Okay, take your Bibles and turn
to Philippians, Philippians chapter one. While you're turning there,
let me reciprocate what you said to us, that Michelle and I are
very thankful to be here, and it's a humbling experience, and
we're very honored to come back and to see our brethren whom
we love. and we're thankful that that
he thought of us and invited us out here to be with you and
it's so encouraging to my heart to see the generations of believers
that are here and it blesses my heart and I'm so thankful
to the Lord for the fruit which he is born in you and among you
and as a result of the ministry here. There's fruit here by the
grace and gift of the Holy Spirit, and I'm thankful for that, and
amazed, and in a good awe and wonder at it. So you know that
we came from this congregation, we were here, and so we are,
we're family. That never changes. Clay is your
pastor and I had a guest here that I invited from somebody
that I worked with and she came and I invited, I said, this is
my pastor, Clay Curtis. Clay Curtis is my pastor and
is your pastor and we share in that together and so we're family
and since I come from this body, I want to encourage your hearts
and let me start by reading a word to you as the body of Christ,
the local body of the Lord Jesus Christ here in Philippians chapter
1. Paul said in verse 7, even as
it is meat for me to think this of you all, because I have you
in my heart and as much as both in my bonds and in the defense
and confirmation of the gospel. Ye all are partakers of my grace."
You'll notice as you read the epistles of Paul, he often makes
mention of those two things together, his bonds and the gospel. And he's thankful for the brethren
that stand with him in his bonds and in the gospel, the defense
of the gospel. We're partakers of that same
grace. For God is my record, how greatly
I long after you all. in the bowels of Jesus Christ.
And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more
in knowledge and in all judgment, which is all sense and understanding
of what the grace of God is given unto you and what he's done for
you in the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, now look over at Philippians
2, verse 14 and 16. So here's another word to you,
the body of Christ here. Verse 14, he says, do all things
without murmurings and disputings, that ye may be blameless and
harmless, the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked
and perverse nation. among whom ye shine as lights
in the world, holding forth the word of life. You brethren have
been called of God, and he's assembled you as living stones
in this building, not this building, but as the building of Christ,
the temple of Christ in whom he dwells, and he's given you
a ministry. a ministry here. And this ministry
of what you're called to do is to hold forth the Word of Truth. That's your ministry. That's
the ministry that God has given to this congregation here, to
hold forth the Word of Life. And you're to use your gifts
in this ministry. You're to apply those things
which the Lord has given to you as the body of His church. And
so in the midst of your gifts, in the midst of what He's given
to you, in the place of influence which He's given you and your
part in the body, remember that above all things, love one another. Love one another. Remember that. We're familiar with Christ's
words to us in John 13, 34 and 35, when He said, in new commandment,
I give unto you. that ye love one another as I
have loved you, that ye also love one another. And he said,
by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples. By this love, that's not a fleshly
command. That means He's not commanding
your flesh to do that which it cannot do, but according to the
promises and the gift of God, giving you that Holy Spirit of
promise, He gives you what you stand in need of. And He gives
this to you to stand with your brethren and to love them as
Christ loved you. He's given us his spirit. He
says in Ephesians 3, 17 through 19, he says that Christ may dwell
in your hearts by faith, that ye being rooted and grounded
in love, in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints
what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know
the love of Christ. which passeth knowledge that
ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. Well, to that
end, your God has given you gifts. He's filled your hearts with
faith. He's given you hope and he's given you love. And Paul
says it this way, these three gifts by the Spirit abide in
you who believe the Lord Jesus Christ, who have no hope and
trust and confidence in your righteousness, but your hope
and trust and confidence is in the Lord Jesus Christ and his
righteousness and what he has done for you. And he says, and
now abideth, they abide in you. By the grace of your God, they
abide in you faith, hope, charity, or love. These three, but which
is the greatest of these? Which remaineth even after the
Lord returns? And faith is no more faith because
it's become sight, and we no longer hope because we have that
which is promised to us in Christ. Love, love remaineth. That will
never change for us here nor in heaven. We shall love one
another. I remember reading, I don't remember
who it was, but someone very close to the apostles. Maybe
it was Polycarp who was a disciple under the apostle John. And he
writes of the last sermon, which which John said to the people. He was, I guess, about a hundred
years old. And they carried him in and set
him up. And he said, little children,
love one another. And he kept saying that, love
one another. That was his whole message, love one another. That was the message of the apostle
John, that son of thunder, who would have called down the wrath
of God upon the hearers in the early days, but he said, love.
