Regarding Leaders | 1 Corinthians 4:1-5

Well, the subject of our time in God's words

this morning is authority. Authority and our

response to authority, which is a trickier subject

than you might imagine. And maybe you've thought

about this, maybe you haven't. When the average

person out there in the world thinks of the term

authority, he or she likely thinks of someone

who has what? Power. Someone who has power. Someone

who makes decisions, someone who calls the shots,

somebody who's able to direct or command a group

of people below them to do whatever they say

to do. And so we naturally associate authority

with certain roles and positions in society,

in government, in the military, in the business

world, and to some extent in the church. There's

also another side of authority, a darker side.

And this comes as no surprise to those of us

who recognize that we live in a fallen world.

Authority is often abused. Isn't that true? There

are folks out there that somehow grab hold of

power and then they wield it for their own benefit.

They manipulate, they control others in the process

with no integrity, no accountability, really

just pure narcissism. And that's become so common

in our country over the past 20 years or so that

trust in our institutions has literally dropped

like a rock. And one of the sad consequences

of that is we're seeing that as a culture, we

no longer honor our leaders. We no longer respect

them. In fact, when we hear the term authority

or we think about somebody in power, we roll

our eyes and we get sarcastic and sometimes we

get angry and hostile. about those who are in

authority. But that's the fallen world we live

in, right? So we sort of understand that. What

about God's kingdom? Is it different? God, as

we know, has a different view of both authority

and how we should respond to it. In his kingdom,

we start with the foundational truth that he

is the ultimate source of all authority, right?

And he is the ultimate standard for authority

as well. Pontius Pilate found this out, right,

while interrogating Christ. He found out that

no human being has any power or any authority

apart from God permitting him or her to have

it for his purposes. And because God has laid

out the standard for authority in his word, we

would do well as believers to see it as a sacred

trust. If we have authority, it is a sacred trust

that should be exercised in a way that reflects

God's rule and God's justice and God's goodness.

In a practical sense, that means authority is

to be exercised not for ourselves, but for other

people. The proper response to authority is honor

and respect, and we have to get this right. And

we have this supreme example of this in the person

of Christ. Think about it for a second. Here's

Jesus, a perfect man, and not only that, he's

God incarnate, which means during his time, even

on the earth, in the flesh, he walks around with

all authority. All authority, he's God. And yet

with all that authority, what does he say to

his disciples? I have not come to be served,

but to serve and to give my life as a ransom

for many. Now, to the natural man's ear, that

just sounds crazy. The natural man says, hold

on a second. If you're an authority, people serve

you, not the other way around. But Jesus says

no. To his disciples, he made this clear. He

said, The rulers of the Gentiles out there in

the world, what do they do? They lord their power

over others. But among my followers, it's not

to be that way. It's not to be that way among

you. In fact, whoever wishes to become great

among you shall be your slave. And whoever wishes

to be first among you must serve you. And then

later, the Lord gives this great tangible picture

of what he meant. takes a water basin and he

takes a towel and he does the lowest form of

a slave. He washes the feet of those who he has

authority over. He has the authority, right?

And then he says to them, do you understand what

I've just done? And he explains. He says, you

call me teacher. You call me Lord and you're

right for so I am. In other words, yes, I'm your

authority. So if I, your Lord, washed your feet,

You ought to do what? Wash other people's feet.

So he affirms both ends of that principle. Yes,

I'm the authority, but still I've washed your

feet as those under my authority. How important

would that have been for the apostles? How important

would that have been, right? These are specially

chosen men, right? They're chosen to build the

foundation of the church. Some of them to actually

write the inspired words of scripture. How easy

would it have been for them to get puffed up

with pride? How easy. How easy would it have

been for them to use the authority that Jesus

had given them as apostles for their own benefit.

But as eyewitnesses to the life and the teaching

of Christ, they certainly knew better. Now, fast

forward into the church age, these same principles

of authority and response are still in effect

in the kingdom today. God has established offices

of authority in this church. There's two of them,

right? We have presbyteros or episkopos, and

we translate those as elders or overseers. And

then secondly, we have diakonos. We have deacons.

