Turn with me now to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians 4. Brother Brandon and I, we were here yesterday morning recording TV broadcasts. We record two at a time so we don't have to do it every single week. And Monday, when I came in to repair two outlines, to preach them on Tuesday morning. It's our routine when we do this.

I come in and I go through outlines that I've already preached here and I have to find two that I believe in my heart are outlines for the hour. You can't just grab one and go preach it. You still have to go through them and pray about them and you need the direction of the spirit to know these are the messages. You can't preach without the spirit blessing, that's the one. And so I come in on Mondays and I go through outlines and then once I find them, I have to restructure them for a general audience that I can't see.

I take out anything that would be personal to this congregation, like this intro I'm giving right now. And there will be things that I know you understand, but I just can't assume that a general audience understands. So I'll do a little more clarifying on things. That's what I spend a lot of time doing is really just clarifying things. I'll change some of the words like you and us to God's elect and his people.

And I really want to make sure that the listeners understand what I'm saying. Well, Monday, as I was going through outlines, I felt led to bring two of the outlines that I preached in Mexico. I still had them handy, and I was going through some and going through some, and then I thought, I just preached them in Mexico, and I thought, let me look at these again. And the first one that I preached in Mexico was from Psalm 138, verse 8.

The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me. The Lord will perfect. And what that means is I don't have to do it. You have everybody running around trying to perfect themselves so God will be happy with them. But that verse of scripture says the Lord will perfect that which concerns me. That's always a favorite verse to preach every time I get to preach it. I love preaching that verse. Well, the second message was Psalm 1.

The blessed man, blessed is the man. That's Christ Jesus, our Lord. That's Christ Jesus our Lord. One of the greatest things any child of God could learn is that Psalm 1 is speaking of Christ Jesus our Lord. Once you learn that, every time you read it, it's just such a blessing to your heart. The bondage goes away and the truth sets you free and you just rejoice in Christ.

Well, we got here yesterday morning and I brought the message from Psalm 138 first. And while I was preaching that message to Brandon and the camera lens, and you would think that would be a difficult thing to do, and it is, it is, it took a little getting used to. But while I was bringing that message, I entered into it maybe more than I ever have. I've preached Psalm 138 verse eight many times. And in that moment, I was entering in to that message and it brought so much happiness to me. I didn't tell Brandon this at the time, he didn't know it. It's a very technical experience.

He has things he's doing and I have things I'm doing. But I was really entering in to what that verse was saying. To think that everything that God demands me to be And he does demand it. Everything that God demands me to be, Christ will perfect that demand in me, not just in himself, but in me. We know that's perfected in him, but he'll perfect it in me. And he'll do that for me. God demands righteousness from me. That's going about doing good. And Christ has supplied and he has fulfilled and he has perfected his righteousness in me. God demands holiness out of me. That's goodness and perfection on the inside. You know, there's a lot of wicked men who go around doing good things. Can't just be good on the outside. You got to be good on the inside.

Well, Christ has supplied and fulfilled and perfected His holiness in me. God demands blood out of me and death out of me because of my sin. It's what God's law demands out of me. Christ supplied his blood and his death in perfect fulfillment for me.

As I preached through that message for 27 minutes and 10 seconds, that's how long I get, I felt so relieved in Christ. I honestly felt so relieved. I got so happy. That's what the message is all about. It's about happy relief that comes from knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ will do everything that needs to be done. It's just, you know, the scripture talks about when the Lord Delivered his people set captivity free. We were like them that dream like this is too good to be true And Our Lord Leave it in his hands Just rest leave it in his hands.

He'll do it perfectly. He'll handle it perfectly. Just leave it in his hands rest and be happy Just do that Well, we finished that message, and our routine is Brandon takes the card out of the camera, I think. I don't honestly know what he does. But he takes something out of the camera, and he comes in here to the computer room, and he loads it on the computer.