He was taught, love one another. That's the most precious thing,
love one another. Our Lord said, this is my commandment,
that ye love one another as I have loved you. Greater love hath
no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. And so brethren, remember that
our God has shown you great and exceeding love more precious,
more exceeding than we deserve, and He's called you, and He's
filled you with that spirit of promise, and He's given you this
ministry to hold forth the word of life, declaring what He's
done for you in the Lord Jesus Christ, how that He came, perfect,
holy, bearing flesh, your flesh, became what we are and took our
place to put away our sin to make us righteous to wash us
of our filth and our ruin and to put that away and to make
us whole and to heal us and to make us whole before our God
and to restore that fellowship which we lost in Adam and which
we lost in our own works and our own doings when we sinned
against him. And he's made you a partaker
of his grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. So in that light, therefore,
let me take you back now to this word of ministry. Paul writes
over in 2 Corinthians 4. Let's go there, that's really
our text. And it's for these two words
that are in the text, but I'll read it. 2nd Corinthians 4 verse 1. Therefore,
seeing we have this ministry, this ministry, as we have received
mercy, we faint not. Now for time's sake, I'm just
gonna cut it right there and focus on three things with you
about this ministry. I wanna speak to you about the
ministry of the gospel, the ministry of prayer for all saints, and
time permitting, the ministry of prayer for your pastor and
those of you who preach the gospel, those who preach the gospel.
And so the title of this message is this ministry, this ministry. In this ministry, we are called
to preach the gospel, and we're given a beautiful description
of what it is to preach the gospel in 2 Corinthians 2, verse 14. Take a look there. To you that
are partakers in this ministry, he says, verse 14, now thanks
be unto God, which always causeth us this body. to triumph in Christ
and maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every
place. We're making manifest through
the preaching of the gospel, the savor of Christ's knowledge
in every place, everywhere we go, even in every trial and every
affliction and every sorrow, he's given to you the gospel
for your healing. for your strengthening, for your
comforting and your joy. And through the preaching of
the gospel, that's where the Lord gives you the victory, the
triumph of his people in the Lord Jesus Christ. The flesh, you know, when trouble
comes in the flesh, we wanna fix things. We wanna get to making
something right and deal with it the best way that we know
how. And the reality is that when
the flesh gets involved, it often looks for things that divide
and separate and break down and ruin and destroy. You know, that's
what it says of Satan. In John 10.10, he says, the thief
cometh not but for to. In other words, he comes for
one purpose and one purpose only. He comes to steal, to kill, and
to destroy, but the things of Christ always are the things
of life. He said, but I, I've come that
you might have life and have it more abundantly. You always know when the flesh
is getting involved. when it seeks to steal, to kill,
and to destroy. And you always know when the
Spirit of Christ is involved when it speaks of life, and healing,
and peace, and comfort, and restoring that which is broken down. God promises one thing in the
medicine kit that he gives us. There's only one thing. You open
it up, doesn't matter if it's this small or if it's this big
and it's all proud and red and got a nice cross on it and everything.
Doesn't matter how big it is or how small it is, there's one
thing in that medicine kit. It's the balm of Gilead. It's
Christ, Christ the salve. He's the one that heals his people. What we need always in everything
is the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ because he brings
life and healing and comfort and restoration to the Lord's
sheep. That's our God making manifest
the savor of Christ's knowledge by us in every place and in everything. He gives you Christ. You know,
in Revelation 4 verse 1, there's a beautiful sight. John writes,
after this I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven. Look there, I never saw it before. I've been looking up in heaven
for all my life, and I never saw it before, but now I see
a door, and it's open. It's open. The way to heaven
is open. That door, brethren, is Christ. That door is Christ. Preach the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is the door opened into heaven. And we tell men, look, look,
there's the door. The way is open. So often we
preach a closed door. We're trying to prevent people.
Well, hold up. Where are you going so fast? Slow down there. But
no, there's a door open. Run to him. Flee to him. Go to him. He's a welcoming Savior. He stands ready to save every
needy sinner who has no righteousness, no works to boast of, nothing
to give, becomes poor and empty, weak, worthless, a beggar in
need of grace and mercy. Go to Him. He's the open door.
