Who's in Your Grandstand? Choosing Whose Opinion Counts - Sermon 25th January 2026

G'day. Thanks for joining the Heights Church Podcast today. We hope you enjoy our message.

If you're in the Sydney area, be sure to join us at the Heights Church at Goldstone

Road Cornsley Heights, Summings Fairley.

We're going to be having our Bible reading now from 1 Corinthians chapter 4,

1 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

and it's going to be verses 1 to 5.

And it says, This then is how you ought to regard us, as servants of Christ,

and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed.

Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.

I care very little if I am judged by you, or by any human court,

indeed I do not even judge myself.

My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent, it is the Lord who judges me.

Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time, wait until the Lord comes.

He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness, and will expose the motives of the heart.

At that time, each will receive their praise from God.

There's a fairly common phrase used in counseling circles, and that phrase is,

who is in your grandstand?

And the question is asked because let's imagine for a moment that our life is

an athletic contest and other people are looking on.

And that question asks, who is looking on into your life?

Who are you paying special attention to? Who is cheering you? Who is jeering you?

Who is just turning away in disappointment?

Because let's face it, we are sensitive to what others think of us.

It's simplistic bravado to say, it doesn't really matter. I don't care what

other people think about me. What rubbish.

Of course you should care about what other people think about you,

particularly people who you value and people who are close to you.

How our boss, our family members, our friends think of us is very important.

Now, today I want to apply 1 Corinthians 4, verses 1 to 5, which Chris has read

1 Corinthians 4:1–5

for us, to this particular subject, and basically to ask the question,

whose opinions count and whose opinions don't count?

And how do we live in the light of that?

The context of this passage is Paul in some conflict with some Corinthian church

members who figured that they were superior to him.

And Paul is really saying, well, look, yes, your opinion might matter,

but it doesn't matter most.

And so Paul is trying to, as it were, put the Corinthian criticism of him into perspective.

They were in his grandstand, as it were, and Paul has to put them in their place.

Now, let's consider the opinions others may have of us.

We may have our fan clubs and our critics.

And each can be a menace. You see, those who are relentlessly favorable in their

opinions of us can cause problems.

We are seeing an increasing number of failures of church leaders,

particularly of large church leaders, and we are seeing them topple down because of particular issues.

And one of the reasons for that, I can assure you, is they surround themselves with yes people.

Their mistaken idea is I can only lead this church if I've got people who agree

with me around me. Wrong.

Surrounding yourself with people who've always got a favorable opinion of you

is very, very dangerous because who can ever question that person?

Who can ever challenge that person?

See, some people have this idea of, you do not touch the Lord's anointed.

Don't you dare criticize a church leader because they are God's servants! Rubbish!

Of course you can criticize God's servants. And incidentally,

this is the first part of a two-part series.

Next week, I'm going to talk about criticism and judging from Matthew 7,

the logs and the specs thing.

I want to talk about legitimate criticism and illegitimate criticism,

but that comes next week.

So, yes, please don't simply surround yourself or try to surround yourself with

people who are favorable to you because mutual back scratching doesn't help anybody.

Then again, we need to be beware of our critics whose mission in life seems

to be to tear others down to their own level of misery.

You show me a carping critic, someone with a critical spirit,

and not all critics have critical spirits, but if you show me that sort of person,

I can show you a person who thinks so little of themselves that they want to think little of others,

and misery loves company.

If constant critics are in our grandstand, we likely become individuals driven

to find favour and to impress.

How much of your life has been lived trying to please someone who was ultimately

unpleasable in your grandstand?

How much of your life has been misshapen by someone who's looking on and saying

to you over and over, not good enough.

Try harder. That sort of repetitive attitude, repetitive criticism can distort our lives.

You see, there are those whose lives are lived under that banner,

not good enough, or you must try harder, and that's a heavy load,

very, very heavy load to bear.

So we have our fan clubs, which can be a menace, and our critics, who can also be a menace.

