Download To Trinidad and beyond

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To Trinidad and beyond
I Cor 4:1-7
I.
What we have in common with Buzz Lightyear
On Friday morning, I will be boarding a plane with my wife and son and 19 other family
members from this church to go do one of the most exciting things any of us can ever say we
have done. We are taking the gospel to the nations. Specifically Trinidad.
My guess is that all 22 of us are pretty excited and honestly, a little bit nervous. The task is
great. The mission is urgent. The message is glorious.
But the 22 of us are not alone.
I was remembering back to that great pixar film, Toy Story. You guys know the one where
Woody is almost ousted by a new toy—Buzz Lightyear, Space Ranger.
Anyone remember Buzz’s cry: “To infinity and Beyond”
Well, the 22 of us have a similar cry. And not just the 22 of us, our entire church cries together
“To Trinidad and beyond.”
We are privileged to take the gospel specifically to Trinidad next week, but I hope that we don’t
ever think that evangelism only takes place in a foreign context. We are going beyond Trinidad.
To other nations and all the way back to our own small town. We are all part of Team Trinidad,
and we are also all part of Team Poolesville. We are together in the great plan to open peoples
eyes.
So there are two things we have in common with Buzz.
1. We are planning for more than just Trinidad. This is prep work. Trinidad and beyond
2. We are not working alone. Buzz had to realize that too. He couldn’t do the work
alone. He needed Woody and the others.
Let us look quickly at our text and then I want to pray and draw a few points from here which
will be applicable to all of us.
2 Corinthians 4:1-7
Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. (2) But we
have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to
tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend
ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. (3) And even if our gospel is
veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. (4) In their case the god of this world
has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel
of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (5) For what we proclaim is not
ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. (6)
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the
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light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (7) But we have
this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to
us.
Pray
II.
Are you inadequate?
So 22 of us going to Trinidad at the end of the week. All excited, some nervous, all of us
wondering what we will accomplish.
Perhaps some of you may ask yourself this question, “Am I good enough for this task?” “I
am not overly outgoing, I don’t talk that well, I have never spent 5 minutes just explaining
the gospel to someone and now we are going to be doing this every day. This is way outside
my comfort zone. In fact, what in the world happened? How did I get signed up for this trip
anyway?
I am not sure I can answer how you got signed up for the trip, other than to say God has
worked mightily in ways you may not ever comprehend to give you power and boldness in
an area that is completely new to you. Praise God for that. But let me see if I can answer
some of your inadequacy concerns from I Cor 4.
There are really two answers to whether you are inadequate for the task. The answers are yes
and no. Let me explain
First, I am here to tell you that you are inadequate. Why? Because that is what Paul says.
Look at verse 7. He calls us jars of clay. Jars of clay? Not very flattering. I would have much
preferred he call me a vase of gold, no a vase (voz) of gold. I am shiny and worth a lot and
everyone admires me, right? But he says I am a clay pot. An average utensil for holding
average things. Something that everyone has in their house. Cheap, inexpensive, unexciting
clay. How is that for a let down?
And look at the concern that Paul has for his church. Verse 1 implies that Paul is concerned
that his people might lose heart. That is a real valid concern especially if I call you a clay
pot.
So Paul, how can you call me a clay pot and then tell me not to lose heart?
But its not just him calling me a clay pot that is discouraging, it’s the fact that this clay pot
cant do much of anything. If you read earlier in I Cor 3 you find much talk about blind eyes,
blind minds (v 14). If they are blind, what can a clay pot, average guy like me do? And to
make matters worse, he seems to continue the theme right into our passage here. The god of
this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the
gospel of the glory of Christ. So you are already just a clay pot, and now we read that Satan,
the god of this world, has blinded their eyes.
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I have news for you. Clay pots don’t have any success against gods of this world and blind
eyes. We are wholly inadequate for the task.
But I told you the answer was yes and no. And of course you know the answer is also that
you are more than adequate, but perhaps you need some encouragement regarding that right
now.
So look at the encouragement Paul gives the Corinthian church.
“We don’t lose heart” (vs 1) , why? The mercy of God.
I hope this is seriously encouraging to you. It is Gods divine plan to show you mercy and to
work through you. If the God of creation, whom you have cosmically offended is willing to
show mercy then that should encourage us.
Okay, so God is merciful to clay pots. That is good. I am encouraged. But what difference
can I make on the field? I still don’t know how to talk well and have never evangelized in
my life. Maybe I need a trick. Maybe I need to manipulate people’s hearts. Maybe 63 verses
of just as I am will guilt someone into coming forward. Maybe I need to come up with a
testimony which includes a life of sex, drugs and rock and roll.
But verse 2 says, we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice
cunning or to tamper with God’s word. Paul is saying, people aren’t changed by clever
words. How are they changed? By the open statement of the truth. That’s how we commend
ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.
