God ordains trials & suffering to reveal His Glory - Part 2

So this morning, speaking of journeys, this morning we're going to continue to read Paul's letter. He's on his missionary journey. In fact, the fact that he's on his missionary journey is a major reason why he's writing what he's writing today in this passage.

So we're going to pick up, starting in verse 11, that's where my passage that I was assigned to teach starts, but let's actually go back just a touch. Let's read what Roger taught last week starting in verse 7 and we'll go forward to 13. Actually, let me make a tough on-the-fly decision. Let's go all the way to 14. So I'll read out loud just so it's easy on the recording, but follow along starting in verse 7.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves. We are afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not despairing, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, always caring about in the body the dying of Jesus so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you. But having the same spirit of faith according to what is written, I believe, therefore I spoke, we also believe, therefore we also speak. Knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will present us with you.

Now we're going to stop in verse 13 this morning. We're going to straddle that longer sentence, but I wanted to read 14 so we had a little context, and 7 so that we have some context. I really do believe that verse 7 is kind of continued on in verse 11. We have a parallel thought that's expanding on verse 7 when we dig into this. In verses 8-10, Paul was going over a list of trials that he was dealing with. We saw this pattern, as Roger pointed out last week. We have this, but not this. It's this situation, but not as far as this situation. And the Lord had preserved Paul and the folks that were traveling with him, his entourage, as they were going through the Mediterranean area there. in predominantly Greece and that region.

So as we look at this, starting in verse 11 here, I want to ask an important question before we get into the text here. Are all believers called to be apostles? And this, hopefully, is a relatively easy question to answer. We got lots of no's and heads shaking, so that's good.

Why not? Because they were for a certain time. Okay, apostles were only for a certain time, which is an important detail, right? And also their purpose was very specific in establishing the church, right? So there's a time and a purpose. for the apostles. It turns out that the place wasn't a concern. The apostles actually went out all across the known globe, as far as India.

So we can see that they were moving as much as they were able. Because Paul, as we take a look at this first verse here in 11 this morning, he says, for we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake. I don't think that we want to apply that we who live are constantly being delivered over to every believer in the church. It doesn't mean that that's not going to happen to any believer. we could be delivered over to death. But Paul is talking to, in the context here, the language implies that he and his cohort were being delivered over so that the church will be built up.

And we'll look at that in the next couple verses. When we take a look at this being delivered over to death, he's not talking about spiritual or metaphorical things, is he? Roger covered that some, and we've been over it in chapter 2. We discussed it further.

If we were to take a look at Romans 6, chapter 6, verses 4, 8, or 11, Paul articulates a really important detail. That's the doctrine of identification with Christ's death. But that's not what Paul's talking about here, is he? He's actually talking about the threats to their lives.

And if we won't go read all of it and dig into it in great depth, but let's turn to 2 Corinthians 11 verses 23 and 27, through 27. And if somebody wants to read that out loud, we'll take a look at that. 2 Corinthians 11, 23 through 27. Someone would read that? Are they servants of Christ?

I speak as if insane. I more so, in far as labors, in far more imprisonments, beatings, without number, often in danger of death, five times received from the Jews, 39 lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked at night. Shipwrecked at night and day. A night and day I spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys and dangers of rivers, dangers of robbers, dangers from countrymen, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in cities, dangers in the wilderness, dangers of the sea, dangers among lost brethren. I have been in labors and hardship through many sleepless nights, hunger, thirst, often without food and cold and exposure.

Then just a light concern of the churches. Just a few little things. Then he has all the concerns about the churches. Oh my goodness. The reason why I want to articulate that is he says we're delivered over to death. When he says that, he's not talking about the metaphorical. And the other thing I want to just kind of highlight is that these are things, this list that he gives in chapter 11, that we just looked at, were up to the time of this writing. The readers, the Corinthians, at this point in time, don't know what's going to happen next. Paul doesn't know what's going to happen next. But he's been afflicted. He's been through these tremendous harrowing events, torture.

