2nd Corinthians ā Wayne Barber/Part 26
By: Dr. Wayne Barber; ©2006 |
Working Together With God ā Part 3. Weāve been talking about āWorking Together With Godā as we push our way through 2 Corinthians. Thatās the theme Paul has brought up. This is part 3. Today we want to talk about āHow Do You Identify a Worker with God?ā |
How Do You Identify a Worker with God?
Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 6. Weāre going to be looking today at verse 6 and the first part of verse 7. Weāve been talking about āWorking Together With Godā as we push our way through 2 Corinthians. Thatās the theme Paul has brought up. This is part 3. Today we want to talk about āHow Do You Identify a Worker with God?ā
How do you know the people who are real? How do you know the people who are truly surrendered to the Lordship of Christ? They are workers together with God. And I believe youāll see that in our text today. Itās not just in what they do; itās in the character thatās behind what is done. The apostle Paul had such a burden for the Corinthian church. He so desired that it would just wake up and realize the marvelous opportunity in which they lived; the chance to be a worker together with God.
He says of himself and of his team in 6:1, āAnd working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain.ā You see, when youāre a worker together with God you havenāt received the grace of God in vain. Paul warned them, donāt receive, donāt continue to receive the grace of God in vain. To put it another way as weāre reviewing this, weāve already preached on it, but to put it another way, stop thinking of yourself long enough to understand that youāre here on this earth for a purpose.
You know there really is no difference in the 21st century, is there? The need of the church today is to have the same awakening in their life. Only when believers stop receiving the grace of God in vain and yield to the Lordship of Christ by saying yes to His Word and to His will, can they even begin to realize that He has a purpose for them, a purpose that started the moment they were saved and will last until the day they see Him, while theyāre here living on this hostile planet. Itās almost like coming out of the fog.
We went to Slovenia years ago. Now I knew that was a part of Yugoslavia that had been broken up, but I didnāt know exactly how all that worked. So we landed in Slovenia. Did I know I was in Slovenia? Only because they told me I was in Slovenia. I never could quite figure that place out. It was foggy, it had settled in, we couldnāt see 40 yards in front of us and it was almost like it was down to my head. You couldnāt see above, you couldnāt see out. So we didnāt know if it was a beautiful place or not. They took us to the hotel. It kind of made me feel like we were in a pretty place; I could sense ice out there like a lake, but I couldnāt see any further.
For two days we lived in the fog. We couldnāt see anything. And finally the third day I got up and I pulled the curtains in the room and it took my breath away. The fog had lifted. Oh, my goodness! There was this lake, a huge lake, and it was frozen over and people were ice skating on it like a Christmas card. Snow was about two feet deep and we looked up and there were the Alps on the other side. It was Austria. And Iām thinking what a beautiful place. It was there all the time, but you couldnāt see it for the fog.
So many believers in the 21st century are just like the believers in Corinth. Theyāre still living in the fog. They think life is about them. Get all you can, can all you get, sit on the can, poison the rest. And thatās the way they live. They donāt understand that every breath they take they take in Him. Every move they make, they make in Him. They donāt understand that theyāre here for a purpose and that purpose is not completed until the day their heart stops beating and they go to be with the Lord Jesus Christ.
When the fog lifts, a believer begins to finally realize that his purpose while being here is to be an ambassador for Christ. He is to be Christās official representative everywhere he goes. When heās in the restaurant and he orders beans and they give him peas and theyāre cold, wherever he is, Christ in him reaches out and touches that person. He is an official representative of the Lord Jesus Himself. And Paul tried to get these Corinthians to open their eyes, let the fog lift and understand what they were here on this earth to be about. He wanted them to see that they had a window of opportunity that they were so privileged in which to live.
And we need to realize that we live in that same window. In 2 Corinthians 6:2 the apostle Paul quotes out of Isaiah 49, which is the prophecy of Christ. And he says in verse 2, āAt the acceptable time I listened to you, and on the day of salvation I helped you; behold, now is āthe acceptable time,ā behold, now is āthe day of salvation.āā And by using that verse he was saying to the Corinthians, āDonāt you understand the privileged time in which you live? That youāre living in the acceptable time? Christ has fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah and now God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. Behold, now is the day of salvation.ā
And what we need to understand today is that we also live in that awesome time; a time when salvation is open to all who would believe. My prayer is for the church in America today that the fog would lift and that people would realize that they donāt come to church to be entertained. They come to church to be equipped. Why? To be ambassadors for Christ, to be ministers of reconciliation, to be workers together with Him. To us has been given the ministry of reconciliation.
