you would follow because you would make the gospel in vain, empty, worthless, because you're following the wrong leaders who are teaching a heresy or false truth. Verse 2. For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I secured thee. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Now this is a verse we can quote sometimes to talk to somebody about when should you get saved. Well, now is the day of salvation. You should get saved now. And I think that's an appropriate application. But this passage is not talking about when should a person get saved, right now. This passage is saying this is the age of salvation. This is the church age, the time where Jesus Christ, the message of salvation, it is here, it is now. And we need to be about doing our job of defending the message of salvation and giving the message of salvation. So this is from the Old Testament now and we are now into the New Testament. It is the day of salvation, the church age. Giving none offense in anything that the ministry be not blamed. And now he shifts to what is leadership? If we're going to defend the gospel, we're going to preach the gospel, then we have to live the gospel. Well, how do you live the gospel? He says it right here. Giving no offense in anything that the ministry be not blamed. We are not to give a stumbling block. That's the idea of a stumbling block. We talked about that a little bit this morning, didn't we? I talked about Christians who choose to socially drink. I understand they think they can defend it. But I do not understand how they can defend it and say it's not a stumbling block. I don't understand that. You know, they have to answer to God, and that's fine. But they don't know how they can defend it in our day and age when so many people are being destroyed by alcohol. It's one of the many drugs. It's a drug, it's in the drug family. So, what Paul is saying, he's saying, I will give it all up. if it's going to be an offense, if it's going to be a stumbling block, this is what leaders do. Leaders are willing to live a life and give up things that may be acceptable by other people, but to risk it being a stumbling block, they won't do it. They will live above it. They'll give up some of their personal rights and privileges in order not to be a stumbling block. So some of you, you need to understand, why does your pastor make choices of music as strict as I do? I don't want to be a stumbling block. There is Christian music out there from one author to another, and you can pick and choose, and some of it's good. And it really is. And some of you, you do, and you enjoy music. I like music, but I don't, like, love music. I've got to be reminded to turn music on. Jordan doesn't. Anytime I go around Jordan, it's like, headphones on, it's like, he loves music. He loves music. And my wife's the same way. Same way. It's music, music, music, music. And I'm like, oh yeah, maybe I should listen to some music. Maybe it would be inspiring. I'm inspired, okay. Now, I love being with my church family, worshiping and singing music. I want you to understand, I love this. But I'm not the guy that turns on the radio. I don't go down the road, I mean, my radio's never on. By the way, don't ever buy the deal, the $18 Boss stereos for your car. I think it must have been Chinese made. I bought it $18, and I put it, installed it, and it lasted three months. And it's now showing me really nice lights and everything, but there's no sound. I don't think it was a boss. But anyway, side note, I'm not missing it because I don't listen to music. But there are those who do. But I remember very clearly as a pastor or preparing for the ministry and I watch fights over music. People getting offended over somebody would listen to this music, and you shouldn't be listening to that. Another person says, you shouldn't be telling me what I should be listening to. And all of this fight. And I'm like, how can I avoid the fight? If I stick to the hymns, nobody's fighting over the hymns. Nobody's saying, you shouldn't listen to the hymns, that's sin. Well, there might be somebody saying it's a sin that you won't listen to more than the hymns, but they don't really care. So I make a choice in the area of music. I make a choice to wear this foolish thing. Mike, you're with me, right? I do. And I... We're with our younger, smaller church body. I don't think I'd do this Sunday morning. Maybe I would. I don't know. But I don't like this thing. It's a choke collar. It's restrictive. I mean, it's hot today. And I'm wearing this. Why am I wearing this? Because it's not about me. And if I start lowering my standards and say, hmm, I'm not going to wear a tie anymore. I'm going to go down to just a college shirt. The guy in the pew says, you know what? I don't want to wear a collared shirt anymore. I'm going to my t-shirt. And then their kids say, I ain't wearing a t-shirt anymore. I'm going down to my muscle shirts and my shorts. And they're not even hanging upright. They're dragging down by my ankles. My point is, in leadership, Paul says, I make sure I'm not a stumbling block. in the legitimate areas where people can accuse me. I give up my personal rights. I am okay with that. He didn't complain about it. He just, I, this is what I do. And this is what leaders do. Spiritual leaders. And notice, false teachers, and we're going to be looking at this next week, as I follow up on this morning's message, false teachers are always about themselves. What benefits them? not what benefits the people so he says I look and I give no