This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

This is day four of our look through 2 Corinthians chapter 11. We're talking
together about what do you do to set a relationship right? And today we talk
about what to me is the most practical.

I can do it today. I know what to do, choices that any of us can make to set any
relationship right. We've talked about being jealous and being afraid and being
humble.

It all comes down to what we're going to talk about today. Be a servant. Be a
servant.

If anything truly significant happens in this world, it's because someone chose
to be a servant. You want to change the world? Be a servant.

You want to change a relationship? Be a servant. I know short term things can
seem to happen because of people's pride.

But anything that is going to last long term and certainly anything that's going
to last into eternity, anything truly significant that happens in this world is
because someone chose to be a servant. Jesus, when he walked this earth, said,
"I didn't come to be served. I came to serve.

I came to be a servant. " So be a servant. We're actually picking up from
yesterday as we look through this today.

Paul is talking about his credentials. He's showing the Corinthians that in
actuality, he has better credentials than the false teachers. And then he is
showing them what to do with those credentials and whatever else you have, by
the way, in life.

What to do with whatever God's given you that really matters. He's saying, "Hey,
I could argue on that basis. I've got great credentials, but that's not the
point.

" So let's walk through this with Paul. This is one of the most personal
sections of scripture about the apostle Paul, his life and his service. Now, the
Corinthians actually drove him to it.

He didn't like to talk about these kinds of things, but he does talk about them.
So in verses 22 to 23, he says, "They say they are Hebrews, do they? So am I.

They say they are Israelites. So am I. They are descendants of Abraham.

So am I. They say they serve Christ. I know I sound like a madman, but I have
served him far more.

" Paul talks about being a Hebrew, being an Israelite. You might remember from
looking at the life of the apostle Paul and other studies that he had great
training in his early life. He was on the fast track to power in his younger
life in leading and being a religious leader in the nation of Israel, but he
chose to serve.

Jesus called him on the road to Damascus and he chose to serve. He chose to
leave all of that behind. And what does it mean that he chose to serve?

He had this opportunity for power. He had this opportunity for riches. He had
this opportunity for notoriety, but he chose to serve.

What did it mean that he chose to serve? He goes through a list of what it
meant, and it's really quite moving. I don't know about you, but I can all too
easily feel sorry for myself as a servant.

You look at the long hours, even though they may not have been that long. You
look at the critics, although there might not even be that many. You look at the
going unnoticed.

You look at all the things that didn't happen like you wanted them to happen.
It's easy to feel sorry for yourself as a servant. And when I feel that way, all
I need to do is go look at this list that Paul gives us here.

Look at what Paul goes through, went through. As I read this list in my own
life, it's a challenge to the kind of servant that I want to be and what it
means to truly be a servant. As we go through this list together these next few
minutes, just have this thought in the back of your mind, "Paul kept serving
through it all.

" Paul kept serving through it all. We're talking this week about setting a
relationship right. One of the ways to do that is to be a servant, but that
means you keep serving through it all because relationships don't always go
right.

Have you noticed that? Relationships always, in fact, go wrong in some way
because we're selfish. We're both sinners.

We both struggle because we make mistakes, because we go wrong directions,
because we don't communicate well. A thousand reasons they go wrong. What do you
do?

You keep serving through it all. You keep loving through it all. Now what did it
mean for Paul to keep serving through it all?

Let's just make a list along with him. First there was physical suffering. Verse
23, the last part, through verse 25 he talks about that.

What kind of physical suffering? Here's the list. Paul says, "I have worked
harder, been put in jail more often, been whipped times without number and faced
death again and again.

" Verse 24, "Five times the Jews gave me thirty-nine lashes. " This is the
Jewish punishment just short of death. You might remember that Jesus received
this punishment just before the cross and this punishment almost killed him and
almost killed people every time.

It was a horrible punishment. Three times he says in verse 25, "I was beaten
with rods. " This is the Roman punishment, to be beaten with these heavy rods
just short of death.

"Once," he says, "I was stoned. " This is when you put someone down into a pit
and you took huge rocks and you threw these rocks upon them and this was a
capital punishment. The idea behind this was to kill someone.

Paul was rescued from this punishment. He did not die, but he almost died
because he was a servant. He kept serving through it all.

Going on through verse 25, three times he says, "I was shipwrecked. Once I spent
a whole night and day adrift at sea. " Now that would be enough as I'm reading
through this, but he goes on to say there were other things as well.

There was the physical suffering. He says there was also the long travel and you
might think, "Well, what was that compared to the physical suffering? " Here's
what he says.

He says in verse 26, "I have traveled many weary miles. " If you've ever been on
a long trip, you know how that can wear you down. Now, scholars have looked at
the missionary journeys of the apostle Paul and figured out that he traveled
about 13,000 to 14,000 miles in his travels.

Just to put that in perspective, that would be traveling halfway around the
world, walking most of it. That would be walking across America and back four
times. That's a lot of travel.

That's a lot of weariness. Yet, he kept serving through it all. He had physical
suffering.

He had long travel. He also faced danger. Listen to this list in verse 25, "I
have faced danger from flooded rivers and from robbers.

I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles.
I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the stormy seas. I
have faced danger from men who claim to be Christians, but are not.

" Whether it was a danger that came from weather or a danger that came from his
own people or from the places that he was or from the false lies that were given
to him, Paul faced danger in his life again and again and again, and he chose to
serve through it all. And then there's a final thing that he talks about. In
verse 27, he says, "I faced physical lack because I served.

" He says, "I have lived with weariness and pain and sleepless nights. Often I
have been hungry and thirsty and gone without food. Often I have shivered with
cold without enough clothing to keep me warm.

" Now this is the Apostle Paul we're talking about, one of the greatest
believers of all time, a man that God used to take the good news to the
Gentiles, and the Gospel spread across the known world. So you would have think
it would have been all honor for him. You'd think it would have been all good
for him.

But serving does not mean you get all the honors. Serving does not mean every
day is a good day. Paul served through it all.

Now were there good days for Paul? Yes, there were plenty of them. There were
glorious days.

There were miraculous days. There were awesome things that God did in his life.
But here he's talking through the credentials of the difficulties that he'd
faced in life.

And this list cannot help but move your heart. Here is a man who expressed the
reality of love for God's church. He sacrificed.

And as I read through this list I have to ask myself honestly, how often have I
sacrificed, really sacrificed, to live for God's purposes, to love God's church?
This list is deeply challenging to me. Now it's not a list I want to emulate.

You don't go out and try to have these things in your life. You're grateful to
God if these things don't have to happen in your life. But the truth for Paul is
that whatever it took, he decided he was going to continue to serve.

And God's call on his life meant that he faced all of these things and even
more. And through them all he continued to choose to serve. So what about you?

What ministry do you need to continue to serve in even though it's tough right
now? What relationship do you need to continue to serve in even though it's
tough right now? We need God's strength for this.

I need God's strength for this. Let's pray for it. Our Father, we ask for your
strength to serve.

In our strength, we don't serve very long. We want to get away. We want to run
away.

We want to make it okay. But in your strength, you, our servant God, can
strengthen us to continue to serve in places and in ways that we could not on
our own. We don't want our service to be some selfish expression.

Of our, just our own gifts and abilities that make other people applaud us. We
want our service to be a sacrificial expression of our love for you, Jesus. So
help us today to choose to serve.

In your name we pray, amen. Tomorrow, we're going to take a look at one of the
key qualities that need to be in every one of our lives if we're going to set
relationships right.