Some years ago, many years ago, when I was in one of the churches I was leading,

I set up a leadership review group to help me become a better leader.

I don't know whether it worked or not, but it was a good idea.

And I had to choose the people carefully. I didn't want to choose my fan club because I had one.

And I didn't want to choose my carping critics as I had them too.

No, I wanted to choose people who had a balanced approach. And they were a very

good group, very professionally qualified, some of them.

And I benefited greatly from their wisdom. I went to another church and tried to do the same thing.

And it failed. Why did it fail? Because the people I had on that group were too nice.

All I wanted to do was to so-called encourage me, not challenge me.

We need both. We need encouragement. We need challenge.

Now, as I said, next week I'll be talking on Matthew chapter 7 about criticism,

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

and I want to look at the rights and wrongs of criticism.

But I want to simply say that the carping critics in your grandstand must try

harder, not good enough, or your

fan club, oh, you're the most wonderful person on the face of the earth.

Oh, forget it. I've had a few people say to me over the years,

you're the most wonderful minister I've ever had, and then two weeks later they're

out of the church. Jesus.

Honestly, really, honestly. But Paul goes on then to say something different.

In verses 3 to 4, he says that even his own opinions of himself don't matter most.

He said, you Corinthians, your opinions don't matter most.

But hey, my opinion I have of myself does not matter most.

You see, he's not falling into the trap of saying, I don't care what you think

about me, I reckon I'm okay. That's silly blustering.

That's not having what Romans 12.3 says, having a sober estimate of yourself.

And having a sober estimate of yourself means looking at yourself in the light

of the Christian faith you have in common with others.

That is, if I am a Christian, follower of Jesus Christ, I can't get puffed up.

I'm a sinner who falls short of the glory of God.

But then again, I can't become a miserable twisting worm in the dust because

God loved me enough to send Jesus to die for me and wants to spend eternity with me.

So that's the basis of a Christian sober estimate. Don't puff yourself up.

Don't put yourself down. Well.

I may have an inflated opinion of myself, kidding myself about how good and

successful I am, but I may be mistaken.

Sometimes people who have a positive self-regard, what they call,

are having themselves on. They're living in a dream world.

I cannot be an honest, objective judge of my character, by definition.

I, the subject, cannot be objective. But alternatively, I may put myself down,

believing I'm of little worth.

There are Christians who go through life saying, I'm no good,

I'm not worth anything. Rubbish.

Jesus didn't die for a bit of junk.

When God made you, he didn't make junk. He doesn't do that.

You see, I may be much mistaken if I exalt myself and mistaken if I disparage myself.

My views of myself are not always authentic.

And incidentally, whenever we assess ourselves by comparing ourselves with others,

we run the risk of having a distorted opinion.

Because, you see, compared to some people, believe it or not, I'm a paragon of virtue.

Compared to others, I'm a hopeless struggler.

So who are you going to compare yourself with? If you want to feel bad about

yourself, you compare yourself with someone who seems to be so much better than you, but may not be.

Or if you are a bit inflated, you compare yourself with others who are seen

to be lower than you, even though they might not be.

You see, there's a saying, comparison is the death of true contentment.

We can never be sure that our estimation of others is right,

and we can find it hard, therefore, to have a sober estimation of ourselves.

So simply try to find your identity in what you think about yourself,

Paul's saying, not really what matters most. It matters, but it doesn't matter most.

No wonder Paul is saying to the Corinthians, yes, it doesn't worry me too much what you think of me.

He doesn't play the silly game of saying, but I think this of myself.

No, he's saying, even the opinion I have of myself is not the best estimate of myself.

Verse 4 in 1 Corinthians 4 says, It's God's opinion of me which ultimately matters.

Because, you see, it is he who is the judge.

He who is the one who can deliver the final verdict and the just and honest verdict.

He says in verse 5 that we are not to make judgments as if we are God.