So that’s it. People are changed by openly stating the truth. I guess then I should just walk
through Carlsens Field there in Trinidad, or Port of Spain, or Tunapuna and yell out, “For
God so loved the world…”
What can I hope to accomplish? Earlier in 3:12 Paul said we have such hope and so we use
great boldness of speech. But my boldness doesn’t mean automatically people will be saved.
My speech doesn’t have intrinsic power.
In fact, it may be that the gospel is veiled. There are some who can’t see. See verses 3-4—
peoples eyes are veiled by Satan. They are perishing
I have seen some of those people before. You know those whom it is obvious Satan has
blinded. They want nothing to do with the gospel and abhor what you say. They are
obviously perishing and so speaking the truth to them is just a waste of time. Ever thought
that way?
I could be so much more successful if I just spoke to someone else. There is some legitimacy
to that. Even the apostles shook the dust off their feet and moved on. Go where you can be
used. I often feel the urge to go to the third world permanently because it seems a giant veil
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is lifting there while a veil seems to slowly settle on America. Right now though God has
called me to call you to be a part of opening people’s eyes.
That’s what this passage and so many others are about. Satan has blinded many people. Even
though you can see now and you want everyone to see the light, they cant get excited about
it, because it is something unseen to them.
And that is what I am trying to say by saying you are wholly inadequate and yet completely
able.
Verses 5-7 say that it is not about us. Paul here has had his authority questioned and is
saying, look, its not me. I am not here to talk about me, I am here to talk about Christ. We
are just servants.
But servants with great power. Because of what is in that servant, clay pot. Its so interesting
the way Paul is working here. We have great power to accomplish the task, but he says the
power belongs to God and not to us. We have the power to open blind eyes, but its not our
power. We are just vessels of it. We don’t get any glory for what happens. This is what God
did in the beginning. He caused light to shine in darkness. And now it is a new beginning in
dark hearts and he will cause our heart to shine in darkness and may choose to lift the veil.
So we are inadequate and yet useful. He uses crummy vessels for the exact reason that the
clay pots not get any glory. No one would say, “whoa, look at that pot” All they could say,
is look at what that clay pot delivered.
So here is what we have:
1. Our condition without Christ is one of darkness, blinded by Satan
2. The only solution to this desperate situation is new birth, new eyes.
3. The way God had deemed to introduce his new birth is by way of jars of clay.
We are all eye-doctors here. We are being sent into the world, some to Trinidad, some to
Poolesville some elsewhere to open peoples eyes.
Do you remember in Acts 26 when Paul tells King Agrippa about his conversion and his call to
the ministry. He reports the spectacular encounter with Christ on the Damascus Road. Then he
reports the commission that Christ gave him. It’s the words of the commission that are so
amazing and relevant for our concern with evangelism.
He tells us in verses 15-17 what Jesus told him: “‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But rise
and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant
and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you,
delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you . . . .”
Now what is God sending Paul to do?
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Verse 18: “I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and
from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among
those who are sanctified by faith in me.”
Paul is the means by which their eyes are opened. We are a means—we cant make eyes see, God
does that. He chooses whether to remove the veil or not, but we have no clue when he might do
that. We preach the glorious light of the gospel everywhere and let God do his work.
So I cant do it, but that shouldn’t stop me.
Anymore than my not being able to make light come out of my kitchen lightbulb should stop me
from turning on the light. I have a role to play.
I don’t know how the fire in cylinders works, but I still turn the ignition on every morning.
So let me bring this down for all of us.
I told you a few weeks ago, this next year we are going to emphasize strongly reaching out to our
neighbors and community in every way we can think of. I invite you to bring me ideas. I cant
wait to see what God does here. And the cool part of this is he may choose to use us to
accomplish his goal.
So how will these clay jars shine forth? I can’t get over this cool imagery. Clay doesn’t shine
anything forth. It is dull and often ugly and often used specifically to keep light from coming
forth. And yet these jars of clay have a treasure so beautiful and so glorious that it shines right
through the jars.
So here we are on Sunday morning. What will we do? Where will you be tomorrow or next
month? You are driving to work, entering homeroom, at Bassetts or Cuginis, on our deck, in the
cafeteria at work or school, texting our friend, on Facebook or My space, were blogging and
skyping. We are flying our airplane, driving our UPS truck, sitting in a Nasdaq office, or a
school office or a school classroom as teacher or student, or on a construction site, or cooking
lunch for someone, or the FBI, or the horse stables or the Verizon worksite, or killing a bunch of
bugs, or crunching numbers, or weeding our flower bed or dancing on Friday night, or wherever
you are—how can you as a clay pot, shine forth.
Not just our Trinidad team, but everyone of us preparing to do old fashioned personal
evangelism. For some of us a new context, sure—but the same old message which breaks forth
in thousands of people all throughout the world every year.
