Well, good morning, guys. If I haven't met you before, my name is Michael, one of the pastors here. Man, a lot of chairs in here. Now. I told the first service that now I have to start ironing the back of my shirt because of you guys. Never done that before. No. It's exciting day. Just, I'm excited to see, like, more chances for God to be worshiped in this room, right? More chances for us to see God's, like, gracious life transformation in people's lives. More chances for us to send out more everyday missionaries. Just an exciting, exciting time in our church. But with lots more people comes also more chances for conflict and misunderstanding. Right? Somebody wooed that. Probably not the one to woo. All right? Like, when you get this many people around, I mean, you know, in your own immediate family, right? There's conflict there. There's misunderstanding that happens there. But when you get this many people trying to say, like, oh, we're all going in the same direction. Like, there's a chance that some of the people that you serve with, whether it's on Wednesday night or on Sunday morning, they might misread your actions at some point, right? There's a chance for somebody in your connection group to, like, misunderstand your motives. There's chances for somebody in this Veritas family to take something that you meant. One way to flip it, like, entirely in a different direction. And you're like, what's happening? Like, I thought we were together. I thought we were on the same page. We're on the same mission. How is this happening? Because when we follow Jesus, misunderstanding is going to come. I mean, think about our savior. The most misunderstood person ever, right? You've got a guy who at one point, his neighbors are saying, wait a second, he's doing all these miracles. Isn't he the guy that's the son of a carpenter? Isn't he the son of Mary? You've got his family members at one point saying, yeah, he's out of his mind. And then one of his closest friends, Peter, when he's predicting his death, when Jesus is predicting his death, Peter goes like, no, that's not going to be you, Lord. No way. You're going to die. What is Jesus response? Get behind me, Satan. Like, you don't get it. You misunderstood. Like, you've been with me for years and you misunderstand. So for followers of Jesus, this is the life that we've committed to. Now, there's amazing things that happen when we commit to following Jesus, but we got to realize that people misunderstood our savior. They're going to misunderstand us at some point. But it doesn't just happen within the walls of the church like God's given us chances to minister or to serve in so many different ways. Right? When you think of, like, your ministry as the leader or CEO of your company, that's a ministry opportunity. Your ministry as an employee, wherever you work, your ministry as a mom to your children. Any moms ever been misunderstood by their kids? Right? Only two. Amazing, right? When just so many chances. Maybe you coach like a kid's team, like somebody might question parents, might question your integrity at some point, what are you going to do? How, as Christians, do we respond in those situations? If you have like an adult child, maybe they question your motives and they question whether you actually love them or hate them because you disagree with one of their lifestyle choices. Or maybe an employee accuses you of something that's not true. How are you going to respond when a co worker doesn't understand your behavior and begins to ridicule your faith in Jesus? How does a follower of Jesus respond? That's what we're going to look at this morning. How should a follower of Jesus respond when they're misunderstood by the people they're ministering with or the people they're ministering to? If you find yourself going, they just don't get it, or maybe you find yourself going, no, no, no, that's not what I mean. Or maybe you find yourself saying, can you believe that? They accuse me of blank, whatever it is, if that's you and you can think of a situation, or maybe you can think of a situation from your past, I can guarantee you when you follow Jesus, those situations are going to come. So I would encourage you to lean in, grab your bibles, turn to two corinthians, chapter one. We're going to continue. This is only the second week in this series. If you missed two weeks ago, we started the series we missed last week because we were outside. That was an awesome day. Right? So if you missed two weeks ago, I'm going to catch you up on what's going on in the city of Corinth with the apostle Paul and in this church really quickly, before we dive into the text. So the apostle Paul has been in the city of Corinth, was in the city of Corinth for about a year and a half. In that year and a half, he planted a church there, great church. Lots of great things happen. But over the course, every time that he would leave the church, it seemed to go off the rails. All right. So he made lots of visits. He made several visits back. He wrote letters back to them. We have two of those letters in our bibles that are authoritative from God, first and Second Corinthians. But we know from one corinthians, he actually wrote another letter. He may have written multiple letters. So we have two of them. Some of those visits he made, he described as painful. Some of the letters he wrote he described as painful, but because it was all because the church there in Corinth was being influenced more by the culture than they were influencing the culture. Because what you have in Corinth is this great city, great place for business, great place for opportunity, great place for culture