when the daughter of Robert Fulgham was just a little girl. One morning, she gave him a paper bag before he went to work. And she said, this is a gift for you. And he said, well, what's in it? And she said, oh, just some stuff. Take it with you. So at lunchtime, he opened up his paper bag and he found two ribbons, three stones, plastic dinosaur, a pencil stub, a tiny seashell, used lipstick, two chocolate kisses, and 13 pennies. So he looked at that and he kind of laughed. Kind of chuckled about it, and then when he was done, he just swept those things off into his wastebasket at work. So he got home that night, and his daughter looked at him and said, Daddy, where's the bag? Uh-oh. He knew where the bag was, but he said, well, it's at the office. And he said, why? And she said, well, those things that are in that bag, those are my things, and I really like them. And I wanted you just to have them for a while, but I want them back. And when she saw the hesitation in his face, tears started welling up in her eyes, and she said, you didn't lose the bag, did you? And he said, no, no, I didn't lose the bag. So, as soon as she went to bed, boom, guess where dad went? Back to the office. Here's what he writes about that, he said, Molly had given me her treasures, all that a seven-year-old held dear. Love in a paper sack, and I missed it. Not just missed it, I had thrown it away. Nothing in there I needed. It wasn't the first or the last time that I felt my daddy permit was about to run out. So he goes through all the wastebaskets there in the office, dumps them back on his desk until he indeed finds everything that was in that bag. two ribbons, three stones, a plastic dinosaur, a pencil stub, a tiny seashell, used lipstick, two chocolate kisses, and 13 pennies. He takes the bag home. He sits down with her and he says, Molly, I want you to tell me about everything in this bag. I want you to tell me why it's valuable to you. And then he writes this, to my surprise, Molly gave me the bag again several days later. Same ratty bag, same stuff inside. I felt forgiven. Over several months, the bag went with me from time to time. It was never clear why I would get it. or did not get it on a certain day. But in time, Molly turned her attention to other things. Lost interest in the game, grew up. Me, I was left holding the bag. She gave it to me one morning and never asked for it back. It sits in my office still, left over from when a child said, here, It's the best I've got, take it, it's yours. I missed it the first time, but it's my bag now. It's interesting that something as simple as a little girl's bag of treasures could be so valuable and could actually change the perspective of a man towards it. Once he realized how valuable those things in that bag were to her, then it changed his view on it. And I think that sets us up well for our passage today, 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verses 1 to 6. We're teaching through the New Testament letter of 2 Corinthians, and in this letter Paul the Apostle is writing it and he talks about power through weakness. This is the 10th sermon in that series as we walk through it. This sermon will last several months. Today when we come to this passage, 2 Corinthians chapter 4, it's actually very much a continuation of the end of 2 Corinthians 3 and I'll talk about that in a minute. But Paul the Apostle is talking about a changed perspective that comes when you realize the value of what Christ has done for us in the new covenant. So this sermon is called The Value of Christian Ministry. I'll read 2 Corinthians 4 verses 1 to 6. Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways. We do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly, we commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ who is the image of God. For what we preach is not ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as servants for your sake or for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, let light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Jesus Christ. Today we're going to talk about understanding the value of the ministry that God has given us. And we're going to talk about how, when we understand it, how it affects us. So the context here is that Paul is continuing his discussion of the glory of New Covenant ministry that he began actually in chapter 3. And he's drawing a conclusion from it, specifically from the last verse of chapter 3, verse 18. And that's why chapter 4 verse 1 starts with the word, therefore. He started talking about the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. In the Old Covenant, that was when God gave the law to Moses and the commands were written on stone and it was a lot of commands what people were supposed to do and not do, but there was no power, there was no internal energy that helped them obey. You fast forward to the time of Jesus Christ when he comes, when he dies, when he rises from the dead and then sends his Holy Spirit to live inside the lives of all those who believe in Jesus Christ. And now that is the new covenant that Jesus instituted in his blood and he is not only Not only now do we know what we should do and not do, but it's a new covenant because there's power and there's energy for our lives to be changed. God gives the power and the energy for change through the person of the Holy Spirit. It is a new covenant. And Paul had been talking