Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to the Sept. 27 sermon from Clifford Baptist Church, 635 Fletcher's Level Road in Amherst. Today's scripture is Second Corinthians, chapter 6, verses 1 through 10. And the sermon is entitled the Marks of Ministry, delivered today by Pastor Nathan Williams.
[00:00:16] Speaker B: Good morning.
I hope you have a copy of God's Word with you. If you do, please flip to Second Corinthians, chapter six. That's where we're going to be today.
When I was growing up, I know it wasn't that long ago, but when I was growing up, we had these little bunny ear antennas that we would have to make sure were positioned to pick up radio waves from Roanoke, Virginia to watch TV. And I think we had 13 or maybe 20 channels. We didn't have cable, but I remember on Saturday nights, every now and then we would get this one channel that would show the Antique Roadshow.
And we would sit there watching the Antique Road show because we had nothing better to do but watch people show up with old stuff, sit it on a table and say, this thing is worth $10,000. And people would look at them and question it. Then go get a professional who would come and assess these objects. Whether it was a Persian rug to see if it was authentic, or a watch that someone's grandfather had given them to see if it was the real deal, or. Or a knockoff you can buy on Amazon. They had to look through and assess the marks of these items to see if they were authentic.
In the same ways in our life, when we follow Christ and we serve him, he calls each and every one of us to an authentic life of ministry.
Every single one of us.
We just read earlier the Great Commission that Jesus told his disciples to go and make disciples of all people in teaching them to obey what he commanded.
So since I don't know how many disciples are between us and those disciples, but every generation of people making disciples of Christ, passing on his teachings, pass on that command for us to go and make disciples, for us to go and make the hope of Christ know for us to go and share the gospel with those who are lost, for us to go and love those who. Who aren't loved in the eyes of the world. And they're hard to love, to forgive those that are hard to forgive. We have a holy ministry given to us by God, and we can be a part of this great purpose he has given all of us as believers to walk in.
[00:02:37] Speaker C: It's not just the pastors who have
[00:02:39] Speaker B: a ministry of service to do.
[00:02:43] Speaker C: It's every one of us but just
[00:02:46] Speaker B: like in the Antique Roadshow, there's some things that can show up that don't have the marks of an authentic ministry.
They're counterfeit.
We can spend a lot of time, a lot of energy, a lot of money, a lot of focus on things in our lives or as a church
[00:03:07] Speaker C: and miss what real ministry is about.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: And in Second Corinthians, Paul is writing to a church in Corinth that is going through this assessment of testing. They have all these people coming, telling them what it means to know God and to follow God. And people have different opinions, different styles. And Paul is having a little bit of conflict with them. And he's trying to write to explain to them the authenticity of his ministry and what the Gospel of Christ truly is and what it looks like to be a minister of his Gospel.
In the few chapters before, Paul unpacks this in chapter three, we see what the matter of ministry is about.
It's for the Spirit of God to
[00:03:50] Speaker C: show people the glory of Christ that transforms them.
That's what the Gospel is.
[00:03:56] Speaker B: Knowing Christ in a transformative way that changes us and makes us more and more like him.
And in chapter four, he tells us about the might of ministry. Where we find strength to do ministry has nothing to do with us. The popular verse in verse seven is, we're just jars of clay, but there's
[00:04:16] Speaker C: a treasure in us. There's a power in us of the Spirit of God working through us and in us.
[00:04:24] Speaker B: Chapter five, Paul talks about being controlled by the love of Christ, being compelled by the love of Christ not to see other people as the world does, but to see them for who they truly are through the lens of the
[00:04:36] Speaker C: Gospel, and to be an ambassador for
[00:04:39] Speaker B: Christ on behalf of God, begging people and persuading people to be reconciled to God in Christ, to where they can be a part of what God is doing and not be in rebellion away from him. And in chapter six, where we are Today, Paul begins to reflect on his own ministry.
And after showing what the Gospel is and showing how the Gospel works through God's servants, he. He goes to look at his own
[00:05:08] Speaker C: ministry and authenticate why his ministry is the real thing.