And that's it. There's just two offices in the

church. No matter how many times we create ecclesiastical

structures in our own wisdom, God has only given

us those two offices. That's it. But do they

have real authority in the church, elders and

deacons? They do. God calls certain individuals

into these offices to lead his church. He confirms

authority to them, but it's always under his

greater authority, right? No elder or pastor

is the head of the church. Only Christ has that

title and role. So those of us who serve as elders

here at Oak Hill, we are what we call under shepherds.

We serve at the beck and call of the good shepherd,

under shepherds. And what is the calling of a

church elder? Is it to command and direct and

control people? No, it's to serve those who are

in our care. We're the ones now we're supposed

to grab a water basin and a towel. And so what

do we do? We teach and we shepherd and we feed.

And we guide, and we care for, and we protect,

and we oversee, and we exhort, and encourage,

and comfort, and admonish, and if necessary,

lay down our lives for the sheep. Friends, that

is not how the world views authority. Right?

Jesus has turned everything upside down with

his example. But as elders in this church, we

understand that. We see it. This is God's way.

This is what we're called to do. as servants.

And elders are not the only ones, by the way,

who have a calling from God. You, the congregation,

also have a calling to respond to the under shepherds

in a biblical way. And that means both ends of

the spectrum, not to put us on a pedestal that

we don't deserve to be on, but also not to disrespect

your leaders. You're to show honor. You're to

give respect. You're to listen to our teaching

and counsel. Follow our voices as we lead. all

without grumbling and without a critical spirit.

And that's not always an easy thing to do. You

know why? Because church leaders aren't perfect.

Sometimes we miss the mark. We come up short.

And by the way, congregations are not perfect.

They often don't respond as they should. So it's

a delicate dance that we do in the church, isn't

it? It's a delicate dance that we live out together.

And it's a dance floor that has all kinds of

potholes in it. that we could stumble and hurt

ourselves if we don't pay close attention to

what God has said on this subject and get it

right. So let's see what Paul has to say about

this. Grab your Bibles and let's go to 1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4 and see what Paul has to say to the

Corinthians about this very subject of authority

and the congregation's response. 1 Corinthians

4, we're just going to cover five verses this

morning, verses 1 through 5. And it's important

before we just start reading that you understand

that what you're about to hear from Paul is very

case specific. It's very case specific to the

situation that he was facing in Corinth in the

first century. Remember this? What has he been

talking about for all three of the previous chapters?

This idea that the believers in this church were

lining up behind certain church leaders. And

they were putting some of them up on a pedestal,

heightening them as these are the best guys and

growing prideful. Yeah, I'm on that team. I'm

on team Jeff Steele. I'm on team Adam Sanchez,

whatever. They're putting them on a pedestal

and saying, look at the team I'm on. And then

by doing that in the process, downgrading other

church leaders and looking down upon other church

members because they've lined up under, I won't

give a name there. Right? And obviously this

was causing division in the church. And you see

in Paul's language in the first three chapters,

he's furious about this. So in these five verses

we're about to read, it's Paul's goal to set

the believers straight on how they should regard

their leaders. And this is what I want you, the

congregation, to hear this morning. How should

you regard your leaders? Fair warning, there's

some things in here that Paul says that may surprise

you, but we'll get to the bottom of it before

we're done this morning. Let's look at the text.

Verse one. Paul says, let a man regard us in

this manner. You ready? Regard us leaders in

this manner as servants of Christ and stewards

of the mysteries of God. In this case, moreover,

it's required of stewards that one be found trustworthy.

But to me, it's a very small thing that I may

be examined by you or by any human court. In

fact, I do not even examine myself. For I am

conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am

not by this acquitted, but the one who examines

me is the Lord. Therefore, do not go on passing

judgment before the time, but wait until the

Lord comes who will bring both light to the things

hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives

of men's hearts, and then each man's praise will

come to him from God. Okay, we're going to work

our way through this because it's not a simple

passage. Think about this for a second. Examining

church leaders. Examining church leaders, passing

judgment on them. Have you ever done that before?

Every one of us has done this. Let's just have

a group counseling session here. We've all done

this, and we need to be careful. It seems that

we do this for a number of reasons. I'm going

to give you a bunch of reasons why we do this.

