Entrusted

Speaker 1: 0:06

Good morning, westtown. If you're new here, my name is Stephen Clark, because you can probably tell I'm a retired pastor. But it's a joy to be with you and I feel like I've been with you all week actually, because you know when you're preparing a talk you're thinking about who you're going to be talking to on Sunday. But more than that, I love what Luke put up on the website, which is a Bible reading plan, and I tapped into it again this year and printed it out, and so when I'm reading I'm thinking, hey, I'm not reading this alone. I got a bunch of friends, brothers and sisters at Westtown who were reading it as well, although it was a little puzzle that they kind of led us off. On Saturday and Sunday there's no reading there, and then I realized they know that even retired pastors need to catch up sometimes. So I'm just delighting in it and enjoying it. Where I'm going to be looking at First Corinthians for this morning, all of the texts I won't read the whole text beforehand. All of the texts will come up on the screens, but First Corinthians 4,. If you want to follow around your iPhone or in your Bible, let's pray together. Thank you, lord, for this morning. We can be all together to listen to your word and to hear your word. Please bless us now by the grace and strength of your Holy Spirit. We ask in Christ's name, amen.

Speaker 1: 1:27

So how do you handle criticism? I mean, it's going to come at you. It could come from people you love, it could come from people in your office, but it is going to come. How do you handle criticism and bear in mind that it comes from the worst person of all, which is ourselves? We hear ourselves talking to ourselves and criticizing ourselves, and how do you deal with that as well? And then the one that's kind of invisible, but occasionally it occurs to us, is that Satan's name means the accuser and, by the way, the Bible calls him the consummate liar. So when you got somebody called Satan accusing you and lying to you, how do you handle this criticism that is constantly coming at us, inside of our minds and from whatever form or the other?

Speaker 1: 2:21

The apostle Paul, who had started the church but found himself under some severe criticism from some of the folks in the church, and he's been making it clear to us that their problem was that their criticisms were coming from what they had gained in the culture around them and they weren't really taking the gospel to shape what they should be saying or thinking. And so they are coming at him with a number of criticisms, and the first criticism that was coming along and you know this is true is from folks who believe that they had already arrived and had everything together. Here's how he puts it in our text. He's sarcastic here. Already you have all you want. Already you have become rich Without us. You have become kings and wood that you did rent so that we might share in the rule with you. You know what that is.

Speaker 1: 3:25

It's when you're in high school and there are those that make you feel this big, as if you really don't count. It's in the office, when there are those who are tearing you down. It comes sometimes from people who supposedly love you, who are giving you the impression that they have it all. Sometimes it comes from mature Christians. We know everything and we'd like you to know that we know everything, and I want to tell you a thing or two that you need to know.

Speaker 1: 3:57

These people have put Paul at the back of the line. You know, if you think of a ticker tape parade when the bucks are coming back into town and there's a convertible up front and the main person is seated on the back seat on the convertible, and down comes the tape. And then there are all kinds of people behind them in a line and Paul says I'm at the back of the line with you guys. But it's worse than that, says Paul. He's actually using the image of a conquering king that's come back from battle and he's riding in on his big white horse and behind him is a long line of prisoners that he's taken. They're all tied up together, they're all bruised, they're all battered, they're all bloody, their clothes is all dirty and nasty. And Paul says that's what it's like. And you have me at the very back of that line with all your criticisms. He says he puts it this way based on your standards, not the Lord's. Based on your standards in verse nine, for I think that God has exhibited as apostles, as, last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we've become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men, and then again, based on their standards, that they're adopting from their culture, they don't think Paul is very successful. You know how it is in high school. You know, did you make from our city team? What were your grades. You know there's a struggle put down in there or in the office. How big of a raise did you get this? Oh, you didn't get it. Well, never mind, they're just not successful.

Speaker 1: 5:48

Paul says we are fools, for Christ's sake, but you're a wiser in Christ. We are weak but you're strong. You're held in honor. But we, in disrepute To the present hour, we hunger and thirst, we're poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor working with our own hands. Paul is saying some of these are Christian virtues. We're weak. It's when we're weak that we're strong. But you don't get that. I'm weak and you are strong. And Paul says yeah, in my clothes they come from walking the dusty roads to get to you here in Corinth and I look pretty battered. I understand that. You do know that I've been beaten up several times in the towns before I got here, don't you? And yes, and now this is a big put down. I do work with my hands. I'm a tent maker. I do tent making so that I'm able to be here to serve you.

Speaker 1: 6:50

And they're thinking if you were successful, you wouldn't have to work with your hands. If you were successful, you would be living off your investments by now, and so it's just complete, put down, and Paul is being stung by the criticism. And then they don't think that Paul has what it takes to be a great leader. A great leader is confident. Great leader stands up for himself. A great leader believes in himself.

