Genuine Ministry

Good morning, church. Good to see you here. And again, for those of you joining me this final three, I guess I'm a little closer to you today, so my apologies for that.

The rest of you are the same distance as I always am, and how do you like the weather out there? How's that? We're going to keep it? You're just a wishful thing to eat. We get it for like four days.

But you know what? When things don't work technologically or when the weather's bad, it just makes you appreciate when it's good, or whatever it does for us.

So this morning, I'd like to ask you over your Bibles and find the book of 2 Corinthians.

2 Corinthians. And as you're turning there, if someone were to make up a set of rules to get people like you to like people like me.

Simple rules to win over an audience. Well, I came up with a few. I think it might look like this. Here we go. Five rules to get people to like you or win the globe.

Number one, make your audience feel good about themselves. Did I tell you guys about the good you look today? It's so nice to see you. Make your audience feel good about themselves.

Number two, bring only messages that they like. Play with everybody else. Three, use smooth words and have really witty, polished style. Sound good.

Number four, you've got to throw shade on your competition. Everybody else out there is terrible. Hate other rivals. And then probably number five, look good doing it.

Look good doing it. I put on this more coat today. I'm trying to look good doing it. Now, seriously, we might think that sounds a little bit outlandish, but actually this is not very far off.

Go ahead and advance that slide. You want me to look at that. This is not far off from what is going on here between the Apostle Paul and some rivals that have come in and swept in to the Corinthian church after Paul left.

Very much. There is flattery going on of fellow church members by these so-called super apostles. They are bringing messages that the Corinthian church liked and would absolutely not find offensive at all whatsoever.

They're smooth. They're polished. They're witty with their Greek rhetoric. They're hating on Paul, saying bad things about it, and we learn that they actually look pretty good while they're doing it.

And this created a real problem for Paul to have to address and correct. Yeah, he's made some earlier attempts. He tried to bring the congregation back by first making a visit, a painful visit, as we've heard.

And then he left and followed it up with a letter, a severe letter. And now we come to the point in this letter where we realize that the job is not quite done.

Yes, he seems to have won over a majority, but there's still a very vocal minority. And as we've come to chapter 10 of 2 Corinthians, and you can find that chapter now if you haven't.

Chapter 10, we find that this is now the job that Paul is turning to, to finish. So I'm going to begin reading for us in verse 7 today. We took the first six verses last week.

We'll begin reading in verse 7. 2 Corinthians, chapter 10, beginning in verse 7. Paul says this. Look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ, let him remind himself that just as he is Christ, so also are we.

2 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

For even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up, not for destroying you, I will not be ashamed.

I do not appear to be frightened of you with my letters, for they say his letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech is of no account.

Let such a person understand that what we say by leather when absent, we do when present.

Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves, but when they measure themselves with one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.

But we will not boast beyond limits, but will boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us to reach even to you. For we are not overextending ourselves as though we did not reach you.

For we were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ. We do not boast beyond limits in the labors of others, but our hope is that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged,

so that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you without boasting of work already done in another's area of influence. Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.

For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commands. Will you pray with me once more? Heavenly Father, we come to you today and recognize that many of us have many concerns in our minds, distractions.

Lord, for some of us it's been a very hard week, and for some of us it's been a very hard year. And so Lord, we pray that you would enter into this moment, clear our minds and our souls of distraction, bind the enemy,

and let us hear clearly from your word and teach us, so that as Josh prayed a moment ago, we can become more holy, more like you want us to be.

And we pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen. Well, there's a lot of stuff to unpack here, and I have to be honest, as I was looking at this passage this week, this is one of the weeks where I'm like, the ESV is maybe not my favorite translation.

If you were to read it in the NIV, or the New Living Translation, or even the Christian Standard Version, it's a lot easier to follow. The ESV is a very literal translation.

So there's some terms of praise Paul makes here. There are some references Paul makes here that are not maybe immediately clear, and I want to try to help us with that today.