And while none of us are Paul,
[00:05:17] Speaker B: I believe we can learn from Paul
[00:05:19] Speaker C: today how we can have an authentic ministry marked by the Gospel in our own lives.
[00:05:28] Speaker B: So let's read 2 Corinthians, chapter 6,
[00:05:30] Speaker C: beginning in verse 1, and I'll be
[00:05:33] Speaker B: reading through verse 10, working together with him.
[00:05:38] Speaker C: Then we appeal to you not to
[00:05:41] Speaker B: receive the grace of God in vain.
For he says, in a favorable time I listen to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you. Behold, now is the favorable time.
Behold, now is the day of salvation.
We put no obstacle in anyone's way so that no fault may be found with our ministry.
[00:06:04] Speaker C: But as servants of God, we commend ourselves in every way by great endurance in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger, by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love
[00:06:35] Speaker B: by truthful speech and the power of God, with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left,
[00:06:43] Speaker C: through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise, we are treated as imposters, and
[00:06:54] Speaker B: yet are true, as unknown and yet
[00:06:57] Speaker C: well known, as dying.
And behold, we live as punished and
[00:07:05] Speaker B: yet are not killed.
[00:07:07] Speaker C: As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, as poor, yet making many rich, as having nothing, yet possessing everything.
[00:07:21] Speaker B: Thank.
[00:07:22] Speaker C: Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, Lord, I praise you for the hope we have in Christ.
And Lord, I thank you for the
[00:07:33] Speaker B: privilege we have to be your ambassadors, to be your servants, to be your ministers in this world, to our families and our workplaces, in our communities, Lord, in this country and in our homes, Lord, and everywhere you lead us, and wherever you have each one of us, you call us to be your ministers.
[00:07:53] Speaker C: Lord, I pray that today you will encourage us with the gospel, that you will challenge us with the gospel and show us what a calling that is marked by true ministry looks like.
Lord, sanctify us in your truth. I pray your word is truth.
In Jesus name.
Amen.
[00:08:17] Speaker B: So today we need to understand that gospel ministry, true following of Christ, true living for Christ, should be clearly marked.
It's not whatever you want to label it, whatever you want it to look like. Gospel ministry, while it may look different in every person's life where he has, you will still be marked by certain things that show if it's authentic or a counterfeit.
And I believe in this passage we see at least four marks. If you're a note taker. There's four marks we see in this passage that Paul uses to authenticate his ministry.
And if we want to look at how we are living our lives, we
[00:09:00] Speaker C: can use these same marks and apply them to our ministry.
[00:09:06] Speaker B: Because every member of this church is
[00:09:08] Speaker C: a minister of the Gospel of Christ.
[00:09:11] Speaker B: Every follower of Christ is a minister
[00:09:14] Speaker C: and an ambassador that has a great calling.
And let's learn from Paul today how
[00:09:22] Speaker B: we can assess and make sure our
[00:09:23] Speaker C: lives are in alignment with that.
[00:09:26] Speaker B: So the first mark that we see in this passage is Gospel ministry is urgent.
In verse one, it's pretty clear he says, working together with him. Then we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.
For he says, in a favorable time I listened to you. In a day of salvation, I have helped you. Behold, now is the favorable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.
[00:09:52] Speaker C: We put no obstacle in anyone's way so that no fault may be found with our ministry.
So what does this work? Paul says he's working together with Christ.
[00:10:07] Speaker B: And in the previous chapters he's explained
[00:10:10] Speaker C: his work is to be God's vessel
[00:10:13] Speaker B: for Jesus to be seen through him, for Jesus to be known through him, through the words he shares, the truth he shares and the life he shares. Where people see there's something different about him.
And he works hard at that. He knows every day he must focus on that. To work with God and not let his flesh take over and him get distracted and but to allow God to
[00:10:37] Speaker C: use him every day and he works together, appealing, pleading with those that the
[00:10:45] Speaker B: Lord brings in his path. To receive the grace of God,
[00:10:51] Speaker C: but
[00:10:51] Speaker B: not just to receive, but not to
[00:10:53] Speaker C: receive it in vain.