First of all, there's something about humanity.

We like to rank things. Have you noticed this?

This is better than that. That is better or more

interesting than this. We like top 10 lists.

We like bottom 10 lists. Best burger in Santa

Clarita. Worst intersection for traffic. Whatever

it is, right? We like to rank things. That's

number one. Second thing is, is we really like

spicy opinions. This is our culture today. We

like to share our spicy opinions and we like

to hear other spicy opinions. And it's easy to

do that. We can stand far off and we can critique

leaders, right? We can do it positively or we

can do it negatively. We just like spicy opinions.

Third, we always seem to think that we could

do a better job than the people in authority.

This is true of our jobs. It's true of the church.

We just think, look, I would do it this way or

I wouldn't do it that way. And we have strong

opinions about this. Even if we've never led

a thing in our lives, we are absolutely sure

we could do better than that guy, the person

in charge. It's our nature. And finally, fourth,

we like to do exactly what the Corinthians were

doing in Paul's day, choosing this guy over that

guy. Lining up behind certain people. That's

my guy. That preacher, that guy, he's the best

by far. Everybody else pales in comparison. And

we put them up on this pedestal, right? And we

turn servants of God into celebrities and idols.

And sometimes in the process by doing that, we

downgrade and we harshly critique other leaders

who don't live up to the standard of my guy.

Because every guy should be this because he's

the best. And we tend to do this. And what Paul

is saying in this passage is we all need to stop.

Just stop doing this. On one end of the spectrum,

stop elevating leaders beyond their calling.

Stop seeing them as infallible. Stop seeing them

as beyond question. Stop hanging on their every

word. Stop seeing them as the pastor of their

church. It's Jesus's church. It's not their church.

And that guy who you think is so great is no

greater than his fellow elders. So stop doing

that. On the other end of the spectrum, stop

dishonoring other leaders. Refuse to play the

gossip game or the ranking game. Don't make their

work in the church a burden and don't undermine

their authority in the body by your opinions.

Recall what Paul said of himself and his fellow

leaders back in chapter three. Remember, he said,

what is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants.

Servants, that's it. Servants through whom you

believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to

each one. In other words, don't elevate us. Everything

that we have accomplished is because God has

done a work in Corinth. He gave us the opportunity.

to come and share the gospel. You believe, but

not because of us, right? It was Christ who brought

you to saving faith through our feeble words,

so give him glory. We're nothing more than his

servants. Now, look at verse one. Paul comes

right back to this very same message. Look at

verse one. Let a man regard us or think of us

in this manner. First of all, as servants of

Christ. Now, this is another one of those places

in the New Testament where the original Greek

gives us a very important interpretation. Koine

Greek has a whole number of words that it uses

to describe various levels of servitude. Back

in chapter 3, when Paul talked about himself

and Apollos as servants, he uses the word diakonos.

That's the same word that we use in English for

deacon. In literal terms, it means somebody who

executes the commands of a superior, executes

the commands of his master. That's the first

word. There's oikites, second word, which refers

to a domestic servant, somebody who is blessed

to not be sweating out in the fields, but is

able to work in the master's household. Then

there's doulos, and some of you are familiar

with this word. This is somebody who is literally

owned by another person. This is a true slave

in every way. And then there's a fourth word.

And this is the word that Paul uses in this passage.

It's a unique word. It's a shocking word. It

refers to the lowest possible form of slavery,

even more so than a doulos. It's the word, there

we go, huperetes. And get this, it refers to

an under rower. An under rower. A man who labored

as a slave rower on the bottom level of what

we call a trireme. Okay, historical nerds. Historical

nerds. Ancient Greek and Roman triremes. These

were the naval warships of Paul's day. And they

had two or three levels of rowers, of oars, depending

on the size of the boat. Each level was filled

with slaves. Slaves who rowed in unison, propelling

the boat forward in the water. Obviously, this

was not a glamorous job. In fact, it was a brutal

life that was lived at the end of a whip. And

the conditions were awful. And it was dangerous,

too. If the enemy rammed your boat, and this

was the main way they sunk each other in naval

warfare in that day, they would ram each other.

