If we haven't met, my name is Jordan. Get the joy of pastoring here. And I'm excited to open the word. So if you have a Bible, go ahead, open it up. We are in Second Corinthians. If you have a program in front of you, you know we're in Second Corinthians chapter 10. So we'd love for you to turn there. Whether you have a physical Bible, whether you use the YouVersion app, wherever you are reading the Bible, Second Corinthians, Chapter 10. I'm going to just kind of remind you where we're at, catch you up if you haven't been with us. But we have been marching through this letter, Second Corinthians, that Paul wrote to the church in what city? Anybody? Corinth. Very good. Some of you are like, Corinthian. No, Corinth. He's writing to the church in Corinth. And what we know about Corinth was it was a very important city in their day, very affluent, known for being huge in trade and commerce, but also was a hub for tourism and entertainment. All the way back when we started this series, we kind of said, it's like modern day Vegas, right? Super. Yeah, immoral, but also just a city to see and a city to be seen. It was like, man, if you want to have influence or be perceived to have influence, Corinth was a place to go. And as we've seen, and we'll see this morning, Paul is found defending his ministry in this letter to the church in Corinth, which seems kind of crazy because he planted this church three to five years before this letter was written. And you would think as a guy who pastored and planted this church, he wouldn't have to defend himself. But what has happened is in his absence, as he has moved on in his missionary journey to plant more churches and take the gospel elsewhere, these men known as kind of tongue in cheek super apostles have shown up behind Paul and have tried to discredit his ministry. They've really taken advantage of the cultural moment in Corinth and said, man, why would you trust that Paul guy, right? Like, he doesn't fit the mold. This guy is poor, he's weak, he's suffering all the time. Is that really what you think our faith should look like? And you have to believe that the message these super apostles were preaching was similar to what we would call modern day this prosperity preaching, right? These super apostles who are well to do, wealthy, probably much better looking than Paul, they're definitely much more eloquent when it comes to their speech. And they're trying to sway the Corinthians not just away from Paul, but away from the gospel he's preaching. And what we're going to talk about this morning, because it's rooted in the text, is this innate human desire to be seen or admired, which is oftentimes tied to a pursuit of influence or perceived worth. When you think about the super apostles, man, they wanted to be seen, they wanted to be admired, they wanted a following, and because of that, they wanted to sway the Corinthian church their way. They wanted their influence to be seen, they wanted to be. Be propped up and thought of highly. Now the question is, do we still struggle with that today? There's nothing new under the sun. This book was written, I mean, almost 2,000 years ago, and yet today we're still struggling with this desire to be seen, admired, well thought of, influential. And it's only been made worse in the social media era. We see this in two ways. Number one is through what has been deemed the highlight reel effect of social media, which if you're on social media or have been on social media, you understand the highlight reel effect is this premise that when we go to social media to put forth our lives, what we're sharing is always the most positive or exciting moments of our life. Not many people are airing their dirty laundry out on Facebook or Instagram just like, hey, look how hard my life really is. Or even if they are saying, look how hard my life really is, they're doing it to get a. Like, to get a reaction, to get people to respond to them. But it's not just the highlight reel effect. In 2019, Merriam Webster Dictionary added a new definition to a word. This word is influencer. How many of you guys have heard of an influencer? Okay, this is crazy. The idea of being influential is not new to us, but the term influencer has caught the Internet by storm. So much so that kids today, when being asked, what do you want to be when you grow up in school, are maybe less likely to say a police officer or a doctor, and are more prone to say a gamer or an influencer. And it's like, what? And it's like, can you blame them? They could get rich in their basement, or to make matters more interesting, their mom's basement. And it's like, is this what we're propping up as a society? I found this interesting. I went on a deep dive. I don't recommend doing this, but there's two different 27 year olds right now making a living online, their names online names Lyle Forever and Bumble prediction. And these two 27 year old male is making a living by dressing up as a giant gecko and acting as a therapist. He's not a licensed therapist, but he paints himself green, dresses up as a gecko and people will literally call him for therapeutic advice. And he's making a living doing it. The second Bumble Pre is known as being the first adult diaper influencer. And it's like holy smokes. And these people are getting paid for it, right? So all of that being said, like social media era is just propping up this desire to be seen, to have influence, to be recognized. And though we might not be guilty of being Lyle Forever or Bumble Pre, we too struggle with this anxious pursuit of self promotion, this desire to showcase our achievements, to be validated by those around us. And if we're honest, if we just take a step back and say, how is