Speaker 1: 7:20

And this is what Paul says when reviled, we bless. When persecuted, we endure. When slandered, we entreat. We have become and are still like the scum of the world, and I won't paraphrase this for you in modern English the refuse of all things. Some of this comes from his Christian character. When people reviled him, he said we bless them. And he's been through persecution and he says you know, we keep on going, we endure. Some of those should be seen as things of strength, but as far as they're concerned, paul, you don't cut it as a leader. You don't have what it takes, you're like scum man. Sorry, you really are.

Speaker 1: 8:06

And then Paul comes up with a line and I have to tell you and I'm not exaggerating this verse is in my top five verses in the Bible in terms of verses that have affected me and how I think I've played around with this verse. I've spent time just trying to find one way in which what he says is not true and I haven't come up with one way yet. So if you come up with one, let me know. But it's something. Verse seven, to deal with the criticism he says, by the way, what do you have that you did not receive? What do you have that you did not receive? You say, well, I've worked very, very hard to get ahead in my business. Let me tell you Anything that I started out with nothing. Anything that I have, I have worked very, very hard for it. Who gave you the health and strength to work very, very hard for it? Who gave you the mental acuity and business sense so that, when you worked hard, it all came together successfully? And, by the way, if you lived in Burundi, where the average individual salary is less than, or income is less than, $250 a year, would you be as successful as you are here in America, where the average family income is between 50 and 70,000? What do you have that you did not receive? The Lord gave you something that has allowed you, when you work hard, etc. Etc. Etc. To indeed get ahead. And as far as Paul is concerned, yeah, you think I'm a fool. I'm going to appear very successful to you.

Speaker 1: 10:15

I graduated from high school. I was 16 years old, so I was too young to go to college, and so I went looking for a job. There was this pharmaceutical company that I'd heard about and I went and I actually got an interview. And I was shocked. The CEO came to interview me and he was looking at my credentials, such as they were as a high school graduate, and he seemed okay with them. And then he asked me what are you planning to do with your life, what is your goal as you apply for this job? And I smiled and I said well, actually I'm planning to become a minister, a pastor, and he began to smile very patronizingly. The bigger his patronizing smile went, the more I knew my application was going down the tube. And he says to me you'll never make a lot of money, but you'll have a lot of satisfaction in your life. And I remember sitting there thinking I should have told him, but I'd just turned 17. For heaven's sakes, you have no idea what you're talking about. And I did get a job.

Speaker 1: 11:22

I found a Christian businessman who was sympathetic with the fact that in a year's time I wanted to go away to college to become a pastor, and he hired me and I was at the front desk and this hot shot guy walks in and I'm serving him and helping him with everything that he needed and apparently he thought I was doing well and so he decided to offer me a job, trying to hire me away. And I was feeling good about that. And he says but what are your goals? And I said well, in two months I don't think I could take the job. Thank you, because in two months' time I'm going to go away to college. And he said what are you going to study to become? I said a minister, a pastor. And I tell you no lie, he looked me straight in the face and he said you are a blank, blank, blank, four-letter ing fool. And I turned around and walked away. I smiled, I said this guy's got it more than the other guy. He understands what is involved. And that's now.

Speaker 1: 12:27

Paul now turns to the people in Corinth and he's no longer sarcastic anymore, he's no longer sticking the knife in so much, he's very, he's very, now sympathetic. And he talks about Apollos, who was his colleague. In the Acts of the Apostles we read of Apollos quote he was an eloquent man, competent in the scriptures, and he and Paul had worked together in Corinth and some of these people who were looking at what makes you successful were playing Apollos against Paul, et cetera. And this is what he said. I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers and sisters, so that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another.

Speaker 1: 13:21

Here it comes now, for who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If, then, you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? All that background, that baggage that you're carrying with you from your culture in Corinth, that you're using to put us down or to raise one up against the other. None of that makes sense, because, to the extent that you're successful, you're well-dressed, you're loved in high school because you're an athlete or people think you're kind of cool looking or whatever, that's all DNA. Don't bring that to the table. That's irrelevant.

Speaker 1: 14:11

And so that's how Paul starts out dealing with criticism or understanding with all humility. We are who we are. We're servants well, I'm jumping the text here, but we are who we are because of what Christ has given us. Yeah, we need to work hard to develop these gifts. But guess what high schoolers I am, who I am, it's my DNA. I happen to be good at sports. Yeah, I got to work on it to make myself even better. But if I'm not good at sports, what does that matter? That's not the gifts that I've been given. It's as simple as that. So now Paul, having dealt with it and taken the criticism apart, now he's going to tell us positively how to live our lives positively, how to think what it means to live in Corinth as a Christian, as one who is holding hands with Christ at the cross, as one who takes his or her wisdom from the cross. How do we live confidently in the gospel? And here's the first thing he says this is how one should regard us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mystery of God. Let's do the first part. This is how one should regard us as servants of Christ.