If you got rammed, you're either on the side

of the boat that got hit, and you're probably

killed there, or on the other side of the boat,

you were just the first to drown. This is not

a great thing. So with that background information,

now imagine Paul is writing to a Greek audience

who fully understand the word that he's just

used. Imagine how shocking this would have been.

That Paul, an apostle, would speak of himself

in such low terms. But the point he's making

is this. Stop lining up behind any of us. Me,

Apollos, Peter, any of us. Think of us like this.

Think of us as slave rowers. That would have

been shocking. The other important thing to see

in this first statement is how Paul refers to

himself as a specific type of slave. What does

he write? I am a slave of Christ. Now, you may

not think that's important, but it is. Not a

slave to the believers in Corinth, but a slave

of Christ. And you might think, well, hold on

a second. I thought church leaders served the

congregation. Yes, we do. But the focus of our

service is always to Christ alone. And if we're

serving him well, guess what? We'll serve you

well. And that's a really important distinction.

How many times do church leaders think, I've

got to constantly serve the congregation, meet

all of their needs, and they end up compromising

because of the needs of the people. We put Christ

first. And if we serve him well, we serve you

well. Does that make sense? That's an important

distinction. Now, before we go forward. A clarification,

when Paul says to the congregation, you should

regard me as a lowly slave, know this now, that

does not invalidate his authority as an apostle.

This is part of that delicate dance, right? That

is still his calling, it is still his role, and

the congregation still must honor him as an apostle,

even as they try to view him as this lowly slave

ruler. That's the delicate dance. The church

leader does have authority from God, but his

life is to be marked by humility. He walks in

the footsteps of Christ, right? He walks in the

footstep of the one who's God incarnate, who

humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point

of death on a cross. That's the model for every

single church leader. That's the mark of humility.

And this is how Paul postured himself in all

of his letters. How many times does he say things

like, I'm the chief of sinners. I'm the least

of the apostles. I'm a slave rower, a galley

slave. This is what marks the greatest servants

in the kingdom of God. What did John the Baptist

say? Jesus must increase while I decrease. How

often do we see that today? How rare is it these

days to find that kind of humility among church

leaders? That's why Paul's laying this out. So

elders, deacons, as you hear this, ministry leaders,

hear this message. It's not just written to the

congregation. It's written to us as leaders.

That's how we're to posture ourselves. It's rare

to find these days. It's more common today to

see pastors and preachers and elders and worship

leaders doing what? Drawing attention to themselves,

to themselves, to their People actually say this,

my ministry. My ministry. Not God's ministry

that I've been stewarding, but my ministry. Right?

To their ministries. To the size of their churches.

To the popularity of their social media. And

sadly, we have congregations that don't discern

that that's not right. And what do they do? They

encourage it. They encourage that drawing attention

to their church leaders. They promote those guys.

Not Paul. He says, no. When it's all said and

done, let it be said that we were nothing more

than servants of Christ. When you look at my

life, what I want you to say is this. He pulled

his oar well. And that's it. And let this just

wash over you as you look at the nature of the

American church today. Church leaders, this is

the humility we need to have. We're slave rowers.

All right, let's look at the second characteristic

that Paul points to here. Let a man regard us

in this way, first as servants of Christ, and

second as stewards of the mysteries of God. Now,

what's a steward? A steward in the ancient world

was still a servant to a master, but a much higher

rank than that slave rower. Stewards in the Roman

world were responsible as managers. of a household

under the authority of their master. Managers

of a household under the authority of their master.

So to be a steward was a position of trust. A

Roman property owner would have, say, a farm

or a vineyard, and he would employ all kinds

of servants to work the land and run the business.

But his steward was the one who would handle

the oversight of the whole operation, including

managing the finances and assigning duties to

all the other servants. It's an important role.

So he was a slave in relation to his master,

but an overseer in relation to his fellow workers.

Now think about that in terms of being an elder

in a church. A slave in relation to his master,

but an overseer in relation to his fellow workers.

That is exactly what we're to be as elders. And

as stewards, apostles like... Paul and Apollos

had a certain authority. They could act on behalf

of their master, Jesus, but they're still slaves

to him, still his servants. And their focus was

not on pleasing all the people. It was on pleasing

the master because only to the master will we

give accountability someday, will we give an

answer to, only to the master. And what specifically

does Paul say we're supposed to be stewards of?