about that, and now in these verses in front of us today, he applies it to ministry. Paul had a ministry as an apostle. None of us have that same ministry as an apostle, but if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you have a ministry from God. So let's apply it to all of our ministry. God has called all of us to love Jesus, to tell others about Him, to make disciples for Him. And so we can apply this to our lives as we learn about Paul's ministry and how it affects it. This was the last verse of chapter three. We all who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory are being transformed into his image with ever increasing glory which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. So in other words as we focus on Jesus, as we contemplate who Jesus is, that's how we get changed from one level of glory to the next level to the next level until eventually and ultimately in heaven we are completely like Him. Let's look at three ways this morning in these six verses that realizing the eternal value of Christian ministry affects us. First of all, it gives us encouragement to persevere there in verse one. Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. You see, the therefore is pointing back to all that came before in chapter 3, especially to verse 18 that talked about this transformation that happens. We have this incredible new covenant. We live and minister in the new covenant, and since we've been given that, therefore, since we've been given that, we do not lose heart. Now in our English Bibles, verse 1 of Chapter 4 starts a new chapter. As you probably know, when the Bible was written, its original languages, there were no chapter and verse divisions. So humans have come along, and I'm thankful they have come along behind to give us that. It helps us find references to places in the Bible. But you shouldn't think that, oh, chapter 3 finished up this story and now I come to something brand new in chapter 4. No, this is just a continuation of that paragraph. Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. God's new way of dealing with people now in the era of the new covenant is a stunning thing. Because now rather than just being told what to do and always failing at it, now God is energizing his people through the Holy Spirit to be able to do it, to be able to accomplish it, to be able to live differently, to be able to be transformed. In light of that, Paul says, and God is speaking through him, we do not lose heart. In other words, we have a certain ministry from God, and it's not just any ministry, it's this ministry. It's the ministry of the new covenant. In other words, we have the ability to tell people about something that will change their lives. Think about it. What if you were given a task to go tell people to do something that they had to do and you knew they would never do it? You knew they would not be interested in doing it at all, and even if they were interested in doing it, they wouldn't be capable of doing it. What if that was your job in life? What if you had to do that over and over every day? Day after day, you had to go tell people to do something. I think of my friend out there, Joe Dow, a Duke fan. What if you were given the job as an enlightened fan of, say, North Carolina, and your job was to go to the Duke fan and try to convince them to think rationally about sports? If you had to do that, and that's all you had to do day after day after day, you'd get tired of it. You would give up. All right, I'm being a little bit silly here, but think about it. If you have a ministry to do, if you have something to accomplish and you're trying to talk to people about doing it and you want them to do it and there's no way they could ever do it or be interested in it, you could easily get discouraged. But Paul says, wait a minute, we have this ministry. this ministry of the New Covenant where there is power to change, where there is something dynamic, there is something real. And in light of that, because we have that, because it's that valuable, we're not going to give up. We're not going to quit. We're not going to throw in the towel. We're not going to lose heart. I'm sure he says it's through God's mercy that we have this ministry. I'm sure Paul was thinking back to his own conversion experience. He was not a follower of Jesus Christ. He was very much against followers of Jesus Christ. He was destroying them. He was on the way to a city, Damascus, to arrest them and persecute them and some of them to be put to death. And he recounts that story for us in 1 Timothy 1 when he says, I thank Jesus Christ, our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. Paul's thinking about his own conversion experience and he's saying, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. You see how Paul is making his case here? His ministry is greater than the ministry of Moses, not because Paul is greater than Moses, but because Moses was ministering under the old covenant. Moses was ministering under a covenant that commanded but didn't enable. But Paul, on the other hand, is ministering under a covenant that commands and frees and enables. Knowing that you and I, who are followers of Jesus Christ, have that same ministry, should have the same effect on us today. It should encourage us to keep going. As you are ministering, as you are trying to introduce people to Christ, as you're trying to disciple