that going? It's enslaving. It's an enslaving reality. Self promotion leaves us enslaved to the exhaustion of performance. This constant desire to stay on the treadmill of do we measure up, do we look good? Or maybe underneath that it leaves us enslaved to feeling inadequate. It's called imposter syndrome. This idea of like, man, I feel like I'm trying to put forward a face of somebody that I'm not actually behind the scenes. I feel like I'm a fraud or a phony. Or maybe we're enslaved to silently shallow relationships because they have been secretly marked by either envy or judgmentalism. Like relationships, these relationships that are supposed to be marked by authenticity and depth are rather marked by envy, wanting things that other people have, or judgmentalism trying to, even if it's in your head, tearing them down so that we can feel better about ourselves. And the question we should be asking this morning is how can we be set free? How can we be set free from this trap of self promotion? Or maybe more personally, how can you be set free from this anxious pursuit of self promotion? That's where we're going this morning. Second Corinthians, chapter 10. I want us to see a couple things together and I'll highlight them as we walk through them together. We're look at the first in verses 7 through 12, second Corinthians, chapter 10. Beginning in verse 7, here's what the word of God says. Paul writes, look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ, let him remind himself that just as he is Christ, so also are we. For even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be ashamed, for I do not want to appear to be frightening you with my letters. For they say his letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak in his speech of no account. Let such a person understand that what we say by letter when absent, we do when present. Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are committing themselves, but when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding. So the first thing that we need to see this morning if we want to be set free from self promotion, is that we must embrace our God given identity. A God given identity. You see that clearly in verse 7 where Paul says, don't you understand? If we can be confident that we are in Christ, this is the foundation that we need confidence in Christ. His confidence leads to this form of humble authenticity, which as you see, as he kind of works through this text, you would see that he doesn't really shy away from owning his apostolic authority, right? He says, yes, I am an apostle, yes, I have been given authority. But you know what this authority is used for? It's for building you up, right? Humility is not afraid to build other people up. And he sees that this authority has been given to him by God. This isn't something that he himself has had to platform or earn. He says, no, God made me an apostle and he made me an apostle for this purpose. Not to make life miserable for you, but to build you up, to equip you, to help you flourish. But also as he continues, this confidence in Christ leads to a sense of authenticity, consistency in life. He's being mocked for, you know, maybe being two faced. Taylor kind of introduced that last week as we looked at the beginning of 2 Corinthians 10, that the church in Corinth would say, yeah, Paul kind of appears to be like a keyboard warrior over here, but he's really gentle when he shows up in person. And what Paul is saying is that's actually not true. Like, look at what is before your eyes. You get what you get when you see me. And if I'm gentle towards you, it's because I want to be patient towards you. I want to show you the steadfastness of the Lord. But be careful what you ask for, right? If you want the tough Paul, the one who's writing to you with stern letters, just be ready when I come, I'll be ready to be stern with you face to face. And I don't need to be super eloquent or well spoken of or beautiful or wealthy. I am what I am. You get what you get. And what's sweet about Paul, if you guys are familiar with his letter to the church in Philippi Philippians, we know that Paul actually is a guy that would have a lot to boast about. This would be a guy who could religiously, academically, really put his resume on the line. He could look at his family of influence, he could look at his understanding of Scriptures, his zeal for the law, his passion for the mission of God, and he could say, I am so much more accredited than you. But here's what he says in Philippians three, after laying out his spiritual resume, he says, whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things, including the cause to boast in himself. I count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law or performance, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. Paul is so confident that his belonging is not rooted in his performance, but Christ's performance on his behalf, that he says, this is the bedrock for my identity. I am rooted in Christ. I belong to Christ. And if that's true of you, you should operate the same way. But the problem is Paul's opponents were not operating this way. They were operating in stark contrast to Paul. And rather than practicing humble authenticity, they were practicing arrogant platforming. You see it most clearly in verse 12. It says that they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another. And then it goes on to say, they are without understanding the literal translation of that is they are completely clueless. These men have been so foolish to say, hey, rather than creating this vertical comparison which says, God is holy, I am not. I am in need of a Savior, and the ground is level at the