I'd like to have you turn to 2 Corinthians. As we were getting ready to come back for our first furlough and thinking it really is, we enjoyed deputation, it was great, but the neat thing about furlough is we're coming back to churches that already support us, people that are already familiar, they're engaged, getting our prayer letters, and we get to report about what God is doing. In the presentation, there were a lot of positive stories, I think. But as you might be able to guess, in four years on the field and in our first term, there were a lot of ups and downs. There's times when we are feeling totally inadequate. We don't feel like we should even be there. However we can continue, there's challenges. There's spiritual victories, there's discouragements, all these things. And even there was a time during COVID where we had to meet outside, but prayer meeting had dwindled down to two, three people. One time we came and nobody came to prayer meeting, and it was really discouraging. But just in the past couple of years, There's been a display of spiritual fruit that really all we can do is attribute it to the working of the Holy Spirit and give God the glory. And it really is coming from 20 years of missionaries working. And some of those missionaries aren't there anymore, but they planted seeds, and they planted seeds, and people like you prayed, and here's some of the fruit. I was reading through the book of 2 Corinthians and I came to a verse in chapter 3, 2 Corinthians 3, and this is the focus for tonight. 2 Corinthians 3 and verse 5, Paul says, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. And I read that verse and it just, I'm sure I've read it, I know I've read it before, it just, this time it kind of locked in and I'm thinking about that first term and all the things that happened. And all of it was God. And anything good that came out of that, any spiritual fruit, any people that believed, we couldn't do it. We can't even change ourselves, let alone get in someone else's heart and cause them to believe. And so, I just like to title it this way, and it won't be a very long message, but refocusing our hearts in ministry. Refocusing our hearts in ministry. It's probably easy. for you to sit down there and it's the missionary and you know I remember back when I was a kid and a teenager and a college student and I was out there and you know I'm hearing different missionaries and I've always felt like missionaries were a different kind of people like they were super spiritual really like another type of person or something Maybe, some of them probably are. But when you are then in that position, you realize, no, we, wow, it's just God continuing to do the work. But all of us, whether it's full-time ministry or, we all have ministry. We all have people we're interacting with, and the context here in chapter three is following the end of chapter two, where Paul gives this picture about God causing us to triumph in Christ, and how we're the aroma, the smell of Christ. It's spreading his knowledge everywhere. And, We don't have time to go into that passage, but that's for every believer. Every single person who has trusted Christ then becomes a witness, an aroma for Christ. And it's been really neat to see some of our believers, some of the mornings, I'll tell you this funny story. It totally wouldn't fit in in our culture, but it works great over there, is that early in the morning, usually on Saturday mornings, And I'm talking early like 530 Silas and some of the men will get together and they'll go to one of the house lines. And they usually I don't know if they set it up ahead of time or what but they go to a house line. He even takes his little battery 12 volt powered loudspeaker thing and they'll do a service. All right, now, if you were in your bed, Saturday morning, and somebody starts blasting a loudspeaker in your neighborhood, you're not going to be very happy. But the response from the people there, it's been totally different. People people are still usually at their house, and it's it's scratched, like that wall. So you know, the sound just goes right through. And I Silas will preach, and then some of the new believers, some of the guys that they used to hang out with these people, he'll give them an opportunity to share their testimony. And it's just been like, wow, they're becoming an aroma of Christ to the people around them. And again, it's just amazing. One of his, I think it was Jethro's friends, 5.30 in the morning, yeah, I was lying in bed, and I heard you giving that testimony, and it really caused me to think. Most people here would just be mad, but it works there. All right, so, but coming into chapter three, I'll start with verse one, and we won't go into, there's a lot happening here. But in verse one, Paul says, do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or did we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you? And just kind of to summarize it here, There are evidently people coming to the Corinthian church, and they're going around doing ministry, even apparently having some letters, kind of like a resume, to say, hey, look, here's my credentials. Let me come do this, and see, I've got this, so you should let me be in charge of this or that. And Paul saying, we don't need credentials from any man. We don't need this kind of flashy resume. And that verse 17 in the previous chapter talks about those who are corrupting the word of God. And Paul is certainly not doing that. He's saying we do it sincerely, minister sincerely. And what he says, we don't