Good morning. Would y'all stand? We want to welcome all of you who are watching with us, worshiping with us on Facebook and all, and those of you who are right here live at Calvary Chapel Arch City. Father, we ask for your blessing on our service this morning, that you would be glorified, Father, that we could just sing as unto you, come just as we are, looking to you, the author and the finisher of our faith, Lord. I thank you that you encourage us, Lord, when we need encouragement.

You strengthen us when we need strength. You are our shield, our tower that we can run to, Lord, and we thank you for your amazing grace, that unmerited favor.

But now, was blind, I see, was grace, that taught, I fears, reaches, did, he said, here, the hour, my chains are gone, the soul, grace, we're saved through faith, not that of ourselves, it's a gift of God, not, we thank you for that, Lord, washing over, Jesus came in on that Palm Sunday, that coming, there's that suffering Savior, you see, they, We know, Lord, that it seemed to be in the minds of the apostles that for the kingdom to be set up then and there, that's not what you had in mind. We know that you, Lord Jesus, came as a suffering Savior to die for our sins, to die on that cross, to raise from the dead, and to be at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us. We know that you will come and reign as king in power eventually

when you make your return, Lord. So we give you praise. We thank you, Lord. We thank you for your goodness, your mercy, Lord.

In darkest nights, you are close in the goodness.

Your goodness. We thank you, Lord, for your goodness that is there for us all the time. We thank you for the work of your Holy Spirit in our lives, Lord. Give us that desire to be yielded to you, to allow you to build our lives, in the way you want to, Lord. Actually, you took us and picked up the pieces, Lord, and began to work in our hearts, molding and shaping and making us after your will, Lord.

We thank you for that. May we be yielded to you this morning, allow you to move in our hearts, teach us what you would like us to learn. Would you all stand? I don't know if I said that or not. Never say, Jesus, the only one. Praise you, Lord. Jesus, the only one. The only one who could ever save. Knowing it's not our home, we're passing through,

but as we walk in this world, Lord, as your pilgrims, as your servants, help us to trust you and look to you in us, both to will and do of your good pleasure. So we ask for your blessing, Lord, on each of us, Lord. Strengthen us, encourage us, and build us in your love, Lord. Bless our time as we study your word. Anoint Ryan by the power of your Holy Spirit to bring forth your word.

We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Take some time to fellowship. Good morning. If you would locate a seat and grab a bulletin, we'll get ready to go over a few announcements.

Glad you could join us this morning. Over on the left-hand side of your bulletin, everything's back in action this week. No, yeah, yay. The only thing that's not on there that should be is tonight is intercessory prayer night at 6 o'clock here. Actually, down. The other end of the hallway there. So if you're able to come join us for that. In the middle section of your bulletin, some things to take note of.

Remember, church potluck next Sunday after the second service. So bring a dish to share, and we'll enjoy some time of food and fellowship together. And then some other things coming up. Don't forget that the prophecy conference at Calvary Chapel of Emporia is next week, June 10th through the 12th. And a few other things to take note of. There's a bunch. There's a bunch in the bulletin today.

So bear with me here. Okay, first of all, men's breakfast is coming up June 26th. I have no idea if I'm doing this in any kind of order that they have it back there. I'm just rolling in my own order. You guys just, there it is. Boom. Men's breakfast, June 26th. So fellas, take note of that. It's going to be a great time of some food and some fellowship together again.

You notice that the two always go hand in hand, and it's a really good thing. CDs are available again. So for a long time, with Steve and Renetta dealing with all of Steve's health issues, we were not making CDs of the studies. And so this also prompts me to tell you that there's two different ways. If you want to go back and listen to any of the old studies,

there's two different ways that you can do that. Number one, there's a sign-up sheet out there that you could sign up, and you can receive the CD for those of you that still have CD players, which are not the easiest things to find anymore. I don't know if you realize that. But number two, you can also go to our website, Calvary Chapel Arc City, and there's a messages tab that have messages spanning all the way back into the 90s.

So those are the two different ways that you can listen to previous messages. But if you are interested in getting CDs, again, of the Sunday morning studies, you can sign up in the lobby. And then the last thing that's going on is we've had some new slash newer believers in the past few months. And so I want to do a little study, a little four-week crash course, on being a new believer, what it looks like to follow Jesus, not just purchase the fire insurance.

And so starting Thursday, June 17th, for four Thursdays in a row, there's going to be a new slash newer believers study. We're going to be talking about things like how to navigate your Bible, how to have a prayer life, a devotional life, and then just kind of some basic Christian doctrines, some basic understanding. So if you are interested in that, I will probably have a sign-up sheet next week for that. So take note of that, something to get involved in.

I think those are the things that are going on. And so if you would, make sure that your mobile devices are silenced. And then for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 96. Psalm 96. We'll be looking at the New American Standard just so we all sound similar. If you didn't bring New American Standard, there's one in all kinds of rows around here.

And as you are turning to Psalm 96, if you would stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word,

I will read the odd verses. If you will follow along with Pastor Allen and the even verses of Psalm 96. Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless His name. Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day. Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples. For great is the Lord. And greatly to be praised.

He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before Him. Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory of His name. Bring an offering and come into His courts.

Worship the Lord in holy attire. Tremble before Him all the earth. Say among the nations, the Lord reigns. Indeed, the world is firmly established. It will not be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar and all it contains. Let the fields exult and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy.

