The Glory Of Dependency

If you have your Bibles, turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 4. We'll be reading verses 8 through the rest of the chapter. And as you turn there, ask yourself this question because we've been praying for those in our church that are going through suffering. And as I think about that and I think about you, there's a lot of pain, I think, in a lot of trials in our church currently. There's hardly a family here that is not represented that doesn't have some form of grief or some form of sorrow that they're enduring. Sometimes it makes you question, makes you wonder, well, why does God allow this to happen? You know, it seems like suffering should be reserved exclusively for the wicked. Let them suffer. The righteous, should they not be exempt? You know, sometimes you ask yourself, why is God allowing this to happen to me? Why is this happening to me? It's not, shouldn't be happening. Why my family? And the text before us doesn't necessarily answer the full question, but it gives us some, at least a picture of probably the greatest Christian who's ever lived, in my estimation at least. Second to the person of Jesus Christ, I don't know of anyone that I could say that was more zealous and godly and sold out to the Lord than the Apostle Paul. In fact, even the Apostle Paul identified him as one who worked harder than the other apostles. He labored more diligently and suffered more than the other apostles.

1 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

And you wonder, why did God allow one of his chief messengers, his chief servants, to suffer so much? Why him? Read with me starting in verse 8.

Already you have have all you want, already you have become rich, without us you have become kings, and would that you did reign so that we might share the rule with you. For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ.

We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute.

To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless. We labor working with our own hands. When reviled we bless, when persecuted we endure, when slandered we entreat, we have become and still are, like the scum of the world, the refuge of all things. I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. So for though you have countless gods in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I become your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you then be imitators of me.

This is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ as I teach them everywhere in every church.

Now if you have the bulletin you see the title that I've titled this the glory of dependency, but I thought about retitling it to your worst life now.

I mean what a you think that would make the best-selling list if we wrote a book Your Worst Life Now.

Could you imagine Joel Osteen preaching this text?

What would he say about this text? You know he said well Jesus bore our stripes. He took care of all of our suffering so we can be rich. He became poor so we can be rich. I wonder if the Apostle Paul got that message.

I wonder if he just had poor theology or just bad luck.

Why was Paul one of the greatest of all Christians under such trials throughout his whole ministry?

Could you imagine the Apostle Paul writing a book called My Best Life Now?

You see the problem with the Corinthians and what Paul was trying to address is the Corinthians were more in tune or more aligned with the teaching of Joel Osteen than they were the teaching of Christ.

They measured spiritual maturity based upon worldly standards.

They were more impressed with the wisdom of human philosophy than they were the simplicity of the gospel.

They were more impressed with showy gifts and oratory skills than the simple preaching of Paul who preached with weakness and fear and trembling and this calls them to look down their nose at Paul's ministry. It calls them to despise him.

You know later on it would say they would say oh you know his bodily presence is weak and his preaching or his speaking is of no account. So they looked down upon him as some as as less mature or less blessed as others.

This was because they were carnal the Bible says.

Paul says you're carnal you have carnal thinking you're measuring with the wrong standard and this led them this false way of thinking led them to think themselves to be superior than the apostle Paul. They had outgrown in their minds the usefulness of Paul. I mean they he brought the gospel to him but now now that they have all the spiritual gifts they're enriched with all these spiritual giftings and they were as we'll see they were prided themselves in the more showy gifts.

The ones that brought attention to themselves.

They no longer felt they really needed a Paul.

And this is why in verse eight he says you are already have all you want. You think you're you're you're you've arrived you don't need me anymore. You become rich already and the key word there in verse eight is already. I mean they're only newborn Christians they're at best five years in the faith.

Paul went ten years to study the word of God's ten years he three years in the desert another seven years before he started his ministry he he gave himself to study the word of God and now at fifteen years after his conversion they deemed him as less helpful to them and they themselves were already rich.