offense that the ministry would not be blamed but in all things approving ourselves as ministers of God and he begins to list the conduct here and in which he ministered in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings, by pureness, by knowledge, by long suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left. by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report, as deceivers yet true, as unknown and yet well-known, as dying and behold we live, as chastened and not killed, as soreful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing all things." Paul is is playing a literary, I really shouldn't say a literary game, but he is structuring his language in a literary prose here in which he is establishing a series of nines and the first here as he comes to the ministry he lists the nine trials in three sets of three. The trial of ministry is the All things have proven ourselves as ministers of God in much patience. The trial of ministry requires and is going to exhaust and bring you to the point that your patience. Somebody said to me the other day, I don't know how you have the patience to put up with that. It was a call, and the call was of a person that the other person knew who was on their end of the phone, and they knew the person was, well, kind of a nuisance and kind of just kind of wasting time. And the other person was a pastor also, and the other person says, and they turned over to somebody else and says, you know what? This is where Shane has a whole lot more patience than I got. Well, ministry is patience. You do patiently give yourself to a relationship that you're getting nothing back. and you do it and Paul says I this is part of the ministry you suffer in the ministry you patiently deal with these things and I'm not complaining I'm explaining and so in patience he endures in afflictions in necessities and in distresses. So in this patience, in these troubles that we are having, the hardships and distresses means the idea of narrow spaces, distresses brought into narrow spaces, hemmed in, afflictions of beatings, and then the imprisonments. All of these things, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumult and labors and watching. These afflictions have been my life and I have chosen to walk into them. In other words, I didn't run from the call of ministry. I embraced them. I am now in my 20th year in this area. Yes, I came here in 1999. I have people who are purposely, even to this day, purposely trying to afflict me. They write letters, negative letters. They go into the community. They say very negative things about me. They do that. And it doesn't define my ministry. It just doesn't. That's the call. That's what leadership does. It's going to take these things. Now understand, when I say leadership, That's the call for you. God wants you to get there. God wants you to be able to take ministry this way too and accept the call. The call could be a godly woman at home taking the same. A godly man at a job taking the same. Our reputation, if we're going to live godly, we are all going to. suffer this. Because there's affliction with living godly. So Paul identifies, you want to see an authentic minister? An authentic minister is one who will be afflicted and yet not strike back. It's one who will take slander and not seek to defend the relationship. It's one who will be patient, patient with people no other people will be patient with. It's one who will be brought into the point of necessities, meaning stretched to the point of having needs, but still serving God, even though those needs are not being met. It's not the condition of service. So a leader, a shepherd, a godly man and a godly woman, you count the cost, you serve the Lord, and you say we serve the Lord really at the end, when we get to the end of this list, serve the Lord no matter what. And you know what? No matter what will happen. So as godly women and godly men, as your pastor, my commitment is to serve the Lord not for you, for Him. And you get the benefit of me serving you for Him. This church I love. You guys, many of you are godly saints, mature saints. You work alongside me. I don't have to drag you along. You are growing with, we're a team. There are others that are less mature that I have to come alongside, but at least there's a good sweet spirit and most times they receive that. And so I think we have a healthy church. But, this is a call to step it up. This is a call to say, are you willing to pay the ultimate price? Are you willing to make sure God leads in every aspect of your life? Because if you are, this is what it's going to look like because this is who Paul is. And this is what shepherds will be like. The ones that you are to follow are the ones that are living out this way. So, The nine trials are listed. Then he goes on to these inner qualities expressed in all circumstances of ministry. First he mentioned general difficulties, troubles, hardships, distresses. And then he moves on to these inner qualities by pureness, by knowledge. by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by love unfeigned. These inner qualities the leadership should be defined by. So if I am a brawler, and I'm not kind, and I'm beating on people, and I'm not patient, and I'm striking at people, and I'm... Then hold it, there's a problem with that kind of leadership. Leadership should look a certain way. Paul says, this is how leadership looked with me. I led with pureness. I led with biblical wisdom, my knowledge. I was long-suffering. I was in kindness, the spirit