The Vanity of One-Upmanship

But make no mistake, God has not bypassed the church. God will never bypass the church. And God has not bypassed the preaching of the gospel in the local context of the church. The church is God's plan A. And there will never be and has never been a plan B. So if you have your Bible in 2 Corinthians chap 11 and the last half of the book starting in chapter 16 going through verse 16 going through uh verse 33. Uh this is a really difficult passage to preach on. Uh it was one that when I saw my assignment I'm like ah my goodness how do you preach on that? There's a redundancy of what Paul's already been talking about in Corinthians. And uh then it's just kind of an odd passage where he's doing what he says you shouldn't do. And we're going to talk about boasting in just a little bit. And uh it's just a tough passage. But I I have to tell you, as I started digging into this uh particularly this past week, uh I began to say, man, I'm thankful uh God gets me uh in this passage today because I think there's some really relevant stuff uh that this passage speaks to uh regarding what's going on in our entire world today. And so I hope that you'll hear it uh with that. I've entitled this uh little talk uh on this passage the vanity of oneupmanship. Paul's going to talk about boasting all the way through here. And so we're going to kind of laser in on the vanity of oneupmanship or boasting. Uh let me ask you this question. Have you ever hung around someone who was prone to oneupmanship? You know the guy or girl uh the first liars, the first loser in that crowd. No matter how amazing your stories are or accomplishments are, his or hers are always better. And they just can't resist it. They they they're a infected by this disease of one upmanship. Uh if you're a golfer, some of my golfing buddies are in the room today and uh I if I told them, "Man, I shot a 77 today." And they're like, "Well, that's good, pastor. Uh I shot a 74. and the guy laughing loudest is the guy that does it the most. Um, I'm like, or if uh you get a promotion at at your job and you get a pay raise, maybe in your late 40s, early 50s, and you tell your buddy, man, I'm so excited. The Lord's blessed me. I'm now for the first time in my life making a six figure income. And the guy you tell that to says, well, that's that's special. Well, I was making that in my late 20s. And you're like, ah, if you're a parent in the room and your your child has made the AB honor roll and you brag about your child, my child's made the AB honor roll. And somebody will inevitably say, "Well, that's that's great. My my kid just got accepted at Harvard." Uh, and you're like, "Oh, first liar is the first loser in those crowds." Uh, let me bring it a little more closer to home. Not have you ever hung around a person who is prone to one upmanship? Have Have you yourself ever been prone to oneupmanship? I will confess um that I am a recovering oneuper. All right. I'm not fully recovered, but I'm in on the path to recovery. Uh for instance, I was fishing. Uh part of my new job takes me around some beautiful places in the world. Two weeks ago, I was in Alaska for some meetings, and I I decided to hang on an extra day to go fly fishing. We floated floated this uh gorgeous uh little river in Alaska. And I I'd never been fly fishing before. And so, the guide uh showed me, he was kind enough to show me how to how to cast and how to uh you know, set the hook and all of that. And I was fishing with a friend of mine who works for me. Uh his name's Dave and and he's fly fished for uh many years now. And uh Dave caught the first fish and it was a nicesized rainbow trout. And then I caught a much larger rainbow trout. And then I caught more rainbow trout than my friend Dave. And bear in mind, it was my first time, okay? And it took everything in me not to post that fact on Facebook. And so I had to creatively work it into a sermon uh so that I could tell somebody about it. And for you aspiring oneupers, this is what you call next level oneupmanship. All right. Uh and honestly, preachers are the worst. And uh I'm around preachers now 24/7. Pray for me. Uh we are constantly comparing our ministries and our churches with each other. It's not uncommon uh for a preacher to ask a leading question around other preachers. How many did you have last Sunday? Well, just know that no one asks that question that had hardly anybody last Sunday. That's only asked by somebody that had a good crowd last Sunday. How so how many did you have last Sunday? and they'll say hoping that you'll they'll you know reciprocate and ask you the same question or or many times in the crowds I run with they how many services are you guys doing at your church now on Sunday and and sometimes when somebody asked me that h pastor how many how many services do you have at your church uh now I would now I'm just saying uh you only have one church. Wow. This is a master class in oneupmanship. All right. Uh so in this passage, Paul delves into the subject of oneupmanship, what he calls boasting. Now to be clear, and this is how it's confusing, and this passage is kind of confusing to preach on. Uh Paul didn't like to boast and he doesn't encourage boasting. And yet he does it. Why? Because it was the only way to convince the immature Corinthian Christians who were enamored by the worldly approaches of false preachers and teachers in his day of the truth of Paul's message and the authority of his apostilhip. I I want to say this because I think there's some in the room that probably need to hear this. Immature Christians can easily be drawn away by flamboyant, egocentric, arrogant, false preachers who are willing to do