Speaker 1: 15:35

You know what it means to be a servant, right? You serve your kids all day long. Leave your husbands out of this, please. You work hard all week long to provide for your family. You know what it means to be in the office and to try and keep things going properly. You know that it can be a humiliating thing when you're on the front desk and somebody comes in with a bad attitude and insults you. You know it can be a degrading thing. Sometimes you just feel like all you're doing is cleaning up after everyone else. You know it can be an exhausting thing, 24-7 you're at it and you know that sometimes when you come to church on Sunday you're just wiped out and you're just hoping the Holy Spirit will bless you and give you something, because serving people all week long can be a depleting thing. We get that.

Speaker 1: 16:38

But Paul says you are a servant of Christ, and this is what he says in verses 10 to 12. To the present hour, we hunger and thirst. We are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless. We labor, working with our own hands. I get it, says Paul. I understand that, but this is what I want you to do. He says in verse 1. This is how you should regard us as servants of Christ. You know who my real boss is. It's not you, it's Christ.

Speaker 1: 17:19

There's a dignity to being a servant of Christ. My boss is the King, and when your boss is the King, there is a dignity to carrying out his desires and wills, even if it means that I am serving people who are not really appreciating it. But I'm not in the end, working for them. I'm working for my boss, who is Christ and who is the King, and that's where my dignity comes from. You know, some servants are weak, they're afraid to do anything because they're carrying out orders. They can't question them, not a servant of Christ. A servant of Christ has a dignity and a strength that will not carry out certain orders if it's way off the charts, because Christ is the one who you really are serving. This is actually a fact.

Speaker 1: 18:16

They probably don't teach you in high school this anymore, but back in the colonial era, in the time of the War of the Revolution, king George in England hated them Presbyterians. I'm serious, he hated them. One member of parliament got up and said we just have to make up our mind that our American cousins have run off with the Presbyterian pastor and they're not coming back. And the reason they said that was because the little caption that Presbyterians I know there's, we're known for, it's even in our what we call our book of church order is no king but Christ, no king but Christ. It drives people, the authorities in China. It drives them crazy, because they find that these Christians have no king but Christ Doesn't mean they don't obey the authorities, but Paul, I will have to tell the early Christians, by the way, because Christ is your king doesn't mean you don't obey the authority, but when Christ is your king and when you have no king but Christ, there's a strength to you, there's a dignity to you.

Speaker 1: 19:32

You can put me down in high school if you want, but I know who I'm with. You can put me down in the office if you want, but I know, although I'm working for you, in the end I know who it is I'm really serving and he puts it together. This is how I want you to regard us, he says, as servants of Christ we've done that part and stewards of the mysteries of God. Stewards of the mysteries of God. One commentator says we don't get this word stewards. We don't use it much, except for stewards and stewardesses on airlines. It's just not part of our vocabulary. But to be a steward is this, and I'm going to quote him the steward has a responsibility for overseeing a household budget, purchasing accounts, resource allocation, collection of debts and generally running of the establishment, but only, as instructed, within guidelines agreed by the employer or head of the house. If I'm a steward of Christ and of the mysteries of Christ, it means that wherever he has put me, whoever you are or I am, I am in that position in regard to him. Chief executive officer, chief Financial Officer, how I use the resources that I've been given, chief Administrative Officer, how I portion my time, where my priorities are, you're a steward, you're a manager, you're a CEO. Where Christ has put you and you are doing it all for him because it's his house, it is his business, it is his office that you are working under.

Speaker 1: 21:32

Paul says we are entrusted with the mysteries of God. That is, the mysteries of God is Christ revealed the gospel. That means I'm living my life in such a way in high school, I'm living my life in such a way in the office that I'm trying to point back to Christ, I'm trying to honor him, give him the opportunity. I'm going to even share the gospel with others. But I understand I can't sit there in the front desk when they come to me to catch a check and say by the way, have you ever heard of the force, virtual laws or something like that? But your whole life, your whole life is being lived for him, to him, in him, and there is that dignity, then, which comes from understanding how precious the gospel is and that it is the gospel that is to be shaping my life.

