1158. Your Ministry Gift From God

Welcome to The Daily Platform. Our program features sermons from chapel services at Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Every day, students are blessed by the preaching and teaching of the Bible from the University Chapel Platform. We're continuing a series from Acts 20 preached in Seminary Chapel. Today's speaker is Dr. Jason Ormiston, pastor of Family Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Well, good morning, and I want to invite you to take your Bible and turn to Acts chapter 20.

But I need you to do something. As we look at this verse, your ministry gift from God, consider the context. But I do not account my life of any value, nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

That's our verse for today. If we look at it and understand it within the chapter, this is an appeal made by the Apostle Paul to the elders from Ephesus who gathered together. If you look back at verse 17, now from Miletus, he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him.

It's a very special discussion that he has that got very emotional. Because if we look at the end of the chapter, if we look at verse 36 of chapter 20, and when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all, and there was much weeping on the part of all. They embraced Paul and kissed him, being sorrowful, most of all because of the word he had spoken that they would not see his face again, and they accompanied him to the ship. So what Paul is sharing here is really a farewell address. He's sharing his heart.

He didn't expect to see any of these pastors again. And he says something in the heart of this verse which is profound for all of us to grasp. And this idea of ministry being a gift and what it means to identify your ministry and what it's for me to identify my ministry, this verse actually has great meaning to me because just two years ago when I was reading through the book of Acts, I wrote it down on a post-it note and I put it on my computer. And I knew I needed a verse to help me get through the year. It was a time of some challenges at church and some new classes coming my way here at school and some other issues going on as I'm just trying to shepherd my own kids. And I knew I needed a reminder every day when I opened up that computer to get ready for class that I have a ministry that God's called me to and I need to be faithful to that ministry.

Our identification, how we ID ourselves, how we view significance in our lives is super important. And the Apostle Paul takes us through a series of exhortations to consider how you view your life is really what God wants you to see it through his lens. It's interesting that in this verse, in actually verses 22 through 27, Paul speaks of his present ministry and he uses words that we see in this verse, I do not account my life. It seems to be the reference to some sort of an accountant.

He also refers to a course or he's a runner. He refers to himself as a witness. He is talking about what he's testifying the gospel of the grace of God. Verse 25, he proclaims something. So he's a herald and he has the blood of no one on his hands. He's a watchman. So he's dumping all sorts of pictures of how he views his ministry. But when we look at this verse, he starts out by making the statement, but I do not account my life of any value.

Now I just want you to think about it piece by piece. I don't account my life of any value. When I first hear this, and if Paul were standing in front of me saying that, I would think poor guy. I mean, he's going through a midlife crisis or he's really, really pessimistic or there's something going on. I just want to give that guy a hug or encourage him or something. I'm not really a huggy type guy, maybe a fist pump.

I just want to go up and say, you can do this. It's not really that bad. But he's not looking for self-pity here. He's making a connection to something. He says, I do not account my life.

Take all of these words. He's talking about himself. It's very personal. The word for account has the idea of rational thinking.

It has the idea when I step back and consider my own life, when the life there is talking about his life on this earth. He's not expecting to see them again. That's very clear from the end of this chapter.

He made that clear to them. I don't know that I'll see you again. And I want you to know something in the midst of this final discourse. When I look back at my life and I think rationally about my life, I don't think that it is something that is really super significant that everyone should look at and hold up in high esteem.

The first thing I want to encourage you to think about, he was rational. What is it that God wants to do with your life? Or perhaps it's even your own personal desires that I will be successful if, and then you start to fill in the blanks, if I start not a church but a church planting movement. Or I will be successful if I become an author. Or I will be successful if that author actually produced the book that people wanted to read. Or I'll be successful if I have this large family and large church ministry and large everything in my life.

I mean, I don't want to be rich, but if I'm taken care of I'll just use that money for missions. I mean, we start to put all sorts of things together about what is really valuable. And he is rationally stopping and he's asking questions. Think about Paul. What motivated Paul? I'm going to give you a couple suggestions on just considering the writings of Paul.

