Well, for a long time now, since February, we have been basically dealing with topics that you have asked me questions about, and we've looked at those particular topics and gone through them. Today, I'm doing a topic that I want to do. So, we have finished up your topics. Get to do a topic I want to do because I normally don't choose any of the topics I mean I choose them, but I don't choose them except through you and So this is out of 2nd Corinthians What we want to do is go back to 2nd Corinthians chapter 2 verse 12 and go through 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 verse 7 Now, this particular topic that I'm talking about has to do with our ministry. Our ministry that God has given to each one of us. And I was reading through this passage one time. There's a particular verse in this passage that I'll share with you just a minute out of 2 Corinthians chapter 4 where we're going to start and go back to verse chapter 2 that I was reading these verses and all of a sudden I realized how much was being said about the ministry in this section of the Word. And I never heard anybody really talk about it in those terms. So I went back and worked it through in relationship to what was being said. And I was just amazed how it helped define to me a great deal of what God wants me to be about in relationship to what he's called me to be about. In other words, the things that he wants me to see and understand and feel as I go about doing ministry. Now, the word ministry, of course, has got to be defined, and it's not really defined here in exact terms, but what I want to do is just throw out to you for a minute what it is that you see that God has given to you as a ministry, so that we can help define that for you anyway. Because really these verses don't mean anything unless you have a real sense inside of your own heart that God has given you a ministry. Unless you have that inside of you, unless you have an understanding inside of what God has called you to be on a day-to-day basis, then all the beauty that he can put through all this into you is pointless. Because the problem is you don't see a ministry. you don't see your life as being significant. You don't see it as being used by God. And so you have to get a hold of that and help define that before these verses become anything that's meaningful to you, because it presupposes that you see that. So let's define that. So let's just kind of throw that out and open to you. How would you define what God has given to you as a ministry? or do you say those components are? And we'll try to put them together a little bit and allow people to see that and then from there we'll go on to these verses. That's not a rhetorical question. Yeah, Jeff? I think that if you don't see that, you really truly missed why it is you're on the earth. In other words, God has put you directly in contact with people every single day, and usually that's your family. So as a whole, most of us are dealing with family members or people who are, in some ways, we would consider our family, even though they're not our family. Maybe they are very, very closest friends, or if you're on a college campus or something like that, it'd be these people you gather around every day and that you talk to every single day, your doormate or whatever. So these would be people who are the closest to you on a day-to-day basis. And I consider that perhaps the greatest part of your ministry. but that these people are the people who you love, these people you're interactive with, these people you're on a consistent basis with. So you've got to see that as being a primary part of what you are in relationship to your ministry. Okay, what else beyond that? Okay, and some people have been directly called to support, for instance, you don't go to Fishfield, But like my mom, she has been given, and Wilma has been given, an enormous sense, okay, inside of something that God is doing far away. And usually these people can, like my mother, doesn't necessarily even filter through a person she knows. Where she prayed for a tribe of people that she never knew, never knew, you know, she just knew where it was on a world map, and had prayed for that group of people for 15 years. And yet that was something that she was given. God gave that to her, a heart for her in relationship to that particular area. So I would say that you would have to look around you in relationship to your own heart as to what God has placed inside of your own soul in relationship to something that is precious to you, that intrigues you in relationship to people. If you've not defined that very well, you need to define that. For instance, my wife has been given an enormous desire to help underprivileged people in the Vietnamese community that's here around Oklahoma City University. There's 25,000 of them. And she has a real hunger to serve those people. But I find her losing the vision. In other words, so many things trap that out, take it away. But it's really if you ask her, if you ask her, what's on your heart? OK, this would be one of the first things she would tell you that's on her heart besides her family. So you have to ask what God has placed on your heart. OK, individually, all the way across the board, if he's not done that, maybe you have not allowed him to. And you need to pray about that. And when something begins to be crystallized in your mind as to a kind of vision or something for a group of people or individual people, you should begin to take that small thing and continue to pray about it until it becomes a large thing within your own soul. So that's what you need to look at, because everybody should have that. In other words, we have our family, but we ought to have