whatever it takes to draw a crowd or get more clicks and likes on social media than they are to faithfully shepherd and teach their flock the truths of God's word. And honestly, some of you can potentially fall victim to this approach today. In the wake of current events, I've heard some rather unbiblical rhetoric on social media and the like from popular internet preachers and even many parishioners. Here's one line that I've heard often on social media in the wake of current events. If your pastor didn't do this or your pastor didn't say that, you should leave that church right now. Now, hear me. I speak to this issue as a pastor who did do this and did say that, but I find it rather unwise to sow discord in another local body of Christ for my own edification. This is more protoolicizing than it is evangelizing. It further ignores the autonomy of a local church and the authority of the local pastor to determine before God in his local context how best to lead, shepherd, and preach to his flock. One pastor, very famous pastor, recently said just this past week, and I quote, "God has bypassed the pulpit and he has bypassed the church in favor of podcasters and influencers." Now, again, let me be very clear. If you're watching online, please listen to the entire context of this statement. I'm thankful that God is using clearly using podcasters and influencers to preach many many cases the authentic gospel of Jesus Christ. Marketplace evangelism is needed has always been needed and will always be needed. The purpose of the church in and of itself is to prepare people like you to speak the truth of the gospel in the public square. The greatest evangelist in this church are those who witness at work, at home, and when they're on the road. But make no mistake, God has not bypassed the church. God will never bypass the church. And God has not bypassed the preaching of the gospel in the local context of the church. The church is God's plan A. And there will never be and has never been a plan B. The church is the greatest institution or organization that the world knows anything of. And that's why the church should guard itself against shop jocks and ambulance chasers, false prophets as Paul calls them in this passage. Corinth was overly impressed by the oneupmanship, the boasting, the arrogance, and the self-promotion of false preachers. So Paul, as a last resort, appeals to them on the basis of a boast. And he starts in verse 16, read with me. I repeat, let no one consider me a fool. But if you do, at least accept me as a fool so that I can boast a little. What I'm saying in this matter of boasting, I don't speak as the Lord would. Paul often would say, I I don't have the Lord on this. This is just my personal opinion. And he goes on, "I don't speak as the Lord would, but as it were foolishly, since many boast according to their flesh, I will also boast. For you being so wise, gladly put up with fools." There's a good word for our church in this world today. Don't be so wise that you gladly put up with fools. In fact, you put up with it. Sometimes it's someone who enslaves you. If someone exploits you, if someone takes advantage of you, if someone is arrogant toward you, if someone slaps you in the face. I say this to our shame. Paul is going to go to great lengths to boast, but not in a way that points people to himself, but rather points people to the Lord. He starts with the problem of bad boasting and he systematically takes apart these false prophets and the things that they are boasting about. He first of all deals with the question of ancestry here. Look at verse 21. It says, "I say this to our shame. We have been too weak for that. But in whatever anyone dares to boast, I'm talking foolishly again." He says here, "I also dare." Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. You know, it is incredible how much stock people put on their own stock, their own pedigree, their own ancestry. I I've never been quite able to understand why some people seem to feel that they are better than others simply because of their ancestry. A and today the issues of ancestry don't end with just who uh we are in familiar relationships with. It extends from family pride to issues of race and dare we say racism where we are raised. If you're around people from the deep south, they think that they are very superior to everybody else, especially when it comes to the SEC and college football. Our own pastor Andrew has a a a tingent a a tendency I should say to take special pride in being an ASU grad and an ASU football fan and and they had one year last year and and we're really excited for them and reality has kind of you know came back to to to the front of the burner and uh now the Oklahoma Sooners in the rightful place of being in the top five in the nation and college football boomer Anybody sooner? All right, we got somebody over there. Just a humble brag. We're We have the tendency, don't we, to brag about where we're from, where our roots are. And this is the attitude that Paul's talking about here. He he wants at once he recognizes the foolishness of this kind of thing. And that yet him he himself does it. He says, uh, do you think that, uh, because of your ancestry, you're more important because you're a Hebrew? So am I. Because you're an Israelite, so am I. Because Abraham is your father, he's my father. Also, the question of ancestry. And then he deals in this issue of boasting and oneupmanship with the question of activity. Ver verse 23 goes on, are they servants of Christ? I'm talking like a madman here. He says, I'm a better one with far more labors. He says, Paul points out that these false teachers are claiming to be these uh super