Paul says the mysteries of God. Now, what does

that mean? Well, it generally refers to Truths

that were sort of hidden in the shadows in the

Old Testament that have now become revealed to

us in the new. And of course, basically what

he's saying is that's the revelation of God's

one and only son, right? The redeemer and the

savior. You're charged with revealing the mysteries

about Christ, his person and his work. So as

good stewards, the job of the local church elder

team is to take those mysteries and just deliver

them to the other workers in the house. That's

our job. That means putting in the hard work

that we have to do to study and to pray and to

learn and to grow, but then just coming here

and delivering that word to the congregation.

I was thinking about this last night. I was like,

what practical thing could I compare this to?

And I thought of, I'm like an Uber Eats delivery

guy. That's my job. I didn't make the food. It

came from one greater than myself. My job is

to just bring it to you hot and to bring it to

you intact, right? I can't drop it or mess it

up, right? But it's not my food. I didn't make

it. I'm a delivery guy. Here you go. It's delicious.

Eat up. That's the job of a steward. Make sense?

I should have worn a shirt. It would have been

good. Okay, then look at verse 2. Here's what's

required of church leaders. In this case, moreover,

it's required of stewards that one be found trustworthy.

Look, guys, there is the standard for a steward.

Trustworthy. Listen, it's not, he didn't write,

you know, you gotta be really brilliant or really

creative. You gotta be charming, right? He didn't

say any of that. It's not about how big your

church is or how many books you've written, how

many followers you have on social media. The

standard is simple. The standard is faithfulness.

Trustworthiness. And this is hard to find these

days. A church leader that just does what the

master says to do. Trustworthy. Fulfill your

calling and the role I've given to you, Jesus

says. That's all I'm asking. Fulfill your role.

Do what I've told you. Don't cut corners. Be

consistent. Make sure the flock knows that they

can count on you. That's important. Make sure

the flock knows. they can count on you. Dispense

the mysteries of scripture, teach, shepherd,

oversee, and love the body. Ministry's not that

complex when you break it down like this. We've

made it bigger than we probably should have in

the American church. Now, let me point out something

else here. Yes, elders have a specifically called

role to play in the local church, but you should

know this, all Christians are stewards. Every

one of you in this audience, is a steward in

some capacity. Did you hear the call to worship

passage that Grant read earlier from 1 Peter

4? It says this, as each one has received a special

gift, each one is, everybody here, employed in

serving one another as good stewards of what?

Of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks

is to do it as one speaking the utterances of

God. Whoever serves is to do so as one who is

serving by the strength which God supplies, so

that in all things God may be glorified through

Jesus Christ. And guys, especially here in the

church, we're all stewards of God's grace. What

kind of grace? The grace he poured out on you

when he gave you spiritual gifts. And we all

have them. The question is, are we stewarding

them well? Each of you is called to exercise

your talents and your gifts to serve the people

around you so that when that Bema seat judgment

comes that we talked about a few weeks ago, praise

will come from the Lord and they'll say, well

done. Well done, good and faithful steward. And

I have to tell you here at Oak Hill, we have

some really faithful servants, right? I know

I said last week, I'll say it again. I know I'm

preaching to the choir because you guys get it.

But some of us need to slow down enough to stop

and wonder, How do all these things happen in

our church? And who does them? Can I encourage

you to do this every once in a while? Stop and

slow down and say, you know, a lot of things

just magically happen around here. Like little

gremlins are setting things up. No, they're faithful

servants. On Sundays, who gets here at the crack

of dawn? Starts the setup process. And who is

closing things up long after you've either arrived

for lunch or gone home for your nap? Somebody's

closing things up. Who loads up all the stuff

that you see here and gets it packed in our shed?

Who creates all those slides that you see on

the screen? They're not gremlins. Who's in charge

of making sure the sound is correct? We walk

in and take it for granted, don't we? It sounds

great. AV's really working. Who arranges the

songs and coordinates all the musicians? Do you

think that's easy, what our band does every Sunday?

