Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Good morning. 945.
[00:00:07] Good morning. If I have not met you, my name is Michael Fueling, the lead pastor here at the village church. And over the next five weeks, we are finishing the book of Second Corinthians. And the name of this series is simply called ministry training. So this is a series for anybody who finds themselves, who will find themselves, or who's found themselves in a position of spiritual leadership over another person.
[00:00:35] This is not just for pastors. This is not just for elders and deacons and staff members. This could be for those who are small group leaders. You are Bible study leaders, community group leaders. You're a ministry director, you're on a ministry team.
[00:00:50] You are in a position where you are able to lead. And by the way, this also applies to your homes, to moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas, you have spiritual authority. And so this is a series where we're just gonna kinda go deeper in God's word and we're going to train. All right, I wanna start off and I wanna talk about authority.
[00:01:10] At the very least, authority gives decision making power within a designated group of people. Now, authority is so much more than that, but at the very least, the person who has authority has decision making power within a designated group of people. And I wanna identify three facts about authority to kind of set the stage for the text. We're go.
[00:01:31] All right, number one, every environment that is stable has someone in authority. Someone who has the decision making power within that designated group of people. For example, a classroom without a teacher is what?
[00:01:48] Chaos. Good job. I was very curious what word you were going to say. A15 said the same word, chaos. It is utter and total insanity.
[00:01:56] And who is the authority over the teacher? In most schools, it's going to be the principal. And who is authorized over the principal? It's going to be a school board. All right, just consider for a moment. In America, for the most part, we drive on roads that are pretty well organized. They are safe, people play by the rules. And when they don't play by the rules, we have police who are there who are ready to protect and to serve. Now, when you go to other countries where the roads are not policed, well, how would you describe those roads?
[00:02:27] Chaos. It's utter insanity. Right? And so I just praise God every time I go overseas for the American road system. Okay, your home, so much of the chaos in your home is a battle for authority. Mom and dad, you have it and the kids want it. All right?
[00:02:44] Every institution that God has made, he has infused it. With point authority, marriage. The family Israel had Moses. The priests had Aaron. Generals, judges, kings. The disciples had the 3. The leader of the 3 was Peter, and the leader of the 12, of course, was Jesus. Even the Trinity has point leadership in the Father. Every institution that functions well, effectively and efficiently has point leadership. When you don't have point leadership, everything is chaos.
[00:03:20] All right, fact number two about authority.
[00:03:23] Authority is a very good thing that can be easily abused. So fire is not bad. Fire is good, but it's dangerous. Sexual desire is not bad. Sexual desire is very good, but it is dangerous. Authority is not bad. Authority is very good, but in the wrong hands, it can be very dangerous.
[00:03:50] The greatest gifts you'll find that God has given to humanity are imbued not just with the power to create and foster life, but also are imbued with the power of great destruction. And here's what we find with authority as well. Where there is good authority, people thrive. And when there is bad authority, there is destruction. If you've been around village church, you've probably heard me say this. I'm gonna put it on the screen for you.
[00:04:18] The three greatest wounds a person can experience are dad wounds, church wounds, and sex wounds. Two out of three are inherently authority wounds. Sometimes all three are actually authority wounds.
[00:04:33] Third fact about authority, number three. The human flesh and the demonic spirit naturally resist being under authority. So one of the chief symptoms that sin is controlling someone is their rebell rebellion against good authorities. So their rebellion against our good God, rebellion against good parents, rebellion against good government. Yes, sometimes that can happen. I know, that's shocking. Rebellion against good teachers. And so you know that sin is in control of somebody when there is a good leadership environment and they are rebelling against it. And this is part of the flesh. And so the human heart that is controlled by sin, it. It demands. It doesn't just want, it demands its way and it demands its desires.
[00:05:26] And by the way, in most contexts, when someone is demanding their ways and their wants, who is the one standing in their way?
[00:05:34] Authority.
