11-7-22 Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ.

Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church located in Kernersville, North Carolina. Second Corinthians chapter 10. We're going to begin reading at verse 3 if it's okay with you. Verse 3, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God.

Carnal means worldly. Our weapons of warfare aren't worldly weapons, it's not physical weapons, it's spiritual weapons. Mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. If you try to fight spiritual battles with physical things, you will pull down no strongholds.

In order to pull down strongholds, it must be done spiritually. We have people that have spiritual issues, but they try to do things in their life like, oh, I'm going to buy this, I'm going to go here, I'm going to do that, and that's going to make me feel better. No, you're trying to fight a spiritual battle in physical ways, and then that doesn't satisfy, and it leaves them empty, and then they feel like they've done everything and tried everything. I just must be an unhappy person. No, it's because you're trying to fight a spiritual battle with physical things.

Everybody got me so far. Now, notice if you would, well, two of us, okay, that's wonderful. Happy Father's Day to me, good Lord. Look at verse 5, casting down imaginations. That means things that casting down, why would God say cast down imaginations if God's the one that put them there? Obviously, God's talking about things that Satan has put in your mind. You've got to cast that down.

God wouldn't say cast down something if it's just that God put it there, or it's just part of, that's just who I am, preacher. No, no, no, that's Satan. Satan has put those things in our mind. We've got to cast down those imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ and having a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. Now, here begins our meet in verse 7.

This is what we're dealing with, but you've got to understand before we get to verse 7, Paul is dealing with the Christians here at Corinth and he's saying this, look at me, get this, please. He is saying, listen, you've got a battle going on in your mind and it's going to affect you because it begins to change how you think and when Satan changes how you think, then you begin to change what's important. You begin to view things through the wrong eyes and you measure things incorrectly. Now, may I say to you something about a house or anything else you build with a ruler, with a tape measure, whatever the case might be, and get this, if your measurements are off, whatever you build is not going to be right.

Everybody got that? If I'm measuring, listen, if I have a tape measure and somebody got in there and somehow made a tape measure as a practical joke and an inch was really only three-fourths of an inch or they just moved everything down, listen, if I measured by that and then you had the real thing measuring, everything would be off. If what you measure things by is off, then what you build with that is going to be off. And we have families and lives and marriages that are in, they're just in crumbles and they're shattered because literally what the husband or wife, the way they look at life, the way they measure life, the way they determine what is important is wrong from the start.

And so everything they try to build on that will never be right because it wasn't measured right from the start. Everybody understand that? So look at verse seven. He says, do you look on things after the outward appearance?

What a question. Paul says, do you look on things after the outward appearance? And we're going to deal with these following verses.

We're going to pray. And before we go any further today, I just want to make this statement that you must first determine, we all must first determine by what rule we measure because that's going to determine your priorities. It's going to determine your values.

It's going to control your actions. It's going to dictate your attitude, husbands, wives, whatever. All of us can begin to measure our lives wrong because this world has told us this is what should be important and this is what should be your priority. And this is how you need to measure a person, a career, accomplishments.

And dear friends, listen, God, through the writing of Paul, asked this very simple question. Do you look at things by outward appearance? I would ask you that. Do you? Now be careful if you say no. Be careful. That's right. I sure don't. Oh, really?

I think in all of our lives, if we're honest, all of us have a tendency to look at things by the outward appearance. All of us. Let's pray. Lord, I love you.

Thank you for all that you've done. And Lord, as you have taught me through this passage some things that I've needed in my life this week, I pray that this will be something that would help these precious people that are in front of me. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Before I get into it, listen, Satan is fighting everything that God is trying to do.

Can you at least say amen to that this morning? Satan fights his battles spiritually. Satan is not fair. You can't see his battles. He doesn't fight physically.

He fights spiritually. It's in the mind. It's unseen. It's in the heart. It's in the emotions.

That's where Satan attacks. And he begins to affect the way we think and the way we look at things. In verse four and five, explain that to us. And if we do not measure right, then whatever you build from here on out will not be right.

That's why you see people 16, 20 years into a marriage realize what I thought we built in here. Now, verse seven, he asked this question. So as I said, we've got to determine how we measure things. Number one, we should not measure by outward appearance. Number one, we should not measure by outward appearance. Verse seven, do ye look on things after the outward appearance? Is this a real fitting way to measure your life?

Is it right to measure or rule based on what something looks like? An outward appearance. Paul, by the way, in the Bible tells us that to many people outwardly, Paul was somewhat mean and despicable. They literally had contempt for him. You know, Paul probably the greatest Christian that ever lived. Some people that met Paul thought he wasn't worth shooting.