Verse eight he says without us you'll become kings that is you've come to this point and you didn't need us you you've arrived to this point not through our ministry or my ministry but through your own ministries through your own gifts and thus this text is trying to correct them he says you do still need us you still need to be imitators of us of me I've sent Timothy to you to remind you of how I teach now how not just teach but my behavior so you can learn from me again so he's trying to recalculate their thinking where they're not worldly thinking and basing spiritual maturity off of health wealth and prosperity are in the show he gives that bring attention to the flesh but remind them that the true power is in the weakness of the flesh is in the power of God it's not through physical strength but in utter dependency in God and so he contrasts them you think you're superior than I am you're superior to me but he enters into some sarcasm does he not you're rich I'm poor you're a king I'm a slave and he just kind of contrasts you're you're honored and we're dishonored you're strong we're weak this is sarcasm as though you view it's like you view yourself this way and there's some truth to the sense that uh they may be rich and he is poor there's truth in that but it's the it's the contrast of they elevated these things and Paul says no you want to know the spiritual maturity of someone evaluate how much they suffer for Christ how much they sacrifice for Christ how much they give up for Christ not what they enjoy but what they they give up and so he sets himself up as an example to them he's trying to correct them in verse 14 he says I do not write these things to make you ashamed I'm not trying to embarrass you here I'm not trying to put myself as being better than you I'm not doing this to shame you I'm doing this to ammonish you as beloved Christians I'm trying to help you think correctly and for us to understand this text we need to understand the life of Christ we need to see how Christ lived Christ of all people even beyond the life of Paul suffered more than anyone and gave up more than anyone and was rejected beyond anyone's rejection now I've been studying you know I've been studying through the Gospels I've read the Gospels over and over and over in the last six months it's just given myself to the gospel and I've come to the conclusion the gospel of John is my favorite book of the Bible replacing the book of Romans for myself then that's I never thought Romans would be replaced in my mind and I've come to the conclusion that the theme of the book of John the gospel of John is that Jesus Christ the Son of God is the manifestation of the glory of God that he indeed the logos the manifestation of God we beheld they said the glory of God in the flesh we beheld Jesus Christ full of glory grace and truth and so Jesus says throughout the the gospel of John over and over and over and over as reminding us every like every three chapter he brings us back if you've seen me you've seen the father that when you look at my life you're you're learning who God is I am the demonstration the manifestation of God on earth I am truly Emmanuel I am God with us you know who God is by knowing who I am no one has seen the father he says but I have declared him to you I have revealed him to you and what is the life of Christ but the manifestation of who God is and through this life of Christ you don't see a life of being served you don't see a life of all this glory and honor and majesty often you think okay if we want to know who God is we need to get a systematic theology book up we need to know the attributes of God the sovereignty of God the holiness of God the majesty of God and we think God is most demonstrated in the book of Revelation when he's on a throne or in Isaiah in the temple where there's angels crying out holy holy holy and said this is who our God is behold the majesty of God and that is all true and we need to see the majesty of God to understand the true glory of God because the true glory of God is this very God making himself of no reputation and denying himself of all that glory sacrificing all of that and willfully and knowingly and actively taking on your shame and your reproaches and becoming nothing and giving up everything this is the goodness of God you want to see God he's a God who'll give up everything the father will give up his own son the son will give up his own life life and there's no greater love no greater goodness no greater grace mercy kindness truth and glory than what we see in the very life of Jesus Christ his whole life was a life of love a whole life was a act of service of giving and sacrificing and doing without he became homeless he became poor he became the servant of servants and this is our God this is the glory of God and John says that in this is the glory of God manifested not necessarily just simply in the resurrection in the sin sin when he's given a name above every name and every name every knee is going to bow to him and worship him yes we belong for that but the glory of God manifested is when Jesus gives it up everything up and hangs on the cross Jesus says in John 12 the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified and he's talking about his death after the the Lord's Supper the institution of the Lord's Supper and after a Judas leaves the room he says now must the son of God be the son of man must be glorified never noticed this until here recently the most glorious passage in the Old Testament is Isaiah 53 it's amazing passage and we know that in this passage we see the humiliation of Christ we see the sufferings of Christ we see the rejection of Christ we see all the the pain that he endured even being crushed by the father I mean you know how that very passage that most glorious passage is introduced in Isaiah 52 Isaiah 52 should be a part of Isaiah 53 at least the end of it and it's the preface of the death of Christ the cross of Christ it is introduced this way I must magnify my servant how does the cross magnify God because it shows us his law it shows us his goodness it shows us his glory unlike any other thing in the world it's greater than some systematic theology book it's greater than some high definition of God it's the lowly