foot of the cross. All of us are sinners who have gone astray and are in need of great mercy and grace, here's what they've started to do. They started to look across the aisle, look across town and say, I'm better than them, or they're not as good as me. They've created a false measuring stick in order to make themselves feel better. And we see this Lead to two things. First and foremost, not shockingly, pride. Pride, right? By becoming their own measuring stick and looking around, they're doing one of two things. They're either propping themselves up to say, wow, I'm so much better than them. Which in the grand scheme of sinners, especially in the city of Corinth, that's like, to be more righteous than a Corinthian is not that much to brag about. That's like me going next door to the five and six year old classroom and being like, I'm the tallest one in the room. It's like, congratulations, Jordan, good for you, right? And I might not even be the tallest one in the room, let's be honest. But they look across and they say, wow, look how righteous we are. We're way more moral than the rest of the Corinthians. And it's like, wrong measuring stick or what they do, you see in their, like making fun of Paul is they're tearing him down. They're so caught up on mocking him and tearing him down so that they could just feel better about themselves. Which ultimately leads to the second result of comparing, which is hypocrisy, right? These are guys who are claiming to do gospel ministry, but yet they're shaming other preachers of the gospel. And I can't help but think of how much this shows up in my driving. Anybody here with me, like, struggle with, I don't want to call it road rage, but just like, hey, my pet peeves tend to happen on the road, right? And it's like, oh my goodness, use your turn signal or get out of the fast lane. Why are you driving 55? You know? But then it's like you catch yourself, whether it's an hour later or a week later, doing the very thing that you've judged people for on the road. And you're like, oh, as it turns out, I'm not the best driver either. But when we take on this root issue for his opponents of comparison, which is really the thief of security in a God given identity is comparison. They have done two things. They have made themselves proud and they have proven themselves hypocrites. And I think it begs the question for us as we just take a step back, are we secure in Christ or are we too silently comparing ourselves to others? And it might not be as vocal as Paul's opponents, right? Where it's like, man, letters are being written, word has traveled quickly. But it's not hard to see how quickly we compare ourselves with other people. Whether it comes to our possessions, our talents, giftings, our physical appearance, success that we see or don't see, intelligence that we have or don't have, relationships that we have or don't have. It's not hard to see how we can look across the aisle, look across town and just start to compare horizontally instead of vertically. And with that, what we've done is we've crumpled up our God given identity and we've thrown it out, said it doesn't matter. And just so you know, that's enslaving because you will never measure up. You will never measure up and you will spend the rest of your life trying to unless you recognize that your God given identity is not to be earned but to be received. That God has come to give you this identity in the person and work of Jesus Christ. But what we see as we look at 2 Corinthians 10 is this is not just a matter of identity but also a matter of influence. We see that as we look at Pick back up in verse 13 here's how Paul continues But we will not boast beyond limits, but will boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us to reach, even to you. For we are not overextending ourselves as though we did not reach you, for we were the first to come all the way to you with the Gospel of Christ. We do not boast beyond limit in the labor of others, but our hope is that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged so that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you without boasting of work already done in another's area of influence. So it's not just about embracing our God given identity, it's about embracing our God given influence. Our God given influence Here Paul uses this term multiple times in these few verses. Area of influence Area of influence the root word that he's using actually would have called the Corinthians minds back to the famous Isthmian games in Corinth. And it's the idea of runners having a lane to stay inside of. What Paul is telling them is, hey, I don't have a problem staying in my lane. I am content. I understand what the Lord has entrusted to my care and my care specifically right now is pastoral responsibility towards you. In Corinth he comes with great pastoral integrity. He says, man, I really care about your flourishing and influence because I believe God called me to plant in Corinth on purpose and it's because I care about you. I'm not just going to be Quick to move on. I care about your flourishing. And yes, I hope that as health and holiness is bred amongst the believers in Corinth, here's what would happen that the gospel would spread, of course. But I'm not afraid to just say, hey, my face is down on my flock. I'm writing to you because I care for you. And Paul was not interested in sheep stealing or stat patting, right? He was not here to be like, oh, how can I take someone else's church, show up, prove myself, maybe more eloquent, a better preacher or better looking or whatever form of a claim he might bring and say, oh, stop going to that church and come to my church. Paul wasn't interested in that. In