[00:05:36] And so what you find is when sin is in control of somebody, authority stands between them and what they want. And so then there is rebellion and a push against authority. All right, with this context in mind, open up your Bible. 2 Corinthians, chapter 10. The battle. There's a battle for authority in the Corinthian Church. And the apostles. Here's what they know. The apostles know that Jesus himself has granted them authority over the local churches. It's part of their job for being an apostle. But there's a group of so called, quote, super apostles, and they want the authority for themselves. Not so secretly so they can get rich off the Corinthian Church.
[00:06:17] They are attempting a leadership coup against the Apostle Paul and the other apostles. And news flash, they lose. The only reason we even are talking about them is because the Apostle Paul documented them for us in this letter. These last chapters of Second Corinthians, they're actually like a pretty incredible gift to the local church, because in the wake of dealing with this coup, Paul is really teaching the Corinthians how just to lead and deal with, like, everyday ministry. And it's just not a surprise that the issues that the Corinthians church, the Corinthian church faced are the same issues you find in almost every church for 2,000 years, all throughout history. It's like everywhere you go, people are the same all the time. So this sermon, this is called Spiritual Authority 101. And what I want to do is I want to give two simple rules for those of us who find ourselves in positions of spiritual authority. All right? Rule number one. If you find yourself in a position of spiritual authority, lead with gentleness tempered with strength. Verse 1. Paul says, I, Paul myself, entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ.
[00:07:33] I, who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away. So one of the things that the super Apostles tried to do was to. They just accused Paul of a whole bunch of things. And if there was was like an opportunity to accuse him, they would take it. So here's. This is kind of ridiculous, but they would say, when Paul's with you, he's so gentle and nice, but when he writes to you, he's like, really aggressive and mean and, well, of course, like, okay, moms and dads, like, if you're out of the home, right? And then your babysitter calls and says, your child's being a little devil, right? You're gonna call and you're gonna be stern, aren't you? Or you're gonna send a text to your kid and you're gonna be like, stop it now, in the name of Jesus, when I come home, like, some stuff's gonna happen, right? And so, like, understandably, like, they didn't have a cell phone, they didn't have technology. And so, like, Paul's hearing about the shenanigans in the Corinthian Church, and so of course he's gonna write them a stern letter. And you know, the super Apostles, they're like, they get the letter and like, you know, he's just. He's really hard in writing. I don't think he loves you, and it's ridiculous. But. And really, the actual super apostles concern was that when Paul wrote them a letter, they listened.
[00:08:42] He actually had weight and authority, and that was a threat to them getting the church's money. They wanted an authority takeover, and Paul stood in their way. Verse 2. Paul says, I beg of you that when I am present, I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh. In other words, when I get home, things better be in order because I want to just have a peaceful time when we get home, be able to enjoy you. Okay. That's like a parent to their child. But he's very clear.
[00:09:17] He does count on showing boldness to some people in the church. Who would that be? The super Apostles. He is going to publicly rebuke them for their division, for their accusations, for the things that they've done.
[00:09:30] Now here's the deal. It's really unlikely, very unlikely that the majority of us are ever gonna have to deal with, with someone of the ilk and caliber of a super apostle who's throwing some level of internal coup like this. I mean, it happens in churches. The spirit of rebellion, all of us are going to have to interface with. But probably it's rare that you're going to have to interface with someone like a super apostle. But here's the deal. We are all going to have to deal with really hard people and hard situations no matter where we're at in life. Can I get an amen on that one? Amen. All right, so those in spiritual authority, two approaches to hard people and hard circumstances. Number one, we always start with meekness and gentleness.
[00:10:15] I love this understanding of meekness. Meekness is not some weak, fragile person.
[00:10:20] Meekness is strength under complete control.
[00:10:25] Meekness is when that person you know could pummel you into pieces and you're not even like phasing them. They are just under control.
[00:10:34] Meekness is the ability to restrain the emotions and the impulses that are going on inside of you so that when you're in a circumstance, you're bringing a spirit of peace and not insanity as a default. Gentleness is how the meek behave.