and life, but also a really pagan city, a pluralistic city where they worshiped many gods, a really immoral city, just not a good city to live in as a believer. Not an easy, let's say that not an easy place to live in as a believer, but a place where you could make something of yourself if you lived in Corinthenne. They celebrated being wealthy. They celebrated having status. They celebrated being free from affliction in this culture. They didn't love pain. How can we avoid pain? Let's escape the pain. Right? So what you have in second corinthians is the corinthian church questioning Paul's integrity because they looked up to their culture and they saw their culture with certain types of leaders, and then they looked at Paul and like, wait a second. He's not like those leaders. We found out a couple weeks ago that he would kind of mockingly call them later in two corinthians, the super apostles, right? Hey, those are the super apostles that you guys are looking up to that have the wealth and the status and the outwardly polished life, that they can speak eloquently, all those kind of things. But here's Paul over here that's poor, that's undergone significant persecution, regular persecution, who's not well spoken, who's not well polished on the outside, necessarily. And so the corinthian church begins to question his apostleship. Is your message really valid, Paul? Is your ministry really valid? And there is a ton of conflict and a ton of misunderstanding. So let's see how Paul responds, starting in verse twelve of chapter one. For our boast, is this the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom, but by the grace of God and supremely so toward you. So remember the leaders in that city, other christian leaders that have kind of infiltrated the church, they're boasting in their eloquence, their status, their outward way of life, that's free of pain. And Paul saying, hey, me and my ministry partners like Timothy and Silas, let me tell you what we're going to boast in, because it's going to be different than the way the world boasts. We're going to boast in the testimony of our conscience, they say, if we're going to defend our way of life by appealing to our conscience, now, what is your conscience? Your conscience is an awareness of something, right? Especially your awareness of the difference between right and wrong. Now, I'm going to give you a little side theological rant here, okay? Do not compare the Holy Spirit to your conscience. The Holy Spirit is God. Your conscience is not. So don't like, well, what's the Holy Spirit? Well, it's kind of like your conscience. No, it's not. All right? So don't run down that path, because you can go down a big, dangerous path if you just describe the Holy Spirit as your conscience, because it's not. Because everybody has a conscience. Now, not a lot of people use it well, right? But everybody has one. Not everybody has the Holy Spirit. Okay? So let's just be careful as a church, that we are careful not to say, like, the Holy Spirit is your conscience, all right? The Holy Spirit opens up whole new things that you can see from the Lord and convicts of sin and righteousness, all right? So just be careful there. All right? So he's saying, I'm gonna prove my way of behavior through the testimony of my conscience. So he appeals to his conscience, because oftentimes your conscience, what you know is more than what your spouse knows about you, more than your discipleship or connection group knows about you, than your closest friends know about you. They know internally what's going on in your heart, your conscience, like, you know, you know what's going on. And Paul could have referred, like, hey, I'm gonna, I'm gonna bring in some references to defend my ministry. I'm gonna bring in Timothy, I'm gonna bring in Silas. I'm gonna bring in these guys in Corinthians. They're gonna tell you how pure my motives have been and how great my character has been. But he didn't bring in people. Or he could have called people from that church who actually loved and appreciated him and said, hey, get up before the congregation and tell them to, like how great I am, like, how they're just misunderstanding everything. But he doesn't, right? He doesn't bring in extra references. He appeals to his conscience. And then he says, for our boast is this the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world? With simplicity and godly sincerity. He behaved in the world. The pattern of his life was simple and sincere. Some of your bibles may have a footnote there that says holiness. That idea of simple and sincere life is a holy life, a sanctified life. He's not putting on this complicated act before the Corinthians where he's trying to manipulate them. He's like, look, guys, my conscience is clear. The way I behaved before you had great integrity. I wasn't trying to manipulate you. And the way that I did that was supremely so toward you. Like, this is how we, me and my ministry partners, always live our lives, but we did it exceedingly and supremely toward you. And again, this contrasts those super apostles that want to be flashy and maybe manipulate to get what they want, maybe out for their own personal gain, perhaps. So that's what's going on here. So if I could summarize this beginning part, it's Paul going, you misunderstand me. You misunderstand my apostleship. You don't think it's valid, but my conscience is clear that I've behaved in a God honoring way. So, church, if somebody accused you of a certain type of behavior that wasn't honoring to the Lord, my hope is that we as a church wouldn't be quick to react and defend ourselves, though. But we could