[00:10:56] Speaker B: Every time we have an opportunity to let our light shine.
I know that's the little kid song
[00:11:03] Speaker C: we sing, but it is so true
[00:11:06] Speaker B: to wherever the Lord has placed you. To boldly make Christ known through our lives and not being scared to have that label of a follower of Christ and being bold to let people to know about it.
[00:11:22] Speaker C: They receive grace through Christ in us.
[00:11:27] Speaker B: Of seeing how Jesus can change a
[00:11:29] Speaker C: life, seeing how Jesus can be an anchor in trials.
And it's something that is urgent because God uses us to make that hope known.
[00:11:44] Speaker B: Why God doesn't just come down and poof in front of everyone like he did for Paul. And there's stories of God appearing to people in dreams sometimes, but most of the time I believe God uses his
[00:11:56] Speaker C: people to make Christ known through the
[00:11:59] Speaker B: power of His Spirit to behold Him.
So we have an urgent ministry to be working with Christ for people to receive the grace of Christ through us, make sure that they actually see him through us.
And while I'm not all knowing, maybe there's some communities in your life that God's placed you to be in that the only believer they know is you.
The only time they actually hear the gospel, rightly understood, could be from you.
[00:12:32] Speaker C: We must work together with God to make it clear.
[00:12:38] Speaker B: Because look at the wording he uses. He cites in Isaiah where God is talking to his people who have been facing great trial and they're facing exile because of their disobedience. But he is showing the grace he's
[00:12:53] Speaker C: going to have to in this time.
[00:12:57] Speaker B: He says, in a favorable time, I listen to you in a day of salvation, I've helped you.
But that passage is clear.
[00:13:04] Speaker C: They better receive it and not reject it.
[00:13:09] Speaker B: If they reject what God's doing for
[00:13:12] Speaker C: them, they'll squander the opportunity they have.
[00:13:16] Speaker B: So we don't carry the burden of what other people will do.
We do carry the burden of making sure they have the fullness of the gospel seen in our lives and through our words, not just shown in how we behave, but spoken.
[00:13:33] Speaker C: Because faith comes by hearing.
So we are sent by Christ to
[00:13:38] Speaker B: go and make disciples sharing the hope
[00:13:40] Speaker C: of Christ with everyone.
Maybe it's in our family, maybe it's
[00:13:46] Speaker B: in our workplace, maybe it's in some old friends you used to have, but you kind of keep a distance from. But you go and hang out with them every now and then in that day that you're around someone.
[00:13:58] Speaker C: Behold, now is the day of salvation.
[00:14:01] Speaker B: Behold, now is the time the Lord is using us as his people to to make his gospel known.
Because we never know how many opportunities someone will have to hear Christ.
And the Lord may in his plan use us to be that one time they clearly hear it, the one time that they clearly see it.
And we must be careful and we must be urgent to make sure that our lives display Christ clearly.
There's grace for our weaknesses, but show the grace. Show our need for Christ. Show. Don't put on a fake face of trying to have it all together. Just show how you depend on Christ and how he is everything for you and share the need that we have to follow Him.
[00:14:47] Speaker C: Allow Christ to work through you.
[00:14:53] Speaker B: If you see a child running out into the street, do you just sit and watch and go, I hope his mom's nearby.
Now I think any of us who are able bodied would in all our power run to get that child.
We don't throw and try to trip him up so he face plants in the middle of the road. We put no obstacle in that kid's way. We would go grab that child and bring them safely away from the road until their parents can come and get them.
Or a lifeguard sitting in a life booth at a beach seeing someone drown.
They don't go. Well, I hope someone goes and helps them.
Oh well, my co worker, he's much better at swimming than I am, so maybe when they get here they can go help them.
[00:15:41] Speaker C: No, they dive in Knowing that now
[00:15:44] Speaker B: is their time to help someone,
[00:15:49] Speaker C: that's the urgency Paul shows us here.
