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The Church of Colossae is facing heresy and false teachings. They claim that Jesus is not God and that certain rituals and practices are necessary for salvation. Epiphras, the pastor, informs Paul of these issues and Paul writes back to address them. Paul emphasizes the identity and sufficiency of Jesus Christ. He urges believers to continue in the faith and not be moved from the hope of the gospel. Ministry is sourced from God and should be done with joy and humility. Paul reminds believers to focus on Jesus Christ and not rely on other programs or teachings. Ministry is a privilege given by God. to verse 29, and we've already seen the fact that there's heresy going on here at the Church of Colossae, and they're saying that Jesus is not really God, because He is human and that all matter is evil, and so therefore Jesus in His body is evil, therefore if He's evil, He cannot be God, and so if He's not God, then Jesus Christ cannot save anyone. So this is one of the problems that is there, and Jesus Christ, because of this, there's no way that people can come to Jesus Christ, because He is neither God nor their Savior. They're also teaching things about legalism. In other words, you have to be circumcised in order to be saved. They're talking about the rituals, the things that we do. They're teaching mysticism, which is religious practices and teaching that are oriented toward gaining an experience, knowledge, and these types of things that the more knowledge you have, the more reality and understanding of God that you can have, and this mysticism is this idea of spiritual access to God that is there. Another big word that we now have labeled one of their problems is ascetism, and this is the strict abstinence of control for pleasure, in other words, denial of things in order that they might make us more spiritual, and so Barry John defines abstinence as the control of pleasure, self-denial as a spiritual discipline, and so they're teaching all kinds of strange things. They're teaching about the worship of angels, and all of these heresies, Epiphras, who was the pastor there at Colossae, had come and visited Paul while he was there in prison, and he communicated with Paul and shared some of these problems and some of these heresies that was beginning to come into this valley and into this church, and now Paul has written back to them, and he's trying to straighten some of these things out by the hand of Epiphras, and so really, when you look at this, Paul really takes the book of Colossians and he deals with the identity of Jesus Christ. Who is Jesus Christ, and is Jesus Christ sufficient? And Paul, as he's dealing with this, he tells us, as we've already talked about and we spent the last two weeks, well, God sent Jesus Christ in order to reconcile us, to bring us back to God, to make us from enemies to friends to sons and daughters of God, and now we're getting into the part that since Jesus Christ has reconciled us and he has done it for a person, if you look back up at verse 21, he says, "...and you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled." And he did this in order that we might be holy, that we may walk holy. In other words, that we will show everybody here in this world that God can and will change us, that God makes a difference in our life because Christ is sufficient. And so we come to our text this morning, and I want you to begin in verse 23 this morning, and I want to talk to you about ministry, because we looked last week at the presentation of Jesus Christ. What did Jesus present? He reconciled us so that he might present us holy and unblameable. We've already seen before that that we are to pray for knowledge. We are to pray for understanding and wisdom in order that we might walk what we might do, that we might obey Jesus Christ and follow him. And so we see the source of ministry. Today we're going to deal with the doing of ministry, and next week, because the more I got to working, I went in there and I told Lisa this week, I said, we've got a major problem. I said, I've got through part of this message this morning, and I'm kind of like borderline. Either I can let us out a few minutes early maybe, or else I can probably let us out way late. And she said, well, let's try for a little bit early. So I cut it off. So everything you see in the bulletin today, we're not going to cover all of that, but I wanted to put it because it's all what? It's all right here in this sentence, and so we're going to look at the first half of understanding doing what ministry is. Why do we minister? How do we minister? And then next week, we'll look at the understanding part of it. Notice what he says in verse 23, and this is where we left off last week. If you continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you have heard and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made a minister. And so last week, the result of the work of Jesus Christ is that He might continue the faith and our hope in the gospel. How are we saved? Through the gospel, by believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He came, He died, He