them, I promise you you're going to run into opposition. I promise you it's going to be hard. I promise you there are times when you're going to be discouraged, and you're going to feel like quitting, and you're going to feel like, what's the use? Are they ever going to change? But in light of the fact that we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. That's why we can't quit ministering. It's not because the church needs us. It's not because we feel an obligation. It's not only because it's the right thing to do, but it's because of God's great, incredible mercy and the unbelievable privilege that God gives you and me to minister for him. Sometimes we think somehow, unfortunately, that we're doing God a favor by serving Him in some way. But the opposite is true. God is being merciful to us by allowing us the privilege of being His representative. You've probably heard the story, I'm sure many times, The man walks up on the construction site and sees three guys building their bricklayers. And he asks the first one, what are you doing? He says, I'm laying bricks. The second one says, what are you doing? Or he says to the second, what are you doing? He said, I'm building a wall. And to the third one, he says, what are you doing? And he says, I'm building a cathedral. It was the vision for what he was doing, the vision of understanding that was energizing and giving him hope and giving him focus. What are you doing when you serve the Lord? Even when you serve the Lord here, say on a Sunday, are you rocking babies? Are you chasing toddlers? Maybe yes, but maybe you're helping build young lives into disciples of Jesus Christ that are going to love the church, and they're going to love God, and they're going to love coming to this place, and their parents are also going to love you for letting them worship with adults in peace. We do not lose heart. Secondly, how realizing the eternal value of Christian ministry affects us, it directs us to minister in truth and integrity, verse 2. Instead of losing heart, what happens? Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways. We do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly, we commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. Instead of being disheartened, Paul renounced any and all practices that would bring shame on the name of Jesus Christ. Any kind of shameful ways, any kind of deception. Now it may be that Paul had been charged. There were so many opponents of Paul. It may be that he had been charged with being secretive and deceptive. Or it may be that there were people out there and that was the way that they were acting and Paul was setting himself apart from them or Maybe it could have been both, but either way, it gives us a good glimpse into how Paul did ministry. In light of the fact that it's a glorious ministry of the new covenant, we have to conduct ourselves in a certain way. We have to minister with truth and integrity. We set forth the truth plainly, he says in the second part of that verse, and that's what we do to commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. Nothing secretive, nothing shameful, nothing deceptive. Don't you wish that were true of all of our public figures today? This is not the world in which we live, unfortunately, but it needs to be true of believers because they being, and when I say they, the world, people around us, people in our community are watching us and they're watching how we conduct ourselves. Remember, it's everyone's conscience. For Paul, this would have been believers and unbelievers, people in Corinth and people in other places. It's an open, candid, full disclosure that Paul had for them. And remember the connection. What makes it so important to minister in truth and integrity is The type of ministry you have, the person for whom you are ministering, the essence of our message, Jesus Christ, because of who He is. it deserves our being ministers of truth and integrity. So how does realizing the eternal value of Christian ministry affect us? First of all, it gives us encouragement to persevere. Secondly, it directs us to minister in truth and integrity. And then finally, it leads us to put the focus on Christ rather than on ourselves. That's what Paul talks about as he gets to the second half of this passage, and these three verses actually answer three questions as he walks through. The first one is, why do some people not respond to the gospel? That's in verses 3 and 4. So in other words, if Paul has this ministry, if he's involved with this covenant, and it's great, and it's grand, and it's glorious, and it can change people's lives, Why isn't every person that Paul talks to just following? Why doesn't every person just say, oh yes, this is great? When we tell people about Christ, why doesn't everybody just immediately say, yes, I want to follow Christ too? Well, it's not the fault of the message or the messenger, but we find out. In verse 3, where the fault lies, Paul says, even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ who is the image of God. Paul is talking about the glory of the gospel in this passage, but not everybody sees it. Some people are blinded to it, and he's alluding of course to earlier in the passage, Moses would go and be in the presence of God and there would be glory on his face and he would cover his face to cover that glory so that you couldn't really fully see everything