picture of Jesus giving it up suffering rejected by man rejected by his friends rejected by his family rejected by his heavenly father that is glory now Jesus says Jesus says that a servant is not greater than his master he says if you want to live godly you will you shall suffer persecution he says if the world hates you it's because he hated me first acts 14 22 it says through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom of god if they have called the master of the house beelzebub how much more will they malign those of his household they will drag you into synagogues and governors and before kings for my name's sake he says and you'll be hated by all this is the promise to follow Christ as Christ was hated and despised you will follow in that pattern and we see that the apostle Paul suffered more than anyone else other than Christ from from our knowledge at least from our understanding of scriptures that the apostles Paul his whole ministry his whole ministry lasted about 30 years and we don't know much about the time in the desert of the seven years in Damascus but once he was sent out as a missionary from Antioch about 40 years old he had 20 years left those 20 years was just plagued with heartache suffering trials throughout to the very end until he was put to death he's like why why was god's chief servant treated in such a way why did god not protect him more you see when god called Saul gave him his name Paul the first thing he wanted to show Paul was not how many books of the bible he would write not how many churches he would plant not how many people would love him throughout the ages or what great impact he's going to have not only his own generation but think your own life has been impacted by Paul's ministry you you have been taught so much by Paul and we're indebted by god's grace we're indebted to this man's life and when the first thing when he called him out he didn't say i want to give you a glimpse into the great glory if you would of your ministry i'm going to show you of all your accomplishments all all the things you're going to do and how greatly beloved you're going to be no he says it's almost like he's eager to reveal this to him i want to show him he says in acts nine i want to reveal to him what great things he must suffer for my namesake and what we see here is that in the suffering just as in the sufferings of christ it reveals the goodness of god at the mercy of christ mercy of god that we worship christ do we not because of his humility we praise christ because of his sacrifice it is because that christ gave it all up we want him to be lifted up above everybody else we want to worship him and praise him because of his lowly heart and his meek spirit his humility makes us want him to be honored and why do we love the apostle Paul so much what made him so great is because he immolated christ and he became low and he willingly suffered and gave up a love a life of riches and luxury and honor and become as he will say the scum of the world rejected by all you see let's look let's go through this text and see exactly what he endured in verse nine we see that the apostle Paul was ranked last for i think god has exhibited us apostles as last of all now you would think given the the great office of apostles which is the cheap office he would be first in line you know if he visited our church and we had a fellowship meal hey possible would you go first we want you to go first uh you would think that there would be given he would be given special preferences as if he would travel first class if he came here we'd want to give him a gold chair to sit behind the pulpit yeah why not have him fly around in a private jet of all people that doesn't need us be sitting in the back of the bus it's christ i mean it's paul why is he in the back of the bus why is he last in line why does he have to carry his own baggage having although having the highest rate he was treated as the least of the saints we see here that he says he had a death sentence upon him look at verse nine like men's sentence to death from start to finish paul faced death everywhere he traveled in second korean chapter one he says for we do not want you to be unaware brothers of the affliction we have experienced in asia for we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength it's like man he was not just given a trial equal to his strength but beyond his strength it says that we despaired of life itself you know you can imagine being a physician that you don't know if you're going to live and die but the the pain is so hard that you just prefer to die you know it's like i i i don't i can't get past this this is where he's at indeed we felt that we had received he says the sentence of death you know it's not like this has just happened one time it seemed like his whole life the last 20 years of his life was a life that death was facing him everywhere he went second korean the 11 says i'm talking like a madman with greater labors far more imprisonments with countless beatings and often near death i mean how often did he almost die five times i received the hands of the jews the 40 lashes less one that's five times he got the death sentence 39 lashes should have killed him or bear it all come brought him to the point of death three times i was beaten with rods once i was stoned three times i was shipwrecked and not in the day i was adrift at sea and frequent journeys in danger from rivers dangerous from robbers dangers from my own people dangers from gentiles danger in the city danger in the wilderness danger at sea danger from false brothers everywhere he went simply he knows that this could be his last day to live this is no way to live you know you and i let's be honest you and i have these moments that last a while but we go months and years not feeling like this you see thirdly paul was a public spectacle look at verse nine because we have become a spectacle to the world to angels and to men most commentators think he's referring to the gladiator games where they would take these men who are sentenced to death they have the sentence of death and rather than just killing them let's put them out for sport let's be entertained by them let's watch them suffer let's be entertained and see them in their