And read verse 13 with me. Before the Lord for Him. He is coming. For He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in faithfulness. And Lord, we do want to just sing to You for how good You are to us, Lord. You are mighty and powerful and awesome, Lord. And there is nothing too difficult for You. And so, Father, as we get into Your Word this morning,

I just want to thank You for the opportunity that we have to be here. And, Father, as we spend time this morning discussing Your Word, I pray that all of the opinions of, all of the opinions of the world, all of the opinions of the people, all of the things that hold us back would melt away in the knowledge that our commendation comes from You. That our hope comes from You and our confidence comes in You. And so, Lord, do that work in our hearts this morning and lead us and guide us in You.

In Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of 2 Corinthians, chapter 10. 2 Corinthians, chapter 10. We're going to be picking up in verse 7 this morning. Last week, as we got into chapter 10, we said we came into the last section of the book of 2 Corinthians, the section where Paul defends his apostleship. And we entitled this entire section,

the heart of the apostle. But this particular chapter, chapter 10, is the authority of the apostle. This is part 2 of it. So we're looking at the authority of the apostle, part 2. The first thing he did is he, we saw the plea of the apostle as he began to defend his authority. And really, we looked at why he defended his authority. That it had less to do with who he was as a person

and more to do with not wanting to damage the character of the messenger so that it didn't damage the integrity of the message. And so, he pled with him. He said, listen, I don't want to have to come and be all, like, bad guy. But if I have to, I have to. And I'm pleading with you to get your hearts right so that I don't have to be that way when I show up among you.

And then he talked to them about the weapons. As he defended his authority, he talked about the fact that as an apostle, he didn't fight in the physical realm like many of them accused him of doing. Instead, he fought in a spiritual realm. And so, we talked about this spiritual war that you and I are in. That we are in a war that is spiritual in nature. And many of the things that seem very physical

are actually spiritual in nature because we wrestle not against flesh, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against rulers in high places. And we talked about the weapons that we have for that spiritual warfare because Paul, in defending his authority as an apostle, said, I don't fight with carnal weapons like the world would fight and like my opponents are saying I fight. Instead, I fight with spiritual weapons that are powerful for pulling down strongholds, that are powerful to deal with wrong thought processes, and that are powerful to allow us to take our thoughts captive to the obedience of Jesus Christ. And so, now as we move into this last part of the authority of the apostle,

he's now going to talk about his commendation. The commendation that he has from the Lord. And so, I was thinking about this word commend and so I looked it up to see what it means and in the Greek dictionary, the word commend means this. To present to one's acquaintance for favorable notice. Now, that doesn't mean much to me. Then I saw the second part of the definition

and this actually meant something to me. To present one as worthy. That's the idea of what it means to commend somebody. In other words, if I was to send somebody over to your house to do some work for you, I would say, tell them that Ryan sent you. That way you would know I can trust this person because he's giving a commendation. Ryan says he's trustworthy,

therefore I believe he's a trustworthy individual. That's the idea. It really has to do with others' opinions of us. And so, as we think about our commendation and what Paul says his commendation is, that his commendation comes from the Lord. In other words, the opinion he cares most about in his own life is not what his opponents have to say and it's not even what the Corinthian people have to say.

The person whose thoughts, whose opinion means the most to Paul is Jesus Christ. So I have two questions for you this morning. Number one is whose opinion means the most to you? Because I know that in the world that we live in right now, we are governed by the opinions of others. As a matter of fact, political campaigns are run based upon what others have to think about whatever it is

that they're presenting to us as the public. Ad campaigns are run based upon what the opinions of people are. How can this shape the opinions of people? News articles are written in order to help shape the opinions of people. And unfortunately, lives are lost on a daily basis because they decide the opinions of people are more important than God's opinion and the opinions of people aren't very good of me.

And so what's the point in even living? So my question for you is, whose opinion is the most important to you? And the second question that I am going to seek to answer this morning is, how can we live free from the opinions of others? How can we live free from the opinions of others? Because as we come to chapter 10, the middle section here, this last section of chapter 10,

as Paul defends his apostleship, he basically is going to give us the roadmap for how to live not under the commendation of other people, in other words, not governed by the opinions of other people, but instead governed by God's opinion of him. And so we pick up in verse 7, and this is what it says. You are looking at things as they are outwardly. If anyone is confident in himself that he is Christ's, let him consider this, again within himself, that just as he is Christ's, so also are we.

For even if I boast somewhat further about our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I won't be put to shame. For I do not wish to seem as if I would terrify you by my letters. For they say, his letters are weighty and strong, but his personal appearance is unimpressive and his speech contemptible. Let such a person consider this, that what we are in word by letters when absent, such persons we are also indeed when present.

For we are not bold to class or compare, ourselves with some of those who commend themselves, but when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding. But we will not boast beyond our measure, but within the measure of the sphere which God apportioned to us as a measure to reach even as far as you. For we are not overextending ourselves as if we did not reach to you, for we were the first to come even as far as you in the gospel of Christ. Not boasting beyond our measure, that is, in another man's labors, but with the hope that as your faith grows, we will be within our sphere enlarged more by you.

So as to preach the gospel even to the regions beyond you, and not to boast in what has been accomplished in the sphere of another. But he who boasts is to boast in the Lord. For it is not he who commends himself that is approved, but he whom the Lord commends. And so as Paul defends his authority and speaks on this commendation, he really gives us three points in order to live apart from the opinions of others, instead be focused only on the opinion of the Lord.

Number one, he tells us, do not look at the outward appearance. Do not look only at the outward appearance. This is what he says right here in verse seven, you are looking at things as they are outwardly. This is a problem that we have as human beings, is we have a tendency to only look at the way a person looks on the outside. There's a wonderful story in the Old Testament

that talks about this, and I know that I've shared it before, but I'll share it again, and it's when David was anointed as king. Saul was the one that looked right on the outside. He was the big kingly looking individual. Only the problem was Saul, the first king of Israel, though looking right on the outside, was not correct on the inside, because his heart was not for the people, and his heart was not to obey God.

