Using Our Influence to Serve the World: 2 Corinthians 10:13-18

Our sermon scripture reading comes from 2 Corinthians chapter 10, verses 13 through 18 this morning.

2 Corinthians 10:13–18

So here now the reading of God's holy word.

But we will not boast beyond limits, but will boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us, to reach even to you.

For we are not overextending ourselves as though we did not reach you, for we were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ.

We do not boast beyond limit in the labors of others, but our hope is that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged, so that we may preach the gospel and lands beyond you, without boasting of the work already done in another's area of influence.

Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord, for it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.

Let us pray.

That your word is living and active, and that uh Lord, um, you have uh given us of your spirit.

We ask and we pray that you would continue to work within us, Lord, that you would shape and fashion us more and more into the likeness of Christ.

We ask and we pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So this is our final week on our series, serving our city and a world in the name of Christ.

And uh you'll see um in this dismissal that we say every week uh that refrain that we're gonna serve our city and a world in the name of Christ.

And you also see it in the front of your bulletin that as part of our mission statement, that we want the whole world to see and encounter the glory and the grace of God.

And so it's part of who we want to be and who we want God to fashion us to be, because it is not our idea, but his idea, and it's his heart that we desire to imitate.

And so if you remember the graphic that was put up uh maybe a few weeks ago when Tom preached, uh it said the gospel renewing me, the gospel renewing APC, the gospel renewing the city, and the gospel renewing the world.

God's vision is a kingdom vision.

It's expansive, and yet it's an intimate vision.

And only a God like him can make that happen.

And so I hope that through the preaching of the word over the last few weeks, you're coming away with a clearer vision of what that looks like and how you can be an active participant in serving Christ.

This morning, though, in the passage we just read, we see uh the work of the Apostle Paul, who is an example of how we may serve the world in Christ's name.

And here the Apostle Paul is talking about influence, influence, and the area of influence that God had assigned to him.

And when he talks about influence, he recognizes that that any influence he has is given to him by God.

It doesn't come from him, it comes to him from God.

It's not something that he therefore has reason to boast in.

God shows no partiality in regard to influence because it's his to give and it's his to take away.

And the influence Paul was given was toward the church in Corinth.

That was one of the areas of influence.

And so the Corinthians were the Apostle Paul's field, you could say.

That's one way he describes his work among them.

Paul had gone to Corinth to share the gospel, and he had been sent out by the church, and he had he was seeking to bring the good news of the gospel to the Gentiles.

And these people had responded.

They were his field, and he labored among them to spread the gospel.

Now, the full significance of them being his field, that image may not entirely resonate with us today, especially living in the city, perhaps, as it did then.

Today, particularly in the city, we tend to get food on our plates.

It's already prepared, it's already harvested.

And we don't tend to think about all of the work that it actually takes to get it there in that form.

We're often used to receiving harvested food, prepared food.

And so what Paul means by this is that God had given him a field to labor in and to serve in, but that means plowing.

That means sowing.

That means uh cultivating and harvesting.

As a youth, I would spend a lot of my time outside of hours in school driving a tractor and a field.

And um, it was for the purpose of farmers wanting to grow some crops for the sheep so that they had something to feed on during the winter.

And so I would spend a lot of hours going round and round in circles preparing the soil for sowing seed.

And there were uh boundaries that I had to work within, and they required different tools in order to prepare the soil.

There was a plow that I would use, there was a cultivator that would come on after that and refine some of the dirt, and then what's called a harrow for leveling the soil.

Then there was equipment for sowing and harvesting.

And in a similar way, Paul sees the Corinthians as a field that require these processes.

Ploughing, searching, praying for open doors, taking opportunities in which to shear the gospel, sowing, that is teaching, and so that the gospel is something that is actually worked into the hearts of those receptive to it.

And then harvesting, the the joy of bearing fruit and and visible works.

And so we see and read in Acts that Paul began in Corinth working as a tent maker.

And he would do that during the week.

He found a job with another tent maker who was a Jew named Aquila.

And Aquila had come from Italy because they had been uh kicked out, essentially, of Rome.

They'd been forced to leave Rome, and so they had come to Corinth.

And so Paul would labor in tent making alongside of Aquila, making tents during the week.

And then he would go and he would preach in the synagogue on the Sabbath, trying to persuade both Jews and Gentiles.

This work of plowing.

But as he set as he set the plow to the ground, he was met with resistance and opposition from the Jews.

And so after the Jews rejected him, he said, Your blood be on your own heads.

I am I'm innocent.

I'm going to go bring the gospel to the Gentiles.

