Every portion of scripture, this
is why I feel it's important to go verse by verse through
scripture. You could preach topically from the scriptures 10 lifetimes
and never cover things like this. And I believe it's important
that we see this and see the gospel from every possible angle,
from every possible consideration. Because that's what this is.
Every portion of scripture is the gospel. This passage concerns
Christ and how Christ saves sinners. The way that he is to be worshiped
and the way that he operates on the hearts of sinners to bring
his lost sheep to himself. And that's important to see.
And so I'm thankful for passages like this. And it just confirms in my heart
that the importance of going verse by verse by verse through
the scriptures. But look at verse one with me
again. Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ
and stewards of the mysteries of God. Now this whole, since
the first chapter of this book, The subject matter has had to
do with how ministers are accounted of, right? He rebukes them strongly
and very thoroughly, several different points made regarding
not glorying in men, not accounting of men more than they are or
less than what the Lord has arranged here. And so now he, having thoroughly
rebuked this particular church for their fleshly glorying in
men, particularly glorying in the preachers of the gospel,
now he writes of the proper place that preachers hold in the ministry
and how they should be thought of and treated. And of course,
as always, when we see that, Ministers are just God's under
shepherds. These things apply to every one
of his people. Are the rest of the members of
the church not to be stewards of God's grace? And ministers
of course, all of us are servants of the Lord. And so this applies
to every one of us and it's important, vitally important. So, Here's
how you should account of us. That's what he's saying. Not
preferring one over another because of perceived qualities in men,
different men, or glorying in the flesh. We're nothing. He
made it clear. We are nothing in the flesh.
We're not anything. God is the one who gives the
increase, and it all belongs to him. It's his household. It's
his plantation. and we're just servants that
he blesses to use us in this ministry. So, account of us though,
as what we are. We're nothing when it comes to,
you know, they sing that song, I refer to it a lot, because
it illustrates what I'm not talking about. Jesus needs a few good
men. No, he doesn't. He doesn't need
anybody. He's God. He doesn't need us. He said, I can make the rocks
cry out my praises if you don't. Instead, by his grace, he makes
us do it. And everybody wins. But Christ did not choose, and
the word minister is servant. Servant. Religion has made that
to be something, oh, he's a minister of the Lord. That means a servant. That's not something to brag
about, although if you're the Lord's servant, it's something
to be very thankful for. And that was the way Paul, I'm
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ. He didn't mention anything about
his education or his heritage that he, in Philippians chapter
three, calls dumb. I'm a servant of Jesus Christ.
That's who we are. That's all of us. But here's
how you should account of us. Not as though we're anything
of ourselves, but as what we are, it's important. Ministers
of Christ, servants of Christ. Now God didn't choose his servants
because of anything special in them. He deliberately chose the
worst. It's repeated over and over in
the scripture. He deliberately chose the worst
people to be his servants that he might get all the glory. But
we are his servants. That means something, doesn't
it? That means something. That means a lot. It means a
lot of things. and were stewards of his gospel. That means a lot too. He may
have chose nothings, but he chose nothings to do the most important
thing that happens in this world, the preaching of the gospel of
Christ. Remember the question in Romans chapter 10, how shall
they hear without a preacher? That's a good question. You don't
ask that question if there's a lot of ways that God does it.
You ask that question when there's one way God does it. It's by
the preaching. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching, that which is foolishness to this world, to save them that
believe. You see, nothing's, but God's
gonna save sinners like this. This is the way he's gonna save
sinners. Remember what the Ethiopian eunuch asked. Turn over with
me to Acts chapter eight. Let's look at the, I have a,
a few scriptures I want you to look at with me tonight. Acts
8, 29. You see what I mean by this being
a little different than, you know, we're talking about ministers
of the gospel and God's place, what God has done, his arrangements,
his purpose, his ordination. But in this, we see the Lord
gives us a sense of the gravity of what's going on here. That's
vital for us to understand. The Ethiopian eunuch in Acts
8, 29, then the spirit said unto Philip, go near and join thyself
to this chariot. And Philip ran thither to him
and heard him read the prophet Isaiah and said, understandest
thou what thou readest? Now that's interesting, isn't
it? The spirit didn't tell Philip what to say or anything, but
the first thing that came to his mind is, I wonder if he has
any idea what he's reading. You might think that with ourselves,
we might think something like that if you see somebody reading
the Bible. I imagine that would probably be the first thing that
would pop into your mind too. I wonder if he has any idea.