[00:10:54] When you have meekness in your spirit, your behavior is gentle. It is not abrasive. And I want to just throw this out there and moms and dads. This is probably going to land hard for most of us. Meekness and gentleness should be where spiritual leaders spend 99% of our time.
[00:11:14] Let that sit for a minute.
[00:11:16] Meekness and gentleness, the ability to control all the feels, the thoughts, and to be kind and gentle, is where spiritual leaders should spend 99.
[00:11:28] But then there's the 1%.
[00:11:31] The second approach that leaders have is we lead with godly strength. When people become unreasonable, this is going to be the most redundant definition. But what is an unreasonable person?
[00:11:45] It is a person that cannot be reasoned with.
[00:11:50] They are stuck. The unreasonable person is stuck on an idea.
[00:11:55] Their brain is spiraling on this idea. They dig in.
[00:12:00] They will not listen.
[00:12:02] They will not consider the other side. And it's not even just a matter of like, 50, 50. They won't even give, like a 9010 in the dialogue to listen to your perspective. Unreasonable people demand that you acquiesce to their perspective now. And they have convinced themselves in their head that there is no other plausible perspective except for the one that they are spiraling in right now.
[00:12:25] Can we all be unreasonable?
[00:12:28] Oh, yeah. And if you just went, not me, the person sitting next to you should kick you. But anyways, I wanna illustrate what this could look like on the ground.
[00:12:37] I've chosen things that are not, like, close to home. So, like, if this is your story, I didn't pick any of these to pick on anybody. I tried to be, like, super neutral with my illustrations. Okay, you're a small group leader, and one of the members is talking about another member in the group really poorly behind their back. And so you hear about this and you try to sit down and talk with them, and they are just defensive. How dare you? There is unreasonable. And, like, you even see, they're like, fine, sorry, I won't do it anymore. Like, you know, what you're dealing with is not somebody who is humble of heart. You're dealing with an unreasonable person. Or you have a ministry team and one of the members wants your position, so they go to your supervisor and they complain because they believe they can do the position better than you can. And so your supervisor, they do something really wise. They put you two in a room and they're like, we're gonna work out some of this conflict. And that person just sits there and stonewalls. They deny it, and they're just not being reasonable. There's no productive conversation. And you're just like, this is an unreasonable person. Right. There's just nothing I can do. Or you have two musicians, they play the same instrument on the same day. They're scheduled to lead worship. And one of them is furious they weren't put in the lead position. It could be piano pad, it could be vocalists, it could be guitarist. And so you try to talk through it and then nothing reasonable comes and they storm out of practice. Right? And so these are these moments where you're like, what is happening? And these are the moments where you kind of have to leave the default of all right, and you have to begin to lead out of godly strength. Unreasonable people require godly strength. Godly strength is when authority uses their God given power to draw a healthy boundary. Okay. Godly strength is not rage or malice. Correct? Amen.
[00:14:36] Godly strength is allowed to use strong words. Because who modeled the use of strong words?
[00:14:45] Jesus.
[00:14:47] Godly strength is allowed to feel deeply. Do you know who also felt deeply? Jesus did. But here's the deal. Jesus felt deeply, but even his words were under control. And they were measured and they were intentional. Now, I don't care who you are, none of us will ever master perfect godly strength. In the presence of unreasonable people, this is profoundly difficult. We may either overcompensate or undercompensate, become too demanding and aggressive or too passive in our approach. Like anytime you're in a situation with an unreasonable person doing some kind of autopsy when you get out of it. Because I've never sat in a situation where I watched somebody handle something flawlessly the way Jesus would have perfectly done it. So there's a lot of grace that happens here. But here's our goal. Our goal in the 1% is to draw a healthy with the strength that God has given us over the people we are called to lead.
[00:15:44] Philippians 4:5. I love this. Let your reasonableness be known to everybody.
[00:15:52] One of the most vulnerable positions for a spiritual leader is when you are interfacing with somebody who is unreasonable because it's contagious.