The thing that I always want to emphasize there is when he had the 39 lashes from the Jews, why did they have the 39 lashes? The law said, let's see, if they got to 40, that was not good. 40 was the maximum. After 40, someone might die. So the Jews would always do 39. This was part of the Jewish buffer law system, where they'd make rules around the rules. The law said a maximum number of 40 whips, but they were worried that what if they lost count and they whipped him one too many times, then they would break the law. So they'd do it 39 times, so that if they whipped them one too many times, it would still be within the law itself.

I don't know why they didn't reduce it to 38. Let's just give ourselves a rounding error of two. If you're going to torture somebody, you might as well round it down. So when Paul was dealing with this, if you had been whipped more than that, it would likely kill somebody because they'd bleed out. You'd be ripping off flesh.

And he did that five times. That's really tremendous, right? So when Paul is writing here to the Corinthians in chapter 4, verse 11, he says, we're constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake. He's not joking. The list is very... intense. That seems almost like an understatement. It's very extreme.

But they do it for Jesus' sake. Based upon 9 and 10, 9 and 10 were focused on things that the believers go through, right? Those are things that were persecuted, not forsaken. that you could say for the ordinary believer outside of Paul, those are the things that are being delivered. All those things are pretty intense.

So I kind of wonder if we... I'm trying to open the door a little bit. I see where you're going with these things. That the we, including all the Corinthians, and the we including us, would open the door that this being constantly delivered over to death, includes some that lists in the previous two verses.

So I guess I'm kind of a little bit. Well, I don't know. I mean, I don't want to put you on the spot. No, it's OK. A little bit in context. It seems like he he's kind of focusing back on those issues that he addressed in nine and 10. Yeah. What are you getting at? Well, I'm just saying that, you know, you kind of, you said you kind of excluded, you listed Paul's issues, right? And our issues seem like were captured 9 and 10. These are Paul's issues, right?

That he went through. Yeah. He kind of captures his issues and he says, oh, well, And then he says there's really a wonderful purpose that we're going through, 9 and 10, and the last part you're going to cover shortly. Well, the reason why I would insinuate that this is predominantly focused on Paul, and I use the word predominantly there on purpose, it's possible for other believers to go through this, and I'm going to clarify it in a section past this, why I'm stating it this way, but not that no believer should ever suffer or go through these things, but there's very practical reasons why I think Paul is And I agree with what you're saying. I'm trying to articulate something very specifically. If by the end we don't cover what you think I should be saying, let's circle back around to that.

All of this is for Jesus' sake. Jack? pronounced in there can also be interpreted for the purpose of. Quite often that word, that, comes along more than you think in the scriptures. Are you looking at the second half of verse 11 with the that there? double pronouns.

I do want to take just a moment to look at, for Jesus' sake here, all the suffering was for a known and eternally noble purpose, for the furtherance of the gospel and eternally critical relationship given through faith in Jesus Christ. When we look at Paul's suffering or even the suffering that any believer would have today as a missionary or even whatever persecution we may face in the United States, that's growing. Christianity as a religious organization as the world views it, they don't look at faith in a truth, and we're going to take a look at the word faith in a second here. The persecution is growing here. We may very well be the recipients of, and I think this is what Roger was getting at, we may be recipients in our lifetime of persecution and threatening unto death that's there.

Paul was dealing with this in a very real way. The reason why it was worth enduring those things for Paul is that he had an eternal focus on Jesus Christ and what Jesus was doing. Paul didn't care about his finite and ignoble purposes. He cared about the eternal purpose for Jesus' sake.

This would have flown in the face of what the Corinthians were expecting, right? We've talked about this now for a year and almost a half about how the Corinthians were pretty arrogant people. And they wanted to build themselves up, and they wanted to be able to do things for their own sake. And so Paul said, we're doing this for Jesus' sake. So the question I've got here, right before we get to the part with the that and the Jack, is what if Paul had died during these risky missionary adventures? What would have happened? And this is conjecture, so this is not a heresy test. God would use somebody else. God would use somebody else.