[00:15:54] Speaker B: It's not something that should give us
[00:15:55] Speaker C: anxiety, but it gives us purpose and
[00:15:58] Speaker B: focus every day of our lives. And following Christ, it's a personal relationship,
[00:16:04] Speaker C: yes, but from that strength we find in Christ every day, he uses us to make the gospel known every day.
[00:16:16] Speaker B: Even when in a room full of people at church.
[00:16:20] Speaker C: He is using you today to make Christ known
[00:16:24] Speaker B: every opportunity. When someone opens up about life
[00:16:29] Speaker C: or
[00:16:30] Speaker B: he clearly presents a door to talk
[00:16:32] Speaker C: about the hope you have, never squander it.
[00:16:38] Speaker B: Know there's grace for you in your
[00:16:40] Speaker C: weakness and trust God to be seen through you.
[00:16:44] Speaker B: You're just a jar of clay. And sometimes we focus on our jar of clayness so much we don't want to do anything. But it's not us that's helping anybody. It's the treasure in us.
[00:16:55] Speaker C: And we just need to talk about Him.
But are we urgent about that?
[00:17:00] Speaker B: Is our lives marked with an urgency
[00:17:02] Speaker C: if there are people dying every day without Christ?
[00:17:07] Speaker B: There's people in our families that we
[00:17:09] Speaker C: see all the time who do not know Christ.
[00:17:13] Speaker B: There's co workers we'll talk about the ball game with and laugh about things every day.
[00:17:17] Speaker C: But they don't know the gospel of Christ.
And the Lord in his grace has chosen us to make life available to them.
That's an urgent, purposeful call. Each of us have put no obstacle in people's lives.
Don't let you be the obstacle in someone's life to Christ.
If you mess up with someone you
[00:17:53] Speaker B: feel like you make a bad look
[00:17:54] Speaker C: for Christ, confess it, make it known to those people affected by it and
[00:18:00] Speaker B: allow the gospel to be seen through
[00:18:02] Speaker C: your humility and show the hope of Christ.
[00:18:08] Speaker B: If you have someone who looks up to you, don't be scared of losing that respect by bringing up the hope you have that keeps you going every
[00:18:16] Speaker C: day, which if you truly know the
[00:18:20] Speaker B: gospel, it is what keeps you going every day.
[00:18:25] Speaker C: And it's an urgent calling all of
[00:18:27] Speaker B: us have that you get to be a part of.
[00:18:31] Speaker C: So walk in it as Paul did.
[00:18:35] Speaker B: Second Mark we see here is in verses four through six that gospel ministry is costly.
I know this is starting off, it sounds like a very serious and heavy truth, but it is very serious and heavy truth.
We have an urgent task and it's not just something we easily do and it's a quick fix. It's something that's also costly and it's difficult.
I think that sometimes we make the excuse that it's not urgent, because we don't want to bear the cost that it might take to be urgent, to be focused on what the Lord's calling us to in our moment in our life, where the Lord has placed you to use you, that he has not placed me to use me, but lean
[00:19:21] Speaker C: into Christ, allow him to use you no matter the cost.
[00:19:27] Speaker B: Paul says, but as servants of God, we commend ourselves in every way.
He's about to show his resume. He's about to show why he is a true, authentic minister of the Gospel. And these other people that the church in Corinth is tempted to listen to are not.
You would think his resume would include his education.
His resume would include how good he is at talking, how many letters he has written to the churches, and that Jesus showed up to him one on one. You think Paul could go through all those things to commend himself, to show how he is an authentic minister of the Gospel. But look at what he shows.
[00:20:05] Speaker C: He shows the cost and the price and the sacrifice of his ministry.
[00:20:14] Speaker B: Not from a place of pride, of
[00:20:15] Speaker C: look at me, but of do you see how much this means?
Do you see how real this is?
Let's not glaze over what Paul says. He says by great endurance in afflictions, hardships, calamities.
[00:20:35] Speaker B: These are words that we read over. We'll look up at thesaurus or a dictionary and what they mean, and we might not pay attention to it. But then Paul gets even realer with examples.