of kindness. I was obviously led of the Holy Spirit, of unfeigned love, unconditional love, undying love. I loved you when you hated me. I loved you when you liked me. It was that unfeigned, And that is what I had, and that's what I continued in. So as you evaluate your leadership, not only what they say, but how do they endure hardness as a soldier of the Lord Jesus Christ? Are they controlled by the fruit of the Spirit? Are they gentle? Are they kind? And by the way, are you? So it's not only do you evaluate your leadership that way, you should be striving to be the same. It's not, he has to be, we don't. It is, he has to be to be qualified to be a leader. But we should all be striving to be there. We should all be striving to be there. Some of you, I believe, have matured to that point. But here's the difference between the leader and you, who are not called to be the leader. You're not under the pressure cooker. You don't have to face this daily. The weight and responsibility is not on your shoulders. So when it is constantly on your leadership, on your pastor, he bears the weight of it daily. So yes, it comes out in gout sometimes. They say it's stress-related, I have no idea. The point is, you have a right to expect something more from your leadership than the average congregation. Don't ever listen to a man who says, I'm just a sinner just like you, let's all walk together, and you're just going to have to bear with some of these sinful tendencies of mine. No. If I'm a lead, I have to be out front leading. There has to be some level of maturity. That's why 1 Timothy gives the qualifications of the pastor. And there's a list of qualifications there that you have to be there before you can lead. You have the luxury of getting there. Okay, see the difference? I have to be there. or else I am not to be in leadership and that's what Paul's establishing and by implication he's saying these false teachers they're not there they're not doing it but I am by honor and dishonor now he goes through these paradoxes of the ministry the accepted paradoxes of ministry a leader understands that God works a paradoxical ministry. What do we mean? Seemingly contradictory. Seemingly contradictory. Jumbo shrimp. Okay? But the seemingly contradictory here is that I receive honor when I am dishonored. for the cause of Christ. Paul says, I understand this. By evil report, I have a good report. Why are they attacking me and calling me evil? Because I'm Christ-like, and therefore they are attacking. As deceivers, and yet, true, the world is calling me a deceiver, and yet I speak The truth. As unknown and yet well known. As dying, and behold, we live. It's the truth. He's just an old dying old man, he's useless, and he says, you know, I am dying. It's the self. And as I die to self, I live. And if I live for myself, I die. So the paradoxical processing of leadership. We live as chastened and not killed, as soreful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich as having nothing and yet possessing all. Can pastors possess nothing and yet really feel they possess all? Absolutely. Because their riches, biblical leadership, places its value on the eternal. And I don't need, I don't want, I don't want material riches. I don't want to get to the point that I don't have need. I will take all the blessing God wants to give me, but I want it to be from God and not from me pursuing it, and I'll give him honor and glory, but if he decides to keep me in poverty or take me to poverty, I'm not in poverty right now, then that's okay too because God is good and his purposes are always good and even in poverty I'm rich, is what Paul is saying. And Paul learned to what? To abound and to be abased. In all things, he was content. Godliness with contentment is great gain. And what he's saying is, Corinthians, look at me. I'm a paradox. I'm poor yet I'm rich. I'm living these paradoxical truths out before you. It is true. You know it to be true. Therefore, follow my leadership. Don't follow these false teachers. So what is that for you and I in the end? You and I in the end then need to do this. You need to strive to be that kind of person your own. But you need to support and get behind true leadership like that. And the only way you're gonna know true leadership like that is to get invested in your pastor's life. How many of you prayed this week for your pastor? You're invested. You did it. How many of you thought about how you could be a blessing to my wife this week? Amen. You know, we are one flesh. She's part of the package. Sometimes because I'm up here all the time, hey, and you know, But here's the hard one. How many of you realize that you are to expect me to hold a higher stand than the average person? You are. And it's okay. And a true leader says, hold me to it. I need your accountability and I expect you to expect more from me than a new convert. Expect more from me than the average maturity. Maybe not than every godly person. Some of you may be further ahead because you had longer to live for Christ than I am. I'm 54. I'm just young according to Donna. Yeah. So Donna, you may be spiritually further ahead of me, more mature than me in some areas because you had more time at it. I'm 55. No way. That's awesome, Loretta. And you know when my birthday is, too. I know you know that. But I've never gotten a birthday present from you, so don't tell me you know my birthday anymore without giving me a birthday present. Loretta, I'm having fun with you. I'm just teasing. So in the end, what is it saying? It's