And actually what he gets into in 14 is talking about, he has an eternal perspective. In verse 14 he's going to hint at, and I guess I get to teach on this next week if I don't blow it too bad this week. We see that there is this eternal perspective that Paul has.

So now we can jump to the that. So that the life or so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh." Now, Jack, I want you to say what you said before, but now we're in context. What was your note that you said there on the that? For the purpose of. Alright. So for the purpose of the life of Jesus, that it would be manifested in our mortal flesh.

So I want to contrast 1 Corinthians 11 where Paul says, be imitators of me just as also I am of Christ, versus or in contrast to this passage here, the reason why I was trying to say that this might be more for Paul and not for every believer is because there are groups within Christendom, and Roger I hope this addresses your concern, there are groups within Christendom who intentionally suffer to be more spiritual.

And as believers, I want us to make sure that we don't see suffering in the wrong light. We've already talked about how trials and suffering are for our spiritual growth in various other classes. But Paul is dealing with these things. He's trying to let the church know in Corinth the difficulties that he has endured are within God's provision for him as an apostle, and it's not for every believer to always be suffering all the time to prove that they're spiritual.

And so that's where I was trying to get at. I'm not trying to say that no Christian will ever suffer or should ever suffer. I'm not Joel Osteen. That's nonsense, and I don't want to promote that sort of theology. So hopefully, Roger, that's what I was trying to get at, is be careful that we don't put ourselves in the position of the apostles where we go, oh, we've got to all suffer all the time.

Or what if you're a missionary to Ireland, like my friend Ben is? And he's probably less likely in Ireland to be persecuted and imprisoned, versus if he went to another country that started with I, like Iraq. or Iran. The Muslims are going to persecute you. I can't belittle his ministry even though the suffering may not be to the point of death.

That's what I'm trying to draw out and I hope that it doesn't cause any confusion. Continuing on here, the contrast here is that as a believer, whether or not I'm being persecuted to the point of feeling like I'm in death, on a day-to-day basis, we should still be imitators of Paul as Paul is an imitator of Christ, but just not imitator of Paul to the point where we're all trying to go get killed. Okay? So there's some contrast there just to be aware of.

Why should we imitate Paul's day-to-day living but not Paul's calling to apostleship? This is a restatement of the opening question, right? And the answer to that is that not everyone is called to be an apostle, but we should be abiding. We should be living the life of Christ out day to day. So Paul uses this term, the mortal flesh, and I'm sorry, I skipped ahead of where I wanted to say.

So what does it mean to have the life of Jesus be manifested? What does that mean? Do we do miracles every day and walk around and turn loaves and fish into more loaves and fish and feed people? Just so they see Christ in us. And how are they going to see Christ in us? There's something about it. Something about the spiritual part of it that comes out. So maybe the Holy Spirit if we're abiding, the Holy Spirit moving in us and causing the life of Christ to be shown. And that would be the manifestation. So Paul says that it may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

Why does he use the word mortal there? Why does he use the word mortal there? There's a tiny bit of a play on words here, because he's been talking about death and life, and then he says, the mortal flesh, this flesh that's dying. And there are days when I wake up and I think it's dying a little bit more than other days, right? But each day I know it's one less day. And the mortal flesh being there. So when he says the mortal flesh, he's not talking about the flesh and the desires of the flesh. She's talking about the physical body.

If you've got your Bibles, and hopefully you do, let's turn to Philippians 121. That's hopefully a familiar passage, but I think it's worth reading. Paul would state this there in a different way. If you get there, go ahead and read it out loud, please.