While he's doing that, I go into my office, and I swap my notes over. I get the new set of notes, because we do two at a time. And I go over the notes and get it in my mind before I have to stand back up. And I walked out of that broadcast room right there and down that hall and into my office so happy. And you know what I mean? Sometimes the gospel makes you so happy. Sometimes you enter into the gospel. This sinful flesh is so dead. It is so dead. It's hard. Those moments can be very few and far between.

But I walked out of that room, down the hall, into my office, just so happy and so relieved, thinking about these glorious truths that have been written in this book. And I sat down at my desk, and I took out of this notebook right here, Psalm 138, I unclipped it, and I took out, and I was reading it, Psalm 138, the Lord will perfect that which concerneth me. And I picked up Psalm 1, the blessed man. And I just stopped for a minute and I said to myself, I am such a blessed person. I am such a blessed person. I get to preach these things. I get to tell these things to sinful men and women whose only hope before God is to hear these glorious truths.

And I thought, I can't believe this is how I get to spend my life. I can't believe it. There's a story of this special needs fella that came up to somebody and he was so excited, he said, I got a job, I got a job. Really, you did? Yeah, yeah, I got a job. That's wonderful. He said, and guess what? What? He said, they pay me too. They pay me too. I can't believe this is how I get to spend my life. And then this thought went through my mind. We are such a blessed people. Not because of me.

I actually feel, I'm glad, I'm glad he's not here because I'm saying his name a lot, but I feel sorry for him. Sometimes I'm standing in the broadcast room feeling sorry for him thinking this poor man has to listen to my pitiful voice six times a week on the weeks that we do that. You all are spared those extra two times because you don't get to watch the TV broadcast, but he does. And then he has to go edit them and listen to it again.

I thank the Lord for him. I do. But we're such a blessed people. We are such a blessed people. I get to preach it. Some of us get to preach it. All of us, all of the us, get to hear it and we get to believe it. We get to hear the glorious message of Christ, the blessed man.

We get to believe on the fact that he did not walk in the counsel of the ungodly or stand in the way of sinners like we did. or sit in the seat of the scornful? He did not. So that he could take that perfect standing before God and give it to ungodly us. The ungodly are not so. So he had to give it, freely give it to ungodly us. He made himself to be the chaff that the wind blows away. He made himself to bear our ungodly sins so that he could not stand in the judgment, not gonna stand in the judgment, but perish from the way.

In our place, on our behalf, for us, I say that sometimes six times a week. And you hear that time and time and time again, time and time and time again. But every now and then we have these moments where it's like, wait a minute, wait a minute. Our Lord, in what he has done, he has planted us like a tree by the rivers of living water so we could bear his fruit in his season.

That's Psalm 1. We are so blessed. We are just so blessed. That's the message we get to preach. That's the message we get to hear. That's the message we get to believe. We are so blessed. I am a blessed man among blessed men and women. So blessed. All of that, I was sittin' there at my desk, supposed to be swappin' over notes, and I was just sittin' there thinkin', all that went through my mind, and this scripture followed it. 2 Corinthians 4, verse one.

Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, We faint not. Brethren, I want to exhort us to make much of this ministry. I want to exhort us to make much of this ministry. This is not my ministry and this is not our ministry in the sense that this is God's ministry. This is God's ministry.

He is the one who raised it up. and He will uphold it by the right hand of His power for as long as He's pleased to sustain it. But He has blessed us by allowing us to just be a part of His ministry. He has blessed us by allowing us to be included In his means of calling his sheep and teaching his sheep and feeding his sheep and comforting his sheep. And that means is the ministry of his good news, which is the ministry of Christ. the ministry of the gospel, the ministry of the word of the Lord Jesus Christ, the ministry of reconciliation in Christ. That is what he has given to us. And we're so blessed.

Look at the next chapter, 2 Corinthians 5 verse 18. It says, and all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. All things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. The Lord hath perfected that which concerns us by Jesus Christ, the blessed man. And he has given to us the ministry. He's given to us the message. He's given to us the declaration of reconciliation. That's what I was really entering into in that moment yesterday morning. I was entering into the fact that this is the way. This is the way. This is the truth. This is the true message of salvation. Christ alone.

