One of the periodicals that I get on a monthly basis is called Current Thoughts and Trends. It's the reader's digest, if you will, for pastors and Christian workers that summarizes a lot of different periodicals, articles from periodicals, secular and sacred, if you will. They'll summarize an article from Time magazine just as easily as Christianity Today or something else. In this month's issue, there was one particular article that captured my attention. It's entitled, Everything You Wanted to Know About Church Planting. Now, having a modicum of experience in that particular realm, I was intrigued to read what the author had to say. Of course, this is the summary article, and he's talking at this particular point in the article about the importance of gathering people together. This paragraph, just a couple of sentences. Many church plants stop growing at 50 people. You'd think that these 50 would bring another 50, but most people stay with the relationships they've formed. So the pastor needs to use half of his time caring for the congregation and the other half continuing to attract new people. Now, years ago, and for a period of years in my life, I believed that paragraph. I lived that paragraph. I woke up and I went to sleep according to that paragraph. Did I not? But you know what? the Lord has given me insight into a, years ago, gave me insight into a very common passage of scripture that I have preached on many times and you've read many times from Paul's book to the Ephesians. In that particular book, chapter four, Paul writes, and he gave some as apostles, and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry. Now, here's the dilemma in my thinking. We have 50 people that we've brought together. These 50 ought to go out and get an additional 50 people, right? Well, if that doesn't work, if the people aren't doing their part of the ministry, then the pastor needs to use half of his time caring for the congregation and the other half continuing to attract new people. Now, there are some pastors who have the gift of being a people gatherer. Some of you are people gatherers. Melody comes to my mind. She is a people gatherer. Now there are some people that have that gift, that skill, those abilities, and if God has wired them together, they are obligated by God, because of how we put them together, to use that gift for his glory. But there's a lot of pastors that aren't gifted in that regard. They're gifted in another way. God expects them to do what? Well, let me put down this and pick up this. They are to equip the saints for the work of ministry. My friends, you and I, as joint heirs in Christ, fellow believers, we have the awesome responsibility and privilege together of being involved in ministry. Now when we use that term, we often think of somebody who's been to Bible college, been to seminary, trained, has the title and the office to do the job. No, those that have been a seminary, have the title and the position, are there to equip you to do the job. And so all of what I'm going to be saying this morning is really a repeat of where we've been here in the recent past and in the historic past. wanting to help you see your responsibility and opportunity before the Lord. I invite you to turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 4, where we will be investing our time this morning. Ephesians chapter four is where we'll be. Verses one through six is where we'll specifically look at. The outline for this morning is simply this. What we have received is what we give. What we receive, verse one, is what we give, verses two through six. Next week we'll continue this, talking about what it costs us. but we won't get to verses seven and following until next week. Read with me, verses one through six. Therefore I, that happens to be the beginning of the book of Ephesians, chapter four. Let's try, I knew there was a therefore, but I knew the second word wasn't I. Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart, but we have renounced the things hidden because of shameful because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the Word of God, but by the manifestation of truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And even if the Gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. in whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus is Lord, and ourselves as your bondservants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, light shall shine out of darkness, is the one who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." Paul begins by telling us three things that we have received. He says, first of all, we have received a calling. He says, we have this ministry. That's our calling. We have this ministry, not I have this ministry. No, he's speaking to all of the people there in Corinth. No, we have this ministry. He's including all of them. The next chapter, chapter 5, he specifies that by saying in verse 18, All these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Namely, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting the trespasses against him, and he has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors of Christ. That is our ministry. It is a ministry of reconciliation. It is a ministry where we as ambassadors go in God's name, proclaiming God's truth and pleading with those with whom we come in contact, be reconciled to God. Now, God does not say that our ministry is one of saving people. Our ministry is simply being truth proclaimers as an ambassador. You, representing the Lord, go to that person in that other country and you speak the