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Hi, this is Pastor Tom, and we are continuing our look through 2 Corinthians 10,
Day 3 today. We're going to look at verses 6 down through verse 11. As we look
at these verses, we're going to take up a second major area of choice in my life
that if I'll make this choice, it can help me to survive the criticisms that
come into my life.

First, we talked about the way to survive is to fight with the weapons of Christ
rather than the weapons of this world. A second way to survive is to look past
the surface of things. Listen to what Paul has to say about this in verses 6 and
7, "And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your
obedience is complete.

" You are only looking on the surface of things. If anyone is confident that he
belongs to Christ, he should consider again that we belong to Christ just as
much as he. Paul is reminding us in these verses when he says you're looking
only on the surface of things, that criticism often comes because we look no
further than the surface of things.

What somebody just did, what somebody just said, what just happened, what I
thought about, what just happened. Paul points to 2 common mistakes that we make
that lead to a critical spirit in our lives. But these are also mistakes that
other people make that will help you to understand why others are criticizing in
that moment.

If all you see in the criticism is an attack against you and you don't look past
the surface of things, you're going to automatically attack back. But if you
take a moment, a spiritual moment, a count to spiritual 10, and look past the
surface of things to what's really going on in that person's life, what's really
going on in your life, it helps you to begin to react in a different way. So
what makes us critical?

What causes other people to be critical? What are the two greatest mistakes?
It's when you look only at yourself and when you look only at appearances.

First you look only at yourself. And Paul says that in several ways in just
these few verses. He says in verse 6, "We're going to punish every act of
disobedience once your obedience is complete.

" So apparently what was happening is they were focusing on how other people
were being disobedient to God. That's a very easy way to get your eyes off of
yourself and what you need to do as far as obedience to God. You see, they were
focused on what other people were doing wrong.

And in this case, that caused them to think better of themselves. One of the
great ways to think better of yourself is to think the worst of others. So Paul
says, "Why don't you get things right in your own life first?

And then maybe we'll talk about punishing those other acts of disobedience. "
But then he says a second thing, and it takes a minute to delve into what he's
talking about here. He talks about who belongs to Christ.

He says, "You think that you belong to Christ? Well, look a little closer. "
Paul says, "We belong to Jesus just as much as you do.

" William Barclay says about this, "The arrogant feels that Christ belongs to
him rather than he belongs to Christ. For them, Christianity is a claim to fame
rather than a claim upon their lives. " Whew, that's some good statements.

Critics, when I'm critical, I've become a self-centered person. And I can all
too easily begin to speak as if I've cornered the market on God. I've got God
figured out.

It's me and God against you. Well, it's not. God is for all of us.

God's working in all of our lives. And whenever I get this attitude that it's me
and God against the world, I know that I'm looking only at myself. And that's
what creates a critical spirit.

You look only at yourself. And a second thing you look only at is appearances.
The critics, Paul's critics could not look past the surface issue of
appearances.

They couldn't look past that how Paul acted last time we talked to him, what
Paul wrote the last time he wrote a letter to us, or even the appearance of his
physical appearance. Look at how that little guy is trying to tell us what to
do. Who does he think he is?

They couldn't look past appearances to see the purposes of God. Now, Paul says
something very important to them here. There's a deep spiritual truth here.

Paul talks to them and he says, "You know what's more important than
appearances? Authority. God's authority.

God's authority to act. " Authority, not appearances, is what was important to
Paul. In fact, he cared little about appearances.

It's obvious here. He cared primarily about living his life under the authority
of Christ and living out that authority of Christ and the responsibilities that
God had given to him. Nobody has to say about this in verses 8 to 11.

"For even if I boast somewhat freely about the authority the Lord gave us for
building you up rather than pulling you down, I'm not ashamed of it. I do not
want to seem to be trying to frighten you with my letters. For some say his
letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his
speaking amounts to nothing.

Such people should realize that what we are in our letters when we are absent,
we will be in our actions when we are present. " So there you see it in some of
those verses, the kind of criticism Paul was facing. He's unimpressive, his
speaking amounts to nothing.

This is the Apostle Paul. And listen to what they're saying about him. And Paul
says instead of focusing on those appearances and those issues, he focuses on
the authority of Christ.

How do I live under the authority of Christ? And what has Jesus given me the
authority to do? What responsibilities?

