The Gospel Is Ours to Give

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Transcript:

Well, turn with me in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. It is World Mission Sunday, the end of our 50 days of prayer and giving, where we’ve been praying for our missionaries and saving up to take up this offering today.

and hopefully we all can dig deep and support our missionaries on a national level and on an international level. I’m glad that Brother David gave me the opportunity to preach on missions. When he first asked me to fill in for him today, he asked me to finish up his series on marriage and relationships.

And I thought, well, I guess I can do that. But the more I thought about it, I’ve been married just under three years, and some of you people have been married longer than I’ve been alive. What do I have?

Talk about intimidating. I mean, I can tell you what the Word of God says, but it’s a little intimidating when some of you would be sitting out there saying, I don’t know what he’s talking about. I could tell stories.

So he said on second thought, you know, it’s World Missions Sunday. You could always preach on missions. I said, I’ll do that.

I’ll do that. So I’m glad to be able to preach to you, talk to you about what the Lord says about missions today. I had anticipated preaching to you and encouraging you about praying for and contributing to world missions.

That’s something that’s important. That’s really the focus of today, is supporting our missionaries around the world and in other parts of this country, not only with our money, but with our prayers. It’s already been said this morning that the prayers are the main thing that’s needed.

Folks, though, that’s something we’ve traditionally done very well in our missionary Baptist churches. When you look at the income levels in our churches, the sizes of our churches, all these things. People in the BMA give amazingly well to missions, and we pray for missions, and we talk about world missions, and we do all these things.

And I’m not telling you don’t give to world missions. I would never say that. We should give more.

As much as we’re giving, we should give more to world missions. As much as we pray, we should pray more for world missions. I’m not telling you not to do those things.

But when I thought about coming today and promoting giving and prayer for world missions, we already do those things well. And in the last few months, I’ve heard missionaries from other countries overseas come back here to the United States to talk to our churches about how they’re glad to see that we contribute to their work and we pray for their work. But I think they themselves are frustrated to see that so much of our energy and so much of our emphasis is put on supporting their work and not on doing our own.

And when Brother David and I went to the mission symposium in Lufkin a few weeks ago, there was a brother there from West Africa who’s had to flee his country. He was raised a Muslim and converted to Christianity, was disowned by his family, threatened by the community, and he had to flee his country. He’s now in the seminary and planning to go back, I guess, undercover to his country and plant churches when he’s finished and use it as a base because it sits in the middle of West Africa, to use it as a base to reach out to the other Muslim countries of West Africa.

Amen. Praise the Lord for what he plans to do. But he told us that our churches here in the United States are like the church at Jerusalem in the book of acts that when the other churches got started in other parts of the world, they all looked back to Jerusalem for their example.

And folks, people in the rest of the world, the missionaries, the church planters, the everyday Christians who are trying to reach people, look to us as the example. And we’ve been a tremendous example to them in giving, and we’ve been a tremendous example to them in praying, but we have not been a tremendous example to them in doing. We just haven’t.

But our number of churches, our number of people in our churches, and not just us, but Christianity as a whole has not kept up with the population, which means we’re not reaching people as quickly as people are coming here, as quickly as people are being born. We’re falling behind. It’s because we see missions as something that’s done overseas, forgetting the fact that there are people just as lost. There’s just as much sin here in Oklahoma.

Folks, Blanchard, Oklahoma is a mission field. Norman, Oklahoma, believe me, is a mission field. The places in between, the places around us are a mission field.

And folks, if there’s one thing that we’re not doing for our world missionaries and for our national missionaries that we could be doing a better job is to be an encouragement and an example to them by the work we’re doing here. Our commitment to missions needs to be in our wallet. It needs to be on our knees.

It also needs to be with our hands and feet as we go to the people around us. And I want to talk to you this morning about taking the gospel to people around us and what we should be doing to support world missions here in our corner of the world. Let’s look at 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verses 1 through 6.