words God has given to you as the ambassador. You don't go on your authority. You go on his authority. You don't go in your name. No, you go in his name as his ambassador. Paul says we have this ministry. However, he doesn't give us that kind of detail until chapter 5. So what is the this specifically referring to in its context? He says, therefore, When we have a therefore, we have to look backwards. And he's speaking of this ministry that he already has specified in chapter three. We looked at that last week. That ministry is a ministry of great power because it brings personal transformation. And that ministry is a glorious ministry. It has greater glory than we see in the Old Testament. It is a ministry without veils. That is, there is an honesty, there is an integrity, there is nothing to hide, and there's nothing to prove. We are simply messengers of a gospel that brings life, change, and transformation. That is the this ministry we have received. It's a calling. It's an obligation. It's an opportunity. Paul says we've received something else. Not only a calling, but we have received compassion. He says since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, Now you'd think that Paul would have said, we have received mercy and therefore we have a ministry. That's true. That's a true statement I just make. Because it's in that person who has experienced the mercy and the grace of God, that's the person who is then launched out by the Father into a ministry. So it is true that it is because of mercy that we now have a ministry But Paul doesn't order the words that way. If you were reading the New International Version text, you would be led to believe that it is because of God's mercy that we have this ministry. But Paul speaks first of ministry and then of mercy. Now, am I trying to split hairs? No. Because God is interested in ministry done right. And he says, you have been given a calling, certainly His mercy has effectuated that, but it's out of that calling that we have received mercy. He says, I want you to remember in the doing of this ministry that you are people who have been given mercy. Therefore, the order of the words is such that Paul says, As you have received compassion, so we give out of compassion. Our ministry is motivated and is governed by a heart of mercy, heart of compassion. As we have received, so we give. Paul says we've received a calling, we've received secondly, compassion, third, we have received confidence. He says, therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart. Think of the context in which Paul wrote this. You remember, as Titus came to Paul, he says, rejoice, these people have received and responded to the word of the Lord from you. But he said there's also a number of false teachers there in Corinth that are spreading lies. So in the context of writing this letter, Paul is faced with the emotional struggle of having these people badmouth his name and his Lord and the gospel that he preaches. They are exchanging the truth for lies. and he is far distant from them. Paul says, we do not lose heart. In just a few verses, Paul is going to talk about the God of this world, Satan himself, that liar of all liars, and even in the midst of spiritual battle, Paul says, we do not lose heart. In the day in which Paul preached, he preached to a pagan world where they called lies truth. We live in what philosophers call a postmodern world. where people in our age say that there is no truth. So even in this setting of being emotionally attacked, intellectually attacked, spiritually attacked, Paul says, we do not lose heart. There is a confidence, not in himself, but in the gospel that he preaches, that it will effectuate everything God has purposed for it to do. So Paul says at the very beginning, we have received some wonderful things, folks. We have received a calling from God. And we have received compassion in order to do what God calls us to do. And we have received confidence because what we are about, the work in which we are doing, it's not about us, it's about God. And He has all of the power and all of the wherewithal to accomplish everything He purposes and desires. We have received some great and tremendous things and it's out of the riches of what God has poured into our hands that we give to other people. That's the focus of the remaining verses that we'll look at this morning. We give three things. We give our actions, we give our expectations, and we give our speech. Look with me at verse two. Paul says, we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. Paul says, the way we act is different from the way these false teachers, for example, act in your midst, O Corinthians. Our actions are different. They are distinct. Rather than being hidden, we speak openly. Rather than walking in craftiness, we do not manipulate other people. Rather than adulterating the Word of God, We speak and we teach the word of God clearly, truthfully, accurately, without manipulation. We manifest truth. Truth comes at a high price these days. And for most people, truth has two levels to it. There is truth as I choose to believe it, and there's truth as I impose that on you. Two different kinds of truth. We've seen it work itself out in the political arena. It's been out there and obvious. Two different levels of truth. However, we, as truth-declaring people, must live at a higher standard than what we find other people living. People in the world will say, well, truth is whatever I want it to be. But we are people who say, no, there is right and there is wrong. Truth is here, but it