misery and take joy in their getting cut to pieces he's saying this is how we feel we're we're we're a spectacle we're on display you know when you're suffering you want the curtain to be closed you want the the hospital door to be closed you want to go back in your back room you don't want people to see you in that state but just as the apostle uh just as jesus christ his shame and ridicule and his sufferings was on the whole world to be on display so paul's life was a life of misery and it was for all to see he says before the world and before angels and before men i mean this is this is hard it's hard to endure pain it's almost even harder when people are enjoying you go through pain not just before men but before angels heaven and earth is eyewitnessing the fact that paul is under so much suffering it's not just physical self-suffering but it's mental suffering look at verse 10 he was deemed as a fool for christ we are fools for christ's sake but you are wise in christ i don't know he's in mark chapter three when jesus come back to copernium his family tried to seize him it's because they thought he had gone mad here's jesus christ one who's wiser than solomon and his own family thinks that jesus has gone mad and the same way the apostle paul was a very wise man obviously we learn from the apostle paul's writings yet when he's preaching such as when he's preached at ax 26 festus says you have gone mad your great learning has driven you in singing paul understands what it means for others people to think he's foolish ignorant even mad he goes on to say fifthly we are weak but you are strong i think this is the recognition that paul knew that his body was weak his body was breaking down on all the beatings that he had and would eventually had moving forward he was weak and i think he was mentally weak six paul was a disgrace in the eyes of the world look at verse 10 you are held in honor but we in disrepute we see the sarcasm coming through but this sarcasm highlights the problem they as carnal christians viewed themselves with great honor while paul who was an apostle was treated with disrespect and disgrace seventh like christ himself paul was a poor man look at 11 to this present hour we hunger and thirst we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless and we labor working with our own hands you know this present hour is implying that this is not just a one-time you know event to this present hour and from the beginning until now we've hungered we've been thirsty we haven't had the food that we've needed first christians 11 27 says in toll and hardship through many sleepless nights in hunger and thirst often without food and cold and exposure this is the life of paul he did not have a pantry full of food sometimes he went without he had to fast not voluntarily but he had to fast because there simply wasn't food to eat and water to drink he was poorly dressed even homeless now i got before i move on i got two little quick applications for us for myself first to the seminary students if you're going to enter into the ministry you say i want to be a minister you better not do it for the money i know a lot of preachers that are the poorest people and like paul they have to be bifurcational they have to work with their own hands and provide for themselves this and if this is something that is a deterrent for you to enter into the ministry and have to have it poor and be without you may need to look for some other profession but something for all of us to consider this is the life of the apostle paul why do we expect better why are we i'm talking about myself so easily discontent i mean you have more than paul had are you better than he you more worthy than he you know why why we say well i wish i had more i'm not their house or this or that do we deserve more why do we labor and put so much effort in laboring for the things that perish apostle paul says an example for us he gave up all potential success he could have had as a Pharisee and chose a life that would not be financially beneficial for him and gave up everything and even in that i'm sure the other apostles had it better off than he he shows us that this wasn't his drive i mean this wasn't his desire he wasn't seeking his best life now this was not what he was seeking to do he was not laying up his treasures on earth he was not living for this age he wasn't thinking about retirement he gave up everything moving on number eight paul was insulted persecuted and slandered it says when reviled we blessed when persecuted we endure when slandered we entreated i think this can be some of the hardest difficulties to go through as a crish especially if you're doing it you're being persecuted and slandered and reviled for preaching or teaching the truth i know a man in our seminary and it's not me i know a man in our seminary who gets attacked daily daily for his belief on the trinity and i'm proud of him it's not easy it's not easy to be slandered to be revolved it's not easy but paul had a life i mean he should be honored above all christians and listen i think this didn't just come from unbelievers i think this come from fellow believers in fact even the chrythians who should have revered him as their spiritual father was looking down on him and he has to write this letter vindicating himself how humbling that must have been for paul to have to write this not just this letter but the second letter and in summary i think what he does in verse 13 he kind of summarizes his in his experience as a minister as a christian he says we have become and are still like the scum of the world the riffage refuse of all things you ever had dirty kids and put them in a bathtub then after you drain the water out there's a ring around that bathtub dirt fly you know imagine you don't clean it up the first day and then soap gets stuck to it and it builds up this scum around the around the bathtub oh the toilet's even worse it's a better illustration to the truth he says i'm being viewed as garbage a scum as refuge that which is of no value is that i am deemed by the world and by my peers and by my potential my family that have seen me turn from a Pharisee into a minister of the gospel i am i am being evaluated as useless as garbage most likely again he was the