servants of Christ. So he says, okay, let's compare our service record. Has any of them traveled the distances and planted as many churches as I have? The foolishness in boasting about how much you serve is that there will always be people who have served more. Pastor Andrew mentioned that we have uh four campuses here in Arizona. We have three internationally. We're we're set to start several more uh next year. We'll announce that uh uh soon to you the spec the specifics of that. But I I have a coach uh who uh his name is Chris and and uh Chris has like 20 campuses. So I can boast about how many campuses and how much our church is doing, but there's always going to be somebody who is doing more. Heck, Chris can start three campuses in a meeting with me and I think, "Oh, you wow, I got to get busy." We can boast about the size of our church. There's always going to be a church that is larger. Uh the the issue is is where is our pride and in whom is our pride. Yes, serve. Yes, sacrifice. But don't let it ever become a point of personal pride. And then he deals with the question of adversity. Look at verse 23. He says, uh, are they servants of Christ? I'm talking like a madman. I'm a better one with more labors. Then he moves into adversity. Many more imprisonments, far worse beatings, many times near death. And we'll unpack the rest of it in a moment. Paul goes to the issue of of adversity and persecution. He's asking, "Do these false prophets really think that their sufferings are more severe than mine?" And and he delves into three specific types of suffering here. He talks about Jewish persecution and suffering. In verse 24, he says, "Five times I received a the 40 lashes minus one from the Jews. Three times I was beaten with rods." And so verse 24 is Jewish persecution. The Jews would would persecute people that they felt were deserving by 40 lashes. But here it says 40 minus one. And there was a reason for that because if a person doing the lashing, doing the whipping exceeded 40, it meant that he would get 40 himself. And so being pragmous, they said, "Well, let's just stop at 39 in case we miscounted for to be sure that we didn't go over 40." So he received 40 minus one, but they were very, very severe. As a matter of fact, many people would die by the lashings alone. the whipping alone. And it was a Jewish law that if a person died while being whipped, the person whipping him, as long as he didn't go over 40, was not to be responsible for his death. And so there's this Jewish persecution. And then he says, I've also ex experienced Roman persecution. In verse 25, it says, three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning and this was particular to Romans. Romans did not lash with a whip. They beat with a rod. And that is Roman punishment. But Paul was a Roman citizen. And although the law of Rome decreed that no citizen should be beaten with rods, yet by this time on three different occasions, he had been so beaten. You see, because of angry mobs, weak judges, the law itself was disregarded in Paul's case at times and in this form of punishment. It had already been carried out on the apostle three times. And then he says he was also stoned. Now I have to stop as I always do and explain for our California friends what this actually meant in the New Testament. It did not mean he was a stoner. It meant that they picked up large rocks and tried to kill him. And Paul oversaw some of the this stoning. Paul oversaw the stoning of Steven, a New Testament deacon that literally died at the hands of these stones. And Jesus, you'll remember, they brought a uh woman caught in adultery to Jesus. They decided that they should stone her. And you remember what Jesus did? Jesus knelt down and he began to draw in the sand. I think it's very important today to remember that Jesus did not draw lines in the sand. Jesus drew circles in the sand. And we live in a culture today where there are many people on social media that are drawing lines when Jesus draws circles inviting people to experience his forgiveness. And so there is the Roman persecution, there is the Jewish persecution and then there was universal persecution. Universal persecution is that that happens to us just in the normal process of serving the Lord in dangerous places in this world. He says in verse 25, picking up in the last part of the verse, three times I was shipwrecked. I've spent a night and a day in the open sea. On frequent journeys, I face dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, and dangers among false brothers, toil and hardship, many sleepless nights, hunger and thirst, often without food, cold and without clothing. talks about just the universal stuff that comes to us as a part of being faithful and serving Christ. I uh been traveling a little bit and I was in uh Colorado this past week and one of the guys young one of the young men from our church that we had with us in Colorado who's uh uh preparing to plant a church uh we found out uh on the way over that he is deathly afraid of planes. He had to fly and he was so nervous and so scared scared. I'm from the south. All right. So, just just go with me. Scared. And um I told him uh at one of the breakouts when we had some hang time, I said, "You know, man, I I I really think that dying in a plane crash is the best way to die." Now, you're going to die. We're all going to die. You You don't get to choose how you die. But if I got to choose how I die, it would be in a plane crash. Not a midair collision. All right. I'm talking about 30,000 feet engine failure and you're headed down and you know it. First of all, I am convinced it would be the best roller coaster ride of your life. And many of