And so when Saul failed, because his heart no longer sought to obey God, God said it's time to anoint a new king. Samuel, I want you to take your anointing oil, and I want you to go see a guy by the name of Jesse, and I want you to anoint a new king, the one that I tell you is the right one. And so Samuel shows up to Jesse's house and says, I'm here to anoint a king. Let me see your sons.

And so first of all, there was this tall, good looking young man that came out that looked exactly like a king, and Samuel thought to himself, that's the one. There's the next king. And God said, no. No, you're only looking at the outward appearance. I am looking at the heart. And so every other guy came by, all of the other sons of Jesse came by, all of the other kingly looking sons,

and God said no to all of them. And then finally he said, don't you have anybody else? God didn't choose any of these guys. And he said, well, I got this one other kid. He's kind of a ruddy little guy. He's out in the field taking care of the sheep. Samuel said, I'm not going anywhere until he gets here. And David shows up, no doubt his hair messed up, pretty dirty from living out in the fields,

probably stunk a little bit, face overly tanned, probably a little bit reddish in color, which is why it says that he was ruddy and good looking. He had that farmer's tan going on, and as soon as he showed up, God said, that's the one, because he's a man after my own heart. You see, David didn't look the part of a king, but he had the heart of a king, and he had the heart of the king because he had the heart of the shepherd, because that's who God is towards us. And so he says, you can't look at the outward appearance because that's all you can see.

You must judge according to what's on the inside. And the problem that the Corinthian people had is the same problem that we have in the United States of America today, and that we judge people by how they look on the outside. You see, if somebody looks the part of a good Christian, we can say, that must be a good Christian. If somebody looks a little rough around the edges, we think, man, they must be struggling in their walk.

Meanwhile, God may be looking at the guy who is clean cut, owns the best Bible, memorizes the most scripture, and say, but his heart is far from me. And the guy over here who still struggles with his bad language and still struggles with some of the things that the world would say, man, that's pretty ugly, God says, but his heart is for me, because he has a heart to know and love me. But you see, we can't see that, because we can't see someone's heart. And so we can't spend our lives judging people by the way they look on the outside.

Do you know how Paul was described as looking on the outside? He was a short, balding guy. No, that's right, gone now. He was a short, balding guy with a crooked nose, squinty eyes, and his voice sounded obnoxious. Would you all stop looking at me, right? And so that's how he was described. That's how he was described. He was not the most eloquent speaker. He would not have been a streamer today, right?

You would not subscribe to his YouTube channel, because you would think, who really wants to listen to that guy? And yet Paul's heart was so strong for the things of God that he was who God would use to not only start churches all over the world, but write the greater portion of the New Testament. Why? Because God doesn't look at the outward appearance, God looks at the heart.

And if I am to begin to be someone who cares more about what God thinks than what man thinks, then I must stop worrying about my outward appearance and start worrying about whether or not my heart is right. Because quite frankly, if my heart is right, God will take care of everything else. This is one of the beautiful things that happened with the Calvary Chapel movement at one point in time, is that all of these kids started coming in off of the beach and they looked like losers. They looked like slackers.

They didn't wear shoes. They didn't take showers. They probably smelled like pot. And when they came in off of the streets, everybody said, but Chuck said, I don't care, bring them in. We'll tear up the carpet if we have to. Why? Because he said, if God will get a hold of their heart, then he'll take care of everything else on the outside. And he'll take care of all of the other issues

that our eyes can see if their heart is right. And so Paul says, you are looking at things as they are outwardly. And when we look at things as they are outwardly, we miss some things. We miss what he says right here in verse seven. If anyone is confident in himself that he is Christ's, let him consider this again within himself, that just as he is Christ's, so also are we.

You see, when we look only at the outward appearance, we forget that just because they don't look like me, doesn't mean that they don't belong to Jesus. Just because they don't have the same look that I have, don't worship God in the same way that I do, it doesn't mean that they don't belong to Jesus. One of the most wonderful things that happened to me when I went to Bible college was to see people of a variety of different backgrounds with a variety of different styles that look nothing like me and know that they love Jesus just as much as I did. And I couldn't sit back and say, I'm confident that I love Jesus, but I don't know about you because you have piercings all over the place and you're tatted up.

I can't look at you and say, I don't know if you really love Jesus because I can still smell the cigarette smoke on your clothes. I can't look at you and think that because that's me judging you based on the outward appearance because that's not how God looks. God looks at the heart. Now, if God has our heart, he's gonna deal with some of those things on the outside, the things that, pay attention, the things that he thinks are important, not the things that you think are important.

And so he says, listen, when we judge based on the outward appearance, when you only look at the outside, you forget that just because you believe in Jesus doesn't mean that this guy that looks a little bit different than you doesn't believe in Jesus because as Paul says, if you're confident that you belong to Christ, understand I have that same confidence in me. He goes on to defend his ministry here because notice what he says. He says, verse eight, for even if I boast somewhat further about our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be put to shame for I don't wish to seem as if I would terrify you by my letters for they say his letters are weighty and strong

but his personal appearance is unimpressive and his speech contemptible. Paul's defending his ministry here. He says, I'm gonna make some reluctant boasting at this point in time, but listen, there's no shame in this reluctant boasting. Why? Because God has given me this gift for building you up and not for tearing you down. And I know what's being said about me.