that's there. And what was true of Moses in the old covenant, even Paul said was true in his day. The Jewish people of his day that did not follow Jesus, many of them did, but the ones who did not follow Jesus, he said, it's like they have a veil, they have a covering over their hearts and minds so that they can't see there's something impeding them. And now he tells us exactly what it is. The God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers. We have people of all ages sitting here in this room, from people, maybe most of the kids have gone out, so from teenager, I guess maybe 13 might be the youngest typically, up to Don Hill, our missionary going back to Thailand, up to like 97, so from 13 to 97. People of all ages, how many of you or at least old enough to notice that your eyesight is not as good as it used to be. Will you gradually raise your hand up just a little bit and admit it? All right, that's a lot of us. That's a lot of us. Not only do people start getting glasses, different kinds of, like reading glasses, right? But this thing happens called cataracts. where there is a film that gets on your eye. Several years ago, in one of my less than brilliant moments, I was working in the yard and hit myself with a shovel. I was digging, and it's one of those deals that hits you in the eye, you just turn really quickly, and it hurt for a while. put the stuff in there, some drops and all that, and for a while. And then I went for, I don't know, a year, two years maybe, and it didn't, you know, it didn't affect me. But then my eye doctor, when I would take those annual visits, he would start noticing, wow, your prescription is getting worse and worse and worse. And he noticed that some cataracts form just because of age, and some of them form because of injury. He said, I think you had an injury-related cataract, and I had it. So I went in, had laser surgery, boop, it was done, and it was great. I can see great out of that eye. that reminds me, and I remember how it was, like the other eye was just fine with glasses, of course, and then the same eye with the same prescription, everything was kind of blurry. I just couldn't see it. It just didn't, it wasn't clear. And you know, it's something like a spiritual cataract that people have that aren't believers in Jesus Christ. They can't, when we talk about how great Jesus is, and how wonderful he is, and how great it is to follow him, an unbeliever might go, Really? Or, I don't get that. Or, I don't understand that. And it's like there's a spiritual cataract. In fact, it's actually worse than a cataract if you look at verse 4. Satan has not only given spiritual cataracts, he has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ who is the image of God. When Jesus died on the cross, Satan was defeated. That was clear. And yet, even though he's been ultimately defeated, he still has the ability to work in people's minds and hearts. And so for those of us, for instance, that have people in our lives that we're concerned about. that aren't Christians, that we want to become Christians, this helps us understand where the real battle is. It's not their personality. It's not you and them. It's not that you have to try to convince them. It's that it's a spiritual battle where Satan has blinded their minds, and this is why we must pray, because God uses prayer. to open up people's hearts and minds to the glorious light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I don't know who everybody here is this morning. I don't know where you are, but if you are in that boat, if you are a person that maybe you're good, maybe you're religious, maybe you're not religious, you come in this church assembly today. I have great news to tell you. I want everybody to know that we are sinful, we are separated from God by nature because of our wrong, but we have a Savior, Jesus Christ, who said, you know what? I don't want them to be separated from me. I want them with me in heaven forever. I want to give them eternal life. I'm willing to go pay their price for them, and that's what he did on the cross. He died on the cross to pay for our sins so that we could believe in him and trust him and follow him by faith. And when we repent of our sin, that is we see our sin the way God sees it, and we turn to Christ and put our faith in him, he comes in to save us. And he establishes not just religion, but an actual personal relationship with him. That's the good news of the gospel. And if you will open up your heart to Jesus, he will do that for you as well. So I want to invite you to do that if you haven't done it. And if you are working with people that aren't yet Christians, I encourage you to attack it from the level of prayer, that God would open up their hearts. Let's notice, let's take a closer look at what they can't see in verse 4. They cannot see The light of the gospel, the gospel is the good news about Jesus. He lived, he died, he was buried, he rose again. They can't see the light that displays the glory of Christ All of that that he did on the cross, it wasn't just an execution, it wasn't just a death, it wasn't just a disappointment, it was something glorious because it was God's way of bringing salvation. They can't see that, they can't see the glory of Christ who is the image of God. Now in those days, an image was a likeness or a visible expression. There could be a degree of, it could be a resemblance, Or