fact, we know that this is not consistent with Paul's ministry because of what he writes in Romans 15. Here's what Paul writes to the believers in Rome. It says, for I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, which is a form of boasting in Christ, what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and all the way around illyquirium, I have fulfilled the ministry of the Gospel of Christ. And thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation. He's saying I'm intentionally going places where there is gospel need so that I'm not showing up to steal someone else's flock. I'm here to see new converts, fresh faith in Jesus. That's what I'm all about. Because God has entrusted to me this assignment. More gentile believers, more pagans who are professing faith in Jesus Christ. But what I think is sweet about Paul's contentment in his assignment is contentment does not lead to complacency, right? That's just a unique distinction. To be like man. Paul is really content. He's like man. I'm going to deviate from other travel plans so that I can come and I can minister to believers in Corinth because guess what? I want to pastor you. But you know what my hope is that the gospel would explode, that as I am faithful with the assignment that God has given me, that he would prove himself faithful in bearing a ton of fruit on your tree. And I think that's a form of humble ministry to say, man, what would it look like if our fruit grew on someone else's tree? That's discipleship in a nutshell, right? To help raise someone up to maturity and then to send them off or commission them. That's like the fruit of church planting to say, man, we're going to, like, help raise up mature disciples and send them out. So that way, when a new church movement is started, people aren't looking back and being like, wow, look how great XYZ is. They're giving praise to God. And I think what's beautiful is this is part of our testimony, right? We are a. I mean, great grandchild of a church plant, right? Cornerstone Church of Ames Plants Veritas in Iowa City. Mark Arendt was faithful to raise his hand and go to that pagan place called Iowa City. Lord, help him. And then faithful followers of Jesus start driving from Cedar Rapids down to Iowa City, and what do you know? Before you know it, Veritas Cedar Rapids is planted, and a gospel movement explodes there. And then there's this little tiny blip of a group of people meeting in rural Iowa that, you know, catches wind and catches steam, and the spirit of God is upon us. And what do you know? Veritas Urbana is planted in all of this. We're invited into this great mystery of humble ministry, right? That our boast is not, look how great Veritas is. And none of us are sitting here being like, man, look how great Cornerstone is. Look how great Veritas Iowa City is. Most of us are like, wait, there's a Veritas Iowa City, right? Like, the goal actually is, in essence, can we be forgotten that the name of Jesus is lifted up. That's beautiful. But our desire here is that the gospel wouldn't stop with us, right? No one is here to say, let's build the empire of Veritas Urbana. Let's make sure that Veritas Urbana is a staple name in the state of Iowa and that everybody comes here to worship on a Sunday morning. That's not our vision, right? We want to see Jesus worship to the ends of the earth, but we hope it's done in such a way that we can raise up and commission people and say, man, the more everyday missionaries we have, the more Jesus is praised. And it's not about the name of Veritas. But the problem here with Paul's opponents is they were not secure in their influence because all that they're doing is they're coming on the tail of Paul and they're trying to steal his sheep. They're trying to discredit his ministry so that this church that Paul, by the Spirit of God and the power of God helped plant they can take credit for. And what they're doing is they're self promoting. They're not just comparing, but they're competing. It was not enough for them to simply play a role in the mission of God. They wanted recognition. Mission of God. They could not handle Paul and his companions being successful because it was a shot to their pride. And if Paul's ministry was bearing fruit for whatever reason, in their lowly mind, it was also not just about Paul's ministry getting ahead. They felt behind. They seemed to think that Paul was stealing from their recognition. And I think as we just climb down the ladder of abstraction and apply this personally to our hearts, we have to ask ourselves the question, are we like this? Not just comparing with other people, but constantly competing, constantly looking at other people's success and thinking, oh, if they succeed, that means that maybe they're stealing the recognition that I should get. Or man, they can't get ahead because now I feel behind. Can we champion other people's success or do we silently want people to look at us, more people to see how great we are? I've already talked about it a little bit, but corporately as a church, it's important to note that this is a huge threat when it comes to gospel ministry, which is sickening, right? Can we as a church celebrate when the gospel is being preached in other local churches in our communities and other people are getting saved and belonging to a family of God? Because what Paul said in Philippians 1, right, he's talking about these other preachers who maybe have selfish ambitions. He's not so concerned about what their heart posture is. He says, I don't care what their initial heart posture is. That's not for me to judge. So long as the gospel is being proclaimed and Jesus is being preached and more people are coming to faith in