Paul took time for honest reflection. His motive, Philippians 1, 20-21, God's glory. Whether I live or die, it's for Christ.

For me to live is Christ, to die is gain. He was obsessed with the idea of God getting glory. His message, God's gospel. So what motivated him? God's glory. What message did he use? God's gospel.

And what do I mean when I say that? Well, Galatians 1, 6-9, as we said before, now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. Or 2 Corinthians 13, 3, a very endearing verse. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere, pure devotion to Christ. See, Paul was not into the complicated. He wanted to communicate what was clearly known to the people, the gospel.

Just say it the way it is instead of trying to get fancy with it. I'm not coming with excellency of speech, but I need you to know about the cross. So he was motivated by God's glory. His message was God's gospel and his means was God's grace. I love the passage in 2 Timothy 2, which talks in verse 2 about reproduction and discipleship into faithful men who will be able to teach others also. But verse 1 says this, you then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

The grace that is in Christ Jesus gives us the strength. So when Paul says this, he's very rational, even in his writings, about his own life. So he's not sitting here having a pity party. He's not sitting here saying, woe is me, my life is worthless. I haven't done anything significant. He's saying, I'm just doing what I was called to do.

Notice, not only was he rational, but he makes a statement. It's not of any value. Now this is an interesting word, value.

If you look at it, I'm sure you have your apps and you can check out the Greek on this, right? This is the word for logos. This is the word for any saying. And if you look at it in context, I'm wondering if Paul is saying, I am not worthy for anyone to write about, to talk about.

I'm not, you know, I don't expect anybody to hold me in high esteem. Now Paul is an amazing man in his statements about himself. In AD 55, in 1 Corinthians 15, 9, he says, I am the least of the apostles. In AD 61, he says, in Ephesians 3, 7 through 8, and where am I getting these ADs? The dates of the books, right?

So we're talking like six years later. First, he says, I'm the least of the apostles. Well, to be an apostle is pretty special. So I'm the least of the special special. But then he says, in Ephesians 3, 7 through 8, I'm the least of the saints. Oh, then all of them, okay, wow, that's pretty humble. And then in AD 63 or 66, however you date 1 Timothy 1 15, you know what he says? I am the chiefest of sinners.

You know what's interesting about that? Paul increasingly grew more humble as he got older. More effective in his ministry. I mean, he was an effective minister of the Gospel, but the older he got, the more humble he became. He understood God's grace. He understood it's not about me, it's about God and his glory. It's about God's Gospel being proclaimed.

It's about God's grace working through me. And so he says, I don't think you should say anything of value nor as precious to myself. I don't think he regarded himself as remarkable. And that's just somewhat interesting. So you can guess what I'm encouraging you to consider. Not only is he rational, but he's humble.

There's nothing remarkable about me. Really, Paul? I just wanted to pause on that statement and just contradict Paul for a second. So if we're going to learn about Paul, where would we go? Well, the Bible, yes. Wikipedia, though.

Okay. So what does Wikipedia say about the apostle Paul? Wikipedia says this, Paul is generally considered one of the most important figures of the apostolic age. In the mid 30s to the mid 50s AD, he founded several churches in Asia Minor and in Europe. He took advantage of his status as both a Jew and a Roman citizen to minister to both Jewish and Roman audiences. And then it goes on to give a description of how he persecuted the church. And then he became a convert of the very group of people that he persecuted.

And then it is, they make this statement. How many books did Paul author in the New Testament? According to Wikipedia, 13 of the 27 books. So he's nothing to be talked about, though, Paul.