There may be some self-righteousness in that, but still. Philip asked
him that question. And that Ethiopian eunuch, he
said, how can I understand except some man should guide me? Just some man, not some eminent
professor. The Lord has his scriptures worded
exactly the way they are for a reason. Some man, just some man. It doesn't
matter who it is, it's whoever God chooses, whoever God speaks
through. And he desired Philip that he
would come up and sit with him. And the man asked him, the Ethiopian
eunuch asked Philip, is the prophet speaking of himself when it says
there that the Lord shall lay on him the iniquity of us all?
And speaking of all of us, we don't know exactly where, but he asked him, is he speaking of himself or
some other man? Philip began at that scripture. Again, we don't know if he was,
you know, what specifically it says there, but not what all
he was looking at. But Philip began at that same
scripture. Do you think it would have mattered
where he was reading? As to what Philip would have said to him? If he's reading the scripture,
you start right there and preach unto him Jesus, the person of
Christ. When a king sends an ambassador
with a message, the character of the ambassador doesn't have
anything to do with it. Not with the message now. Now
that being said, it's about the message, but that's not to say
that an ambassador of Jesus Christ ought not to be above reproach.
He certainly ought to. Would it reflect badly upon the
king if the ambassador came in drunk and behaved badly? Of course it would. Of course
it would. We're taught that in scripture. We're servants of the Lord Jesus
Christ. There's so much in that in there,
just in that. I'm a minister of Christ. We
are to be accounted of like that and we're to account of ourselves
like that. But the point is this, you should
not listen to me because I'm a great guy or because I'm personable. Somebody said one time, it got
back to me. Somebody said, I'm not very personable.
Okay, that's fine. Maybe it's just because you don't
know me. Maybe, I don't know. That's probably true. But it's
not, don't listen to me because I'm smart. You wouldn't make
that mistake in my case. Or because I speak well. You
should listen to me because I'm sent by King Jesus with the words
of eternal life. You see how that puts everything
else into perspective? It doesn't matter about all the
other stuff. I serve the Lord God and the
capacity in which I serve him is as a steward of his gospel. The word steward means very simply
a manager of household affairs. In God's house, the business
is saving sinners, the salvation of sinners. And he does it by
the preaching of the gospel. You see why we're serious about
this? You see why we can't abide any foolishness or tolerate any
disruption to the preaching of the gospel? There's no debating. You see why there's no debating?
The king does not send statements to be examined and debated or
bandied about among private interpreters to nitpick and put their own
spin on it. He sends them to be obeyed. He
sends them to reassure and to comfort his sheep, to feed them,
to bless them, not to be intercepted by somebody and perverted into
a message of bondage and fear. His message is one of warning
to sinners that yet despise him and clear command to flee to
the Lord Jesus Christ for refuge and salvation in him. from their sin. It's a message
of his sovereignty. It's a message from the king. He makes that very clear. The
king don't beg. He doesn't ask. He doesn't make
things available. He does. He commands. He blesses. He curses. But it's a message of his power
and mercy to save sinners. to save wretched, vile sinners
like us. What a message. Through the cross
and righteousness of his son, he saves sinners. He has mercy
on sinners. It's life and death. You don't
toy with something like that. You don't say, well, I don't
know about this. I don't know. Look, if in your estimation,
I don't speak for God, then find somebody that does. And don't
you toy around and argue and debate and nitpick what he says. Whoever's speaking for God needs
to be listened to. Not questioned. If it comes to
the place where you start questioning what I'm saying, find somebody
that speaks for God. Because God's message is not
that way. It's not about that. It's not,
you know, a lot of times people, The preacher will come down and
a little group will get together and start debating and nitpicking. And what about, you said this,
what did you mean by that? It's not complicated, is it?
It's not that complicated. But it is life and death. The
household affairs of God have to do with righteousness and
acceptance, forgiveness and grace. And in these matters, Christ
is all. He's the righteousness of God
in which we must stand before the holy God of heaven and earth.