[00:20:45] Speaker C: Beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors.
[00:20:55] Speaker B: Listen to this.
[00:20:55] Speaker C: Sleepless nights, hunger.
Paul's ministry, he's been so urgent to the task, so focused on how God
[00:21:08] Speaker B: is using him to make the hope of Christ known, that he understands it. It comes at a cost.
And if you know anything about business, cost isn't a bad word.
Because the cheesy saying is you have to spend money to make. Money is a cost, is a part of the profit you make.
And if you have no cost, you'll have no revenue, no reward.
But Paul knows that all this cost, we can focus on the sacrifice, but in the greater purpose.
[00:21:44] Speaker C: It's just a cost yielding a greater
[00:21:46] Speaker B: profit, a greater reward.
So everything Paul lists, he knows it's just a temporary thing that is worth
[00:21:55] Speaker C: the ministry he is called to do
[00:21:58] Speaker B: because of the reward that not just he receives, but others can have through them, knowing the gospel in his life.
And it's all worth it to him.
He says later on in this epistle, in chapter 11, verse 24, you don't have to flip there. If you don't want to, but you can. It says five times. It gets more detailed. I received at the hands of the Jews the 40 lashes less one,
[00:22:26] Speaker C: 200 lashes, beat three times. I was beaten with rods once, stoned three times.
[00:22:36] Speaker B: I was shipwrecked a night and a day. I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers in toil and hardship through many sleepless night, in hunger, in
[00:22:57] Speaker C: thirst, often, often without food, in cold and exposure.
Cost doesn't mean to suffer with no purpose, but to invest in something greater. And Paul gives the list of all he suffers, the cost he has paid, but for him, it was all worth what he was doing.
[00:23:26] Speaker B: And I think in gospel ministry, the
[00:23:28] Speaker C: emphasis should not be on the cost.
[00:23:31] Speaker B: But sometimes we need to wake ourselves up and remind ourselves that Jesus tells us there will be a cost.
In Luke 14, we get told about the cost of discipleship is he says, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life,
[00:23:53] Speaker C: he cannot be my disciple.
[00:23:55] Speaker B: Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
And he gives the example of someone building the tower, and he says if they do not sit down first and count the cost, he basically says they're being a fool.
He talks about a king at war. If he doesn't assess the cost of the men who will die in the battle to see if he can win it, he's not being wise.
[00:24:24] Speaker C: For us as Christians, we have to
[00:24:27] Speaker B: count the cost
[00:24:31] Speaker C: and realize that is a part of what it means to follow Christ.
[00:24:36] Speaker B: And we live in a very blessed place where we're not facing lashings, we're not facing beatings.
When Jesus says, bear your cross, he was being literal, probably to some of those disciples who did bear a cross later in their life.
[00:24:53] Speaker C: We don't have to face that.
[00:24:56] Speaker B: And in a way that's a blessing.
But if we then start to confuse that Gospel ministry is marked by comfort,
[00:25:05] Speaker C: not cost.
[00:25:07] Speaker B: Anytime there's an opportunity to share Christ,
[00:25:10] Speaker C: that could get awkward, we run.
[00:25:14] Speaker B: Anytime we have an opportunity to share the hope of Christ, that could get
[00:25:17] Speaker C: us in trouble, we kind of compromise and run.
[00:25:23] Speaker B: Anytime the Lord presents an opportunity to do something great for him, and we go, well, I would have to give up this, and then I might not be able to go do this. And we start making our list of comforts we don't want to lose.
[00:25:36] Speaker C: We're missing the bigger purpose in our
[00:25:39] Speaker B: lives, something greater than any of the comforts we hold onto. But we have a purpose in Christ to make the greatest hope in the world known to people in our lives.
And when Jesus says to hate your brother and sister and father and mother, he's not saying you better get out a list and start sending some hate mail or else you can't follow me.
[00:25:59] Speaker C: That's not what he's saying.
[00:26:01] Speaker B: This is the same Jesus who tells us to love our neighbors,
[00:26:07] Speaker C: but he's
[00:26:08] Speaker B: saying if they get in between me and you,
[00:26:13] Speaker C: it's me.