need these letters, verse one, but verse two, ye are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men. So it's not a piece of paper with ink on it, he'll use that picture in a moment, but it's people's lives that have been changed. And the way people's lives get changed is because God works in their lives. And it's not just somebody saying, yeah, well this is, you know, here's a good person, let them do ministry, but it's on the basis of what God has done. And so, he says, you are our epistle, or our letter. It's not a piece of paper, it's actually the lives of these people that has been changed. And in verse three, he goes on, he says, for as much as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart, Well, what's going on here is it's something that Christ has done. He said they're ministered by us. That's actually the word for deacon, somebody who serves, somebody who ministers, or sometimes it's translated cared for by us or served by us. And the point is, Paul didn't originate this. He didn't create this. God did something. And what we know, is that it's the work of the Holy Spirit. Down in verse 18, we have chapter three, verse 18. We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. And so the first thing, as we're trying to refocus our hearts in ministry, is we want to rejoice in the transforming work of the Spirit. Rejoice in the transforming work of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who does this. And we've been able to do that a little bit tonight in my sharing some of those stories with you. But we need to do that with the people around us. We need to do that about what the Holy Spirit has done in our lives. Just revel in, rejoice in the transforming work of the Spirit. And it's, verse 18, like I already read, it's from glory to glory. It's step by step. Sometimes it's easy for us to see people's faults and the parts that haven't been transformed yet, but what we need to focus on is the things the Holy Spirit has done. And then focus on our own lives and let him keep transforming in our lives. But we can rejoice in that. The Spirit of the living God has written this story in people's lives. And in verse four he says, in such trust have we through Christ to Godward. Or we might say through Christ toward God. It's the work of the Holy Spirit, it's the work of Christ. In fact, you could put it this way, we need to rest on the finished work of Christ. It's not something we're trying to work up ourselves. This is when we're sharing the gospel with people, we're explaining, and I explain this again and again to folks in Papua New Guinea, and every Sunday morning, we have so many lost people that come to the services, explaining again and again that Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, it's a grace you're saved in. It's a free gift and there's a couple other older men that I've witnessed to and witnessed to again before we left, just pleading with them. I don't know if they're not going to be around much longer. One man, his name is Attica, and every time I've tried to witness to him, he quickly goes into stories and He doesn't go to church, he used to go to church, but he's not happy with the kind of people that go there, so he doesn't go to church. And he very quickly starts talking about, you know, basically how good a person he is, and I'm trying to point him to Christ. It's what Christ has done. Christ is the only perfect one, and we just need to rest in the finished work of Christ. Titus 3.5, not by works of righteousness which we have done. but according to his mercy, he saved us. You know, and so think of your areas of ministry. Maybe it's with your kids or your grandkids. All right, trying to keep pointing them to Christ. Yes, we have to teach them to obey mommy and daddy, but ultimately you can't. it comes back to Christ, to the one who did perfectly obey. So rest in the finished work of Christ. And sometimes we may start to see some progress in our lives, someone else's life, in ministry, and we could think that it's something we did or changed, but then we come to verse five and he says, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. And so here we see the third point, that we need to rely on the sufficiency of God. Rely on the sufficiency of God. And this verse makes it so clear. Nothing, nothing is our own sufficiency, but all of it is God's sufficiency. Like I said earlier, we haven't changed ourselves. We can't change anyone else. We can't make them believe. We can be that aroma of Christ to them, but God has to be, the Holy Spirit has to work. They have to rest in the finished work of Christ. God is the sufficient one to make that change. And then you get to verse six. Sufficiency is of God who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament. We're living under the New Covenant, basically, and not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. The old covenant, it was telling people, this is God's law, this is what you need to do. But it couldn't actually change their hearts. It couldn't give them ability to do that. Because ultimately, only Christ could do that. And so we're not telling people, here's this list of laws to follow. So many times, when I interact with folks there, and I find out what they're hearing at the different churches and religious groups they attend with, or even if somebody doesn't go to church, and they have what we've described as a tribal animism, of trying to appease and control evil spirits and good spirits. So often these people, it's like a checklist. If I do this and this and this