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All right, well, we are in First Corinthians chapter #4 and we'll
be looking at this issue tonight.
Are you really ready to be a servant?
Of course we know we're supposed to have servants hearts, don't
we? In fact, we sing about it.
Give me, Lord, a servant's heart.
Here's my life. Take every part.
We sing the songs. We know that we are to be
servants. But yet I don't know that we're
often always acquainted of what it takes to become a servant.
Or maybe I could even put it this way.
What the consequences? Are.
When we become a servant. In fact, one commentator put it
this way about the text we're going to read in just a few
moments ago, or just a few moments from now, rather that he
summarized tonight's text this way.
He says if I could summarize the text in 4 words, it would be
this. Spectacles, fools, sufferers and
scum. Spectacles, fools, sufferers and
scum. Now, if that's the way to
explain what a servant is, that doesn't sound like something we
want to be. But yet I would say that the
glamour of being a servant isn't really all that it's cracked up
to be. And rather, sometimes we have to
realize that the path to servanthood isn't necessarily
the primrose path, but rather it's actually a path of hardship
and difficulties at times. Or at least that we need to be
open to the fact that it will be one that is filled with hardship
and difficulties. How do I know that?
Well, one example would be Hebrews Chapter 11, that great
chapter of faith. And at the end of the chapter it
says this starting at verse 35, that others were tortured, not
accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better
resurrection. And others had a trial of cruel
mockings and scourgings, yet moreover of bonds and
imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn
asunder, they were tempted, were slain with the sword, they
wandered about in sheepskins and goat skins, being destitute,
afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy.
They wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and in
caves of the earth. Yes, there can be times of
exaltation for the servant. There are times when we can have
the victory within the life of being a believer, and I believe
that the victorious Christian life is a possibility for all
believers. But yet there is the thought
that when it comes to servanthood, it's not about
going up, it's about going down. And we see that here tonight
because you'll remember a couple weeks ago, the last time we were
in First Corinthians, Paul had to burst Corinth bubble.
In fact, that was the title of the message.
Because they thought so highly of themselves.
He had to tell them, hey, listen, simmer down a little
bit. You're not as good as you think
you are. And not trying to be insulting
to them, but rather trying to remind them of what their place
is. Well, tonight, now we're going
to see that Paul is going to tell us what servanthood is
really all about. And again, it's not as glamorous
as you may think, even for someone who was called to be an
apostle. So let's go ahead and look at
these verses beginning in verse #9 here in first Corinthians
chapter 4. It says this.
For I think that God hath set forth us, the apostles last, as
it were appointed to death. For we are made a spectacle unto
the world and to angels and to men, as that first word.
I just gave you spectacle. We are fools.
The second word, we are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are
wise in Christ. We are weak, but ye are strong.
Ye are honorable, but we are despised.
Even unto this present hour. We both hunger and thirst, and
are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling place
and labor working with our own hands.
Being reviled, we bless. Being persecuted, we suffer it.
Being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the filth of this
world. And are the off scouring of all
things under this day. And there's the scum that was
mentioned by that commentator just a few moments ago.
Now, if you just read that and I said, who wants to sign up to be
a servant, I don't think a lot of hands will be raised.
Amen. Because that's not exactly the
kind. Of description that really makes
us all want to say let's be servants, but yet Paul is trying
to remind us what the servant life is all about and to try to
give us the reality of it. Not that our life is always
going to be doom and gloom. Hardly.
I mean we ought to be joyful as believers.
The joy of the Lord is our strength.
The Bible says that a merry heart do with good like a
medicine. No, no, we're not to walk around
with sad countenances and to be down hearted and to be saddened
all the time. No, no, not at all.
But we do need to understand that suffering doesn't make us,
or rather, servanthood doesn't make us rise to the top.
Servanthood ought to make us get to the.
Bottom. Where God can truly use us.
The text we just read is full of contrasts, and we see these
contrasts in two different categories.
And the first of those tonight is this the culture of
servanthood? The culture of servanthood.
The beginning of verse 9 starts with Paul making clear both his
calling and his classification. He says this, that he was called
in verse 9 to be an apostle. For I think that God has set
forth us, the apostles last. Now, this might be confusing to
you here tonight where you say, well, Paul is an apostle.
I thought there were 12 disciples.
And those 12 disciples, well, one of them passed away because
he took his own life. And so there were 11 disciples
or 11 apostles. But then there was a vote in
Acts chapter 1, and Matthias was chosen to be the 12th apostle.
And so why is Paul here saying that he was an apostle?