greatest christian who ever lived was viewed and treated as one of the worst christians who ever lived he was mocked he was abused he was mistreated he suffered for christ and he did this day after day after day for his whole ministry now yeah before i make some closing applications here's the context the chrythians were more worried about fleshly glory than fizz and physical strength than they were spiritual glory and humble dependence they felt they no longer needed paul and the meaning of this text is simply this suffering and weakness which leads to dependency in god is more important test of spiritual maturity than the things which lead to self-sufficiency paul's objective was not to shame them but to bring them back to see their need of his ministry he makes application he says i write this not to shame you but to exhort you and you should be imitators of me i'm going to send timothy to instruct you on my ways not just my teaching but in my behavior and actions and you should follow me because though you have many gods you only have one spiritual father and i'm your spiritual father i brought the gospel to you so you should you should seek to continue to learn from me but they had begin to reject him and in closing let's think about have 10 applications for us first of all we should fear anything in our life that leads to pride and self-sufficiency what happened to the chrythians is they become arrogant we have arrived we're rich we were kings and they lost their dependency on god and their dependency upon the apostle paul i view themselves as being self-sufficient maybe they took pride in their spiritual giftings we know that this is a problem when it comes later on in the book maybe it was because they were healthy maybe it was because they were wealthy but we need to be careful that we do not allow the blessings of life our health our wealth our prosperity to lead us into lukewarmness the bible tells preachers to to instruct the rich to not to trust in uncertain riches don't become self-sufficient don't trust necessarily in a good reputation and no wait strive for have a high have others have a high opinion of us we crave other people to respect us to honor us still think highly of us we all do and if that becomes something that is an idol in our life god knows how to take that away and make us realize we have nothing nothing but christ we are nothing before christ second application here is we do not need to think that we have arrived we need to follow the example of paul in philippines he says i've forgotten and forgot the things that are behind me just because i've walked a faithful life to this point i do not rely upon my past i don't view myself as having obtained i do not view myself as having arrived but one thing i do i forget the things behind me and i press forward or i strain as a runner who's trying to get across the finish line and that last few steps he strains out his neck he's putting forth all the energy he can and he paul says i want to apprehend i want to catch and take hold of that which is apprehended and caught me i need to get christ and i haven't yet fully gotten him yet he's got me i'm secure in his hands but i yet haven't had him yet i still need him more and so i'm straining i'm i'm going all out i am letting go of all things behind me and i count everything as nothing i'm ready to give up my life i'm ready to give up my riches i'm ready to give up my reputation i'm ready to let it all go that i might apprehend the one who's apprehended me and that must and needs to be our desire in this life never be content with your spiritual condition be content with your physical condition be content with your wealth be content with your wages be content with your life when it comes to the earthly blessings god has given you but never be content with the measure of christ that you have you have not arrived to perfection we still have much room much in many ways to grow third we have been called to suffer for christ uh and we need to view these sufferings and we'll see this in a minute we need to view these sufferings as glory paul says you know i'm not going to tell you and boast it later on he's i'm going to boast about my accomplishments i'm not going to boast the fact that i got to see into the third heavens i'm not going to boast and all these things that all other humans would boast in i'm not going to boast in that you're making me a madman you're making me getting her into folly that i have to i have to talk about myself but if you're going to make me do it i'm going to talk to you about my weaknesses i'll talk to you about the sufferings and hardships and trials i've been through i'll glory in that i loved it when well i say i loved it i did love it at first but after i thought about it i loved it i loved it when our seminary was called the strip mall seminary i will strip mall seminary who are they you know what we are nobody we are nothing who are we who are we great in this world no we're not but god has chosen the foolish things the base things the things that are not to confound the things that are you don't have to be great you don't have to be a world leader you don't have to be smart you don't have to be highly educated you don't have to be high and lifted up in the eyes of the world all you'd need to be to be a useful servant in the hands of god is to recognize that you need him completely that you bring nothing to your ministry but your weakness that you have nothing to offer god he needs not you and everything you have has been given to you by god why don't we have to boast in nothing we are nothing god has called us to emulate his son by being willing to suffer persecution for his namesake forcefully suffering is a design to remove our self-sufficiency paul's put it this way if i must boast i will boast in the things that show my weakness next chapter in second korean these well he's talking about this thorn in the flesh now he got to see some amazing things like enter into see a vision of the third heavens that would have exalted his pride a little but in order that he didn't become prideful and arrogant which is contrary to the life of christ god sent him a thorn in the flesh to buffet him to subject him to bring him into a state of humility he said well