I know that you say when he shows up, he really likes to be around him. He just doesn't look all that impressive. He doesn't sound all that impressive. As a matter of fact, he seems a little bit meek and weak when he's around us. Now, here's what's kind of interesting to me that I've really struggled with as I've studied this section. If you read the book of Acts,

when you hear Paul preach or when you read about the preaching that he does, is there any part of you that thinks that he's weak? Is there any part of you that thought that he held back in anything that he said? Because it doesn't seem like he did. And so why are they saying these things about him? Because he didn't look the part. You see, he didn't look like what they would expect

an apostle of Jesus Christ to look like. What image did they have? I don't know. Probably the same image you have. It was the same issue they had when Jesus showed up. Why did they struggle with Jesus when he showed up? Is it because he showed up without authority? No, because what happened when he taught? They said he speaks as one with authority, not like the rabbis.

Was it because he wasn't willing to make a stand? No, remember we talked about this last week. When you ask what would Jesus do, whipping people and turning over tables is completely a part of the equation. Because that's what Jesus did. So why did they have so much trouble with him? Because he did not look the part. He didn't come from the right family background.

He didn't hang out with the right friends. He didn't come from the right city. He didn't have any of those things going for him. And quite frankly, they looked at him and they said, Messiah, this is what we were looking for? And the same thing's happening to Paul. Apostle? That's an apostle? He's not polished at all. I bet he's never even had his own YouTube channel.

How can he be an apostle? And so he says, listen, with this reluctant boasting, I'll boast just a little bit because I want you to understand my goal is to build you up, not to tear you down. And though they may say he seems weighty in his letters, but his personal appearance is contemptible. I need you to understand something. Verse 11, let such a person consider this,

that what we are in word by letters when absent, such persons we are also indeed when present. In other words, I am who I am whether I'm writing a letter or whether I'm standing in front of you. It all depends on what you're willing to accept of me. It all depends on whether you're willing to look past the outward appearance and see what's coming out of my heart.

And so he gives us this first point for how to get past the opinions of people. The first part of getting past the opinions of people is to quit looking at the outward appearance and start looking at the heart. And so don't worry about the way you look on the outside. Worry about whether or not your heart fully belongs to Jesus. Worry about whether or not in your heart

you are fully committed to him, and God will take care of all of the outside things. Now we come to his second point that he makes about this. And the second way to not get caught up in the opinions of people is do not play the comparison game. Do not play the comparison game. For we are not bold to class or compare ourselves with some of those who would commend themselves.

But when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding. He says, we've chosen not to compare ourselves with all of those who would commend themselves. The comparison game. He points out what they do. They do three things. Number one, they measure themselves by themselves. In other words, I measure myself by me.

I use my own system of measurement and not what God has to say. They also compare themselves with themselves. In other words, I do vertical comparison. I compare myself with the person that's next to me. But when I do that, I am without understanding. I'll explain what that means in just a moment. But I want to spend just a moment talking about this comparison game that we have a tendency to play

because I think this is one of the things that's plaguing our culture right now. We constantly compare ourselves to the other person. It's on every TV show that you watch. It's in every aspect of social media. Comparing ourselves to what other people have. Let me tell you something. Let me give you a little scenario. You go out. You do something to your house.

You buy the can of paint. You paint your living room. You look at it. You feel real good about it. Put it on the Instagram. Put it on the Facebook machine. Whatever it is that you do. Or perhaps you even just get on those aspects of social media. And you know what happens the minute that you get on social media? It's almost like it knew you did something to your house

and 17 other people that you know all did something to their house. Only you know what they did to their house? Something better than you did to yours. And what do you do? You know, I just did this great brand new thing and now look what they did. It was so much better than what I did. And we compare ourselves to it. And then how do we feel about ourselves?

We go, I'll never have what they have. Same thing happens on the HGTV, right? Or as I like to call it, the devil's channel.

I'll get in trouble with that with my wife later. Because this is what happens. You can be as content as possible. You can be content as possible with your house, right? You can be content as possible with the thing that you own until you watch the HGTV. And then what do you want to do? You want to do something else to your house, right? And so we begin comparing ourselves.

Now listen, fellas. I know that you all probably don't watch a lot of the HGTV. If you do, let's counsel later. But there is this thing called the hot rod channel, right? Like I've seen that that thing exists. And I know you all get on there with your cars. And you're like, man. Or you go to whenever we're able to have the car show again. And you take your car.

And you're like, oh, if only I had fill in blank here. I do this with athletic prowess, right? What lack I have, I do it with that. Because I knew that there were some standards I was able to hit at one point in time. And now I'm 40. And I don't know what happened at 40. There was this magical thing that happened. I can't do anything anymore. My reflexes are slower than they used to be.

I'm slower than I used to be. I'm weaker than I used to be. And so I can be feeling pretty good about myself until the 24-year-old kid comes into the gym, right? And he's putting up a show. He's putting up like 495 pounds as his warm-up on bench press. And I'm like, you know, I get that sort of face going on. And I've compared myself. And no matter how good I feel about me, now I feel bad about myself.

Why? Because all I can think is he probably thinks I'm really weak. And you probably think they probably think I'm poor because of this house that I live in. They probably think I don't know how to work on cars because mine is not as cool as theirs. And we compare ourselves to other people. And when we do so, that has the same meaning as it just might be true to you as I am to you.

And that is it. And that's what I said before. That if you're not sitting in line and you think you're not a great parent, that's not the case. That's how we do it. That's how we get together. Because when you don't have a good father and a good daughter. And you think you're a great parent. You think you're a great mother. You think you're a great father. And you think you're a great child.