If it's pleasing someone else or pleasing me if you're a follower of me, please me.
Follow me.
If it's pleasing me or a boss, please me.
[00:26:33] Speaker B: If it's pleasing me or some policy, please me. Regardless of the flak you may face
[00:26:41] Speaker C: for just being bold for the gospel, and Paul faced so much more than we do, and we I have gotten comfortable with gospel ministry being from a pulpit in a Sunday school class and when someone calls me, but he calls me to get out of the church, out of my home, into the community, even when it's uncomfortable to take an
[00:27:16] Speaker B: initiative because of the urgent ministry.
[00:27:19] Speaker C: We have to make costs to suffer
[00:27:22] Speaker B: loss if that's what God brings our
[00:27:25] Speaker C: way so that people can know Jesus through me.
And he calls all of us to that.
[00:27:35] Speaker B: So I have a question just for reflection.
[00:27:39] Speaker C: Has serving Christ cost you anything in your life?
[00:27:47] Speaker B: Is what you call following Jesus what you call being a servant of God
[00:27:52] Speaker C: cost you anything in life?
I hope the answer is yes.
[00:27:59] Speaker B: Doesn't mean you have to have sold everything you have and be homeless. But there better be things in your life that you've had to put on second shelf or you've had to throw out some shelves
[00:28:09] Speaker C: in order to focus on who Jesus is for you and what he has done for you.
I believe today the Lord will wants
[00:28:19] Speaker B: us to see this truth as a church and realize we as a people are being mobilized by God to make the biggest impact on the world that the world's ever known through the gospel of Christ.
[00:28:31] Speaker C: And we cannot let little things that we're scared to lose get in the way of that.
[00:28:37] Speaker B: There may be people here the Lord is calling to do some sort of vocational ministry, whether it's in the church or on a mission field.
But when you look up the pros and cons in our fleshly eyes, there's lots of cons of what you have
[00:28:53] Speaker C: to give up if the Lord's calling you to it. It's worth the cost.
[00:28:59] Speaker B: There might be people in your home that you need to share the gospel with. It's worth the cost that the Lord
[00:29:05] Speaker C: has them in your life.
[00:29:08] Speaker B: But Paul also shows us in the next few verses that the third mark gospel ministry is that gospel ministry is holy, he says, by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, by truthful speech and the power of God with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left.
He's showing what he does.
He doesn't make compromises in what he does.
My dad told me recently, and I never heard it put this way, that we should never divide our gospel ministry from the call to holiness.
Us being holy before God should never be compromised for the sake of ministry.
[00:29:54] Speaker C: But our holiness before God is our ministry to other people. As people see God work in us, we can't do it.
[00:30:04] Speaker B: What did we sing earlier yet?
[00:30:05] Speaker C: Not I, but Christ through me as we become what he calls us to be through purity of being holy in
[00:30:15] Speaker B: our behavior by knowledge, not just spitting out facts of this is the rules you have to follow. But do you have the knowledge of the gospel that you hold onto and you can share the hope of how Jesus is enough for you even when you're not.
How Jesus has given you hope and life and purpose. Can you speak to that knowledge? And he set apart different life that makes you stand out from other people.
Has the gospel taken root in your life to where your attitude shifts, where you're patient towards those people that are hard to be patient towards? You can be kind to those people that you don't want to be kind to. You can have genuine love by the power of God and the Holy Spirit to those in your life that we could have a little club together and talk about how they don't deserve any love from anybody.
[00:31:04] Speaker C: Where do we see we're called to be different?
We're called to be set apart.
But being different goes against our flesh.
[00:31:14] Speaker B: Just yesterday I was walking through a crowd of people, literally hundreds of people walking, just walking down a parking lot.
And I'm running back to my car. I'm walking back over to my car. I'm like the one of three people walking the other way immediately feel weird. I'm like, why am I the only just. Even though I knew I had a reason to go that way. There's something else.