2 Corinthians chapter 4 verses 1 through 6 says, therefore seeing that we have this ministry as we have received mercy, we faint not, but have cast from us the cloaks of shame and walk not in craftiness, neither handle we the word of God deceitfully, but in declaration of the truth we approve ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. If the gospel be then hid, it is hid to them that are lost. In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds, that is of the infidels, that the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, which is the image of God, should not shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.

For God that commandeth the light to shine out of darkness is he which hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Hey, Paul goes on to talk a little bit more about missions, and we may talk about that tonight, but I want to stop there for now. And as Paul is writing to the church at Corinth, the first thing that stares out at me from this passage that Paul is telling them, he says, therefore, seeing we have this ministry as we have received mercy, we faint not. In verse 1, he uses the word we three times.

And he’s not just talking about himself and his traveling companions. He’s not just talking about Paul and Silas, Paul and Barnabas, Paul and Luke, Paul and whoever. He’s writing to the church at Corinth and he’s saying, you and me, as we have received this ministry, we have this ministry as we have received mercy, we faint not.

He’s not just saying this is the job of the Apostle Paul. He’s writing back to the people of the church there at Corinth and saying this is our job. He says we have received this ministry together.

And in this ministry, we faint not. And what the Apostle Paul is telling the church at Corinth and what he’s telling us today is the title of this message that the gospel is ours to give. The gospel doesn’t belong to the pastor to give.

The gospel doesn’t belong to the missionaries we send out or just the super spiritual people that go on visitation or whatever. The gospel belongs to every believer. And missions is the job of every believer.

And God has given us some advice and some commandments on this that we can see in this passage that he writes through Paul. When we start talking about missions and we start talking about reaching out to the people around us, I’m going to be honest with you, that can be a scary proposition. I’m not too spiritual to admit sometimes it’s scary to talk to people about the Lord.

Amen? Anybody else been there? You get that knot in your stomach sometimes when you think about how they’re going to respond or what if I can’t answer their questions or what if I don’t have all the answers or what if I mess up the presentation.

It could be a scary thing. It was a scary thing for them too because they faced persecution, but for us it’s a scary thing for some different reasons. But the fact remains, sharing the gospel, doing missions, surrendering your life to God in that way and saying it doesn’t matter what happens to me, all that matters is Christ and His glory and His gospel.

Folks, that’s a scary proposition. It’s a scary idea, giving up that control, giving up that part of yourself. That’s why it’s encouraging that in this first verse, God reminds us through Paul, that God’s mercy upholds us as we carry the gospel.

As we go out and give the gospel, God’s mercy upholds us. He says, therefore, seeing that we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not. We have this ministry as we have received mercy from God, we faint not.

And what he’s telling us here is that we have this ministry not only because we have received mercy. We have this ministry because we have received God’s mercy through Jesus Christ. And as believers in Christ, we’ve experienced the mercy of God, that He’s willing to forgive us the sins that otherwise would have condemned us to hell. He forgives those things because Jesus died on the cross, and God extends His mercy through Jesus Christ. And as people who’ve received that mercy, we’re now children of God, and we’re now sent out on a mission to carry that gospel.

And we’ve received that ministry just by the very fact that we’re forgiven. But also, He gives us that mercy that we need each day. He gives us mercy and grace enough to go through day by day the challenges and the circumstances that we face every day that prevent us and that scare us from sharing the gospel, that scare us from serving God.

He’s given us mercy enough to combat those things. That’s what we call it when God tells us you need to go witness to that co-worker. We think that co-worker is a hardened atheist and smarter than I am.

And we get scared. See, I’m not the only one that’s been there. Some of you laugh.

And we get scared. And we think, no, God, I can’t do that. I wouldn’t know what to say.

And yet we go and open our mouths and God gives us the words at just the right time. Folks, that is the mercy of God in the ministry that he’s given us. The fact that somehow even though we’re chicken about it, he gives us the boldness enough to even approach those people.