He is our acceptance with God. Forgiveness is in his precious
blood and grace is a person. If you have Christ, you have
grace. If you don't, you don't have grace. It's Christ is all in so much
that another way to say that we preach the kingdom of God
is to say we preach Christ and Him crucified. Same thing. A count of us as such. Nothing
in ourselves, but look what God has arranged here. And I look at that and I'm amazed.
Paul said, who is sufficient? And if you glory in the preacher
of himself, you're not accounting of him
as a servant of Christ. And if you nitpick what he says
and bad mouth him or let petty personal matters affect your
thoughts of him, you are not accounting of him as a minister
of Jesus Christ. Stewards of the mysteries of
God. You have a place in that too,
stewards. A manager of the household. Now you have a place in that.
Not everybody can be the manager. You might say this is a, you
know, as we said already, an under shepherd of his sheep,
but The manager of the household doesn't do everything in the
household. Most of it gets done by somebody else, doesn't it?
So we all have a place in this. The manager needs the support,
the faithful hard work of other servants. Paul called it this,
fellow laborers with me in the gospel of Christ. Listen to this. In Philippians 4.3, Paul spoke
of, I quote, those women who labored with me in the gospel. That doesn't mean the women went
around preaching the gospel. If you read what Paul wrote,
you know that's not what he's saying. That means that what
the women do in this church and in every church, true church
of the Lord, has to do with the gospel. All of this has to do with the
gospel. I've said so many times, a lot
has to happen in order for this to happen. We don't major on
the other stuff. This is what God sent us to do,
but there's a lot that has to happen in order for this to happen. And there's nobody that has furthered
that more than the ladies of this church. What a blessing
they are. And you know, I'm not just blowing
smoke. That's the truth. Examples for the young women,
young ladies, and hard working. Even more important, I think,
is conscientious about what they do. But that's an exact quote, those
women who labored with me in the gospel. Your pastor needs your support,
your labor, your carefulness to maintain good works, maintain
the unity of the spirit, your encouragement constantly. And
above all, your prayers. Pray for us that we would preach
the gospel boldly as we ought to speak, Paul said. And thank
you for all of that and more. Thank you for that. And never
let down your guard, which simply means always look to Christ. Understand our place in his service. That makes all the difference.
We don't think about that a lot. Satan walks about as a roaring
lion, seeking whom he may devour. I've seen Satan, I'm pretty sure,
eat some people alive. Have you ever seen that? I've
seen him eat them alive, and it is not pretty. God help us. And look at verse
two, moreover, it is required in the managers of the household.
And again, see how this applies to every one of us, that a man
be felt faithful, faithful. I love that that word is so simple. What do you think of when I,
if I said, so-and-so is faithful in the ministry of God, what
do you think? He's here every Sunday. That's what you would
think, wouldn't it? He's always here. There's more to it than
that. That's a good start, isn't it? That's a real good start.
I've mentioned, I don't usually mention or brag on y'all probably
as much as I should, because you know how to take that when
I do, and I should do it more often. But just faithfulness
in that is a real good start. Showing up, being here. That
means a lot. It means a lot to you. It means
a lot to your children. It means a lot to your pastor. But I like the simplicity of
the definition of that word. It means trustee. Trustee. That's not hard at all to understand,
is it? But think about all that has
to do with turn with me to Acts chapter 20. Let's don't just
think about it Let's read what the Lord says about it Acts 20
Verse 17 That's 2017 And I wanna read quite a bit
of this, even though a lot of the passage here that I'm gonna
read is not directly applicable to our text maybe, but I just
love it. I just wanna read this. It's
so beautiful to me. Acts 20, 17. And from Miletus,
he sent to Ephesus and called the elder, Paul did, he called
the elders. of the church together. And when
they were come to him, he said unto them, you know from the
first day that I came into Asia after what manner I have been
with you at all seasons. Serving the Lord with all humility
of mind and with many tears and trials. That's what that word
temptations usually is in the New Testament, trials. which
befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews, and how I kept back
nothing." You see what this is, faithfulness? I didn't keep anything
back. That's interesting that that's
the first thing he mentions, because what the so-called preachers
that are not the shepherds do, they keep things back. It's not
so much always about what they say, it's what they don't say.