This, as I've said before, is occasional teaching. And what we mean is that this is teaching that the Apostle Paul is given into a specific situation and occasion here in the Corinthian church.

He gives us teaching that is couched in a controversy. He's answering critics, and we hear him sometimes doing this very directly, and then sometimes Paul is rather indirect.

He's defending his own ministry. He talks about his authority, and sometimes he's answering accusations that are being leveled at. There are a few covert shots here coming under the radar.

There's some, what we would call locking irony, some satire here as well. Paul says things like, well, we wouldn't dare compare ourselves to you guys.

He's being cynical. But in this, what I think we are essentially seeing is Paul highlights some of the marks of his ministry. Highlighting, or you could say showcasing, what are the marks of a genuine ministry, which is what he has.

The Corinthians are his church. He cares deeply about them. And the way that he has done ministry with them is sincere and authentic and genuine.

It's not derivative. He's not working off of someone else's foundation. He's not shady. He's not flashy. He doesn't try to impress them by worldly standards.

He is constructive. He is pure. He is faithful. And most importantly, he is commended by God for what he's doing. So here's how I'd like to walk through this with you today.

If you're a notator, this will help. I'd like to bring us a little bit of structure by showing us, I think, our five marks, five marks of a genuine ministry that Paul shows us.

In the way that he responds to this situation, and really even in the correction that he brings, I think he gives us five marks of a genuine ministry.

We'll start with the first one. The first one is this, mark number one, is genuine ministry builds up. Builds up. Rather than tears down.

Verse seven starts out, he says to them, look what is before your eyes. In other words, it's like, look what's in front of your face, guys. Corinthian church.

It's you guys. Look at what's obvious. The fact that you are a church. You guys are gospel people. The fact that you exist. How did that happen?

How did that bring that about? He brought it about by sending me as his apostle. And he goes on to say, if anyone is confident that he is Christ, let him remind himself that just as he is Christ, so are we.

Now what's Paul talking about? He's saying like, ah, we're Christian guys. Well, at least that, yes. But Paul's getting to his calling more specifically.

What he's trying to help them see is that he, as an apostle, has a pretty unique calling because he came from Jesus himself. You say, well, isn't everybody that does ministry like in some sense Paul, my Lord, called by Jesus?

Yes, but Paul's was, I would say, pretty specific, pretty unique. He's like, hey, Corinthian church, has anyone there had the grace of Christ literally appear to them?

I have. Has anyone had experience like I have on the Damascus road? The brilliance of Jesus literally blinding you and knocking you off your horse?

I have. The Lord spoke to me, called me by name, called me to this unique ministry. And you know, if you're ever going to still press Paul, Paul could even go further and say, you know, I had not just once, I had a couple other times where Jesus literally appeared to me.

You say, really? Did that happen? Yes, it did. Luke tells us this in the book of Acts. Acts 23, verse 11 says, the following night the Lord stood by Paul.

Acts 23:11

This is when he was under arrest, he was facing charges. And then later in one of his epistles in 2 Timothy 4, 17, and we think this is a different occasion, it happened again.

He says, the Lord stood by me and strengthened me. Can you imagine that? You're the apostle Paul, and everybody else kind of abandoned you, or you're all alone, and then all of a sudden you're in jail.

So there's Jesus up here right beside you, standing by you. I imagine Jesus putting his arm around Paul, standing by you. You're going to be able to do this, Paul.

I'm going to be with you. I'm with you right now. Paul had that claim. He goes on in verse 8. Yeah, so even if I may seem to boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave me for building you up and not destroying you, I will not be ashamed.

Now, when we hear the word boast, I don't know about you, but a lot of us think about things like bragging. You know, through the years as we've raised our kids, we tried to teach them not to brag or boast.

The Bible even says, let someone else send your praises. Don't send your own praises. But there's more to it here for Paul. Realize that he's got a little different sense in mind.

The sense here is really more of commendation. Commendation. Because that's what his rivals and these super-apostle opponents were doing. They were commending themselves.

