CRCF\u201d\u201d6-28-09
\nCommissioning Service for Hannah Kelly<\/p>\n
Taking the Treasure to Your World
\n2 Corinthians 3:16-4:15
\nIntroduction– Many years ago in St. Louis, a lawyer visited a Christian to transact some business. Before the two parted, his client said to him, “I’ve often wanted to ask you a question, but I’ve been afraid to do so.” “What do you want to know?” asked the lawyer. The man replied, “I’ve wondered why you’re not a Christian.” The man hung his head, “I know enough about the Bible to realize that it says no drunkard can enter the kingdom of God; and you know my weakness!” “You’re avoiding my questions,” continued the believer. “Well, truthfully, I can’t recall anyone ever explaining how to become a Christian.” Picking up a Bible, the client read some passages showing that all are under condemnation, but that Christ came to save the lost by dying on the cross for their sins. “By receiving Him as your Substitute and Redeemer,” he said, “you can be forgiven. If you’re willing to receive Jesus, let’s pray together.” The lawyer agreed, and when it was his turn he exclaimed, “O Jesus, I am a slave to drink. One of your servants has shown me how to be saved. O God, forgive my sins and help me overcome the power of this terrible habit in my life.” Right there he was converted. That lawyer was C.I. Scofield, who later edited the reference Bible that bears his name.
\nGod has given every follower of Christ the task of taking His Jesus-Treasure to the world.<\/p>\n
I want you to notice the following 4 aspects of HOW God uses us to take His Treasure to the world:<\/p>\n
1.\u00a0 We are to tell others about Jesus honestly and simply. (2)<\/p>\n
2 Cor. 4:2\u201d\u201d \u201cWe reject all shameful and underhanded methods.\u00a0 We do not try to trick anyone, and we do not distort the word of God.\u00a0 We tell the truth before God, and all who are honest know that.\u201d (NLT)<\/p>\n
2 Cor. 2:17\u201d\u201d \u201cYou see, we are not like those hucksters\u201d\u201dand there are many of them\u201d\u201dwho preach just to make money.\u00a0 We preach God\u201d\u2122s message with sincerity and with Christ\u201d\u2122s authority.\u201d (NLT)<\/p>\n
We\u201d\u2122re NOT salespeople!
\nWe tell people about Jesus while God watches!<\/p>\n
2.\u00a0 God uses us\u201d\u201djust regular people\u201d\u201dto make sure people understand that the Jesus-Treasure is all about God and His power, NOT us.\u00a0 (7-12)<\/p>\n
2 Cor. 4:7-12\u201d\u201d \u201cIf you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness.\u00a0 We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives.\u00a0 That\u201d\u2122s to prevent anyone from confusing God\u201d\u2122s incomparable power with us.\u00a0 As it is, there\u201d\u2122s not much chance of that.\u00a0 You know for yourselves that we\u201d\u2122re not much to look at.\u00a0 We\u201d\u2122ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we\u201d\u2122re not demoralized; we\u201d\u2122re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we\u201d\u2122ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn\u201d\u2122t left our side; we\u201d\u2122ve been thrown down, but we haven\u201d\u2122t broken.\u00a0 What they did to Jesus, they do to us\u201d\u201dtrials and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us\u201d\u201dhe lives!\u00a0 Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus\u201d\u2122 sake, which makes Jesus\u201d\u2122 life all the more evident in us.\u00a0 While we\u201d\u2122re going through the worst, you\u201d\u2122re getting in on the best!\u201d (The Message)<\/p>\n
\u201cunadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives\u201d\u201d\u201dcommon, weak, everyday, fragile<\/p>\n
\u201cwe\u201d\u2122re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do\u201d\u201d\u201dwhether we\u201d\u2122re leaving the country for the first time to go to Guatemala, or whether we\u201d\u2122re talking to our lifelong friend that doesn\u201d\u2122t know Jesus, God knows what we don\u201d\u2122t!\u00a0 And He\u201d\u2122ll handle it!<\/p>\n