And so he goes to the house of a man named Titius Justus.

And he was a worshiper of God who had a house that was right next to the synagogue.

And so he goes there, and while he's teaching, a man called Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, comes to believe in the Lord with all of his household.

And then many other Corinthians, hearing Paul in the home of Titius, come to believe the truth of the gospel and are baptized.

And then Paul's spirit is only strengthened in this work as he goes about plowing and sowing when he receives a vision from the Lord.

And the Lord says to him in this vision, Paul, I have many people in this city.

Don't be afraid.

Continue to press in.

And so he goes on preaching and teaching the gospel, and he stays there for another year and a half.

Plowing, sowing.

And so, in all of this, God gave the apostle Paul a field that had boundary lines and in which no one else had set foot, and Paul began to work within it.

The church in Corinth was his field.

But what that means for us is that God in his generous grace is still giving people fields to labor in, to serve in for the sake of the gospel, for the spread of the gospel, and to testifying to his kingdom.

And so when we ask the Lord to show us how he would have us to serve the world, he is often pleased to give us a field to work in.

God is still giving us fields to work in.

There have been times as a church when we have asked God if He would show us, if He has a field that He would have us to work in.

We've asked God for that.

We've prayed, Lord, do you have a work?

Do you have a field that you would have us to labor in to serve the nations?

And He has been gracious to send out people from in our midst, to begin a new work, to begin in a new location, a new place that has not received the gospel.

Sometimes that means tent making, like Paul started out doing.

We had a couple in this church that used their gifts and medical works as a form of tent making so that they were able to enter into a particular country and to begin sharing, spreading the gospel.

Using their natural gifts to serve the world in the name of Christ.

But we also have fields in which we, where God has called us to come alongside others in a strengthening role, to strengthen the church.

A particular field is in need of more sowers.

And so as a church, we we have come alongside another church or churches to send out others, to send someone out, to help in that work.

The work is going ahead.

God has used this church as a way to do that work, to carry out that work, to see the gospel go forth.

God in his grace has given us many fields in which we are called to exercise influence to serve the world.

And I think it's helpful to think about this as a church collectively and also individually, as members of it.

And so as a church, we have missionaries from the U.S.

and we have pastors from all over the world who are coming to us.

I get most weekly emails asking us, can you come and join us in laboring in this field that we've been assigned to?

And although we can't answer all of those needs, that is a great thing.

That is a great thing.

Think about the Apostle Paul who needed a polos to help water where he had planted.

Think about Timothy and Silas who came alongside and were and Paul's team to help him in the work.

Paul was deeply grateful for such workers that came alongside him in his labors.

They were God's kind gift and provision for Paul.

But here's the thing: they served in humility.

They served in humility.

And that's not a given in any kind of ministry, even ministry in the church, even in ministries where we seek to serve the world.

I say that because Paul was dealing with a situation in which superapostles, as he called them, were trespassing in his field.

These were people who instead of being sent to sent by God to humbly come alongside the work and to serve, they actually instead wanted to jump the fence into Paul's field and use their influence to try to undermine and and and and to try to really undermine his influence to take over in order to assert themselves.

The Apostle Paul says in his letter that in some respects he was uh not as gifted in communication as they were.

But they were undermining the foundation that Paul had laid there in Corinth.

And so there's always a temptation in any form of service to see it as an ideal in and of itself and to separate it from the gospel for self-promoting purposes.

Kenneth E.

Kirk, in his book, The Vision of God, a book on the beatific vision, gives a justification for the centrality of worship and why that's necessary for service.

He writes the glory of worship and the gospel is that it evokes the grace of humility.

Worship of God evokes the grace of humility, and so it informs the way in which we actually carry out our service.

It is vital to our service.

And basically what he argues is that those who see themselves as free agents, uh given gifts to be deployed in the benefit of others, who go about their service in an attitude of independence, while having this kind of superior attitude, ordering others about, issuing instructions, a position of independence.

He argues that while a person like that is active, they're not actually serving.

He says they're actually performing a disservice because such service is patronizing.

It's not even a matter of quality, service of a better and best kind, but between offering any service and no service at all.

What he's saying here is that our attitudes and motivations and the spirit in which we carry out our activity is vital if we are truly to serve others and be used by God.

You see, it's only through the gospel that you and I are freed from trying to make service all about us.

Only then are you and I free from attempting to attempt to form an identity out of service.

A service that is done in our own name is actually, it's actually self-promoting.

It has a way of giving us a sense of identity.

That's why our service is so often tied up with our self-worth, a sense of worth about ourselves.