Paul warned the Corinthian believers that their walk must match their talk. Their walk had to match their talk. In 2 Corinthians 6:3, āgiving no cause for offense in anything, in order that the ministry be not discredited.ā Just like Paul they had to have a lifestyle that backed up what they were doing. And this is really his heartbeat in this text. He wants us to see the character of an individual who truly is a worker together with God. So their adequacy would no longer be of themselves. We live in the new covenant that Paul has already talked about. He says, āIām a servant of a new covenant,ā as weāve seen back in chapter 3. And heās talking about new covenant language. Christ has come, now is the acceptable time, Christ lives within us, our adequacy is not of ourselves. I canāt do it, God never said I could. He can do it, He always said He would.
Itās not up to me anymore; itās not up to you anymore. Itās only up to us to surrender to the One who will get the job done. Christ lives in us to do through us what we can never do ourselves. And when the fog lifts and we begin to realize we walk with Him, we work with Him; He lives in us to do through us what we couldnāt do ourselves, thatās when the shouting ought to begin.
We were doing a conference over in Vienna. A fellow from Russia came and he saw it. Iām telling you, thereās nothing any more blessed than a teacher who teaches the truth and a student who hears it. That āahaā sound. And he saw it; you could see the light come on in his face. And he said, āIāve been so overwhelmed because I know I canāt do it, now I understand. Christ lives in me to enable me to do these things.ā Well, he got so fired up.
And he got out in the middle of an apartment complex; the people live in these huge apartments, sort of a āuā shape. And he got out in the courtyard of that thing, took a megaphone and he began to yell out, āIf you want to go to heaven come down here. Iām going to show you how to get there.ā And the people came down, hundreds were saved, and it all began when the fog lifted in his life and he began to understand he lived in a privileged time, he needed to have a life that backed up what he did, Christ lived in him, he was an ambassador of Christ, had the ministry of reconciliation and thatās why God leaves us on planet earth until the day we see Him. The fog needs to lift.
Church is not about us, itās about Christ who lives in us, doing through us what we could never do ourselves. Now weāve seen the turn in the passage; from verse 4 on he shows you that once a person has the fog lift, and they begin to be workers together with Christ, that the hardships and the pressures begin to come. Now thatās the difficult part of it; thatās the down side. Nobody wants to hear this. In verse 4 the key to the whole passage is in this statement, āin everything commendingā or presenting āourselves as servants of God.ā Thatās the key to everything heās going to talk about all the way down.
Now what does Paul mean when he says, āin everythingā? Paul mentions ten things that weāve already studied for which endurance begins the list and is the key one to all of them. In verse 4, by saying, āin much endurance,ā he opens up the understanding that āin everythingā includes pressure and pain that will accompany the people who work together with God. And Paul describes the inevitable pressure that will come our way by using three words. He uses āaffliction,ā which means the pressures which come from without. All of this is because weāre yielded to Christ. He mentions āhardships.ā Hardship is that natural thing that is going to happen when you say yes to God. Itās going to offend some; itās going to bless others. Itās going to bring hardship in a personās life. And then ādistresses;ā itās the inner stress that comes from the outward pressure on an individual. Every believer who is a worker together with God understands this. You donāt need any more preaching on it.
But he also mentions undeserved persecution that will be a part of being a worker together with God. Itās part of the everything. He says, āin beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults.ā Now these things came into Paulās life either from the religious authorities or it came from the legal authorities. They were part of his āeverything.ā Then Paul shows that there is bodily deprivation that must be endured when he says, āin labors, in sleeplessness, and in hunger.ā
Now the āeverythingā that Paul talks about in mentioning this last three helps us to understand that Christianity is not a passive thing; that itās very active; that itās 100% our willingness to surrender to Him. No matter whether it cost us hard labor, no matter whether it cost us sleepless nights, no matter whether it costs us hunger and going without food. Itās a part of the walk with God; 100% our willingness to obey and 100% His power and presence to enable us to endure the āeverythingā that comes our way. But you see, in āeverything,ā now we know what the āeverythingā is now, there are ten things there, and the āeverythingā is not just what a person goes through; itās the character of the individual who goes through it.
And thatās what Paulās pointing toward. We live in a day when if it looks good on the outside, everybody thinks itās right. No, man looks on the outside, but God looks on the heart. And thatās what Paulās driving at here. Itās not what a person goes through. He can inflict his own hardship. Itās the way and the manner in which he goes through what he goes through as a worker together with God.