1 Corinthians 2:1-5\u201d\u201d \u201cDear brothers and sisters, when I first came to you I didn\u201d\u2122t use lofty words and brilliant ideas to tell you God\u201d\u2122s message.\u00a0 For I decided to concentrate only on Jesus Christ and his death on the cross.\u00a0 I came to you in weakness\u201d\u201dtimid and trembling.\u00a0 And my message and my preaching were very plain.\u00a0 I did not use wise and persuasive speeches, but the Holy Spirit was powerful among you.\u00a0 I did this so that you might trust the power of God rather than human wisdom.\u201d\u00a0 (NLT)<\/p>\n
Our effectiveness in taking God\u201d\u2122s Jesus-Treasure to our world is NOT about our togetherness\/confidence in our witnessing ability
\nNOT about our skills
\nNOT about smoothness of speech
\nNOT about our ability to logically debate\/persuade<\/p>\n
Our effectiveness in taking God\u201d\u2122s Jesus-Treasure to our world IS about being available in our weakness!<\/p>\n
The TREASURE\u201d\u201dthe truth of Jesus\u201d\u201dis the key!<\/p>\n
3.\u00a0 We only have one thing to say to the world\u201d\u201dJesus:\u00a0 Who is and what He\u201d\u2122s done! (5)<\/p>\n
2 Cor. 4:5\u201d\u201d\u201cWe don\u201d\u2122t go around preaching about ourselves; we preach Christ Jesus, the Lord.\u00a0 All we say about ourselves is that we are your servants because of what Jesus has done for us.\u201d (NLT)<\/p>\n
1 Corinthians 1:17-20, 23-24\u201d\u201d \u201cFor Christ didn\u201d\u2122t send me to baptize, but to preach the Good News\u201d\u201dand not with clever speeches and high-sounding ideas, for fear that the cross of Christ would lose its power.\u00a0 I know very well how foolish the message of the cross sounds to those who are on the road to destruction.\u00a0 But we who are being saved recognize this message as the very power of God.\u00a0 As the Scriptures say, \u201d\u02dcI will destroy human wisdom and discard their most brilliant ideas.\u201d\u2122\u00a0 So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world\u201d\u2122s brilliant debaters?\u00a0 God has made them all look foolish and has shown their wisdom to be useless nonsense . . . So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended, and the Gentiles say it\u201d\u2122s all nonsense.\u00a0 But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the mighty power of God and the wonderful wisdom of God.\u201d (NLT)<\/p>\n
The Message of the Cross=
\nFoolishness to the Most of the World<\/p>\n
But, our ONE Message\u201d\u201dWho Jesus is and what He\u201d\u2122s done\u201d\u201dHE IS the power of God and WILL change lives!<\/p>\n
4.\u00a0 God\u201d\u2122s power \u201cturns the light on\u201d in people\u201d\u2122s hearts as we take the Treasure to them. (6)<\/p>\n
Romans 1:16\u201d\u201d \u201cFor I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ.\u00a0 It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes\u201d\u201dJews first and also Gentiles.\u201d (NLT)<\/p>\n
\u201cpower\u201d\u201d\u201dGr. Means dynamite-power<\/p>\n
2 Corinthians 4:6\u201d\u201d \u201cFor God, who said, \u201d\u02dcLet there be light in the darkness,\u201d\u2122 has made us understand that this light is the brightness of the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.\u201d\u00a0 (NLT)<\/p>\n
Piper:\u00a0 \u201cFor faith to be real there must be a supernatural \u201d\u02dclight\u201d\u2122 that God shines into the heart to show us that Christ is glorious and wonderful.\u00a0 This happens as a work of the Holy Spirit of God through the preaching of the Gospel\u201d (Godward Life 2, 95-96).<\/p>\n
As we tell others the Message of Jesus, as we show them the Treasure, God\u201d\u2122s Spirit blasts through the hardness of their pride and sin and lets them see the holiness of God and their need for a Savior from their sins and the beauty and sufficiency of the Cross of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 And God gives them the gifts of repentance from sin and faith in Jesus!<\/p>\n