He's talking here about what responsibilities has he given into your life. So if
you're a parent and your kids are criticizing you, you have been given the
authority, the responsibility to parent them well. So whatever their criticism,
you live out the authority, not the appearances.

If you have a ministry that God's given you and other people are criticizing you
for it, God's given you that authority. He's given you that field to work in. So
you keep working in that field.

You don't let what they're saying about appearances get you off of the work that
God's given you to do. Paul is saying something very significant to us here when
he talks about the relationship between authority and appearances. People will
attack the appearances, but you need to go back to the authority.

God, what is it you've asked me to do? And how can I keep doing that with
faithfulness? Let me remind you of some of the truth behind this.

Three different quotes about authority and appearances. First, someone has said
Paul used his authority to build up the church. The Jewish false teachers of
that day used religion to build up their own authority.

If God's given you a responsibility and authority, it's not so that you can look
like an authority, so you can look like a leader, so you can look important. The
reason he gave it to you is so you can build other people up out of your own
weakness. The people who use their authority to build their own authority,
they've got it wrong.

They've got it prideful. Paul says here, any authority that God gives you is for
building other people up. That's true in a family, as a parent.

That's true in a ministry, in a church, is to build other people up. That's why
God gives authority. So Paul says, that's where I'm going to focus.

I'm going to keep building you up. Someone else has said this about authority.
An immature person swells with the use of authority.

A mature person grows with the use of authority. I know in my immaturity as a
new believer, whenever I got to do some new thing, God gave me some new
opportunity. Maybe it was an opportunity to speak to more people than I'd spoken
to before, or an opportunity to speak into a situation with strength.

There was a touch of pride that I had to deal with, and it's easy to allow that
pride to begin to overwhelm your life, so that you're swelling, you're just
getting fatter and fatter with pride rather than growing, growing stronger and
stronger in grace. All of us are going to struggle with this, but the question
is, which road are you going to take? Which road are you going to go down?

You're going to be tempted to pridefully use whatever authority, responsibility
God has put into your life. Because the choice has to be to grow stronger in
grace through that responsibility, that authority God's given. And then someone
else has said this about authority, "Mature leaders suffer while they wait to
act.

Immature leaders act impetuously and make others suffer. " Paul had been
suffering. He'd been waiting to act.

He'd been suffering criticism, he'd been suffering negativity, he'd been
suffering bad thoughts about himself, but he waited to act. He gave them time to
grow, he gave them time to change. That's maturity.

That's maturity in a parent, that's maturity in a Christian leader. You suffer
while you wait for others to act and to grow. It is a tough thing.

One of the toughest things in life is waiting for someone else to grow. But
mature leadership means, "I will wait. " Immature leadership is immediately, "I
come against that other person.

Who are you to do this to me? Who are you to put me through this? " And they
make other people suffer because they're unwilling to wait for other people to
grow.

People were willing to wait for you to grow. So who do you need to be patient
with right now, waiting for them to grow? You see, when it comes to authority,
the authority of what God's given in our lives, some people live their lives
under the authority of Christ and because of that they live out the authority
that God's given them, the responsibility that God's given them with a sense of
grace and patience and peace.

But other people, they live their lives under the authority of their own pride
and they're driven by their own emotions. And because of that, they deal with
the people around them with a sense of selfishness, with a sense of impatience.
And everything about them seems to be a turmoil all the time.

All of us are going to struggle with this the rest of our lives because we all
struggle with pride. But the question is, are you growing? Are you growing in
your use of authority?

Not growing that you're a greater authority, but growing so that God's authority
is greater in your life. If that's going to happen, it's going to be by God's
power. So let's pray for it right now.

Lord, every time you give us a responsibility, there's a temptation that comes
along with that responsibility. The temptation to trust ourselves, the
temptation to be impressed with ourselves, the temptation to become prideful.
Lord, protect us from pride.

And the place of that pride help us to realize that this is authority, this is
an authority, a responsibility that's been given by you. And the only way we're
going to be able to fulfill it, to live it out, is by trusting in you. So Lord,
in the place of our pride, put a grace, a trust, a faith in you, we pray.

We ask for this to be lived out in our lives and our choices today as a parent,
today as a leader, today as a boss, today in my friendships. Help me to live
this out today, I pray. In your name, Jesus, I ask this.

Amen. Tomorrow we're going to talk about learning how to view your
accomplishments in those times when you're criticized.