Weāre going to see eight things in verse 6 through verse 7, two groups of four. And I just love studying Scripture because every time I get into it itās so perfect, and I know God had to have written it. Nobody could every convince me itās not Godās Word. All of these eight things are in the beginning with the preposition āin.ā In something, in, in, in, as we have already seen in ten things before. You say, āWhy do you bring that up?ā Because that preposition next week is going to change.
You see, heās saying something here thatās powerful, but the English sometimes doesnāt quite grasp it. And itās a beautiful picture of what a worker together with God is all about. These eight things we will study today describe the character of the true servant of God. There are a lot of people going around saying theyāre servants of God. How do you know the difference of the people that are real and the people that arenāt real? Is it the number of people they witness to; is it the number of tracts they pass out? No, itās the character of the individual that does what he does. And thatās what Paulās driving at.
So while weāre enduring in everything, like Paul, letās look at the character that must be on display as being a servant of God, an ambassador for Christ, a minister of reconciliation. And there are two things and these two things are so powerful.
There is a purity to the servant of God
First of all there is a purity to the servant of God. Verse 6 he says, āin purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness.ā Now here we find four beautiful descriptive words that are a part of a wonderful truth. The word āpurityā is the key word. Anytime Paul makes a list, the first word is always key. It sort of sets the stage for the next three that follows. And donāt forget now weāre talking about an ambassador for Christ, preaching the ministry of reconciliation. Heās a person who is a worker together with God now.
What about his life? It demands a character of life. The word āpurityā is in reference to the motive of the ambassador of Christ, the motives of his heart. Itās the word hagnotes. Now hagnotes can be used for moral purity, but here it means sincerity. Itās when something, now listen carefully, is without any hidden agenda, whether it be personal, denominational or anything else. There are no strings attached to what he does, thereās no hidden agenda.
It refers here to Paulās heart; to the purity of his motive and all that he does and all that he suffers. But purity alone, and this is something weāve got to understand, purity alone is not enough. Good grief, thatās the whole key. No, itās not, itās part of it, itās the beginning steps of it, but purity alone is not enough for one to be a worker together with God. And so Paul adds something to this. You see, a person can be pure in his motive and not have knowledge about what heās doing. He can be sincere but sincerely wrong. He can be sincere but totally ignorant of what heās doing. An ill-informed person who has a pure heart can be a very dangerous person in the kingdom of God.
Jesus warned of this and if you know the Scriptures you know this: when people would kill believers, He warned them of a day that people would kill believers out of sincerity, thinking they were doing what was right, that was pleasing to God. You say, āHe didnāt do that.ā Yes, He did. John 16:2, āthey will make you outcasts from the synagogue; but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.ā
So Paul adds to the word āpurityā the word āknowledge.ā Youāve got to have the two together. The purity comes first, not the knowledge, but the purity comes first. But then the knowledge has got to be given. Either of these words that are left alone are very dangerous things. Knowledge without a pure motive causes one to be arrogant and insensitive to people. He might know what heās doing, but has no heart for it, no burden, no passion for it. He works from both sides.
I was associate pastor in Mississippi years ago, and they assigned me to train the church in evangelism. And they called the course āReproductive Evangelism.ā That kind of interested me. So I said, āOkay, Iāll take it.ā And we had 30 people; we had to have an even number because weāre going to send them out two by two. I saw that in the gospel, that had to be right. And so you canāt have 31 because 2 wonāt go into 31 so we had 30 people. Cut it off at 30 people.
What I did, I found the biggest skeptic in our church named Tom. Tom and I were good friends, but he would question air. You had to convince him the sun was up on a clear day. He could make you doubt it. Iāve never been around a person like this. And so I said I was going to let him be the one, the teacher, because Iām kind of creative. The door to the classroom I made like a front door and I put a couch in there and I put an end table and I put a lounge chair. It was kind of like a living room.
And they had to come up and knock on the door and Tom met them at the door. Well, if they could get past the doorway that was a good move and they went in. And Tom, as the skeptic he was, would question everything they said. He would just drive them nuts to see if they knew what they were doing. For three months we did this every Sunday night, and Iām telling you, they just seemed like they were doing so well. And you know how people are, especially Baptists, they love certificates.ā Oh boy, I got a certificate so Iām spiritual.ā So we had a service one night and we were going to present them with a certificate for passing the class and now they were going to go out and reach the city for Jesus and we had the choir sing āOnward Christian Soldiersā and all the songs were built around going out and reaching the city for Jesus.