and this, then God will be happy with me. And we're saying, no, you can't do that. and bringing them back to this truth. But God's law, we know, the Old Testament is there. Romans 3.20, therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. So God's law, one of the messages that I'll preach at clinics sometimes is just going through the Ten Commandments. And it's amazing how many people profess, oh, we have to follow God's Ten Commandments, and then they don't even know the Ten Commandments. And just going through them and then showing how you've probably broken all of them. And okay, you know, you can't follow God's law, but the law is to point us to Christ. And you know, in our daily lives, it's easy to be caught up with something that just, something comes up unexpectedly. Papua New Guinea is known as the land of the unexpected. And so you just come to expect that. unexpected things are going to happen. And as soon as you get something good going, or you find something in a store that oh, that's that store carries that and then the next time you go to town three months later, they don't have it anymore. They're probably never going to get it again. All right. But there's I'll just relate this one story. About twice a year. I'll get about 10 guys, I'll hire these guys, I'll hire a couple ladies to cook food for them. and we'll go and fix the road. Now, like I said, we're 150 miles from town. We're not, I'm talking about in between my house and Jeff's house. So I'm responsible for, from my house to church, and then Jeff essentially is responsible from church to his house. And those different roads have some unique places that we each have to deal with. So he hires guys and takes care of his half. I take care of my half, except when I'm in furlough, he has to take care of my half too, but. I had to do that for him, too. But anyway, what'll happen sometimes is there'll be a bit of a landslide. So either the mountain falls onto the road, sometimes the road falls off the mountain. So far, it's just been partial. So if it was literally the whole road, then that's very hard to fix. But one day, some guys came to me and said, hey, there's this place, and they named it Ouada Ghiramani, where there's this water, and it's about halfway to church, and they said there's a bunch of rocks on the road. That wall there is real rocky. So I'm like, oh, okay, thanks for letting me know, because if they hadn't told me, the next time I would find out is when I'm walking, which would be fine, or I'm trying to drive to church on Sunday, and oh, we can't drive past this point. We gotta fix it or go back or something. So the next morning, I said, Okay, get three or four more guys, and let's fix it. And we need to fix some other areas. I've been putting it off, because I always just put it off until it gets really bad. And like, okay, I got to stop and do it. We get there the next morning, and somebody had cut down like a one inch sapling and just stuck it in the middle of the road. Now, I knew that that meant something, and you and I may think, oh, just move it out of the way and start working. Oh no, no, no, I can't do that. And the guys tell me, well, the reason why that tree's there is because this land belongs to Rodney. Now, okay, I'm still relatively new, and I'm learning, okay, which area of the road belongs to which people. Originally the missionary had the road built, I think, the first missionary, and we're the only ones that pays anybody to fix it. But they still, the original landowners, basically the way it works is when you're gonna fix a section, they're only going to be happy if they are part of the workers that work to fix it. So in other words, if I don't pay them to be to do this hard work and fix it, they're going to be upset at me. So come to find out Rodney, this was his section. He heard the guys are going to fix it. He wasn't a part. So instead of coming to me and saying, Hey, this is my area. So Let me help fix it. He just stuck the tree in the road and then left. So now, while all my guys are waiting, I have to go find him. And at that time, I didn't really, I kind of knew who he was, but I hadn't interacted with him very much. And so I go find him with someone else and talk through it. And okay, finally he's, okay, I'll come work. Okay, get one of your sons to come help you. And okay, so we go back. I think it's all settled. And I find out, okay, the guy's gonna start fixing that area, but But actually, another guy showed up while you were gone. His name is Minniba. And his family actually owns the land on this next portion that you were going to fix. And he heard you're going to be fixing this. And he's really upset. He's actually cutting down a tree that'll fall across the road and block you from being able to drive back to your house. Like, oh, no. I told Caroline that I was going to be gone for, you know, half an hour, hour, get the guy started, and I'd be back. I don't think I'm going to be back for a while. Because I had driven the truck down with the wheelbarrows and the tools. And, you know, and so I said, well, I looked and the tree wasn't down yet, but I could hear the, you think I'd go talk? No, he won't. Just let him cut it down. He's not the kind of guy you can talk to. So I'm thinking, okay, he gets done cutting it down, then, you know, kind of blow off some of his steam, and then we can talk. He cuts down one tree, then he starts cutting down another tree. Oh, wow, this is going real well. So I'm talking small talk with a couple of the guys and just basically waiting for him to show