[00:16:03] Because your unreasonableness makes me want to be unreasonable and I wanna dig in because you're digging in. And so when a spiritual leader finds themself in an unreasonable situation, we have to pull back and say, what's going on? We might have to say, I need some time.
[00:16:23] I need to be able to like think about this. Could I process what you're saying and get back to you? Now sometimes you're in situations and you can't get out.
[00:16:31] And your job is gonna have to be to be under control.
[00:16:35] Strength under control, meek and wise. Now those are rare circumstances, but oftentimes, moms and dads, this is where we have to deal with it you're dealing with an unreasonable child. And how many of you have been tempted, like I have been, to be unreasonable in the face of their unreasonableness? Right? And so, like, we sometimes have to pull out of that circumstance and say, you know what? I'm a spiritual leader. I am called to be better than this. And I'm going to take a step back. We're going to have a little break for 10 minutes or an hour, and then we're going to revisit this conversation.
[00:17:06] Let's talk for a moment about when spiritual leaders need to intervene into our life.
[00:17:13] We can all be unreasonable.
[00:17:16] And if a spiritual leader has the boldness, the love, the care, concern to be bold with you, we have two options for responding. One is we can dig in and be belligerent. Is that what you guys want? Of course not. Or number two is we can chill out, take a breather, and be reflective.
[00:17:36] If they're wrong, it's okay.
[00:17:39] But me being belligerent and unreasonable when somebody is trying to bring correction or intervention into my life does nobody any good anywhere whatsoever. So whether or not I am the one bringing the strength of authority or I'm the one receiving correction from somebody, let it be said I want my reasonableness to be made known to all. Unfortunately, it appears the super apostles, they chose belligerence. So look at verse eight. There's so much here that I want to talk about, but we're going to try to focus.
[00:18:08] He says, even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be ashamed. I want you to notice first the aim of authority and power.
[00:18:25] The aim of authority is to serve and to protect those whom God has assigned us.
[00:18:33] So because of this purpose, when the 1% comes up for Paul with the super apostles, he plans on when he shows up publicly addressing them and calling out their sin and being bold in person.
[00:18:48] Now, nobody enjoys this. It's not fun. But the Apostle Paul is showing the Corinthian church that sometimes we have to have really hard conversations. And sometimes things happen in environments where we're just like, well, now we have to deal with this in front of everybody, because it happened in front of everybody. Look what he says in verse eight. I want you to see this again.
[00:19:07] Paul's security and his God granted authority.
[00:19:11] He says, the Lord gave it. And then he says this. I will not be ashamed.
[00:19:18] One of the worst things that a spiritual leader can do is to be embarrassed of their authority, to be ashamed of their authority or in the 1% when you're dealing with unreasonableness, to be afraid to use your authority.
[00:19:33] God gave you authority over a specific sphere for that season, for that time, to love and to serve, to protect, to do the best of your ability to foster life in flourishing in that context. What an awesome, beautiful privilege that many of us have in these moments. And so when we are finding ourselves in these positions, we say, jesus, you've granted me this scope of authority and I want to love and serve, serve and help flourish the people under my leadership. I want you to look at verse nine.
[00:20:10] He says, I do not want to appear to be frightening you with my letters.
[00:20:17] This is interesting. Somebody said this once, I can't find the source, but the quote goes like this.
[00:20:22] Spiritual authority turns whispers into thunder and small actions into soul shaping moments. So every person in spiritual authority has to come to grips with this reality.
[00:20:38] The words of a spiritual authority in your life weigh more, they land harder, their actions bless more or hurt more.
[00:20:51] And I remember when I was in junior high, I had a small group leader, loved him, he was a great small group leader. But when I was in high school, I saw him at the mall smoking.
[00:21:01] And I remember like, I've seen a whole bunch of high school students smoke. I didn't care about them. What I cared was that that guy had spiritual authority over me at one time in my life. And just as a young high school student watching him, that landed really deeply on me. To the point where like 30 plus years later, I still think about that moment when I saw my spiritual leader doing something that I felt was sinful and was just not in line with the kind of leadership and person that he represented himself to be as he led my small group. And so we understand is that when you have spiritual authority, that the reason we lead out of gentleness and meekness 99% of the time is because our words land, our actions land. And that is okay. That is the way God has designed it. And we understand this intuitively with moms and dads.