They were commending themselves and simultaneously trying to discredit Paul. And that brought Paul in this really weird or awkward position where he had to defend himself and the rightness of his apostolic calling.

Here's what he said a little earlier in this very letter. Back in chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 12. He says, we are not committing ourselves to you again, but giving you cause to boast about us.

2 Corinthians 5:12

So that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. So please understand that this is really about Paul's legitimacy.

Not his fame, not his popularity. His legitimacy about his rightful calling and unique role as their apostle, which some have rejected. And he's saying, our authority is legit.

And the way that you know that it's legit and good is by how we use it. And how do we use it? We use it for building you up. In other words, you know that our ministry is genuine because we're in the distance of building things.

Building things. Building you as people. Constructing our ministry. We till. We plant. We water. We tend. All to produce a crop of fruit that you all are as the Corinthian church.

And honestly, this is a theme that Paul will repeat throughout this letter. Just a couple chapters from now. All ahead in chapter 12, verse 19.

He'll say things like, this is all for your up building. Here's what he'll go on to say in chapter 13. In light of his impending visit. Chapter 13, verse 10.

He says, for this reason I write these things while I'm away from you. So that when I come, I may not have to be severe in my use of the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down.

To build you up. Ladies and gentlemen, let's not forget. This is the heart and soul of genuine ministry. To build and build God's people up.

To be constructive in the faith. And help each other grow and advance. Now some people say, well, is there never a time to tear down? Didn't I read a verse in Ecclesiastes 3.3 that says there's a time to build, a time to tear down?

And yes, you did. And there is a sense that sometimes we need to confront things that are wrong. We might need to be specific about something that's off.

There are times where we need to admonish, even discipline. Maybe even separate as a measure of discipline. I mean, don't forget that just a couple of chapters ago.

Verses ago, not chapters. Just a couple of verses ago. In those first six verses we look at last two. Verse 5 talked about what? Demolishing strongholds.

Tearing down every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. So yeah, this means that sometimes there are going to be seasons of conflict.

Where bad things or bad behavior have to be confronted and called out. We know that God believes in discipline. Hebrews 12 reminds us that God disciplines His joy.

He disciplines us for our good so that we may share His holiness. But even in what might feel like a momentary tearing down, a destruction of something bad, ultimately, really, it is still the constructed act of building.

Like we said, we're doing this project out in the corner, that little coffee room. They're going to build something really nice. A nice set of restrooms, however much you get excited about that.

But anyway, we're going to have nice new restrooms. But before they can put anything new in there, you don't need to go look. Because right now they're just getting everything out.

They're doing what they call demo, demolition. They have to tear things out, tear things down before we can put new things in. And sometimes it's like that in the faith as well.

You know, we're parents, Terry and I. And throughout the years, believe it or not, it's hard to believe with preacher's kids, that sometimes they need a discipline.

Once in a great while, they get their angels. Perfect. They re-discipline them, especially when they are. And I'm well aware that they probably did not feel like it was a constructive act in the moment when we were giving them discipline.

We took things away from them sometimes, like privileges. Sometimes it came to a point where we had to administer loving physical discipline.

And I stress loving. But it was physical discipline, which by the way, the Bible prescribes. And in those moments, I'm pretty sure they probably did not feel like they were being built up.

Like being disciplined. They probably didn't feel like they were being shaped in a positive way, but they were. And that's what we as parents were doing.

We know that sometimes to be built up, there have to be painful disciplinary moments. I think this letter itself is from Paul. As he's dealing with this church in crisis.

He has to say some hard things to them sometimes. But that's still what the ministry of building is all about. And I would say that not just in the church, but in the family, if your discipline as a parent isn't doing that, if there isn't a dimension to that, you're probably not doing it right.

This is what we want for the ministry happening in our homes. We want to be building up. It's what we want for the ministry here in our church.

A ministry that genuinely builds up. That's our first one. Let's move on to number two. Mark number two is this. Genuine ministry is not concerned with comparisons.