Speaker 1: 22:34

And now Paul tells us what is crucial, and it is this Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful, not successful. Faithful. I'm a little afraid of going there with this line about faithful but not successful, because sometimes we do dumb things and we excuse them because we say we're being faithful. But as a mom or a dad, as a husband or a wife, as a high schooler, what you're trying to be is faithful to Christ, to his gospel and to how he wants us to live our lives, and if others don't think that's good enough, I'm sorry, that's their problem. What I want to do as a steward is I want to be found faithful. That's what the Lord is asking of me all of the time. Whether I'm an elder, a deacon, a plumber, a pastor, an electrician, a nurse, a mom or dad or a husband or a wife, may I be found faithful as I try and live for him. And then this is how he sums it up. It's in verse three, but with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. I've got to be careful there and understand Paul in his context. He's not saying when people criticize you, you shouldn't listen to what they're saying. He's not saying you can live your life any way you want and it doesn't matter who says what or anything to you. That's not what he is saying. He's not. Actually, sometimes we have to listen to criticism.

Speaker 1: 24:33

Okay, I remember coming under criticism in the church once and I tell you I was really upset by it, not just upset because they were criticizing me, but just coming apart at the seams. And we were in a session meeting. For those of you who don't know how churches around here function under this Presbyterian thing, the session is when all the elders get together once a month and with the pastors and talk about the life of the church. And I said to my elders I'm just so tired of being criticized about this. And one of my elders and this is important because he was a middle school principal said to me Stephen, you're taking it far too seriously too personally. I said, dick, how do you want me to take it? It's me they're criticizing. Now, never forget what he said. He said no, stephen, they're criticizing you in your role as a pastor and we're here to tell you that in your role as a pastor, you did the right thing here and we're glad that you did what you're supposed to do here. When they criticize you, they're criticizing you in your role, not as an individual, and that really really helped me.

Speaker 1: 25:53

You know, there are times when we get criticized and we're being maybe validly or invalidly being evaluated on our place in the office and we got to wait and all that. But Paul is saying I'll take this stuff personally, if we could put it that way. He said but with me is a small thing if I should be judged by you or any other human court. And then I love this. He says, in fact, I don't even judge myself. What? Again, it doesn't mean that he's not reflective about his life, but, and he adds, I'm not aware of anything against myself. But I'm not thereby acquitted.

Speaker 1: 26:35

I just confess, at times on Sunday morning when you're a pastor and you're speaking and you're looking out there and there's nobody listening, and you go oh, my goodness, I think it's time to quit. I have three minutes and 15 seconds left. You know, because I think I did what I did need to do to understand the text and to share it with you. I feel I've done my part, but maybe I did it for all the wrong motives and I didn't realize it. There's only so far you can go with. Looking inward, okay.

Speaker 1: 27:24

And so he said I don't care if I'm judged wrongly by those out there or even if I'm judging myself wrongly here on the inside, and he says it is the Lord who judges me. You got that. If you know you're living your life for the Lord. Yeah, you may be falling short. Yes, you may have fallen flat on your face. Yeah, you may have said some things that you shouldn't have said and you have to go back and apologize to people in the office. Yeah, you may have beat yourself up because you didn't make the varsity team or whatever it is, and you got to say stop. That's not what the Lord's calling me to be and to do.

Speaker 1: 28:05

But when you know that you're living your life for the Lord, when you know you're living your life for the Lord, to the Lord and in the Lord, there's just a limit to how much you can take the criticism that is coming from the values of the world out there that are not at all appropriate. And so he says this it is the Lord who judges me. Therefore, do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from the Lord. You see, being a retired pastor is not the point. Being a husband or a wife is not the point, so to speak. The point is am I living my life for the Lord? So how much money I'm making, so how well I happen to be doing, it's not how much I seem to be getting ahead in the office or how poorly I'm doing in school, or whatever it is. All that in the end doesn't matter.

Speaker 1: 29:26

If you are living your life for the Lord, if Christ is your boss and if Christ is the King, and if what you want to do him is serve him and following and live your life for him, do it with confidence. Because he called you, he's shaping you by his spirit and by his gospel, and he has called you to be his servant, and he's called you to be his steward, his manager, in the place where you are, and that's all that matters. It's by his grace I be found faithful and that when I go before him on the day of judgment, he might point out some things to me and I'll say yes, lord, that's correct. But Jesus forgave me. And he'll say I know. And then we will hear him say well done thou, good and faithful servant. That's all that matters.

Speaker 1: 30:26

Go now serve Jesus Christ. Go now manage your affairs on his behalf and go now in the confidence of who it is that has loved you, who it is that has called you For service. I went over two minutes and 32 seconds and I told them don't you dare criticize me. I was trying to be faithful. I've only gone over 43, 44, 45 seconds because let's go to the Lord.