[00:21:53] When a mom and dad speak vision over your life, it lands deeper in our soul than some stranger that we don't know.
[00:22:00] All right, this brings us to the second rule for those with spiritual authority.
[00:22:05] And specifically this rule doubles down for the apostle Paul. When you are engaging with unreasonable people. And it goes like this. Resist fighting spiritual realities with fleshly weapons. All right, verse three.
[00:22:20] Paul says, for though we walk in the flesh, we're not waging war according to the flesh.
[00:22:27] In this moment, it's Going to be very easy for you to take your entire maybe theology of spiritual warfare and put it on here. But I want to just let this text speak for what this text Sundays. Okay, in Second Corinthians, what is the war that is happening?
[00:22:42] The war is unresolved and persistent conflict from a group of people who are trying to overthrow the leadership of the church. That's what the war is in this context.
[00:22:52] Now reasonable people can work out their conflict, but when there's unreasonableness that is perpetual, there are often deeper spiritual realities at play. And this is a really great rule for spiritual leaders.
[00:23:10] When I'm watching perpetual unreasonableness, I pull back and go, this isn't just a flush struggle. There's something deeper happening in this moment. The apostle Paul looks at the situation with the super apostles. He is clear headed that it is spiritual in nature and the conflict is being exasperated by the demonic realm.
[00:23:34] Now how could the apostle Paul know this? And I want to maybe give you a couple rubrics here to help you kind of figure out how the apostle Paul would know that this isn't just two people, right, bickering that this is actually a conflict with a spiritual dynamic underneath it.
[00:23:52] Paul knows that this is demonic because it has all the hallmarks of demonic activity. For example, I'm going to go through a list here. The super apostles were falsely accusing Paul. Well, in the Bible who is the accuser?
[00:24:09] Satan.
[00:24:10] The super apostles condemned Paul and it's interesting. They condemned him for personality flaws like he was ugly, apparently wasn't very big and didn't talk well, so they would condemn him. Well, who is the condemner in scripture? Well, Satan. The super apostles were trying to steal money. Well, it's interesting that the devil comes to steal, kill and destroy. The super apostles were trying to usurp God assigned leadership. It's interesting.
[00:24:38] Why did Satan like get basically cast away from God's presence? Because he tried to usurp God's position. Super apostles are building opposing teams. Interesting. Satan took a third of the angels with him. Super apostles masqueraded as the good guys. And what does Satan do? He masquerades as an angel of light. And then super apostles approved of other people's sinful behavior. And what does Satan do? He approves.
[00:25:02] We can go on and on and on. Paul just kind of takes a step back and he's like, this isn't just two people fighting. This isn't just two people bickering with each other. There's something deeper and spiritual. It has the hallmarks of demonic activity. Back in 2023, I preached a sermon on the discernment of spirits. And so the question that we posed in that message was, in everyday life, how do I discern whether or not what I'm seeing is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, the fruit of the flesh, or my spirit or the fruit of a demonic influence? Spirit. And so I gave you a simple rubric, and I hope this helps you.
[00:25:43] First, the fruit of the spirit, when the Holy Spirit is at work is life. It's flourishing.
[00:25:49] When the flesh is at play, it's self, it's me. I want, I want. No, I want. No, I want this. Right?
[00:25:55] But when you start to see a pattern of distress, destruction, this is where we pull back and go, I think we might be moving from flesh, my spirit and your spirit, duking it out to possibly demonic influence.
[00:26:11] And so then when you're there, you go, okay, we're now in a spiritual war. Not just a war of we'll say your spirit and my spirit. There's something deeper, darker going on.