was buried, and He rose again to give us eternal life. That gospel that reconciled us, somehow or another after we get saved, we kind of get involved in doing ministry and everything, but we forget about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We forget about what got us there. And so Paul is saying, man, don't forget the hope of the gospel. See, the gospel is not just about saving you, but it's also about presenting you holy and unblameable before men and before God. What God has already declared in our life, He now wants to do in our life. And so that is the idea of ministry. And so if we believe in the power of the gospel, we will adhere to the gospel, and we will also preach the gospel. We will share the gospel. And Jesus Christ is sufficient. We do not need anything else besides Jesus Christ. Belief and obedience of Christ is sufficient. There's a lot of programs. There's a lot of books. There's a lot of men and women that have got real wealthy writing books and how-tos and everything else. But listen to me, they are never to take the place of Jesus Christ. He is sufficient. He's all we know. If you want to know a good sermon to preach, go find Jesus Christ. You want to know a lesson to teach, go to Jesus Christ. If you want to have a program to do, go to Jesus Christ. He is sufficient. It's all we need in ministry. And so notice what Paul said. He says, "...whereof I, Paul, am made a minister." Made a minister. Now that's kind of amazing because when we look at that, the first thing we understand is that we don't make ourselves a minister. Remember we are as filthy rags. Our righteousness is no good. And so Paul recognizes, guess what, I am here because of the grace and the mercy of Jesus Christ, because of the gospel, and God has made me a ministry. So ministry starts with God. It's not my ministry. It's God's ministry. And I see it a lot in the world and society today that, you know, there's a lot of people that say, hey, Brother Donnie, they'll call, hey, can I come by your church and share my ministry? The minute they say they share my ministry, guess what, I don't want to hear it. So tell me what Jesus Christ is doing and I'll let you share that. But we don't have ministries because it's not us. And Paul said, this is not my ministry. God made me a minister. The source of my ministry is God. God started this, God's working in this, and God is going to finish this. And so if God calls us, and if God is the one that grants us His Spirit, it is God who directs us in the ministry that He wants for us, and it is God who by His Spirit gives us the gifts of the Spirit in order that we might minister them. First Corinthians 12, 13, and 14 talks about the gifts of the Holy Spirit in order that we may minister to one another. And so if God is involved in every part of that, then folks, we need to listen to God. And we need to understand it is God's ministry. And so the source of ministry is God. But then notice the second thing that he mentions here. There's also a spirit about ministry, and we just finished talking about this, all in Philippians, and so it's kind of a review this morning in the book of Colossians. But the spirit of ministry is joy. Look at what he says in the next verse in verse 24. Who now rejoice. Who now rejoice. Paul said, whereof God I am made a minister. God made me a minister. Now I rejoice. How many of you this morning are rejoicing because God has put you into the ministry? You know, we're not talking about the ministry of pastoring. We each have our own ministry that God wants us to do. Paul was to be a missionary to the Gentiles, a preacher to the Gentiles. Your ministry may be prayer. Your ministry may be encouragement. Your ministry may be service. Whatever God is getting you to do, do you have joy in it? Or does it become labor? Do we gripe and complain and grumble? See, the spirit of ministry is joy. There ought to be a joy. It broke my heart. I was looking at Facebook this week one afternoon and noticed there's about four preachers in our work that all resigned last Sunday. And not one single one of them has another place to go. Every single one of them said, pray as we go to find out what God wants us to do. And we have enough churches struggling without pastors now. And I don't know the reasons, and I don't know what's going on, and I do pray for them, but it seems like sometimes when we look at this ministry, it's easy to get focused on the ministry and forget about the joy that God called us into this ministry. That God has given us the privilege to do. In our study of Philippians that we just finished, Paul expressed the joy of ministry. The joy of ministry. And how is that joy? What brought that joy? Joy is brought about because of humility. Remember, joy is a product of humility. In other words, when we looked at Paul in the book of Philippians, how in the world was Paul having joy when he was in prison? Well, he looked back to where he started from. You remember when Paul went back, he said, and I thank Christ Jesus our Lord in 1 Timothy 1-12 who hath enabled me for that he counted me faithful, putting me in the ministry. Again, Paul acknowledges