why does god allow me to go through with the things i've gone through thank god for these things thank god for your suffering i'm not saying it's easy to endure i'm not saying you should run towards suffering or to pray for suffering i'm not saying that but the suffering that you have thank god if that suffering is driving you to christ driving you away from pride driving you away from self-sufficiency and saying i have nothing i am nothing god told paul i'm not taking away the thorn i'm not taking away the suffering i'm not taking away this difficulty i'm going to leave it but i'm promise you this with this suffering and this hardship i'm going to give you grace for my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect not in your strength not in your health not in your wealth not in your good life not in your luxuries my power is made perfect in your weakness this while paul says i will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of price might rest upon me for the sake of christ then i am content with weaknesses insults hardships persecutions calamities for when i am weak that is when i recognize my weakness when i recognize i am nothing when i recognize that i'm at the mercy of god and i i'm i'm so stricken down i'm so at the bottom of the barrel i have nothing i have nowhere to look but god talked to michael drew the other day and you know he's going him and his poor wife are going through a suffering in it and in you know in these times we talked about it and i've experienced this in times of great sorrow you wonder why me why my family why my wife this is hard even to the point that might make you or cause you and lead you to question your faith why god why me but i talked to him we talked about how when our faith is tested even bringing forth doubt it's like the muscle being stretched our bubble gum being stretched so thin it begins to have holes in the bubble gum and that's when the muscles are tore when you work them out it gets stretched but in the stretching of your faith more muscles are being built faith is being fortified not in self-confidence faith doesn't lead you in thinking i can do this faith says i have nowhere else to go it's like the disciples who after the bread of life discourse jesus says are you going to leave me too they didn't understand what jesus was saying they thought what he was saying sounded ridiculous and as they were questioning him and their faith was being tested they come to the conclusion no i don't understand everything that's going on i have and we have nowhere else to go you have the words of eternal life and though you're going through trials and hardships where else are you going to go imagine your hardships without christ without a purpose behind them without glory in them you see the difficulties that we face in life are there to drive us to christ quickly suffering has a way to make the word of god real to us more and more what i see in my life is that i want the bible to mean what it means to me i want it to be real i want to experience it i want i want i want to believe it and sometimes it's all theoretical nice and good to know it like you know history books but when trials comes it's no longer just historical data it becomes life it becomes i must live off this this is my life this is my this is my anchor without the word i have nothing i can't stabilize i don't have a compass i don't have direction all is lost all is confused all is broken without this trial seems to work in us not just faith but makes the word of god real six your nothingness does not hinder the power of god within you whatever weaknesses that you have you don't need your we have paul was not a very good preacher okay he wasn't dynamic but that didn't nullify the usefulness of god and the power of god in his preaching people were converted with his preaching and god could use paul he could use moses he could use those who are nothing and he can use you and i seven blessed are you when you are reviled for doing good follow the example paul do not revolve back but commit yourself to christ bless those who persecute you pray for those who malign you don't hold grudges bless those you know and especially if it's for the sake of christ if you're locked up in prison like paul and solace was and philippi sing a song praise the lord that you're counted worthy to suffer for christ's sake hey don't seek your own advantage when you're serving christ think about paul he wasn't seeking the following he wasn't seeking um you know a platform he wasn't seeking disciples he wasn't seeking attention he wasn't seeking honor he wasn't if he was wanting all that he was doing it the wrong way his whole life he got nothing but distress what advantage personal advantage did paul get out of his ministry he did it for love for christ and love for the saints serve others even if it cost you in fact you can't serve others without it costing you something nythe see our great need and dependency upon christ and tenth as i started off by saying there's true glory and suffering especially if it's done if you received it because of love out of service for god christ you endure suffering there's nothing more glorious to be then to show your love for christ and love for the church and love for god's people by enduring suffering so in conclusion this is our worst life but if we suffer now if we're rejected now we will be honored with christ if we die with christ he will live with christ there'll be a day where christ wipes away every tear every ounce of persecution will be over and this life is just momentary slight little light afflictions compared to the weight of glory that's going to be revealed for you and i who suffer for christ when he returns let's pray dear lord we do see the contrast between the chrythians and the life of paul and lord we pray that we're admonished not embarrassed but admonished lord may we see what we can do to give more to serve more to sacrifice more help us not to be ashamed of the shame but would joy endure the shame and we might immolate christ and follow the example of the apostle paul thank you for the grace that you gave this man lord what a blessing the apostle paul is to us lord we're thankful for his ministry and lord we pray we can learn from it in jesus name amen