It isn't concerned with comparisons, but only the Lord's approval. Only the Lord's approval. Think about comparisons for a moment.

The comparisons, the comparison game, I should say, was huge in Corinth. In fact, that's what Paul's rivals, the troublemakers, were all about.

The so-called super apostles, they were all about dealing in the currency of comparisons. Look at me. Look at me. And then look at that guy.

Or look at us super apostles. And remember what that loser Paul looked like? That's what's going on in verses 9 and 10 and 11. Look at verse 9.

He says, I do not want to appear frightening in my letters. Verse 10. It's like, I know what they say. I know what that one guy say. That my letters are weighty and strong, but that my bodily presence is weak.

What's happening here? Apparently, some rival super apostles are calling Paul to show up. Tough guy from afar. Real forceful when he's away.

You put the guy behind a pen and a piece of papyrus and he's a tough guy. But you know what? When he's not totally personal, you know, he's a nothing murderer.

Is that what they say? He ain't all that. He's weak. See, this is where our Corinthian super apostles really shine. They were all about the polish, the appearance.

You know, they tell us that the Greek ideal was to have a physically fit, physically impressive presence. Kind of like the statue of David type presence.

They didn't think that a person's speaker can read much weight if that speaker looked like they were frail and hobbled. And Paul, well, once God says it well, he says, Paul cut a sorry figure and was far from the Greco-Roman ideal.

Listen, Paul was not a guy who ate a good diet, probably dismissed several meals. Paul was not a guy who got the eight hours of sleep we're supposed to get.

Most of you did not go get weekly manicures or whatever it is that these people did. Most of Paul's lived experience involved sleep deprivation.

The occasional imprisonment and pretty frequent meetings, right? Have you read the book of Acts?

Along with that, the Greeks also valued a growing theatrical voice, they tell us. Being able to speak well in public with lots of wit and rhetorical flourish.

You have all the jokes, right? Like stand-in the meetings, all the quips, all the clever terms of phrase. Because Paul did not play that way.

Paul wasn't about that. He was direct. He was clear, often painfully so. And as for whether he was a compelling speaker, he ain't no opposed, right?

And there was that one time I heard this story that he put some kid to sleep and he fell out of a window. We can imagine the stories. But these Corinthian critics, these ringleaders, are trying to say, Paul, man, he cannot grant any of her sin.

Last time he was around, some of us challenged him. And you know when he did, he tucked tail and he ran. Now that's one interpretation of what happened.

We know there's another interpretation, which is that the Apostle Paul and Wisdom decided that a cooling off period would be wise. But they were taking advantageous.

And so this is why Paul says what he does in verse 11. Take a look. Verse 11, it's like, let's be clear. Let such a person who says those kinds of things understand that what we say by letter when absent, we're going to do when we're present.

We even get a little sarcastic by the time we come to verse 12. Check it out. He says, not that we would dare compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves.

This is what, again, what Scholar calls mocking self-deprecation. Oh, I wouldn't dare try to compare myself to those super apostles. He's actually going to use that term in the next chapter.

Call them super apostles. And he says, when these guys run around measuring themselves, they measure themselves by themselves. They compare themselves with each other.

And when they do that, you know what they show? They show them that they are without understanding. You say, well, that's kind of a gentle way to say it.

That's not so offensive. Or you don't tell Greeks that you're without understanding. That's what I'm saying. These guys are idiots. These guys are dimwits.

They are ignorant fools.

And you better believe that these super apostles would not like hearing this. I think about the folly of human comparison. This is no different in our day today as it was in the ancient world.

It's very much well, alive and well in our world right now. You know, it's not hard to feel better about yourself if you look at somebody else who's worse.

Right? Just pick your area of life. Maybe it's the way you dress. You're like, oh, I always feel like I look kind of sloppy and grumpy. Well, there's another person who looks worse.

I feel better. Or for some of you, maybe it's the way that you cook. Or the way you keep a home. You know, I think there's a lot of comparisons that go on in that world of homemakers.