this is not my ministry. Jesus Christ put me into the ministry. And then notice his humility. Notice where he goes. Who was before a blasphemer. Who was before a persecutor and injurious. But, I obtained what? Mercy because I did it ignorantly and unbelief. How many preachers and how many ministers today do we see and they start out with everything that they've accomplished in their ministry, right? We start out with all of our accomplishments and how God is blessed and how God is done. Paul says, no, where does he start out with? He starts out with where I was. Remember, I was a blasphemer. Remember, I was a murderer. Remember, I was a persecutor of the people of Jesus Christ. And then he says in verse 14, And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Christ is sufficient. We don't need anything else. Christ did everything that's needed for us to have salvation. But then look at what he says in verse 16. How be it? For that reason, since Christ is sufficient, since Christ came into the world to save sinners, He has presented us to God wholly unblameable. Notice what he says in verse 16, For this cause I obtained mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering. But then notice the next three words. For a pattern. For a pattern. To them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting. Everything that I have got in the ministry, everything that God has given me is undeserved. Just the fact that I'm able to be here this morning in front of a congregation of people that love, that encourage one another, that are in harmony, that are in unity. Guess what? It's not because of my doing. It's because of God. God brought us here. God brought us together. And so what else can we be but happy? When we think about where we were and the road that I was under, I'm faced with it every Thursday night. I told the guys again Thursday night, you guys don't understand, but by the grace of God, I would be sitting where you're sitting. Hopefully, somebody would come and be teaching me about the Bible and trying to refocus my life. Because guess what? I haven't always been perfect. I've not always been a follower of God. I've not always done the things that God wanted me to do. But what happens? He's made us thankful. We should be thankful. I think in studying the Scriptures, you will find that whenever God calls His greatest servants, when He goes and He looks at these men and He calls them in the Word of God, He picks out choice people. And these choice people that He picks out, He always made them face, first of all, who they are before He gives them a job to do. He humiliates them in order to use them. You say, give me an example. How many of you remember the guy Moses? Anybody remember Moses? Moses was a great leader, right? He led the nation of Israel out of Egypt to the promised land. And Moses, at that burning bush, you remember when he had his encounter with God at the burning bush? You remember what happened? It says, Moses, before we get to that verse, remember what happened was as Moses began to give him excuses on why he couldn't go to Pharaoh, right? He has a stuttering problem. He can't talk. All of these things, right? And so Jesus kind of reminds them. And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made men's mouth, or who maketh the dumb, or the deaf, or the seen, or the blind, have not I the Lord? And so He's asking them a question. Moses, you're giving me all of these excuses, right? I'm asking you to go and serve. I'm asking you to go and do. And you're coming up with all these excuses. Who made you? Who made your mouth? Who made all of this? And of course, the answer is what? God, You made all of this, right? And the only answer that He can have is He has to come back to God, His Creator. And then notice what God says to them, because this is pretty cool. Now that you understand that, right? Now that you understand I made your mouth. I made those that are deaf. I made those that are dumb. Now therefore, go, and look what He says, and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what to say. See, I think a lot of times, man, God, I've got a good mouth. I'm a good speaker. And we look at that guy and we say, man, he needs to be in the ministry, right? He needs to be up in front of people. But guess what? If God can't control His mouth, then His mouth is no good, right? And so man, He says, listen, He says, perfect, you're a stutterer. You have problems speaking. That is great. You're the guy that I want. And so here's what we're going to do. You come with Me, and I will take care of your mouth. I will help you to speak, and I'll even teach you what you need to say. Well, what better arrangement is that? But Moses had to first of all recognize, guess what? I'm incapable of doing that. Man, when I go and talk to somebody, hey, would you pray about this ministry? Well, I can't do that. Well, if you can't, then that's the person that we need, right? So we want somebody that's going to have to pray. We want somebody that's got to seek God's direction. We don't want people that know everything and that are overqualified to be in a position. In verse 15, Moses replies, he