Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. We share a common brokenness with our fellow man and also a common Redeemer. If I understand that the darkness and hardness of heart is natural to me as much as to another, and know the life-giving, freeing work of the Savior on my behalf, how can I not be for my fellow man? Jen Hatmaker writes, What if we were intentionally sent to this world, not to stand in judgment of it, not to remain separate in our safe Christian confines, but to be for it, to be representative of Jesus, to bear the good news everywhere we go? Let's listen as Pastor Rich shares this message titled Set Apart to Serve. We as a church are called to mission. Our mission as a church is encapsulated in three words, connect, grow, and serve.
And the challenge from the message last week was that we, before God, humble ourselves and pray the mission. Lord, lead me to connect, not just coming together to receive something, because that's something that's very common in our culture. We go someplace to get something.
We don't go to a concert. We go to a restaurant and we go to receive. But when we come together, let's be humbled before the Lord, asking Him, Lord, lead me to connect. Lead me to be a blessing.
Lord, cause me to grow. Lord, move me to serve. This is our mission. And this mission is the vehicle that will transport us toward the vision toward the vision of Grace Bible Church. Our vision is stated thus, and we are an intentional community of grace that loves God, demonstrated by loving people in a culture of discipleship.
So that when we are humbled before the Lord and we are asking Him, Lord, lead me to connect, cause me to grow, move me to serve, then when we do that individually and we do that corporally, we will realize the vision that God has entrusted to us. Continuing on with that now, we're in 2 Corinthians chapter 6. Last week we looked at the first four verses because Paul said we are workers together with Him. And today we're going to be looking at 2 Corinthians 6, verses 4 through 10. He says in verse 4, in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God.
The original words there are theu diakonoi. Theu is in the genitive case, which means it is the source of the ministry. We are ministers of God. And this is what Paul is affirming. So Paul says, the apostle says in verse 4, 2 Corinthians 6, 4, in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God.
That word commend, it's not like he's being braggadocious, the word commend means to make known by action. In other words, it's not just something we talk about, it's something we do. It's our modus operandi, it's the way we live. We demonstrate it, we make it known by our action.
We're not just talking the talk. It is our walk, it is our lives. This is the way that we live among you. We are ministers of God. He says at the beginning of verse 4, in all things we commend ourselves, in all things, in all venues, in all arenas, in all circumstances of life, we are theu diakonoi, ministers of God. Not just when we're in this building, not just when we're with our families reading scripture or praying before a meal, not just when I'm having my own personal quiet time in reading scripture, in all things, we are theu diakonoi. Three ways that I want us to consider this this morning from the text of 2 Corinthians chapter 6, in the words that Paul gives us. First of all, we are ministers of God as fellow humans in a fallen creation. Fellow humans in a fallen creation.
What does that mean? Look what he says now at the second part of verse 4. In much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, what are these? These are the frustrating characteristics of a fallen creation. There is brokenness in this creation. There is brokenness in me. There is brokenness in all of us. And we share a common brokenness, which is why we are called not only to community, but we are called to be a community of grace. A community of grace.
So that we understand that we are for each other. Our context is one of brokenness. It is a broken creation and there are broken people and I am a part of it. And therefore, I am a minister of God as a fellow human in a fallen creation. And we all experience the frustrating characteristics of a fallen creation. And that is what is reflected in the text right here, verses 4 and 5.
In much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses. But there is also those who do not like my faith. There are those who care not to acknowledge God.
And what will come of that? Verse 5, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings. Paul spent many days and weeks, even months in jail because of his faith.
And yet, he recognized himself to be a minister of God. And so we can identify with each other in our context of brokenness. The adversities, the pleasures of life, put all of that together. We identify with each other at a human level. Believer and non-believer alike. We identify with each other as fellow humans of a fallen creation. But we who are in Christ, we who know the promises of God and stand on the promises of God as we sang earlier. What does that mean for us? That means that we walk, yes, in the frustrating characteristics of a fallen creation, but we walk in the promise and the prospect of redemption and restoration.
And how can I be confident of that? Because he said back in chapter 5, if any man be in Christ, he is new creation. That restoration, that new creation, already exists within me because I am in Christ. I belong to God. And he is doing that work of restoration and it begins right in here. And so, even in the context of a fallen creation and the brokenness in which we live, I walk and I move ahead.
I persevere with a promise and the prospect of restoration and redemption. Let me give you an example of that. There's the story of Glen and Tana Rae.
Now, I got this. Somebody shared this as a link off of Facebook. And this is a video from Scottsdale Bible Church out in Scottsdale, Arizona. Here is a testimony of two people who were going through some adversity in life and they were invited to church. Now, I want you to watch this in terms of the power of an invitation.
Someone who is experiencing the brokenness of life and then they were invited into community to be able to face the frustrating characteristics of a fallen creation and through that adversity they were brought to God. Watch this. I don't know. I quit smoking cigarettes in the early 80s and threw a toothpick in my mouth. I've had a toothpick every day since. So yeah, I'm the toothpick guy.
I'm the director of a division that has about 1,400 employees that work at special events around the valley. After my divorce, I just worked and worked and worked because that was how it was defined by how successful I was at work but never really being happy as a matter of fact. I met Tana and we fell in love instantly. At least I did. We just hit it off right away, chemistry immediately. Tana had these two beautiful little kids, Kaylee and Mason. So I said, let's get married.
So we did. We got married in Disneyland and then Daisy was born after only six months inside mom. She had a rare issue with her umbilical cord and she had some stomach surgeries and some serious problems.
That experience was really terrifying and she lived in the NICU for about three months. During that time, this family, a few sorrows, had always been a good friend of mine. We told him what was going on with Daisy and he said, you know, you should come to our church. And I said, well, I don't want to be the guy that goes to church just because my kid's in the hospital. And Jimmy said, God doesn't care why you go. Glenn had never even gone to church once in his life. He had never even prayed ever before.
My dad had a hard time with religion and he taught me that it was for sissies. But we talked about it, my wife and I, and we said, we'll try it. We'll try anything at this point. What's the name of it? They said it's got to the Bible Church. And so I went, I went along and we went to church and they gave us a little refuge from the NICU. We went for about a year and a half after Daisy was born.
And she's doing wonderful and, you know, there's, there's no long-term effects for her. It became a bit of a lifestyle for us. My little Mason, he fell in love with church. He would ask specific questions about heaven and I didn't know the answer. And he believed immediately. And he started praying to God and I would find him praying under his sheets at night. One night we were laying in bed, we heard a cough, which was a familiar unpleasant sound, which was usually the beginning of one of Mason's asthma attacks. So I grabbed the medicine, comes in a little vial and ran in and dumped it in the mask and put the mask on Mason and put him on my lap and turn the machine on.
And I could see that he was panicking a little bit. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in him. The one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.