And the answer, I believe to that question is this, because
Paul was one of the apostles, you say, well, what kind of
logic is that? Well, the word of God says that
he was an apostle. He said us as apostles.
That means there's 13 apostles. Well, it would be that Matthias
truly wasn't chosen of the Lord, but I believe that the Lord
honored the selection of Matthias because, well, the
church that Jesus Christ has established and voted Matthias
duly to be that apostle. Here's what I'm saying tonight.
I'm not too caught up in the fact of who was the apostle and
who wasn't. I know this by the inspiration
of God, Paul says this, us as the apostles, meaning this, that
Paul was considered to be an apostle.
But I also want to remind you this that the office of
apostleship is today closed. The Bible says that there were
some of those first offices that were used for the building and
growth of the church. But depending on who you watch
on television or you hear on the radio or you hear on a podcast
today, someone will call themselves apostle.
So and so and today, well, there's a lot of problems with
that. The first one is this Peter laid
out in Acts chapter one that someone that was to be an
apostle had to live during Jesus's ministry.
So unless that person on the podcast is 2000 years old,
they're not allowed to be an apostle.
That is something that has since been closed and is no longer
part of the church as the pastor is the calling.
We saw the Deacon, the office of Deacon in the church today, but
that is not part of that. But here's Paul saying this.
I am an apostle. He's not bragging, he's not
boasting, but he's saying for I think that God has set us forth,
us the apostles. Now that alone.
Wow, Paul thinks highly of himself.
He thinks that he's one of the apostles.
He's saying he's one of the apostles.
He must think highly of himself. But he says.
This next word last, his calling was he was an apostle, but his
classification was that doesn't make me more, it actually makes
me down here. He says we are last.
You see, servanthood isn't about being.
The Lord over other people, servanthood is this.
I am going to serve other people.
What did he realize he I may have some level of authority as
an apostle, but it also means that with that authority, I am a
servant to all of those people that I have authority over.
Maybe you'd say, boy, it must be nice to be a pastor because, you
know, you get to tell everybody what to do and, you know.
That's right, it actually is really cool to tell everybody
what to no. No, no, that's not what I mean
at all. But you know, with that comes a
level of service that has to be equal to the authority of which
I have. I may have to tell you what to
do. Well, really, it's thus, say at
the Lord that's what my job is to be able to do.
But with that comes not just thundering down from the pulpit,
but being a servant to be able to serve you and to help you and
your needs and those things that it's not.
Well, look at the pastor high and lifted up.
Listen, there's only one who's high and lifted up.
And we know who that is. And it's not any of us, it's him
and him alone. But Paul says this, I may be an
apostle, but I consider myself last.
And he even says the apostles, they consider themselves last.
It's not just that he considers himself the least of all the
apostles, which he'll say later, but he says just as we as
apostles listen, we know who we are.
We know what our job is. We are to be served servants,
especially in contrast with how Kylie Corinth thought of
themselves. And we'll see that here in just
a moment reminded to us once again, but it says in verse 9,
For I think that God has set forth us, the apostles last as
it were appointed to death. For we have made a spectacle
under the world and to angels and to men.
Now, what's being spoken of here, when it talks about them
being made a spectacle, you'll find that the Greek word that's
used there is theatron, which is where we would get the word
theater today. Now, again, when I give you the
word that's behind what that is there, we're not correcting the
word of God. We refuse to do that because
there's no correcting that's needed.
Amen. But it does help us to
understand with our limited English today, you know, it's
mostly grunts and hums and haws and emojis to help us broaden
our understanding of what is that being said there.
But we do not correct the word of God.
I know you know that. But I have to say that once in a
while, just to remind you where I'm at, to make sure we're all
on the same page. But that word Theatron.
Is. Theater that basically said this
listen us apostles we've been made a spectacle we've been made
like a theater to you and really the picture I believe that is
spoken of here is the idea around 55 or so AD when this was
written you know give or take we don't know exactly how long but
emperor Nero who's in power what's taking place the.
Spectacle of Christians being put to death.
The fact that they were paraded out.
In front of people later on, after this time, but later on,
there would be many who would be crucified.
There would be many who would be lit on fire.
They will be slicked down with oil and lit on fire.
Was said that that Christians were the lights of Rome as they
literally were made the lampposts of Rome as they were
martyred for their faith. And there will be others who
would be taken into arenas and later the Colosseum to fight
wild animals. In fact, I was just reading this
today that Christians were often stripped, covered in animal
skins, thrown to packs of dogs, lions or bears. 1 historian
describes crowds cheering as the beasts RIP victims.
