NOT EVERYBODY’S TONGUE BELONGS IN YOUR EAR
The Corinthian Christians gave their pastor more trouble than all his other churches put together. Churches have people so churches have problems. We are all totally capable of being disciples with dirty diapers.
These Corinthian believers were accusing Paul of being inconsistent and having wrong motives.
2 Cor 1:17-18 Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say "Yes, yes" and "No, no" at the same time? 18 As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. ESV
Any level of leadership in your life provides you with the ability to relate to working with people who aren’t always going to be happy with you. In Paul’s case it was pastoring. Perhaps for you it is parenting, coaching, managing, teaching or being involved in your neighborhood association.
As soon as you step forward to lead people notice you. Sometimes they notice you like they would notice a bull’s eye target. Claire A. Murray said, “The problem with being a leader is that you’re never sure if you’re being followed or chased.”
We must choose to stay encouraged. In life some people will write us off. Just because somebody writes our obituary does not mean we are obligated to die. Max Lucado said, “You can never lead the orchestra until you turn your back on the crowd.”
Other people's opinions don't have to become your reality. God’s opinion is the opinion that matters. Not everybody’s tongue belongs in your ear. We must be careful not to lose ourselves in the opinions of others.
Rom 2:11 …God pays no attention to what others say about you. He makes up his own mind. MSG
If we are willing to listen to what God says about us our faith will conquer our frustration. This requires the willingness to move beyond the obvious realm of accusation to a less obvious realm which is actually more certain.
2 Cor 4:16-18 Therefore we do not lose heart…For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. NIV
What is the input of your life? To upgrade the output of your life you must upgrade the input of your life! #turnthepage #prayattention #conversationswithgod.
Your temporal situation should be affected by your eternal point of view.
Ps 123:1 To You I lift up my eyes, O You who are enthroned in the heavens! (NASB)
Our 2017 revelation is LOVE IS OUR SOURCE. Love is the force that causes our lives & our world to flourish. It's easy to be kind when others are giving you kindness. When they're unkind that's when you must give them what God has given you instead.
God’s purposes for you are more powerful than other people’s opinions of you.
Right in the middle of this book Paul makes a declaration of faith in the face of frustration.
2 Cor 4:8-9 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. NIV
GP4RL: Reflect on and post verses from this message every day this week.
DISCUSSION GUIDE FOR COMMUNITY GROUP LEADERS
Click here for a downloadable pdf file of this guide.
Icebreaker: If you are at a friend’s or relative’s house for dinner and you find a dead bug in your salad, what would you do?
The Corinthian Christians gave their pastor more trouble than all his other churches put together. Churches have people so churches have problems. These Corinthian believers were accusing Paul of being inconsistent and having wrong motives.
2 Corinthians 1:17-18 Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say “Yes, yes” and “No, no” at the same time? 18 As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. ESV
As soon as you step forward to lead, people notice you - much like a bull’s eye target sometimes.
Claire A. Murray “The problem with being a leader is that you’re never sure if you’re being followed or chased.”
Discussion Questions:
- Share a time you were serving in a leadership role (Parenting, coaching, managing, teaching, etc.) and were accused of being inconsistent or having wrong motives. Is there a time you have been in charge of a group, event, or individuals (adults or children) and had a hard time getting them to follow directions?
- How did that make you feel?
Max Lucado “You can never lead the orchestra until you turn your back on the crowd.”
Other people’s opinions don’t have to become your reality.
Discussion Question:
- Has there been a time you didn’t follow the direction of someone in a leadership role over you?
- How do you biblically respond to someone you disagree with in leadership?
Romans 2:11 …God pays no attention to what others say about you. He makes up his own mind. MSG
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 Therefore we do not lose heart…For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. NIV
Discussion Question:
- Understand that the way you felt in an area in which you were given responsibility and were not able get others to listen or follow your direction is how others have felt when we are set in our own perspective. How can we show the love of Christ more effectively when we disagree with someone in a leadership role - either a boss, coworker over a project, or an area of ministry we are involved in?
Your temporal situation should be affected by your eternal point of view.
Psalm 123:1 To You I lift up my eyes, O You who are enthroned in the heavens! (NASB)
2017: LOVE IS OUR SOURCE: Love is the force that causes our lives and our world to flourish.
God’s purposes for you are more powerful than other people’s opinion of you.
Discussion Question:
- Who have you pointed fingers at or made accusations against that you need to make amends to this week for allowing your temporal situation to affect your eternal point of view?