So, we DO have a part to play\u201d\u201dby God\u201d\u2122s gracious design.\u00a0 But it is ALWAYS a dependent role\u201d\u201dwe are always depending on GOD to do the work!<\/p>\n
1 Corinthians 3:5-7\u201d\u201c \u201cWho is Apollos, and who is Paul, that we should be the cause of such quarrels?\u00a0 Why, we\u201d\u2122re only servants.\u00a0 Through us God caused you to believe.\u00a0 Each of us did the work the Lord gave us.\u00a0 My job was to plant the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God, not we, who made it grow.\u00a0 The ones who do the planting or watering aren\u201d\u2122t important, but God is important because He is the One who makes the seed grow.\u201d\u00a0 (NLT)<\/p>\n
Conclusion–Too many times we focus on our method of sharing Jesus.\u00a0 Too many times we focus on ourselves as the messengers.\u00a0 Embrace the awesome truth that taking the Treasure to our world is about simply getting the Message of the Cross out and then watching God work in spite of us and our methods!<\/p>\n
We DO have to get the message out.
\nA survey done by sociologists Glock and Stark found that among evangelicals, over 1\/2 of their close friends are likely to belong to the same congregation, whereas among liberal churchgoers, such as Presbyterians and Congregationalists, few or none of their close friends are likely to be members of their local church.
\nRifkin and Howard, The Emerging Order, p. 115.
\nYou and I need to change that!\u00a0 We have to be friends with those who need Jesus if we\u201d\u2122re going to be able to take God\u201d\u2122s Treasure to them!<\/p>\n
2 Corinthians 5:14-21\u201d\u201d\u201cWhatever we do, it is because Christ\u201d\u2122s love controls us.\u00a0 Since we believe that Christ died for everyone, we also believe that we have died to the old life we used to live.\u00a0 He died for everyone so that those who receive this new life will no longer live to please themselves.\u00a0 Instead, they will live to please Christ, who died and was raised for them.\u00a0 So we have stopped evaluating others by what the world thinks about them.\u00a0 Once I mistakenly thought of Christ that way, as though he were merely a human being.\u00a0 How differently I think about him now!\u00a0 What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons.\u00a0 They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone.\u00a0 A new life has begun!\u00a0 All this newness of life is from God, who brought us back to himself through what Christ did.\u00a0 And God has given us the task of reconciling people to him.\u00a0 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people\u201d\u2122s sins against them.\u00a0 This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell other.\u00a0 We are Christ\u201d\u2122s ambassadors, and God is using us to speak to you.\u00a0 We urge you, as though Christ himself were here pleading with you, \u201d\u02dcBe reconciled to God!\u201d\u2122\u00a0 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Times-Reporter of New Philadelphia, Ohio, reported in September, 1985 a celebration of a New Orleans municipal pool. The party around the pool was held to celebrate the first summer in memory without a drowning at the New Orleans city pool. In honor of the occasion, 200 people gathered, including 100 certified lifeguards. As the party was breaking up and the four lifeguards on duty began to clear the pool, they found a fully dressed body in the deep end. They tried to revive Jerome Moody, 31, but it was too late. He had drowned surrounded by lifeguards celebrating their successful season.
\nTimes-Reporter, September 1985.
\nYOU have the Treasure that will rescue the world!\u00a0 Take it to them, trusting God to open their hearts!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CRCF\u201d\u201d6-28-09 Commissioning Service for Hannah Kelly Taking the Treasure to Your World 2 Corinthians 3:16-4:15 Introduction– Many years ago in St. Louis, a lawyer visited a Christian to transact some business. Before the two parted, his client said to him, … Continue reading