him, I'm going to rejoice. And I think that's a sweet invitation for us as like a still baby church plant where, Lord willing, we see more people come to faith, Lord willing, we see more people belong to this family of God. We're okay saying, man, there's other healthy gospel preaching churches in our area, in our communities that lift high the gospel of Jesus Christ, that preach the gospel, that practice community really well. And so if we bump into another person, meet someone in our communities and we say, hey, where do you go to church? And they say, a church that preaches the gospel and makes much of Jesus, we don't have to try and sway them away. We can lift high and say praise God. This is not a competition because we're on the same team, right? We link arms with other gospel preachers and Bible teaching churches that make much of Jesus and we say hey, together we are here to push back the gates of hell that Jesus would be magnified. This is not a competition which actually gives us freedom in ministry to just be like man. Lord, who have you entrusted to our care? Who is in this family that we can be really faithful to? We don't have to worry about sheep that belong to other churches. We can say hey, who is our flock? Who are our brothers and sisters who belong to this family that we can specifically live out the one anothers of the scripture with and we can rejoice in that there's freedom to be had. So you can sum up today's text by saying freedom from self promotion comes from joyfully embracing your God given identity and influence. Joyfully embracing your God given identity and influence. And you have to ask the question, how is all of this possible? Because if you're anything like me, like the comparison game, the competition trap, I mean last week when Taylor talked about the war of the mind and the average human thinks more than 50,000 thoughts, I'm like, I'm probably somewhere north of 100. I don't know about you guys, but like this comes so naturally to us to compare to platform to feel like we're competing all the time. How do we combat that? Well, Paul gives us the answer here in these last two verses of our text this morning. Verses 17 and 18. Here's what he writes. Let the one who boasts boasts in the Lord, for it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commence. What Paul is doing here is he's quoting from Jeremiah chapter 9, specifically chapter 9, verse 24. But what you have to believe is he's drawing the Corinthians mind back to Jeremiah 9 that they would understand the original context for which this boasting in the Lord happened. And I'm going to pick up in Jeremiah 9, verse 23 Thus says the Lord, Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man boast in his might. Let not the rich man boast in his riches. But let him who boasts boast in this that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who practices steadfast love, justice and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord. Paul is calling to the believers in Corinth, and he's saying, hey, look back to Jeremiah 9. You as a people, as a church, in a culture are prone to boast in these false forms of glory. Your wisdom, your riches, your own strength. No, stop boasting in that verse 17. What are you called to boast in? Boast in the Lord. Or as Jeremiah would say, boast in the fact that you know God. That's what you can rejoice in. Luke 10, the disciples of Jesus had the same issue. They came back from successful ministry and they start boasting in Jesus face of all that they did. And Jesus said, stop. Don't rejoice in what you did in ministry. Rejoice in this. Rejoice that your name is written in the book of life. How does that happen? Well, it's important when you consider the big idea that all of this is God given. God given. That's the root of the gospel. That none of this is earned. It is all given as a free gift of grace. We do not come to God to earn our approval. We rest in the fact that Christ has earned our approval. Right? Verse 18. It is not the one who commends himself who is approved. It's not like we storm into the throne room of God and say, look at my efforts. Hebrews says that we storm into a throne room of what grace? That we have been freely given this identity and approval in assignment and worth in Christ. How well Jeremiah 9 talks about. This is what the Lord loves. Justice. Love, justice and righteousness. Love, justice and righteousness. I would just tell you there is no place in the history of mankind that these three things, love, justice and righteousness were seen more perfectly than at the cross of Jesus Christ. The love of God. What greater love than he who would lay down his life for his enemies? Justice. That God would not leave sin unpunished, but would pour out his wrath on sin and righteousness. The fact that in a sense, in an unjust way, to us, the only way that the wrath of God would be satisfied is because Jesus lived the perfectly righteous life that you and I could not. So you have the righteous one, Jesus Christ, who lived a perfect life, who so loved us that while we were yet sinners, he died for us and the wrath of God was satisfied. That is the very foundation the gospel of Jesus Christ, that we can live as a free people. And now it just begs the question, how are we going to live it out? How are we going to be set free? And I will tell you, fundamentally I could just say the only way you can live this out is to believe in the gospel, right, the New Testament, call, repent and believe, turn from self promotion, turn from earning and rest in the finished work of Christ. That is the only way that you are going to be set free is not to earn but to receive. But I think underneath that, to begin to look