is not here. And that puts an obligation on us on how we live our life. It is unfair, unjust, merciless, and godless for us to say that this is truth and yet live a different way. Now we see that in the lives of people around us, but we are different people. This morning Greg used the illustration, if you have a black bucket of, a bucket of black paint and you drop one drop of white in it, it's not gonna make a big difference. But if you have a bucket of white paint and you drop one drop of black paint in it, it makes an enormous difference. We are people of the light. We are people of the white. We are different in our nature. We are called by God to live different lives. So we give to other people a different lifestyle, a different way of acting, a different way of making decisions, a different way of approaching a problem. I put this quote in your notes, I love this. From Garrison Keillor, when the country goes temporarily to the dogs, the cats must learn, read that, learn to be circumspect, walk on fences, sleep in trees, and have faith that all this woofing is not the last word. Hang on, another chapter follows. We are those cats. We have to learn to be circumspect, to walk circumspectly. and to walk on fences, to sleep in trees. We live a different life by our actions. We give to other people a different way of living. Because of what we received, our actions are different. Because of what we've received, our expectations are different. Now, you have the expectation that when you work at your job, you will get a paycheck for your effort. You expect that. You put effort out, you expect some kind of return. Now, if we give out this powerful, glorious, transforming gospel, we expect results. But sometimes those results don't come and sometimes we need to change our expectations. Read with me, verses three and four. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. Now what Paul has said here is that the God of this world, aka Satan himself, has blinded the minds of the unbelieving. Who are the unbelieving? Well, it's everybody on the face of the earth as they pop out of the womb. So it is Satan's purpose, intention, as Paul says right here, to blind Every person on the globe that they might not see the glory of God in the face of Christ. Okay, let me hold that thought in your mind. I'm going to come around the circle here and look at this from a different angle, different point of view. The scriptures tell us in a variety of different places that God has predestined some to come to the understanding of this light in the face of Christ. Let me read just a couple passages of scripture. I put them there in your notes. John 13, verse 18. Jesus is speaking and he says, I know the ones I have chosen. Looking over in Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 5, Paul writes, He, that is God, predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself according to the kind intention of his will. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 13. Here Paul writes, we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved by God, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. There are other passages of scripture that tell us that God has chosen some for eternal life. Now, theologians will, at this point, often talk about double predestination. And what they mean by that phrase is this. God has chosen some to experience this new life. And in that choosing, God has chosen not to choose others for that eternal life. hence the double predestination. So there are these who are born that are not yet saved. These are what the scripture calls the elect, or calls the saints, calls the redeemed, calls these God's people. These are the people that will come to faith. And over here are those who are never to be saved. The not yet saved and the never to be saved. Now these people in this category, we don't know who they are specifically. When a person lives their entire life and dies, and we know this person well, and we know their character, and we know their stand with the Lord, we have a pretty good guess of where that person is gonna spend eternity. But all of those decisions are in the mind of God. There are some over here in this camp that are in the never-to-be-saved pile, if you will. Now these people have been declared by God never to receive the light. Is God unjust in doing so? by no means. God never deals with any person by injustice. God always deals with people according to His justice. Let me illustrate this way. If this is the line between God's justice and God's injustice, there is nobody over here. Nobody. Everybody who has ever existed is over here. Now, here are those people that are never to be saved, where God deals strictly according to his justice. Then there are those people over here, the not yet saved, or those that are saved, that are treated according to God's mercy. Now, it's difficult for us to get, impossible for us to get into the mind of God to say, why did you not put me in this pile, God? I deserve to be there. Why did you instead put me in this pile where you have shown me mercy? Because I do not deserve it. I don't know the answer to that question, and I never will. But I praise His glorious name that He has chosen me, apart from anything in me or about me, He has chosen to put me in this pile. Many of you are in this pile. Now, these people are blinded by God. They are spiritually dead. They will never see the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ. Will never see it. God has ordained that. These people have that blinder on until God removes it. And when he