It's what they don't say. I haven't kept anything back. Verse 20, that was profitable
unto you, but have showed you and have taught you publicly
and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and also to
the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord
Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I go bound in
the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall
befall me there, save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every
city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. I don't know what's
gonna happen, except I know this, it probably ain't gonna be good.
At least part of it ain't. There probably will be some good
done. that some of it ain't gonna be
real good for the flesh, but none of these things move me.
You see why I'm reading this passage? None of these things
move me. Neither count I my life dear
unto myself so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry
which I have received of the Lord Jesus. If we didn't receive
our ministry from the Lord Jesus, we need to quit just as soon
as we possibly can to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
How simple that is. We know that, don't we? That's
the ministry. It's not a social club. I love
hanging out with y'all. We do that during the week a
lot together. I enjoy that more than just about
anything that there is. But this is business here, isn't
it? It's real good business, it's real enjoyable business. But to testify the gospel, and
now, verse 25, I know that ye all among whom I have gone preaching
the kingdom of God shall see my face no more. Wherefore, I
take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all
men. The Lord said, I'll hold you accountable if you don't
warn sinners. If you don't warn them, then I'm gonna hold you
accountable for that. But I have not shunned to declare
unto you all the counsel of God. You see how he keeps stressing
that? Not picking things out and preaching on subjects. If
Christ is your subject, that's a good subject to preach on,
but all the counsel of God. All of it. Maybe before we die,
we can cover every scripture in the Bible. I don't know, that'd
be, I don't know. I have no idea about that, but
boy, I sure would like to, wouldn't you? To not just read the Bible
in a year or however long it takes you to read it, but look
at every word of God in a worship service where the Lord has promised
to meet with us. and have him show us like he's
been so faithful to do over the years, what he said, how beautiful
it is. Take heed therefore unto yourselves,
verse 28, and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost
hath made you overseers to feed the church of God, which he hath
purchased with his own blood. You see, that's our text, isn't
it? Account of us as the ministers
of Christ. On the one hand, nothing, nobody's
from nowhere. And yet, look what God's doing,
look what he's done. Oh, take heed to yourselves. For I know this, verse 29, that
after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not
sparing the flock, also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking
perverse things. That's how the damage is done,
isn't it? The gospel is preached with words and the damage is
done with words. Careful about words. The truth. To draw away disciples after
them. You see the motive in there.
Therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years,
I ceased not to warn everyone night and day with tears. And
now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his
grace, which is able to build you up. That's what that word
edify means, to build up. Knowledge puffeth up. Knowledge
without love will puff you up and just make you run around
saying, I know more than you, but love buildeth up. And to give you an inheritance
among all them which are Holy, sanctified of the Lord, all those
who are in Christ. I have coveted no man's silver
or gold or apparel. You see how he's, again, he's
saying that because again, that's what false preachers do. They
fatten themselves, they feed themselves and not the flock,
the prophet said. Yeah, you yourselves know. that
these hands have ministered unto my necessities and to them that
were with me, I have showed you all things how that so laboring
you ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of
the Lord Jesus, how he said, it is more blessed to give than
to receive. And when he had thus spoken,
he kneeled down and prayed with them all. And they all wept sore
and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for
the words which he spake that they should see his face no more.
And they accompanied him unto the ship. Faithful is not just
to be in my place, but to preach the gospel. Faithful to preach
the gospel. Faithful to the word. Holding
nothing back, preaching all the counsel of God. Think of your
faithfulness, not only as being consistent in attendance, but
faithful to support the ministry, able to be trusted. That's what
the word means. Remember, trustee, to be trusted. I need to be able to trust y'all. Y'all clearly need to be able
to trust me. And I need to be able to trust
y'all, to be an encouragement, to be a help, not to be a problem,
to be an encouragement to people and lift one another up. to endeavor
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, to not
be a busybody in other men's matters. Isn't it interesting
that the word of God mentions that? It's such a prevalent problem
in churches. Stay out of people's business,
and let's worship the Lord together. I need to be able to trust you,
not to be a problem, but to be a help, trusted to help with
work that needs to be done. And this trustiness is such a
vital aspect of the ministry. Remember that and may God impress
that upon my heart from now on. Notice it doesn't say that in
stewards it's required that you be super smart or perfect, never
offend anybody, although I don't want to needlessly ever offend
anybody, sure don't. but you're to be trustworthy
in the affairs of God's house, which amounts to the preaching
of the gospel. It's everything to lost sinners,
and it's everything to saved sinners, the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ. And all that that entails. A
lot of people think that a preacher is only working when he's behind
the pulpit. And a lot of preachers seem intent
on letting everybody know often what hard workers they are. That doesn't impress me and I
feel quite sure it doesn't impress you. Although I'll say this, that's
mighty rare among true preachers of the Lord Jesus Christ because
we always feel like we haven't ever done enough. And that's
just part of it. That's the truth. But can you
trust me to be faithful to preach to you, but also to preach Christ
to you? Well, that's just a basic requirement
in God's preachers. And you can thank him for that,
not me. And should thank him for that.