For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. is looking at death positively. If he's alive, he's going to live for Christ. But it wouldn't be too terribly to go be with the Lord. That wouldn't be the worst thing. So we have this idea here of the mortal flesh And this, I think, harkens back to the idea of the clay vessel that Roger talked about in verse 7. The mortal flesh, the frail vessel that's there. And the thing that I love about that is that these frail vessels are a limited manifestation in comparison to the glory that we look forward to, Paul tells us in Colossians 3, 4, that when the Lord shows up, we're going to be glorified with Him. And then we won't have the clay vessel. We won't have the weaker vessel. What should not knowing if we have a tomorrow cause us to do as believers? Trust.

So Paul didn't know if he had a tomorrow, did he? He was constantly being thrust into these intense things, delivered to death constantly. And those kinds of things caused him to focus on the Lord. And so the consequence, when we look at our lives, we don't know if we have a tomorrow either. It may not be because we're being persecuted for being apostles. But we don't know, and so our focus should be on the Lord.

Now, verse 10 is a short verse, and it's frankly the one that I wrestled with the most this week. I kept looking at the Greek, I kept looking at everybody else's translations of it, and I kept looking at it, and I kept going, man, Paul, you had to write verse 10. So I'm just going to own up to being overwhelmed by such a short verse.

So Paul says, so death works in us, but life in you. And that, Rogers, by the way, one of the arguments why I think Paul's talking about himself as an apostle there. But there's lots of principles that overlap that we can look at as believers. So death works in us, and he's talking about he and his cohorts that are out there traveling, being threatened and looking at the list that we did in chapter 11, we can see it was very real. In chapter 2, what did Paul say about their situation on multiple occasions?

Was it hunky-dory? Were they skipping down the road like in The Wizard of Oz? They despaired of life. Right? So death works in us. But what does the death lead them to do? What does this fear of death lead them to do? To preach the gospel. Trust in the Lord. So that, the outcome being, that life would work in you.

Imagine for a second, let's step back in time. We're not looking at 2 Corinthians from Paul's perspective. We're going to step back in time to, and again this is hypothetical so I want to call that out, but we're the Corinthians and we've written this letter and Timothy has gone back to Paul. What's the perspective that Paul needs to observe in the Corinthians that he's going to write this to them?

They're focused on themselves, right? Yeah, they have the errors and they're focused on themselves and their own importance and their own... You said you were going to come visit us for sure. You lied to us, Paul. Paul, you liar. And Paul is saying, I'm out here with my life on the line, with my handful of people who are willing to also risk their lives so that people can hear the gospel. they were in this case the recipients of life but so many others along the missionary journey were the recipients of life despite Paul's almost dying over and over again. I think in the end if we were and I hope in heaven that we get to meet Paul and we can ask him some questions if we're not just totally blown away by the Lord and just staring at him and Paul seems this unimportant person, right? I would love to ask Paul, how many times when you were in these death-facing situations did you just look at the Lord and go, wow, look how you fixed this in a way that I couldn't even have imagined. Look at how you took me through this, over and over.

And so that's somewhat hypothetical, because we don't know. We don't get to interview Paul. I was just wondering, and this is not exactly trying to, you know, Going along with what you said about verse 12, which is really hard. How can death and life be working in me at the same time? But it is sort of.

I was just thinking about the fact that we come across in our experience with other believers. Some believers that seem, in our way, seem to be suffering more than other believers. And many times that is very encouraging to us. Just like when we read about Paul, that's very, so I'm just kind of wondering, thinking through this, that this could be addressing the cases where God has called a certain believer to suffer more than other believers. I mean, he told Paul he's going to suffer greatly for him, and some believers are called to suffer more than others.

And we're not in a position to say, well, that's unfair, God. We're not in that place. He knows each of us. But it seems like that happens in the Christian life. We see some believers which seem, boy, this particular believer, boy, he's really been through a lot in his life.