- How can we change our perspective to remain focused on God’s eternal point of view?
GP4RL: Reflect on and post verses from this message every day this week.
GOING DEEPER:
The Message Bible Introduction to 2 Corinthians is insightful and can be found at the bottom of this post.
2 Cor 12:10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong. NAS
A.W. Tozer said, “When I understand everything happening to me is to make me more like Christ, it resolves a great deal of anxiety.” All of us must resolve #1 reason we are here doing what we do is so we become more lke X as we help others become more like X.
Over the years I’ve learned that our ability to lead is always limited to our willingness to manage pain. Below are statements I’ve reflected on hundreds, maybe thousands of times, in those challenging times.
Life is never about what happens to you. Life is about what happens in you when things happen to you. How many heard say that before? How many need to hear it again? Internalize
Our ability to let go of being angry directly affects our overall quality of life. Let it go, love, laugh & live!
· Little frustrations weigh us down then quietly hold us back if we devote our attention in their direction. Letting go is living free!
· Forgiveness doesn't justify them it liberates me.
· As soon as you no longer forgive you no longer live
· No mature Christian, who is seasoned in the word, has any defendable excuse to be offended, or stay offended. ~Greg Hurd
· “Offence” creates “a fence”. We all need to get over it. ~Paul Benger
· Ps 73:21-22 When my thoughts were bitter and my feelings were hurt, I was as stupid as an animal (Good News Translation)
· John Paul Jackson: Unforgiveness abides in the soul of those who are incapable of disciplining themselves.
· Pain wants to cripple your life, hold your mind hostage & restrict you in every way. Manage the pain, forgive & live again!
· Hanging on to unforgiveness is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.
· To live life motivated by love you must guard your heart and your mouth. Unchecked pain produces unrestrained poison.
· If we allow our attitudes and philosophies to be birthed in reaction to pain we are in danger of living septic lives.
· We must choose daily to identify with our purpose more than we identify with our pain or we exchange destiny for dysfunction. It's like crossing the monkey bars. If you don't let go you can't move forward.
· Do whatever it takes to keep anger from ruling your life and separating you from others. This is the enemy's plan to isolate you & ruin you.
· “Consider how much more often you suffer from your anger and grief than from those very things for which you are angry and grieved.” - Marcus Aurelius
· When you forgive somebody you set a person free and it’s not until after you’ve done it that you realize that person was you.
Mark 8:34 = To be a disciple you must deny yourself. So many times we excuse ourselves while accusing others. Be selflessly gracious today.
Our willingness to talk openly against others says more negative about us than we could ever say about them.
“You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him” ~Audrey Hepburn // Great take on external appearance vs internal expression
"If you are filled with bitterness & jolted your bitterness will come out. It is not the fault of the person who jolted you" –Amy Carmichael
Message Bible Introduction to 2 Corinthians:
The Corinthian Christians gave their founding pastor, Paul, more trouble than all his other churches put together. No sooner did Paul get one problem straightened out in Corinth than three more appeared.
For anyone operating under the naive presumption that joining a Christian church is a good way to meet all the best people and cultivate smooth social relations, a reading of Paul’s Corinthian correspondence is the prescribed cure. But however much trouble the Corinthians were to each other and to Paul, they prove to be a cornucopia of blessings to us, for they triggered some of Paul’s most profound and vigorous writing.
The provocation for Paul’s second letter to the Christians in Corinth was an attack on his leadership. In his first letter, though he wrote most kindly and sympathetically, he didn’t mince words. He wrote with the confident authority of a pastor who understands the ways God’s salvation works and the kind of community that comes into being as a result. At least some of what he wrote to them was hard to hear and hard to take.
So they bucked his authority—accused him of inconsistencies, impugned his motives, questioned his credentials. They didn’t argue with what he had written; they simply denied his right to tell them what to do.
And so Paul was forced to defend his leadership. After mopping up a few details left over from the first letter, he confronted the challenge, and in the process probed the very nature of leadership in a community of believers.
Because leadership is necessarily an exercise of authority, it easily shifts into an exercise of power. But the minute it does that, it begins to inflict damage on both the leader and the led. Paul, studying Jesus, had learned a kind of leadership in which he managed to stay out of the way so that the others could deal with God without having to go through him.
All who are called to exercise leadership in whatever capacity—parent or coach, pastor or president, teacher or manager—can be grateful to Paul for this letter, and to the Corinthians for provoking it.