Who does that? Who schedules all the volunteers

each week that make this church run? Who plans

out the acorn lessons? Who made the coffee this

morning? And who brought the donuts? No, I just

showed up and there they were again. During the

week, who edits and uploads all the sermons and

puts them up on YouTube? Who manages church center?

Who posts the social media stuff? Who's overseeing

the accounting for the church and paying the

bills and tracking our finances? Who's managing

all the contracts we have as a church? And listen,

I could go on and on and on, but you get the

point, right? It's not magic. It's not gremlins.

These are faithful servants. They're not doing

the glamorous work of the kingdom. They're just

being faithful to what God has called them to.

And they're just as important as this guy who

stands up here and flaps his gums every Sunday.

Because without them, church doesn't happen.

The body doesn't function as it should. Everybody

matters here. It's essential work. Not glamorous,

but essential. They're volunteering their time

and their energy as good stewards of the manifold.

grace of God. So as a congregation, don't rank

them. Don't pass judgment on them. Just honor

their service to Christ and to his church. Amen?

So as a summary here, catch what Paul said thus

far. Church leaders, pastors and elders, we row

at the bottom of the boat and we propel the church

forward. That's our job. And then we oversee

God's household by leading the other servants

into faithful work for the benefit of our master.

It's a beautiful metaphor, is it not? It is.

Okay, good. I'm just checking. Are you tracking

with me? Okay. Now, when we come to verse 3,

this is where it gets controversial. He says,

but to me, it's a very small thing. It's of little

importance that I'm judged by you. Raise your

hand if that surprises you just a bit. Or by

any human court, he says. It's of very little

importance. And again, let me say this. This

is very case specific to the Corinthians in this

day. So make sure you know that. It's funny,

when you read through 1 Corinthians, and especially

you read into 2 Corinthians, you find that there

are believers in Corinth and in the surrounding

area who are questioning Paul's apostolic authority.

They're literally criticizing his work. How would

you like that on your tombstone? I question Paul.

But it happens, right? The language is very severe.

So it's as if Paul is saying here, look, I know

what you say about me. I know what you think

of my work, but your opinions, they're of little

importance to me. I'm not here to please you.

I'm not here to win your approval. Let any court

of human beings judge me. It is insignificant

compared to God's judgment of me. Think about

that. And this is the reality of life in the

ministry, which many of us here can personally

testify to. Criticism and second guessing, it

is just something that you learn to live with

in ministry life. I wish it weren't so, but that

is the reality. Anybody who's done ministry can

tell you, some folks are going to honor you and

appreciate you. Other folks are going to pass

judgment and downgrade you. And it's the product

of some people that are still immature in the

faith or spiritually unhealthy. refusing to really

follow what Scripture says. And Paul obviously

knew this, and he was compassionate. He understood

there's a lot of critics out there that need

to grow up. They need to mature in the faith.

They need to read the Scriptures. But he's pretty

honest about how difficult this is. In fact,

I'm going to read you a section from 2 Corinthians

6. Listen to the severity that Paul is wrestling

with. He says, So that the ministry will not

be discredited, but in everything, commanding

ourselves as servants, that's diakonos, servants

of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in

hardships, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments,

in riots, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger.

Now raise your hand if you want to go into ministry.

I know some of you do. Be careful. Be wise, it's

not glamorous. Listen to Paul. Then he does say,

look, here's a list of the really beautiful things

about ministry. He says, in purity, in knowledge,

in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit,

in genuine love, in the word of truth, in the

power of God, by the weapons of righteousness

for the right hand and the left. And that is

also a part of the story of anybody in ministry.

There's some incredible joys to it. And then

in this third section, he goes on to describe

both ends of the spectrum. Look, he says this,

by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good

report, regarded as deceivers and yet true, as

unknown yet well known, as dying yet behold we

live, as punished yet not put to death, as sorrowful

yet also rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich,

as having nothing yet possessing all. How beautiful

is that? How beautiful. That is the life of a

slave rower. And that is the life of a steward

in God's house. It can be very painful at times,

and it can be so joyful at other times. And week

after week, you battle and you grind and you

endure by the strength that God provides. And

if along the way people misjudge your character

or question your motives, all you can do is hand

that over to the Lord and say, It's not public

opinion that matters. It's what God thinks that

ultimately matters. And Paul's whole point in

these last three verses is simply this. The judgments

of all human beings are inherently flawed. Let

me say it again. The judgment of all of us as

human beings are inherently flawed. In fact,

look what he writes at the end of verse three.