the copy could be an exact replica, and there could be a range in that. It depended on the context. Well, based on the context here, based on other passages like Philippians 2 and Colossians chapter 1, we would say that Christ is an exact representation of God the Father. In fact, let me read those verses to you, Colossians 1, 15 to 20. The Son, Jesus, is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities. All things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." This is not just somebody that's a little bit like God. This is the description of God. He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead. So then in everything He might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. I feel a little bit of pressure this morning in talking about the image of God. Unusual thing, two people this week have asked me in advance of this sermon, hey, what illustration are you going to use to illustrate image of God? Pastor Scott, who's out of town this weekend, earlier in the week, he said, you know, I'll be listening to the sermon after. He said, I'm excited to see, and this is an unusual thing. He usually doesn't just say that. I mean, it's like, how are you going to illustrate, I'm anxious to see how you're going to illustrate this image. And yesterday, my wife, who, never would ask me in advance something about the sermon. She said, honey, I'm wondering how you're going to illustrate the image of God. So I have, this is for my wife and this is for Pastor Scott. The rest of you can just listen in. You ready for the illustration? Here it is. I don't have one. There is no way to illustrate it. Because there's nothing like it in this universe. There is nothing like God the Father and God the Son being two distinct persons and yet one. And that this Son is God. He is the image. Murray Harris says it quite simply. As God's image, Christ both shares and expresses God's nature. That's what it means. Sorry I can't illustrate it, but He shares God's nature and He expresses God's nature to us. I don't know about you, but I want everybody to know that. I have a friend that for years we've talked about God, and this is a friend who has a respect for God and a reverence for God, and actually many years ago was in a terrible life situation, and he called on God. He prayed and asked God to help him get delivered from his addiction. And he was delivered, and he is sober to this day, 20 years later. But he started asking me and Tish, like, about Christ some, and we started sharing with him and talking to him. We've read the Gospel of John, we've read many things, we've read books, and yet he still doesn't yet see that Jesus is the image of God. He still is kind of trusting in God, this just God, without realizing that Jesus is the expression of God. Paul says, wait a minute. Unbelievers are blinded in their minds because they can't see this light, this glory, this amazing thing about Christ, who is the image of God. That's why not everybody has responded. Second question is, well, what is our part? What are we supposed to do? How are we involved? Those of us who are followers, what do we do? Verse five, what we preach is not ourselves. but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. All right, I want you to answer this one out loud, just two or three people. When I read the word preach, what comes to your mind? What do you think of? Proclaiming the word. What image, what do you see, what do you think of somebody preaching? Pounding their fist. Telling what God did for us, right? You probably envision it's something that, like I'm doing right now, right? That happens in a church building. And maybe somebody's wearing, you know, a robe or something, and you think, oh, that's preaching. Well, the word that's translated preach in the New Testament is not a religious word. It's a secular word in its origin. And it was a word that just talked about to announce something, like to announce it as a herald would announce it. So in those days when kings or emperors would have news that they wanted to announce, they would send someone to go preach it. They would send someone to go announce it. It would be like, maybe the modern equivalent might be, say, a press secretary, a politician's press secretary, or in a press conference for a business, or a sports team. They might send someone out as a spokesperson, and they would just announce the news to people to get it out there. And that's the word that Paul is using here. He says, this is what we're announcing. It's not ourselves, we're not announcing ourselves, we're not telling people about us, but we're announcing that Jesus Christ is Lord. So preaching is not just for preachers, though Paul certainly was one. He announced the news about Jesus. He knew the spotlight needed to be on Jesus, not on himself. And I think that's important not for his context, that's important for him to remember as well. I remember when we moved here many years ago from Chicago to plant, harvest, and to start it, and as we met people, one thing we never wanted to do was to try to – people who were already involved in a good gospel preaching church, we weren't trying to get them to come be a part of our church. We were establishing a new church because God led us. but not to take away from the current work that God was doing. And so, but as you're out and you're meeting people and you talk to people and you ask, ask