for fruit and to say, okay, if you have repented, if you have believed, if you have a God given identity, if you have God given influence, here's what you need to do. Stop comparing, stop comparing with other people, stop looking horizontally for your worth and look vertically. What has God said about you? I'll tell you two things for certain. He said about you. If you're in Christ, number one, you're a child of God, you belong to him. And just like God would look at Jesus and say, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased, he would look at you and say the same. But the scriptures tell us that we're not just children of God, we're co heirs with Christ, right? That we rule and reign with the King. How great is that? Like what other identity do you need that tops co heir with Christ? You can't find one, can you rest in your God given identity and stop looking horizontally. And secondly, can we be content in our gospel influence? And I think underneath this it's just worth saying God is more concerned about your kingdom influence than you are if you're a child of God. He is more concerned about you pushing back the gates of hell than you are pushing back the gates of hell. And he is not shocked or surprised that you're in the situation you're in. And sometimes that's hard. I think we give ourselves this false narrative that man, I could be more influential for the kingdom of God if I just, if I just had a different friend group, if I just had a different family, if I just had a different job, if I just had more money, if I could just go overseas and be a missionary, if I could just fill in the blank. No, the most influential place you can be for the kingdom of God is exactly where you're at right now, where Jesus would have you somewhere else. And so I say that to the kid in the room who looks at a school and you're like, man, I think I could just be more influential for Jesus if I had more Christian friends around me, say, hey, God's not surprised that you don't have as many Christian friends. You can make an impact exactly where you're at. To the parents in the room who, who might be frustrated with, you know, the state of Parenting. And man, if my kids didn't require so much time and energy, maybe I could give more to the church or the community or, you know, I could hold more Bible studies at work. Or no, your children are the most influential role in kingdom building that you could ever have. Right? Slow and steady fruit. But trust that your fruit will someday grow on their tree. If you're faithful to disciple them them, you're raising up more and more followers of Jesus, and it's hard to see it when they're 5 or 10 or 15. But man, the legacy of faithfulness that you may lay. And yes, to those who are working, right, God's not surprised by your 8 to 5 or your 224 hour shifts in a row. He's not surprised by the co workers you labor alongside of. That is exactly where he's placed you for influence. And if you're retired and you're looking back and you're like, man, I blew it. I look back on 40 years of working or 20 plus years of parenting and you're like, man, I just missed it. No, you didn't. Are there lessons you can learn from it? Absolutely. But Titus 2 makes very clear that older women, you still have room to teach. Younger women, older men you still have room to invest in. Younger men you have a spiritual family you can invest in, you still have influence. And the question is, will we be content in our influence, but not complacent? And ultimately that as we live this out, we would be a church that is secure in our sphere of influence, that we would be okay with saying, yes, God, you have placed a church in Urbana, Iowa, for whatever reason, you know, renting space in a town that people would otherwise just drive through unless they want really good coffee, right? But you've placed us here on purpose and with purpose, and we're secure in that. We're not going to try and be someone we're not. We don't need to build a platform. We don't need to promote the name of Veritas. Here's what we need to do. Boast in the Lord, make much of Jesus. Be satisfied in our gospel identity, which is not about our measuring up, but our receiving. Be satisfied in our lane, our sphere of influence. To say, man, what does it look like to have a great gospel impact on 10, 12, 15 little rural communities that may never make a news headline? We're okay with that, right? Because at the end of the day, here's what we want to be true of us. We want to be a second Corinthians 10:17 people let the one who boasts boast in the Lord that we would give God the glory he deserves because he alone is worthy to be worshiped. Amen. Let's pray to that end together. God, I just thank you for this text. 2nd Corinthians 10 Lord so confronting. If we're honest, when we see this like human desire to measure up. We want more people to think highly of us than we often ever would admit. But yet we look at a text like this and see clearly not just our need for saving, but the sufficiency of your saving. I thank you for texts like Jeremiah 9 that prop up the beauty and wonder of the Gospel where love, justice and righteousness were pulled display. And Jesus, thank you that you purchased our identity. You have given us influence. This is not about our measuring up, but receiving from you. And we ask, Lord, that you would help us to be found faithful, that you would one day look at us and say, well done, good and faithful servant. And that we would not then turn and arrogantly say, wow, look how great we are. But that we would lay that crown at your feet and say, Jesus, you deserve to be worshiped. That our boast would be in you alone. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.