Folks, that is the mercy of God that he gives us at just the right time. As we go to share the gospel, as we go to do missions here in our corner of the world, folks, it is the mercy of God that upholds us. There’s not one of us who is so strong or so bold or so eloquent or so spiritual that we can go and twist somebody’s arms and argue them to Christ on our own.

There’s not one of us that can serve God without the power of God. And yet he gives us his mercy to fulfill his ministry. He’s entrusted us with a ministry and he gives us every means that we need to fulfill it.

He doesn’t always promise us the outcome that we expect. And we can walk away from witnessing to somebody and think they did not even hear what I was saying. They didn’t even care.

Folks, he may have just told you to go tell them. And that was the ministry you were supposed to do, was to plant that seed today. And if you followed Christ’s ministry and you did so in His mercy, it wasn’t a failure.

Because Paul talked about some have planted and some have watered, but God has given the increase. And the seeds that we plant one day may be watered by somebody else ten years down the road. That’s the mercy of God.

But it’s always God that gives the increase. In everything we do in serving God, it’s His mercy that upholds us from moment to moment, where we don’t have the capacity or the ability to do it by ourselves. That ought to be a comforting thought to us.

Because serving God in a world that’s hostile to God is a scary thing. Thank God for His mercy that upholds us from moment to moment. Secondly, as Paul reminds them that missions is the job of every believer, he reminds them that wickedness hinders us from our ability to serve Him.

Wickedness hinders our ability to share the gospel. He says in verse 2, But we have cast from us the cloaks of shame and walk not in craftiness, neither handle we the word of God deceitfully. But in declaration of the truth, we approve ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.

You’ve heard it before that people are looking at us as an example of Christ. When they know we’re a Christian, they’re looking at us and watching everything we do. It’s like living in a fishbowl where they can see everything we do. And people are looking for that one little sign of hypocrisy.

They’re looking for that one little sign where we don’t measure up to what we say we are. And that’s often because we’ve given people the idea that Christians are supposed to be perfect. And we tell ourselves when we mess up, nobody’s perfect, yet we reinforce that idea to the rest of the world that, hey, we’re Christians.

We’ve got it all together. That’s not the case. Christians stumble and fall just like everybody else.

The only difference is we are sinners saved by grace. There’s something that comes after the word sinners, but we’re still sinners saved by grace. But Paul tells them here, there’s a difference, folks, between stumbling and falling and then relying on the mercy of God to pick you up, confessing that sin and dealing with it before God.

There’s a difference between that and falling into sin and wallowing in it. And folks, if our lifestyles do not match what we’re saying, it will hinder us from sharing the gospel. People are going to look at us and they’re going to think, you hypocrite, because the wickedness of our life does not match the holiness of the gospel that we proclaim.

I’ve seen it so many times. We used to do a lot of outreach and ministry in high school. We had Bible study group, and a lot of people from Southgate were involved in it, and a few other churches.

But there were other people in the school who professed to be Christians. And as we would try to reach out to people, we had some kids in our group that were on fire for God and wanted to reach people. And as we would share the gospel, as we would talk about the forgiveness of sin through Jesus Christ, people would say, well, what about that kid over there?

He professed to be a Christian. Did you hear what he was doing last weekend? Folks, even if it wasn’t us that was involved in these wicked things, it still hindered the gospel.

It still hindered the gospel. I’m not saying we have to be perfect before we can go share Christ. My goodness, if we had to be perfect before we could go share Christ, the gospel would have died out a long time ago. We don’t have to be perfect to share Christ. But we ought to examine ourselves on a daily basis and make sure that what we profess is what we’re living.

Because that wickedness, if we fall and we trip into sin and we wallow in it, we stay there and just wallow around in it and let it go. Folks, it comes between us and God. It starts to hinder people’s response to the gospel.

It’s just not a good thing. And Paul says we have cast from us the cloaks of shame. We put aside those things, the shame and the guilt that come from a life of wickedness.

We put those things aside. He said, and we don’t walk in craftiness nor handle the word of God deceitfully. Folks, there are also some well-meaning Christians, well-meaning people who are so desperate.