13 books, no big deal. And then to add this, and that's why I keep referring to Wikipedia so you understand I'm not promoting this, but today Paul's epistles continue to be the vital roots of theology worship, and pastoral life in the Catholic and Protestant traditions. So all I'm trying to say to you is that not only do we think much of Paul because he really did some amazing things like how many churches did he plant? If you counted them in the New Testament, you'll find somewhere in the neighborhood of 14 mentioned. But that's not to count churches like when he was visiting with Lydia in Acts 16 in the Macedonia area where they had seminal beginnings of churches that probably started. So I'm going to suggest that it's somewhere between 14 to 20 churches, and that's not even as amazing as the daughter churches and granddaughter churches and great-granddaughter churches. When you think of church planters, I think of the apostle Paul. I don't know about you, but hey, guess what? Paul's saying my life, eh, it's not much to talk about. It's not much to write about.

Let's not stop there. Not just the life of Paul, let's talk about the miracles of Paul. Not something we talk a lot about, but I want to overwhelm you with this reality of Paul. Acts 13, 11. What did he do as a miracle? He told a sorcerer on the Isle of Paphos, be blind. And the guy went blind.

Acts 14, 10. There was a man who was lame from his mother's womb whom he healed and I love the response to this man. The man began to leap and walk. Could you imagine if you had never walked before because you had never had the opportunity? And Paul says you can rise and walk.

You don't even know how to do it. So you're like skipping and jumping and so glorious and everyone's sitting there going, what in the world? Who is this guy? And then it gets even more interesting in Acts 16, 18 just because he's annoyed at this demon possessed girl. Because you know he wanted to go to Spain but the Holy Spirit said no, I forbid you from that. I want you to go to Macedonia.

So here he is in Macedonia. Okay so, okay great. There's these people at the river. They get converted. Lydia, God opens her heart.

Okay awesome. This girl keeps saying stuff to me. Demon come out of you. Demon comes out of the slave girl. And it created quite an uproar as you remember in Acts 16. Acts 19, 11 through 12. This is actually recorded that handkerchiefs and aprons from the apostle Paul, if someone could grab some of those and those handkerchiefs or aprons touch someone, they would be healed.

And I'm not talking about televangelists here. I mean this is amazing stuff that Paul would do. And then in Acts 20, 10 through 12, he's preaching a very long sermon and Eutychus falls out of the window. And he raises this boy back to life. And all of the ones I mentioned here all occur before Paul makes this statement, I do not account my life of any value.

Wow. Acts 28, 5 after surviving a shipwreck, he gets bitten by a poisonous snake and he survives that. They want to turn him into a god but she says no, you can't, nor will I be accounted that way. Acts 28, 8 he heals a man who's suffering from recurrent fever and dysentery. And if that's not enough, I love this one Acts 19, 15. Jesus I know, Paul I know, but who are you?

I just have to say that that's probably where most of us live, like who are you? When the demon, demonic world, they're not thinking Jason Ormiston, watch out for that guy. And if that's not enough, I want you to consider the words of Paul. Okay, and so take your Bible, I have this up on the screen, so take your Bible, turn it over to 2 Corinthians 11, 21 through 29.

He did not regard himself as remarkable, and I'm getting that from the idea of anything to be written about, a word, a same expression worthy of being a subject of anyone's conversation. This is what Paul says of himself, 2 Corinthians 11, 21 through 29. But whatever anyone else dares to boast of, I'm speaking as a fool, I also dare to boast of that, are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham?

So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one. I am talking like a madman with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews, forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I was adrift at sea.

That must have been terrifying, by the way. Unfrequent journeys in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure, and apart from other things, there is the daily pressure of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak and I am not weak?

Who has made the fall and I am not indignant? Paul, in his own words, is saying, I've had kind of an interesting life. In fact, interesting in that I would love to read about this guy, and know more about him, right? And we do, and we study him, and he's this example, but from Paul's perspective, he goes on to say that I'm not even precious, my life is not even precious to myself.

Just for a second, can you let that soak in? Because I have a problem, I don't know if you do, but I have a problem thinking way too highly of myself. Because I have all these things that I've done with my 44 years of existence.