People who are newly born, pulled out of their spiritual death for the glory of Christ.
III.
Practical Reminders
Let me just give you a few practical reminders for us to take home
1. God uses Clay pots.
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I know you aren’t gold or silver. But you have a treasure that is greater than all the silver and
gold in the world. You are the container.
My kids play a game called Mother load where a truck/helicopter/digger thing, mines treasure
from the earth. The truck is not the treasure. In fact, the hull of the vehicle takes a lot of abuse
and is really pretty ugly. But inside is platinum, and silverium, and gold and the greatest riches.
You can be used.
Be encouraged, ordinary Christian. You are appointed, precisely in your ordinariness, for the
greatest work in the world: showing the Treasure of Christ.
2. Prepare
Please don’t miss out on the opportunity you have to get some practical helps in sharing the
gospel. We don’t all have the gift of evangelism. I think the class Kelly is teaching is first rate.
There are two ways to live. He is teaching how to draw and practice and learn some language
and illustrations and connect to people. What could be more practical than that? You can even go
on to our home page and see the “two ways to live presentation.” If you forget what to say jump
online and be reminded.
Read some great books. I read Mark Devers book on Evangelism and distilled it down to one
course on evangelism a few weeks ago. Read great books like that from our library or purchase
them from our book nook. Read Packers, Evangelism and the sovereignty of God, read the great
stories in Tuckers, From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya. Read Hybels’ Contagious Christianity, Read
Piper’s, Let the Nations be Glad, Read Olsen’s, Bruchko, Read Richarson’s Lords of the Earth.
Get yourself ready and confident.
3. Give away resources
Not only should you prepare yourself with great materials, purchase some to give to friends.
Give them tracks like Two ways to Give which Kelly gave you in class. Give them some of the
cheap books like Quest for Joy or For your joy or Savoring the Savior, or Mere Christianity, or
More than a carpenter, come to me and I will suggest more. Look it up on our website to see
some other great books which will help others understand. Carry a box of these in your trunk.
You never know when you will need them. Put one in your pocket. It will annoy you all day
long, maybe so much that you will take it out and give it to someone.
4. Remember that you are not alone; strategize
Your words may not do much, or so you think, but you may be the instrument God uses to plant
a seed and someone else may come along and water. Your words are never wasted
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You can even strategize with your friends. Jennifer, Denise, Tammy and Leigh. You all know
lots of the same people. How about a strategy. On Friday I am going to call whats-her-name
and tell her I was praying for her. On Saturday, Tammy will call, and then on Sunday Denise and
Monday etc. You don’t think that would make her start thinking about Jesus.
5. Invite them to church
I think it is okay to invite non-Christians into our sacred space. I think God will use what we do
here to minister to them and call them to himself. They wont become members until they have
bent the knee, but the gospel is preached here every week. Why not invite them. I always hesitate
to say this because I am afraid that you will see me as a way out of telling them the gospel
yourself. So I always say. Invite them to Christ first, and then invite them to church. But I will be
happy to have non-Christians here as well.
6. Not just your neighbors
Your goal is to find anyone and everyone interesting and to strike up conversations with them.
Talk about them. Not yourself. I know this is hard. But just listen and find little places that you
can continue the conversation. Usually starting the conversation is hardest. Continuing it isn’t
hard if you listen well. They have tons of interesting things to say, if you just care. Then maybe,
just maybe, they will be willing to listen to the most life changing story ever heard.
I am trying to come up with ways that might start conversations either with me or in town. I
think we are going to move the men’s group on Wednesdays to McDonalds. I want Poolesville
Baptist to have a visible presence in the community. In two ways, Visible in that we are seen to
be worshippers and studiers certainly. But also I want us to be seen as a church who cares about
others. I need ideas to make these work. Community outreach projects that don’t cost a lot but
that can help our reputation.
I think Trinidad is a great start. People are talking about our trip. Are you talking about it? What
a great conversation starter here in Poolesville.
“I am going to the Caribbean next week.”
Wow, nice vacation in the tropics.
Yep, going for 10 days, but we will only spend one day at the beach.
Oh, why what else are you doing?
Well there is a very poor community there in Trinidad and we are taking them some hope.
Hope?
Yeah, the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
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Oh that 
Yeah, I can understand why you might think that. After all Christians sometimes don’t do what
they say and aren’t joyful. But I cant even begin to explain to you the joy that I have in Christ.
And I just have to share it.
I mean, there are two ways we can live…
And as you leave, “Let me give you this book. Its short and what it promises is better than
winning the lottery.”
Then go home and call your buddy who knows them and have them mention the book, or the
meeting or Trinidad or anything.
I think we can do this Poolesville. We are starting with Trinidad, but in the altered words of Buzz
Light year: To Trinidad and beyond.
Pray
Lords supper