You know, I feel so bad that I'm going over to so-and-so's house. Well, you know what I feel? That floor was a mess. Boy, I feel a lot better about myself.

People do it at work, whether it's in your job, the salary that you make, the position that you have, or in school, the grades that you earn.

It's this self-comparison with others. And we do it in all kinds of ways. We either make ourselves feel better, or sometimes we do it and we make ourselves feel worse.

It just depends on the standard. Who am I looking at? You know, sometimes comparisons can also be very friendly. And we develop what we call mutual admiration societies.

They say if you're ever going to do accountability with someone, make it more than one. Because you can get into this thing where you're a mutual admiration society.

You're good. Oh, yeah. You are too. All right. You felt good. That's what these super apostles were doing. I think about a modern day example.

I don't really follow the award shows so much in Hollywood, but I guess it's the season. So there's one next week. I think it's the Oscars. There was one last week.

There's probably one tonight I don't know about. I mean, you've got the Oscars, the Golden Globes, the Sag Awards, Saturn Awards, Satellite Awards, Uranus Awards.

And you know what happens every time? It's a room full of Hollywood elites, right? They're all dressed up looking good, falling over for each other about how talented and how wonderful all of them are.

It's like they just take turns. What was your turn now? Do you realize that? And you're so super talented and wonderful. Oh, really? I didn't say anything about you.

And they make your jokes. But that's really what it is. It's a mutual admiration. It's a mutual admiration. And there's danger for us as believers.

Because we can do both the things that the whole rivals were doing. That is, tear others down to show how much better we are. And we can also join in the mutual admiration society where everybody's awesome.

This is why scripture calls us to think about ourselves a little differently. It says to use things like sober judgment. Here's Romans chapter 12, verse 3.

Romans 12:3

Paul writes, For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, not to think of themselves more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, in accordance for each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

Genuine ministry, Paul shows us, is not concerned with comparisons. Because it knows that any meaningful approval or commendation can come only from the Lord.

Only from God. As he writes down in verse 18, at the end of the passage, he says, It's not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one who the Lord commands.

That's the one who's evaluating the Lord. And here's the thing. You're going to find out, I'm going to find out, everybody's going to find out, that peer evaluation counts for nothing on judgment day.

Nothing. Comparing ourselves to others is not going to help. Listen, I got news for you, but don't ask me for a pastoral recommendation to heaven.

It's not worth the paper it would be printed on. My commendation of either myself or you is not going to amount to anything after the early days, so to speak.

Only the Lord's commendation counts. And it's actually 100% his commendation that all of us need. And if you're here today as a Christian, if you're a believer, it's 100% his commendation, not condemnation,

commendation, his approval that you already have. Because you're in Christ. Because you've taken advantage of his substitutionary sacrifice through the merit given to you.

And when you have that, listen, you have all the commendation and approval you will ever need. You become one who, last part of verse 18 again, one who the Lord commends.

What's the second mark of genuine ministry Paul shows us? It's a ministry that is not concerned with comparisons, but that knows it's only the Lord's commendation that matters.

Let's move on. Next couple marks will go more quickly. Mark number three. Mark number three. Genuine ministry happens in the sphere assigned to us.

Genuine ministry happens in the sphere assigned to us. Look down in verse 13. What's Paul saying? He says, We will not boast beyond limits, but will boast only with regard to the area of influence

God has assigned to us to reach even to you. He's talking about the Corinthians. To come even to where you guys are important. In other words, Paul is telling us that God assigns the boundaries and limits of our ministry, of our work.

And he's saying, Hey, he called me to come all the way to you guys. There was nothing when I showed up in Corinth, Paul could have said. Now there's you.

Now there's your church. And what had happened is that these so-called super apostles again that swept in at a later time, made trouble for Paul, and they made trouble for him by first trying to, what we would say maybe, sidle up to his work.

I don't know if you remember the old show, Seinfeld. I don't recommend all the episodes. There are some funny ones. There's this episode called The Sidler.