So I'm so good, you need to listen to me teach you. I am nothing. The only value I have is if I point you to the Word of God, and the Spirit of God convicts you and changes you. The only value you have is if you yield yourself to the Spirit using the Word of God to transform lives. Yet we get all worked up about doing something that's valuable with our lives. When did God's glory, God's Gospel, and God's grace stop being valuable? So Paul is sitting there saying, what I have done and accomplished is not something that you need to look up and talk about, or think that I think that highly of myself, because I don't.

I really believe he's being serious about this. I want you to know that when Paul says this, nor as precious to myself, I don't want you to think that Paul had a really low view of what it means to be made in the image of God. I don't think that's what he's saying. I don't think he's saying I'm nothing, I'm without value when it comes to God's perspective of me. Actually, Paul was very, very clear that God has a high view of every single human being he creates.

In fact, he goes on to heighten that thought. I have verses written down Romans 8, 28 through 29. It talks about the process of sanctification leading to glorification. 2 Corinthians 3, 18.

I go from one shade of glory to the next shade of glory. Colossians 3, 9 through 10, Ephesians 4, 22 through 24. Paul doesn't stop with just you're created in God's image so you have value. He says you have the opportunity to transform because you have a new creature now, a new relationship. You have Christ in you, the hope of glory. So he doesn't say I want to take my life and end it. He's saying that all the stuff that I've done is nothing compared to what God is doing in me and through me. It's all about God. Notice he was humble. If only I may finish my course.

Boy, that's good stuff. And guess what? I'm going to ask you to consider Paul. Just think about it. He was rational. He's humble. What's the next one? It's the last point.

It's three points. It's a sermon, right? He was faithful.

He was faithful. Now this word for course is an interesting word because it has the idea of actually a race that could be run. And it is something that you could consider as one that is a particular race that he's supposed to run. And notice he emphasizes the course that's in front of him as his course. So it's a particular course, right?

It's unique to him. But his goal is to do what with that course? To finish it. If you look into the word finish, it has the same root word as what Christ said in John 1930.

It is finished. So this concept Paul says, you know what I want to be counted as? Faithful to the course God has given me. And I think this is the heart of this text because a lot of us want to be faithful to the course God has given to me as long as it matches up to and then you fill in the blank. This great author, this great speaker, this great church planter, this great missionary.

I want people to quote me later on in life. Instead of being faithful at the ministry God has placed right in front of you. Now there's no question as to what ministry Paul received that happened on the Damascus road. Notice the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus Christ. What was his ministry? Paul heard from Jesus who said, why are you kicking against these prods?

Why are you doing that? This is what I want you to do. I want you to take my gospel to the Gentiles and then to the kings and the rulers and then to the Jews. What does Paul always do?

He seems to end up in the synagogues first and then he gets cast out and he ends up in rulers and kings company and then he ends up going to the Gentiles until he finally kind of gets it. This is my race and I think sometimes it takes us time to figure out what is that race that God wants me to run? And I really identify with what it is that God wants us to do.

2 Corinthians 12, 15, I know he was starting to get it because he says I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. So he was understanding, he wanted to be faithful to the mission that God's given him. So I'm going to ask you this question, what is the mission that God has given to you? What is it that he wants you to do? Paul says in this verse to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

That's the mission that I have. The Hebrew equivalent of Paul's word for grace is found 68 times in the whole Old Testament. So the word grace, the Hebrew equivalent is found 68 times in all of the Old Testament. In the four gospels, nearly twice the size of Paul's epistles, the word grace with its derivatives appear in the original only 13 times or less. So now we get to the epistles of Paul. Only about one 12th the size of the Old Testament, one half the size of the four gospels employs the word grace and its derivatives no less than 144 times. Do you think he cared about grace? Yeah, big time. Should we care about grace?