Apart in the flickering lights of the evening games, Paul says
this. You think following Christ is
all glamour Says we're willing to be made a spectacle, We're
willing to do whatever we have to do to shine bright for Jesus
Christ, even if that was Nero actually literally making them
shine bright in martyrdom. You know, I don't think we
understand the level of sacrifice today.
We sit in an air conditioned building.
It's somewhat dry, not necessarily this morning, but
it's dry now. Now we had a little bit of
leakage coming in this morning from the rain, but we're good.
It's climate controlled, we have warm houses, we have cars that
we came here and back home that work.
Well, reasonably well, depending on who you are, the situation at
any given time. We have so much, and again, I'm
not saying that we should, that the Lord has blessed us by
putting us in the United States of America.
I'm thankful for that. But I'm also saying this, that
often times we have so many of those creature comforts that we
forget what true servanthood is all about.
That you could strip away all of those things and you could still
be a servant. That the world could take away
all of those things and you could still have the heart of a
servant. He says this.
We've been made a spectacle. We've been made a mockery.
And by the way, Paul's saying that by the inspiration of God
that they would be a spectacle. And it just so happened to be
that as time would go on, what would happen?
Well, we find out that 11 out of the 12 apostles would end up
being martyred. At least history tells us this
one. John on the Isle of Patmos was
in exile, of course wrote the Book of Revelation by the
inspiration of God while he was out there, but none of them.
Lived in a way that the end of their life.
You said, wow, that's been a race well run at least the world
would say that, but Jesus Christ would have said, well done, thou
good and faithful servant, because they counted their lives
not dear unto themselves. And that's in contrast with
Corinth. In fact, we see that in verse
#10 it says we are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise
in Christ. We are weak, but ye are strong.
Ye are honorable. We are despised.
And what they're saying here is this, what Paul is saying here,
says that the church at Corinth had two problems.
They were proud of their own spirituality.
They were proud of where they were at, which by the way, they
weren't at the place they thought they were at.
They thought they were doing so well.
And Paul is going to continually tell them you're not doing as
well as you think you are. But then on the other hand, they
were also kind of embarrassed of Paul.
It was almost like this, Paul, we know you're a Christian, but
could you tone it down a bit? Do do you have to be so
Christian? Like, listen, when you're in
Corinth, couldn't you just tone it down a little bit, at least
when you're in the markets, at least when I mean, do you have
to hand everybody tracks? You have to talk about Jesus all
the time. He said you're reading into it.
No, no, I don't believe I am because the thought process is
this. It says Corinth, you think
you're doing so well and you're not.
And we're willing to look like fools in the eyes of the world.
By the way, true service can never be done for the Lord while
you're trying to look good in the eyes of the world.
Let me say that again. True service for the Lord can
never be done while you're trying to look good in the eyes
of the world. Are you willing to have people
think you're strange for being a Christian?
What you think about that? For a second?
He said this. They wanted to look wise.
They want to look full. They wanted to look well put
together. But Paul says this.
I'm willing to look like a fool. For the world, not that we
handle ourselves like fools, but the fact that you live a life
for Christ and live a life of servanthood makes the world
think you are a fool. Are you willing to look like a
fool for believing in Jesus Christ?
Are you willing to speak up for your faith at school?
Are you willing to speak up for being a believer in the
workplace? Or are you willing to talk about
Jesus Christ when you're at the doctor's office, or were you at
the salon, or at the barbershop, or while you're on social media,
Or are you willing to name the name of Christ?
No, I'm not talking about trying to act the fool.
I'm just saying this. When you live for Christ, the
world thinks you're a fool. We've talked about this over and
over in these first few chapters of First Corinthians.
Paul says this, hey, we're willing to look like that in the
eyes of the world because that's part of servanthood.
But are we willing to, or do we just want to look good?
You know, as a church, I want to be well respected in Easton.
I do. I don't want to drive down the
road and people see the church van and say, Oh no, that's the
Liberty Baptist Church. That's where the crazy people
are. But I will say this, if they
think that because we're out preaching the gospel and handed
people tracks and we're doing the work of the gospel, I'm
willing to live with that. Why?
Because this is who we are. Listen, the world thinks we're
crazy. Can I share something with you
tonight? The world is crazy.
I don't know if you've noticed this.
The world is cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.
They're out there. They are gone.
And so why do we want to look good to them?
No, we want to love them. We want to care for them.
We want to be everything to them for the sake of the gospel, but
but not to impress them. Not so they can give us
platitudes. Not so that I could get called
down to town hall and said, well, you're one of the most
dignified pastors in town or your church is is one of the
most most well received places. I don't want that.