says, O my Lord... He's getting it focused, right? You're my Creator. You're my Lord. Wherewith shall I say... Or this is actually Gideon here. Gideon, you remember in Judges 6? Where was Gideon? Hiding out in a winepress, right? He was down there hiding while his family and his nation was being ransacked and overtaken. And God comes to heal and says, and Gideon replies, O my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, and here's his excuses, my family is poor in Manasseh. And guess what? If they're not bad enough, my family is poor because I'm the least of that family. They're poor. They're here. But you see, I am way down here. I am the very least. Now notice what God says to them. And the Lord said unto him, Surely, I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. He says go in this thy might. Your might is in your humility. Your power in ministry is in humility. The more humble we are, the more power we have. And we don't talk a lot about humility today. We think humility is a weakness. You better have a plan. You better know what you're doing. I want to tell you, and I can't wait. Brother Morris had some wonderful things happen this week, and I'm excited to hear the end results and the working of all of this. But listen, when we go humble and just go do what we're supposed to do, it is amazing what God does and what God's plans are that is there. And so it's in that humility, that willing to be able to go, that God is able to demonstrate His power and do so much more than what we could ever experience. You remember what happened? The end story of Gideon. Let's go back to the Sunday school days for just a minute. You remember Gideon got this great big army together, right? He wasn't a leader, but then all of a sudden, nearly 3,000 men show up to go fight with Gideon. And what did God say? You've got too many! Let's cut this thing down just a little bit, right? So He takes them down to the river and He starts whittling away at them. And Gideon winds up with 300 men. And God says, OK, I think this is about right now. You've got about 300. You're going up against all these meaty people and that ought to be good. And so he goes down to the camp and then how many weapons did they carry with them? None! They had a pitcher and a candle. A pitcher and a candle. And while they're set up outside of the camp, listening, God gives them, over here's a dream, right? They hear what the guys are dreaming. And God just simply has them break their pitcher, let their light shine, and the sound of the pottery shattering, the light, now all of a sudden, the guys thought that they were surrounded and that this huge army was fixing to come against them, that they started killing themselves and everything. I mean, this whole thing imploded up on them. And Gideon and them won, not because of their power, but because of what God did. And I mean, hey, that's what God wants is the least of the family. Another good illustration is Isaiah. And Brother Morris read that verse to you this morning, but you remember Isaiah went down to the temple of God. And there while he was at the temple, he saw the glory of God. And he said, what Brother Morris didn't read is Isaiah comes up with his excuse, Woe is me, I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. He says, man, there's no way I can be a prophet. I can do anything for you. I've got unclean lips. You want to put me over a people of unclean lips? And the verses that were skipped between that and what Brother Morris read this morning is the Bible says an angel came down from the altar of God. And he had a coal of fire. And he put that coal of fire on the tongue of Isaiah, which is a symbol of purification. He purified his tongue. And all of a sudden, he heard the voice of God. All of a sudden, he now hears God speak. And God said, whom shall I send and who will go for us? And Isaiah said, here I am, send me. A man of unclean lips is now fixing to go speak the message of God. Why? Because of humility. Let me show you one more this morning. Because one of my favorites in the New Testament is Peter. You remember Peter on the seashores of Galilee? God had a lot of plans for Peter. God had a lot of things in line for Peter. And only on that seashore of Galilee, all of a sudden, Peter had been fishing. And you remember, he didn't catch anything. And Jesus said, cast your net on the other side of the boat. And what? He brings in all of these fish, remember? And man, he's got more than what he can handle and everything. And so God provides this miracle. He displays His divine creative power. And then He said this to Simon Peter. When Simon looked at it, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. Why is he a sinful man? He just rebuked Jesus Christ. Jesus said, cast your net. And what did He say? He said, man, we fished all night and hadn't caught anything. And then what did He say? And like most of us Christians, what? Okay, God, nevertheless, I'll do it, right? And then God answered. And immediately when He got that drove of fish, all of a sudden what? He falls down on His face and says, I am a sinful man. And then verse 10, He says, And so also James