SBC Convention Booths: Paul would not make a very good recruiter for specific ministries. Instead of handing out highlighters, pens & magnets, give thorns or pebbles for shoes.
• Paul shares in chapter 5 about the wonderful news of Christ becoming sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.(5:21)
Paul shares how we have the MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION and that we are AMBASSADORS OF CHRIST.
There is no better calling and no better news to proclaim but in chapter 6 Paul presents some of the challenges that we will encounter along this road.
Was talking to a church members who brought up the subject of certain occupations that have to deal with difficult people or with people not acting as they should. He said something about ministry being at the top of that list. I responded saying that one of the reasons that 75% of seminary graduates are no longer in the ministry after ten years is that the seminary does not offer a course called Church Members 101 to prepare future pastors for more than just what they think ministry will be.
Paul makes sure that we understand what it will mean if we go down the Ministry Road.
• Paul warns us about three specific concerns when it comes to ministry:
THE DANGER OF PEOPLE’S DELAY:
• Procrastination is a national pastime in America and especially in the lives of most Christians.
How much has God put on your plate that you are still just picking at like a spoiled child who already filled his stomach with candy?
How many times have people you know already heard the gospel and not yet responded?
• Paul gave a wonderful presentation in chapter 6 of what Christ has done for us and the grace that is available: Became sin for us…what have we done with that offer?
Missing out on the GRACE of God: 1 And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain –
• This is a passage we often treat like Paul is writing a letter to lost people. How many letters to lost people did Paul actually write? None(Acts 17 is a sermon to them) Paul is primarily talking to a church.
Can you remember anything in your life where you MISSED OUT on something that you think you really would have enjoyed? Something you would do different if you were given a cosmic DO-OVER? A time where everybody but you went somewhere and you stayed home and then they came back raving about how it was so much better than they thought it would be.
Would you have like to been in the audience the show that Oprah gave each audience member a new car? That could have been me!!
• What message of GRACE do we in the church need to understand? Since we are His AMBASSADORS and doing the MINISTRY of RECONCILIATION then what does Grace have to do with us?
a) Make sure ours is a true message of grace and not a hybrid of legalism.
b) Make sure our efforts are done by His grace and power and not in our own personal efforts:
People operating in grace have learned to prayer, have read their Bibles to know His will, have built spiritual relationships with fellow Ambassadors to work together, encourage one another and pray for each other’s success.
How horrible would it be to get to the end or our lives here on earth and find out how much the grace of God would have helped us through each day and with every ministry effort we attempted and yet we did not know how to access it. We MISSED OUT on the Grace of God.
Missing out on the timing of God: 2 for He says, "AT THE ACCEPTABLE TIME I LISTENED TO YOU, AND ON THE DAY OF SALVATION I HELPED YOU." Behold, now is "THE ACCEPTABLE TIME," behold, now is "THE DAY OF SALVATION "-
• Paul assures us that all that we do is limited by a specific time frame. Jesus said that no man knows the day or the hour but God the Father
This time frame effects:
1) Lost people: They only have the opportunities in this life to respond to God’s grace. For them this is the day of grace and the DAY OF SALVATION.
Felix Acts 24 when Paul when witnessing with Felix, he was under such conviction that he began to shake. He said, go your way and on a more convenient time, I will call you again.
2) Saved people: Paul is writing to those to whom God is listening to and helping in their efforts to share the good news with a lost world.
We only have so much time and so many opportunities to do it.
There are so many things in heaven that we can do that will be so much better than when we do them here in this life. Worship services, singing and preaching, fellowship, golfing. There is only one thing that we can only do here that we for sure will not be able to do in heaven: to tell a lost person how they can get saved.
• Paul is stressing that we need to remember that our time and opportunities are limited and that we need to be speaking to God to help us to carry out this amazingly important task.
Dwight L. Moody made a mistake in 1871 which he determined never to repeat. While preaching Chicago he drew his largest audience yet. His message was "What will you do then with Jesus who is called the Christ?" By the end of the service, he was tired and concluded his message with a presentation of the gospel and the statement: "Now I give you a week to think that over and when we come together again, you will have opportunity to respond."
A soloist began to sing. But before the final note, the music was drowned out by wailing sirens screaming through the streets. The great Chicago Fire was blazing. In the aftermath, hundreds were dead and over a hundred thousand were homeless. Some who heard Moody's message died in that fire. He reflected remorsefully that he would have given his right arm before he would ever give an audience another week to think over the message of the gospel.
There is an ancient story about three demons who were arguing over the best way to destroy the Christian mission in the world. The first demon says, “Let’s tell all the Christians there is no heaven. Take away the reward incentive and the mission will collapse.” The second demon says, “Let’s tell all the Christians there is no hell. Take away the fear of punishment and the mission will collapse.” The third demon says, “There is one better way. Let’s tell all the Christians that there is no hurry” and all three immediately say, “That’s it! All we have to do is tell them there’s no hurry and the whole Christian enterprise will collapse.”
THE DANGER OF PERSONAL DIFFICULTIES:
• Paul certainly knew what ministry was all about. He shares two particular areas that we need to be mindful of.