And, man, I commend them for their care for people’s souls, but they are so desperate to get somebody to receive Christ that they promise them the sun and the moon and the stars. They tell them you accept Christ and everything’s going to be peachy in your life. And, folks, that’s just not the truth.

No wonder so many people pray a prayer saying they trust Christ, thinking their lives are going to be perfect after that. No repentance, no born-again experience, but they pray the prayer thinking that Christ is going to make everything just sunshine and roses in their lives, and then the first thing falls apart, and suddenly what I was told was not real. Folks, people have walked in craftiness and mishandled the Word of God, and it hinders the gospel. Because you go to that person again and you try to tell them about Christ and they’ve already heard it.

They’ve already experienced it, so they think, and it wasn’t real. So they’re not wanting to listen again, and it makes the job that much harder. Folks, as we go through life and we try to share the gospel with people, wickedness hinders us, whether it’s on purpose or not. Whether it’s us out in a lifestyle of sin where we’re involved regularly and habitually in things that God has said don’t do that, and the world even knows that we’re not supposed to do because we say we’re not supposed to do that.

Whether it’s us being involved in wicked activities, whether it’s us twisting or distorting the word of God to get people to do what we want them to do. Folks, our wickedness hinders us and it hinders the spread of the gospel. That ought to scare us.

And I said God’s mercy upholding us ought to be a comfort to us. It ought to scare us that our wickedness can sometimes get in the way if we’re not careful. But thank God for his mercy that upholds us when we fall.

But we’ve got to be careful of the life we’re living. If we’re going to say we live for Christ, folks, we better have the actions to back it up. I’m not talking perfection, but there ought to be a consistent life that we’re living where they can see the difference, because otherwise we’re just playing, and it hinders us, and it hinders the gospel.

In verses 3 and 4, he says, if the gospel be then hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world has blinded the minds, that is of the infidels, that the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, which is the image of God, should not shine unto them. If the gospel’s hidden, it’s hidden from those that are perishing. It’s hidden from those that are lost. It’s hidden from those who are bound for judgment, apart from that gospel.

That this This message, which is the only thing that can save them from the fires of hell, is hidden from them because we have not shared it with them. We’ve kept it as a hidden treasure. Because it’s not readily apparent to them.

The Bible says here that the God of this world has blinded their minds. And when I read the word infidel, the Bible does not use the word infidel with the same degrading connotation that Islam uses. They talk about slaughtering the infidels, and it’s a put-down.

The Bible talks about infidels just as a synonym for unbelieving. someone who does not have faith in Christ. It says that to those who don’t believe, the God of this world has blinded them from the gospel. Folks, that’s exactly the way Satan wants it.

And Satan opposes us in everything that we do when it comes to sharing the gospel with those who need it. The world is blind and deaf to the gospel. They’re blind and deaf to their need for God.

Because God’s cruel? No. Because God hasn’t chosen them?

No. Because Jesus didn’t die for them? No.

But because ever since man gave into sin in the garden, God gave mankind one rule, only one rule, gave us everything we could ever want or need, and gave us only one rule. He said, don’t eat the fruit of that tree, and we couldn’t even handle that one simple rule. And instead, we chose to disobey God and go our own way and love the world instead of loving God.

And folks, ever since then, Satan has been pulling the wool over the eyes of the sheep here on earth. And when I say sheep, I’m not just talking about the lost, I’m talking about us too. The Bible says of all people that we all, like sheep, have gone astray.

Folks, that’s exactly where Satan wants it. He wants the gospel to be a mystery. The reason the gospel is a mystery is it’s not just inherent in mankind.

It’s not just something we’re born with understanding that, hey, if I’ll trust Christ, he’ll forgive my sins. Folks, everything about the gospel is opposite of the way the world works. Nowhere else in the world do you really get something for nothing.

Everything about the gospel is counter to the way the world works. It’s not something we’re just born understanding, born knowing. It’s something we’re blind and deaf to, and that’s exactly the way Satan wants it.

