The Marks of a True Servant of Christ Part 1

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Marks of a True Servant of Christ Part 1. He will be reading out of 2nd Corinthians 11:7-15.

that it is the grace of God that gives us humility. It is the grace of God that keeps us humble. And sometimes you may stumble in the Christian life. You may struggle in the Christian life and do not become defeated because it may be God simply trying to keep all of us humble.

Well, this is Pastor Mike Sanders with Hope Worth Having Radio broadcast. And I hope you’re ready today to study the Bible and to get into God’s word. Today, we’re gonna be in 2 Corinthians chapter 11.

And we’re gonna be covering verses seven through 15. And we’re learning the marks of a true servant. There were many, unfortunately, in the church who were trying to discredit his ministry. So he lays out for us, what are the marks of a true servant of Christ?

How do we tell the difference between those who are fake and those who are real? Well, let’s get into this passage and let’s start studying together. Amen, if you have your Bible this morning, join me in 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 11.

We’re still tracking through this wonderful letter, which is often referred to as the letter of encouragement. We have been going through this, but we have found this passage, this letter, to be a great encouragement to all of our hearts as the apostle has continued to challenge us to move forward, to keep tracking forward for the Lord Jesus Christ.

There are challenges, there are obstacles in life. There are times that we find ourselves on a detour, things that we did not plan on, but here we are, continuing to put one foot in front of the other spiritually, if you will, and moving forward for the Lord Jesus Christ.

The apostle would tell the Philippians to press on. That is the call of a believer to press on. We do not become despondent or discouraged to the point point that we quit. The Apostle told the Galatians to not be weary in well -doing.

He told the Corinthians to abound in the work of Christ. This is our call, church, that while we are here we keep abounding in the work of Christ. We know that there are difficulties, but we’re thankful that God gives us the strength, and He gives us the energy, and He gives us the mindset that we may step forward.

When we come to this passage, chapter 11 of 2 Corinthians, what you need to know is that the Apostle is really defending himself. You know that as we have studied this passage, that the Apostle has been under criticism from teachers who had infiltrated the church, and they were teaching a false doctrine, a false Jesus.

We learned about that last week, but he has been spending his time in chapter 11. defending himself, the opposition to his ministry was evident in these false teachers who were questioning the apostles’ authority.

Did he have any authority to be able to teach and to minister as a leader within the church? The apostle is addressing that very problem. My heart is today that through this passage that you would gain the resources that are needed to distinguish and to discern what is a true servant of God and what is a false servant, that you would not only strive to be a true servant of Christ, but that you would be able to have the wisdom to identify those who would mislead God’s people,

those who would mislead the sheep. Jesus described them as wolves in sheep’s clothing. So we come to our text and we note that the apostle gives us three things that helps us to understand the marks of a true servant.

You can follow along in the church app or if you just do it the old -fashioned way, taking notes, that’s fine as well. But number one, the first mark is humility. So we look at verse seven and he says, the apostle says, did I commit sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted because I preached the gospel of God to you free of charge?

I robbed other churches, taking wages from them to minister to you. And when I was present with you and in need, I was a burden to no one. For what I lacked, the brethren who came from Macedonia supplied, and in everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you.

And so I will keep myself. Now note here that in these three verses, the apostle is using sarcasm. Sometimes people struggle, they don’t like sarcasm but that’s exactly what the Apostle is doing, is that as he is calling out these false teachers, he is saying to the church leaders, in some way did I rob you.

Now we know that the Apostle would never rob the church, he would never rob from God’s people but he uses a metaphor and he speaks in sarcasm to somehow get a point across to the absurdity of the accusations and the criticism that he is receiving as the Apostle of Christ.

He says in verse 7 did I commit sin in humbling myself. Humility is the first mark of a true servant of Christ and obviously the opposite, in contrast, would be pride. A false servant is filled of themselves.

always wanting to look out for what they want. The apostle was humble in his sacrifice. He says to them, did I commit sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted? The humility in his sacrifice for the church.

Paul is saying, did I sin in sacrificing for you? Did I sin in putting myself on the back burner so that you, your needs could be met? Did I sin in working and sacrificing and all the hardships that I endured for the cause of the gospel and for the planting of this local church in this community called Corinth?

Did I sin in humbling myself? No, he did not. He did not, obviously he did not. The apostle sacrificed so much and unfortunately the Corinthians did not appreciate his work. They did not appreciate what he had endured and what he had faced for them to be able to know Christ and to receive Christ and to grow in Christ and to serve in Christ.

They kind of just had become enamored with these false teachers and the false teachers began to say that somehow the apostle was not a man who had sacrificed. But here the apostle teaches us a great truth that the place of humiliation is the place of blessing.