[00:31:36] Speaker C: Well, if I'm not like everyone else, something's wrong.
But we're called to be holy.
We're called to be that one person walking the other way when everyone else isn't.
[00:31:48] Speaker B: We're called to live with integrity by truthful speech, even when no one else is in front of people and without people seeing us live in a way that is honoring of Christ.
Whether we have the ministry of being a father or a husband, whether we're being a ministry of being a wife or a mother or a daughter, an aunt or an uncle. Whatever ministry God's put in our life,
[00:32:15] Speaker C: are we showing that we're different because of Christ?
[00:32:19] Speaker B: I'm not saying this in let's be
[00:32:21] Speaker C: arrogant, let's stick our noses up. No, in humility, showing the hope we have that the only reason I'm like this is because I love Christ.
He means more to me than anything else.
[00:32:36] Speaker B: Whether we're volunteering the church or we serve in some capacity of leadership at our church, are we known for our holiness?
There's a trend nowadays for pastors to be as relevant as possible till we compromise holiness.
But the world doesn't need more compromised followers of Christ. It needs more holy followers of Christ who are seen as different, seen of having a greater joy, a greater life and a greater hope than the world.
[00:33:04] Speaker C: And God works it through them to bless others, but an attitude of dependence
[00:33:11] Speaker B: on Christ, not, hey, look at me,
[00:33:13] Speaker C: I'm better than everyone, so essential in our holiness before God.
But we should never divide gospel ministry from holiness.
[00:33:23] Speaker B: And lastly, the fourth mark of authentic
[00:33:28] Speaker C: gospel ministry is this, that gospel ministry.
[00:33:33] Speaker B: I wrestled with what this word was going to be, looking at these few verses and trying to find a word that fits it. And I realized the awe in me of what Paul is saying can be summed up in one word.
[00:33:45] Speaker C: Is that gospel ministry is beautiful.
True, authentic gospel ministry is beautiful.
[00:33:55] Speaker B: Yes, it is urgent. Yes, it is costly. Yes, it requires sacrifice. And we have to make sure we're following Christ. We're living in holiness. But it's beautiful because God is working in us.
There's a gospel that we're sharing, but that gospel is for us, and it's empowering us to be able to follow Christ regardless of the cost, regardless of what we face.
[00:34:16] Speaker C: We can be joyfully obedient because gospel ministry is beautiful. It's not a burden.
It's beautiful, he says, through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise, we are
[00:34:34] Speaker B: treated as impostors and yet are true, as unknown and yet well known as dying. And behold, we live as punished and
[00:34:42] Speaker C: yet not killed, as sorrowful, but always rejoicing, as poor, yet making many rich as having nothing but possessing Everything that mark of Paul's ministry is beautiful to me.
[00:35:10] Speaker B: That ability for the power of God
[00:35:12] Speaker C: to redefine circumstances, to change perspectives in the worst ways that we find ourselves when we're trying to be faithful to us still, to have joy, to still know that it's worth it, to know that it's is something that we want to do, we desire to do, even when it requires sacrifice is beautiful.
[00:35:32] Speaker B: Like if ministry was just about honor, praise, being treated as true, being well known, living and being able to rejoice and making people rich and possessing everything, there would be a line out this door running all the way to 29 of people trying to be a part of the gospel of Christ.
But look at the counterintuitive truth here.
The gospel ministry comes through dishonor.
[00:36:02] Speaker C: Gospel ministry comes through slander. Have you ever been slandered for the name of Christ?
Mocked because you follow Christ?
[00:36:13] Speaker B: Have you ever been treated as an imposter?
Oh, they just want to look like they're better than everyone because they're talking about Christ.
And that's a real concern for some people. But that's a good way to poke and make people lose their confidence if
[00:36:26] Speaker C: they are being authentic for Christ.
[00:36:31] Speaker B: Being unknown, dying,
[00:36:39] Speaker C: punished, sorrowful, the gospel ministry leading to being poor, leading to having nothing.
[00:36:52] Speaker B: Well, the line's real short now, but
[00:36:56] Speaker C: here's the beauty for the believer.