something that God has given to us directly. And that we should be praying about and investing our time and our thoughts and our heart in terms of that. That is our ministry. Because everybody's different. Every single person will be given a different vision here. I have been given a vision in relationship to the students I teach. Now I'm very, very fortunate that mine are right there in front of me, but I got 600 of them that are not, that have already graduated and gone on. So what am I doing with that? In other words, that's the ministry that's already passed through. Well, I pray about that. What do you want me to do? How do you want me to be involved in that? Because it's a part of my own heart. That's what God has given me. So each person has got to direct that and issue that within themselves. Anything else that you can think of? And that's another very important aspect. You should expect God to use you in a given day, and you should be watching for small, tiny things that you can do that cause the grace and the love of God to go into a person's life. Okay? These are divine appointments. You carry with you, as we're going to see this beautiful chapter about what ministerial is, literally you're carrying the soul and heart of God, and it's brushing alongside of people who do not have Him. And when that happens, it should cause something to happen. His grace and his love somehow or other passes through to you, to them. And it usually is very small. It's not very big, except you prayed through it, and so it can be very big. You'll never know necessarily that it ever was. But you accept by faith that that's true, that that can happen. Sometimes you'll see it enormously become something huge in relationship to the divine appointment. The people that you sit by on a plane, people that you listen, talk to on a telephone, they call you up. For instance, I got a call last night, right in the middle of the OU game. And do you know that I had to shut that off in my brain? I literally had to go, you know, that's not important. This person's important. and this person I haven't talked to probably eight years and found out that her husband has cancer and you know it's just out of the blue. Okay and these are things that God allows you to be a part of and you should pray for them to be a part of. You should pray that the day that your life would be used on these small ways. A lot of times I see it in my students because I can't see what's going on in students but it has to do with touches and and just asking questions about their life and those kinds of things. And, you know, you see somebody over there that seems to be unsettled, you know, or down just by their posture. You go and you put your hand on them and say, how you doing? Usually they say, not so good. And you just tell them, is there anything I can do for you? Can I pray for you? Just anything. that God brings to you in relationship to divine appointment, something that happens and you will never know. I mean, getting up in that day, you have no idea. That is not something that's orchestrated. It's orchestrated by God. But you have to be keenly aware that it's a part of your ministry. Let's go ahead and get into these particular scriptures to give you some principles that I've seen from studying this particular area. about what a ministry is to be like and what's going on as God deals with us in this area. So let's look at verse one of chapter four. This is what started me in on this. I turned back to this because my father-in-law was the one who gave me this verse a long time ago. And he says that this verse has been a great encouragement to him, and there are several principles that you see in this verse. Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. Okay? And the first thing that you see about this particular verse is, that my father-in-law told me, is that this ministry that you receive is a ministry that's received from God's view. It is his ministry that he has designed for your life. Okay, it's particular and it's specific. It is something as he basically created you, he had a plan for. And so it becomes his ministry through you. The only way that you can really cut this off is when you're no longer walking with him. or you're not listening to Him, or you're not functioning with Him. That's how you would cut it off. And then all of a sudden it becomes either your ministry, your desires, or your dreams. And all of a sudden you'll find yourself in conflict with the plans and dreams and desires of God. But as long as you're surrendered to Him, the ministry is alive, and it's His ministry, and it's His plan, and He's causing it to be divinely moved through your life. Okay. So that's one of the things that you see and you receive mercy from God in relationship to this experience because the experience at times can be discouraging. That's exactly what the verse is talking about. But you can lose heart. And so you can call upon God who has planned this. It is his plan for your heart and your life, and you're surrendered to it. And again, if you're not surrendered to it, of course, you're gonna find yourself in conflict with it. That's a big step, folks, because my desire for my son or my desire for a particular person in my family may not be the same desire that God's desire is. And so I'll find myself in conflict with his purposes. So when my son doesn't move in certain directions or whatever, I get discouraged or get mad or angry or disappointed. And I find myself breaking myself away from the will of God, not being willing, basically, to not lose heart and allow the mercy of God to hold me while this whole process is going on, that he is working. So that's very difficult sometimes to do. but