I would rather someone in town Hall get saved than us have that
kind of attitude there. No, listen, we want to have a
good rapport with the town. We've done a lot of things to
work that way over the years. I want that, but not at the
expense of the gospel, not at the expense of the truth.
And if you just. Want to serve?
Listen, people don't think you're crazy.
And if you want to serve Jesus, people are especially think
you're crazy. So what do you need to do?
Be willing to understand that's a characteristic, the culture of
servanthood. The culture of servanthood is
this, Yeah. We're going to look a little bit
out there. We're going to look a little bit
weird. I mean, do you do?
This sometimes where people maybe at the workplace will ask
you, hey, what did you do over the weekend?
And you probably want to say anything, but I was at church.
Do you realize that's a perfect opportunity to share your faith?
I was at church on the weekend. We boy, let me tell you, we had
a service and and somebody trusted Jesus Christ their
Savior. I don't know if you're familiar
with that, but someone's life changed on Sunday.
That's a perfect opportunity. But sometimes it could just be
well, Oh well, we had a barbecue and you did have a BBQ, but you
never did mention the fact you were at church.
Why? Because maybe there's that
little bit of, oh, I don't know, that I want to say that.
Maybe they'll think I'm a little strange.
Maybe I think I'm a little weird.
Could I help you with something? If you want to win the loss to
Christ, they need to think you're different.
You can't make a difference without being different.
You can't change something by adding more of the same.
And so as a servant, we need to look different from the world.
It's the culture. And if we're constantly putting
our light under the bushel, then how are we going to be able to
show them what's different about us?
So we see the culture of servanthood.
I'm going to move on here. But #2 I also see the
characteristics of a servant, The characteristics of a
servant. If you were getting a new job,
let's say you went in for an interview, you'd say, you know,
what are some of the perks of this job?
And maybe they say something like this.
Well, there's health insurance. There's a four O 1K.
We do matching investments there.
There's a certain amount of time off.
You might get a company car, you know, Right, Chuck?
So it's Chuck. Chuck has a company clown car, I
think that he has, But are they watching?
All right? No, we're good anyway.
We'll strike that from the record.
But anyway, these could all be the types of things these are.
Perks of the job, they say. Hey, what's a perk of being a
servant? What?
What's some of the perks of the job of being a servant?
You know what, What kind of accolades do I get?
When do I get my name and lights?
When do I get front page on the bulletin?
When do people get to know who I am and what I'm about?
Well, Paul's going to kind of talk about that, and it's not
exactly what you would think. Do you see what he says?
Get to verse #11 By my count here, he gives 10 different
characteristics of servanthood, and none of them would be
considered perks by the world. In fact, I would say on its
face, none of them would seem to be perks at all.
Look at verse #11 even both this present hour, we both Hunger 1
and Thirst 2 as itinerant preachers.
They typically had no large store of goods like you and I
would have. You do realize that Paul didn't
have running water in a tap like we would have today.
We're thirsty. We have water.
At any moment, and we may complain about the quality,
people say, well, at Easton the water used to be really great,
but now the water's not so good. Do you realize that the water
that we have here is better than you'll find in most other places
in the world? And certainly at that time that
people would have had at the ready, but they didn't have that
even worse than what other people have.
They said we hungered and we thirsted.
They had very little clothing. Look at that, they said.
We are naked. We are buffeted.
What does that mean? That there were times that they
were physically accosted? There were times that people got
physical with them for preaching the gospel?
What else did it say? We had no.
Certain dwelling place. You know whether you rent
tonight, whether you own when you leave here, you know where
you're going to go home. Please, I hope you know where
you're going to get home. If you don't, I can't really
help you with that, all right? But when you leave here tonight,
you know where you're going. You have a home, you rent it,
you own it. Whatever it is, you have
somewhere to go. Said this, we have no certain
dwelling place. Now think about this.
Even when we were on deputation, and we spent about a year on
deputation, going from church to church, about 100 different
churches over that time period, even when we had a break in that
time, we knew we were going to go back to Tampa.
We knew that was our dwelling place until we moved here.
But Paul said this, I have no certain dwelling place.
I just go from here to there, from here to there, preaching
the gospel and labor, working with our own hands.
Where did Paul get his money from to live?
Well, there were times that churches would take collections
and give it to him. And there was nothing wrong with
that. In fact, it was important, Paul
said, for that to be the case in the church.
But at the same time Paul said this, he understood that in his
ministry there were going to be times that his needs wouldn't be
met and he wouldn't be chargeable unto them.