you spend thousands of dollars to take your kids to Disneyland or Disney World to get that same experience that you will get for free in an airplane crash. Let me go on. It's the best way to die because on the way down, you're going to get to preach the gospel to a captive audience who are suddenly very interested in your content. Let me go on. It is the best way to die because after you're dead, your family is going to get to sue the airplane and the airline and you're going to your family's going to be loaded even if you didn't have the foresight to provide life insurance. And you're going to be famous. I mean, some of your siblings and some of your children will be sat around and saying, "How how did your dad die?" "Oh, my dad died of old age." Well, let me tell you, cuz there's a little oneuper in all of us. My dad died in an airplane crash telling people about Jesus. Memorable. The point Paul's making here is that there's all sorts of difficulty that come to a believer during the natural flow of serving the Lord. If you're busy serving Jesus in a fallen world, you will encounter swollen rivers, dangerous people, wild beasts, tumultuous seas, sleepless nights, hungry days, and cold winters. He then moves to the question of anxiety. Look at verse 28. Not to mention other things. There is the daily pressure on me. My concern for all the churches. Think about that. My concern or my anxiety, my worry, my care for all the churches. Who is weak? I am not weak. Am I not weak? Who is made of stubble? I do not burn with indignation. What's he saying here? He's saying, I have a deep burden that I carry with me everywhere I go. Every night I sleep and every morning I wake up, I have a deep burden for the church. I've pastored for over 40 years, and I've been privileged to serve here for coming up on 13 years. And during that time, I have been privileged to bear some of your burdens, your sorrows, your pain, the heartache and tears of many of you and share them with you. And I confess that sometimes that has been a strain. And I further confess that sometimes I haven't done well with that. It makes me even more amazed though to think of this mighty apostle bearing the bur burden of dozens of churches that he had founded and even those that he did not found being open to their needs and praying for them daily. Think about this mighty apostle. He'd never been to Colasse. He didn't start the church there, but he prayed for them. He upheld them before God every day. What a tremendous ministry of mercy he had. What empathy, deep empathy he shows. What ability to respond to the emotional heart cries of people. And and and I sort of shake my head in amazement to all of that. And and and if you look at that from the outside, just looking uh into Paul's life, you wonder, why would you do it? Why would you put up with all of that? And and really Paul answered that question back in 2 Corinthians 5 when he says, "It is the love of Christ that constrains me." And and it begs the question, how do you tell the ones who really love you, the ones that are false prophets versus the ones that are true prophets or preachers? Here's the answer. They answer the call when you have a need. They are there to marry your kids and preach your funeral. And they week in and week out, preach the Bible, and let the Bible speak even when it isn't easy or isn't flattering or when somebody assigns them a really tough text. In all of this, we should say that Paul is a reluctant boaster, simply laying out the case that these flamboyant, arrogant teachers don't have anything really to brag about. And I want to say to you, dear church family, and those watching online, don't be tempted to be led astray and overly influenced by the shock jocks and ambulance chasers of our day that claim to have authority just because they have a large platform or a large social media following. Lean into your local church. Stay true to the holy scriptures and accept the leadership of the local pastor that God has placed over your care. After 910 followed a day after by 911 this year, uh I preached uh for one of our campuses up north in Cornville and uh many of us preached, all of our campus pastors preached on the relevant issue of that week. And I was led to at the end of the message uh to remind the young people especially in the room in that moment uh of second Timothy chapter 3 where Paul gives the advice to young Timothy and he says Timothy I want you to remember the holy scriptures and don't miss this part from whom you have learned them. In Timothy's case, it was his mother and his grandmother. But here's what I challenge the young people in the room today in that moment. And what I want to challenge not just the young people in the room today, but also the older people in the room today in this moment. Be careful where you get your news and from whom you take your cues. Just because someone has a massive internet presence does not mean that they love you and they know you and they care for you like your local pastor. Be careful where you get your news and from whom you take your cues. And so Paul lays out the the problem of of bad boasting. And then he moves in the last section to the purpose of benevolent or good boasting. And and in this section he he challenges us in both our orthodoxy what we believe and our orthopraxy how we behave. He first of all reminds us that our orthodoxy we should boast in Christ alone. Now Paul has said this in other places in the scripture. I refer you to Galatians 6:14. But as for me, I will never boast about anything except the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says it in a different way to his letter to the Philippians in Philippians 