Anybody remember that? Where one of the main characters, Elaine, she is at work, and she's trying to get credit for the work that she does with her boss, who's a very difficult place.

And she's standing there in front of him, and he's looking over her work, some story that she wrote, and he says, Well done! Good job, the both of you!

And this guy just appears out in front of there, spying a big dumb grin on his face. And it goes on, and it happens throughout the episode. He didn't even do anything.

He's just showing up to take credit. That's kind of what Paul's rivals have done. Except Paul wasn't even there. They're like, No, here you go, Paul's not even there.

They want credit for another man's work. It was Paul who came and planted this church. Paul watered it, and fertilized it, and it grew. And they've signed him up to take the credit.

Paul's like, We don't do that. We do the ministry, God has a sign of this. In the spirit, he has a sign of this. We don't run around trying to cozy up, sidle off other people's successes.

Verse 14, For we are not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach you, as if we never came to you guys. No, we were the first to come all the way to you, with the gospel of Christ.

Verse 15, We do not boast beyond limits, in the labors of others.

When we think about this mark today, we reflect on this, and I think there are some lessons here for us. A couple of them. Number one, we should do ministry in our own sphere.

That's the first lesson. The second lesson is, we should not try to claim credit for ministry in other spheres. Now when we say minister in your sphere, what do we mean?

We mean that we recognize the station God has assigned to us. Are you in a marriage? Great. Work in that. Invest in that. Don't become one of those, you know, experts in marriage that has a bad one at all.

Are you a parent? Same thing. Focus on your children. Raise them in the knowledge of God. Don't neglect them, hire a nanny, go be some kind of influencer, mom or dad or whatever.

If you're a person who is at work, and you've got a field there, don't spend all your time meeting with other people from the church, trying to tell them how to be an evangelist, if you never say anything about your faith before.

We minister in our own sphere. I know that for myself as a pastor. You know what pastors are really getting into now? Podcasts. Like not listening to them, creating them.

I've had people even ask me, no wonder you're going to start a podcast. I do not feel compelled to start a podcast. Neither do I at this point, nor do I feel to write a book to try to share my great wisdom with everybody far and wide.

I need to be a faithful pastor here, to you. And if God should ever extend my ministry at some point, well, then I'll have to make that clear to you.

But I've been with far too many people, I think you have, over the years, who wanted to be these great teachers, or influencers, or leaders, even in ministry circles, who did not have things like a good home life back home.

Or whose kids are kind of a disaster. Listen, taking a mission trip to go help somebody else's kids learn about Jesus, that's great, but don't do it with the neglect of your own.

Or going somewhere to share the love of Jesus in an exotic location, which usually coincides with bad weather here, and good weather somewhere else.

Not to name names, but, you know, people hear themselves in, and nods, and mishwakas, and rangers, and those who want to need Jesus too.

Minister in your spirit. And that's the second lesson. The one about not trying to claim credit, for the fruitful ministry of others. We're really kind of bad at this in the church today.

I'm just being sort of, I'll paint a broad brush. But generally speaking, a lot of churches, and honestly, a lot of our pastors like me, may hold some of you, we want the appearance of success.

And some are willing to, what I would describe as, finish out what other people have spent years, sometimes even decades, investing in. What I'm talking about, it's like a life-talk analogy.

My father-in-law does this. He's got land, and sometimes he'll purchase, you know, steers at a certain age, and then he'll finish them out in the pasture.

Well, he didn't greet them. He's just doing a job, at the very end. And I think sometimes our ministries, and leaders like me, get so caught up in wanting to finish out the sheep, we forget that we're not the ones that started them.

We didn't help them grow. And we're all too willing to take them. This is why we don't try to do church growth here, by sheep stealing. You have a good faith in church, we want you to stay in it.

Don't run somewhere else. You say, well, I have some problems in this church. Well, they better be big ones, like Dr. Oral, or Moral, or something that's unaddressed.