You think you're a great father. But that's not what we do. This is what this next lesson is. We're going to be talking about one of the most important things that all children need to do in life. So, see, the thing that we all need to work on is because they were playing the comparison game on their own. And the temptation was there for Paul to do the same thing.

The temptation was there for Paul to say, I see the following that they have. I see the gifts that they have. I see what they're doing. And wait a second, that's not my game. Because what they were doing is they were saying, look at me, I'm pretty well meeting my own standard. Look at me, I'm better than that guy over there. But what's the problem with the comparison game?

Well, there's two main problems with the comparison game. Number one problem that we deal with with the comparison game is the standard. The standard that we use, whether it is a religious comparison game or whether it's all of the other things that I talked about, we have a problem with the standard. What do I mean? Well, when we compare, we have a tendency to judge others by our standard.

Wait, Ryan, I thought you were talking about me comparing myself. I am. You see, when we play this comparison game, what do we do to other people? We develop a standard in our mind for what something should be, and when they don't meet that standard, we judge them by that. And we say, look at them. I can't believe that they would. And we judge others by that standard.

And when we do so, we usually try to boast or boost our own self-esteem, right? I heard this great illustration by a friend of mine the other day. She was telling me about her daughter. And she said she gave me the perfect. Illustration of what we do with the comparison game in judging other people. She said, we went to a picnic and my daughter was was eating

and there was some other kids over there and they were a little bit younger than her and they were an absolute mess. Food all over them, food all over the table, food all over the floor. And she said, my daughter looked at them and said, Mom, you. I cannot believe how big of a mess they are. And she said, Now, listen, you need to understand you were a little like that, too.

And sometimes you can be a. A mess, too. And she said, Mom, I know I'm a mess. I'm not a mess like them. And I thought, isn't that exactly how we are? That's what we do as Christians, is it not? We look at people and we say, I can't believe how big of a mess they are. And God says, Well, you're a mess, too. And what do we say? But I'm not a mess like them. But but, Lord, I'm not that guy.

Remember the parable that Jesus told about the two guys that went into the temple to pray? One guy goes into the temple and he's a Pharisee. The Pharisees were the guys that knew. How to do everything. If you will, the guys that are coming along behind Paul, they're pharisaical type guys. They did everything right as far as the world was concerned, except they had one problem.

Their heart was far from God. And the Pharisee comes into the temple to pray. And then there's another guy that comes into the temple and he's a tax collector. Now, a tax collector was the most hated individual in the nation of Israel. It was someone who is Jewish by nature. In other words, they belong to the Jewish party, but they had no religious background.

They had no religious. They had no religious standards. They were willing to cheat their own brother to make money off of them. And they were hated by all. What was their greatest problem? Sin. And as these two men went into the temple. The first one started to pray, and it was the Pharisee, and he said, Lord, thank you that I am not like this man. I am a Pharisee.

I tithe. I do all of the things right. If you will. He said, thank you. That I'm not a mess. How many things you can do for him. And then the tax collector came and huddled himself in the corner, beat his chest, and said, Father, have mercy on me. A sinner. But not only do we judge others by our standards, but we judge ourselves based on other people's standards.

This is the other thing that we have a tendency to do. We have a tendency to look at someone and we say, oh, I can never be as good as them. Look, look at how much they read the Bible. Look at how much they know about Jesus. Look at how much scripture they have memorized. I will never be them. I will never be as good as they are. And you know what? God never asked you to.

God never asked you to be like them. We'll get to that in just a moment. But we judge ourselves by the standards of other people. And what happens when we judge ourselves by the standards of other people? We never measure up to them. And so how do we live most of our lives? We live most of our lives in discouragement. And so what are the results? What are the results of these things?

Because the problem with the comparison game, first of all, is the standard. Second of all, the problem with the comparison game is the results that it yields. When we play the comparison game with other people, sometimes we have success. And you know what success brings? Pride. You know what is one of the things that God says that he hates? Pride. Matter of fact, speaking of David, you may remember that David,

there's two really, really great sins that we see in the life of David. One was the sin with Bathsheba where he committed adultery and then had her husband murdered in order to try to cover it up. At the end of the chapter, there's another chapter that tells of that sin. You know what it says? It says, And God was displeased with David. But then there's another chapter that comes later in David's life,

one of the very last chapters of David's life. And it says that David sought to number his military men. And at the end of it all, it says that God was greatly displeased with David. Now why on earth would God have been greatly displeased with David? Well, for one thing, they were always told not to take a census of the people. You know why? Because a census brought pride.

Now I can trust in myself. I can trust in my military. I don't need to trust in God. And so God told him, you don't need to take a census of your military men. You don't need to take a census of the people because that's pride. You're trying to show how strong you are apart from me. And so even though at the end of David's sin with Bathsheba, where he commits adultery, commits murder, and then covers it all up,

God says, he was displeased. But you know what God was greatly displeased with? David's pride. You know why? Because all of the other moral sins, they cause us to focus on ourselves. Pride causes us to leave God out completely. That's what pride does to us. We say, I don't need you, God, because I've got this under control for myself. And when we play the comparison game and look and say,

but at least I'm not a mess like them, all of a sudden pride begins to well up inside of us. And may I say that the prideful heart that God has to break is the most painful heart that God has to break. But not only does success bring pride, but failure breeds discouragement. I would venture to say that as many times as there are believers that walk around with their heads held a little bit too high, there's every bit as many, if not more, believers walking around with their heads held way too low because they feel like they have to go.