And what often drives that sense of superiority is pride and isolation and fear.

But what the gospel tells us is that you and I need a perfect servant.

And since Jesus' service was acceptable on our behalf, you and I have been given a perfect record.

Our service in Him is adequate.

And so, in our failure to serve, Jesus served on our behalf.

His service took him to the grave.

His service was a ransom for us so that we might be free.

And that kind of divine love, that amazing love, when we worship God in that spirit, in that frame, actually has a way of converting a soul, freeing it from unworthy motives, and enabling it to serve in such a way that is humble, that is dependent and reliant upon Him, so that we're serving in the way that He would have us to serve, so that we're actually loving other people in the way that we serve.

It's not all about us.

It's not about being superior.

And that means that when we come alongside others and serve us to the world, we can do it freely.

We serve not in order to earn God's favor, but in loving thankfulness for the favor we already possess as his beloved.

So ours is a humble service.

If we want to serve the world in Christ's name, ours needs to be a humble service.

We might say, well, what does that look like?

In what ways can we express humble, thankful service?

And although there are many things we can say to that, I think a couple that I would say one is through financial generosity, and the other is through our natural and spiritual gifts.

Financial generosity, natural and spiritual gifts.

One way Paul commends and encourages the church in Corinth is in its service through financial generosity.

He writes, Whoever sows spearingly will also reap spearingly.

And whoever sows generously will also reap generously.

Each of you should give what you have decided in your own heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

And God is able to bless you abundantly so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

As it is written, they have freely scattered their gifts to the poor.

Their righteousness endures forever.

Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.

You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion.

And through us, your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

He goes on to say because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ.

And for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.

And in their prayers for you, their hearts will go out to you because of the surpassing grace God has given you.

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift.

I mean, as you read that, so many fruits that come with generosity, with a free heart that desires to give in this way.

Some background.

This was a collection that was taken up by Paul for serving the church in Macedonia.

This was a field that Paul had been able to labor in and had some need.

And so Paul encourages this kind of generosity, this kind of generous giving.

Because he himself was also a recipient of this kind of giving.

Silas and Timothy had come from the Macedonians when he first got to Corinth, and they gave him a gift, and that gift enabled him to spend less time tent making and more time preaching the gospel.

And so what he's saying here is, hey, because the Macedonian church was generous to you, I was able to labor and spread the gospel so that you were benefited and that you received the gospel.

And so it's that kind of generosity which makes it possible for those whom we send out to dedicate the majority of their time to serving others in the field that work in, bringing the gospel, seeking to bring the gospel to bear on people's hearts and minds.

Uh as they seek to Minister to the world.

I don't know if you know this, but we um we dedicate a good portion of our budget to that purpose of serving the world.

And so there should be a healthy willingness to lower our standard of living in order to see the gospel go forth in service to our world.

Trusting God with our money and his promise to care for us.

I think it was a good prayer that Tom prayed earlier.

Lord, if you struggle with this, can convince me of this.

Convince me that you'll care for me if I'm to give generously.

And he's pleased to do so.

And so we make it our aim to serve the world through generosity.

But we also make it our aim to serve through our gifts, both natural and spiritual gifts.

And when I say natural gifts, what I mean by that is gifts that are available to all people.

And spiritual gifts, what I mean is the gifts given to us as God's people who are indwelt by the Spirit.

So how do we discern the gifts that we've been given and what's God's will in using them?

That can be a question that we often ask.

Okay, I've been given the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is residing within me, and yet how do I know what gifts have been given?

How do I know how I might use them to be deployed in the service of God and serving the world?

And uh it's a good question.

And what I tend to say is continue to saturate yourself in the scriptures so that you get to know the mind and the heart of God.

Continue to get to know the heart and mind of God.

Saturate yourself in the scriptures, and then ask yourself, what do I aspire to?

What do I aspire to?

And then as you do that, to invite other people, mature believers alongside of you to help in this process of confirmation.

Scholar Frederick Buchner says it this way: the place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.

The place where God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.

Where do you experience deep gladness?

And what things do you aspire to give your time and attention to?

To give your energy toward?

What are those things?

And when I say that, some people often reply, really?

You mean I can actually serve in a way that I enjoy?

And it's like, yes, yes, you can.

But as I said, part of the process of that is inviting a few others in to help confirm those gifts.

Not every aspiration is a gift.

It's always helpful to have others come alongside us in discerning where our gifts lie.

But then look at where the world's deep hunger is.

Where is the world's deep hunger?

How might my gifts help alleviate some form of that hunger?

How might I serve in Christ's name?