It is a place of joy. Any sacrifice that you and I make, certainly we would be willing to do it for our children, for our family, but any sacrifice you make for the church, for the cause of Christ is a place of blessing.

It is a place in our life that brings true joy. You see that and you note in verse nine, when I was present with you and in need, I was a burden to no one. The apostle was not… a man who put others behind in the sense that whatever his needs were, he wanted to make sure that they were met, but he did just the opposite.

He put others first. He was a burden to no one. And it wasn’t that he was mad about that or that somehow he was unhappy about that. He was very satisfied in that. How do you know that? He says at the end of verse 9, I will keep myself.

Look at verse 12. What I do, I will also continue to do. All that he sacrificed for the cause of Jesus Christ, he was not going to be detracted by his critics. He was not going to get off course by those who did not agree with him.

He was going to stay focused. And what I want to encourage you is that God is calling all of us to be in that place of humiliation and understanding that God calls us to sacrifice. for the kingdom of Christ and that in order for the cause of Christ and the gospel of Jesus Christ to go to every heart and every person and every home, it requires all of us to do our part in sacrificing.

But as you humble yourself and sacrifice for the cause of Christ, though you will have people who will find fault for your sacrifice or may not like the way you sacrifice or might act, somehow begin to critique your sacrifice, remember, it is the place of blessing.

It is the place of joy. It is the place that God honors in your life. Paul was not only humble in his sacrifice, but in his finances. So we again look at this text and we see that he says in verse 7, he says, because I preach the gospel of God to you free of charge.

Paul had not only sacrificed that the people would be exalted, he had not only sacrificed his time and his effort and all that he endured and he worked so diligently so people could know Christ and grow in Christ, but he sacrificed financially.

Now it’s interesting, Paul says, free of charge. He preached the gospel free of charge. Now you might think, how could the Corinthians critique the apostle for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ free of charge?

How could they find fault with that? Well in the Greek culture, teachers were measured by the fee that they could command. And so they were determined how popular they were or how important they were by whatever people were willing to pay for them to come and teach.

And the apostle, he came to the church of Corinth and said, there is no charge. There is no charge. No charge for my teaching of the Scriptures. There is no charge for me proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ to you.

There is no fee. There is nothing that I am requiring. The apostle made every effort to avoid a charge of greed upon his own ministry. Perhaps he was following the words of Jesus Christ in Matthew 10 and verse 8, when Jesus said to his disciples, freely you have received, freely give.

This is the call of God’s servant that we are called to freely give. Many times serving as a pastor, people will want me to do little things, maybe like come pray a blessing on their house and they’ll say, pastor, is there a fee?

I said, no, I don’t charge a fee. I’m not going to charge a fee for people. Our church this past Wednesday, I want to thank you for your kindness. We shut down all of our programs, all of our activities and all of our services to help a family.

in our community and they kept saying, what do we owe you? I said nothing. I said nothing. The church is awesome. The church is supporting this ministry. You don’t owe us anything. Why? I just want a door to be able to share the gospel with them.

I just wanna be able to come and connect with them and tell them that their hope is in Jesus Christ and that even though they’re in despair and they’re discouraged and they’re dealing with this tragic death in their family, that there is still help and there is still hope and that hope is found in Christ and Christ alone.

Can God’s people at eight o ‘clock say amen? Just checking. The purpose of the apostles ministry was never to enrich himself, but it was always to enrich God’s people. Again, note again, and I’m sorry to keep bringing you back, but I just want you to see the context he said that you might be exalted.

That you might be exalted. He wanted to enrich God’s people. See, that’s what the gospel does. It elevates people from darkness to light. It elevates people from sin to righteousness. It elevates people from despondency to encouragement.

It elevates people from despair to hopefulness. That’s what the gospel of Jesus Christ does. It takes people who find themselves in turmoil to a place of peace and joy and strength. The power of the gospel is to wash away our sins and to give us new life in the Lord Jesus Christ.

All that the apostle did was about enriching others so that they could be elevated by the gospel of Christ. Paul says this in verse eight, I robbed other churches. I robbed other churches. I didn’t come to the city of Corinth and charge a fee, but I robbed other churches.

Now, don’t think that… the apostle didn’t receive support, no, just the other. As he speaks in hyperbole here, he is reminding the believers that it was the churches from Macedonia that supported him because he had already received support from other churches.

He was like a missionary. He didn’t go to Corinth to get money from Corinth. He didn’t go there to enrich himself because he had already had a team of supporters from other churches who were helping him with his needs.

Again, we read in verse nine, when I was present with you and in need, when the apostle did have a need, did he look to the church at Corinth to meet that need? No, he was, I was a burden to no one. For what I lacked, the brethren who came from Macedonia supplied.

And in everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you and so. I will keep myself. So the apostle understood that he didn’t have to charge a fee because he had supporters, because he had people standing with him.