Meaning this. If he had to make tents, which
was his side job, if you will, we would say in 2025 side
hustle. You won't see that in the King
James Version. But that was what he did.
He makes tents to make some money.
By the way, most preachers, unless they're of a certain type
and usually on television, don't do it for the money.
You know, Kenneth Copeland, who's working for his third jet,
might be doing it for the money that just take that money that
might part out. All right, is doing it for the
money. I've told you before, there were
times when I've been here where I had to work Uber for a couple
years and and even when the money was not there because our
support went down and and the two trustees we had at the time,
one of them said, well, pastor, if there's no money, are you
going to leave? I said, don't leave.
Why would I leave? This is where God's called us to
be and of course we're going to stay.
Of course we're going to work and and that's what we did.
But I'm not equating myself to Paul.
But the idea is this, that for Paul, he said this, Listen,
there's times I just got to work with my hands.
I got to get things done because it's too important to be able to
do the work of the Lord. He goes on.
And, and then he gives these contrasts once again.
He says in verse #12 he says we've been reviled, but then we
bless. So even when people say slurs
against us and even when people say awful things about us, what
do we do? We bless and return being
persecuted. They, they're persecuted for
their faith. What happens?
He says we suffer it. We just take it we've been
defamed, it says in the next verse.
Meaning their own very character had been slaughtered.
And listen, what did Paul own? He owned almost nothing other
than the clothes. That he had, and perhaps a tent
that he had, he took from place to place.
The only thing he truly had was his testimony in his name.
He said that even that's been defamed from town to town people
has been spreading rumors and lies about me.
In fact, interestingly enough, in a second missionary journey,
he would go from 1 town and go to the next town and the people
from the previous town who hated him would fall in the next town
and tell the people in the next town, hey, don't listen to this
guy, he's defamed. But what did he do?
He said we we entreat meaning this that we just took it to the
Lord instead of taking it to them.
We made, we were made as the filth of the world and the off
scouring of all things under this day.
Filth off scouring scum said this.
You know what we've been, we've been dragged through the mud.
We've gone through it. Now let me ask you this.
You read those 10 characteristics, You think
Pastor? Sign me up to be a servant.
All right? Where do I start?
When do I begin? When do I get my first paycheck?
Is it direct deposit? And the answer is, you know,
being a servant isn't always easy.
Being a servant isn't always something that goes our way.
Being a servant isn't always something that gets us
recognized. In fact, being a servant might
actually put us at the worse instead of for the better.
Again, how did this play out for the apostles?
11 out of 12 were martyred. John was exiled on Patmos.
How about some of the other servants in the Bible?
I think of Joseph. Joseph served and served.
He served Potiphar, He served in a prison.
You realize that he served in the prison.
And not only did he serve in the prison, there was a Butler.
And a Baker who had a dream and they were sitting down in a a
jail cell talking about it. And Joseph, who could have just
served them and just walked away.
He said, hey, you guys look sad. Is there something I could talk
to you about? He cared about him.
Why? Because he had a.
Servant's heart. Well, what about Elijah?
Elijah was a servant who went through a great amount of
suffering. We we know that even through
times of famine, that even he had difficulties during those
times of famine. Even though the Lord provided
for miraculously with the Ravens and then with the widow lady.
We think of David and we think of Daniel and I think of John
the Baptist. And sure, some of these
suffering servants did have times of exaltation, but yet I
would say this, that even the ones who God.
Lifted up, never forgot where they were from.
And Daniel's a perfect example of that.
Daniel was stolen from his homeland, made a eunuch, and had
to serve a wicked king. I'd say that that certainly
would fit under those characteristics of things that
were not good. But.
What was it said of David? Or rather of Daniel, that in him
was found an excellent spirit, and he served for not just one
king, not just two kings. But listen, there was an entire
regime change and the new nation that came in the Medes and the
Persians ended up elevating Daniel even more.
How does that happen? Well, there's a man who was
faithful. Even though there was a lot of
difficulty and hardship, he gave God the glory.
He never forgot where he is from.
And listen, the Bible says that God will exalt you in due time,
and you trust the Lord for that. What did this all look like in
Paul's life? By the way, do you know we have
a record of how Paul went through some of these hardships?
I want you to see this. Turn your Bible to 2nd
Corinthians Chapter 11. You may likely have read this
before or heard me reference it, but I think tonight's a good
night for us to just look at this list here real quick.
What did, what was Paul's life like?
Paul wasn't just someone who was talking about servanthood and
the hardships of it. He was someone who lived it.
Look at verse #23 he says this. Are they ministers of Christ?