And the only reason it’s still hidden is because we’ve kept our mouths shut. The Bible says faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the word of God. And how shall they hear except one be sent?

Folks, they’re blind and deaf to the gospel, unless we tell them. If our gospel is hidden, it’s hidden from those who perish. Do we care at all?

Do we care at all that they’re perishing? That the simple act of us sharing the message with them is enough for them to express faith in Jesus Christ. I’m not saying that if we say it, and we say it in the right way, they’ll automatically do it. Folks, that puts a lot of pressure on us.

The job is for us to open our mouths and let the Holy Spirit deal with their hearts. Folks, the Bible’s clear. The Holy Spirit deals with their hearts through the Word of God.

And where do they hear the Word of God from? Our lips. If we go and we open our mouths and we share the gospel with people that it’s been hidden from, because Satan, not God, but Satan has decided to blind them from it.

If we go and open our mouths and share the gospel, they may not get saved, or they may. There’s no guarantee for us about that. But I can give you 100% guarantee on something, And that’s that if we don’t share with them, there’s a 100% guarantee they will not.

100% guarantee somebody’s not going to get saved if they do not hear the gospel. That ought to eat into our conscience. That ought to sear into our hearts the knowledge that people around us, folks are dying and going to hell for the simple fact that they’ve not heard.

We can’t make them believe, but we can give them the opportunity to believe. And folks, just like us, every member of the human race, it sounds harsh when we say it, but every member of the human race, myself included, were I to die and go to hell, I would deserve exactly what I got. Because I sinned against God.

I would deserve exactly everything I get. And so do they. But sometimes we act like the world around us, they just deserve everything they get.

As though we sit in judgment thinking we’re better. Thank God he did not give me what I deserve. Thank God that he did not give you what you deserved.

Should we withhold from them the same opportunity for God’s mercy that we were given undeservedly? No. So what do we do about it?

We start opening our mouths. We start caring. We stop seeing people as an annoyance.

We stop seeing people as that guy who cut me off in traffic. We stop seeing people as that woman who chews with her mouth open in the restaurant where I can see. We stop looking at them as the woman who was rude to me and lying, or that man next door who won’t keep his dog out of my yard.

Folks, we stop looking at them as annoyances. We stop looking down on them as people who just deserve whatever. We start looking at them the way Jesus saw them.

Because if anybody had a right to sit in judgment, it’s Jesus Christ. And one day, Jesus Christ will sit in judgment over us. But even Jesus Christ, who is completely holy, completely righteous, completely perfect, completely without sin, even He and His perfection could look down on all of us and say, if they were to fall into the fires of hell right now, they would deserve every punishment that they got for eternity. And yet, He did not want that to happen.

Can you imagine the love, the mercy that drove Jesus Christ to come down from the splendors of heaven and come down to this? You know, sometimes we like this world and we get attached to it. But folks, this is nothing compared to heaven.

And he came down from the splendors of heaven to this, that he himself is God. And yet God is offended and disgusted by sin. And yet he came down amongst sin.

And he walked among us. And he cared for us. And then he took that sin on himself.

And he died on the cross for us. Folks, if someone so perfect and so righteous and so just can have such a mercy and compassion towards sinners, what right do we have to withhold compassion from them? Satan opposes the gospel as it goes forward.

And when we keep our mouths shut, we think, oh, I’m just not serving God. No, we’re serving Satan. Because keeping people distant from the gospel is exactly what he wants.

Because he knows that faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the word of God. He couldn’t stop Jesus from dying to redeem us. He couldn’t stop Jesus from any of the miracles that he did.

He couldn’t stop Jesus from creating a place for us in heaven. Couldn’t stop God from offering his forgiveness. But the one thing he can do is convince us to stop sending the word of God forth.

Satan opposes us. We need to realize that. And instead of being indifferent to souls, we need to be driven by the gospel.

The gospel should drive us. Verse 5, Paul writes, For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants, for Jesus’ sake. Folks, everything within us ought to be oriented around the gospel.