We turned them loose, prospects running out their ears and in three or four weeks I decided to check up on them. I called a meeting and I said, āLetās just share testimonies of what Godās done.ā And you know what I found out? Do you know how many people actually even shared with anybody? Whoever knocked on a door, whoever said anything to anybody, do you know how many people there were? Zero. āWell, wait a minute, they were trained.ā And this is where we fail, folks. You can have somebody that has all the knowledge in the world, but if he doesnāt have the passion of the Lord Jesus Christ burning in his heart it does him no good whatsoever.
But you reverse that and you take a person that has the zeal of God within him and heās just full of that vigor and you put him out there without knowing what heās doing and theyāll chew him up and spit him out so fast it will make your head swim.
So Paul says, āPurity,ā thatās your motive, sincerity of heart, pureness of heart, but then he adds āknowledge,ā because those two things have to go together. The word āknowledgeā is the word gnosis, and itās the result of something that has been learned or experienced. We have already studied the fact that Paul reasoned with men from the Word of God. Paul was a man full of passion, but Paul was also a very knowledgeable individual. He could even debate with the philosophers on Mars Hill there in Greece in Athens. I mean, he could take on anybody because he knew; his mind was saturated with the Word of God. By the way, thatās the Old Testament because he was writing almost half of the New Testament.
He had the purity of motive, but with it he had the knowledge to go with it. We must learn this. The right motive must have the right information, folks. Now once this is in place, then we can tolerate any kind of person. Even when weāre afflicted, even when weāre persecuted, weāre going through the ten things that were mentioned earlier, we can tolerate them. We can actually have a love for them as we will see later on.
To purity and knowledge Paul adds the word āpatience.ā The word āpatienceā in the Greek is the word makrothumia, which means long suffering. Long suffering; there are two words translated for āpatienceā in the New Testament. Thereās the word hupomone, which is the word we saw back in verse 4; āendurance,ā it has to do with circumstances. But this particular word is very specific: makrothumia. It has to do with people. You see, weāve already seen that nobody can predict the response of people when they hear the word of reconciliation. Paul said back in 2:16 that the word of reconciliation will be, āto the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things?ā You just canāt predict it. You donāt know who will respond and who wonāt respond. But there will be people who will come very harshly and very cruelly towards you, but God enables us to have a patience to bear up under, to suffer long with people who treat us harshly.
And then to complete that beautiful first list of four he adds the word ākindness.ā He says, āin purity,ā which is the heart motive; āin knowledge,ā which is the information that connects with it; āpatience,ā the ability to bear up under whoever comes your way, to deal and tolerate people that are just cruel; and then he adds the word āin kindness.ā I love this. Itās not just bearing up under, itās not just gritting your teeth, grinning and bearing it. The word ākindnessā is the word chrestotes, and itās that which has totally tenderized oneās disposition to where others are drawn to him instead of repulsed from him. It comes from the word chrestos, which means āuseful, profitable.ā
Do you realize what Paul is saying here? This is a person who is so broken on the inside and so tender in his heart, he doesnāt fight back, he just loves. And even when heās treated harshly, because his heart is pure, and because the information is right in his head, and when people come at him, yes, he can bear up under. But he does it with a manner and demeanor that is awesome. Oh, I love that when Iām around people who live that way; I want that so badly in my life. You ask a child who has kindness in his life, kindness never is talking about what a person does, thatās another word. The word thatās used here is the manner of the person. Itās what a child is drawn to. If you see a child repulsed by an adult, I donāt care if heās passing out tracts or witnessing to anybody, and you see a child cower down and back away from him, that individual is not a worker together with God. Heās faking it and heās got a personal agenda in it somewhere.
How do you now people who are real in the 21st century? How do you know that somebody is truly working together with God and doesnāt have fleshly minded agendas? Itās a person who is pure in his motive, a person who is knowledgeable about what heās doing, he knows the Word of God, knows the God of the Word so he knows the Word of God. A person who is patient but oh, much more than that, a person who is just flat-out kind to all people. And you know it takes two people to fight. He disarms every conflict by the nature Christ has produced in his life.
There is a power to the servant of God
So first of all there is a purity to a true servant of God. But secondly, there is a power to a true servant of God. And the power is not of him. He says in verse 6 again, āin purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness,ā and then he does something. He adds four more things that take it even to another level. He says, āin the Holy Spirit, in genuine love, in the word of truth,ā or as some people translate it, ātruthās word,ā and āin the power of God.ā
Now these next four qualities that Paul mentions are so beautifully positioned in the text that you may wonder at the order in which they come. Why did Paul put them that way? Remember, it wasnāt Paul, it was by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, and itās so beautiful. Of course the Holy Spirit has been involved in everything that we have studied, because He is the Spirit of Christ. But now Paul, for whatever reason, decides to lift Him up and recognize Him. You know, the Spirit never speaks of Himself, He only points to Christ, but he brings Him in to make sure that nobody is missing the source of where all of these things come from.