3:7. But everything that was gained to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. Paul's saying here that in our orthodoxy we should boast in Christ alone. Now for the apostle Paul the the most significant event in his life if you read uh Acts and all of the epistles you'll clearly understand the most significant event in his life was the Damascus road where he met Jesus Christ. His meeting was more historic than ours. Clearly his got recorded in holy scripture. But it was not more important than ours. More than anything in the world, you should boast that you have met Jesus Christ, that Jesus Christ has forgiven you, that Jesus Christ loves you, and that Jesus Christ has saved you. And you should boast about all that Jesus has done. That Jesus came, that Jesus lived, that Jesus died, that Jesus rose again, that Jesus is coming again. That is the most important thing for any Christian to profess and for any church to preach. Full stop. And if you go to a church that allows the events of our day to distract you from the gospel, we need to stay focused on the gospel in our orthodoxy. And then Paul says something here that you have to kind of dig in and understand the history of it to understand. But he says in our orthopraxy we should boast only in the things that reveal our weaknesses. Look what he says in verse 30. If boasting is necessary, I will boast about my weaknesses. And then he shares a story. The God and father of of the Lord Jesus who is blessed forever knows I'm not lying. In Damascus, a ruler under King Arteis guarded the city of Damascus in order to arrest me. So I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped from his hands. Now what in the world is Paul talking about here? Well, Paul at the moment of his conversion clearly thought that God was calling him to be the apostle to the Jews. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews, an Israelite of Israelite. Abraham was his father. No one was more classically trained to be the apostle to the Jews than the Apostle Paul. And yet what we read here is the story of being captured in Damascus and let down in a basket outside the city of Damascus. And from that point on, Paul's ambition and Paul's desire to be the apostle to the Jews shifted. And from that point on, he will now be known forever and until today the apostle to the Gentiles. All of his dreams were dashed at his feet. He was let down in a basket. And at this point, Paul literally becomes a basket case for Christ. And he's saying to us, it isn't your natural gifts or abilities that equip you for serving God. The only resume that matters is God working through you with the power of the Holy Spirit. And it's a key thought that guides this whole conversation. the weaknesses of our orthopraxy affirms the strength of our orthodoxy. That no matter how much we are tempted to one up, Paul's saying, "I boast in my weakness." It's like he's in a crowd of preachers and they said, "Man, our church had a thousand last Sunday." And he said, "Well, I can one up that. Our church had 20. He boasted in his weaknesses, not his strengths, not his abilities. And it affirmed the strength of his orthodoxy that it is the gospel and the gospel alone that matters. anything that matters that we do, anything of of of of merit that we we perform is that we point people to the Lord Jesus Christ and him alone. Since I've preached to you last, the world seems to have caught on fire in good ways and in some not so good ways. We wake up this morning and our government is still shut down. There are angry people on both sides of the political aisles. There is a lot of distasteful discourse. And so while I was preaching uh preparing to preach this message, I was at uh a hotel in Denver this past week, and uh I was studying for this sermon uh at the hotel bar, the breakfast bar, and I had my Bible out and I'd ordered a a hotel omelette, probably a Denver omelette, I'm not I do not boast in my humor. I only boast in the cross of Christ today. And I had my Bible out and I had all my notes out and and notepad and I was writing and this dear older gentleman came over to my I was the only one eating the omelette at the bar and he came over here and he said, "I'm I'm sorry to interrupt you." And I'm like, "Not sorry enough cuz you're going to do it, aren't you?" He was like, "You should be in that insurance commercial. Don't become your parent or whatever. So he couldn't help himself. He said, "But I got a story to tell you." And I'm I know you do. They all do. And I found out there was elderly guy, which means he was like three years older than me. And he said, "All that's going on in this world, praying for you pastors, and you preach to your congregation." He said, "I want to tell you a story." He said, "There's a story I heard of Carl Bar." You historians know that Carl Bar was a recognized theologian, very conservative theologian, uh, who lived in and around Germany during World War II and lived long enough, lived into his 80s, lived long enough to be living at this time during the Vietnam War. The world was again on fire. And he said, "I'm always encouraged by this story of Carl Bar talking during the throws of the Vietnam War and some of you served in that war. Some of you lived through that time." And his friends so concerned they were talking on the phone and Bar simply replied, "Chin up. Christ will reign." And I want to leave you with that final thought today. With all that's going on in our world, just know, chin up, Christ will reign. Revelation tells us this as much. Revelation 11:15, the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever. Amen. Say it with me. Chin up. Chin up. Christ will reign. [Music]