Our Testimony: 3 giving no cause for offense in anything, so that the ministry will not be discredited, 4 but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God,
A model preacher preaches 20 minutes and sits down. He condemns sin but never hurts anyone’s feelings. He works from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. in every type of work from preaching to custodial service. He makes $60 a week, wears good clothes, buys good books regularly, has a nice family, drives a good car and gives $100 a week to the church. He also stands ready to contribute to every good work that comes along. He is 26 years old and has been preaching for 30 years. He is tall and short, thin and heavy-set. He has one brown eye, and one blue. He has a burning desire to work with the teenagers, and spends all his time with the older folks. He smiles all the time with a straight face because he has a sense of humor that keeps him seriously dedicated to his work. He makes 15 calls a day on church members, spends all of his time evangelizing the unchurched, and is never out of his office.
• Paul was constantly hounded by those who were always looking for something to accuse him of. The world is and churches are heavily populated with those who love a good story. They will turn anything they can down the road of the sensational including a good piece of gossip. The more public the figure the more potential the gossip has.
You ever see a movie where the advertising says something like ‘based upon a true story’? The is code for 99% of this movie has been changed or creatively altered for the sake of being more entertaining.
The movie THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST was based upon a true story but none of the scenes depicted an accurate portrayal of the real events that occurred 2,000 years ago.
• Paul says that #1 be guarded to leave no reason to be offensive or discredit yourself and #2 that the safest way to do that is to be a servant in ministry.
I think that 90% of the PR problems that Christianity has with the world would go away if those individuals who have programs on television or radio truly presented themselves as SERVANTS and not predators of finances or fame.
I think that the more this community sees the members of Holly Brook Baptist as SERVANTS of CHRIST trying to meet the needs that surround them that the less they will take offense or discredit us when they hear certain rumors being promoted.
Our Trials: in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, 5 in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger,
Kids today don’t know what to do with themselves without their gadgets. Some of the best entertainment is to watch what they do when the electricity goes out. The last thing you can do to punish them is to send them to their room where they usually have TV, cell phone, video games or even a computer waiting on them. Nowadays a better punishment is to force them to ‘go outside and play’.
Sometimes they will come up to a grandparent who walked ten miles to school, uphill both ways in 3 feet of snow and say how they cannot get through the day if they do not have a fresh set of batteries
.( My Mom said she could solve juvenile delinquency by giving them one day of her cotton pickin childhood.(meant literally)
• Paul would not be impressed by our stories of how we were offended by someone not treating us kindly because we were a Christian. He would say ‘get used to it’.
in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, 5 in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger,
• Paul reminds us the grace does not mean smooth sailing but is the most necessary ingredient to prepare us for the storms we will face.
much patience/endurance – to remain under a load, especially when dealing with tough times.
afflictions – pressure, tribulation, distress. Hardships – Going without.
distresses – narrowness of space; difficulty. “between a rock and a hard place”.
beatings – Sometimes the blows are as much emotional and mental as physical.
imprisonments – phulakais – a guarding, a guard; a prison.
tumults – (sounds like catastrophe!) instability; confusion, disorder.
labors – a striking, beating; trouble. The emphasis in this word is on fatigue.
sleeplessness – watching. hunger – fasting, a fast. Sometimes involuntarily.
While on a short-term missions trip, Pastor Jack Hinton was leading worship at a leper colony on the island of Tobago. A woman who had been facing away from the pulpit turned around.
“It was the most hideous face I had ever seen,” Hinton said. “The woman’s nose and ears were entirely gone. She lifted a fingerless hand in the air and asked, ‘Can we sing Count Your Many Blessings?’ “ Overcome with emotion, Hinton left the service. He was followed by a team member who said, “I guess you’ll never be able to sing that song again.”
“Yes I will,” he replied, “but I’ll never sing it the same way.”
WHERE DO I SIGN UP? Poster of UNCLE SAM looking ragged and beaten and hungry and like he has not slept in weeks pointing his finger saying: We want you…come join us.
THE DEMANDS OF PERSONAL DISCIPLESHIP:
• Responding to this type of calling will demand setting certain priorities in your life:
Priority of Personal Attitudes: To make it you need to strive in specific areas
6 in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love,
• It takes all of these area fully developed in our lives to be truly effective in ministry. If we are impure, lacking biblical knowledge, impatient, unkind, not relying on the Holy Spirit or only having a fake love then we are not equipped for the ministry God is calling us to.
Priority of Nonphysical Armaments: To make it you need to be skilled in a few very important spiritual areas.
7 in the word of truth, in the power of God; by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left,
WORD OF GOD: II Timothy 2:15 - Study to show thyself approved unto God as a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
POWER OF GOD: I Corinthians 2:1-5 And when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my message and my preaching [was] not with enticing words wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
WEAPONS: 2 Cor 10:4-5 We use God's mighty weapons, not mere worldly weapons, to knock down the Devil's strongholds. {5} With these weapons we break down every proud argument that keeps people from knowing God. With these weapons we conquer their rebellious ideas, and we teach them to obey Christ.
Eph 6:13-18 Use every piece of God's armor to resist the enemy in the time of evil, so that after the battle you will still be standing firm. {14} ….belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness. {15} For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News, so that you will be fully prepared. {16} …faith as your shield to stop the fiery arrows aimed at you by Satan. {17} …salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. {18} Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all Christians.
Priority of Public Acceptance: To make it you need to be prepared to deal with life whichever direction it takes you.
8 by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; regarded as deceivers and yet true; 9 as unknown yet well-known, as dying yet behold, we live; as punished yet not put to death, 10 as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things.
If you looked at the landscape of modern ministry today you would think that being in the ministry was more about being a celebrity than a servant.
I am afraid that too many of the newer ones entering the ministry are not there because they are truly called but are enticed by just such a role in society. Paul said true ministry will never be anything like that. That is not what God calls us to.