it is his ministry, he designed it for your life, and he plans to institute it. And by mercy, you will be able to not lose heart. You will be able to go on, but you ask for his mercy. So when you lose heart, ask for his mercy. Let him revitalize the vision. Spend more time talking to him than worrying about the ministry. In other words, allow the ministry and his mercy, I mean, the mercy appease you in relationship to your broken heart or your hurt heart so that you can then ministry, go into ministry again. Okay. So this is what you're seeing here is a kind of discouraged person who is a little bit lost the vision, but through mercy, he's able to gain again what God is asking to have. Okay. Now the word therefore is the clue that took me back to the other parts of the chapters. Therefore, since we have this ministry, since it is ours, therefore, that means that he has said a lot about that ministry previously. So I said, well, I didn't ever catch that. In other words, what has God said in chapter three? And I noticed that it'd go clear back to chapter two about ministry. So that's when I began to investigate it, the word therefore. Okay. Now, let me give you just a quick illustration. This is going to take two Sundays because we did our thing here. But there are a lot of places to go to help kind of visualize or see things a little bit more. And I'll just take you to one about the ministry that God has formed in his mind to give to you. And you must give your heart to that ministry. You must give it to them. This is in Jeremiah chapter one, when God talks to Jeremiah about what ministry that God has seen in his own mind for Jeremiah's life. Okay? And this is what God says. Now, the word of the Lord came to me saying, behold, I formed you in the womb. Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. and before you were born, I consecrated you. I appointed you a prophet to the nations. Then I said, alas, Lord God, behold, I do not know how to speak because I am a youth. But the Lord said to me, do not say I am a youth because everywhere I send you, you shall go and all that I command you, you shall speak. And then in verse 11, And the word of the Lord came to me saying, what did you see, Jeremiah? And I said, I see a rod on an almond tree. Then the Lord said to me, you have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it." Now, what you see here is Psalm 139 for all of us who say, I'm not Jeremiah. You know, God's just talking to Jeremiah here. But in Psalm 139, it says the same thing with everybody. while you were being knitted in your womb, God had plans for you. Okay? And so this is just a case of that particular broad principle. And essentially, God says, I have consecrated you in my own mind for a mission. That is the significance of your life. And you surrender yourself to me to allow that mission to be performed. and you consciously keep the mission alive in your mind because you know it exists. You know why most missions or ministries are not done on a given day-to-day basis? Because you don't believe that it exists. It's nothing but a principle up here, and as you walk through a day, you don't believe that God's going to do anything with your life. You're more interested in taking care of the plan of the day Okay, then you are that God does ministry through you. Now if I asked you if that was true, you wouldn't say that. But you watch you get up tomorrow morning and how are you by faith grabbing hold of the significance of your own life on that given day? If that's not a conscious act within your mind, it will not be alive as you walk through the day. is something I learned a long time ago, that by faith, I have to grab a hold of my significance in the eyes of God for a plan today that he has for my life. By faith, I grab a hold of my own significance in his eyes. He's telling Jeremiah right here, I see you as significant and I have a plan for you. You must grab the plan and your significance within it. You know what Jeremiah says? I don't see it. It's just exactly what he says. I can't speak and I'm too young. That's basically the way most of us operate. Okay? I'm too young and I can't speak. This big plan you got for my life, I don't see it. And what you gave me as tools are not going to fit that plan. So that's essentially what you see. And that's true too. I have my plan. But that's a little bit different in terms of what was being said there. But that's exactly right. That's another big problem that we have in relationship to everyday. Okay. Any thought or question on that before we move on? Sorry, Amanda, speak up. Now, what I would have to say, okay, is that you, if you've ever followed a person like my father, okay, who's got a schedule that will crush most people, okay, in other words, just, you know, just like this, and everywhere, every day, it's just like that. And what you have to do is at the very beginning of that day, assume this attitude. that even the schedule has been arranged by God. And the people that you meet within that schedule will be things that you must be attuned to as to what it is your significance is within that schedule. Now, it may be that nothing happens that you see, but you're attuned to it. You're available to it. And sure enough, it'll blindside you. In other words, all of a sudden, somebody will say something, or you'll say something, and you'll have an opportunity. But in reality, if that's not a lie inside your mind, you're not attuned to it at all. The schedule demands everything. And so all of a sudden, the very principle of ministry goes right out the window, because the schedule is the thing that demands everything. Right. That's exactly right. For instance, a young lady who just