them, did they have a church home or they would come up in conversation. I was, maybe it's a cultural thing of living in the Midwest for so many years and then coming back, people would say, Oh yeah, I go to so-and-so's church and they would name the pastor. I go to so-and-so's church and I'm thinking, really? It's supposed to be about Jesus Christ, not about the pastor, not about the staff, not even about the church. Paul says, we don't preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord. What does it mean when we say we're preaching Jesus Christ as Lord? We're acknowledging that He is God, He is divine. We're admitting that He has personal authority and rights. to absolute supremacy in the universe. We're acknowledging that He triumphs over the grave and all of the cosmic hostile powers. We're declaring that we're all accountable to Him. He's the judge. We're making a public declaration of our faith and we're repudiating allegiance to any other gods. Jesus Christ is Lord. And he says, and ourselves. What about us? Are we promoting ourselves? No. We're your servants for Christ's sake. That's really interesting that Paul would call himself their servants. He usually calls himself a servant of God. But he said, we're your servants. And I think, if you think back to Philippians chapter 2, the great passage about Christ, who though he was God, in very nature God, he didn't consider his existing in a manner equal with God as something to be grasped, but he humbled himself and he became a servant. So this Jesus who is Lord, he became a servant, and if I'm going to follow him and he's going to be my Lord, then that means I'm going to be a servant too, and Paul recognized that. That's what leads us to serve others, and it's all for Jesus' sake. Well, the final question is in verse six, and that is, where is real glory found? And he says, for God, who said, let light shine out of darkness, that's an allusion to the creation, that's an allusion to Genesis. Let light shine out of the darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ. This four that begins verse six explains why Paul preaches Christ as Lord and why he served the Corinthians. It's because God has shined a spiritual light into his heart. And just like God in the Old Testament at the creation, he commanded that there would be light and it was a great creative power, that's what God does when he saves and changes a person. It's like he shines spiritual light into them into a dark heart. Think about the contrast. The God of this age, what is He doing? He's creating blindness and darkness. But God, our God, the Heavenly Father, is creating light and transformation and change. If God gives you light, He wants you to share it with others. So it's displayed in the face of Christ. In the Old Testament, the glory was displayed, the glory of God as Moses encountered God was displayed on his face, and he veiled it and it was passing away. But now it's permanently displayed in the person of Jesus Christ. One of the verses that was read to us as part of our Scripture reading, Hebrews 1.3, the Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being. Well, if we understand the value of this ministry that God has given us, we will never quit exalting Christ. That's what Paul is doing here. He says, I'm not going to quit. I'm not going to lose heart. I'm going to exalt Christ by the way I do my ministry. I'm going to exalt Christ by ministering in truth and integrity. I'm not going to preach myself. I'm not going to exalt myself. In the midst of this spiritual battle where people's minds are blind, I'm just going to preach Jesus Christ to them. I'm going to keep exalting Christ. If we understand the value of the ministry that God has given us, we will never quit exalting Christ. part at the bottom of your outline, how I can put the Word into practice this week. I encourage you to go home with this, give it some thought so that it doesn't just end here this morning. I encourage you to take it home, I encourage you to think about it, I encourage you to deal with it and ask God, how can I actually put it into practice? But I want to just suggest a general pattern that you might think about. This is for those who are Christians. I want to speak in the end to those who are Christians and those who are not Christians. But if you're already a follower of Jesus Christ, I want to suggest a general pattern. First of all, the pattern is to identify the unbelievers around you. Identify the people around whom you work, rest, live, and play. Identify who they are. Ask God to show you who they are. Love them, build relationships with them, and then secondly, pray for them. Pray that God would open their hearts and their minds and give you opportunities. And then, announce the gospel boldly. Identify, pray, and announce. Sometimes people go, I don't know what to say to people, I'm nervous. Are they gonna ask me questions? Just tell them about Jesus. Tell them about how great Jesus is. Tell them about who He is. Tell them about what Jesus has done. He's the message. It's not you and me and our techniques. It's just who Jesus is. And obviously, in our culture, it's usually in the context of a relationship, because that's when people trust you. So let me tell you about this as I close. Well, two things. I want to tell you two stories. One that happened to me yesterday, one I read about. So yesterday, I'm on the golf course