And I'll share two stories to try to illustrate this a little bit.

One was a man from a church that I grew up in, and um, he had a love for agriculture.

He had a farm, uh, he was a farmer, and and yet he had gotten to know uh all about what conditions were necessary for getting high yield crops to maximize a yield of crops.

And so what he did is he he felt called at one point to go serve alongside some missionaries in Morocco and uh that they were supporting.

And so he went there and and and they had asked him, we really need your help and your gifts in this way.

And so he began to help uh train the locals in agriculture and benefit them by increasing their yields from their crops, teaching them what that would look like.

And oftentimes you'll notice in these communities the the the benefit of the community can oftentimes benefit the church.

I was talking to a pastor the other day, Rob and Shauna Pittman graciously hosted from Uganda, and he was saying, Oh, the increase of faith has been great.

We've planted 12 churches.

I said, Well, what's the need?

He said, most of the people in our community don't have jobs, and they don't have any skills to be able to get a job.

And that impacts the church because there's no resources.

And so the point here was that they needed these things to help strengthen the church.

And so this man came and he gave his gifts to helping increase the crop yields, and he came alongside using his gifts to be of service to the church and the world there.

That's an example of his deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meeting.

Carried out in the name of Christ, in service of the church, for the world.

On another occasion, a pastor shared that he had a group within the church that he wanted to serve.

Um, they wanted to serve by sharing alongside uh missionaries that they supported and um were in another country, and so they went through all the necessary, getting the documentation, getting passports, all that kind of stuff.

And they flew out, and when they arrived at um this uh this country um to these missionaries that they supported, they were put to work.

And so they did some painting, they they did manual labor and all these kind of things.

And and um it was physically demanding work, he said.

And so when they came home, they they were exhausted.

And they were led to ask, if we were to come alongside again, how would we do that differently?

It wasn't that they were somehow, you know, shy from doing hard work, uh, physical labor, but they began by asking, in what ways have we been gifted?

What do we aspire to?

Is there a deep hunger that we can fill by using our gifts?

And what they realized was that many of them in that church had been through, uh, many of them in the church that he was a part of had been, had faced a number of traumatic experiences in their life.

They had faced trauma, and and part of that process of healing and working through that trauma was was to receive counseling.

And so they had benefited greatly from being counseled, having other people come alongside them, ask good questions, bring the wisdom of the truth of God's word and the gospel to bear as they were seeking healing.

And I realized that a number of them had been through that, and and uh this church, as a result, had developed a heart for counseling.

And so they came to the realization that they they love to come alongside people too.

That they love to listen and give themselves to other people, asking good questions, being curious.

They enjoyed cultivating wisdom through the scriptures, applying that to personal hearts, hearts that needed healing.

And that was a game changer for them because what it meant was that next time they visited and came alongside those in the field, they took time to be with their families and their children.

They came alongside with a mindset that we're just gonna listen.

We're gonna clear some time just to be able to listen and to draw out and where appropriate, apply wisdom to the hearts of their friends and to their team members.

And they love doing that.

Particularly in a time when this team was facing many demands and they were they were feeling stretched and feeling uh stretched thin, and and they were dealing with the remote nature of the work, isolated.

It was a great blessing to them.

And it didn't mean that they didn't serve the mission teams, you know, in ways that required it, but they were now that they now left feeling as though they had given a spiritual gift.

They had left a spiritual gift, they had served in such a way that was in keeping with their deep love and enjoyment, and they came back much more refreshed having served this way.

What do you aspire to?

What is that place of where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet?

Is that God's heart?

And you know you don't have to be too old.

You can be very young and understand what that might be.

We've sent many youth out who have been a blessing in many parts of the world because of the gifts that they've been given.

And so you don't have to be too old.

You can be young and catch this vision and seek to do this work in the name of Christ.

Friends, we've been given the joy of serving the world in the name of Christ, and dwelt by his spirit, citizens of heaven, made to be co-heirs with Christ, covered by his blood, and furnished with gifts and graces.

May we steward the influence that he has given to us for the furthering of his gospel and for the fame of his name.

Amen.

Let us pray.

Father, we praise you and we thank you for your heart for the world and the nations.

Father, we we thank you for the ways in which you continue to use us in your service.

Father, we pray and ask that you would grant us to be humble people in our service.

Grant us to be mindful of your desires, of the things that you would have us to do, of the attitudes in which you would have us to serve.

And so may we carry out that work in a way that is pleasing and honoring to you.

Father, we praise you and we thank you for your goodness and your love toward us in Jesus Christ.

Amen.