[00:26:22] So what do you do when you realize that your conflict isn't just your flesh against another person's flesh, but there's actual demonic behavior happening underneath? Verse 4 tells us, he says, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but they have divine power to destroy a stronghold. Okay, so in the war, there's a stronghold. The stronghold is literally means a fortified structure. Okay, so there's a fortified structure, and my job is to destroy this fortified structure.
[00:26:54] Somehow something is happening in an unreasonable person.
[00:26:57] Where there's a fortified structure, my job is to destroy it. Here's what I want to know. What is that thing and how do I destroy it? So verse five tells us, what are the spiritual strongholds? What are the fortified structures?
[00:27:08] He says we destroy arguments and lofty opinions raised against the knowledge of God.
[00:27:16] For most people, the stronghold is a convincing argument that opposes scripture or reality.
[00:27:29] You're dealing with an unreasonable person and they have this idea, this thought process, this thing, okay? It's a stronghold in their brain. The stronghold is an idea or an argument that is not consistent with reality or scripture. Have you ever sat down with somebody and they are convinced of something that is not real or true and they can't get it out of their head? That is a stronghold. It is a lofty opinion or an argument. Now, we can apply this and we can say, like, all right, lofty opinions and arguments. We could talk about cultural mantras. Love is love, my body, my choice. These ridiculous ideas that are not true or Accurate, but they're or stronghold ideas. And that is true. What Paul is talking about here, okay, is that these super apostles are obsessed. They have this stronghold idea that they think they're amazing and that they're better than Paul. Paul needs to go away and they have a right to their mind. It's this stronghold idea. And he's like, listen, I'm dealing with unreasonable people and they have these obsessive ideas that are not consistent with scripture or reality. And Paul's like, okay, listen, we're dealing now with a spiritual reality here, and we need to fight this with spiritual weapons. Okay? So spiritual leaders, you're dealing with somebody unreasonable.
[00:28:44] They have a ridiculous idea that is not true or consistent with scripture.
[00:28:49] What is the scripture's method for dealing with unreasonable people who have ideas that are not true?
[00:28:55] Number one, we as a leader, we gotta step back and clearly identify what is the false idea in this unreasonable person.
[00:29:04] We need to know and give vocabulary to what we're actually dealing with. Sometimes it can be a little challenging. Sometimes we have to ask some questions and get beneath it. But number two, we gently and kindly invite them to truth and reality. Verse 5, he says, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. I would like to preach five sermons on that verse. I'm just going to focus again here because there's so much in this text when somebody has an obsessive idea and they are unreasonable about it and it is not consistent with either God's word or reality, you can be a but to them and say, you're so stupid. How could you possibly think that?
[00:29:43] And that's not gonna work.
[00:29:46] What works if you're gonna have a shot at it? If there's like a possibility that they can humble themselves in this unreasonableness, your best shot is gonna be gentleness and kindness.
[00:29:59] Hey, I would love to share with you a different opinion. Hey, would you be willing to hear a different side of that story?
[00:30:04] Could you tell me more about where you're coming from? I want to understand that if you want to have the best chance of this unreasonableness becoming a humble interaction, our gentleness and kindness is going to be the first approach. But number three, if we have authority, we. And this is gonna be hard, but this is what the text says.
[00:30:27] We gently punish those who refuse to be reasonable. And some of you are like, I'm sorry, what? You may not like the word punish. It's what he uses in verse six. So let's look at it and then explain it.
[00:30:36] He says, being ready to punish every disobedience this is strong. To punish means literally to avenge or to execute justice.
[00:30:47] Okay, when we think of punish, we might think of like the punisher. Like, we're gonna come in and we're just gonna lay down and just beat people to a pulp. That is okay. Let's not make the word bigger or smaller than it should be.
[00:30:59] Okay. What should parents do when their children are out of line?
[00:31:06] Punish them.
[00:31:08] Let's give a little adjective here. Justly.
[00:31:11] What should teachers do when students are out of line?
[00:31:15] We punish justly. Use a different word. We discipline. Right. Whatever word you want, but it's the same context. What do principals do when teachers are out of line? We punish, but we do it justly. What do police do when people are out of line? Punish. Do it justly. What do judges do when people are out of line? We punish, but we do it justly.