And I'm going to explain a little bit about that a little bit later. It should seem that, you know, that a lot of people boast about things and they're really good the way they present things or look, and they look really great from the outside. There's a lot of churches that look really great from the outside. There's a lot of people that look really great from the outside and they make sure you see that. But Paul says here, do you look at things on the outward appearance? A man may seem to be learned, I love what Matthew Henry said, a man may seem to be learned but who has not learned Christ and appear virtuous when there is not a virtuous principle in his heart. Listen, why is it that we should not measure things by outward appearance? Because we can be easily fooled if we do that.

Dad's here this morning. I encourage you, don't look at life and think, well, this is all I have, this is all I've done. You need to be careful because you're going to start measuring things by the outward appearance. And you're going to begin to think that you're not measuring up because you're not seeing outwardly what you think is expected.

And it's going to start making you do things and spend time at things taking you away from what is really important and you'll spend time on things that really aren't important but you think they are because you're measuring by the world's point of view, which is outward. Have you seen what the world thinks is a beautiful woman? They need a hamburger. I get so tired of women thinking that in their minds they think, oh, I'm just overweight, I'm just overweight. And you know what?

It's because the world has put this ridiculous, unrealistic standard and for some reason we measure on the outside and it's just become habit. You know what we'll do? We'll sit at home and something will come on TV and we'll make somebody on TV. Look at that guy. Well, I mean, we're just judging him on the outward appearance.

It's just natural habit. It's like literally that, you know what? Our media and technology today, it's literally, we're sitting here and we're the judges of whatever's in front of us. We even have TV programs where they judge people. I mean, what do you think a beauty pageant is?

Well, they do ask questions. I would like to see world peace. Oh, she's, oh, she's just so, yeah. Yeah, that's what you're voting on. Sure. We should not measure by outward appearance.

I'm going to stop there because I could just go on and that's going to be at me nowhere fast. Number two, I want you to notice in this passage, we should not measure by strengths or weaknesses. Now look at verse seven. There's just a couple of verses here, but you got to see this. Look what Paul says.

Do you look on things at the outward appearance? If any man trusts to himself that he is Christ, let him of himself think this again, that as he is Christ, even so are we Christ. Do you see what's going on here? Paul is writing to Corinth because there are those that were preaching, but not in the name of God. And they said they were Christ. They weren't preaching the truth, but they said that Christ had sent them.

They said that they were serving God and do we not have that today? You can turn on a TV and hear 30 different doctrines of how to get to heaven and they all say that they're from God. Paul said, hey, just because this guy says he is from Christ doesn't mean he is. And just because that guy says that I'm not of Christ doesn't mean I'm not. Look at verse 8.

Please get this. For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord have given us for edification and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed. Paul said this. Now listen, I could probably boast because of my authority, because of his background, because of the things he had accomplished. He had authority. He had clout.

He was well known. Now look at verse 9. That I may not seem as if I would terrify you by letters.

What is talking about here? Paul is talking about the things I write. You've never seen this in the Bible.

I guarantee most of you have never seen this. Look at verse 10. For his letters, Paul says, say they.

Now Paul is talking to the church of Corinth. He says, other people are going to tell you about the things I write. For the letters they say are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible. Paul said, let me tell you what you're going to hear from people. They're going to say, well, what he writes is good, but I'm going to tell you, he's a horrible speaker.

And physically he's hard to look at. We think that Paul had horrible problems with his eyes. Literally that Paul is saying this. Listen, I have strengths and I have weaknesses.

I have authority. I can write good, but I'm horrible speaking to a crowd. All through the Bible, by the way, we find that Paul was known to not be a good public speaker. Now that seems hard to believe after what he wrote. I'm thinking, then don't speak. Just get up and read what you wrote.

That's what politicians do. I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean. Paul needed a teleprompter.

He needed some guy running a teleprompter. And just read what he wrote. But listen, Paul said this. Listen, if you listen to people, they're going to say, Paul's good at this, but he's horrible at this. And Paul's going to say, if I allowed myself to look at myself, I would say, well, I've got more authority than that person, and I do more than that person.

Look at me. What is Paul saying? Paul is saying this. You should never measure by strengths or weaknesses because you have both. And if you measure by strengths or weaknesses, if you measure by strengths, you're always going to find somebody that you think is not as good as you. And if you measure by weaknesses, you'll always find somebody that you think is better than you. And either way, it's going to discourage you or puff you up. It's either going to bring arrogance or it's going to bring false humility.

And Paul said, listen, that's not the way you measure things. You don't walk around by looking at the people's strengths. And you don't walk around by judging their weaknesses.

We all have both. See, there's a lot of people that don't serve God. You know why? Because they think, well, I can't do this.

Yeah, but you have strengths too. But they've let their weaknesses keep them from serving God. Paul is saying this. Paul tells them what they're going to hear. That means for his whole ministry, that's all Paul heard from people. Well, this guy, you know, he's pretty good at writing things, but he is horrible at speaking. It's kind of tough going around planting churches when you're horrible at public speaking. The Bible says it was contemptible.