with some guys, and I'm in a league and several guys I know, and there was a guy who I didn't know very well. He's kind of just come around in the last few weeks. And, you know, I think I'm a normal person, right? Don't you? Of course you do. But there aren't many pastors in this league. There aren't many Christians in this league. Anyway, so everybody kind of knows I'm a pastor. So we're like up on a tee, getting ready to tee off, and we're waiting for a second on the group in front of us. So he turns to me and he looks at me and he says, what kind of pastor are you? Or what kind of preacher are you? And I just said, a good one. I'm just going with it a little bit. I knew what he was asking, but I didn't want to, you know, answer it right away. And he said, no, no, I mean, like, is it Baptist or is it Methodist or whatever? And I told him, I said, we're a non-denominational church, we're Bible-based, Bible-focused, preach the Word. He started to tell me about his religious upbringing. He was in a traditional religion, and he was very involved with it. He had somebody, a grandfather, an uncle, somebody, some relative that just made them go. His words were, he said, there was a lot of Jesus. in my life early on, but he said, I don't think I did a very good job with my own kids about that. So he's not involved at all. Now, one of the other guys in the group is one of those few guys who also is a Christian, and he kind of facetiously turned back, he was getting ready to go up and hit, and he said, you can't have too much Jesus, can you? And I thought, I hadn't said a word hardly yet, and I'm thinking, what do I say? You only got a quick second, right? What can I say about the gospel that might be beneficial? And the Lord gave me grace, and I said, you know what? No, I don't think you can ever have too much Jesus, but I said, I do think you can have too much religion. I said, I think a lot of people just have, all they have is just like religious experiences, and it's never personal, and they've never come to understand what a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ is. That's on the golf tee. And then, of course, we all hit, and we went on, and nothing else was ever said, you know, the way it kinda goes. And I thought about this, actually, last night, afterwards, as I'm looking over my sermon one last time, and I think, this is the gospel. This is a person who is religious, and what does he need to hear about? Does he really need to hear about church? Does he really need to hear about religion? He needs to hear about Jesus Christ as Lord. Well, in the message of 2 Corinthians, Paul Barnett asked this question, are we intimidated by the aggressive opposition of non-Christians? Do we feel helpless in the face of the God of this age? we should reflect on the powerful gospel God has placed in our mouths. By means of this message ordinary people as God's fellow workers are able to convey the light of God into human hearts and bring about a new creation. Well, one of the most popular shows on PBS is a show called Antiques Roadshow. On the show, leading auction houses partner with private, independent dealers to give people free appraisals about antiques, stuff that they've had laying around in their house, their attic, their garage, or wherever. So one of the shows, a man came in and he had this blanket that he had had for years, he inherited it and he just, he never thought much about it, he just put it, he threw it over a rocking chair in his bedroom and it sat there for years and years and somehow he thought, well I wonder if it's an antique, I wonder if it's worth anything. And so the appraiser looked at it and said, that was the blanket of a Navajo chief that was woven in the 1840s. And it was in almost perfect condition. So this blanket that's been hanging over the guy's rocking chair, the appraiser looks at him and says it's worth somewhere between $350,000 and $500,000. All of a sudden that man understood the value of what he had. And it changed how he treated that blanket. You know, he kind of casually brought it in. Well, what did he do? Folded it up, I guess, nicely, held it tightly. Two security guards accompanying him, he went right to the bank and put it in a safe deposit box. What seemed to be ordinary at best and possibly junk at worst was recognized as a stunning treasure. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verses 1 to 6, Paul recognized that God gave him a stunning treasure, being a minister of the new covenant. And that led him to not quit, that led him to live a life of integrity, and that led him to preach to everybody, to announce to everybody that Jesus is Lord. And my question for you is, are you going to let it lead you to do those things as well? Everybody in this room is either a Christian or not. If you're not a Christian, I want to say to you, the cross of Jesus Christ is a stunning treasure worth far more than $500,000. This is life. This is God. This is hope for eternity. And Christians, yes, we face a hard job out there. But let's remember, it's not up to us and it's not about us and our techniques. It's about the ministry that God has given us. Because if we understand the value of the ministry that God has given us, we will never quit exalting Christ. Let's don't quit. Let's don't quit exalting Him. Let's keep lifting Him up. Let's bow our heads together please. at what day. What day will we go?