I speak as a fool. I am more.
And you say, what does that mean?
Well, there's some discussion about some people who are trying
to discredit them, he and his group saying that they were
false teachers. And so Paul is going to give
some of his credentials, if you will.
And he's basically saying, I don't even like talking about
this, but I feel like I am compelled to talk about it
because of me being discredited by these other men.
So he says this. Are they ministers of Christ?
I speak as a fool. I am more and laborers more
abundant in stripes above measure.
Now what was a stripe? A stripe would have been the
fact that he would have literally been whipped with
likely something like a cat of nine tails.
You know, the Old Testament in Deuteronomy chapter 25 verse #3
said that you have 40 lashes. But as we'll see here in just a
moment, 40 stripes save one. It was often the tradition of
the Jews to only give 39 stripes.
The reason why was if they were to give over 40 than the one who
is the practitioner of the stripes would have to give their
own life to be careful. They would just do 39.
You say, Oh well that must have been much better. 39 would
pretty much bring you to the point of death.
Your back would be riven. Typically there would be 3
different leather throngs that would come out from a stick and
it would hit you in both shoulders and the middle of the
back. The men who did this were well
practiced and practitioners of pain.
On those cat of nine tails would have been pieces of bone, pieces
of glass, pieces of metal, and it would have been put into the
back and then once it was embedded, not pulled back out,
but pulled across literally a back turn to shreds.
I'll continue to read in prisons more frequent and deaths off of
the Jews. How many times?
Five times received I-40 stripes save one.
Thrice was I beaten with rods. Once was I stoned, Thrice I
suffered shipwreck. A night and a day.
I've been in the deep and journeyings, often in perils of
waters, imperils of robbers, imperils by my own countrymen,
imperils by the heathen, imperils in the city, imperils
in the wilderness, imperils in the sea, imperils among false
brethren. A weariness and painfulness in
watchings, often in hunger and thirst, in fastings, often in
cold and nakedness. Now look at verse #28.
He says this beside those things that are without.
That which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.
This isn't my message, but I just want to show you this very
quickly, Paul says. Listen to all these things that
have happened to me and boy, I don't know about you, but I have
a hard time wrapping my mind around all that.
We can read it, we can talk about it, but we really
understand the hardships that this man went through.
Just the beatings alone would be something that was unthinkable,
but to be bobbing up and down in the deep.
And you can go to Acts chapter 27 and just see one example of
that, how he was up and down through the night just holding
on. The only reason he knew he would
live was because of the promise of God, because there was
nothing that was happening around him that would show him
that he would live other than God's sure promise to him that
he extended to those other sailors there as well.
But listen to this. He says, I've gone through all
of these things, but besides those things that happen outside
of me, he says here's something that also is difficult within me
that comes upon me daily, the care of the churches.
What is Paul saying? He's saying those things outside
I just mentioned were hard, but you do know what's inside that's
hard as well to care for the churches that I have to minister
to. Now listen, Paul, as a
missionary, Paul is an evangelist, cared for many
churches. But I will say this that it is
upon the pastor to be able to care for the Church of which God
has told him to care for. And listen, I'm not calling
myself a martyr this evening. I refuse to.
I'm one of the most blessed men on earth as far as I'm
concerned. But I will also say this, that
there does come a heavy responsibility to the pastor
when a church has been put in his care to make sure that he
cares for that church. And Paul says this, it's heavy.
In fact, he equates it with some of the physical trials that he
went through. And again, I'm no apostle, Paul,
I'm no apostle. We've already covered that.
You can look at my driver's license.
I'm not 2000 years old. But I also know this that it's a
serious thing to care for the souls of which God brings into
Liberty Baptist Church and if you.
Pray for your pastor, which I pray that you do, but if you do,
that's one of the ways that you can pray for me as your pastor,
that I can care for those souls daily of those God has placed
here at Liberty Baptist Church, including you, so that I can be
what I ought to be. He says in verse #29 Who is
weak? And I'm not weak.
Who is offended? I burn not.
If I must be glory, I will glory the things which concern my
infirmity. So he says.
This am I glorying in the fact that I've gone through.
And done some incredible things. He says no, I'll glory in my
weakness. Verse #31 The God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed forevermore, knoweth
that I lie not. And look at this.
In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king, kept the city
of Damascones with a Garrison desirous to apprehend me, and
through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and
escaped his hands. What a life.
That's what servanthood will get you, Say pastor.
If that's what servanthood will get me, then I don't want to be
a servant, and nobody here will want to be a servant.