say, yeah, my conscience is clean. And before you just react, say, are any of those accusations true? Is there any kind of truth to those accusations? Because I think sometimes when we're misunderstood, we go, well, no way. That's not who I am. I didn't do that. And then we start to think about it later and we're like, oh, I did operate that way. I wasn't intending to operate that way, but that's how I came across. So here Paul is saying like, no, I behaved with integrity. My conscience is clear. I want us as an entire church to be able to say that all the time. No, my conscience is clear. I behaved with holiness and simplicity. That's how I live my life. So they misunderstand his behavior. But not only do they misunderstand his behavior, what we're going to see is they all also misunderstand his communication. Anybody ever had a miscommunication with anybody? Anybody ever misread a text? Anybody, like, misunderstand the social media post, right? Like, it's not new. There's nothing new under the sun. Here's a church. This misunderstanding how Paul is writing verses 13 and 14. For we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and understand. And I hope you will fully understand, just as you did partially understand us, that on the day of our Lord Jesus, you will boast of us as we will boast of you. So the issue that the corinthian church is misunderstanding now are the letters that Paul's been writing to them now we get more specifics of this later. In two Corinthians, two Corinthians, chapter ten says this. 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 and his speech of no account. Let such a person understand that what we say by letter when absent, we do when present. So what's going on here? They're saying, Paul, you're really big and bold behind the keyboard. I mean, the quill and papyrus, right? Like, you're really big and bold. You write these harsh rebukes to us, but when you show up, your bodily presence is pretty weak. You're not very well spoken. You don't seem so big and bold, Paul, so there's a big misunderstanding. Wait a second. It doesn't seem like your writing matches who you are, but Paul's saying, no, I want you to understand, and what I'm writing to you like you partially understand, but I'm not asking you to read between the lines. When I'm writing, I'm writing you a straightforward letter. And so when I'm there with you, it's the same person I am when I'm away from you and I'm writing these letters to you. And he's going, this should be easily understandable, but you're missing it. You're missing it. But Paul's after understanding here. That's what he's hopeful for. He's like, my letters and my life match in integrity. It's wrought with integrity. And he says, one day, I hope that you fully understand it, because what's going to happen is the day of the Lord is going to happen the day that Christ returns. And my hope is that we can fully understand each other on that day, and we can both boast in each other. You can boast in me, and I can boast in you, and it's going to be a great day when Christ returns. Because we've worked through this, guys. We want to be a church that not only behaves with a clear conscience. But we want to be a church whose life matches our words. We don't want to stand here on Sunday mornings and worship and then go live however we want to live, because our lives don't match. And that's confusing to our culture. That's confusing to your children. If you stand in here and worship, and then you go at home and I, you do something the exact opposite, and they never hear you talk about Jesus. That's confusing. So, church, let's let our integrity match our life and our writing. Okay? So they misunderstand his behavior. Cause he's not acting like the super apostles. They misunderstand his communication because he's writing differently than when he comes in person. He looks differently at that point, but now they just start throwing more stuff in there. We're annoyed with your planning. We're annoyed. We don't understand your schedule, your timing, all this stuff. So this is how Paul responds in verses 15 through 17. Because I was sure of this. I wanted to come to you first so that you might have a second experience of grace. I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea. Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make plans according to the flesh, ready to say yes, yes and no, no at the same time? Some of you are like, I don't have a clue what that's talking about. All right, give me a second and I'll explain it. Okay. So the issue goes back, actually, to first Corinthians at the end of one corinthians, chapter 16. Paul says this to this same group of people. I will visit you after passing through Macedonia. For I intend to pass through Macedonia, and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter so that you may help me on my journey wherever I go. For I do not want to see you now, just in passing, I hope to spend some time with you if the Lord permits. But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries. So Paul is saying, at the end of one corinthians, I want to come visit you. I do. My intention is to come visit you, Corinthians, and I actually don't just want to pass through. I want to stay with you. I might even stay for the entire winter. Cause I want to be around you. Well, guess what? Doesn't happen. Paul doesn't get to make that visit so because Paul doesn't get to make that visit, they start to accuse him of. Of, hey, you said one thing, but you actually lived a different way. Now, on the surface, we look at that and go, yeah, that makes sense. I understand the Corinthians critique, right? You