They feel like they have to go. They feel like they have to go. Because they feel like they just can't measure up. You feel like an absolute failure. And I want you to know something, believer. If that's you this morning, God does not view you as a failure. Because if your faith is in Jesus Christ, he views you through the blood of Jesus, meaning that he views you through the lens of victory

and righteousness. And so, believer, stop living like you're a failure and start living like you're a failure. Stop living like you're a failure. Stop living like you're a failure. Stop living like you're a failure. Stop living like you're a failure. Stop living like you're a child of God and believing that God doesn't judge you by the standards of all the other people.

God holds you to the standard of Jesus and he's already covered you in his blood. And so, as we look at this comparison game, he says, these are the issues that these guys are dealing with. They're comparing themselves with each other. He said, that's not who we are. As a matter of fact, he gives us a key to overcome the comparison game. Notice what he says.

We will not boast, verse 13, beyond our measure, but within the measure of the sphere which God apportioned to us as a measure to reach out even as far as you. For we are not overextending ourselves as if we did not reach out to you, for we were the first to come even as far as you in the gospel of Christ. Not boasting beyond our measure, that is, in another man's labor, but with the hope that as your faith grows, we will be within our sphere enlarged even more by yours. So as to preach the gospel even to the regions beyond you and not to boast in what another man has accomplished in the sphere of another.

Paul says, we won't boast beyond our measure, but within the measure of our sphere. Now, this is an interesting word that's used, the word sphere here. Now, you think of a circle, right? But do you realize the Greek word sphere is a word that was used in the Olympic Games. And it was a word that was used to indicate the importance of the sphere. It was a word that was used to indicate

the importance of the sphere. It was a word that was used to indicate the importance of staying in your own lane in a race. Because you can get disqualified if you don't stay in your own lane. And so, how do we not fight the comparison game? We learn to stay in our own lane. Paul says, we're not gonna boast beyond our measure, but within the measure of the sphere,

which God apportioned to us as a measure to reach even as far as you. He said, I'm not gonna worry about what all those guys are doing. I'm just gonna be in my own lane. I'm just gonna stay in my lane. We're told in the book of Hebrews that we are to run the race that is set before us. The Greek would indicate in that statement that each of us has an individual race

that we are to run. In other words, your race is your race. My race is my race. I don't have to worry about your race and you don't have to worry about my race because we're two completely different people. I am not running Greg Laurie. I'm not running his race even though we have the same hairstyle. That's just all that there is to it. We're two different people

and we have two different races that we're running. My friend Levi that I went to Bible college with, I'm not running his race. He's running his race and I'm running mine. So I don't have to worry about that. And all of a sudden if I go, his race is different than my race, then I'm not comparing myself with him. I'm only comparing myself with what Jesus wants me to do

because I'm staying in my own lane. And sometimes I believe that right now as believers in Jesus Christ, we need to figure out how to stay in our own lane because many of us are judging all of the other people and we're allowing their judgment to affect us. And as we do so, we all of a sudden can't run the race that we have set before us because I'm too worried about the race other people have set before them and what they think about my race. And I don't have to worry about all of that.

All I have to worry about is doing what God has called to do. What God has called me to do and stay in my own lane. And then I don't have to compare myself with anybody else. One of the things that I appreciate most about being a runner now is that I set my own personal goals. I think I've told you before that when I ran a half marathon here a few years ago,

25,000 people in this crazy thing. So you have to sign up for what time you're shooting for, what race you're shooting for. And that's who you want to stick with. And so when I did the half marathon, my goal was to run a race and my goal was two hours. That's what I was shooting for. That was my race. The guy that finished the race did it in, I think, a little over an hour.

That's not my race. On my best day and my best year of my best life, that was not my race, right? I'm just not built like that. I don't know who is built like that, but that guy was fascinating. My wife told me that the people that were finishing, because there was also a 5K going on at the same time, that started just after the half marathon started. She said just after the last person finished their 5K,

the guy that won the whole race, finished the half marathon. And I was like, that's dumb, right? But that's not my race. I don't have to worry about that. So I'm not comparing myself to him, the guy that ran cross country at Oklahoma State University, right? Because I'll never be able to keep up with him. But I don't have to. And may I say, my friends, when we all of a sudden stop looking at other people,

or when we realize I don't have to do what they do, I don't have to be them. Then all of a sudden, I'm not so worried about what people think of me anymore. I'm only worried about what God thinks of me. Am I running the race that God has set before me? And so he says, we need to learn to stay in our own lane with it. He says, for we are not overextending ourselves,

verse 14, as if we did not reach to you, for we were the first to come to you. In other words, thinking that I would be the apostle to you. This is back to him defending his apostleship. Thinking that I would be your apostle, the apostle to the apostles. The apostle to the Corinthians is not me getting outside of my lane because, quite frankly, I started the church there.

That's the lane God gave me to run in. So for me to think that I have this authority is not wrong because that is my race. That is my lane. He says, and I'm not boasting beyond measure. I don't want to boast in what somebody else has done. But if the ministry that I've done through you is now reaching to other people, then they're a part of my lane as well.

But the goal is to run the race that God has given me and not compare myself to others. And not compare myself with all of these other people. And so he's given us the two things to not do if we are to live apart from the opinions of other people. Number one, we're not to look only at the outward appearance. And then number two, we're not to play the comparison game with other people.

And now he gives us the positive. So what are we to do in order to live under God's opinion and not the opinions of others? He tells us in verses 17 and 18, and that is to rest. In God's opinion. Notice what he says. But he who boasts is to boast in the Lord. For it is not he who commends himself that is approved, but he whom the Lord commends. He says that we are to boast only in the Lord.