But look what he says in verse three, we'll have to hurry a
little bit. But with me, he says, it's a very small thing that
I should be judged of you or of man's judgment, yea, I judge
not mine own self. Remember, again, the context
here of the glorying in men that was going on. Paul's not being
rude here. He's not saying I don't care
what you think. That doesn't explain what he's
talking about. And what he's saying here is,
as for those that said, I'm of Paul, that doesn't mean anything. That's not commendable. You see what he said? That I
be judged of you. That's a very small thing. That doesn't mean
anything. That doesn't matter what you
think of me. To say I'm of Paul, what does
that really matter? Considering that we're all servants of Jesus
Christ. Why even mention that? As for those that said, I'm of
Apollos and maybe had some grudge against Paul. Maybe as I said
before, that they still had some grudge against him for what he
did before the Lord called him to be a minister. He was a great
persecutor of the church. But what does that really matter
considering the reality of God's arrangement here? None of that
matters. What was it? I forget who it was or the name
of the film now. I remember right where it is,
but we won't turn there. But he said, Lord, I've heard
of this man. You're telling me to listen to
him, to meet with him? He's been killing us. He's been
persecuting us. And the Lord said, I called him.
I've saved him. I've called him. I've told him
what to do. And the next thing that man said
was, Brother Paul, welcome. If the Lord, the personal stuff
doesn't matter. That doesn't bother of man's
judgment. What does it matter? Especially
what unbelievers say about the gospel or gospel preachers. That
doesn't bother us. You know the way that we know
that it shouldn't bother us? When the Lord sent the disciples
out two by two, he said, if you enter into a place and they're
not interested in the gospel, shake the dust of that town off
your feet and go find somebody that'll heal you. That's what
we're talking about. That's what Paul's saying here,
to be judged of men. That doesn't bother us. Galatians
1.10, for do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please
men? For if I yet pleased men, I should
not be the servant of Christ. Those who persecuted the disciples
in the book of Acts, they said, whether it be wise for us to
listen to you or God, you judge on that. You decide whether we
should listen to you or God. We have work to do and what people
think about it or us is really irrelevant. as long as we are
faithful in the work. Now again, let me say this, if
we by our own behavior and our own fault get in the way of the
work, then that matters a lot. That matters a lot. Otherwise,
we can't be hindered or especially influenced by the opinions of
men. Can't be. And Paul said, I judge
not my own self. If a man is puffed up, which
I just say for the sake of argument, because I don't know a gospel,
a true gospel preacher that's puffed up. God makes that just
about impossible when you're preaching the gospel. He makes
it just about impossible. If he didn't, we would be. I
know that. But just for the sake of argument,
if we get self-confident in our abilities, That's bad, but it
doesn't mean anything if we're faithful. It doesn't matter.
Paul said, I judge not my own self. Or much more likely, if
we feel like a complete failure every time we close a message, if we're faithful to the gospel
and the Lord's sheep are fed, Christ is exalted, it's still
a win. It's still a win. And that feeling
of failure is common among true gospel preachers just simply
because of who we preach. We're not ever gonna get there.
I keep telling myself one of these days I'm gonna tell it
like he really is and I can't do it. It's not ever gonna happen. You can never feel like you've
done him justice. You can never ever set forth
in words his glory like you want to. And I'll tell you this, if
you're a gospel preacher, you won't do. You want to. Nobody wants to as much as a
gospel preacher does. But God doesn't send angels to
preach the gospel for a reason. That's all I'll say about that.