Paul couldnāt put love next without putting the Holy Spirit first. He couldnāt put truth or he couldnāt put power, because the Holy Spirit is the One that initiates all of those three things. All that a worker together with God does is in the power of the Holy Spirit of God. Now, Iām going to tell you something, maybe you donāt know this but surely you do, but when you yield to Christ, when we say yes to Him, we have just said no to our flesh. And at that very moment, the Holy Spirit living in us dresses us in the character of Christ.
You see, in religion you can work from the outside in. You can try to do this, you can do this, you can do that. āI can do it, I can do it, I can do it, I can.ā But not in Christianity. In Christianity there is no possible way that you can love somebody as youāre commanded to love them. Thereās no way you can be patient with somebody who is teasing you in the wrong way. None of these things are possible unless the Holy Spirit produces that character from the inside out. See, Christianity is from the inside out. It all has to do with your walk with God. Religion is from the outside in.
And so the Holy Spirit dresses us in the garment of Christ. And what is the character of Christ? First John tells us that Heās love. God is love. Itās not a quality, itās who He is; itās a person. And that love is the word that follows the word Holy Spirit because He has to produce it. Galatians 5:22, āBut the fruit of the Spirit is love.ā And it says in Galatians 5:14, āFor the whole Law is fulfilled in one word,ā and thatās the word ālove.ā But none of us can produce it; it has to be produced from the inside out and that comes from the integrity of a walk with God.
Paul says āin genuine love.ā The word āgenuineā originally meant āone who is inexperienced in the art of acting.ā I love that! One who has this love produced in him canāt even think about faking it because itās something that absorbs him, itās something that constrains him; itās something that captures him. Itās not something he does as much as it is someone who is love manifesting it through his life. The Holy Spirit produces this love which is Christās love in him for others. And it is this unselfish love that controlled Paul and his companions. Heās already told us this if youāve been with us in our study.
Second Corinthians 5:14, āFor the love of Christ controls us,ā itās not only captured us, it controls us, āhaving concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died.ā The Corinthians had treated Paul in such a harsh way. You know, I heard somebody tell me the other day, I didnāt realize this, thereās a place in Michigan called Hell, Michigan. Did you know that? I didnāt know that. Now, Iāve been there, but not in Michigan. I understand that phrase. If you would ask the apostle Paul where that would be, heād say Corinth. Folks, if you lived in Corinth you wouldnāt want to join that church. Good grief, they caused him more pain, they were so enamored with the world and themselves but the apostle Paul, because of his walk with God, loved those people. He loved them.
In 2 Corinthians 2:4 it says, āFor out of much affliction and anguish of heart,ā caused by them, āI wrote to you with many tears,ā all of those things were caused by the Corinthians, ānot that you should be made sorrowful,ā heās talking about that third letter, ābut that you might know the love which I have especially for you.ā Now thatās God, thatās God, folks. You canāt teach a class in this one. It better be God working in your heart. You canāt love people who treat you in the wrong way, talk about you and accuse you falsely. You canāt do that but God can.
At least six times Paul affirmed this love for the believers that he had at Corinth in 2 Corinthians. And Paul mentions the word of truth that follows after that. You see, the Holy Spirit has got to be producing these things. He points to their source and then he mentions the love which is the fruit of his working in an individualās life. Then he mentions the word of truth, or as I said earlier some people translate it, ātruthās word.ā You see, the whole of the ministry of reconciliation is wrapped up in this phrase. Paul is referring to Godās Word. We know that because the power that comes from it, you see, the power of salvation is in it. Iām not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for in it is the power for one to be saved. Thatās whatās in it.
And so he mentions the Word of God because if the Word of God is not there then thereās no power at all. You see, a lot of people get excited about sharing their testimony, and I think thatās wonderful; that inspires; that encourages. But it doesnāt convict; itās the Word of God that convicts a personās heart. When it goes deep into his heart and the Holy Spirit takes it and he realizes āIām a sinner. Iām a sinner.ā
There was a place that Trans World Radio told me about that was down in one country. One page of the New Testament, but it happened to be a page out of John, was lost and it was years and years and years later they went back into that area and found a church there, people saved. They said, āHow could this be? Nobody has ever been here.ā That one little page of Godās Word was where every bit of it had taken place.