He who boasts is to boast in the Lord. Now there's a direct quotation here out of the book of Jeremiah. So I want you to go back to the book of Jeremiah. Chapter nine. So go back into the Old Testament. If you go to the right from Psalms, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah. And I want you to go to Jeremiah chapter nine. If you can't get there fast enough,

that's fine. Just write this down. Jeremiah chapter nine. And I want you to look at verses 23 and 24. Therefore, thus says the Lord, let not a wise man boast in his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might. Let not a rich man boast of his riches, but this may look familiar. Let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercises loving kindness,

justice, and righteousness on the earth. For I delight in these things, declares the Lord. You see, he starts to give us the clue into how we rest in God's provision or how we rest in God's opinion. And how do we do that? Well, we stop boasting in all of the things that we think we have to show for, right? He says, don't let the wise man boast in his wisdom.

Don't let the strong man boast in his strength. Don't let the rich man boast in his riches. Instead, what are we to boast in? What are we to glory in? The fact that we know God. You see, the only thing you and I really have to show for life is what God has to show us. What God has done in and through us. What God has done for us. That's the only thing that we have to show for our lives

because Paul tells us in the book of Romans that in my flesh dwells no good thing. That means anything good about me came directly from God. You say, Ryan, I'm pretty sure all the things I've built in my life, I built in my life. Did you? Did you? Was that you? Or was that the Lord at work in you? You know, who was it that gave you the muscles in order to do the job that you have?

Who gave you the mind to understand how to do the job that you have? Who gave you the opportunities to do the job that you have? Who gave you the wisdom to save, to put things aside? The wisdom to know how to run that business? The wisdom to do all of those kinds of things? Well, it was God. God's the one that gave you all of those things. So, I can't glory in my business prowess.

I can't glory in the strength that I have to do my job. I can't glory in the skill that I have to do my job. All I can do is boast in the fact that God is the God who supplies all of my needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus. And what is true of us physically translates directly into us spiritually. You see, everything that I do, everything that I have is in Christ.

And so, if there is anything good in me, if somebody comes up to you and says, you know, I'm really blessed by the prayer life that you have, you can't say, oh, thanks. Something I've been working on for years. No, it's God at work in you. He's the one who began to prompt you. First of all, he's the one that provided you the opportunity in order to pray because that's why he died.

And he's the one that gives you the words to speak, prompts your heart to even want to care about other people enough to pray. It's the same with your study of the word of God. You see, we don't study this so that we can prove to people how awesome we are and how much knowledge we have. We study that so that we can know the God who gave it to us. And so, if somebody comes and says,

oh, that was a wonderful word from God that you just gave me out of scripture, that's amazing. We can't say, oh, thanks, years of study. No, that was the Holy Spirit at work. We glory in the Lord and we boast in him. Because see, then it's not me. So, I'm not worried about what somebody thinks about me. I glory in the fact that it was the Lord. It's the same.

It's the same thing when I have to get up here and teach. If I get up here and teach and I come off of the stage and I think, gosh, I did a really good job, I've just screwed up completely and I ruined the whole thing. I have to think it was God. The Lord is the one who did that. And it's the same when I feel like I absolutely failed. I come down and I say, but God, you're the one that's going to do the work.

Pastor Steve Bliss yesterday shared a great little story about the first time that he ever gave a Wednesday night message here at the church. Pastor Steve Bliss pastors over at Calvary at Oak Falls, but he came out of Calvary Chapel of Ark City quite some time ago back when I had hair. And he said, I remember the first time I ever gave a Wednesday night message, he said, I studied for probably at least an hour. And I think any of us that have ever taught understand exactly what he's saying because the first time you do it, you're like, oh, well, he just gets up and talks, right?

So, spend a few minutes writing a few notes down, a few he said, she says, and everything's going to be good. And then you give your first study and you're like, well, that's about all I got. He said, I stood up there and I talked for about 10 minutes and then God gave me the grace to say, let's close in prayer. And he said, that 10 minutes was full of a whole lot of,

and he said, as soon as I finished, I wish I could just crawl off of the stage. And he said, I got out of there as fast as I could and I went to my car. And he thought, well, that'll be the last time I ever do that. He goes, but you know what happened? A guy found me in the parking lot, came up and put his arm around. And he said, you will never know what that meant to me.

Thank you so much for what you shared. You know why? Because we can glory in the Lord because God does what he wants to do. And so it's not that we boast in anything of ourselves because his concern was probably that all of the people thought, wow, that was really bad. And I don't know how many times I've come off of the stage or left a Bible study and thought, wow, that was really bad.

Right? And inevitably somebody says, thank you for sharing that because I needed to hear it. And I'm like, wow, God's really good because I didn't even understand what I said. Those are always the best.

All of a sudden now it's not what other people think of me. It's what God thinks of me. And so he says, he who boasts, he who glories is to glory in the Lord because if we glory in the Lord, all of a sudden we're resting in God's opinion, not others. Go back to 2 Corinthians chapter 10. And then he gives us the second part. For it's not he who commends himself that is approved,

but he whom the Lord commends. It's not he who commends himself that is approved that meets the test and passes the test. It's not what we think of ourselves and it's not even what other people think of us that matters. It's whether or not God has commended us. Remember what that word commend means. It means to present as worthy. So as we think back to this comparison game,

we realize that we are to judge based on God. We are to judge based on God. We are to judge based on God's standards and to seek his approval only. I'll close with a story that I've shared lots of times, but the Lord told me I was supposed to share it again this morning. And it's the story of that wonderful little book, You Are Special. And in that wonderful little book,

it's about these wooden people. And these wooden people have all been created and they all judge each other. And as they judge each other, there's two marks they give each other. They give you stars for doing really good things and they give you dots for doing really bad things. Well, there was one particular little wooden guy. And he had nothing but dots. He was so terrible.