He says, I don't even judge myself. Don't overanalyze

that apart from the context because in other

places in scripture, we're explicitly told, examine

yourself, right? What Paul's saying here, he's

making the bigger point. He says, like all human

beings, even I'm limited in my ability to judge

myself. This is true of everybody. I'm a sinner

with biases. I have blind spots. So I might not

see things as clearly as I should about me. And

so he writes in verse 4, look, I'm conscious

of nothing. I'm not aware of anything against

myself. So Paul's done enough self -examination

to say, look, I don't know anything glaring about

my life that's disqualifying. But then he writes,

look, yet I'm not acquitted by this either. Meaning,

even though I'm not personally aware of anything

glaring in my life, that doesn't mean that I'm

completely blameless before God. But this much

he knows for sure, end of verse four, the one

who examines me is the Lord. So he says, your

judgment of me, Corinthians, it's of little importance.

And my judgment of myself carries no weight either

when compared to the almighty judge, because

only the Lord knows the full story about me.

Do you realize God knows you better than you

know yourself? Only the Lord knows the full story

about who I am, what motivates me. How faithful

I am to his church. And in the end, his judgment

about me is all that's going to be decisive.

Therefore, now here's the big reason that he

says all this. Verse five, therefore, stop making

judgments. Look at verse five. Do not go on passing

judgment before the time, but wait until the

Lord comes. He will both bring to light the things

hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives

of men's hearts. And then, then each man's praise

will come to him from God. So this is the call

back to the Bama seat judgment, right? The judgment

of rewards. On that day, the Lord will judge

all of his servants, you, me, every believer

across the ages. And he will judge us in terms

of our faithfulness to the calling that he gave

us as stewards of his grace. Did we exercise

our gifts? Did we build the church? Did we serve

other people? But even more than that, what motivated

us to do that? What was the motive behind our

service? And for church leaders, those who presume

to teach and lead, we get an even stricter judgment

because of the temptation that we face as public

faces of the church. So Paul said to the Corinthians,

don't pass judgment. prematurely. Wait till the

Lord comes. Stop doing what you're doing right

now. Stop judging. You're standing in judgment

of those who are trying to lead you, but you're

not qualified to do so. So stop it. You can't

see the things that are hidden. You can't know

the motives of the men who are leading you. So

stop judging us. Don't put some on a pedestal

and don't downgrade others. As we said weeks

ago, the bamacy judgment, remember, it's not

about heaven or hell. It's about rewards, right?

There's going to be a testing. And then praise

will come our way. But it's funny, when I first

started reading this passage, I thought to myself,

you might expect Paul to say at the end of this,

at such a time, each man will get his rebuke

from God, right? For the things he messed up.

But how beautiful is this? He says, no, each

man's praise will come to him from God. Because

it's a judgment of rewards for believers. This

is not the time to throw our sin in our faces.

God says, no, this is a time of reward. What

a comfort that is, right? Praise from God is

waiting for us. And this was a rebuke to the

divisive Corinthians. Again, because in order

to exalt their favorite leader, they were downgrading

others. But Paul says, everybody here is gonna

get praise from God. All of your leaders who

belong to all of you, so stop picking one over

the other, they will all receive praise from

God on the day of the Bema Seed Judgment. Make

sense? It's a hard passage. But get the big idea

of what Paul's saying here. Okay, gotta wrap

up. For the sake of our kiddos. There we go.