said one thing and did another. You're acting really fickle, Paul. You're acting really fickle. You had this, like, self centered waffling. Like, you say something and you said yes, but you actually meant no, too. Like, oh, yeah, I'm gonna come visit the Corinthians. Actually, I don't want to do that at all, right? That's what they're accusing him of. Like, why would you. Paul, that's not right. You can't do that. And this was offensive, like, in the jewish culture, and it was also offensive in the greco roman culture. People who didn't follow Jesus, they wanted their leaders to be dependable. They wanted them to be reliable. So when a leader was fickle or unreliable, they were despised. How could we trust that kind of leader? Now, we get this, right? Like, this is a. We despise those kind of leaders, too. You said one thing, but you do something else, right? So I think this is actually a really strong critique from the Corinthians. If it is true. If it were true, like, yeah, we need to be dependable followers of Jesus. We don't need to say, we're going to do one thing and don't do it. We need to fully fulfill our commitments to say, like, yes, that's what I mean, or, no, that's not what I mean. But that's not what's going on here. Because Paul says, was I vacillating? Was I wishy washy in my response to you? Like, that's not what was happening. He said, do I make plans according to the flesh? Because that's what the world does. They make plans and then don't always keep their plans. But that's not what I was doing. He's like, I didn't say to you, absolutely, I'm going to come, and then the next breath say, no way. I'm coming to visit those people. So why didn't Paul come? Jump down to verse 23 and we'll see the reason. So their accusation was, you're being fickle. Here's his response. But I call God to witness against me. It was to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth. Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith. For I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you. For if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained? And I wrote as I did, so that when I come, I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice. For I felt sure of all of you that my joy would be the joy of you all. For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain, but to let you know the abundant love I have for you. So was Paul being fickle? No. Why did he say he wasn't coming? To spare them. To spare them. He goes, I made a previously painful visit to you. I wrote a previously painful letter to you. It was a really emotional letter that I wrote to you. It was with much anguish and much affliction and with lots of tears. It's hard. And I didn't want to do that to you again because that's how much I love you, and I want to work for your joy. And I know how painful it was in the past, and I don't want to come make you miserable again, because if you're miserable, I'm going to be miserable, and I don't want to do that right now. So I didn't come to you because I wanted to spare you. So if you just read this on the surface, like, wait a second, Paul, you just didn't show up when you said you were going to show up. He goes, no, there was a bigger reason. There was a different intention, there was a different motive here that you guys missed. He goes, I'm not just this, like, power hungry authoritarian forcing people to act a certain way. I'm working for your joy, not your happiness, but the deep satisfaction of your soul. And for a church that loved the world around them, loved their culture around them, that was influenced more by their culture than of God, they were finding satisfaction outside of God. And Paul was saying, I'm working for your joyous. I want you to be deeply satisfied in God and God alone. But in this instance, I chose to show you grace and mercy by sparing you from another visit. So they misunderstand his behavior, they misunderstand his communication, they misunderstand his change of plans, and now they're misunderstanding his motives and intentions. Now think about if you put yourself in Paul's shoes this morning. You gave up a year and a half to help plant this church. And after this, it's been a hard relationship, and you've written letters, you've come to visit, you've sent other ministry partners to visit. You've gotten bad reports. It's really difficult. Like, the response could kind of be that fight, flight, or freeze response, right? You know what? I'm going to fight the Corinthians. I'm going to vindicate myself. I'm going to excuse my actions. I'm going to prove to them that the reason I acted the way I acted, I'm going to tell them what my Enneagram score was to prove that I can act that way. Right? I was going to give you an Enneagram score, but I don't even know. I was going to say, like, enneagram four, wing five. I don't know what that means, but sometimes we go like, oh, I'm just going to excuse my actions, but here's just my personality. This is how I operate. I think that's really fleshly if we're not careful, really fleshly. So he could have just fallen. Like, I'm going to vindicate myself. I've got the receipts and I'm going to show the receipts to you. Right? Or he could have said, you know what? I'm not going to fight it. I'm just going to flee. I'm done with you, Corinthians. I quit. I'm just going to move on to the next place. Could have done that. Like, when I see this much misunderstanding, I go, that probably would have been it. That might have been a good idea in your flesh, or you just kind of freeze and go, I'm going to withdraw and I'm going to crawl into a hole. I'm not going to deal with this anymore. But