Now when we have to chart the same path as Paul, thank the
Lord, I think we can say no. But I will say this, Paul makes
it very clear to us that the true servant must serve no
matter the cost. Listen, the true servant must
serve no matter the cost. Servanthood is not always easy.
In fact, I'll ask you this question tonight.
When was the last time you served until it hurt?
When was the last time you served until you were
uncomfortable? When was the last time you
served not doing the things that you enjoy doing, but doing the
things that maybe you don't enjoy doing, but you know you
need to do it because you need to be a servant.
Isn't everybody likes to do the things they like to do.
Everybody likes doing the things that don't cost us much.
But true servanthood says this. I will serve no matter what, no
matter the cost. One of our favorite places over
the last few years to take missionaries and guests in
Plymouth. And it's not the Rock.
We've already covered that here. All right, is up on Burial Hill
right above the rock where Ad Nairman and Judson are buried.
I'd encourage you to just go up that small hill and find where
they are. And if you're not familiar with
them, learn their story. Ad Nairam Johnson.
I would just read a little bit of it to you.
Inspired by the sudden death of a close friend in 1810,
recommitted his life to Christ, pursued seminary and Co founded
the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign
Missions. He proposed to Anne in 1812 and
candidly warned her father of the missions.
Perils, permanent separation from family, exposure to
poverty, distress, persecution, and even violent death.
All for the gospel sake and just 21 agonized over the decision
but accepted marrying Adiniram days before their departure at
ages 22 and 24. This meant instant farewell to
parents, siblings and a comfortable life with no
certainty of reunion. A few days after they got
married, they were on a boat and they were gone.
No jet planes, no FaceTime, no Zoom calls.
It was, we're going to leave for the sake of the gospel.
Many missionaries in those days would pack their things in a
casket. Why?
Because they knew that casket will be needed to ship them home
someday. Think of Livingston, and we
think of how he charted the course that history will tell
you today. He was a great explorer.
But he was no explorer. Of course he was an explorer,
but that wasn't his burning passion.
He he didn't go to Africa because he wanted to explore
uncharted land. He went because he wanted to
tell people about Jesus Christ who hadn't heard about Jesus
Christ before. His body was shipped after he
died to be buried in Westminster Abbey.
But his heart is buried on the mission field in Africa where we
get the song Bury my heart on the mission field.
Lord, generation of servants that knew we just got to do what
God's told us to do, whatever the cost.
I look at Independent Baptists in the 50s and 60s and
missionaries particularly. They would go from place to
place. And I think of how well we were
treated when we were on the road a few years ago and what a
blessing it was and the people we got to meet.
But it was not unusual during those days when there wasn't as
many hotels around, maybe some motor Inns and those kind of
things. But a missionary would come and
they'd stay a few days. They'd sleep on the pews of the
church. They'd sleep in a Sunday school
room. They're just going from place to
place. Want to tell people in some
faraway land about Jesus showing their slide presentation.
Yeah, slides that were, you know, back then, that was the
thing, right? Showing their slide
presentation, going from place to place.
Wasn't a lot of money involved, but they just want to get on the
mission field to help people. I think when we first got here,
I remember there wasn't a whole lot of money that we had.
A lot of money was going right into the church and there were
sometimes I had to go to to preachers meetings in different
places. I take the Greyhound bus and I
had preachers tell me why are you taking a Greyhound bus?
We only have one vehicle. We have no church van.
And I'll go to South Station, take the Greyhound bus, go to
New York City round trip for 25 bucks.
That sounds like a deal. Now the mugging was free, but
the 25 bucks? Almost a joke.
Not quite all right. But no, what am I?
What am I saying? Sacrifice is involved.
But you know, there's an interesting thing about those
stories. As time goes on, do you notice
how less impressive they are going from shipping your stuff
in a casket to sleeping in Sunday school rooms to take a
Greyhound bus? They get less dramatic as they
go along, don't they? And so certainly I'm not
presenting myself as a hero here tonight.
But what I am saying is this is that even our sacrifices today
aren't nearly the sacrifices that we think they are.
Even our sacrifices today If. I sacrificed because I rode a
Greyhound bus a few times when we started a church.
I haven't sacrificed. If I've sacrificed because we
didn't always have all the food we want in the pantry at any
given time, we haven't sacrificed.
You know why We haven't missed a meal since?
We lived here and I haven't missed many lately.
Let me tell you that right now. God has been so good, and he's
good all the time. He was good to the Judsons, he
was good to those missionaries in the 50s and 60s, and he's
been good to us today. But what I'm saying to you is
this, Are we willing to sacrifice and serve no matter
the cost? I want you to go back to First
Corinthians chapter 4. We're going to end here in a
moment, but I want you to read verse 14.