We want to do ministry in our own sphere, and we don't want to fall into the trap, of trying to claim credit, for the ministry of others. That's a third mark of genuine ministry, that it will happen in the sphere of science.

Let's go on to number four. Fourth mark. Number four. Genuine ministry should be extending, and expanding. Extending, and expanding. I think of it this way.

Extending, as in extending deeper. And expanding, as in expanding outward. Check out verse 15 again. Paul says, we do not boast beyond the limit of the labor of others, but our goal is that as your faith increases, as it deepens,

our area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged. That sounds like expansion, doesn't it? Faith increasing, as you're deepening, that's what Paul wants, that's his goal, so that the other fruitful mark can follow along with it, which is the enlarging, the expanding of ministry.

You know, as my kids get older, it gets a little easier to talk about them. I'll try not to name names, but you can guess which two. Two of our kids are kind of wrong, right?

They're out on their own day. And they've settled in their own places. By the way, I don't know if it's having a baby. Does anybody? Did I have a baby?

I think there's a gap. I think there's a gap. I think there's a gap. People are telling me I'm supposed to announce that. It's weird, but I'm going to be a grandpa.

But our kids deserve to get in their own places and their own homes and having kids now. They also have home churches now, which is really great.

And it brings us as parents great joy to see them not just like, I've got a church I attend, we see them serving. We see them serving weekly.

My son and my daughter are on their church's four-street team. I mean, I like to have bigger. My son-in-law's a great guitarist. My son in Bloomington just joined the 3D team, which is really neat.

We've got like a gazillion undergrad college students and nobody to do the work of ministry. So they need him. We've invested in our kids and not just hearing them.

I look at you guys. I look at this church, Redeemer. You know, you get credit for this because they grew up here with all of you and many of you have yourselves poured into my kids, for which I'm grateful.

And to see them now committed to their local churches, serving their local churches, Embassy Church in Bloomington, Great Church, the Fields Church in Westfield, if you ever moved to India, Great Church.

I consider that expansion. Your work, our work of extending and deepening the faith of our kids is expanding now to the benefit of other churches.

And that is awesome. That's really cool. And not just the ones who go away. You know what we have here also? We have some of these kids that are kind of the same age as my kids that have stayed and that have maybe gone off to college and come back.

And they're investing in this church now too. That's wonderful. Paul wanted to get this Corinthian church healed and healthy. He was going to come very shortly and deal once and through all for this with this rival faction.

Deal with the super apostle problem. Like he says back in verse 11, those forceful, lady things that we say by the other when we're absent, we're going to show up and get ready super apostles.

You're going to see them in person when we're present. And I understand that once that was done, once this church came through this, Paul had dreams for them.

Not just dreams. He had a calling from the Lord for that. For them to help him and the other apostles keep us expanding ministry outward. We know that Paul's vision as the apostle to the Gentiles given to him by the Lord was to expand westward.

And so he goes to Palestine and he goes up a little bit and east, I'm sorry, west into Turkey, modern day Turkey. Ephesus is there, all the churches in Asia Minor.

Now he's in Greece, Macedonia in Greece. And where's he going to go next? Rome, Italy? You know, he even talked about going further than that.

And here's what he wrote. I like this from Romans 15 verse 20. This is what Paul said, Romans 15 verse 20. Thus I made it my ambition to preach the gospel not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation.

Romans 15:20 Romans 15:20

Now I'm not saying that we should never build on someone else's foundation. There are in fact times, yes we should. But Paul had a unique calling.

Paul was an apostle in every sense of the word sent to go to take the gospel where he had never gone. The spread of Christianity was brand new at this point.

And a couple verses after this one I just read in Romans 15, he's going to talk about Spain. He wanted to do that part. And according to some early church traditions, we think he's actually able to do that before his final prisoner.

Yeah, Paul would see so much incredible fruit for the gospel. And after all his work was done, he would see not only how God would use him as an evangelist, we know that he would also use him as an inspired writer to write a big portion of our New Testament.