up. And he comes walking down the road, and then I caught sight of him, and I called out his name, and he just passed by like he didn't even hear me. And I thought, I guess he didn't hear me. So I call out his name louder. I kind of run after him. Oh, he's not stopping. He gets to one of my wheelbarrows. kicks it off the road, right where there's like a waterfall and a 30 foot drop. It just goes down and just smashes down the bottom. Gets to the next wheelbarrow. All these workers, these strong guys I have to help me, you know, no one's gonna stop him. He gets to the next one, kicks it off. Well, it didn't go all the way off. It just, you know, storms off back to the house line. Oh man, now what do I do? Because literally, Yeah, he's gone, we can take guys, we can cut the tree out of the way, but if I do that, I will be in big trouble. I can't do that. I have to work within their system. So eventually, one of the guys who was sort of a village leader, he said, look, I think I can go talk to him, and I think he'll calm down, and I think he'll let you clear the tree out of the way so you can fix the road. I said, OK, well, I would appreciate that. So he goes and talks to him. He comes back half an hour later, says, OK, he says you can clear the tree out of the way. So now I have to pay guys to clear the tree out of the way that he just felt. So anyway, we cleared that tree. And I had invited him if he wanted to work, but he didn't want to work that day. He did work another time and another time. So it was a very interesting day, but eventually we got the thing sorted out and the guys worked on fixing the road. I went back to the house. Fast forward about two months. I'm preaching on a Sunday morning. I'm preaching from John chapter eight. And it's been an incredible privilege. I had never preached through a book of the Bible before. Because in training, I preached, but I was never in a ministry. And so the first book I preached through was Joshua, then it went to John. And just, I don't know how to describe to you the immense privilege of being able to preach Jesus' words to people who, some of them have never heard it before. and then people responding sometimes after a service, and it's like, I didn't feel like it went well, and that particular time I had, I specifically remember praying for the Holy Spirit to enable me. I knew it was some powerful truths about the truth will set you free, but I didn't feel that it went particularly well. I sat down, and at that time, Pastor Silas was doing the, taking the closing, and sometimes we'd just let him decide with the Holy Spirit's leading if he would do an invitation or not, He gave an invitation and like six people raised their hands. And in fact, we didn't have, he said, if you're a church member, open your eyes up and help somebody near you. Well, Rodney, the first guy with the road work incident, Rodney had come to church that morning. His wife had invited him. He's not a religious kind of person. He's not the person that would just come to church and think he's okay. He came to church and He's taking in these truths, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. And he talks to a couple of our guys afterwards, look, I'm a slave to sin and I wanna be free. And he prays and puts his trust, makes a profession in Christ. And I'm thinking back through this later and thinking, man, you know what, my last interaction with him was at the road work and By God's grace, I didn't respond in the wrong way, but it would have been so easy just to get so frustrated with, you know, here I am just trying to do a good thing that helps everybody when the road's clear, and here you are creating this, but looking back and thinking, Lord, that was just your sufficiency, because I didn't even know, I mean, that he would actually come to church. I know his wife has invited him before, and he's never come, and he finally comes, and then I'm the one preaching that morning. It could have all been discredited, in his viewpoint if I had not responded rightly. And that's not lifting up my name, that's just saying thank you, Lord. And that's one thing you can pray for your missionaries, that they'll have the right response in all the situations, because you just never know. And of course, by God's grace, we need the right response. And so we're in situations where we're supposed to be the aroma of Christ, we're supposed to be sharing the gospel, and we just don't ever know how, if we will, we might see that person again. That person may be here next Sunday morning. You didn't think they were gonna come, they may come. They may hear God's word, they may respond with true belief. And this verse, chapter three, verse five, I'll just read it again. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. Here, if you can come away with these three truths, to rejoice in the transforming work of the Spirit, to rest in the finished work of Christ, and to rely on the sufficiency of God. You know what it does? It just kind of takes the burden off of us. Because God wants to work through us, but What at least happens for me, maybe it doesn't happen for you, is when you're doing this work, you're the one doing it, you kind of get lost in what you're trying to do, and then you just have to step back and say, okay God, you're the sufficient one, I'm not sufficient. And so, my prayer, my hope is that this can be your prayer, maybe this week, just Lord, I'm not sufficient, you're the sufficient one, and do the work through me that you wanna do, and we can give him the praise and the glory for that.