[00:31:38] Now, some of you are going to squirm at this next statement, but what should spiritual authority do when people are under their care, not other people? People under their care are out of line and unreasonable?
[00:31:48] Well, first, we're gentle. And if they are not responsive to gentleness, we rightly, appropriately, justly have to deal with what they've done. And Paul's like, listen, these people, these super apostles, are unreasonable and they're doing great damage. And when I come, I'm gonna have to deal with them. And I need to know that you're gonna stand behind me and you're gonna do the right thing, because it's really, really challenging.
[00:32:10] Now, in every circumstance, the punishment must fit the crime.
[00:32:14] To over punish is cruel and wrong. Amen.
[00:32:18] But to under punish is dangerous and enabling.
[00:32:22] And so here's what Paul knows. Paul has been given by Jesus authority over this church to create a culture and environment where people can flourish and they can experience God and grow spiritually and accomplish the mission. And 99% of the time, Paul has the privilege of leading out of meekness and gentleness. But these super apostles, they are requiring him to enter into bold strength. Paul writes in the book of one Timothy, if you don't know second Timothy, I'm sorry, Timothy is another pastor. So Paul is like an older pastor writing to a younger pastor about spiritual authority. And here's what he says, and I think he just summarizes this wonderfully.
[00:32:58] 2nd Timothy 2, 24. The Lord's servant, those are spiritual authority. Must not be quarrelsome. Right. What do unreasonable people make you want to do? Quarrel.
[00:33:09] Let's not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone.
[00:33:13] Able to teach patiently enduring evil Correcting his opponents with what gentleness God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth. This stronghold is now aligned with either God's word or reality, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will. Paul has this very clear sense that when you're dealing with strongholds and unreasonable people, that this is often demonically influenced. And so we approach these situations with a spirit of gentleness, with a spirit of kindness, with a reasonable mind attempting to help people see reality and truth. And then sometimes it's just not possible. But I appreciate Paul's spirit here in two Timothy. All right, I have three short. So what's for you? Number one, leadership anywhere is challenging, right?
[00:34:21] But the world needs gentle leaders with quiet strength at every level.
[00:34:28] There are two sinful pendulum swings in spiritual leadership. On the one side is domineering leadership. On the other side is passive leadership. I think it's really healthy for leaders to know if they're unhealthy, which place they go to. And if you really want to know the answer, just ask those who you lead with or who you lead.
[00:34:48] They'll tell you. And if they're safe, they'll be honest with you.
[00:34:51] Everybody already knows. And so here's what most people want. If they're under your leadership or they're leading with you, they just want to know that you know your propensity and they can talk to you about it when you cross the line.
[00:35:03] Here's the deal. Whether you lean towards domineering leadership or passive leadership, you're going to struggle with that probably for the rest of your life. But as a leader, I think it's so healthy and helpful to let the people know, hey, when you lead with me, here's just a struggle that I have sometimes. So could you, like, help me and temper me, and then when I move in that direction, would you just call me out? Because I want to be 99% of the time gentle and meek in the way that I lead and love the people God has given me. So at number two, let's choose reasonableness and make it easy for those who lead us.
[00:35:42] I think about this a lot.
[00:35:44] I'm a man under authority. Our elders lead me. I submit to them. They are my spiritual authority.
[00:35:51] And I just. Their job is hard enough. I don't want to make their job harder.
[00:35:57] I want to bless them.
[00:35:59] I would like for them to be like, yeah, Michael's the easiest report we've ever had. And when there's an issue, we can just talk to him. And I think at the end of the day, this is really what we all want for those who lead us through spiritually. We do. We want to bless. Yeah, there's this sinful impulse of rebellion in us. And nobody, everybody wants to do what you want to do and want to do. But that's not real. That's not life. Like, we all have spiritual authority, and we want to be a blessing to them. In Hebrews 13:17, I think about this for myself as I think about my submission to our elders personally, not Paul, the author of Hebrews says, obey your leaders and submit to them for their keeping watch over your souls as those who have to give an account and who do spiritual leaders give an account to Jesus.