And I want you to know what a blessing so many of you are to missionaries around this world, that they do not have to charge a fee to where they are serving. They do not have to require that the church support them and meet their needs because there are people on the home front.

There are people here in the United States that are standing with them, giving faithfully to faith promise, and they are making sure that the needs of that individual, the needs of that family, the needs of that missionary are met and they do not have to charge a fee, the blessing.

And I want to commend you church, because even through all that 2020 brought upon us, but here’s the thing I want you to know is that every one of you stayed faithful to our missionaries. You stayed faithful to this ministry, and we stand here today saying we’re able to continue to support all of our missionaries and not have to drop any of them.

Now, some of them the Lord did promote to heaven, some of them did retire, and some of them had change of ministries, but that had nothing to do with a lack of support. It’s just a new direction that the Spirit of God was leading them.

But for each of us, I want to say thank you, because that’s exactly the way it works. The apostle was able to be effective for God because he had a church that was standing with him. He had already taught the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 9, verse 14, that in the same way the Lord commanded that those who proclaimed the gospel should get their living by the gospel.

It wasn’t that Paul did not receive financial aid, but he received it from other churches. His philosophy was simply this, when the apostle would establish a church. Go in, plant it, get it going, get it organized.

And then he would go to another metropolitan area and he would plant another church. But whatever church he was planting and getting started, he never ever required them to support him. But he asked other churches who were already established, who were already growing, who already understood and they were maturing and they understood the need that there be a missionary, they understood that there be a need for someone to plant churches in other cities so that the gospel could go on.

They understood that and so he would ask those churches to support his ministry and so when Paul came to Corinth, he already had churches who were supporting him. He was already receiving financial aid.

We can see that in Philippians chapter four. I want you to just back up a little bit in the Bible if you would. Go ahead, open your Bible, get your device out, whatever works for you. And Philippians chapter four, I just want you to see.

how this all connects together so that you understand this great system of you say, sometimes people say, pastor, why do we do faith promise giving? Why do we support missionaries? Why can’t the people there that they’re ministering to support them?

Because many of them are new believers still learning about giving. Many of them don’t understand the principles of giving. Many of them are not even established in the faith, rooted in the faith. But God calls us who are to support.

So Philippians chapter four verse 15, the Bible says now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving, but you only.

For even in Thessalonica you sent aid once and again for my necessity. So Paul is commending the church at Philippi because of their faithful support to him. They didn’t back down from it. They didn’t say, well, look, we haven’t seen Paul in quite some time, so let’s just quit giving to him.

But rather just the opposite, they were faithful in every need that he had, they would send financial aid. And this is how it was organized and this is how it was structured. So when you look at this text and you’re looking for the marks of a true servant, a true servant is humble, particularly in the areas of sacrificing for the cause of the kingdom and certainly in the area of finances.

But would you see just the opposite, the pride? Look at verse 12 of second Corinthians chapter 11. But what I do, Paul says, I will also continue to do, that I may cut off the opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the things of which they boast.

You see the false teachers? They boasted that they were apostles too. They boasted that they… they had just as much authority as Paul did. But he’s saying, no, they don’t. And here was the problem that the false teachers had, that they were exposed because they kept demanding from this new church, these new believers, a fee.

They kept demanding money from them more than they could ever afford, more than the church could ever accomplish. And Paul says to them that I’m gonna continue to do what I’m doing, I’m not gonna charge the church.

He’s putting them in a difficult situation. And so what they did is they tried to flip it and said, well, because he won’t receive money, he’s not really a true apostle. If he was a great apostle, if he was a wonderful apostle, if he truly was from God, then he would demand and require a fee.

Now, you know what’s so bizarre about all that? As you and I are listening to it, we’re smart enough to say. That’s a dumb argument, but yet these Corinthians had become so blinded, they bought into it.

And they said, yeah, what’s wrong with that guy? He won’t take a fee. What’s wrong with that guy? He won’t take any money. What’s wrong with him? Paul, in his determination, says, what I do, I’m going to continue to do it, that I may cut off the opportunity for those talking about the false teachers to desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the things which they boast.

So they tried to say Paul was inferior, the false teachers did, but the truth is they had a high opinion of themselves demanding high fees because they thought they were worthy of these high fees, but they had become nothing but financial parasites in the church.

So what I want you to understand is that true servants of God is humility. Every one of us should strive for humility. And here’s the key as we pray that God would give us humbleness because it’s not natural for the heart to be humble, right?

It’s natural for the heart to brag. It’s natural for us to boast. It’s natural for us to lift up ourselves. It’s natural to think about ourselves. Don’t be angry because you have a human nature, but it’s sinful.