So you pastors and you preachers, you remember to preach Christ,
to preach Him plainly, to preach Him simply, to preach Him boldly,
because He's the one who heals His people. He's the one who
restores and gives life. And pray that the sinners are
blessed, that your brethren are blessed, and that those who don't
know Christ yet are blessed with the hearing of faith by the Holy
Spirit, so that they would hear what Christ has done. We're all sinners, and there
is one salvation. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. I can't make you believe it,
but I beg God to be faithful to preach Him, because He alone
is the salvation. It's by the hearing of Christ
that the people are saved. And in Revelation 22, verse 16
and 17, our Lord tells us, I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to
testify unto you these things, In the churches I am the root
and the offspring of David and the bright morning star and the
spirit and the bride say come, come to the open door, run through
him. Believe Him. He stands open. It's not closed. He's opened
the door to heaven. Come. Let him that heareth. I never heard it before, but
I hear it now. That's right. Come. Come to Christ. Believe
Him. Let him that is athirst come.
I don't have any righteousness of my own. I don't have anything
to bring to the Lord. Come. Come, because He receives
empty sinners. He receives needy sinners. He receives beggars. who have
nothing to bring to him. That's who he's calling. And
whosoever will, whosoever will, let him take of the water of
life freely. Because if that's your will,
it's because God gave you that will. He's the one that turns
the heart. It says, when it shall turn to
the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that spirit. He's the spirit that turns the
heart. And so if you will, run to Christ. If you need Him, run to Him,
because it's the Spirit of God that makes you to know your need,
that makes you to know your depravity, your inability, your insufficiency,
your need of His grace, and then He teaches you and shows you
in Christ that you are His child, that you are His. All right now,
so preach Christ the righteousness of God faithfully. The second
thing, we'll turn over to Ephesians 6. Ephesians 6. Paul closes his analogy of the
believer's armor there, and he encourages the brethren to pray,
to be in prayer always, and he says, pray in the Spirit. in
the Spirit. He says in verse 18, Ephesians
6, 18, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the
Spirit. watching thereunto with all perseverance
and supplication for all saints, all saints. Pray for all your
brethren, whether it's the pastor, the preacher, the piano player,
the guitar player, someone working in the nursery, someone who's
part of the cleanup crew, someone who is made faithful to come
here every time the doors are open, and as often as they are
able to come, they come and hear the grace of God pray for them.
They are the saints, the people whom, the living stones whom
your God has assembled together in this one body. And Paul says
to do this by prayer and supplication in the spirit. What does that
mean? Is that some lost knowledge with
the apostles, how to pray in the spirit? There's no switch
that we have to pray in the spirit. So what does Paul mean by prayer
and supplication in the spirit? Well, it's in light of our warfare. It's in light of our warfare,
not in light of the flesh, but in light of the warfare in which
the church finds herself according to the will and purpose of God.
Look at Ephesians 6, 11, and 12. He had said, put on the whole
armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles
of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places. So remember that we're in a fierce
warfare. in a fierce warfare. And there
are things coming, darts flying, and accusations all over the
place. And remember, therefore, remember
your brethren in prayer. Remember your brother or sister
when they offend you and it hurts, and they sin against you grievously
so that you look and say, I love you. I thought you loved me.
Why'd you do this to me? Why'd you hurt me so? Remember
that we're in a warfare. And remember the spirit, that
there are things that far surpass our earthly needs, though they
hurt and make us sad and are terrible and awful and egregious
offenses. Remember it in light of our warfare
and the difficulties that we're in and pray, Lord, help us to
be at peace and let there be reconciliation and life and restoration. Lord, we need you to do this
because we have no power or ability in ourselves to do it. But Lord,
you're able, you're able. Pray for understanding and strength
and love. Simon, Simon. And behold, Satan
hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, that
thy faith fail not, and when thou art converted, strengthen
thy brethren. You know, Simon Peter sinned
grievously against the Lord. And on top of that, he sinned
against his brethren when Christ said, this night, all of you
are going to forsake me. Oh, not me, Lord. Though all
these guys back here forsake you, I won't forsake you. I'm
ready to go to jail with you. I'll even die with you, Lord.