And it doesn't, you know, in our fairness, it doesn't seem quite fair, but in God's, you know, so that believer could testify, well, death was working in me, so life could be working in you. So I don't know, I was trying to connect it up just a little bit beyond Paul. Yeah, well, in Romans 8, 28, I think is probably the the classic verse to go to, and I think it's probably the best one, and we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. My dad's going to go over that in the main service, so I won't try to expound it too much, but the thing that I want to, I think that we can draw from this, is that we don't get to tell God what circumstances we get to be in, and we don't get to tell Him what He gets to use.

So he may choose for somebody to have a certain disease, or a terrible car accident, or whatever else it is that we think of as harrowing. But in my own marriage to Jessica, we had had three miscarriages. And it turns out that we really didn't like that. We would not pick that for ourselves. But when other people have had miscarriages, we've been able to come alongside.

And God says, OK, I can use that. And there are people who've been through what may be worse things and miscarriages in this room, and they may be able to testify to the things that God has done in their lives, and they can come alongside and they can say, hey, I love you to their brothers and sisters in Christ. So yeah, there's a principle of death sometimes being manifest in our own life so that others can have life. we see here with Paul that the death that is there is in part because he's an apostle. But when we look at our own lives, The gospel offends, right?

Even today, when we talk to people about the gospel, that can get people really upset. It can put us in awkward situations where people have lost relationships. They're biologically related to family, but they're no longer in fellowship with their family and friends. People have lost their jobs. And obviously, that's relatively lightweight stuff here in the United States. In other countries, people are persecuted to death for these things.

Circling back, let's take a look at 1 Peter 2, verses 7 and 8. And if you're going through trials and suffering, there's lots of good passages in the Bible, but I can't recommend 1 Peter as a whole book enough. Because Peter goes through a cycle of glorifying the Lord and dealing with trials and suffering, and glorifying the Lord and dealing with trials and suffering.

So 1 Peter 2 verses 7 and 8, Peter writes, And if we were to look at 2 Corinthians 2.16, which is a few verses earlier, and we went over this before, he says, to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life, and who is adequate for these things. The idea when we present the gospel, for some people it's a stumbling block, for some people it's death to death, but for those who believe it's death to life. And that's a challenge.

If we think about that as believers, we are challenged by the The fact that the world around us tells us all the time, don't offend anybody. And yet, they tell you all the time that you should be offended by all kinds of other things. I find that if I go on Facebook, if it's not pictures of cats, it's very often people being offended by something. There's a lot of offense, and we're told all the time, you should be offended. Be offended. Be offended. Be offended. But sometimes when you're standing for truth, you get to be the offender. This is what the gospel looks like. This is offensive.

So I've got the question here, how does life work in us even today? But let's ask the question. Roger's pushing me to this. So let's ask the question, how does life work in us today first? Or how does death work in us even today? Well, it was his death on the cross that gave us the life that we have. Okay.

Could we go looking at the Rolands 828 passage? I think Roger was pointing us there. It's good to see. That's why he's an elder and I'm just a junior teacher. It's important for us to see that we may be put into trials and suffering. We may be put into very difficult situations, similarly to Paul, so that we can bring attention to the gospel, so that we can bring glory to the Lord in those trials and suffering, and not limit God and tell him what he can use and what we're willing to be put into. Now, it is possible to be like Jonah, isn't it?

We could totally walk away from the Lord and be like, uh-uh, I'm not doing that. But that's not what we're called to as believers. That shouldn't be the normative Christian walk. Hey, Randy? Yeah. You mentioned Romans 28, but then it goes on about what his purpose is in his Romans 29, which is to conform us. And so all of those things, even though they're working for good, the good is conforming us to his image. That's really the good. It can be terrible things. Yes, absolutely. I was trying really hard not to exposit that passage since it's not my passage to exposit this morning. But it's always where I want to go when we deal with these situations.

Let's dig into Romans 8.28 again. But Paul is writing this here so I'm trying to be a good disciplined student. So that's the death, but how does life work in us even today? We can look at the other side of this. Sometimes we're the recipients of the other half and not the first half.