That's pretty bad. Now, I've heard people that were boring, but I haven't heard a lot of people speak that I'm thinking, that's contemptible. I pray when you leave today that you don't walk out saying, that was contemptible. But here's what's interesting. Paul said, listen, I've got my strengths and I've got my weaknesses, but that's not what we measure by. Look at me.

Please get this this morning. And dads especially, it's not about your strengths and it's not about your weaknesses. It's not about you. A lot of times dads can get to the point they don't think I'm as good as dad. I'm not as good a provider.

I haven't done this and I haven't been able to do that. Listen, do not measure by strengths or weaknesses. Number three, we should not measure by expectations. We should not measure by expectations.

Why? Because if you do, your expectations are not going to be met. Then you're going to be discouraged the rest of your life.

If you measure everything by what you expect, look at me, if you look at people and measure them by what you expect of them, your whole life you're going to be disappointed in people. I've met them. I don't care who you are, what you do, how much history you have with them. They're always mad at you eventually for something. Eventually you didn't do what they thought you should do.

I thought you were my friend and friends don't do that. Wait a minute, you're measuring by your expectations and they might be unrealistic, unfair expectations. Expectations are based on you. So you're measuring other people by you. All God's people said, this isn't an average Father's Day message.

Listen, kind of just the Fathers here are going to understand a little bit what I'm talking about because this happens. Because you feel sometimes like I haven't measured up to expectations. Look if you would at verse 11. He says, let such and one think this, that such as we are in word by letters when we are absent, such will we be also indeed when we are present. Paul said, listen, they're going to have expectations. They're going to read my letters and have expectations and then they hear me publicly, they're going to be let down. He said, but you need to let them know this, that listen, what you read is exactly what you're going to get when I'm present.

That's my strength, this is my weakness, but your expectations are what's going to let you down, not me. We have a rampant thing right now in churches and everywhere else. People come in with expectations.

You know what's interesting? Most of the expectations have nothing to do with the Bible. Well, let me tell you what they do at the other church.

Well, let me tell you what they did back home. It's never about doctrine, it's never about whatever. Well, I just, you know, they did this system and I thought that was, listen, we come in, we have expectations on the pastor, expectation on music, expectation on the youth pastor, expectation on this, expectation on that. Hey, would it be fair if the staff, the pastor could just have expectations on you?

That wouldn't be fun, would it? Hey, wait a minute, you haven't been here every service. Hey, wait a minute, I haven't seen you for a while. Hey, wait a minute.

Some people have been telling me what you had on Facebook. We can't do that, can we? But boy, the pastor and everybody else is open season. Expectations, can I tell you something, dear friend? Don't measure your life by your expectations.

You're going to be let down every time. You're going to have husbands and wives that constantly have unrealistic expectations on each other. And that's how they measure their marriage. That's how they measure a person. Did that person meet up to my expectations?

If not, then they're not a good person. And dear friend, that's selfish, worldly, and that's from Satan himself. You don't know this this morning, but this is good.

And we need it. God's people said, amen. Number four, we should not measure by amens.

No, I mean number four. We should not measure by comparison. Look at verse 12. Paul said this, for we dare not make ourselves of the number or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves, but they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise. Listen, this is even stronger language. It's really dumb to measure things by comparison, to measure one person by comparing them to another person, to measure yourself by comparing you to another person, to measure another person by comparing them to you.

Interesting, isn't it? But we do it. Paul says, listen, this is not wise. You know, if you're not careful, you can, in life and dad's, you can begin to look around and you can begin to compare. And it can cut you both ways as a sword. You can look around and compare and think, I deserve better than what I'm getting. And dad, sometimes we can look around and we can compare and think, they deserve better than I'm giving. And however you look, if you compare yourself around and compare to what this and what you've done, what you have and how much finance and all these things, if we measure life by comparison, it's foolish.

You say, why is that? Because you begin to measure life like that, it's going to begin to change how you act. It's going to change how you think, and it's going to change you. Now, I'm going somewhere with all this.

Look at number five. And more I could say about all this. We should not measure by accomplishments. Boy, this is big. And I'll tell you, pastors deal with this.

We should not measure by accomplishments. It's easy for a pastor to sit here like, man, I've been here almost eight years. We should have doubled in size by now. Yes, we've grown.

Yes, we've grown a lot. But wait a minute. If we could have everybody that's come through stay, we'd have to build a building.

We'd have to have five services. It's easy to look around and compare. Look at this guy. He's been at his church one year, and they're running so many.

And I've been here so many years, and they're running so many. Brother Joe and I used to talk about that. Brother Joe would say, man, I've been at this church 50 years.