Well, not only did Peter forsake Christ, but he went beyond what
the others did in denying him three times. three times. Can you imagine when Peter came
back in among the disciples? Maybe they didn't say anything,
maybe they didn't even know, but he knew. He knew, man, I
thought if anybody was going to fail, it would be you guys,
and I did it worse. It was me. It was me. And you think, well, did Peter's
faith fail him? Because he sinned terribly. Did
his faith fail him? No, the great intercessor prayed
for his faith that it wouldn't fail. And yet he sinned. So obviously that isn't a failing
of faith, but he was turned by the Lord. He was restored by
the Lord. He was given repentance and he
didn't go the way of Judas who took things into his own hand
and said, well, I can't go back there. I can't, I got nothing. I can't go back there." And so
he took matters into his own hands and he gave up his life. But Peter was restored. Peter
was restored and went back to the Lord because Christ prayed
for him. So pray for one another in the
Spirit. Even when there's terrible sin
between brethren, pray for one another. Pray for their faith
that it fell not. because it's not about dividing
and separating and destroying what God has done. It's about
trusting the Lord and saying, Lord, heal us. Lord, restore
us. Pray for the one who sinned and
the one who was sinned against because it's painful for both.
I don't doubt that what Peter did stung him till the day he
died. I know there's things I've done
that still sting me and I don't think they're ever gonna stop
stinging. Because it's still, I feel shame for it. I feel absolute shame for it. But Lord, you alone have the
words of eternal life. Where can I go? Where can I go? You alone are salvation. We're
sure that you are the Son of God and that you have the words
of eternal life. That's by the grace of God. That's
by the grace of God that does that. So we wrestle not against
flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places. So pray in the spirit, forgive
one another, love one another, being mindful lest Satan should
get an advantage of us because we're not ignorant of his devices. That one who seeks to steal and
kill and destroy. But let us pray and seek Christ
who gives life and gives life more abundantly. So, you know,
we're so ready to go to war, but pray for Christ. And every
trial and every affliction, it is appointed by God. He tells
us that. And either he's telling us the
truth or he's lying to us. Every affliction is appointed
by God. Every trial And he tells us that
they are all for our good. There's not some for our good.
They're either all for our good or they're not for our good.
And I believe that God is telling us the truth. He's given us his
word, and he means it. Trust him. You know, in Kevin,
Brother Kevin's bulletin a couple weeks ago, he had a small quote
in there from Matthew Henry. And Matthew Henry said this,
extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of
extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary graces. And your God has given you extraordinary
graces. He's given you faith, and hope,
and love, and he's gonna prove them in you. because he loves
you and has gathered you together, assembled you together as his
body, the church. And you trust him, trust him
for his promises and see how he makes good on his word to
you. All right now, I don't have much
time, but the third, pray for your pastor and your young preachers.
In Jeremiah 3.15, our Lord tells us, we're gonna come back to
Ephesians 6, but Jeremiah 3.15 says, I will give you pastors
according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge
and understanding. A pastor is a gift to the local
church and he's sent of God to minister that healing balm to
your souls, to minister Christ and the grace of God in Christ
to you, his sheep. Now there's nothing extraordinary
about this man. There's nothing great about this
man or special about him. He needs to eat the same things
you eat, and he does. He feeds in the same pastures
that you feed in, and he's with you in the field 24-7. A shepherd does not leave his
flock. He's with that flock 24-7. So when the nights are cold and
dark, he's out there with you. When you find yourself quickly
pass through the cool, comfortable part of the day and the sun grows
hot and scorching, he's out there with you. When the storms come
and the wind kicks up and the rain comes and turns to hail
and thundering and lightning and it's terrifying, he's with
you. And he tries to see what's coming,
and he tries to get you to safety as best he can. And when you
get caught up in the storm, he's there with you, and the hail's
beating on his head as it beats on your head. And know that he
says, this is my fault. The blame's on me. Like it was
with Peter when Paul said, you're to blame, Peter. You're to blame. And anything that goes wrong,
we feel it. We feel it. And we feel responsible
for it. And we cry out to the Lord, I'm
sorry, Lord, I tried. I tried to do what was right.
But I messed up. And I can't do anything about
it now except lean into this which you've given to me and
trust you for it and be faithful to the brethren who you've put
me with. And so the Lord sends his pastors
to make manifest the savor of Christ's knowledge to you in
this place and wheresoever he sent of God to preach it. He
doesn't run, he doesn't turn when it gets hard and hot and
difficult. He stays with the brethren and
he leans into it And he prays for God's grace and strength
and mercy to do the best that he can in making known and holding
forth that word of life, knowing that this is the healing which
God has given you, to preach Christ to you as faithfully as
he can. And Paul said it this way, and
I think it puts it in context of what I'm trying to say in
Ephesians 6, 19. He says, and pray for me, pray
for me, that utterance This is Ephesians 6, 19 and 20, that
utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly
to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an
ambassador in bonds, in a chain. I got a chain about me that goes
with me wherever I go, that therein even with this chain on my leg,
that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. Now I could
spend some time, quite some time with you on these two verses,
but let me just say that the utterance is the preaching of
the word, the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that man of God seeks to
preach Jesus Christ to you because he is your healing, your strength,
your grace, your sufficiency, your all. He's what you need.