Well, Randy, you've got to start out with, you know, whose life is it? That's the next question you've got to ask, right? Whose life is it? So basically, if we're looking at this, anyone who believes has the life of Christ, and that's whose life it is.

And that's the life that Paul is focusing on. He's saying, hey, Corinthians, this is the life that you got because I suffered. You have eternal life because I was willing to possibly sacrifice my finite earthly life. Paul has eternal life too, but he's got this physical mortal flesh, right? Any other thoughts on 12? It's so simple and yet it's definitely intense.

Alright, verse 13. And verse 13 leads into 4, so you'll notice that I kind of was, I danced around getting into 14. I said 4, I meant 14. But having the same spirit of faith according to what is written, I believe, therefore I spoke, we also believe, therefore we also speak.

But having the same spirit of faith. So you'll notice in the handout there, I have it say the same spirit of the faith. That's because the definite article is there in the Greek. I think it's worth just calling out that the definite article is there to talk about this idea of the faith as believers. There's a principle here of faith that even in the Old Testament that he's going to be citing existed.

Paul's going to turn it in a slightly different direction, but that's because he's an apostle. He says the same spirit of the faith and Paul's faith was confronted by the reality that what he believed in the logical outcome of that would look like he had to speak. He had been called as an apostle and the Holy Spirit had called him and brought him to the point where he had to speak. What did he have to speak? What was he always speaking? He was speaking Christ, he was speaking the gospel.

And that's how his death could be their life, right? Now he says, according to what is written, and he says, I believed therefore I spoke. Now the fun thing about that, how many of you have Bibles that kind of highlight when there's a quotation, like it'll be in all caps, or there'll be something that's there.

So this is a fun one, because Paul is approximating from Psalm 116.10, and I've got it there in the handout, the psalmist wrote, I believed when I said, I am greatly afflicted.

So Paul says it's in the spirit of the faith. And we know that he's not talking about the Holy Spirit when he says the spirit. He's talking about the principle or the idea of the author who wrote that psalm. And I'll be honest with you, I wrestled a little bit to make sure that that was the psalm that he was quoting or was there some other part in the Old Testament.

But that seems the most reasonable. Our modern English translation doesn't carry with it quite the same wording, does it? You see, I believed when I said. The English translation doesn't quite sound exactly like the Greek from the Hebrew. But Paul is quoting that from the Hebrew. It's funny how sometimes when you go through those layers, there's different nuance. But Paul has the authority to do that because he is an apostle. How many of you can repurpose Psalms? Anyone? Anyone else an apostle? No?

OK. Good. We're still on the same page from when we started the lesson. Nobody thinks they're an apostle. That's good. I went to an apostolic succession church once. And that is frightening, because they do stuff. Yesterday, oh, did anybody see yesterday that the pope spoke down in South America? And so he speaks, and there are certain things he says that they treat what he says as the pope as scripture. He is a modern-day apostle. So I'm not trying to belittle anybody.

I'm not trying to belabor the point, but this is a real thing that happens in Christendom. And yesterday the Pope said, and this blew my mind, but he said that people should probably do the right thing. I'm rephrasing this, because otherwise they may go to hell. That's pretty wishy-washy. That doesn't fit in with the Catholic catechism at all. But it's very wishy-washy.

It's not the gospel and it's not this idea that we believe therefore we also speak. The Pope is all over. This Pope particular is very liberal compared to historically where the Catholic Church has been. But he, you know, I can find the direct quote if we need to, but basically he set aside catholic orthodoxy and what's in the catechism for the catholic church i looked it up yesterday i was so surprised it was like wait a minute you may go to hell the pope said you may go to hell like this is the guy the catechism says that for being protestants we're going to hell just like right out you're going to hell and he's going you probably should follow the catholic church or you may go to hell like that is really soft footing that kick there so Paul, on the other hand, did not do that.