But you know what? All that Paul did, all that he wrote, all that he was, Paul never took credit for anything. He would not really boast in it as if any of it were his own doing.

And that's because I will submit to you, Paul clearly understood what's going to be the last mark we're going to look at today, the last, fifth and final mark of genuine ministry.

And that mark is this, number five. Genuine ministry boasts only in the Lord. Boasts only in the Lord. Look again at the last half of verse 16.

He says, so that we may preach the gospel and it lands beyond you without boasting of work already done in another's area of influence. But then, it's almost like Paul catches himself with all this talk about boasting, about ministry.

And so, what he does is he basically offers a quote from the Old Testament. He goes on in verse 17 to quote from the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah.

And he makes it very, very clear and very firm about who the boasting should be in. And he says this, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.

Verse 17. This is from actually Jeremiah's book, chapter 9, Jeremiah 9, 24. Jeremiah wrote, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me.

Now, back in Jeremiah's day, the prophet was, in this passage comparing inappropriate boasting with appropriate boasting. And what he said was, you know, we don't boast in things like our wisdom, we don't boast in our might, we don't boast in our riches, the only thing worth boasting

in and placing our confidence in is in the fact that we know the Lord. That we know that personally because of what our Savior has done for us.

that we are known by the God of history because of the reconciling work of the cross that we have as verse 18 says again, the Lord's, not condemnation, but the Lord's commendation, which surpasses what any human being could give us.

It's just like what Jesus once told his own disciples after he sent them out and they came back and they were all excited about their new powers of exorcism.

This is what he said in Luke chapter 10 verse 20. He said to them, nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

Luke 10:20

So if I could take a moment and just speak to my fellow believer, I would say this, I would ask you this, have you been fruitful as a Christian in your life?

maybe you've led someone to Christ? Have you discipled someone, mentored someone, served someone? Are you currently raising a believing family?

Or maybe it's mostly done, have you raised a multi-generational believing family? Boast in the Lord. Boast only in the Lord. You know, I'm so impressed with some of you parents and your little ones.

Some of you are so good at building the stories of the Bible into your kids before they can even read. I hope that some of your kids can read Bible stories and they don't read, but they know them so well.

That's wonderful. That's great. But boast only in the Lord. Whether it's a strong spiritual legacy with your children, or maybe with your grandchildren, or great grandchildren, credit the Lord.

Praise the Lord. That's what boasting in the Lord is. It's praising God. It's bragging about the things God does and has done and will do. That's what it means to boast in the Lord.

Talk about how great He is. Celebrate, testify to the great and wonderful things He has done. Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. God.

So those are the five marks. Five marks all shows us of what genuine ministry looks like. And my prayer this morning is that maybe one or two of these marks will encourage you.

Or maybe they will inspire you. Maybe even challenge you to faithfully engage in a ministry in a way and keep it true. Genuinely. Genuinely.

Let's break that, shall you? Can I ask you if you could stand? Would you stand for me? We're going to sing once more. Or we do. Let's work the Lord.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your faithful Apostle Paul. Lord, just realizing that the hero that he is to many of us today, Lord, as he was walking his ways, writing these letters, dealing with these situations, he did not yet know the outcome.

And what an incredible testimony is faith in him. We thank you for this kind of obedience. Lord, it is in many ways a challenge, a model for us to follow.

He is, like many others, Hebrews 11, one of the heroes of the faith. And so, Lord, as we look at our individual lives, whatever station we're in, whatever sphere you assign to us right now, at the job that we have, in our homes, at the school

where we go to get educated, whatever our sphere is, we pray that you will help us to engage in a genuine ministry. Guard us from self-commendation, guard us from boasting, guard us from the comparison factor, and, Lord, help us to serve you in

ways that will be good for our growth and that will bring you all the glory that you so richly and rightly deserve. You gave us your one and only Son, Jesus.

And so, Lord, it's with joy and thanks that we can sing about that gift. And so we want to do that right now. We pray all these things in the name of Jesus.

Amen. Amen.