and John the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon, and Jesus said unto Simon... He didn't say unto James and John. They were there and they end up being the disciples, but He looks particularly at Simon because why? Simon is the one that confessed, I'm a sinful man. James and John didn't rebuke Jesus Christ. It was Peter that rebuked Jesus Christ. And Jesus looks at him and says, Simon, fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men. From now on, you won't be a fisherman of fish. You'll be a fisherman of men. You are just the person that I can use. And every time you see Peter going through and having humility, God does some amazing things in his life. Every time you see Peter acting in his own flesh, guess what? You see him getting embarrassed and humbled. Remember what he said when Jesus said, I must go to Jerusalem and die? Jesus said, not so, Lord. I'll go and die with you, right? He's not being very humble there, is He? He said, man, I will go to the grave with you. And Jesus said, get thee behind Me, Satan. He humbled him a little bit, and then He took at him a prophecy. He said, Peter, not only are you not going to die with Me, but you're also not even going to stand up for Me. You're going to deny Me three times tonight before the rooster crows in the morning. Wow, and he was humbled. And it said when Jesus was led out of that meeting and that trial that He was going on, Peter was standing there. He had just cursed his Lord and Savior to this young girl and said that I don't know that man. And about that time, that man was led out and caught the eyes of Peter. And it said Peter went out and wept bitterly. And after he got through weeping and spending nearly a week thinking about what was going on, Jesus Christ shows up to Peter and says, Peter, you going to die for Me? Peter, Jesus, you saw that situation, right? No, Peter, do you love Me? Are you willing to die for Me now? Lord, I love you like a brother. And it said Jesus asked him a third time, and what did Peter do? Peter got angry. He got mad. Lord, You know my heart, right? You know what I'm capable of. I can do nothing. I will not die for You. I'll choose myself over You every single time. And what did Jesus say? Now you're getting where you need to be. Now you're at the peak of humility. Now, when thou art converted, when you understand this, then He said, feed My sheep. Take care of the church, because there's going to be a lot that needs you now that you know where you are. And so, folks, we need some humility in ministry. And that humility leads to joy. Because guess what? None of us deserve anything. But God uses us and places us in. And as long as you maintain a humility and you maintain joy, but as soon as you start thinking that you're not getting what you deserve, then guess what? All of a sudden, things go downhill. And I think, you know, when I look back at a lot of issues in my past life in pasturing and a lot of problems that have happened and the bad things that have happened in my ministry, usually it's because I start thinking, well, you know, the people don't love me like they should, or they're not doing this, or nothing happened for this. And no, we're blessed. Just the honor and the privilege that God has given me to be able to pastor and to be able to preach. And so the source of the ministry is God. The spirit of the ministry is joy. And now look at the next thing, because this is where it starts kind of turning. There's also suffering in the ministry. Suffering in the ministry. Why do we suffer in the ministry? On behalf of Christ in the church. See, we are suffering the church on behalf of Christ. Look at what he says there in verse 24. "...who now rejoice..." We have joy because of humility. "...in my sufferings for you and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body's sake, which is the church." Paul was such a minister that suffered for the sake of Christ in the church. When you look, where is Paul when he is writing this? He's in prison, right? He's chained to a guard. He's suffering. I ran into a guy last week when I spoke for the Gideon's deal. And he came up and he was so excited because he asked me what book was I preaching from this morning. And I told him. And so then he wanted to talk a little bit about Paul. And he's the chaplain of the Gideon's in the state of Arkansas. Then I just got through last month giving a study to the Gideon's about the three different types of prisons that Paul was in. And a lot of people don't realize there's three different levels of prison, but one of them, when they are in the dungeon, when they are there, they don't even get bread and water that is there. That's the lowest prison. Now Paul, in this particular time, was in the best kind of prison that he could be in. That's where his family members was allowed to bring him food, to bring him water, and things like that. And so that was a pretty good deal. He was chained to a guard, but yet he was still able to eat. He was able to drink. And that's where you see these Christians going up to Paul and visiting with him. And then the one that's in the middle is you're chained up. You're