[00:36:45] Let them.
[00:36:47] Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. And I want you to think about maybe that person in your life who's been a spiritual leader. They have spiritual authority. It could be, again, a mentor of yours, a pastor of yours, a small group leader. And they have this authority in your life and this position. And I want you to just ask yourself, yourself, am I a blessing to them? Because in their sphere, in this place, they're keeping watch over my soul. And I want to be in a position where I honor, honor them, knowing that they're going to be accountable to Jesus for this last thing. Number three, the sin of rebellion is in all of us.
[00:37:27] All right, give me another hearty amen on that one. Some of you are like, not me. Well, you're wrong, okay?
[00:37:33] But Jesus can forgive and transform.
[00:37:37] Some of us need to ask for forgiveness for how we've led.
[00:37:42] Some of us need to ask forgiveness for how we've followed.
[00:37:46] But wherever you're at on this, every single one of us have something in common.
[00:37:50] We have all rebelled against our Creator.
[00:37:54] We have all sinned. We have all gone our own way.
[00:37:59] We have all fallen short of God's standard. Our sin has separated us from God. And one of the things I just love about our God is that he could have just written us off and be like, I'm done with you. You guys are evil and terrible. Our God has pursued us and offered us reconciliation when we broke the relationship with God through our own sin. And maybe you are here and you're like, listen, I'm a bad leader. I'm a bad follower, and I've rebelled against God. Maybe you're just becoming, like, overwhelmingly, like, aware of how much sin you actually have. In you.
[00:38:30] And maybe for the first time, you're like, I have never come to God and said, I am sorry. And I just want to give you an awesome opportunity. Do you know that at any point that a sinner can come before God and ask him for forgiveness?
[00:38:44] And God will forgive you if you are seriously genuine about it.
[00:38:48] Like, if you come to him and you say, I have sinned against you.
[00:38:53] I believe that Jesus has died for my sins. I believe that he was raised from the dead. Would you forgive me for my sin?
[00:39:00] God wants to forgive you and be reconciled to you. And what I just love when I open up the Scriptures is we could see a God who is pursuing us and reaching out to us and offering us reconciliation with himself. And so if you are here and you have never been reconciled to God, if you've never come to him and said, I am sorry, will you forgive me?
[00:39:20] Today, I think, is the best day on the planet to do it. And I wanna invite you to do that. You can talk to God and just tell him in your own words, I'm sorry. Forgive me. I believe that Jesus died for my sins and was raised from the dead. If that's a decision that you are ready to make today, I want you to tell somebody you came with. And if you're like, I don't know who to tell, come talk to one of us up front.
[00:39:39] We would love to help you figure out what does it mean to be in a relationship with God and to follow Jesus now that you are reconciled.
[00:39:46] So I want to take a moment. I want to pray for you guys, and we're going to celebrate communion. Sound good? All right, Father, thank you for again your word. Thank you for Second Corinthians. Thank you for just how appropriate and applicable it is. Every one of us at times has unreasonable spirits, and every one of us will have to deal with unreasonable people. But God, for those of us in spiritual authority, would you teach us to love and to lead out of a spirit of meekness and gentleness? And I just thank you for what Jesus modeled in his bold strength in that 1% of the time. But God, Lord, thank you for the cross and for forgiveness for all the times that we mess up, whether we're domineering or passive or both. Lord, just thank you for your grace and your patience.
[00:40:33] Lord, would you also create in us awareness of those whom we need to take personal ownership of our failures, whether as a follower or a leader?
[00:40:42] God, it is our absolute joy to be a part of the family of God where forgiveness abounds Grace abounds, second chances abound. And Lord, you are transforming and redeeming people one by one, more and more into the image of Jesus. And we get to be a part of that people. We love you. We thank you. We pray this in Jesus name, Amen. Amen.