And you look at what some people seem to have built in five. Look if you would at verse 13. Paul says this. But we will not boast of things without our measure. But according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you. For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure as though we reached not unto you. For we are come as far to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ, not boasting of things without our measure, that is, of other men's labors. You say, well, preacher, the wording there, a little bit hard to understand. We're almost done. Can you explain this, preacher? Yes.

Look at me real quick. We should not measure by accomplishments. First thing under that is this. There would be no accomplishments without God. Look at verse 13. He said, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us. Paul said this, it would be foolish of me to boast at what I've accomplished. And by the way, Paul accomplished a lot. Paul said it would be foolish for me to boast of what I accomplished because I only accomplished those things because God distributed to me. You see what's wrong about us looking around and kind of measuring our life by accomplishments? Whatever accomplishments there are, they came because of God, not because of you, and that other person's accomplishments didn't come from them. That came from God. We're giving the wrong people the credit. Hey, listen. There might be some guy pastoring a good church, and man, they added 1,000 people in five years.

Wonderful. But that pastor did not add 1,000 people in five years. If the pastor did it, then it's not of God. God said, I will build my church.

Look at me. So it means this, that I'm looking at an accomplishment. Oftentimes, I can assign that accomplishment to a man, and this says that the only reason there is any accomplishment to boast about is because God distributed to them. You and I should not measure by accomplishment because there would be no accomplishment without God. Notice, secondly, and I want you to get this, God is the one that made a way.

Look at this. Look at verse 14. For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure as though we reach not unto you. For we are come as far to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ. God distributed. God opened the door for us to get to you.

Get this. You and I cannot measure by our own accomplishments. Dads, you can't measure yourself and your life by what you think you have or haven't accomplished. Because if you do and you have accomplishments, what we're going to forget is that I wouldn't have the accomplishments without God doing it, and nothing would have been accomplished if God had not opened the doors and made the way. Have you not realized from God's word, God can close doors anytime he wants to?

He's in charge. Number three under this, listen to this, we should not measure by accomplishments. Here's why. Thirdly, we might accidentally take credit for another man's labor. Look at verse 15.

Not boasting of things without our measure, that is of other men's labors. You know, I've watched this, and let me explain it if I can take the Bible, teach you the truth, give you an illustration so you can better understand the truth of what I'm talking about here. Oftentimes, I've spent years in evangelism. My dad was in evangelism, oh, we're growing up.

I was in evangelism. We've had evangelists come to this church. I've watched revival meetings where the evangelists will come and preach and people will come and get saved, tons of people. And based on outward appearance, based on measuring incorrectly, people will think, wow, that evangelist had a meeting and they had this many saved. What a great evangelist. But what is always forgotten is the months, weeks, and even years that that pastor and the leaders of that church have prayed, have worked, have built, have talked to people, have handed out tracts, have spread the gospel, prayed for revival, and a man shows up, God gives the increase and we give man the credit.

And it would be very wrong for an evangelist to take the credit based on other men's labors. You know what I found in evangelism, I'd show up sometimes for a week in meetings and you get there in the past, you're like, oh, that's right, we have revival this week. You know, he was as prepared for revival as our staff is for our revival coming up. David didn't know when it was. Frank didn't know what day, you know, I think he's going to be, you know, they know nothing about what's going on, apparently.

They've been so busy the past three months. Look at me, I've shown up, the pastor put no prayer into it, put no preparation, it's just an item on the calendar, hey, show up, and we didn't have a great meeting and guess what that pastor will do? Blame the evangelist.

It wasn't the evangelist's fault there was no meeting, that pastor put no work or prayer before the evangelist ever got there. Do you understand how it is possible for us to take credit for another man's labors and it's also possible for us to take the blame for another man's fault? So you can't measure by accomplishments.

Number six, our last point, this is what we're leading up to and I know what you're asking if you're still awake. So then how are we supposed to measure? Number six, we should not measure at all. Look at verse 17. But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth. Look at me, get this. We shouldn't measure by outward appearance. We shouldn't measure by comparison. We shouldn't measure by accomplishment. We shouldn't measure by any of these means. Let me tell you why.

Are you looking at me? Because we shouldn't even be measuring at all. So preacher, why are you giving me a dumb tape measure for not supposed to measure? It's just a toy, okay? It's just a gift.

I'll tell you what it's for, wrap around your neck for your sarcasm. Look at me, look at this. Look at verse 17 and 18. First thing you need to know about this is our priority should be the glory of God.

Look at verse 17, but he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Dads, you shouldn't measure at all. Hey, I measure on the other end of things. I'm always measuring, think, man, I'm horrible at this, I failed, I this, I that. And look around, look at this person's done, but this pastor's done, look what this husband's done. And in a social world and social media, whatever you do, you're going to find somebody online that did more. Thank you.