there, but you don't have any of these options. And so the minister of God actually completes the sufferings of Christ. And this verse is kind of hard and weird, but if you think about it for just a minute, when Christ came onto this earth, what did He do? He left all of the glories of heaven and took upon Himself the form of a man, right? And what did He do? He came and He ministered on this earth. He worked. He labored. He was always working and doing. He got tired, right? There was many times Scripture says that He had to get alone and rest. He had to get alone and pray that this work was so exhausting and that it was there and all of this fatigue. And what was He doing? He was constantly striving for the ministry of the people. He was serving the people. He was healing people. He was meeting needs. Christ in His ministry bore whatever was necessary and did what was necessary in order to build the church. That was what was most important, even if it meant going to Samaria. Even if it meant going down the Jericho Road. And what He did was, is while He did this, He left us a pattern. We talked about this in Philippians. He gave us a mold, a pattern, that we should follow. That we are to live. Remember Paul said, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Because he's looking at the pattern of Jesus Christ. And he expected you and I, as believers, to follow in His steps. Jesus expected Paul to suffer. When you go back to Paul's call in Acts 9 and verse 16, Paul has been struck blind. He's there on the road to Damascus. And Jesus Christ says, that I will show him how great things he must what? Suffer, for my name's sake. He didn't talk to him about all the positive stuff. He didn't talk to him about all the churches that he was going to start. He didn't talk to him about all the people that were going to be saved under his ministry. He said, no, Paul, guess what? I'm fixing to show you all the things you're going to suffer. Suffer. Ministry is suffering. He says there in verse 29 of Philippians 1, For unto you it is given in behalf of Christ not only to believe on Him, but also to what? Suffer for His sake. Ministry comes with suffering. But if we have humility when we suffer, we can be like Paul and do what? We can do it with joy in our hearts. We know it's going to be tiring. We know it's going to be hard. We know it's going to cost stuff. We know that there's not always going to be a great outcome. But what? Jesus Christ expects us to pay whatever the price is in order that we might build His church. That His church may continue to grow and flourish. He expects us to fill up whatever suffering and pain, sacrifice, fatigue, exhaustion, whatever's lacking. Listen, suffering for Christ. You know suffering does five things for you in your life? Number one, let me tell you real briefly, number one, suffering brings you closer to Christ. When we suffer, where's the first person we go to? We head to God in prayer, right? What's going on? Why is this happening? And so it brings us closer to God. In Philippians 3.10, Paul said that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being made conformable unto His death. How is Paul going to know about Jesus Christ? You cannot know about Jesus Christ and have a knowledge of wisdom and understanding about Jesus Christ unless you suffer like Jesus Christ. You have to be there. That's why Jesus Christ said what? I've been tempted and tried and tested in every way possible that you could imagine in order that I might commensurate to you. He said there's not a way that Jesus was tempted or tried that He cannot help us or walk us through. And so, suffering brings us closer to Christ. Number two, suffering brings us assurance of salvation. And it goes on to tell us in 1 Peter 4.14, if you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you for the Spirit of glory and of God rested upon you and therefore He is evil spoken of, but on your part, He is glorified. When you suffer, listen, what you are doing is you are being assured of your salvation. If you're lost, Satan doesn't care what you do or what's going on in your life. No. And so when you are being persecuted, when you are suffering, he said, look, he said on their part it was evil spoken of. You remember Joseph? All the things that he went through in Genesis, right? He was sold by his brothers. He ended up in Pharaoh's house. He ended up in prison. He ended up out of prison to go to number one. He finally gets his family and his brothers back. And then what did he say to them? You meant it for evil, but what God meant it for good. And every bad thing that happened to Joseph always ended with something better. And every time it did that, it confirmed God's hand on the life of Joseph. So when he finally meets his enemies, he said, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. You would not be alive today if it wasn't for what you did to me way back then. And so, happy are you. But it also brings future rewards. When we suffer, it tells us in Romans 8, 17, and 18, if children, then heirs. Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may also be what? Glorified together. And so our suffering brings glorification. Look at verse 18, For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Your little bit of suffering that you go through here on this earth because you're ministering for Jesus Christ is going to be a drop in the bucket compared to what you will receive when you're in heaven. When Jesus Christ said, It is finished. He went to the grave and He rose victorious. That anyone that believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And one of these days in Revelation, it says that you and I that have been bought and purchased and reconciled by the blood of Jesus Christ is one day going to take all of our crowns and all of our rewards, and we're going to lay them down at Jesus' feet. Wow, why is He going to be honored? Because He suffered a lot. And you and I, when we suffer, we're going to be rewarded for it. And then number five, it brings salvation to others. Look at what He says in Philippians 2.17, Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of what? Your faith. Your faith. If I be offered upon the sacrifice and the service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all. If I offer my life and I give you all this service and I serve you, and you end up coming to know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, guess what? Then it all works out. It all happens. The results are worth it. But lastly, it brings frustration to Satan. You want to frustrate Satan this week? Suffer. Suffer. Look at what He says in Colossians 1 back in our text this morning. Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body's sake, which is the church. The enemies of Christ were never satisfied with what they did to Jesus Christ. Were they satisfied that they killed Him? No. You remember what Pilate did? He tried to appease their bloodthirst and he did what? He beat them. Thirty-nine stripes, right? And literally ripped flesh and bones from his body and put them up there as a spectacle before the people and said, OK, who do you want me to release? This innocent man or Barabbas? And what did the people say? Give us Barabbas. That Jesus still hadn't had enough. And so what did they do? They made Him carry His own cross to Calvary. They nailed Him to that cross. He died. It is finished. All of that suffering. Everything that He did. He did it in order that we might be saved. But immediately, what happened in Acts? He says go to the disciples to go to Jerusalem and wait, right? And all of a sudden, Peter gets up and preaches Jesus Christ and what? Three thousand are added to the church. And guess what? They're not satisfied that they killed Jesus. They are now mad because this ministry, this church is growing. And all of a sudden, right there in Jerusalem, what happened? The enemies, Satan and the enemies began to persecute the church. And as a result of persecution, what happened? They scattered. They fleed. They took off. And in amongst all of that scattering and all of that suffering, the more Satan came after them, the more what? God blessed them. The more Christians were being added to the church. The more Christians were being done. And every bit of it was because why? Satan was not satisfied with what they had did to Jesus Christ. They wanted more. They wanted to kill His church. They wanted to kill His bride. They wanted to wipe out His family. Those that had been redeemed. They wanted Christ and His ministry to suffer. So they began to persecute the church. If Jesus could hang on the cross and take my sin and take my punishment, and remind you I deserve it, right? For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We deserve the wages of sin as death. Because I am a sinner, I deserve to die. But Jesus Christ, Paul, He's explained to us, and we've looked at the last couple of weeks, this reconciliation, that there on the cross of Calvary, Jesus Christ took my sin. He took the sin that I deserve, the punishment that I deserve, and He took all of the punches, the plucking of His beard, the putting the crown of thorns on, the whippings of the cat of nine tails, the mocking, the being spit upon, the being slapped. Every bit of this He did for me on behalf of His bride and the church. If He can do that, then what about us? And so Paul goes into this. Because Christ has done this, here is the scope of the ministry. Here's the scope. Here's what we are to do. Look at what he says in verse 25. Whereof I am made a minister. And we just look. What happened? Paul was one of them people that was doing what? Was persecuting the church. He said I was a blasphemer. I was speaking against God. I was fighting against God. I was beating Christians. I was whipping Christians. I was hurting Christians. I was even dragging them back to jail to be put to death. I was doing all of this against Christ and the church. And he says now, guess what? I'm made a minister. I'm made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for who? For you. For you. It wasn't for his benefit. It wasn't for his purpose. Listen, we are not here for us. You are dead. You are dead. You deserve death. The wages of sin is death. But, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ His Son. And