So he believed, so he had to speak. And then he says, therefore we also speak. And then in verse 14, so I'm going to I'm going to just leak into 14, but we'll pick up in 14 in a second here, or next week. Knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you. So they had to speak and offer the hope of eternity, the hope of the resurrection.

So, in conclusion, as believers we run into bad teaching where we're asked to be like Paul a bit too literally. There's churches who teach you need to go out and suffer, and if you're not suffering and being persecuted all the time, then you're not a good Christian. That's not what Paul's teaching, and that's what I was trying to reiterate with my earlier statement being a little gentle in how I handled that.

But instead he's asking the church of believers to go about God's business in living the life of Christ, as 1st Corinthians 11.1 says. We need to be careful in our assessment of what is put forth in the church so as to avoid legalism and avoid trying to appropriate what is not ours to appropriate and to be teaching carefully to others what we ourselves were taught from God's Word. As Paul will write to Timothy. As we seek the Lord's direction by the Spirit he will bring about opportunities for us to minister in his name.

How many of you when you look at Ephesians 2.10 where God says he's got good works prepared for you.

Think all of those come with rainbows and ice cream. I don't think in this group that that's a problem, but the reality is that sometimes we think of, oh, God's got good works for us to do, and we think good works, and we're like, sweet. That's going to be like a bonus. Like, I'm going to do good work, and I'm going to get a bonus from my employer or whatever else.

No, this could mean sometimes difficult things that we deal with. But if we're abiding, we'll do those good works, huh? Even if it's in the face of death, or if it's in the face of a two-year-old, which is sometimes almost like death when they get really rambunctious, right? I exaggerate there, sorry. But we're just not necessarily doing it as apostles. So I've got two questions here.

These are for you to answer on your own time. But I think it's worth asking, because at least as I was going through this, it really made me ask these of myself, what is your personal ministry right now in your present stage of life? What is your ministry now? My ministry right now is not what it was when I was 20, which is probably really good. I would have been really dangerous teaching at 20, I'll be honest. A few times I had a chance to teach junior high and high school, there were things where I was like, I look back and I cringe at my theology. But then, has it always been the same ministry? And the answer is, I think, an obvious no. But it may be. Some people do have the same ministry their whole life. The Lord just puts them somewhere, and they're awesome at it, and they just stay there. But if so, why? And if not? That's not of, not. It should be if not, why? And my grammar's bad there. If my mom finds this, she's going to correct the punctuation. It's Mother's Day, so she'll find it, I'm sure.

But looking at these things, we have a ministry, each one of us, one to another, sometimes outside the church, sometimes inside the church. You know, on the ministry thing, and we shouldn't think that this has got to be a flagship ministry, so to speak. It's got to be up there with Randy and so on. It's ministering to your family, to your children, to your grandchildren, wherever you are. Cheryl to her neighbor, I mean, all that's our ministry. So it doesn't have to be something that we see as the spotlight ministry, so to speak.

Yeah. Well, and I think when we looked at 1 Corinthians chapter 12, we saw that Paul was talking about the body. Some of these are very humble organs, right? And some of them are the spotlight organs. And we better understand that we may be in different places.

And you know what's amazing is there are times when I was pretty sure I wasn't in the spotlight. The Lord did amazing things. I had people come up to me and say, oh, I became a Christian in high school because of your testimony. I was like, I was a real weasel in high school. And I was like, oh, but God is God, and I don't get to tell him what he gets to use. And I think sometimes my humility and screwing up may have been the thing that was used. There's your ministry. Your ministry is when you stink, God still use you. Oh, man.

All right, any other thoughts or questions before we close? Alright, thanks. Let's close in prayer. Heavenly Father, we ask that you would impress upon us throughout the coming week some of the ideas here about what it means to be dying and what it means to be living and how Paul suffered and endured knowing the eternal purpose. We do pray that as we walk each moment we would be abiding and living out the life of Christ so that we can be ministering wherever we are. And we thank you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.