He couldn't do anything. He couldn't jump high. He couldn't run fast. Everything he did was wrong. And compared to everybody else, he felt like the biggest loser. Some people gave him dots just because he had so many dots. Then one day, he found this girl who didn't have any stars or dots on her. Some people would try to give her stars, because she didn't have any dots,

but they would just fall off. Some people would try to give her dots, because she didn't have any stars, and they would just fall off. And he thought, I wish I knew what her secret was. I wish I knew how to be like that, because I'd love to get rid of all of these dots. And so finally one day, he came to her and he said, I want to know what your secret is. Why don't any of the stars or dots stick to you?

And she said, every day, I go see the maker. And so, he thought, oh, that's really scary. I've really screwed up what he did. Look at me. I can't do anything right. What's he going to think when he sees me? But one day, he decides he's going to go. So he walks up the hill to see the maker. And as he walks in, the maker calls him by name. You know my name? He goes, of course I did.

I made you. He says, looks like life's been a little bit rough on you. The people have been pretty tough on you. You have a lot of dots. And he goes, I know, I'm so ashamed. He said, but there was a girl, there was a girl that I met, and she didn't have anything on her. How do I get to be like that? He said, well, what you need to do is you need to come to me every day

so that I can tell you how much I love you and how much you mean to me. And he said, well, okay, I think I can do that. And as he walked out the door, one little dot fell off. See, friends, we live in a world that wants to tell us whether or not we're accepted, whether or not we're good enough, whether or not we're smart enough, whether or not we're spiritual enough.

And sometimes, unfortunately, the same thing can happen in the church. But listen, if we are to be people that rise above the fray, that live not by judging people on their outward appearance, that live not by playing the comparison game, instead rest in God's opinion of us and not the opinions of others, we must every day go see the maker. Every day, go spend time with Jesus. Let him remind you, how much he loves you, what his plan is for your life, and the righteousness that you have in Christ.

Amen? It's Communion Sunday, and so we take time to remember what Jesus has done for us. We take time to remember the sacrifice. I tend to focus on the oneness aspect of communion when we come together, but I was kind of challenged yesterday at the end of the conference that we had when we did communion, because my Uncle Joe, as he was presenting it, said, it's been a great deal of time talking about the suffering.

And I thought, you know, what an interesting time, what an interesting thing to pay attention to, and that's the suffering of Jesus, because it is because of the suffering of Jesus that we have oneness in him. Because quite frankly, none of us measured up. We're told in the book of Romans, all have fallen short of the glory of God. All have sinned and fallen short of God's glorious standard.

And there's no way any of us could measure up to him. Matter of fact, when we compare ourselves to him, which is the true comparison, we all fall short, and yet he still accepts us. Why? Because he was willing to endure the suffering that rightfully belongs to you and I. He was willing to endure the death that rightfully belongs to us so that we could wear his righteousness on us

like brand new clothing. And so as we come to the table, we remember the fact that his body was broken for us. We remember that he suffered from the moment that he was arrested to the moment that he gave up his life and his last breath and gave up the ghost. We remember that he suffered, that his back was torn open by the 39 stripes that were laid upon him, the stripes that Isaiah says heal us.

We know that his skin was beaten open with the crown of thorns that was put upon his head. We know that his hands and his feet were pierced. And we know that his side was pierced for us. And so as we partake of the bread, we're reminded of the suffering that he went through for you and I in order that we could become his righteousness. And then we think about the blood

that was shed for us because that's what the cup represents. It represents the blood of Jesus Christ that is shed for us. The blood that first began to be shed when he prayed and great drops of sweat like drops of blood began to come from his brow. When he was first taken prisoner and they began to beat him with a sack on top of his head saying, prophesy who was the one that struck you.

When we think of the blood that poured from him as they laid those 39 stripes on him and the blood that ran down his face as they put the crown of thorns on his head. The blood that flowed down the cross as they pierced his hands and his feet. And the blood and water that flowed from his side as they pierced it. All to cover and do away with my sin. All because I couldn't measure up

but he loved me too much to let me go. And it's the same for you. And so in just a moment the ushers are going to come in. The worship team is going to come up and they're going to play for us. And so as they do so I want you to allow God to bring to your mind the suffering that he went through for you and I. So that we could become his righteousness. So that we could be accepted by him.

So that we could know and distinctly understand just how much he loves us and just how much he gave for us. And so as the ushers hand over, if I could go ahead and have the worship team come on up. As the ushers hand out the elements, when you receive the elements please stand and allow the Holy Spirit to do the work in your heart that needs to be done. Jesus Lord of heaven The grace that you have given At the sacrifice you made Mercy beyond measure Mercy beyond Jesus your love Won't you bow with me.

Father we come before you. And just thank you for the time that we've had here this morning. Lord I do thank you for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Lord what a fitting song Lord. That we do just stand in awe of what you've done for us. Lord I thank you for the depth of your love that was declared to us on the cross. That while we were yet sinners you died for us.

And so Father I thank you for your body that was broken. I thank you for your blood that was shed. And I thank you for the salvation that we have in you. In Jesus name. Amen. Let's partake. Bow with me one more time please. Father we come before you and thank you. Pray that as we go out from here Lord that you would guide our steps. Father that you would make yourself even more real to us.

And Lord that we would find our hope. Our acceptance and our confidence in you. And Lord we thank you for who you are. In Jesus name. Amen. Be blessed.