that's not how Paul responds. Let's go back to verse twelve real quick. He says, for our boast is this. What is Paul's response to being misunderstood? He's gonna boast. He's gonna boast. Now, this is a really important word that we've gotta grasp in two corinthians. In two corinthians, this word is used more than any book in the Bible or any book in the New Testament. The book that has the second most uses of this word is first corinthians. So there's an obvious connection between boasting and the corinthian church and the corinthian culture. So we gotta grasp this. So remember super apostles, what did they boast in their polished way of life, their eloquence, their lack of suffering? Paul is saying, that's what they boast. In. Here's what I'm gonna boast in. Here's what I'm going to boast in. Now, some of you are going, wait a second. Even if you didn't grow up in church, you're like, hold on. Like, the response to misunderstanding is to boast. Because when we think of boasting, oftentimes we think of, like, an athlete who does an incredible thing, and then they celebrate. Like, it's okay to celebrate, but they want to make a big deal about themselves, right? It's like a defensive lineman, you get a sack, and, like, that's what you were trained to do, right? That's what you should do. I couldn't do it, but that's what you're trained to do, right? And then they dance and they go crazy. And, like, I'm a big deal. Let me let the whole audience know that I'm a big deal, right? That's what we think of often when we think of boasting, like, this arrogant way of life. Now, there are two ways that Paul talks about boasting. One is that way where you foolishly celebrate human abilities and achievements. Worldly boasting is where you foolishly celebrate human abilities and achievements. The second one is where you appropriately celebrate God's character and work. You appropriately celebrate God's character and work. Let me tell you how this worldly boasting could have gone for Paul. Hey, you guys, you misunderstand me. Let me tell you, I've got a clean conscience. I've got solid integrity. I've got good behavior. I've got pure motives. And he could have stopped right there. And you know what? It would have been worldly boasting. But I was intentional to skip over some of those things. Cause I want you to understand that that's not how Paul boasts here, because I think those are all things that we could leave here today and go. Somebody misunderstood me. I'm going to post on social media about how good my behavior is, how clear my conscience is, how pure my motives were, and it's not going to honor the Lord. So let's see how Paul does this in two Corinthians chapter ten. So later on, he says this. Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord. Now, this is a quote from Jeremiah, chapter nine, that says this. 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. So he goes, it's not about boasting in all these other things and your wisdom and your might and your riches. Take your delight in the Lord. Boast in the Lord. And that's what Paul does here. And this is what I want you to get. And then we're going to see how this fleshes itself out. When you're misunderstood by people you serve alongside or people you're ministering to. This is what I want you to understand. Boast in the work of God when misunderstood in the work of ministry. Boast in the work of goddess when misunderstood in the work of ministry. So let's see how Paul actually does this. So back to verse twelve for our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom, but by what? Whew, that was weak. But by the grace of God I had a clear conscience. I behaved in a holy way in my life. How did, but how did I do that? By the grace of God, God's unmerited favor upon my life. That's the only way that I can tell you. My conscience is clean, Corinthians. That's the only way that my behavior was the way it was, is all by the grace of God. But he doesn't stop there. Go to verses 18 through 22. So this is him responding to like, okay, like you're misunderstanding my change of plans. Here's his response. Boasting in the work of God, as surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been yes and no for the son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Sylvanus, also Silas and Timothy. And I was not yes and no, but in him it is always yes, for all the promises of God find their yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our amen to God for his glory. And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us and who has also put his seal on us and given us his spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. So how does Paul defend his change of plans here? Hey, Corinthians, I don't want you to just hear about God's gracious work. I want you to hear about God's faithful work. I want you to hear about God's faithfulness. He's so faithful and I've just been imitating him. He's not just faithful in his work, but he's got a securing work. And there's so much like royalty language that we find here for the group of people that are in Christ. He says, I, who establishes us with you in Christ, who has anointed us, who has also put his seal on us and given us his spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. Like, I wish I had more time to unpack each of those words. They're incredible, because Paul's going, I'm secure in who I am in Christ. Christ has done so much work, and I have the guarantee of the Holy Spirit, the seal of the Holy Spirit. Like, you can trust my actions, Corinthians, God is faithful. He secured me. So he takes his integrity and likens it to the faithfulness of God, and he