does, the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ shines, it beams down and fills their heart. And that person is a redeemed person, a saved person. a going-to-heaven person. Okay, now let me put these two ideas together. Injustice, here's God's justice. These people... All right. These people, the never-to-be-saved, are blinded by God and doubly blinded by Satan. These people over here will be unveiled by God, but they are blinded by Satan in an attempt, futile as it is, that these not yet saved never see the glory of God in the face of Christ. His work is futile. Now, in this ministry to which we have been given, we are called to live and speak of this truth to anybody, to everybody. We go to the ends of the earth because we have no idea which pile an individual person will belong. Mary Ann's grandfather went for 92 years shaking his fist in God's face, saying, I want nothing to do with that stuff. Two weeks before his death, two weeks, and half of that he was in a coma. Two weeks before his death, he said, I need Jesus. I want Jesus. I have no reason to believe that that man is not in the saved pile. But for 92 years of his life, he looked like he was in this pile over here. And that's the way it is with a lot of the people that we speak to. We might speak to that crusty, hardened person at work, Oh, what a foul mouth. What a mind that lives in the gutter all of the time. And yet, it might be through your witness 20 years from now that he says, you know, that person that sat next to me to talk to me about this spiritual stuff, it all of a sudden makes sense. And so our ministry is to all people regardless of what kind of language comes out of their mouth, what kind of clothes they wear, what nationality they are, what country they come from. It doesn't matter. We give to all freely, eagerly, but we have to sometimes leave our expectations at the door. Our responsibility is simply before every person to proclaim and live truth, and then trust that God, in His timing, will unveil those who are in this pile. Our actions, our expectations... Let me say one more thing about this. Proverbs chapter 22, verse six. Passage well known to you. Turn up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Now many people erroneously assume that that's a promise of God. It is not a promise of God. It is, in what book? The book of Proverbs. It is a proverbial statement. It is not a guarantee that if you take your kid to Sunday school, that kid is going to be an evangelist or at least a God-fearing, God-honoring, God-loving, all-of-his-life kind of person. There is no guarantee like that. Sometimes we have an expectation here that if I'm going to do all the right things, if I give, then I'm going to get back. I'm going to reap all of those things that I have sown. Yes, the principle is generally true. But you see, it's in the mind of God to choose or to pass over. And my actions aren't going to change God's mind. You see, when you think about it, that is a tremendously freeing idea when it comes to witnessing. Because my responsibility is simply to be faithful to what I know to be true. And it's not my job to save people. It's not my job. I don't have to defend Jesus. I don't have to twist people's arms, manipulate things, tell them, oh, they're going to get all this good stuff if they do. I don't have to go through that kind of rigmarole. Because God is the one in his sovereignty that redeems people, births new life in them. That's his job. All right, new actions, different expectations. Our speech is also what we give. Look with me at 2 Corinthians 4, verse 5. Now, we're talking about our speech, what we say. It has to go with our life. And he says in verse 5, we do not preach ourselves. What does that mean? How does a person preach themselves? Think about it. You might be using the words of God and Jesus and church and spiritual things, but if you are bringing attention to yourself, you are preaching yourself. If you are looking to make a name for yourself, you are preaching yourself. Tragically, there are many people, I hate to put all televangelists into this camp, but many of them fit in this camp, many preach themselves and not Christ. God said of the greatest man who ever lived, John the Baptist, He must increase. That is, Christ must increase and I must decrease. That person who is willing to be lost in the message is one who doesn't preach himself. Let me ask you a question. Somewhere in my files I found a quote someplace and it just popped into my head. Are you a jester or are you a messenger. A jester draws attention to himself. A messenger is lost and forgotten, because what's important? The message he delivers. Paul says, we don't preach ourselves, but we preach Christ Jesus as Lord. He is the one who's in control. He is the master. He is the savior. He is the sovereign. He's the one that we preach. He's the message we deliver. And we are willing to get lost in it. How do we know that, Paul? How do we know that that's really my motivation? Well, he says this, and ourselves as your bondservants for Jesus' sake. Here's one way to look at your motives. Are you preaching yourself? Are you preaching Christ? Are you willing to serve voluntarily those to whom you are speaking about Christ? If you are willing to be as a bondservant, as a voluntary slave of that person, to serve them That can be a good test for you. Are you preaching yourself? Are you preaching Christ? Verse six, for God who said, light shall shine out of darkness, is the one who has shown in our hearts. I think it's the New King James that translates it, God