get behind biblical leadership, but define what biblical leadership is. Know what it is and support it. At whatever level, if it's a Sunday school teacher, if it's a deacon, and especially if it's a pastor. Know what it is and support it. I believe we have some godly biblical leadership in this church. I believe our deacons are godly. And they're showing mature leadership. And I want you to support them. And I want you to please continue to pray for them. But I also want our young men to be striving to be these kind of men. Because we need you. We need you to stay in the fight against your flesh and your selfishness. Mature to the point that you're willing to be poor if that's what God wants you. You're willing to be rich if that's what God wants. You're willing to be slandered in the community and not give up on the Lord, that you'll still live for Him, even though somebody's going around calling you, oh, you know what? And I had this. Any of you guys? Jordan, maybe you're getting it now because you're old enough to be single. I used to get, are you gay? All the time. You know why? Because I had standards. And I wouldn't date unsaved girls. Well, if you're not dating unsaved girls, what do you do when you hang out? Who are you hanging out with? Well, guys, friends. So all you get, they start, well, aren't you gay? And then they go around, ha ha, he is. I'm like, I don't care what they say. I know who I am, and I know why I am. And you know what? God's pleased. As a Christian leader, I can't care what people say. I need to care what God says. I need to care what God thinks. And I will serve Him even if people don't give me credit for living for Him. So our young men, guess what? You're going to stand for Him? You're going to get slandered. People are going to say things that aren't true about you. And other people, you know what they're going to do? They're going to believe it. You know why? Because they love dirt. They love to believe the worst about people. And it might even hurt. That's okay. Paul says, in all of these, in all these afflictions, what did I do? I kept serving. I kept preaching the Word. It wasn't on results. It was based upon His truth and my surrender to Him. So, in closing, I feel your support. So it's not one of those where I can rebuke you. Hey, get behind your pastor, you guys aren't here! I believe you are. If you're not, shame on you. As God tells you to be. But, don't ever, don't ever be convinced that you cannot expect your pastor to respond biblically Even when you are unable to respond biblically in certain areas because of immaturity, you should be able to expect your pastor to respond biblically and lean on that leadership. So there is greater accountability in leadership. And you know what? Those who are called to the ministry accept that greater accountability and we seek to bring ourselves under that authority. We seek to grow ahead of you so that we can lead. And when that fails to be the case, then you have no responsibility to trust that leadership. I hope if there's anything, and here's where mercy and grace comes in, if there is anything that I am doing that appears to you to be un-pastor-like, that might be a stumbling block, that I'm not aware of, sometimes that happens, feel free to tell me. Because I don't want to be that. I want to be God's servant. And you have supported me these years. And I would like to see us, in a couple years, get to the point where we have to bring on another pastor. This ministry, if it keeps moving forward, guess what? We're going to have to bring on an assistant pastor. Somebody to help out with all of what's going on. Your pastor's burning it at both ends. And it's good. I'm 54. I got about another five years I can do this, maybe, if God gives me the health. But after that, if the camp ministry is going to keep going, I'm going to need help. If pastoral institute ministry is going to keep going, I'm going to need help. If we're going to keep a fervent outreach into the community, I'm going to need help. Because I'm the one-man show, and we needed to get that out there. But hey, we bring on another young pastor, what happens? I need to know you guys are going to support him, love him, encourage him, and expect the right things of him. not that he looks good, not that he has cute children, not that he has a really nice personality, no, that he's godly and he's sacrificial and selfless. Lord, we thank you for this time, a good reminder as Paul highlights the characteristics, the marks of biblical leadership and he exemplified it, Lord, and yet they many times rejected his leadership. Often we think leadership is followership, that the person who has the greatest following is the greatest leader. According to scriptures, that's not true. Often the greatest biblical leaders have a very small following. We find that in Christ at the cross. There are only a few that would identify with him. So help us to examine our leaders with the biblical matrix of biblical principles and not worldly principles and help us get behind those who are godly. This church has been very good to me and very good in finances, very good in their encouragement and their followership. They have helped me lead and they have followed. Lord, I pray you bless them for it. And I ask that you would continue, Lord, to put a hedge about me, help me to be strong, help me to continue to give the leadership they deserve, and the leadership you call me to give, so that we have many years of serving the Rainier River District. In Christ's name we pray, amen.