But he says this important detail, he says, but I'm doing it as
an ambassador in bonds. I'm doing it as an ambassador
in bonds and I need to speak boldly and plainly to you and
declare to you that very thing which you need. And the Lord
uses Simple men to do it with faults, peculiarities, mannerisms,
things that people can easily despise. I could tell you things
that are wrong with me and you've been with me now for three days
and you can probably tell me a few things you'd like to change
about me. If you could just do this instead, it would be so
great. And I, you know, if you need
any more, I know some names and numbers I could give you, and
people back home that could really tell you how it is, but I love
them and I don't want to put them on the spot like that. And so Paul, you know, he says,
the Lord chose the weak things of the world, the foolish things,
base things, and of himself, things despised. Paul was a despised
man. We have the scriptures and we
love them. We think, man, Paul, it's wonderful. By his faithfulness, the truth
of the gospel has remained with us to this day. But that man
was utterly despised. If you read the letters, you
begin to glean some things. We know that he seems to have
had vision problems. He was probably a short man,
going bald, He was beaten so many times with rods, stoned
and whipped, that I'm sure he was not a pretty thing to look
at. He probably was pretty ugly and
despised even for that very thing. And it even got to the point
where in the church that he founded, the church that he started there,
that the Lord used in Corinth, eventually they heard other preachers
and they said, you know, I think I'd rather hear Apollos. I'd
even rather, I'd take Cephas over Paul, if I'm being honest
with you. I'd rather sit under them and
hear them. And Paul bore that. I don't see anywhere where that
really bothered him. He just said, why are you divided
over us? We're all preaching the same
thing. We're all preaching the same Christ. But the real rub
that the people seemed to have with him was this change. because
he mentions it often, this chain. See, we all have faults and problems
and sins, but they're often well hidden. But everybody in the
Christian community knew of Paul's chain, and it bothered some people. It bothered them very much. He said in Timothy, in 2 Timothy
1, verse 15 and 16, He said, This thou knowest, that
all they which are in Asia be turned away from me. All those
brethren in Asia be turned away from me, of whom are Phygelus
and Hermogenes. The Lord give mercy unto the
house of Onesiphorus, for he oft refreshed me, and was not
ashamed of my chain. There's three names that are
written there, and there's a script where someone recorded the name
of the 70 names, those men spoken of in Luke 10.1, that the Lord
sent out 70 other also. They went out to preach to make
the way for when the Lord would come to those cities, two by
two. And those three names are written among the 70. And there
was two-thirds in that list there, Phygellus and Hermogenes, two-thirds
that were ashamed of Paul's chain. But not only Cypherus. He remained
faithful, and Paul was encouraging Timothy, who stood with Paul.
He said in verses eight and nine of that same chapter, he said,
be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord,
nor of me, his prisoner. but be thou, lean into it with
me, be thou a partaker of the afflictions. They were both part
of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God. Every affliction we have is anchored
to that gospel. There are things that I pray,
Lord, take this away from me. Why am I so weak in this area?
Why am I so foolish? Why can't I see any improvement
in this area? And the Lord says, because I've
willed it to be so. My grace is sufficient for you,
and you trust me, and just go do what I've sent you to do,
trusting me, looking to me. And so, and he wrote in verse
nine, who hath loved us and called us within holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Those
afflictions that we have, brethren, were pointed unto us before the
world began. And we're still responsible for
the things that we do, and we don't look to sin against one
another. And we feel it when we do, when
we pray for one another, love one another, encourage one another. But remember these things in
this ministry that God has given you. That's my whole point, is
that he's given you this wonderful ministry to preach the gospel,
to hold forth the word of life, and he's blessed you richly.
with multiple generations of believers. That's a rare, beautiful,
wonderful thing because it's the Spirit of God that does that
in His people. And it's so rare and precious,
so remember that to love one another, to pray for one another,
to pray for your pastor and those that preach the gospel, because
everyone who's preaching the gospel, Ben and Rob, They too
have bonds, they too have chains and afflictions which come and
reveal themselves and manifest themselves and we need the grace
of God. So pray for them too. Pray for
your pastor, pray for one another and love one another. Amen. Sorry for going long.