God has given to us the witness, the ministry of this declaration. Peace with God. through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We've been given the blessing. The blessing. We've been given the blessing of being able to preach it, to hear it, to believe it, and to love it. The blessing of loving it. We've been given the blessing of being able to love the declaration of Christ alone. Some people don't love it. Some people do. If we do, if we have been caused to, we're blessed men and women. If we are overjoyed by the fact that Christ is all to us and for us, we're blessed people.

Look with me at Ephesians 3.

Ephesians 3 verse 1, it says, for this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you, how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery as I wrote afore in few words, whereby when you read you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ. which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel, whereof I was made a minister. according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers and heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. Wherefore, I desire that you faint not at my tribulation for you, which is your glory. For this cause, I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that you, being rooted and grounded 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 you might be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church, by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. He said, I cannot believe I get to preach this message to you. And he said, I cannot believe that we all get to believe this together and we get to bow to this together and rejoice in this message together. We're so blessed. We're just so blessed.

Let's be reminded of that. Let's be reminded of that for our strength, for our comfort, for our continuance sake. We need strength to get through this life. We need comfort to get through this life. Let's remember that was so, you know, how easy is it to just wallow in the misery of this sinful life? It's so easy to just lose sight of the fact that we're blessed. In this flesh, we seem so cursed. But we're not. We're not. We're blessed. Go with me back to 2 Corinthians 4. Just one more minute here. Wind this down. Let's see if we can enter into this.

Verse one, therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not. We faint not. Why do we faint not? It's because we've received mercy. It's the only reason. Why do we have this ministry? It's because we've received mercy. That's the only reason. That's the only reason we received mercy. If we continue in this great blessing, how will we continue? By being kept by the power of God. That's the only way.

Verse one, therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not. but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

Can we possibly imagine how blessed we are that we do not spend all of our time trying to figure out how to twist the word so we don't offend ourselves or anybody else. We realize how blessed we are. Do we have any idea how blessed we are over the fact that we do not struggle with these scriptures trying to figure out how to take the glory away from God and give it to man? We just in very happy boldness declare it. Exactly as God has written it. We're so blessed that we don't have an opinion on the word of God.

Said it before, I'll say it again, it's such a blessing. People say, what's your opinion on? I don't have one. I do not have one. That's what God said, that's what God said. Well, what about this over here? That's what God said, that's what God said. That's such a blessing.

And we're not going to go to 2 Corinthians 2, but that's another scripture that says, we do not handle the word of God deceitfully. We speak Christ, we preach Christ. We don't have to divide it up trying to figure out how to preach Christ in this half of the scriptures and then preach man in that half of the scriptures. People try to do that. Well, you can preach Christ here, but you got to preach man there. We don't do that. We get to only preach Christ. Only Christ. We get the singular joy of being able to be determined to not know anything or preach anything or hear anything or believe anything or rejoice in anything except for Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's a blessing. That's a blessing. I'm done.

Verse three, but if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. And that's why we preach it, in hopes that the Spirit of God will reveal it. Verse four, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, the gospel is concerning Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord. and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Does that insinuate that we're blessed at all? Man, we are so blessed. We've been given so much. In verse 7 is our last verse here it says, but we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. That's why our Lord chose to do it this way. We've been given so much. He has freely given these poor pitiful sinful earthen vessels so much.

Let's recognize it. That's the point of this. Let's recognize it. Let's make much of what he's given us. Let's push it to the front of our minds and push it to the top of our hearts as much as he will allow us to do that. But I deeply beg the Lord that he will not let me neglect this blessing. Lord, please don't let me neglect this blessing, this great blessing. of being allowed to preach Christ, God's truth, and hear Christ, and believe Christ, and love Christ.

Verse one, therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not. Lord, help us not to faint. Help us not to faint. Keep us from fainting. If you would be willing, give us a fervent heart. That's what I pray for. Lord, give us a fervent heart for these things. Christ's sake. Amen.