And I'll say more next week about the difference between judging and criticizing.

Just in passing, though, it means that you and I have got to be very,

very careful whether you assess someone as a Christian or not.

Some people who warm church seats every Sunday might not be Christians.

Some people who live in the dark and the door of their church might be.

It's not up to us to make a final judgment. Oh, yes, yes, we have to form opinions

in church leadership. You certainly have to form opinions.

But they've got to be provisional. They've got to be conditional.

But then to say that it is God's opinion of me is what truly counts might on

reflection be very, very disturbing,

jumping out of the frying pan of

others' opinions and into the fire of the opinions of a just and holy God.

But the one who judges me, you see, who decides my destiny is the all-knowing

one from whom no secrets are hidden.

He knows the secrets in me that you don't know.

And he knows secrets in me that I'm scarcely aware of. This is the one who's

going to judge me and judge you.

This is the one whose opinion really, really matters.

He can see into the darkness that haunts me. He can see what's concealed from

others out of shame or fear.

He's got absolute clear vision of the worst there is to know about me.

But then again, he also sees what is good in me, that I may not see,

that others may not see. See, again, it goes back.

I am not the best judge of my own character. It is our all-seeing,

all-knowing holy God who is the real judge of my character because he can see,

when I'm putting an act on,

when I'm not being true to myself.

He can see that when I'm tempted to be a worm twisting in the dust,

he says, no, you're not that.

He can see when I put myself on a pedestal that, hey, look at me,

look at me, look at me. He can see through that.

So what makes this thought of God being our judge and the one who has the right

to judge me is that my judge is also my saviour.

My judge is the one who has acted to bring me back to himself now and forever.

The one who knows my darkness sent Jesus so I don't have to live in that darkness.

The one who sees my each and every failing is the one who sent Jesus to take

on himself the whole ugly lot so I can be spared the everlasting consequences of them.

I can be assured that I can fear no condemnation because the only one who can

condemn me is not the person in my grandstand,

is not me, myself, but the only one who can condemn me is the just and holy

and righteous God who made me, and I already know his verdict.

Not guilty. No condemnation.

This God sees the worst in me, and he sees the best in me. In other words,

he has a sober estimate of me, to use that word from Corinthians.

He doesn't bear grudges against me. He doesn't have personality clashes with me.

He does no nitpicking. He offers no empty flattery.

He's neither a carping critic or a fawning fan club member. However,

the one who is in my grandstand, the important one, is the one who's made it

clear already what his opinion of me is.

Whatever others may think of me, whatever I may think of me.

God has made it clear what he thinks of me.

He faces my failings, he mourns my disobedience, yet he loves me enough to send

Jesus his son to take on himself all that would keep me estranged from him.

And he wants to spend eternity with me. He wants to spend eternity with you.

Why would he do that if you're a miserable mess?

No, he thinks enough of you to want to spend eternity with you.

And yes, that's not puffing yourself up.

That's not looking at yourself in the mirror every morning and say,

well, God loves me, what a great person I am. No, no, no, that's not the biblical perspective.

The biblical perspective is, no, not that I'm a great person,

but that I'm a loved person.

I'm an accepted person.

Whatever happens in my life and whoever else rejects me, and if I even reject

myself, which can be very common, I know that the one who made me and the one

who judges me has accepted me.

Whatever I may think of myself and whatever others may think of me,

I know what God thinks of me.

So as I run my race, and yes, there are onlookers in the grandstand as they

are for you when you run your race.

There are people who are going to tear you down.

There's people who are going to puff you up.

And as you run your race, you will have the temptation to put yourself down

as a nothing or to raise yourself up as some paragon of virtue.

Now, none of those opinions, in the end, matter.

The only one whose opinion matters is the God who made me and who has proven

to me and to you that he has accepted you,

that you are valued, that you are loved.

All the other jeering and cheering matters little because if God is for me,

who can possibly be against me? Thanks, Rosie.