That's absolutely, definitely. He starts his epistles, he signed his name in proclamation of grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. In the epistle we find that we are justified freely by his grace, Romans 3.24, where sin abounded grace did much more abound, Romans 5.20. Really understanding grace and applying grace is for all of us to grab onto. It's important for us to get. And so in the effort to be practical, I'm going to ask you to be rational about your ministry pursuits. Taking this verse, thinking about what Paul is saying, is accounting my life.

I don't count my life of any value, so thinking through it. And if you've taken one of my courses, you know I love asking you at the very beginning to draw a tree. Like why is that tree thing?

The reason for that is I found it to be a helpful tool and here's a picture of it. You take your roots and you write your core values. This is what I hold to be true and it starts with your connection to God through the gospel. It could be other things in your life that you believe about the authority of scripture, the need for men and women to repent and be saved. There could be other aspects.

I love to bring up this desire to see multi-ethnic ministries. Then think about the people and places God has allowed you to be influenced by. Because that's what shapes us. That's God's providence. Don't run from it.

Don't say, oh they got it wrong. Actually you need to say praise God for what I've received through his grace. And then what have I been able to accomplish? And then now, what am I going after? And I'm telling you, if you can actually get this and not just do it for one of my classes, but actually take it and turn it into a personal mission statement, it will transform the decisions you make on a week to week basis. It helps guide what I do every week in my own life.

And I desire that for you as well. And that's one of the rational things. How about humble? Test your motives. That gets really personal. Right? And it is. Because I think that sometimes we would prefer to give out Bibles and sign them.

And then they get a little bit more masked when we get older, but it's still a mess. Have you heard of Booker T. Washington? Here he is the president of Tuskegee Institute and he's walking along the road and a wealthy white woman says to him, sir, would you like to earn a couple dollars and chop wood and stack it for me?

Not being one who's opposed to hard work. Says, sure, I'd love to do that for you. Rolls up his sleeves, chops some wood, stacks the wood. Later on she finds out he's the president of Tuskegee Institute.

What was I thinking? And this is back when the whole tension, racial tension was high. And when he talked to her he said, it's no problem ma'am, I always love good honest work and I love working hard and it was my pleasure to do that for you.

Later on this woman donated thousands of dollars to the institute. And he is known as an example of humility. Notice, you've probably read the quote here. Notice it's not about yourself, it's about being lost in a bigger purpose. Paul was lost in that bigger purpose and you need to be as well. Be faithful.

I close with this thought. When I was in Minneapolis, church planting, all nations Baptist church, I had a gentleman call me up, I didn't know him from anywhere, his name was Marshall Fant. He was doing some studies at Central Baptist Theological Seminary working on his doctorate of ministry and he heard that I was church planting. He said, Jason, I want to take you and your wife out to dinner.

And he did. So we went out to dinner, to Doolittle's restaurant, I remember it. And I'm so interested that this guy would be interested in what's going on and we had a whopping 25 people attending our church at that time and he was sharing, just tell me about your ministry. And then he brought two books and I commend these to you. Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome, which I have listed up here, has been such a blessing and actually I've purchased a bunch.

This is the last copy I have left. I purchased about 15 of these and I give these out as I have people coming up and asking me, what's your definition of success? And then he also gave me Joseph Miller's Building the Church.

I only brought one volume, why bring two, right? But it was helpful in just the details of ministry in the church and his comments to me in the humility that he exuded in just meeting with me and talking with me left a profound impact on my life. And we need to do the same thing. If it's not about us, it's about other people, God's glory, His gospel, the grace of God through us. We're not going to be so consumed about our successes and failures. We're going to be consumed with what God wants us to do and how we can encourage others in the same way. So I hope this was an encouragement to you. This is what you're involved in, is a ministry worth pursuing. You've been listening to a message preached by Dr. Jason Ormiston, pastor of Family Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Join us again tomorrow as we continue this series from Acts 20 here on The Daily Platform.