commanded. Let there be light. Harkening way back to the Old Testament, Genesis chapter one, where in the midst of darkness, God said, let there be light. Can't sound like Charlton Heston. In the same manner, in the darkness of our own soul, God says, let there be light. Now notice the next phrase. He says, for God who has said, light shall shine out of darkness, is the one who was shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. Think about it with me. Where have we seen the glory of God in the face of Christ. Where have we seen the glory of God in the face of Christ? We saw it as Jesus was baptized. And the Father spoke. The Holy Spirit descended as a dove. And we saw the glory of God in the face of Christ. We could even go further back. We saw it when he was just 12 years old, and he sat in the temple instructing the elders and the rabbis. We saw the glory of God in the face of Christ. We saw it as Jesus healed people of every disease and met their every need. We saw the glory of God in the face of Christ when in the presence of demons they ran from Him. We saw the glory of God in the face of Christ in His death, and in His resurrection, and in His ascension. Now watch this. We see the glory of God in the face of Christ as it is reflected in our lives. just like Simeon, who held the infant child, Jesus, and who said, this is the light that will shine into every people. He reflected the light of God, the glory of God in the face of Christ. So you and I, who have been given that new birth, who has experienced the light of God shining into our hearts, we reflect the glory of God in the face of Christ. People see in you and me life, change, possibilities, eternal living. No one can do what God has uniquely equipped you to do. No one has the gifts, the skills, the knowledge, the background, the experiences, the emotional makeup, the social context. Nobody has all of that stuff like you do. You are absolutely unique, and God purposed it that way. God didn't make a bunch of Rob's, He didn't make a bunch of Steve's, or Janet's, or Mike's, or anybody else. He made you, you, with the purpose, the design, and the intention to reach other people through you with His message. Because you see, God has only us to proclaim His truth, nobody else. E. Stanley Jones was a missionary to the Hindus. He spent all of his life there, and at one point he had a long conversation with a Hindu judge. In his journal, he recorded his conversation and his thoughts about that conversation. I asked him, writes Jones, who is a Hindu? And he replied, any good man is a Hindu. You are a Hindu. I asked, where does the Hindu end and the non-Hindu begin? He replied, you could believe anything and still be a Hindu. Yes, I replied, anything from atheism to pantheism. But where does the Hindu end and the non-Hindu begin? The judge thoughtfully replied, you can believe in anything and still be a Hindu, provided you don't reject the rest. Here, observed Jones, He put his finger on the genius of Hinduism. It is syncretistic. It takes in everything, provided it doesn't reject the rest. But I belong to a person who presented himself as the way, the truth, and the life. How can there be a right way in the eyes of the Hindu judge? Jones goes on and explains his fruitfulness among the Hindu people. He said, I knew my message was Jesus Christ, but since I had been brought up conservatively, I was out to defend everything I held. I was on the defensive. My theology was neat and tied with a blue ribbon, unchanging. And then it dawned on me to debate system against system. Religion against religion was a losing proposition. It was my word against theirs. But since the word became flesh, everything Jesus taught was in fact within himself. He didn't just bring the good news. He was the good news. The gospel lies in his person. Philosophies point to truths. Jesus said, I am the truth. Jones concludes, I am free to listen to others and hear what they say their faith is doing for them, knowing that in the end, Jesus will occupy the center. I am free, for I don't have to defend Jesus. I have to present him. He is his own defense. The conclusion he came to, and was very fruitful in in this understanding, is that I have to incarnate Christ to other people. I reflect the glory of God in the face of Christ in my life, in my words, in my being with other people. My actions are different and distinct. My speech is different and distinct. 1962, the World Series, the Yankees were doing battle with the San Francisco Giants. Bobby Richardson, second baseman for the Yankees, was in the field. The Yankees were changing pitchers and there was a man, one of the Giants, on second base. He took the opportunity there in the seventh inning, while the pitcher was warming up, to walk over and talk with this other athlete, and he asked him, do you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? When the man got back to the dugout, he talked to Felipe Alou, who was also a Christian, and he said, I don't get it with you guys. It doesn't matter if you're in the World Series or not. You're always talking about Jesus. Yeah. Yeah, that's it. We're always talking about Jesus. We have this ministry. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the clarity of your word. Thank you for the things that you have given to us. in Jesus Christ, and now look for us to give those things that we have received. Father, may you find us faithful in the things that we live, in the things that we proclaim, for we desire more than anything else that your name be glorified. And we ask it in your name. Amen.