Verse four, for I know nothing by myself, yet am I not here justified. Yet am I not hereby justified,
but he that judges me is the Lord. How would I even judge
as to my own faithfulness as a preacher of the gospel? Paul
says here, that's beyond my ability to even know. Again, only God
can judge that and only God has the authority to judge that.
I'm his servant, I don't serve myself. I feel as though, if
I feel as though I'm in need of nothing as a preacher, I may
well be like those at the Church of Laodicea who just didn't know
that they were wretched and poor and blind. If I feel as though
I'm an utter failure as a preacher, it may well be that the Lord
is using me more in that instance than if I felt better about it. I'm not justified according to
how I feel about it. He that judgeth me is the Lord.
And then verse five, therefore judge nothing before the time. This goring in men and saying,
boy, he's a great preacher. I don't know about him. I don't
know about that and having criticisms about people and things like
that. It's not your place to judge at all. Judge not another
man's servant for he shall stand or fall to his own master. And
if you do, you're judging prematurely You're judging being uninformed. You're making
an uninformed judgment. Notice a couple of words here.
We may judge different preachers as these men did. I'm sure we
do. In our own hearts, we probably do. Based on things that we've
heard maybe about them that may not even be true. or even based
on personal perceptions and preferences, but they're uninformed. You see
the wording of the verse, there are things hidden to you that are to be taken into account
when it comes to the ministry. They're hidden, but they're hidden,
the hidden things of darkness. Those will be brought to light
sometime, but they're not now, not to you. There's gonna be
things you don't know. So what are you doing saying I'm of somebody
or somebody else? You don't even know what you're
talking about. That's me and you both. There are things hidden. The
hidden things of darkness. There are hidden counsels of
the heart. You see that? The counsels of the heart. You
can't understand that. You can't know that. You can't
see that. They're seen and known only by God. And he's the master
of the servant anyway, not us. So as always, Paul very thoroughly
corrects. The gospel is profitable for
correction. Notice the last phrase of this
verse. Then shall every man have praise of God. God is gonna say
what faithfulness is or what unfaithfulness is, not us. By
the time you know the things that you can't know now, You're
going to be out of the man praising business anyway at that point. We're all going to be praising
the Lord together and nobody else. The Lord alone should be
exalted in that day. All praise and adoration will be to the only one who deserves
it. And you know, I thought this, we should just start that program
now. Let's just start praising just There's nothing wrong we're instructed
in fact to commend one another in the Lord and the scriptures
Be thankful for one another We know Who deserves all the glory
and praise? We certainly thank God for each
other, but we thank God for each other and If I had been a disciple
back in the times described in Mark 6, I would have been thanking
the Lord very much in my heart that he
didn't send me out by myself. And I'm thanking him in my heart
now for the fellow laborers in the
gospel that I have now, many of them preachers of the gospel.
And of course, the Lord's Church here. But this is all, and this
is what I guess may be the most important
thing to understand when talking about this. All of this is his
business, the business of the household. He may have let us
in on it, but it's his business. And again, that says a lot, doesn't
it? That ought to wake us up just a little bit. It's his household,
it's his message, it's his glory, it's his ministry, and we are
his servants. Did you notice where I read a
while ago, Paul said, the ministry that the Lord has given me? Not
my ministry, we don't talk about my ministry. It's the ministry
of the Lord that he gave to us, that he included us in. It's
his will that's being done, not mine. And we like it that way
by his grace. May he make us all trusty in
the things pertaining to the glorious gospel of the blessed
God. 1 Timothy 1.11, listen to this
verse. According to the glorious gospel
of the blessed God which was committed to my trust. And you
know better than to think that all of our hopes. You know, God's
put all of our hopes in my hands. We know better than that. But
in such a beautiful sense, he's entrusted us with the glorious
gospel of the blessed God. And we can't, we cannot for 10
seconds lose sight of that. So much destruction can be done. Which was committed to my trust
and I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me. For that he counted me faithful.
Putting me into the ministry. It's easy to miss the wording
there. He enabled me. He counted me faithful. He didn't
find me that way. He put me, he put me into his
service. What a great honor. What a great
honor. People talk about doing things
for the Lord. This message is about what the
Lord's done for us. He put us into his ministry.
What a glorious thing. Let's pray together.