so now what's happened? Paul deserved death. And he said I even went so far as to kill Christians. But listen, now, God has saved me. God has forgiven me. When I was an enemy of God, He has now made me His friend. And He has now put me into the ministry. He has now allowed me to minister. Why? To fulfill the Word of God. What is the Word of God? Jesus Christ. Why did He come into the world? He came into the world to save sinners, right? Paul said, of whom I am chief. I'm the top sinner. I'm the number one. He came to save me. Jesus Christ came into the world to save you. And guess what? He wants to use you to save others. That's our ministry. That's our job. That's what we are to have to do. And so, what are we doing? We are fulfilling the Word of God. You remember in Romans 8? I don't have the Scriptures on the slide, but I just thought about this. Go to Romans 8 because this will wrap things up real good and we'll quit. Romans 8. We'll pick up next week at the end of this. Actually, Romans 10. He says, we'll go to verse 7 of 10. Who shall descend into the deep? That is, to bring up Christ again from the dead. Any of you capable of bringing Christ back to life? No. But what saith it? The Word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is, the Word of faith which we preach. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart men believeth unto righteousness, with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scriptures sayeth, Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed, for there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek. For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Amen? But then look at the next verse because this is the ministry part. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe on Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. But, but, they have not all obeyed the gospel. The gospel. How many people do we have today that are saved? That are children of God? That have not obeyed the gospel? You are not here for you. You're here for the lost. Jesus Christ went to heaven. His work is done. He's the One that was able to go to the grave. He is the One that is able to give everlasting life. But it is our job, we are left here to point people to Jesus Christ. We're here to show them that guess what? God can take a sinner like me and make Him someone righteous. Make Him holy because I've been declared holy and righteous. So let me ask you a question this morning. Because it doesn't matter if we understand ministry or not. Next week's sermon really doesn't matter if we don't commit first of all to do. Understanding doesn't matter if we're not willing to do. If we're not willing to do these four different aspects of ministry. Number one, we seek God. Seek God because God is the One that sends us. He is the One that placed us into the ministry. And we are to do it with joy. Willing to suffer. Yeah, I may have to give up a television show. I may have to skip a lunch. I may have to skip a supper. But guess what? I am doing it for someone else. I am doing it to reach that individual. To suffer in order that the church, Kentucky Missionary Baptist Church, might be able to fulfill the Word of God. How do we fulfill the Word of God? When we preach the Gospel and someone is saved, guess what? The Bible says that Jesus Christ came to save sinners. And so when somebody comes and is saved and follows the Lord in scriptural baptism and comes in amongst us, guess what? We are fulfilling the Word of God. Because Jesus Christ has already done everything that He's going to do. Now He says it's up to you to do. And so before we can understand and explain next week exactly what is ministry, we need to make sure that we're committed to do ministry. If you'll go back to Moses, go back to Gideon, go back to Isaiah, go back to Peter, all four of them that we looked at in our examples this morning, none of them did God show him the ministry that He had for them until they were willing to go. And when they were willing to do, then they had understanding of what God wanted them to do. And so we've got to make a commitment today. And folks, I honestly believe we are living in the last days. We are living in perilous times. We are seeing wars around us. We are seeing stuff that's going on that Scripture promised way back yonder that is now coming to fulfillment and to completeness. And folks, Jesus Christ is going to return. He is coming back. And His reward is going to be with Him. Is He going to find us committed and faithful? Is He going to find us committed and faithful? Or is He going to find us just eating and drinking and being merry, right? Boy, I'm a member of a church, and we're just fellowship, and we're having a good time, right? But are we doing what God wants us to do? Is there any commitment? Folks, now is the day to commit. Joshua said it this way. He said, I don't know what you need to choose today. You're either for God or you're against God. But it's me and my family. We're going to serve the Lord. We're going to serve the Lord. You need to make that commitment today. What are you going to do? As we stand, have a verse of invitation. Page 437.