graduated and gone to school, and she wants to do what she wants to do, that's what I want to talk to you about, and she said, Laura, I want to learn from the culture of the Taiwanese, and I need to learn Chinese, and send me somebody that has that background, found in the first class. So she's just deeply in tune to You know, what God is going to do while she's at work, she's thinking totally and completely about what it is she's going to do with these people while she's at work. What are the opportunities that basically God has for me this day? And that that takes an enormous mindset. And that's how my dad operates. Every single patient he sees, a lot of times they say it takes too long with patients. But again, that's what he's looking for. Okay. And sometimes it's not there. All it is is an encouraging word or the word God in a sentence. Or another person that doesn't even know. And they look at Dad and they go, you know, they respect him highly and then they hear him say God. And then they know he believes in that. So it can be small little teeny things that you never know. But you're alive to that significance. And you're right. Schedules snuff out the whole process. Relationship with I mean it can easily do that it takes all your energies just to meet the task Okay, and you're not thinking about those things Okay, but this is what you see see what you're seeing in verse 12. This is when God says I am watching Over my word to perform it I'm watching over my word to perform it Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 12. And he's telling Jeremiah, Jeremiah, you're not too young and I have made you capabilities and don't put any excuses in front of me that have to do with your own life. I know who you are. I made you for a plan, for a purpose. Find the plan. and move into that plan and don't allow these excuses to keep you from benefiting because I'm watching over my word and I plan to perform it. And you're the instrument of the performance. I have it in my mind and I've consecrated it and I will perform it. So therefore, don't be discouraged. Don't lose heart. because it is happening. It's working. It's moving. And that's essentially what we're finding in that beautiful verse. Okay. We only have five minutes left. Yes. We have one more question, which means I won't get out of one verse. No, it's not. Not necessarily a disqualifier. In fact, one of the things that you would find is also that there would be an excuse that's drawn up from you. You look at your own weaknesses in relationship to what's going on, but what you're not really seeing is an enormous vision that God has for certain things to occur. For instance, we had a message last week by a guy who's one of our teachers who ministers in South Africa as well, and he basically said that Gideon, for instance, was the youngest child, and he was given a task that he was doing in total fear. He was threshing wheat out in a wine pit so he could hide from the Midians. And an angel came and sat down on top of the wine press and said, Gideon, you are a mighty warrior, and God has great plans for you. Well, Gideon did not sense inside of himself at all that he was a mighty warrior. There wasn't anything in him that made him think he was a mighty warrior. Nobody told him he was a mighty warrior. So it really, it's something that God seems to come along and define for you, even in the middle of your weakness. I'm not sure if you can just go say, well, because he's weak in this area, we're going to let him do this. Okay. and you don't use that. But it really is God who defines that, more or less. Because see, God is the one who told Jeremiah and Gideon, both, and Moses, and everybody else, essentially, look, I made you, and don't let that stop you. So it really is God who has to bring a person to a real understanding of that, not somebody from the outside, though God could use somebody from the outside. But at the same time, it would be more real assurance from God that this is his vision. Well, that's a part of what we're going to study, OK? That's what we're going to go back and pick up. If you want to, you can take these verses yourself and go through them, look at them for next week, because now we'll go back and pick these up, beginning in chapter two, verse 12, and really running through all the way through 2 Corinthians chapter four, verse 18. So if you wanna go back and just start listing the principles that God has been given to you. For instance, the very first principle, you got two minutes here, I'll give that to you. In that first verse, there's two principles within the first verse. Now, when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ, when a door was opened for me in the Lord, Two principles there. First of all, he is essentially going everywhere he goes for the gospel of Christ. It's the dominant function of his life. Everywhere he goes. In fact, you're going to see him say this over and over and over again. Everywhere I go, I'm going essentially to be able to speak about the gospel of Christ to the gas attendant, to, you know, And it doesn't have to be a complete explanation of the whole gospel either. It's just that it is essentially seeing God inside of you a lot that causes these people to understand that he's there. That's exactly what you're going to find later on. That is the gospel. And the other thing is, is essentially he says, it is amazing when you have this attitude that God will open the doors. And you only go where God opens the doors. You don't go where he doesn't. You don't take a sledgehammer and try to knock the door down. You go where God opens the door. And only God can open the door. Okay, well we'll look at this. Yeah, we'll look at this next week.