goes, let me tell you about the faithfulness of God. All of God's promises find their yes in Jesus. So in the same way that Paul was saying, I didn't come to you and say yes and no, I didn't come to you and say, like, absolutely, I'm gonna show up. No way I'm gonna show up. He's like. Cause I was acting like God. Cause God doesn't respond with yes, yes, and no, no. All the promises of God find their yes in Jesus. Jesus is like the musical crescendo. It's all building and building and building. We see these promises, we wanna hold tight to them, and. And then all of a sudden, the crescendo happens. Like, oh, it's Jesus. He's the one that fulfills all these promises. That's what we can cling to. And what is the result when the church recognizes that kind of gospel truth? It says, we utter our amen through Christ. We utter our amen. This strong affirmation of truth that's been said, when we affirm the content of praise to our God through Christ, when we affirm the content of a prayer, that's true. When we affirm that, like the things that we just sung, they're true. We say amen. When you hear the good news, you affirm it with an amen. It's like all the promises of goddess find their yes in Jesus. And when you hear that, you utter amen. Why to God? For his glory. God is the audience for our amen. When we say amen after a prayer, it's not because we just, that's what we do. When we say amen in church, it's not like we just don't do that. We don't do it to draw attention to ourselves to show that we're paying attention or to give feedback to the preacher. All right, I. It's helpful. All right, it's helpful. But that should not be your motive. The motive is, like, this is to God. I recognize gospel truth, and I affirm that gospel truth by saying amen. It's like Genesis, chapter three, Adam and Eve have sinned. And what does God do? He tells Satan, here's the consequence. Your actions. You're going to bruise his heel, but he's going to crush your head. First promise of the Bible. Who was the one that was going to crush his head? Jesus. Yes. What's the response to that? Amen. There we go. Like, 20 of you got it. All right. Genesis, twelve. God calls Abram, like, hey, I'm going to make your descendant. I'm going to make you into a great nation. And all the nations of the world are going to be blessed. How are all the nations going to be blessed? We find the fulfillment of that, yes. In Jesus. Only five of you got it at that time. Like this. Like, these are incredible promises that you go, oh, that's great. That's great. Jesus comes on the scene. Yes. This is amazing. This is amazing stuff. So when Paul's being accused of, like, you're being fickle, he's going, no, no, no, I'm operating like God. And his promises are always yes. They're always yes in Jesus. So how did Paul defend himself when being misunderstood? Because he defended himself, but he didn't try to prove himself. He didn't try to excuse his actions. He didn't try to vindicate himself. He boasted, in the work of Goddesse, God's gracious faithful, securing work. So practically, when you're misunderstood in life as a follower of Jesus, you will be misunderstood at some point. How do we respond? My first encouragement to you would be to consider the accusation before you just, like, ramp up and go to defend yourself. Go. Is any of this true? Is there anything that I can learn from this? Is there something that I can grow in? Now, that's not an easy response, but that's what we're grateful for, the Holy Spirit that can allow us to have that response. So one, consider the accusation. Two, repent if it's needed. Say, you know what? I didn't intend that, but my actions toward you weren't kinda, I wasn't trying to come across that, but my actions were actually impure. Like, I didn't want to operate that way, but I did consider the accusations, repent if needed. And then three, church. Let's be a church that boasts in the work of God where we go, man, let me tell you about God's grace in my life. Let me tell you about God's faithfulness. Let me tell you about the security that God's and given me through Christ. And guys, how in the world can we pull that off? Because we look to Jesus, the one who is misunderstood and questioned and opposed and slandered and killed by those he purely and faithfully, securely, lovingly ministered to. That's our savior. Your savior gets your misunderstanding. When you're misunderstood. You have a savior that fully understands it. You have a savior who rules over all, who sees all the motives and who understands and you can run to him to have this kind of response. And church, imagine what we would be like as a church if we all responded this way. Because misunderstandings going to happen in this room. Conflict is going to happen in our church body. Let's be quick to boast in our God in those situations instead of trying to vindicate ourselves and prove ourselves like we can defend ourselves. But let's defend ourselves with the work of God, not our own selfish motives. Because then God is going to be glorified in that reconciling work of Christ. God is going to be glorified when broken relationships are redeemed and there's more opportunities for us to hear gospel truth, act out, live out gospel truth and for everybody to respond. Amen. Let's pray. Father, you are incredible. You are so gracious to us, you are so faithful. And God thank you that we can find our security in Christ. Lord, help us as a church. Please God to be a church who boasts in you and you alone. We can't do that without you. And we're so thankful that Jesus understands that and we can run to him during these times. Pray this in Christ's name. Amen.