We only read the verse 13 before that was purposeful because I
want you to look at verse 14 with me.
Look who it says. I write not these things to
shame you, but as my beloved sons, I warn you, Paul says,
listen, I'm not saying these things to try to make you
ashamed. By the way, shame is one of the
worst motivators. If I preach a message and you
feel ashamed and you feel like you need to serve out of shame,
you'll probably serve for a month or two and then you'll go
right back to where you were before.
If you love Jesus, you'll come to soul winning on Saturday.
No pressure, right? You might come on Saturday, but
you don't want to be there. You're there because pastor
might call you on Saturday afternoon if you don't show up.
That's not a good motivator, Paul says.
I'm not saying this to shame you, but I'm warning you.
Listen, what's the warning? If we take what we learned about
Corinth the week before, the last time we were in this text,
and now the warning is this. The desire of man is always to
lift himself up. But as servants we always need
to go low. The desire of man's always to
lift themselves up, but as a servant we must always go low,
preferring the needs of others before ourselves.
Now listen, can we take this too far?
I want to be careful. I know Baptist churches of
yesteryear that true service, quote UN quote meant this meant
you were in the church seven days a week doing stuff.
And if you were in that church seven days a week doing
something every night of the week, then you didn't really
love Jesus. Could I tell you that that is
probably the ditch too far on the other side of the road
because God also said this. Take care of your family.
For instance, First Timothy 58. But if any provide not for his
own, specifically for those of his own house.
He had denied the faith and his worth to the infidel.
That's not just talking about providing food and shelter and
money. That's providing for them
spiritually as well and being there for them.
We purposely made our, our calendar here at Liberty Baptist
Church. So you're not here seven days a
week. Why?
Because you need to serve your family as well, but then you
also need to be able to have opportunities to serve at the
church. We don't want the ditch on the
other side of the road to go so far, the pendulum to go so far
the other way that we say, well, we're, we're all too tired to
serve. We can't serve.
Somewhere in the middle is where God wants us to be.
I don't want to guilt you into service, but I do want us to get
to place in our life when our services do or service does cost
us something. Not necessarily money, but that
you gave even beyond of yourself what you thought you would.
And you realize this God still sustained me.
That you did something you didn't think you could do and
God sustained you, You did. Something you were uncomfortable
with? No, no, I'm not talking about
asking you to do something that's wrong, but I'm just
saying something you were uncomfortable doing.
Well, well, that's not who I am. Well, well, maybe you can just
do it to be a servant. And God can help you.
I've heard people say this. I can't work with kids.
And listen, maybe some people shouldn't work with kids.
You know what I'm saying? But I've heard people say I
can't work with kids. Well, well, listen, is it I
won't work with kids? I can't work with kids.
What if God leads you into helping in a ministry?
Maybe you weren't anticipating helping before.
I don't know. If you noticed, we got a lot of
kids around here. I pray that we have a nursery
that's going to be even more filled.
And of course, we have wonderful plans for doubling the nursery
here in the next few months or willing.
But even beyond that, you know, we got to clean a church.
We don't watch a parking lot because there are cars
everywhere on that parking lot on Sunday morning.
We got to shake. People's hands when they come
in, we've got to serve people in the community, serve each other
on that stuff that's not on that list like we just talked about.
What do we do? Serve?
It's not always pretty. It's always easy, but God called
us to be a servant. Well, Paul was willing.
This is the bottom line here tonight.
Paul was willing to accept any outcome in his life as long as
he could be a servant. Is that your heart, Lord?
Whatever my lot in life, just make me a servant, he says.
I'll be naked, I'll be a servant.
I'll be hungry, I'll be a servant.
People can mock me. I'll be a servant.
I could be treated like scum. And I'll be a servant.
Why? Here's this.
And we're done. Because Jesus Christ taking upon
him the form of a servant. Philippians chapter 2.
What do we see in Isaiah chapter 53?
He shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied by his
knowledge. Shall my righteous servant
justify many? If Jesus Christ wasn't a
servant, you don't get saved and I'm not saved.
If He could serve you and you know who you are, and He could
serve me and I know who I am, then can't we serve one another
so we can serve Him? Thank you for listening to the
sermon from the pulpit of Liberty Baptist Church.
If this message was a blessing to you, or if there's any way we
can serve you, please let us know by contacting us at
info@mylibertybaptist.org. Or you can visit us this Sunday
at 800 Washington St. in Easton, MA.
May the Lord bless you as you grow in His Word.