We have both.
[00:37:02] Speaker B: If in our faithfulness to Christ, we become dishonored, we have honor in Christ. If in our faithfulness of Christ, we're slandered in Christ, we are praised. If we're treated as impostors, we're just trying to make the hope of the world known and the world's rejecting it, we're still true.
If no one ever knows our name other than one person, we share the hope of Christ with our God knows us and we're fully known in Christ.
If we die for the sake of the gospel, and people do every single day in the world, or maybe our career dies, our community respect dies, or we are literally dying, but the Lord is using our suffering to make the hope of Christ known.
[00:37:50] Speaker C: The hope of Christ is you will live.
He says, behold, you will live.
[00:38:01] Speaker B: If you're punished at work or punished through ridicule or punished by some government for being faithful to the ministry, you do not need to be worried because you will not be killed. Even if someone tries to destroy the
[00:38:18] Speaker C: body, they cannot destroy our souls.
That keeps us going.
[00:38:27] Speaker B: Even if it comes with sorrow of I'm trying to be faithful. The prophet Jeremiah never Saw much fruit in his whole life, just sorrow after sorrow after sorrow. If you ever read Lamentations, you'll know what the depths of sorrow looks like.
Yet the Lord uses him to make the gospel known, and we benefit from it. And I'm sure that is something he
[00:38:48] Speaker C: could have rejoiced in for us.
[00:38:51] Speaker B: Even if we face the worst things in life, we can find joy as we follow Christ.
And even if giving up something, giving up a nice career to serve Christ on the mission field, and we become in the eyes of the world, poor,
[00:39:08] Speaker C: we will be making people rich.
[00:39:13] Speaker B: I was reading this verse, and that brought me to tears this morning, just reading as poor.
I don't know why I missed this, yet making many rich. That was this morning.
I'm supposed to be preaching it today. It's like, no, even if we're poor,
[00:39:27] Speaker C: we can make people rich in Christ.
[00:39:31] Speaker B: This is not the prosperity Gospel of come to Jesus and money will come your way. No, come to Jesus and you will find life. You will find the one for which your soul was made, and you will find a life worth living. You will find the meaning you need. You will find the joy in life that you will never find in anything else. And that's why Paul can say, even if it brings us to having nothing to be faithful in ministry, we will possess everything.
Because if you know Christ, if you follow Christ, if you're making him know, regardless of what you face, you will have everything, everything you need, everything that if your heart was in right order, whatever desire and want you have in Christ, and there's a world who do not know that, does not know that,
[00:40:20] Speaker C: that's why the gospel ministry is urgent
[00:40:24] Speaker B: and in a world full of people who don't know it, that's why it
[00:40:27] Speaker C: comes at a cost.
But if you trust in Christ, who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, so that
[00:40:36] Speaker B: you and I might have life.
[00:40:37] Speaker C: If you don't know Christ, he died
[00:40:39] Speaker B: so that we might have life. If we believe in him.
And he uses us in this beautiful story to make his hope known to
[00:40:49] Speaker C: everyone in our lives, let's let our lives, let's let our church be marked by that.
Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, I praise you that you
[00:41:05] Speaker B: are mindful of us, even in our rebellion, even in our rejection of you, every single one of us running from you at points in our life, and while we were still sinners, you died
[00:41:15] Speaker C: for us so that we can know you.
[00:41:20] Speaker B: But we don't come to know you so we can sit and live our lives just like the world we are to urgently follow you.
[00:41:26] Speaker C: Make disciples
[00:41:29] Speaker B: carry burdens and make sacrifice so others can have the hope we have for our lives to be marked differently from the world. To be holy and set apart.
So that we can know the beautiful
[00:41:42] Speaker C: story that we're a part of.
[00:41:44] Speaker B: May knowing you be more worthy than
[00:41:48] Speaker C: anything we have to give up.
In Jesus name, amen.
[00:41:53] Speaker A: Clifford Baptist Church invites you to join us for worship every Sunday morning at 11am for more information about our church, please call our church office at 434-946-0555.