Paul adds, āin the power of God.ā You know, itās God and only God that can reconcile a man to Himself. We saw this earlier, in Paul being an ambassador for Christ, how he reasoned with men but only God could persuade the hearts of men. I was so blessed in studying this passage, these marvelous eight qualities that so beautifully fit together to define an individual who is a true worker together with God. A lot of people are masquerading as ministers of reconciliation.
I donāt question the motiveāI donāt think I do, Iām asking the Lord not to let me do thatābut you know what weāve done, folks? We have made how many people you baptize in churches a competition and the one who wins gets the prize. And weāve shot ourselves in the foot. You know what blesses me? Last week, those two fellows that got saved came the following week and brought their buddy, and he got saved. One of them walked up to me and said, āMy aunt was in the hospital, and I just wanted you to know, Brother Wayne, I went by to minister to her and she prayed to receive Jesus as her Lord and Savior.ā I turned away from him and there was this couple and they said, āWeāve been gone for two weeks but let me tell you what happened. Weāve been at a family reunion in California and while we were over there we led two of our family members to know Christ, they prayed to receive Christ.ā
I turned,⦠Iāve seen this so much in the past several weeks, but listen to me, listen to me, listen to me. You donāt put that on a piece of paper and parade it around as if youāve done anything. What is wrong with us? These people may never join our church. Praise God. Weāre not the only church; weāre just a piece of the body of Christ. Just let them get someplace where theyāre teaching the Word of God. But weāve done that.
You see, I was a number on somebodyās list. āOh, how many did you have baptized last year?ā I was baptized when I was nine years old; I came to know Christ when I was 32. You see a little problem here? Because there are a lot of people that do what they do with a fleshly agenda. Even though itās a good thing, the character behind it is not what it ought to be. Folks, weāre in to be praising God, not men.
Let me give you this as I close. I love Bill Bright. Heās in heaven. One of these days Iāll get to sit down and talk to him. But he wrote this article. This is his words, his article:
āāI donāt wear my religion on my sleeve,ā the man said, āmy religion is personal and private and I donāt want to talk about it.ā The man who made this statement was one of Americaās leading statesmen. He was a professing Christian with whom I was visiting just off of the campus of Harvard University where he was a guest speaker. I had just asked him to become involved with 1,000 key Christian leaders in a great worldwide effort to help fulfill the Great Commission. His statement startled me so I asked him, āYou are a Christian, arenāt you?ā He said, āYes, but Iām not a religious fanatic.ā Grieved by his logic I continued to prod him gently. āDid it ever occur to you that it cost Jesus Christ His life so that you could call yourself a Christian? It cost the disciples their lives also and millions of Christians throughout the centuries have suffered or died as martyrs in order to get the message of Godās love and forgiveness to you? Now, do you really believe that your faith in Christ Jesus is personal and private and you should not talk about it?ā The man answered quick as a flash, āNo, sir, Iām wrong.ā And then he said with a new meekness in his voice, āTell me what I can do about it.āā
You know what he can do about it? Exactly what we preached today: to be a worker together with God. It doesnāt start with me telling anybody anything, it starts with me walking with God moment by moment, day by day. Then He purifies my heart. Then He teaches me what I need to know. Then He gives me the patience to put up with people who treat me in the wrong way. And He so tenderizes my heart I can even be kind to people who are treating me wrong and have lied about me.
But itās really the Holy Spirit doing all of this, isnāt it? And what it sums up to be is the love that He produces in a personās heart that canāt be faked. And you see, that love enters into where the truth of Godās Word is. We donāt only love God, but we love His Word and that love flows out when we share it. And then the power of God to reconcile men to Himself.
So who are the real people today? Who are they? Well, I think Paul pretty well clarifies it for us. In my heart my prayer for you is that youād be a worker together with God, and I want your prayer for me to be a worker together with God. Iām only 62 and many of you have got me way down the road. And some of you are about where I am and some of you Iāve got you. But let me share this with you, my prayer: I want to finish well. I think you do too, but you cannot do it living in the fog, thinking only about yourself. We have got to lay it down, lay the past down and let God be God in our life. Thatās what Godās wanting.
I canāt do that for you and you canāt do that for me. I have got to decide, lay it down. You have got to decide. But Iāll tell you what; the best days are ahead of us when we say yes to Him.
[ā¦] Read Part 26 [ā¦]