And so you have to continue to pray as I do that God would help us to be humble people and that we understand that it is the grace of God that gives us humility. It is the grace of God that keeps us humble.

And sometimes you may stumble in the Christian life. You may struggle in the Christian life and do not become defeated because it may be God simply trying to keep all of us humble, right? I always felt when I was coaching…

and you would be good for the team to lose a few games. Unfortunately, a lot of my teams lost a lot of games. But I always wanted them to lose a few games, why? To keep them humble, to keep them hungry, to keep them working hard, that if they thought they were so good, nobody could beat them, that they would slack off.

And you know, that’s what can happen in the Christian life, is that we have so many successes and so many victories, and we’re always seen to be accomplishing this and that, that we can become prideful and think, man, look at me, look how wonderful I am in the faith, and how strong I am for God, and then bam!

We get knocked down. And God reminds us that we can’t live this Christian life without Him, amen? We need Jesus Christ. The Bible says, I can do all things. Through who? Christ, who does what? strengthens us.

Yes, you can do a lot of things. That doesn’t mean you can jump out of an airplane without a parachute. I mean, you could jump out of an airplane. I just recommend parachutes, but I’m just saying you can’t do it without a parachute.

You will face the consequences, but here’s what the apostle is trying to say. I can do all things. I can live for God. I can be faithful to God. I can continue to strive forward for God, but it’s going to have to be through Christ in His strength, not my own.

That’s important. The second mark I want you to note if a true servant is truth. So we come down to verse 10, and he says in chapter 11, as the truth of Christ is in me, no one shall stop me from this boasting in the regions of Achaia.

And what he is saying is this, that when he uses the word boast, he’s just talking about bragging about the gospel, bragging about Christ. No one’s going to stop the apostle from telling others about Jesus Christ.

Why? Because the truth of Christ is in Him. And when the apostle uses this word truth, he’s really talking about integrity. And integrity is an important part of the ministry of the apostle. I want you to back up to chapter seven.

There are many other verses that the apostle gives us and help us to understand his importance of integrity. But I want you to see this in verse 14 of chapter seven, for if in anything I have boasted to him about you, I’m not ashamed, but as we spoke all things to you in truth, even so our boasting to Titus was found true.

And what his point is that everything that he has been bragging has always been about Christ, and he has worked diligently to keep integrity in the ministry. Paul sought to maintain integrity in ministry to prevent the gospel from losing its credibility.

That’s why integrity is important in each of our lives. That’s why truth is important in all of our lives. The gospel is dependent upon our integrity. The gospel is only as good as God’s people are truthful.

If you walk out of here and you live a duplicit life, you live a double life, you live a life that is hypocritical, you say one thing on Sunday, you say, oh God, I love you. But on Monday through Saturday, you live like the devil and you’re telling everybody, I love the devil.

I love the world. I love myself. I love the flesh. You are undermining the gospel of Jesus Christ. My integrity affects the advancement of the gospel. You see the Bible that people mainly read as you.

There isn’t a lot of people, much less Christians, picking up the Bible and reading it, right? The unchurched world’s not reading the Bible. The only time they get to read the Bible is how you and I interact with them, how we behave, how we handle things, how we treat them.

And that’s why truth is important, integrity is important, and that’s why we need to let God’s truth shape our character, shape who we are within, that as we proclaim the truth, it is in alignment with our own character and who we are as believers.

Now that was just different from the false teachers. Look at verse 13 of 2 Corinthians. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. When Paul uses the word false, it is the Greek word pseudo, which you know means fake.

We hear a lot of fake things today, but he is saying that these guys, now think about how bold and brash this is for the apostle, but he is not backing down from the truth, and he is calling them out, and he is saying to the church and to the church leaders that these guys are fake.

They are deceitful. They disguise or transform themselves into apostles of Christ. These false teachers portrayed themselves that they were from God. They portrayed themselves that they were sent by God, but the apostle is saying, look at these guys.

They’re demanding these high fees on you, and their life is not in alignment with the truth of God. Remember, the purpose of this passage is to provide the resources that Christians need to fend off false.

teaching to which they are exposed. Listen, we encounter so much false teaching out there, many voices trying to lead us away from God and to follow idols and the things of this world. So I’m hoping today what we’re learning about the marks of a true servant are being imprinted upon our hearts and mind and that we’re able to remember how to distinguish what a true servant is.

Now I want to remind you about our YouTube channel. Just go to YouTube and type in hope worth having and we have over 300 videos that we have uploaded to this channel and it ranges from just a few seconds.

You can have a minute with Pastor Mike or you can go all the way to a full -blown sermon. There are interviews, there’s Q &A, there are different things that we address, different topics. So I want to encourage you to take advantage of this.

A lot of you are more visual learners so I know that the YouTube channel can be a great blessing to you. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.