I’m not telling you have to become something you’re not. I think God has wired each of us in a certain way. God has wired each of us to serve Him in a certain way.

But folks, everything still ought to be oriented around serving Him if we’re believers in Christ. I used to do street evangelism ministry with a man named Richard Parker. I think some of you may know him. I used to do ministry with him on the streets in Bricktown, with him and another man from Southgate named Charlie.

Three very different personalities. If any of you know Richard Parker, he was a former truck driver, former Marine, rough, tough guy, intimidating guy, big guy. He wasn’t afraid of anybody or anything.

He’d walk up to bodybuilders on the street when he’d talk to them about the Lord. If they’d give him lip, he’d say, what, you think you’re too good for Jesus? Come on.

Let’s go. And Charlie and I are backing slowly up the wall of the spaghetti warehouse, trying to get farther and farther away from this that was about to happen. And yet he could get away with saying things to people that we couldn’t.

And you know what? We saw people get saved because of Richard Parker. And we knew that underneath this rough, tough exterior was a man who loved Jesus Christ and who loved souls.

But folks, I couldn’t be him. I can’t be him today. And so we went out there and served God as we could, carrying on quiet, polite conversations with people and handing them tracts.

And you know what? We saw some people come to know Christ through that too. We don’t all have to be the one out there standing on the soapbox yelling.

For us to be driven by the gospel, I don’t have to start going out and yelling at people three times my size. I don’t. I don’t have to get on TV and go on Larry King present the gospel to 100 million people or however many people watch that show.

Some preachers can. I’m probably not the best one for that. I’d say something that would get me in trouble.

He’s not asking us to be something we’re not. God’s wired each of us with a different personality, different way of doing things. Some people are outgoing.

Some people are a little less outgoing. Some people are not outgoing at all. Some people have different interests.

Some people, like Jesus, could walk up to people in their society. farmers and fishermen, and talk to people about the kingdom of God using parables that they’d understand about farming and fishing. That might not be the best approach to me.

The last time I planted a garden, tornado came through, I ended up with corn in the front yard, didn’t know where it came from. I go fishing and never catch anything but snakes and end up throwing the whole pole into the lake. So I’m not, I’m not the, you know, I’m probably not good to use the same subject matter as Jesus.

I’ve heard people talk to other people about the Lord after they struck up a conversation with them about NASCAR. I know cars go around the circle. That’s all I know.

I couldn’t use that approach. But I’ve started conversations with people that have led to talking about the Lord and subjects that other people wouldn’t find interesting. But folks, it takes all of us.

It takes all of us, and God has wired each of us a certain way. When I say everything in our lives ought to be oriented around the gospel, and the gospel ought to be what drives every day. I’m not telling you to become me.

I’m not telling you to become the Apostle Paul. What I’m telling you is surrender your life to Jesus Christ and let him use you the way he’s made you for his glory. He’ll sort out the details.

I can’t stand here and tell you this is the way he’s going to use you. This is the ministry he’s going to give you. That’s his business.

But if we’re not as believers getting up every day and saying, how can I serve God today? How can I further his gospel today? How today, we are looking at this thing all along.

Paul had a tremendous ministry. He had a tremendous following. People all across the Mediterranean, the known world, they followed Paul.

There were sometimes arguments in churches because some people followed Paul, some people followed Apollos, some people said, why can’t we just follow Jesus Christ? Paul had a tremendous following. Paul still has a tremendous following.

Most of the New Testament was written by Paul. And yet Paul, with all of his intellect, with all of his charisma, with all of his power and influence and all these things. Paul said, we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves, your servants, for his sake.

Paul was famous. He was well known. He was influential. And yet Paul said, with all of these attributes that Paul had and with all of his greatness, he said, we don’t preach ourselves.

I’m not here to talk about myself, my ideas, my opinion, my greatness. I’m not here to preach myself, but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves, myself, your servant, for his sake. Everything Paul did was oriented around the gospel.

Paul even said at one point that he wished he could give up his life, his salvation for the people of Israel. That if the Israelites, if the Hebrews, if the