I remember, Early in the life of Oak Hill, there

was a man in our body who was very critical of

our church, critical of me personally, critical

of our ministry philosophy that we'd established

at that time. And he had very strong preferences

on a whole bunch of issues. And he strongly suggested,

actually he demanded, that we change course on

a couple of things. And when we didn't heed his

advice, he began to get divisive. And so in order

to protect the church, there was a confrontation

between him and myself. And it became clear that

he was passing judgment on all kinds of things

without any real knowledge of what was happening

behind the scenes. He just didn't know. He didn't

understand because he hadn't asked the question,

why are we going in this direction? He just judged

from afar without true knowledge. It became clear

that he was not going to honor or follow our

leadership no matter what. No matter how much

I explained what we were trying to do, he wasn't

going to follow and he was never going to be

content at Oak Hill. So my advice was this. I

said to him, there's some things that are seared

in your brain in ministry. This is one of those

moments I said, you know what you should do?

You should find a local church who will send

you out as a church planter. Send you out and

take your ideas and your ministry philosophy

and put them to the test. See if anyone follows

you. See if anyone follows you. And may God bless

your efforts. If people follow you, I will praise

the Lord because the gospel will go out. But

if no one follows you, then at a minimum, God

will teach you something about unity and how

hard it is to lead people like yourself. That

was a formative moment in the history of our

church. But it had to be said. The PS on the

story doesn't matter. I'm not even going to share

it. But these are the things that can happen.

I remember I saw this quote once from Jerry Bridges,

this author. He says this, the sin of judgmentalism

is one of the most subtle of our respectable

sins because it's often practiced under the guise

of being zealous for what is right. Read that

carefully. Everybody has an opinion. And we assume

that we have all the information we need to formulate

that opinion. And of course we think our opinion

is what? It's right. Otherwise we wouldn't hold

it. And that's where our trouble begins. We start

equating our opinions with truth. Our preferences

with truth. And most of the time our opinions

are only half -baked. Me included. It's half

-baked. In the church, Putting leaders on a pedestal

or having a critical spirit towards them are

like cancer in a human body. If it's not put

down, it's going to be fatal to the body. So

it's incumbent upon us all to fight against those

tendencies I mentioned at the outset. Playing

the ranking game. Don't do it. Gossiping about

our opinions about this guy or that guy. Don't

do it. Thinking we know better. than those in

authority when we really don't know what's going

on. Stop doing that. Setting one leader against

another. Because as you elevate one, you're downgrading

the other. Stop doing it. By the way, does this

mean that we have to honor and respect leaders

to the point where they're beyond question? Absolutely

not. Absolutely not. If it's handled correctly,

a church member who is seeking true understanding,

who comes with a measure of grace and submission,

Every church leader will welcome that kind of

question. I know we do here at Oak Hill, so I

don't want to send that impression. By the way,

just as a critical spirit can be a cancer in

the body, so can a church leader who abuses the

trust that God has given him. A leader who exhibits

abusive or manipulative behavior, who seeks out

ministry opportunities for his own benefit, who

lords his authority over others, that man has

to be removed. He has to be removed from leadership

before he damages the body of Christ. So as I

said, there's all kinds of potholes on this issue,

and we need to be on guard against them. Friends,

we have got to get authority right. We've got

to get response to authority right on both sides

of the ledger. And listen, we're doing really

well at this at Oak Hill. Again, thank you. Thank

you for that. You understand it. You get it.

You're here with us. We're doing really well,

but we always have to stay alert. and stand guard

against these things that creep into the body.

Elders who humbly serve the body as stewards,

stewards of God's household. A congregation that

resists the temptation to pass judgment and honors

and respects its leaders in a balanced, healthy

way. When those two things are happening at the

same time, it is a beautiful thing to behold,

is it not? And you know why? Because that's how

God has designed his church. If we do it together,

simultaneously, We glorify God. Amen? Let's bow

our heads. Heavenly Father, I am grateful for

the sounds of our kids in the back of the room

and their parents and those helping out this

morning, all the ways that you've blessed this

church family with all of these beautiful families

in this body. Thank you for that, God. We praise

you for your word this morning. Thank you, God,

for calling. Some of us here in this church as

servants of yours, stewards of your house, God,

strengthen us for the tasks that you've called

us to. Give us a healthy, balanced perspective.

Thank you for the members of the congregation,

Lord, who are volunteering their time and energy,

who are exercising their gifts, Lord. Continue

to strengthen them for what you have in their

calling. And Lord, keep us from error in this

area of authority and response. Lord, protect

this body. For your glory and for our good we

pray. Amen.